Thanks a lot AT&T

It seems that whenever cell phone provider customer satisfaction reports comes out, AT&T rates at or near the bottom of the heap. The thing is, I’ve actually had very few complaints about AT&T. I rarely have dropped calls, call quality is just fine and I can always get a friendly support person on the line if I have a question about my service.

This, however, irks me: they keep sending me "helpful" e-mails suggesting I could save money by signing up for a $30/month text messaging plan.

Sure, it seems logical that a plan would save me money. I have no text messaging plan so I pay the premium, per-text message fee for SMS messages of 20 cents per text sent or received. For a SMS addict that could quickly rack up a bunch of charges and bloat your bill.

Thing is, we’re not heavy SMS users. Last month Paula and I spent a whopping $4.40 on text messages (and that was a busy month).

Hey AT&T, there is two possible outcomes to send a message like this to your customers:

1. They’ll just trust that you’re correct and honest and fork over an extra $30 a month and might not figure out that they’re getting screwed.
2. They’ll do the math (either ahead of time like I did, or after the fact) and realize that you’re trying to screw them, at which point they’ll instantly become less satisfied with AT&T.

I used to be someone who thought AT&T was a decent cell provider. This type of dick move has turned me into a customer who simply tolerates AT&T and will probably jump ship as soon as my contract runs out.