Dissatisfied Customer Wants to Know WTF is Wrong with AT&T?!?

[wordpix2]

A couple of months ago, I changed my long distance service with AT&T and also changed to electronic billing. When my first e-bill arrived online, I saw crazy charges---I was being charged anywhere from .15 to .35/min. for long distance, which was not what I ordered. Also, instead of my .06/min. charges to Canada, I was being charged almost $1/min. In addition, the bill showed no credit for 20 min. free, as promised.

I called the company and the woman on the phone explained that the crazy bill was due to my changing my long distance package! I said that was a poor excuse and the bill had no charges remotely resembling what I ordered with my new service. She said she'd make the adjustments. The bill was supposedly fixed and decreased by about $45 for the questionable month and I got a notice in the mail saying the change was made.

I go online to pay the bill today and I see the same crazy bill so I again call AT&T. They tell me the bill has been adjusted; however, they cannot show the adjusted bill online. I say, "You're telling me I can't see my bill?" Correct. "You're telling me I must pay a bill but I can't see the charges for this bill, I can't see the calls made to make sure there's no problem, like last time?" Correct. "You are a communications company and you cannot electronically change the bill to show my calls and charges---that's what you're telling me?" The manager I spoke to says, correct, correct, correct.

I asked her to send a message(with a cc: to me) to the corporate higher-ups that I am looking for a new phone co. and will be contacting AG Blumenthal, as well as a journalist I know who writes about Wall St. and publicly traded companies. I wish to inform all parties that AT&T is sending out fraudulent bills and then adjusting when the customer requests it---but not allowing customers to see the adjusted bills. I wonder how many seniors have just paid their fraudulent bills without noticing the fraudulent charges. Anyone else have problems like this with AT&T?

This company must be run by Bush cronies, they are so incompetent.

[the other one]

1. Thanx for the heads up I will check my bill. nt

[seabeyond]

2. cmpany changed over in dec. i didnt know. january service shut off

i dont know what is up, going thru the billing i see the didnt apply my check amount correctly. shy about 100. clearly shows on check, both in amount and written form. i am charged reconnection. then to get those charges off, i have to call main office, and twice the service person hung up on me. finally got thru again and the gal showed the hangups and service person didnt put name in. why would they i say, they were rude and horrible.

still havent gotten the 50 back. took me hours just to get bill paid

also we bought a company. they were charging for 24 lines. the company had 8 operating. i told them screw you, i am not paying that. they didnt argue. they knew they were stealing and knew those lines werent hooked up. the company is a crook

[Gidney N Cloyd]

3. Is there really an AT&T anymore? Isn't the name just a

beard for some SBC projects? It seemed like the name AT&T almost disappeard a while back until SBC suddenly dragged it out recently.

(sorry if I'm way off but I can't keep track of the telco shell game)

[wordpix2]

4. there is some kind of "telco shell game" going on all right. Maybe my AG

can figure it out. Blumenthal is really good.

[back2basics909]

5. If you have high speed internet...

... get Voice over IP. Far cheaper. I keep converting people, many find it's cheaper to get highspeed internet and VoIP than it is dial up and a regular land line.

$24 a month, for unlimited calls anywhere in America or Cannada, with all the bells and whistles.

Easy to set up, you can keep your existing number etc.

[MelissaB]

6. I had a similar problem with BellSouth.

I just switched over to MCI so that I could keep my home phone number when I change to Packet8 for $19.99 a month.
http://www.packet8.net/

SunRocket is another company that is getting rave reviews and is cheap. I'm told you can get it for about $8 a month. They aren't in my area, but here is a FatWallet thread about it.

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?catid=18&threadid=602944&highlight_key=y&keyword1=sunrocket

[Lerkfish]

7. I got one for you, too. I was using SBC automatic bill pay for my bill,

then they changed to AT&T, who started sending me nonpayment notices. I call them up and say, hey! I already arranged to have my bill paid out of my checking acct. they say: sorry, we have no record of that. I tell them I have a year's worth of emails letting me know the bill has been paid that way.
They insist I have not been using autopay.
EXTREMELY ticked off, I sign up AGAIN for automatic pay and pay off the outstanding balance.

sheesh.

