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Topics: News, Phones, Social Media, Technology, US News
Callum Jones
Topics: News, Phones, Social Media, Technology, US News
People have been left outraged by compensation AT&T is offering customers who were impacted by a huge cell phone network outage.
More than 700,000 customers were impacted by painful outages on Thursday (22 February), according to downdetector.com.
Some of the most affected locations were Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Indianapolis, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, and New York City.
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Meanwhile, some outages were also reported in the Canadian city of Montreal.
Customers first reported problems at around 3:30 am Eastern Time, with AT&T acknowledging the situation on their website at 11:15am ET.
"We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored," a company spokesperson said at the time.
AT&T marked the situation as resolved around four hours afterwards, with the company saying they believed the outage was caused by applying and executing the wrong process as it continues to expand its massive network.
Now, AT&T has said they will reimburse some customers as a result of the chaos that took place last week.
In a statement posted to its website, the telecommunications company said it would reach out to those impacted and automatically add $5 credit to their accounts - which is the estimated average cost of a full day of service.
The credits will be applied within two bill cycles, with only AT&T wireless customers eligible.
Unfortunately, the offer doesn't apply to AT&T Business, AT&T Prepaid or Cricket accounts.
AT&T announced the compensation in a new statement, as they offered another apology for last week's outages.
“We recognize the frustration this outage has caused and know we let many of our customers down,” the company said.
“We understand this may have impacted their ability to connect with family, friends, and others. Small business owners may have been impacted, potentially disrupting an essential way they connect with customers.”
It continued: "To help make it right, we’re reaching out to potentially impacted customers and we’re proactively applying a credit to their accounts.
"We want to reassure our customers of our commitment to reliably connect them—anytime and anywhere.
"We’re also taking steps to prevent this from happening again in the future. Our priority is to continuously improve and be sure our customers stay connected."
Well, many people have been left outraged by the compensation AT&T is offering.
"I lost my job cause i got in a wreck and couldn’t call in. Thanks a lot AT&T the $5 will help out tremendously!" one person penned on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"$5 can’t even buy be a whole meal at McDonalds. Smh," a second added.
While a third simply penned: "Bruh $5 cmon."
UNILAD has reached out to AT&T for comment.