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AT&T

Telecom

73

out of 100. Number 33 of 512, counting from the worst.

  • Arbitration 17 of 20, bad
  • Renewals 12 of 20
  • Data sharing 15 of 20, bad
  • Price & terms 12 of 15, bad
  • Data retention 10 of 15
  • Other findings 7 of 10, bad

Where AT&T does well

  • Real arbitration consumer protections (AT&T pays all costs for claims under $75K, small-claims court always available, $7,500 minimum recovery + double attorney's fees if award beats settlement offer); no 2-year wireless service contracts; data-sale opt-outs at att.com/PrivacyChoices, honors Global Privacy Control.

You can never sue AT&T in court or join a class action, even over things from before you signed or after you quit.

The fine print

5 clauses and findings from the draft archive, dated 1 October 2026. The plain English comes first; the small print is the company's own words. None of these has been checked yet.

  1. You can never sue AT&T in court or join a class action, even over things from before you signed or after you quit.

    You agree that, by entering into this Agreement, you and AT&T are each waiving the right to a trial by jury or to participate in a class action... This arbitration provision shall survive termination of this Agreement. … claims that arose before this or any prior Agreement... and claims that may arise after the termination of this Agreement

    AT&T Consumer Service Agreement (court-filed PDF)

  2. AT&T can rewrite prices/terms anytime; your only defense is quitting — and even the 30-day warning has an escape hatch.

    We may add, modify, or delete any terms, conditions, rates, or fees for any AT&T Service at any time... YOUR SOLE REMEDY FOR ANY CHANGES MADE BY US IS YOUR RIGHT TO CANCEL THE AFFECTED SERVICES. Price increases get 'at least thirty (30) days' notice 'except... it may not be commercially reasonable for AT&T to provide such notice.'

    AT&T Residential Service Agreement

  3. Flat-out admits practices multiple states legally define as 'selling' your personal info.

    We share information in ways that may be considered a sale of information under some state laws, such as exchanging subscriber lists for marketing or sharing identifiers and other information with non-AT&T advertising companies to target and deliver ads.

    AT&T Privacy Notice PDF (effective Nov 2025)

  4. Your call metadata is shared across AT&T's corporate empire unless you opt out; ad profile goes to advertisers by default.

    shares CPNI data with several of its affiliates, including WarnerMedia, DirecTV and Cricket Wireless / shares device or 'ad ID', combined with demographics including age range, gender, and ZIP code information with third parties which explicitly include advertisers.

    AT&T's CPNI opt-out page, via KrebsOnSecurity (2023)

  5. When you cancel, AT&T can keep charging your stored card repeatedly for the final bill, ETFs, and the full phone balance.

    You acknowledge, consent and authorize Us to charge to Your Payment Method... the amount of the final bill and any other amounts outstanding on the Account, including... any applicable Early Termination Fees... there may be more than one charge to Your Payment Method until all amounts outstanding on the Account are paid in full.

    AT&T Payment Upon Cancellation Authorization

How these were found

Direct att.com fetching failed (rate-limit 429 = hard stop). Verbatim mirrors used: court-filed Consumer Service Agreement (pre-Sept 17, 2022 version) via archive.org; Residential Service Agreement from AT&T's own CDN (cpr.att.com); Wireless arbitration language via studydaddy mirror; privacy language from AT&T's own Privacy Notice PDF via verbatim search snippets. Arbitration language substantively unchanged since ~2001, so high confidence — but live 2026 Wireless Customer Agreement wording not directly verified.

These notes come from the original draft and are not independent verification.