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So it seems AT&T has decided that they should charge the consumer extra in order to have a functioning service instead of just a sometimes functioning service.  Makes cents doesn’t it?  A consumer took his iPhone into a service shop complaining of missed and dropped calls, assuming something was wrong with his phone as it was occurring very often.  Turns out, it was only 22% of all calls that were dropped, which is below the New York average of 30%, so this particular consumer should consider himself lucky I guess.  Wait, what?

How is it even remotely possible that a cell phone service that continues to escalate in price can view 30% dropped calls to be acceptable?  Furthermore, the AT&T is offering a ‘solution’ for the ‘acceptable’ amount of dropped calls that users can experience.  So, AT&T is providing a fix for something that they also deemed ‘acceptable’, and therefore one would presume, would not require any fixes?  I think I just hurt my brain trying to discern the logic behind it.  I would love to have been privy to the business meetings behind this idea.

Despite AT&T’s two faced nature on the matter, it seems they are conceding that they are not providing the quality of service that they would like, and are looking to the 3G MicroCell as a fix for the interim.  Logically then, one would assume that since they are the ones with the problem, and the consumer is the one inconvenienced by said problem, that the consumer should probably not be the one paying for the fix.  However, logic holds no place in AT&T’s world, and thus the 3G MicroCell is currently $150 to purchase and up to $20 a month for the ‘service’.  Basically, you are paying the $150 and the extra monthly charge to get the service you signed up for initially (except functional), as well as do AT&T a favor by lowering the amount of people using their network and thus putting less stress on them.

I readily admit I may not necessarily be the most well versed in savvy business tactics, but I’m fairly certain charging a customer for your mistakes and horrible service would not be at the top of the list.  If a designer were to release a product that worked 70% of the time, they would be chastised and ridiculed, and rightly so.  It is frustrating that anyone would be tolerant of such shotty service, or that AT&T would allow anyone themselves to become so overburdened that they cannot provide the services they agreed to.  It is understandable that when the technology was new there would be bumps and hiccups along the way, but cell phone technology should no longer be in that stage of it’s life.  They have practically forced land lines into becoming obsolete (along with pay telephones unfortunately), and have taken over the role of primary means of communication, and thus need to be far more efficient than having a 30% drop rate.  I’m all for not being able to be reached 24 hours a day, but when I choose to talk to someone, I want the service I am paying (way too much) for to actually work.