AT&T finally pulls misleading ads

It’s great to be the network with the fewest dropped calls, right? We suppose if we were told that by an independent report, we’d go flaunting it too. That’s exactly what Cingular, now AT&T, did, even after it was made abundantly clear that they more likely had the most dropped calls of any network in America. In fact, the report in question actually said that AT&T had a less than optimal network in New York, Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles. In other words, the largest markets in America. But hey, the words “fewest dropped calls” were used, so AT&T was going to exploit them. The reason for the ad pull isn’t known yet, as the report comes from multiple AT&T wireless representatives (which include two in our town, which we just noticed late last week). But we’re figuring it has something to do with the bevy of complaints the company has received pursuant to this claim. One California resident actually sued Cingular for the ad campaign, which convinced him to join their network. He didn’t do his due diligence, though, and later found that two other independent reports had Cingular ranked at the bottom of the heap in dropped calls. Of course, the customer was stuck with a two-year contract, and the only way he could get out was legal action. Consumer Reports recently issued a warning that AT&T is actually near the bottom in terms of reliability and satisfaction. JD Power and Associates agrees, saying that T-Mobile ranks tops in those categories. We respectfully disagree — apparently Mr. Power and his associates never tried to use a T-Mobile phone in Manhattan. Still, we’re glad to see the ads go. Now we won’t have to annoy our friends as we complain every time we see the commercial. [Broadband Reports]]]>