AT&T Offering a Measly Five Bucks After Massive Outage That Rendered Their Phones Useless

You can't put a price on pain. Unless, of course, you're AT&T.

February 26, 2024

Image via Getty/Ronald Martinez

AT&T says its recent widespread outage that left many users unable to contact family members, better yet do anything at all using the carrier’s services, is worth $5.

Sunday, the Texas-headquartered company shared a statement on last Thursday’s outage, which Downdetector previously noted impacted tens of thousands of customers. At one point, for example, an estimated 74,000 people had reported their service was down. The reports began early Thursday morning, per Downdetector, with AT&T issuing a statement just after 3:00 p.m. ET that day alleging that any issues had been fixed.

In a new statement, shared Sunday, the company said it was “reaching out to potentially impacted customers” and “proactively applying a credit to their accounts.” Per the Associated Press, that credit will be in the amount of $5.

Seemingly, this means that the company believes someone potentially being unable to get in touch with a loved one in an emergency, or for any reason, is financially comparable to, say, a meal at Taco Bell.

According to AT&T, the outage was the result of "the application and execution of an incorrect process used while working to expand our network."

In a text to customers, seen below, AT&T apologized for the outage. The company also claimed to "value" their base of consumers.

Meanwhile, in a letter to employees, CEO John Stankey called the day of the outage a "challenging" one for the company. Notably, Stankey's recently reported annual compensation was around $22 million, a far cry from the bulk of customers relying on AT&T's services.