An Associated Press report gave credit to Stop the Cap! for getting first official word that AT&T ended its Internet Overcharging experiment in Beaumont, Texas and Reno, Nevada.

Stop the Cap! reader Scott Eslinger managed to get an AT&T customer service representative to read aloud a confidential memo distributed by the company terminating the experiment effective April 1st.  Because AT&T never disclosed the end of the experiment to impacted customers, the coverage by the wire service should help spread the word to residents that the rationing is over:

The phone company confirmed Tuesday that it is no longer holding DSL subscribers in Reno, Nev., and Beaumont, Texas, to data consumption limits and charging them extra if they go over.

With AT&T’s retreat, no major Internet service provider is championing the idea of charging subscribers for their data usage. Time Warner Cable Inc. was a major proponent of the idea and also conducted a trial in Beaumont, but backed away last summer after its plan to expand metered billing to other cities met fierce resistance from consumers and legislators.

AT&T’s trial started in November 2008 in Reno, and was later extended to Beaumont. It ended on April 1 this year, said AT&T spokeswoman Dawn Benton.

“We’re reviewing data from the trial, and this feedback will guide us as we evaluate our next steps,” Benton said.

AT&T should carefully review feedback from customers who despise usage limits and overlimit fees.  Studies show the overwhelming majority of customers do not like their broadband usage artificially limited with arbitrary allowances and overlimit fees, and customers will dump providers who ignore their wishes.

AT&T’s experiment never saved consumers a penny — the company simply slapped allowances as low as 20 GB per month on existing speed-based tiers.  Customers already face practical usage limits from Internet providers.  Those purchasing slower speed tiers are usage limited by those speeds.  Those who pay for higher priced, faster tiers benefit from naturally greater allowances those speeds provide.  Adding a new layer of limits only discourages customers from using the service they already pay good money to receive.  Besides, as profits explode in the broadband sector, the costs (and investment) to provide the service have declined, wiping out the justification for these schemes.

Stop the Cap! opposes all of these Internet Overcharging schemes.  While many providers seek to demagogue some broadband users as “data hogs” or “pirates,” the fact is today’s “heavy user” is tomorrow’s average consumer.  High speed broadband has the potential to revolutionize education, health care, private business, and entertainment, but not if a handful of major providers decide to end innovation by rationing the service to its customers.

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Beaumont, Texas

AT&T has distributed an internal memo to customer service representatives that informs them AT&T’s Internet Overcharging experiment in Reno, Nevada and Beaumont, Texas has ended.  Stop the Cap! reader Scott Eslinger was able to get an AT&T representative to read from the official memo that many AT&T customers have yet to hear about themselves.  Stop the Cap! had word in February the usage limit test was set to end April 1st, but actually getting official word that declared it dead and buried took much longer.

With no official notification to customers in the two impacted cities, many may be under the impression that usage limits remain.

AT&T representatives notoriously provided inaccurate information to customers about the experiment, with several customers signing up for “unlimited” service only to be notified days later they were actually facing limits ranging from 20-150 GB per month depending on their service plan.

Eslinger, who lives in Beaumont, notes representatives regularly mislead him into believing his service was unlimited even during the trial, except it was not.

“Every time I talked to AT&T no matter what I called about I always asked if the rep knew the status of the ‘broadband usage trial’ as I wanted to know when it would be over. No one ever had any idea what I was talking about,” Scott writes.  “They regularly told me that my AT&T broadband account included ‘unlimited’ use.”

But when Scott ran over his allowance, a nasty letter arrived in the mail saying otherwise.  Even then, AT&T customer service representatives kept telling him the letter must be a mistake.

“The first time I got the letter stating that I had gone over and would be charged the next time I went over I called AT&T and the rep actually had me fax in the letter so they could ‘fix’ it as that just ‘didn’t seem right.’”

We agree.  Internet Overcharging schemes are not right.  They represent little more than transparent rationing of broadband usage to reduce their costs while potentially earning $1.00 per gigabyte in overlimit fees for those who broke their allowance.

