Although you did sign a contract and they changed the terms of the arbitration; You also signed a contract which states the following:

“AT&T T&Cs said:
We may change any terms, conditions, rates, fees, expenses, or charges regarding your service at any time. We will provide you with notice of such changes (other than changes to governmental fees, proportional charges for governmental mandates, roaming rates or administrative charges) either in your monthly bill or separately. You understand and agree that State and Federal Universal Service Fees and other governmentally imposed fees, whether or not assessed directly upon you, may be increased based upon the government’s or our calculations. IF WE INCREASE THE PRICE OF ANY OF THE SERVICES TO WHICH YOU SUBSCRIBE, BEYOND THE LIMITS SET FORTH IN YOUR RATE PLAN BROCHURE, OR IF WE MATERIALLY DECREASE THE GEOGRAPHICAL AREA IN WHICH YOUR AIRTIME RATE APPLIES (OTHER THAN A TEMPORARY DECREASE FOR REPAIRS OR MAINTENANCE), WE WILL DISCLOSE THE CHANGE AT LEAST ONE BILLING CYCLE IN ADVANCE (EITHER THROUGH A NOTICE WITH YOUR BILL, A TEXT MESSAGE TO YOUR DEVICE, OR OTHERWISE), AND YOU MAY TERMINATE THIS AGREEMENT WITHOUT PAYING AN EARLY TERMINATION FEE OR RETURNING OR PAYING FOR ANY PROMOTIONAL ITEMS, PROVIDED YOUR NOTICE OF TERMINATION IS DELIVERED TO US WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS AFTER THE FIRST BILL REFLECTING THE CHANGE. If you lose your eligibility for a particular rate plan, we may change your rate plan to one for which you qualify.”

Here’s the other problem. You are canceling because:

“ChieflandFL said:
I am cancelling two lines of service with AT&T and moving them to Verizon because of the horrible reception and lack of customer service both in store and on the phone.”

If you really had a problem with the arbitration clause you should have called that day you received it and maybe they would have worked with you. However since you are complaining about the lack of reception and customer service you should have canceled within your first thirty days.

You are better off just paying the ETF than trying to fight this and paying arbitration costs. You signed a legally binding contract that obviously states you are currently in the wrong.

The first part actually applies to your article. The new arbitration clause is not a phyical change to the contract and therefore does not warrant a waive of the ETF.
Your directing consumers to ruin their credit history, AT&T will not budge, and FCC will not change anything because it’s legal.

AT&T claims they can (retroactively) now require you to pay their fees, if you lose in arbitration. That’s one of the two material changes that people wanted to cancel over.

Of course, AT&T will claim that they can enforce that term, so they will probably demand you pay their fees if you lose.

And, of course, AT&T’s arbitration fees will probably exceed the ETFs (stretching into the thousands). As such, I don’t think you’ll have much luck with arbitration, since there will be a disagreement from the get-go as to who pays arbitration fees in the event of a loss.

Read the page:
http://www.freepress.net/freemyphone

Sign the petition (which emails the FCC and your local congress reps):
https://secure.freepress.net/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=333

Follow it on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/FreeMyPhone/89600309468

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Everyone should be posting those links all over the internet. This is a well organized, well funded movement. The more people supporting it, the less likely we’ll be reading stories like this in the future. Do your part…