AT&T May Suspend Accounts of Detractors

Talk poorly about AT&T? You may have your service suspended with the company. It's now stated that one's service may be suspended if a customer's comments "tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries."

This news is even more troubling given the fact AT&T was involved in Bush's wiretapping scandal back in 2005.

This is ridiculous. If a person(s) is upset with the service that someone provides to them, they have every right to complain. If a family receives poor service at a restaurant, they have a right to complain to management. If one is having constant problems with the cable company, again, they have the right to complain. If a couple runs into a situation, they have the right to complain with or about the other. The family doesn't just get banned from the restaurant and all other restaurants of the same name or affiliated with it. The family doesn't get barred by the cable company. A couple doesn't automatically get separated from the other.

People are going to complain, regardless of how great, poor, or average a product/service is. Some will praise, others may be indifferent, and yet others will complain. That's how it goes. I find it quite frightening that a company who has been affiliated with wiretapping thinks they hold more control over the general public than other companies. It's also a stupid move on their part. All this is going to do is switch users and suspended users to other telecommunications services. It's not like AT&T is the lone shark in the telecom world. They're just hurting themselves, as far as I'm concerned.

But, here's a wild and wacky idea. How about listening to customer complaints and taking them seriously? Perhaps making the needed change to hopefully influence non-users to buying into the product? It's not going to be a wise move for Best Buy to admit being a perpetrator of wiretapping and then telling potential customers that if they're found to have spoken negatively about a Best Buy product or the store itself, they will be barred from ever shopping there again. Okay, then Circuit City it is. I know it's a radical idea, but actually listening to the people who make an operation function and taking their thoughts and feelings seriously might actually benefit the company profiting off them. It seems like a pretty symbiotic relationship to me, but AT&T may lose a bit of that, as people may start losing their interest in associating with them. I hope that's the case. In that, the people can suspend AT&T and true justice can be served.