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Woman Sues AT&T Over $5,000 Data Bill on 3G Netbook

by Terrence O'Brien on March 8, 2009 at 12:42 PM



We're well aware that the phrase "unlimited" doesn't actually mean anything to cell phone providers. Unlimited data plans rarely are that. In fact, most plans come with a hard and fast cap at 5 gigabytes (GB) of data per month, and, if you exceed that limit, you'll get hammered with absurd overage charges. Just ask Billie Parks of Oklahoma who picked up a netbook at Radio Shack for $99 after agreeing to a monthly data plan from AT&T.

Parks is suing AT&T after being hit with a $5,000 bill after going over her monthly data cap. She claims that neither AT&T nor Radio Shack drew enough attention to the cap or mentioned how much the coverage charges would be (though you'd think she would have asked). While AT&T does clearly spell out the cap and charges on its Web site, the nature of the charges are not mentioned in the service summary or contract, which would be presented to a customer signing up in a store.

According to the suit, the service agreements are, "deceptive, misleading and utterly incomprehensible to the average consumer." Parks is seeking to have her account credited the $5,000 and to prevent AT&T from collecting future overage charges.


We won't pass judgment on who is right and who is wrong in this case, but it would be nice to see a cellular provider offer a real unlimited data plan. [From: Network World, Via: Boing Boing]

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Tags: att, bill, data plan, DataPlan, lawsuit, netbook, radio shack, RadioShack, unlimited data, unlimited plan, UnlimitedData, UnlimitedPlan

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