AT&T's Bad Math Strikes MythBusters' Savage 305
etherlad writes "MythBusters' Adam Savage got a bill charging him $11,000 for 'a few hours' of Web surfing while in Canada, using his AT&T USB Mercury modem. AT&T gave him a quote on the data rate: '.015 cents, or a penny and a half, per kb.' Looks like AT&T didn't learn from Verizon's inability to do math. AT&T is also claiming Savage downloaded over 9 GB, which he calls 'frakking impossible.' Savage's huge following on twitter got him a speedy response by AT&T."
Re:Celebrity status? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:He should'a known... (Score:3, Informative)
It was roaming outside of the country, so it's not that bad, considering how much voice minutes are, too.
Re:First response... (Score:2, Informative)
Turn in your Geek card. The corrected quote is:
"I reject your reality and substitute my own"
Also applicable to Ahmedinejad when the election results came in.
Re:Let's not be cynical (Score:3, Informative)
http://verizonmath.blogspot.com/ (blogspot.com)
It's long (27 minutes) and old, I know. Still worth a listen if you haven't heard it before. Also still funny if you have.
.015 cents per kilobit (Score:5, Informative)
* down with the kibi prefix!
Re:Its 1.5 cents per KB (Score:2, Informative)
The problem is if you *call* in, because, say you're travelling and have a phone but no good net connection, they say on the phone it is point zero one five cents per kilobyte. I know, because I've called and asked and spent the same 'stupid' time explaining to them I wanted to know if that point zero one five dollars per kilobyte or point zero one five cents, and had to explain that they're NOT THE SAME THING. So, yes, he was very likely quoted exactly the point zero one five cents rate.
Re:these insane usage charges (Score:2, Informative)
It does. Install the Web Developer toolbar. :)
Then click Disable > Java, Disable > JavaScript, CSS > Disable Styles > All Styles, Images > Disable Images > All Images. Voila. You're now running Netscape 1.0 (sans images); an adjustment to font settings and you're using Lynx.
Re:Is this really "only" a problem with a huge bil (Score:2, Informative)
Review each line of EVERY bill. Last month they attempted to charge me data twice. I called them and told them where to look on the bill. I got $50 credited to my account because I caught it. ($35 for double charge, $15 for who the hell knows why). ALWAYS do a line item inventory of your bill, EVERY month. ALWAYS contest suspicious charges. Usually they can be cleared up with nothing more then a 20 minute phone call.
Re:these insane usage charges (Score:3, Informative)
Opera is pretty good at it - it has toolbar buttons to disable images (or only show cached), CSS, and so on. I'm pretty sure I've seen similar Firefox plugins, too.
Re:He should'a known... (Score:3, Informative)
So the pricing is only as ridiculous as the ridiculous pricing on another item?
Re:Okay, I'll bite... (Score:2, Informative)
They(AT&T) charge per kilobit. Almost all network transfer rates are measured (and advertised) in bits, not bytes.
Except network transfer rates == speed. Network transfer rates != volume.
Furthermore, according to their site, they charge by the Kilobyte (KB), not the Kilobit (Kb): http://www.wireless.att.com/businesscenter/popup/dataconnect-comp-table.jsp [att.com]
"1,024 kilobytes (KB) = 1 megabyte (MB). For coverage information and maps, please see a sales representative or visit att.com/wirelesscoveragemap or att.com/wirelessbroadbandconnect."
"CANADA AND INTERNATIONAL ROAMING: Additional data for Canada roaming per KB is $0.015; International roaming per KB is $0.0195."
Re:$15,000 per GB (Score:2, Informative)
OK, even at $0.015 per K, you're talking about $15 per MB, or $15,000 per GB. To do 1 GB in an hour requires 3 mbps. How many mobile data connections out there achieve 3 mbps?
Outside the US, plenty. HSDPA is 7.2mbps.
Re:He should'a known... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:He should'a known... (Score:3, Informative)
I can't believe no on Slashdot has pointed out that .015 cents != a penny and a half
That's because that is suppose to be the obvious part, but isn't to surprisingly few people. That's the whole point.
The rate really is 1.5 cents per KB, but it is constantly quoted as .015 cents.. that is, the number is typed out in dollars (.015) but because everyone knows that a price in fractions of dollars is really talking about cents, that's the unit spoken by a lot of people when interpreting it. "Point zero one five cents." And they don't understand that they have changed the value.
