A cell tower is seen on February 22, 2024 in Redondo Beach, California. The outage affected tens of thousands of customers in cities across the country whose phones lost signal overnight.
Eric Thayer | Getty Images News | Getty Images
“It won't be our last”
Thursday's AT&T outage cut service to tens of thousands of customers, who were unable to use their phones without access to Wi-Fi. It said it was the result of an internal error at the company — not a cyberattack — as AT&T was working to expand its network.
AT&T credits consumers and small business customers “most impacted by the outage” with “compensating them for the inconvenience they experienced,” CEO John Stankey wrote in a letter Sunday.
“This is not our first network outage, and it won't be our last — unfortunately, that's the reality of our business,” he wrote.
AT&T calculates the average cost of a full day of service, she said.
The credit does not apply to AT&T Business Enterprise and Platinum accounts, AT&T prepaid or Cricket, its low-cost service, the company said. Affected prepaid customers “will have options available to them,” Stankey said, though he did not elaborate.
Don't wait for your provider
“My advice to consumers is, if you're affected by this, don't wait for AT&T to make the decision” on whether you qualify for the credit, said John Breault, vice president of public policy, communications and fraud at National Bank. Consumers Association.
“Call and say, 'I'm touched by this. I want to make sure I get the credit,'” he added.
Consumers who don't want to contact customer service may also be able to interact with the provider's online portal or chatbot to get a faster resolution, he said.
Of course, phone and Internet companies implement such credits voluntarily, Breault said. By contrast, the federal law governing the airline industry gives consumers the right to refunds in cases of flight cancellations, for example. Breault said there does not appear to be similar consumer protections in the wireless arena.
The Federal Communications Commission in January proposed a rule that would require rebates to be offered to consumers who experience interruptions in cable or satellite TV subscription programming.
“It's time” for consumers to demand compensation, Weinstock said. “But I think it would be helpful to always call your network operator and tell them: ‘There has been a service outage. It wasn't my fault, you owe me money. You must cover the cost of this.”
