AT&T Buries Potentially-Illegal New Terms of Service in 2,500-Page ‘Guidebook’

AT&T just sent out an 8,000-word update to its service agreement, and it’s full of all sorts of lovely, anti-customer things. For example, now people will only be given a 30-day notice of price increases when it’s “commercially reasonable.” Also, you can’t sue AT&T. In fact, according to the LA Times, the whole thing might go so far as to be illegal. Oh, AT&T.

The terms are buried in a 2,500-page “guidebook,” which seems like some pretty miserable reading. By sticking them in such a dense document, they pretty much ensure that no customers will actually read them. Who is reading it? California state regulators, who may require AT&T to edit the terms, at least in California. It seems that since doing some deregulating of the wireless industry designed to increase competition a couple of years ago, prices have actually gone up and we’re seeing more fishy BS such as this guidebook. Well, it was a nice experiment, I guess. Now let’s get some oversight on this industry to keep consumers from getting screwed over, shall we? [LA Times]