For all of you who are in love with your Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone but a bit disturbed by AT&T Inc.'s (NYSE: T) hefty monthly bills, it has heard your outcry, and is making changes to its billing system. Let's be clear, the problem was not the monetary size of the bills ... it was the actual physical size that had some users wondering what exactly was going on.
The first time I heard about this was a few weeks back when I saw a video on YouTube of one iPhone user, Justine Ezarik, going through her first monthly bill.
The bill showed up at her house in a cardboard box, and was an amazing THREE HUNDRED PAGES long. What could the company really have listed on those three hundred pages? It definitely boggles the mind.
Well, it seems like I wasn't the only one who was amazed by the hefty size of the Ms. Ezarik's monthly bill. Apparently, the video has been viewed over three million times over the past couple of weeks, and sparked a lot of outcry among iPhone users for Apple AT&T to change its system.
Yesterday, Apple AT&T reacted, and sent out text messages to all its iPhone customers letting them know that going forward, all bills will be sent out in a summarized version to keep the shock factor down when customers get their bills in the mail.
For those of you who actually enjoy getting your bill in a box, the company will still offer the comprehensive bills for a mere $1.99 a month extra charge!
[Editor's update: We have made the appropriate fixes, thank you all for pointing it out.]
Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.
DISCLOSURE: Mr. Fowlkes owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that include holdings in AAPL.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-23-2007 @ 12:09PM
Jay said...
This is an AT&T change, not an Apple one.
8-23-2007 @ 12:09PM
M Adams said...
AT&T sends out the bills for service, indeed is responsible for providing service, not Apple.
8-23-2007 @ 12:14PM
mongul said...
"sparked a lot of outcry among iPhone users for Apple to change their system […] Yesterday, Apple reacted…"
It has nothing to do with Apple. AT&T is doing the billing.
Quoted from the article:
AT&T’s Overstuffed iPhone Bills Annoy Customers […] saw that a box from AT&T […] the bills they are receiving from AT&T […] AT&T’s wireless business sent text messages […] To view all detail go to att.com/mywireless […] all of AT&T’s new wireless customers will be sent summary bills […] A spokesman for AT&T […] AT&T itemizes not just every phone call […] AT&T sent out detailed bills […] AT&T spent $7.10 in postage […] AT&T had been planning for months to switch to summary bills.
8-23-2007 @ 12:29PM
Justin said...
They (ATT) told me there would be NO additional charge to keep your itemized bill the way it was...contrary to your statement of 1.99/mo.
8-23-2007 @ 12:37PM
Mike said...
As the previous comments state, AT&T bills you, not Apple. You sign up for an AT&T plan, not an Apple one. Apple takes your 500 or 600 dollars and thats that.
And just to clarify, Justine's bill wasn't outrageous just because it was 300 pages long. What was more outrageous was the reason WHY it was 300 pages long: shes sends over 30,000 text messages per month. Granted sending all of this detail is unecessary on AT&T's part, but 30,000 texts is ridiculous.
8-23-2007 @ 8:14PM
Michael Fowlkes said...
I apologize for the errors in this post today. I was wrong to state that Apple sent out the bills, and I greatly appreciate all of our readers for clarifying that it was indeed an AT&T situation and had nothing to do with Apple at all.
thanks for keeping me on my toes!!
Michael Fowlkes
8-28-2007 @ 11:41PM
Shawn said...
I think someone (like the company that Justine works for) might want to check on her during the day... If she's texting 30,000 text messages a month, that's about 41 per hour, every hour, of every day... Does she even work?!