Although AT&T told Scott he couldn’t get a copy of the memo officially terminating the usage limit experiment, because it was a confidential, “proprietary AT&T document,” the rep read it out loud to Eslinger over the phone anyway.

“Reminder, the broadband usage trial in the Reno, Nevada and Beaumont, Texas market areas ended on April 1, 2010. Remember customers outside of the Reno and Beaumont are not impacted.”

Reno, Nevada: One of the communities chosen for AT&T's Internet Overcharging experiment

Scott noted it was news to him.

“I never recall receiving this via email or snail mail; you would think they would have told everyone they ended it,” he writes. “Hopefully it will NEVER come back!”

One can hope.  Unfortunately, AT&T is the company that ended its unlimited wireless data plan for smartphone customers, now limiting them to just 2 GB of wireless usage per month, with a steep overlimit penalty for those that exceed it.

For millions of AT&T DSL and U-verse customers, an Internet rationing plan that limits consumption could prove costly, especially for those in rural areas where alternative providers simply are not available.

The best ways to deliver the message AT&T’s usage limits are not acceptable:

• Inform the company you are not happy with usage limits or so-called consumption billing that seeks to consume all of the money in your wallet;
• Don’t buy service from AT&T and tell them why.  Existing customers can be grandfathered on their existing unlimited plans, but new customers should shop elsewhere for service.

For many AT&T representatives, complaints about usage limits will be news to them, too.  Scott closes his note with word that even AT&T’s executive office customer service department, the one reserved for customers complaining to senior management, had never heard of the usage cap trials either.

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That's not all that expanded in Reno... customer's broadband bills faced $1/GB overlimit penalties as part of an Internet Overcharging experiment

AT&T’s experiment with usage caps appears to have lost them loyal customers, and generated numerous complaints against AT&T with the Better Business Bureau regional offices in Nevada and Texas for false advertising.  Now there are indications AT&T will wrap up the entire experiment by this April and “study the results.”  Stop the Cap! reader John wrote to say the nightmare may be ending… for now.  At least one of our readers arguing with intransigent AT&T executives heard likewise.

AT&T last year subjected Beaumont, Texas and Reno, Nevada to a trial forcing a usage allowance between 20-150 gigabytes per month on customers, depending on the type of broadband plan selected.  The proposed overlimit fee?  $1.00 per gigabyte, although problems with their usage meter often kept overlimit fees off customer bills.

We’ve documented the howls of complaints from customers who were falsely sold an “unlimited” plan from AT&T and were never notified, or notified after signing up, of the existence of the Internet Overcharging scheme.  Some customers received express mail letters officially notifying them of the scheme, others received robocalls.  Complaints to the Better Business Bureau usually got any excess charges refunded, and some managed to secure a complete exemption from the usage cap trial, under threat of canceling their accounts.

Stop the Cap! reader Robin is a typical example of a customer who was sold a bill of goods by AT&T’s marketing, only to be punished with the fine print after signing on the dotted line.

“I just got my Express letter in the mail today. My internet was hooked up yesterday – no one ever said anything about any cap! I was in shock when I received the letter in the mail, I have never heard of anything like this. I live about 30 minutes out of Reno. Needless to say I am very very upset and trying to figure out what I am going to do now as I know I will go over the cap every month, I can’t afford that and I can’t afford cable internet at this time either. AT&T sucks and so does their customer service.”

Robin joins many other customers in both communities stuck in a trial that even some AT&T customer service representatives don’t understand.  Robin’s calls to customer service met with claims the account could not be found, and transfers to four different AT&T departments before being able to address the usage cap surprise.

Albert, another reader, was similarly surprised.

“They are fraudulent in every respect. The state attorney should look into this. They say “unlimited” and when you sign up, they send you a little email saying you are screwed [with the trial],” he writes.

AT&T’s response to Albert was essentially “tough cookies” and if he didn’t like it, he could cancel.

Our readers in Beaumont went through the same AT&T Confusion Circus, transferred between departments until someone recognized the caller was a lucky winner of an Internet Overcharging experiment.

