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AT&T is lying to and scamming customers
8 points by AnonymousOne 1851 days ago
AT&T is spreading indisputably false information to customers in order to persuade them to buy new products.

I received a text message from them "AT&T is shutting down our 3G network...your cell phone...won't work once the network is shut down...get a special offer on a new cell phone."

The network shutdown is true, but the claim that my device won't work is false, and I worry that many customers who are less tech-savvy will fail to recognize that their devices are not deprecated.

My device is 4G compatible and AT&T is not phasing out their 4G network. In other words, when AT&T shuts down their 3G network, my device (and other 4G compatible devices) will continue to operate without issue, which directly contradicts their claim / text alert.

AT&T provides an unexhaustive list of devices that will work after the 3G shutdown [ https://www.att.com/idpassets/images/support/wireless/Devices-Working-on-ATT-Network.pdf ] and my phone (and many others) are not on the list even though they will still function properly.

The alert provided by AT&T is demonstrably wrong and it includes a prompt to buy new products from them. This is false, misleading, and predatory.

3 comments

Does your phone do Voice over LTE and more importantly, does it do Voice over LTE on AT&Ts network? If AT&T won't provision it for VoLTE you may not be able to make voice calls once AT&T shuts down 3G.
I'm not sure about VoLTE.

Either way, I called AT&T and specifically confirmed with them that my phone will still work after the 3G shutdown.

They flat out lied to me when I tried to buy a new phone. Said it was on sale but failed to mention terms that I would not have agreed to (eg contracts). Returned it unopened for a refund and promptly canceled my service after 10 years. They can no longer be trusted, it appears.
this lowly act/ desperate 1.. these kind of tactics should not be entertained at all.
I reported the scam to the FTC