Fuck you AT&T … you greedy bastards!
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So, I have this iPhone. I like my iPhone, don't get me wrong … and the iPhone data plan is actually a pretty good deal compared to most other cellphone data plans I've looked at. But the bottom line is a phone bill in the neighborhood of $100 a month for me and my sister, on a national family plan, with the iPhone add-on.
But I'm not bitching about the phone bill. It's fine. I use the shit out of the iPhone data connection. No biggee. What I'm bitching about is that I just had to pay $7.99 for 24 hours of wireless access at SeaTac Airport (when I'll only be sitting here for five), through an AT&T hotspot. Oh, if I had AT&T broadband service at home (and was paying for one of the three most expensive plans), I could get *free* wifi here … but I give the fuckers almost $100 a month for my fucking cellphone, and I don't get shit?!
Now, they are introducing free iPhone access at their Starbucks hotspots, I hear. But 1.) I don't go to $tarbucks. Hell, if I'm in a strange city, craving a quad latté big time, and I see Starf*cks on the corner, I keep walking until I find some no-name, crap-shoot local place … and 2.) Even if I *did* go to $tarbucks, I give you greedy fuckers almost ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS A MONTH. I think it would not break your fucking bank to let me use my laptop on your precious hotspot. Hell, if I could get on your goddamn network free, I'd at least go sit near the Starf*cks here in the SeaTac food court …
that's exactly it with Bell Canada as well. I was in the Toronto Airport with my iPod Touch (can't get the iPhone here yet) and they wanted $5 an hour to access the internet. It's bad enough that I live so far out in the boons you won't give me high speed, and then charge me extra when with the business plans on both land and cell phones plus internet that totals at least $300 a month that I can't use my sign in from home? All my business sense I've learned from my father, most of it boils down to: if you can make a dollar, great. If you can make five dollars for the same service because people are desperate for it, rape and pillage away.
14th May 2008 at 5:32 pm | permalink |May I suggest you go to http://www.ziphone.org, get the free unlocking program and 5 minutes later you will be able to go to the provider of your choice?
Regards
14th May 2008 at 5:50 pm | permalink |Tom
Swearing on AT&T won't help. You have to stop paying them. Just jailbreak the iPhone and go to someone else. My monthly iPhone bill is $10-15/month.
15th May 2008 at 8:16 am | permalink |And I bet they tried to screw you down with a 2-year contract. What the fuck is up with that? There is less commitment on fucking rentals or even my mortgage redemption. But $2400 + $500…that's an expensive phone - even if it does collapse and expand when you pinch the screen (fucking love that feature!). Seriously, I know what you mean, if anyone is willing to shell out 24 months of $100 to any shitty company, at least get something for it!
I'm a real tight-ass when it comes to contracts…I hate them…I can't stand the idea of long-term commitment (er…don't let me wife see this post?!?). We both have T-Mobile prepay SIM cards ($5 off eBay) and put $100 at a time on them. That's 1000 minutes. Now, admittedly, we're not heavy users, just casually between us and friends and crap, so that will last us several months. In the last 12 months we have topped up 4 times between us, so $200 each. $16/month…not bad and no commitment.
Then my phone made its last call and I was in the market for a new one. Being the techo-geek, ooo…iPhone. One quick trip to the Apple store, download the jailbreak and I have the iPhone with my prepay plan. Fuck you AT&T! har-har! (of course no web access without a hotspot, but adding it just isn't worth another $2400).
The US phone companies are such greedy fuckers…I just made a business trip back to the UK, so bought a SIM card plus some minutes (£20) when I got there, …and was up and running in minutes WITH Internet access.
15th May 2008 at 8:53 am | permalink |The funny thing here is that T-Mobile has been providing free hotspot access for Starbucks for years. I wonder why this access is not up there.
The reason I know this is because I used to work for T-Mobile about 2 years ago. Some stuff may have changed but my local Starbucks still has the "Free wifi service provided by T-Mobile" sign on the door.
Oh and yes FUCK AT&T. I had cell service with them about 5 years ago and I will never do business with them in any way shape form or fashion again if I can avoid it. The worst customer service I have ever had.
15th May 2008 at 9:47 am | permalink |@Jen: Exactly. Telecom companies are *waaay* full of themselves, judging by the way they administer their service plans.
@Tomr, Kavan & Charlie: Well, I'm happy with the cellphone service. No other provider in the US is going to give me unlimited data transfer for $29/month … so there's no way I'd move the iPhone to another cell company. Plus, the bill does cover two phones, with nationwide service (no roaming or long distance), and all in all, nobody in Alaska offers a plan anywhere close to that.