It's not a matter of a haywire billing system, it a matter of false advertising by those who misquote it and to those who (gasp) interpret things literally - the ones who don't are just suckers.
why is it so expensive anyway? (Score:4, Informative)
I don't understand why data is so hugely expensive in the US anyway. In Europe, you get unlimited data plans starting at EU 5/month (EU 25/month for unlimited 3.5G usage). Or you can buy 3G access day-by-day for EU 2.50/day. Some plans have international data roaming caps anywhere within Europe at EU 15/day.
I can't believe they're still doing this... (Score:2, Informative)
anyone else remember 0.002 dollar = 0.002 cent from two years ago?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2isSJKntbg [youtube.com]
Only in the US... (Score:4, Informative)
Only in the US do you have this insanity. I'm returning from a trip to Stockholm and you can get unlimited 7.2MB broadband for about 40 bucks a month including taxes. 25 if you already have a phone plan. My swedish is lacking, but poking around with google translator I didn't find anything about bandwidth caps.
Again: $25-40US for UNLIMITED 7.2Mb broadband. Including taxes.
Off the top of my head, not a single major WIRED provider in the US even matches that price ... and many are talking about implementing bandwidth caps. Wireless? Bah. No big provider is unlimited and you're coughing up at least $60 + taxes and good luck actually getting 7.2Mb.
Re:Okay, I'll bite... (Score:3, Informative)
It's per kilobit, not byte. 9,437,184 * 8 * $0.00015 = 11,324.6208 ~ 11,000
Same happened to me with Rogers (Score:3, Informative)
I'm a Canadian client of Rogers, and while we were on vacation in Mexico a few months ago, we decided to use the Palm Treo we brought for some basic web surfing and email checking (swine flu panic, get some information for airports and whatnot).
So I call their handy and free 611 customer service, and ask for roaming charges. "What phone do you have?" she asks. "Palm Treo 650." She then tells me the charges for data are "Three cents per kilobyte." - "Sure?" - "Yes."
It sounded cheap, but not too cheap to be impossible. To be sure, I went to an internet cafe at the corner, and checked Rogers website. Impossible to know for sure, but I could find two information: 3 cents per MEGAbyte, applied to ordinary phones, and 3 cents per KILObyte applied to smartphones, especially the iPhone.
So we used it, thinking it would be 3/KB, but reasonably because, afterall, it's only a Treo and there's not much you can do on the web with it.
Upon my return, I got a bill for 80$ in data roaming charges. I fought it, had the issue escalated, I even DARED them to "Go listen to the recorded conversation" that they keep on file for "training and enhancement purposes". They finally caved in and removed all the charges from my bill, except 10$, which was satisfactory.
It's really bad when you are considered guilty until you can prove innocence.
Rogers do that kind of stuff frequently. I just upgraded to an iPhone and had to call them because each and every rebate/discount I previously had, and each bargain/rebate I managed to negociate on my new contract, they all disappeared mysteriously from the new invoice. Of coures it's a mistake. Of course the system had a hiccup and my order was not processed fully. Riiight.
But all in all, because I'm quite vocal about my consumer rights and will gladly voice them to the companies I deal with, I end up with a pretty interesting contract, and the services are good, so I'm, afterall, a happy customer.
Re:A Billing System Deficiency (Score:4, Informative)
I use Alltel. Driving to work a week ago I got a text message saying that my account had high usage and I needed to call them. My wife had just spent a week on the other side of the country, her cell is an additional line on my plan. We spent a lot of hours playing WoW and talking while she was gone, and I didn't know she was roaming. $600 worth of charges. Alltel saw the problem, contacted me, and offered me a plan upgrade for $20 a month that gave me unlimited nation-wide roaming, and that by doing it, it would be retroactive and I wouldn't be hit with a $600 phone bill.
THAT is customer service. I don't know what AT&T provides, but it ain't customer service. Cellular service in the USA has always been hideously monopolistic compared to a lot of the world, and somehow they get away with it. Hopefully that will change some day, probably the same day that I can easily buy an iPhone from an Alltel store and not have to deal with AT&T.
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Re:He should'a known... (Score:3, Informative)
In Sprint's defense, they are already partially part GSM. Since they acquired Nextel in 200_ they've been operating the biggest iDEN network around (which is like being the smartest kid in special ed, but take what victories you can), and iDEN actually runs on a GSM backbone with extra spiffy bits to allow push-to-talk and the like. Hence, they are partially part GSM.