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Update:
- An AT&T customer objected to a proposed $14 million class action settlement agreed to by the company to resolve claims it charged its customers an improper fee.
- The objector argues the class action settlement allows AT&T to continue charging what it calls administrative fees and does not address a “core issue” of the complaint.
- Objector Eric Hughes argues the class action settlement does not fix AT&T’s alleged lack of transparency about the fee, its location on the billing statement and the alleged deceptive nature of its description on the company’s website.
- Customers accused AT&T of misleading them, and making hundreds of millions of dollars in profit, by telling them the administrative fees were legitimate surcharges.
(June 17, 2020)
A judge has rejected AT&T’s attempt to dismiss a class action lawsuit challenging the company’s so-called bait-and-switch pricing scheme.
Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler stated that despite the company’s protestations, Ian Vianu and Irrina Bukchin could sue the company while still being current AT&T customers.
The customers claim AT&T had wrongly tacked an administrative fee onto the advertised rate, yet AT&T responded that the customers could not complain because as customers, they are aware of the fee and are locked into a contract.
However, the judge determined this should not prevent them from taking legal action.
AT&T made its move to have the claims dismissed in March of this year. The judge did decide to dismiss some of the customers’ claims, but not the entire bait-and-switch pricing class action lawsuit.
“It seems a funny position to require plaintiffs to break their contract to challenge unfair practices about fees for their services,” Judge Beeler said. “The contracts are long-tern contracts, and breaking them comes with a penalty.”
According to the judge, they could still renew their plans with AT&T and make claims for injunctive relief.
Additionally, Judge Beeler said the company’s choice to charge the fee in question as a pass-through fee instead of a monthly cost then rendered its contract moot. That contract was allegedly the one preventing customers from suing over bills charged more than 100 days previously.
The company argued the customers were additionally barred from suing because they had not honored the 100-day period in which they were not allowed to bring forward legal claims.
However, Judge Beeler felt differently, saying customers had sufficiently argued that the company misrepresented an administrative fee as a pass-through cost.
Allegedly, the 100-day limit could have been honored if the company had just charged a monthly fee that was disclosed.
AT&T attempted to say some claims should be barred based on the statute of limitations, an argument Judge Beeler largely rejected.
In the judge’s view, each new bill a customer incurred had its own limitations period, whereas AT&T had attempted to lump the bills together to claim they were beyond the statute of limitations.
Judge Beeler did trim some claims from the AT&T bait-and-switch class action lawsuit. The judge did not allow customers to claim that the fee itself violated California law, and did not allow customers to make claims against the company before the 2018 identification of the fee in question.
The customers filed their AT&T bait-and-switch class action lawsuit in June 2019. They had claimed the carrier advertised a monthly price, based on which the customers decided to sign up for service. However, this allegedly turned out to not be the only fee they were charged.
According to the customers, AT&T then began charging an additional fee in 2013. The company allegedly called this a pass-through fee, but according to the customers, it was really an administrative fee from which the company profited. Allegedly, the fee rose from 61 cents to $1.99 per month over the course of five years.
The customers say the company advertised one lower price to entice customers to sign up for service with the company, but then required customers to pay more than what was advertised by tacking on fees on top of the base rate. Customers asserted that this scheme yielded “hundreds of millions of dollars” of profit for the company.
The AT&T customers then went on to say it was no accident the fee was hard to spot — the company supposedly intentionally hid the fee from view in online billing, to avoid customers from identifying the full cost of their service. Allegedly, many customers would not have chosen AT&T’s service had they been aware of the full cost.
Have you ever been affected by what you believed to be a bait-and-switch pricing scheme? Share your experiences in the comments below.
Vianu and Bukchin are represented by Michael W. Sobol, Roger N. Heller, Sarah R. London and Avery S. Halfon of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP; and by Daniel M. Hattis and Paul Karl Lukacs of Hattis & Lukacs.
