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Why am I getting texts about binding arbitration, and how are AT&T/T-Mobile going to fuck me in the future?


drt

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So I have a personal phone with AT&T and a T-Mobile phone for work.  In the last few weeks I've either gotten texts or emails from both providers mentioning forced arbitration being the only avenue if I continue using my device on their network.

Realistically I don't think there are many differences in providers, and I would guess they're all selling every last piece of my data they can to whomever will buy it.  So why now? I googled and can't find anything news related that would necessitate changes.  This arstechnica link is almost 2 years old.

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3 minutes ago, drt said:

In the last few weeks I've either gotten texts or emails from both providers mentioning forced arbitration being the only avenue if I continue using my device on their network.

Have you actually talked to somebody at AT&T, or received anything in the mail, or logged into your AT&T account online and checked the status?

Are you sure it's not text spam?

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I'm getting same thing from AT&T via email.  Change in terms of service (which I suspect no one reads).  If you ever want to sue AT&T, you'll have to bring an action in arbitration instead of court. 

I would call customer service to see if you can find someone to negotiate the terms of service with - its really just an open invitation to haggle. 

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Yeah its not spam, here's a LA Times link, and T-Mobile's T&C were updated beginning of this month.

 

9 minutes ago, Jerry Callo said:

I would call customer service to see if you can find someone to negotiate the terms of service with - its really just an open invitation to haggle. 

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Most people probably do sign some sort of contract when they initiate almost any kind of service.

But the terms of those contracts change over time, usually in ways that aren't significant, but you never really know.

The legal world is much more receptive to contracts that are not signed or formally executed, as in the case of "shrinkwrap" or "clickwrap" software licenses, which were virtually unheard-of 20 or 30 years ago and dubiously enforceable.

So, when they change the terms of a contract these days, they tend to notify you however they can, in a mailed bill, by email, or by text.  Because you will never sign or execute one of these contracts, it becomes important to them to notify you however they can, and repeatedly, to increase the odds that that contract can be enforced against you if it should come to that.

Arbitration clauses are present in just about every consumer contract or agreement, and the rules tend toward enforcing them.  But the more notice you have that one is in there, the more likely it is to be enforced.

So when you get those notifications, the wisest thing to do would be to review the changes, because you're probably stuck with them.  And I doubt there's much room to negotiate them.  If there's something you can't abide by, your choice is to terminate the service and find a provider without the obnoxious term, if you can.

 

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6 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

If there's something you can't abide by, your choice is to terminate the service and find a provider without the obnoxious term, if you can.

This is the crux of my question.  To the best of my knowledge all major wireless carriers have pretty similar terms, so is there one I'm missing that is better than the others?  It seems like currently if you have any concerns about the provider selling your data as a consumer for example, you're pretty much SOL.

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33 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Most people probably do sign some sort of contract when they initiate almost any kind of service.

But the terms of those contracts change over time, usually in ways that aren't significant, but you never really know.

The legal world is much more receptive to contracts that are not signed or formally executed, as in the case of "shrinkwrap" or "clickwrap" software licenses, which were virtually unheard-of 20 or 30 years ago and dubiously enforceable.

So, when they change the terms of a contract these days, they tend to notify you however they can, in a mailed bill, by email, or by text.  Because you will never sign or execute one of these contracts, it becomes important to them to notify you however they can, and repeatedly, to increase the odds that that contract can be enforced against you if it should come to that.

Arbitration clauses are present in just about every consumer contract or agreement, and the rules tend toward enforcing them.  But the more notice you have that one is in there, the more likely it is to be enforced.

So when you get those notifications, the wisest thing to do would be to review the changes, because you're probably stuck with them.  And I doubt there's much room to negotiate them.  If there's something you can't abide by, your choice is to terminate the service and find a provider without the obnoxious term, if you can.

 

The bold is the problem.  Why wouldn't I, as the product provider, go all the way to the edge of a line that's ever moving outward? And why would any of my competitors do differently unless it was the basis of their business model (which is unlikely because no one reads these and thus no one cares)?

These things used to not be worth the paper they were printed on - lawyers would laugh them off.  But now they're starting to gain traction.  

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