AT&T is rolling out a bold promise. If cell phone service goes down in your area, even for an hour, they will automatically give you a bill credit.
It was about one year agothat millions of AT&T customers lost cell service for almost a full day. The company now has a plan to make things right if that ever happens again.
Shannon Olson, an AT&T area manager from southeastern Wisconsin described it by saying, "The industry needed something like this."
AT&T's new guarantee says any wireless customer who loses coverage for an hour or more will receive a bill credit equal to a full day of service.
Fransau Vazquez, a Milwaukee resident, shared his initial thoughts on the rollout. "It's new to me. But, I think it's interesting. Personally, I didn't have any outage last year but if this is going to happen I can't wait to see what Spectrum is going to do."
In the event of an outage that lasts an hour or longer, in most cases, the credit kicks in automatically for AT&T customers. Unlike last year, you won't have to call customer support or stop into an AT&T store. Fiber internet customers will get the same bill credit after an outage of 20 minutes or more.
"We are first to the market with this," added Olson. "Our hope is that this helps us keep our existing customers longer and then helps those customers that may be on the fence or interested in AT&T."
Watch: AT&T rolls out new bill credit guarantee after service outages:
Vazquez says at least for now, it's not enticing enough to make him switch carriers. "No. The only reason why is that I haven't had any bad service with Spectrum, so I don't think I would switch, but I'm pretty sure they would try to match it," he explained.
Verizon, which is AT&T's biggest competitor, will give you a credit for service disruptions that last at least a day or longer, but it's not automatic — you have to contact Verizon to get that credit.
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