In both cities, delivering an effective message of customer contempt with AT&T’s usage cap scheme means filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.  As an accredited member, AT&T values its rating very highly, and targeting complaints to the Bureau forces them to spend time and money to respond.  Better yet, AT&T executives don’t like it one bit, as Albert writes:

“Go to the Southern Nevada Better Business Bureau and file a complaint. I just had the VP of Regional West of AT&T call.  She was pissed that I filed a complaint, and now she has to personally reply. She hung up on me.”

Being an active consumer willing to make your voice heard is an effective way to deliver the message pricing and usage tricks and traps are unacceptable.  Better yet, it annoys providers with dollar signs in their eyes, especially when canceling your service.

Albert was told the nightmare ends April 1st, when the trial wraps up, but now is the time to deliver the final protest AT&T cannot ignore.

April 1st is an ironic date — the first anniversary of  Time Warner Cable sharing word of its own Internet Overcharging experiment in Austin, San Antonio, Greensboro, NC and Rochester, NY. After two weeks of protest, Time Warner Cable shelved their experiment.

If you’re a resident of Reno or Beaumont, it’s critically important to deliver AT&T a message they can understand:

1. Contact the local media and request they publicize the ongoing controversy over Internet Overcharging schemes;
2. Contact your local and federal elected officials and let them know AT&T’s schemes are unacceptable.  See our “Take Action” section regarding support for legislation that would outlaw such schemes;
3. File a detailed complaint with the Better Business Bureau, particularly emphasizing any lack of disclosure about the experiment, bait and switch advertising, ripoff pricing, etc.  Demand an immediate and full refund for any overage charges and a free pass to cancel AT&T services without any early termination fees.
4. Reno residents — contact Barbara DiCianno at 775-334-3112. She is the mayor’s assistant. Call her and ask to have an investigation launched regarding AT&T’s discrimination against Reno with overcharging schemes that put the city at a distinct broadband disadvantage.  Local elected officials can deliver a strong political message to AT&T that such overcharging schemes will lead to robust support for re-regulation of AT&T’s broadband business to protect consumers.
5. Tell AT&T you will never remain a customer of a provider that has Internet Overcharging pricing schemes.  Tell them in no uncertain terms usage limits and usage based billing are unacceptable, and you will cancel service the moment they attempt to implement either.

A year ago, it was the residents of Beaumont and the other cities impacted by Time Warner Cable’s overcharging scheme that fought on the front line to protect every Time Warner Cable customer from facing a tripling of their price for broadband service.  Today it’s Reno and Beaumont fighting for AT&T customers, both inside their own communities and those nationwide.  As Albert reminds us:

“We will be the ones that determine if this continues or stops here and now.”

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Beaumont, Texas

Stop the Cap! reader Mark who went to war with Time Warner Cable in the Beaumont area when they tried to impose Internet Overcharges on his account (and got his money back), found himself back with AT&T after dropping Time Warner Cable.  Mark is among many who made it clear that imposing these kinds of billing schemes is not up for discussion — he will cancel service immediately.

Before Mark returned to AT&T, he called the company’s customer service sales center and asked about usage limits and other pricing tricks and traps, and they responded, “there are no cap limits.”  That’s because for most of AT&T’s coverage area, that’s true… for now.  The company has been testing Internet Overcharging with usage allowances and overlimit fees in two cities – Beaumont, Texas and Reno, Nevada.  Unfortunately, not every AT&T sales representative seems aware of this fact, even when you provide them with an address and telephone number within the test area.

“We received the modem and before I had opened the package a certified letter arrived from AT&T,” Mark says.

“It was a letter stating that AT&T had introduced usage limits, and I called them immediately to  cancel,” he said.

When you live in a city with two broadband providers, both engaged in Internet Overcharging, you discover you run out of options very quickly.  Or do you?

“I called AT&T and talked to an upper level retention agent named Jennifer, and told her if I could not get a flat rate Internet plan from AT&T, I wanted to also cancel my two phone lines and my business Yellow Pages ads,” Mark said.

