August 23, 2007

ATT’s Overstuffed iPhone Bills Annoy Customers

By KATIE HAFNER

When Justine Ezarik, a video blogger in Pittsburgh, saw that a box from ATT had been delivered to her doorstep a couple of weeks ago, she thought that perhaps she had been sent a complimentary accessory for her new iPhone. Instead, she found a 300-page, double-sided, excruciatingly well itemized bill.

Ms. Ezarik, 23, made a one-minute video that shows her flipping through the voluminous bill and posted it to YouTube and other video-sharing sites on Aug. 13. The video has since been viewed more than three million times.

For the last several weeks, iPhone users have been by turns amused or enraged over the sheer heft — some are the size of small novels — of the bills they are receiving from ATT.

Yesterday, in response to Ms. Ezarik and scores of others, ATT’s wireless business sent text messages to all its iPhone users to let them know that it will be sending them summarized bills from now on.

_____________________________________________________________________

Who on earth is running these companies? Is it possible to pay ATT's CEO (Eddy Whitacre, Jr) $19.5 million a year and get such minimal attention to detail? What the hell is he watching, if not $7.10 postal charges for mailing a phone bill?

Stunningly, ATT still makes a profit.

Incredibly, Whitacre still sits in the driver's seat (if you can call that driving).

* For more in-depth articles by Jim on Business and Economy, check out Opinion-Columns.com