FCC fines AT&T $700,000 in overcharging dispute, must issue refunds

FCC fines AT&T $700,000 in overcharging dispute, must issue refunds - TechSpot News

The Federal Communications Commission has announced that AT&T has agreed to pay $700,000 in order to settle a claim that they moved select customers to a mandatory monthly data plan after promising them they could keep their existing pay-as-you-go plan.

The customers in question were reportedly grandfathered in to the pay-as-you-go program but were forced to move to a monthly data plan not long after the company started requiring that new smartphone subscribers sign up for a monthly flat rate plan. AT&T first started enforcing this rule in November 2009.

The FCC, acting on customer complaints, launched an investigation into the matter last year. They ultimately determined that customers who replaced a phone under warranty or through insurance or those that moved to a new location were automatically switched to the monthly plan.

The money will be deposited to the US Department of Treasury. Furthermore, AT&T will be required to refund excess charges which could be in the range of $25 to $30 for each month affected.

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Interesting - I didn't know about that one.

This is interesting. I had heard about that issue of people being forced to change their plans, and agree AT&T shouldn't have done this. Hopefully they will learn from this experience, but this amount is probably very little to them, so who knows.