Even when providers claim to “listen to their customers” on issues like this, the one word they always truly understand is: CANCEL.

“Jennifer immediately agreed to note my account that there would be no usage overlimit charges, which effectively gave me flat rate service,” Mark said.

The AT&T representative also sent him a $75 gift card and promised to investigate getting him faster DSL service on the Elite tier he tried before, and failed to receive.  To date, Mark hasn’t been billed one cent more than his standard monthly rate, despite AT&T’s ongoing “tests” in Beaumont.  As long as that remains true, and AT&T works on getting him more reasonable speeds, Time Warner Cable has lost a customer, potentially for good.

Mark feels he’s living on the front line of a battle between consumers and providers over what is rapidly becoming a utility as important as telephone service.

“I feel the Internet is going to pass Americans by if something is not done,” Mark adds.  “I personally will not pay the kind of fees the ISP’s want to charge.”

Mark is also curious why these “tests” are being imposed on residential customers, and not business customers who are charged prices providers claim are justified considering their “higher usage.”

“Starbucks and Books a Million all have Internet service from these companies and provide it to their customers,” Mark notes.  “Were they exempt?”

Time Warner Cable’s testing, now suspended, never involved commercial accounts.  AT&T doesn’t appear to have included their business accounts in any tests either.

If you are an AT&T customer in Beaumont or Reno, you may have a shot at exiting a test you never wanted to be a part of in the first place.  Simply insist on either being exempted from Internet Overcharging schemes, or take your business elsewhere (Time Warner Cable in Beaumont, for now, may be your best option.)  Retention specialists may be the only representatives empowered to exempt you, so you may have to indicate your intent to cancel service before reaching one.

If you are under a contract with an early termination fee, ask the competitor if they’d be willing to cover your exit fee.  Time Warner Cable is doing that in some markets.  If not in full, negotiate and see how far they’ll go.

Report any results of your efforts to us.  We’ll pass the word on to others.

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GigaOM blows the lid off what will likely be an upcoming target of StoptheCap! — the ludicrous and unacceptably botched usage cap trial in Reno, Nevada by AT&T.

It seems that new customers to AT&T’s high speed Internet service aren’t being told their usage is being capped, until the mailman delivers an express letter to your home with the shocking news after you’ve already signed up for service!

Adding insult to injury, their tiers for traditional DSL max out with an 80GB allowance on their “Elite tier,” which only offers up to 6Mbps service.  That might be “elite” in Kenya, but it shouldn’t be in a major American city.  Each additional gigabyte comes at the traditional Pillage Price of $1/GB, which is nearly 1,000% above what it costs them to provide.  And for the woman who brought all this to the attention of GigaOM, there is no competitor currently available for broadband.

The Super Whammo Extreme Maxalot tier of 150GB isn’t even available unless you have access to their U-verse fiber-alternative service.  Also, incompetence seems to be the order of the day over at AT&T:  GigaOM reported that customer service representatives denied there was a usage cap at all when the Lake Tahoe-area resident called to inquire.

AT&T’s letter explaining the limits is reproduced below the fold.  Customers signing up for service at att.com will need to call the Psychic Hotline to discern that there is a cap in place on their service — not one word of it appears on their website as the screen captures GigaOM obtained illustrate.

Of course AT&T is also the home of the “unlimited” AT&T Wireless DataConnect plan that, in the fine print, changes your reality of what the word “unlimited” means to their own, which means “not more than 5GB.”

Sounds like bait and switch to us and the next step should be a contact with the Nevada Attorney General’s office, the Better Business Bureau, local and state officials, and the Congressional delegation for Nevada.  If AT&T wants to treat Reno like a broadband backwater, they couldn’t do a better job of it by also forgetting to tell customers until after they already signed up.

AT&T Broadband Usage Cap Alert (courtesy: GigaOM)

GigaOM captured AT&T.com's Broadband Service Offers... no caps here!

No caps here either.... Who knew?

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