According to an inside memo, business subscribers who call Cingular/AT&T's customer service line will receive a prorated credit (up to $2.50) for the loss of their BlackBerry e-mail service for one day last week. Looks like complaining can accomplish something after all.Research In Motion's wireless BlackBerry e-mail service crashed last week because of some problems with a new feature and was unavailable for about 12 to 15 hours. The service was affected across all of the Western Hemisphere and left some 8 million subscribers without access to their e-mail.

Apparently enough people called to moan and gripe about the loss of their wireless e-mail service that Cingular/AT&T made an executive decision to offer the one-day refunds. The memo, provided by The Consumerist, goes on to give instructions to customer service staff and outlines the steps involved in crediting any complainant's account. The size of the refund will depend on which BlackBerry service plan each subscriber has, and ranges from $1 to $2.50.

Sounds look a good tactical maneuver from AT&T to keep its most valuable customers happy. BlackBerry and business users take advantage of the data networks more heavily than consumers and produce higher average revenue per user. I wonder if AT&T will turn around and stick Research In Motion with whatever the refund tab turns out to be.

Will the other carriers follow suit and offer similar rebates?