What that $0.41 means is that that is what's left over for you after AT&T ripped off millions of customers for gazillions of dollars. Some class action plaintiffs' attorney had to run AT&T to ground, get information out of them which AT&T fought every step of the way, and when push came to shove, AT&T grudgingly decided to disgorge a few million dollars of ill-gotten gains. The law firm is first in line, because how else could it be? The actual victims get $0.41, but how many victims? Millions? Tens of millions? And how do they get their money? A check for $0.41? A credit against next month's bill from AT&T?
La dee fuckin' dah.
What it shows other bad actors is that you can rip off your clientele for millions or billions and pay back peanuts, if anything. Class action law hasn't kept up with ginormous service providers with multi-millions of a customer base. Do you go through your cell phone bill with a fine toothed comb? No. If it was $100 last month and it's $102 this month, you shrug and pay it. Maybe it'll be $99 next month? And what, exactly, are those charges? What do they represent? Concealed in the anti-matter language of a monthly bill, you're not supposed to be able to figure out very easily. Which opens the door to all kinds of mischief.
A company with millions of monthly customers can slip in a charge for a dollar here or a dollar there, and reap millions every month for nothing but an incomprehensible line on the customer's bill. You get ripped off, but for what? An extra $20 a year? Is that really worth your time to chase AT&T (or another large company) down? No.
But what if class action law caught up with this reality, and bad actors had to kick back a minimum lump sum of (say) $500 to each customer, or triple what they'd ripped off, whichever is greater? This shit would stop tomorrow.
= new reply since forum marked as read