I just think AT&T could do with counting *anyone* with *any* service plan that costs over $XX per month as a qualifying customer for their wifi hotspots.
15th May 2008 at 10:57 am | permalink |@TheMovieWhore: All the coverage of the AT&T hotspot/Starbucks issue I read yesterday said AT&T took over the exclusive contract T-Mobile used to have with them. And now they're slowly in the process of physically taking over the hotspots nationwide … I guess T-Mobile will still be allowed to *charge* for access, but they're not supposed to offer it free once the AT&T service goes live in the same store.
15th May 2008 at 11:11 am | permalink |Oh, and the really special thing about it all? When I finally got to Denver airport, I discovered that they offered free wifi on the airport's own network. How civilized is that?
So, I guess dual blame and profanity should be directed at both AT&T and SeaTac for being greedy opportunistic bastards.
15th May 2008 at 11:15 am | permalink |yer funny.
15th May 2008 at 12:49 pm | permalink |@alphabitch
That's fucked up.
15th May 2008 at 3:45 pm | permalink |Lady Alphabitch echoes the thoughts and feelings of lower to middle class America:
Big businesses are full of shit.
If there's a way to fuck the customer in the ass for another 5 bucks, then toss out the lube and have at it.
The only reason they get away with it is because certain groups (Walmart, Microsoft, Monsanto) blow off any chance of ANY sort of better product or service coming from ANYWHERE, then shovel the cheapest shit they can in front of you saying how OMFG AWESOME LEET it is.
Here's your free market, you rand-humping douchebags.
15th May 2008 at 8:56 pm | permalink |@Adam: A lot of the people I know who shop at Wal-Mart are perfectly willing to admit it's utter shit … but "it's cheap" they say, and pile into the car for another discount shop-a-thon.
And they're not just humping Rand, they're also blowing Smith. ;-)
16th May 2008 at 2:24 am | permalink |F*ckbucks… Im sure you all know about Starbuck denying soliders merchandise because Starbucks (and Oscarmeyer) do not support the war. Nor anyone in the war. ( I live in a Military supported town and while the boys can be problem-matic they're still our boys. And while no one in their right mind will support the needless loss of life, we must support the men and women who are over there… we are all they have and are everything they are fighting for…ahem) They're pulling a switzerland in a time of political change. I have no doubt that the State and Federal Builders of Sea-Tac (Seattle… birthplace of F*ckbucks) also have shares in the buisnesses in their terminal.
17th May 2008 at 6:25 pm | permalink |See what happens when Yuppies take over the world?
@frozensiren: Actually, I can't say much against $tarbucks for that. A company I've ordered coffe from online specifically put a notice up on their order form to this effect:
If you're ordering coffee to send to troops in Iraq, please let us know. We will mark the package as "tea" … because otherwise, if it's marked as "coffee," Halliburton will block delivery of the package, because they have an "exclusive contract" to supply coffee to the troops.
So yeah. Who's worse? $tarbucks for standing up for their misguided principles, and confusing "troops" for "government policy"?* Or Halliburton, who's supposedly over there "supporting" the troops, while they actually fuck them all over for a profit?
*or are $tarbucks actually *unable* to send certain merchandise to the troops for the same reason Dean's Beans was given?
18th May 2008 at 3:38 am | permalink |Oh, don't even fucking start on Halliburton..
It's the most disgusting scam of it's kind since the Teapot dome scandal. Lil' Dick has effectively given his old corporate buddies free run of the government coffers, to waste as much money as possible to both tear down and rebuild a country that never asked for a revolution in the first place. The actual quality of work they do ranges from barely enough to utterly disgusting.
I've heard first-hand accounts of Halliburton intentionally destroying "misordered" equipment (and being paid in full for it), providing unfit food and water to U.S. soldiers, and going out of their way to run up Uncle Sam's tab, all to stuff their fat corporate asses with money that we, the tax-paying citizens of the United States, have worked our asses off to give in for this god-forsaken corruption-drenched conflict.
As I said before: Welcome to fucking corporate America. Please see the registrar for your personal bar code and estimation of the monetary value of your life, happiness, and soul.
18th May 2008 at 7:07 am | permalink |@Adam: Yeah … as much as I don't like $tarbucks, they don't hold a candle to those motherfuckers.
18th May 2008 at 12:04 pm | permalink |