The AT&T Bait and Switch Pricing Class Action Lawsuit is Ian Vianu, et al. v. AT&T Mobility LLC, Case No. 3:19-cv-03602, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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807 thoughts onAT&T settlement over hidden fees faces objection by consumer
AT&T denied my insurance claims on two different phones wouldn’t give a reason an then wanted said phone nope they didn’t get them either an both phones were on within 3 or 4 months old an I had the best insurance plan they offer so I canceled insurance but still didn’t get refunded how do I go about during them for insurance fraud
I originally got my home AT&T internet on the no contract $35 per month pay as you go. But one missed payment and my bill was over $55 a month ever since. In the last six months they decided to start cutting my internet service off even though my account stated that I still had over 14 days of paid active service left. And to reconnect with late fees it is $99.62. I should not have late fees when I am paying for the service as needed. Thus I switched to Xfinity…. Geez, won’t go there. But I was a long time DirecTV customer, almost a decade when AT&T bought the company. I did not make it through the first year. I paid $247.00 to keep my TV on because it was football season. I had basic package plus ESPN, $58.00 + 12.99 per month. Not one person I spoke to could explain the origin of the extra fees. Yet still, I paid it and had them email me a statement showing I was paid in full with a $0.00 balance pending. One week later my bill was over $440.00. I spent hours on the phone with supervisors, regional managers, and on up. And the only thing I kept hearing was ” Well… You did rent 4 movies last month.” Incredulous, I had to point out that each rental was $4.99. And that doesn’t even begin to explain a $448.00 bill. That bill along with my current internet gouge will sit on my credit report like a scarlet letter. One I wear with no shame
Please add myself and Paul D Ryan
Not at&t but about 7 months ago we upgraded our phones at Verizon. And were offered and iPad and whatever the device was my son got for free. What they neglect to tell you is that said device is now locked in with a monthly fee for I believe 2 years. I’m sure it was stated in the small print somewhere but it seems that we should have been informed of this verbally at the time. If we’d known we would not have gotten them.
My husband and myself went to AT&T on March 24. We finally got to drop two lines from 2 phones that were stolen from us. We had been trying unsuccessfully to drop those lines since September 2022. So we went in and I took my husbands old phone and he got a new one which we were told would be completely free. When the bill came we figured it would be somewhere around 95$. Wow! Bill came. Not only did a line mysterious appear again but the bill was $314. Not happy at all with the tactics used. We are seniors and my husband a veteran and we don’t have that kind of money for phones.
ATT are a bunch of thieves who use underhanded tactics if you ever want to leave then. Mysterious bills are added on which keep me from unlocking my phone since I have paid off my bill…also, they made me wait twenty minutes on chat as a delay tactic. I really don’t trust on anything they say because in the past they have lied or made a mistake on bill issues. I just want to end my relationship with ATT by any means necessary…I despise them and going to tell everyone I know about their dirty underhanded ways of doing business!!!
I agree with you the only reson i have att is they are the only phone company that works where i live
2018 att shut off phone on January 1st I had my set up for the 11th when I started they shut me off because they storm that MANY days from January 3 I got a new phone company but when are they going to be held responsible for that
I would love to know how to be added to this lawsuit? I at one time had been contacted by an attorney about the fees but never heard from them again.
I have had problems with AT&T since i switched from Verizon in 2022 because they told me Verizon was charging me way too much, which I agreed with. I was told my bill with them would be a maximum of $150/mo for 4 phones which came with the trade in allowance. After 13 months I still have not received credit for all my phones and the paperwork is intentionally very vague so that what you’re told by the rep and what you have written proof of are not the same. Very frustrating! And locked into a 3 yr contract i feel like im trapped
My argument with AT&T and any wireless provider is they advertise no contract service, yet when you purchase a phone on a payment plan your basically locked in, because if you cancel the phone line your billed the remaining balance of the device attached to that line. Yet they tell you it’s not a contract…thoughts to ponder…
I had to the internet from ATT on a the government assistance program for $10 a month. I paid different amounts every month and never once did I pay the $10 bill that I signed up for. And they even changed my plan without my consent. Please sign me up
I never did get the total outcome of this. I filed a claim along time ago and I haven’t heard anything from it yet, so what is the deal? When is the deadline? What’s going on or is AT&T just sweeping it under the proverbial rug like they always try to do?
How can I apply for this lawsuit