[jojo54]

8. AT&T has ALWAYS had a problem with billing.

I'm not a subscriber, but did work for a small communications co. in N.H. We were always getting calls about AT&T's incorrect billing. They're more forgiving for mistakes now than they were before.

Personally, hub and I have only cell phones now and we don't miss that land line at all.

Good luck!

[michreject]

14. I have to have a land line

I have a DirecTV system. Hard line required. x(

At least I don't have Comcast.:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[TAPat]

9. "Incompetent" like a FOX!

Many, many companies are doing this now - especially if you sign up for electronic billing.
My bank recently pulled a fast one on me. Long story short: You're signed up for the free trial period but call this # if you want to cancel. I call to cancel and I'm told that no, you call to activate - I think I just misunderstood in the first place. 2 months later I get a charge on my credit card for this thing I never wanted in the first place. I call the company that charged me for the service I never wanted whereupon they try to sell it to me again. I end up talking to a Supervisor after getting pretty hot with the first Rep - Oh, you've been credited and your account has been deactivated, didn't the Rep tell you... Bullshit! So, it's up to me to make sure that I was credited and am not mysteriously re-activated every month :woohoo:

And yes, what about the seniors and folks who simply do not have the time to check every single little charge and, and, and...

Corporate Thievery

[novalib]

10. AT&T is the WORST

AT&T used to call me at home, trying to get me to sign up for their long distance service.

I finally told them that I did not want their long distance service, and not to call me again (This was in the days before the do-not-call list).

Two days later, they called me again -- three times in one night.

The third time they called, I got really steamed and told them that I had said two days earlier that I did not want to be called again.

The person told me that it would take six weeks -- six weeks!! -- to get my name and number purged from their lists.

I told them that they were the phone company, and that I did not understand how it could take six weeks.

Just typing this makes me really steamed at AT&T!

[INdemo]

11. Here's a suggestion..

that I believe will get you results...Go online to the FTC(Fed. Trade Comm) yes FTC not the FCC and file a complaint and you will get results.. I had problems with AT&T several years ago and I ended up getting a refund. My next suggestion is,if you dont want to continue having problems switch to a different Long Distance Carrier..

[Coyote_Bandit]

12. I had SBC service in another state about 6 years ago

I was new to the area. I signed up for DSL service through them because cable broadband access was not available where I lived. It ***never*** worked. Why? Because they never set it up correctly in their computer system. I turned in a disconnect order and quickly got working DSL service through another provider. Every month I would get an ever increasing bill that showed the DSL connect charges and a charge for monthly service. Every monthy I would spend forever on the phone to get my bill straightened out. Something that only resulted in a temporary credit. I never saw a correct bill. I b*tched enough that I managed to work my way up to the executive complaint department. The excuse I was given was that all the DSL services were subcontracted and SBC had no control over the billing for those services (funny, since it was an SBC bill and it was SBC trying to collect). During this process I got all sorts of collections and disconnect notices - notices that were not the result of my failure to try to resolve the matter or to pay the appropriate sum due in a timely manner. Less than a year after moving to the area I, again, relocated to another state. It took another 6 months to get a final bill that was somewhere near correct - with a balance due of less than $10. FUBAR. Never again will I do business with this POS company. There are alternatives. And AT&T is just another part of the criminal SBC family these days.

[wordpix2]

13. UPDATE: I just heard back from the AT&T manager I had spoken to

early this a.m. She said she had sent my info up the chain of command including the fact that I'm contacting my family member who reports on Wall St. as well as the AG of CT. The upper corporate heads say they send apologies---the fraudulent bill WAS their fault (no duh!). She further said that she cannot send me any cc:s of any intracompany emails that go back and forth about this issue as it's company policy.

I asked, "So, may I see my adjusted bill now, which I just paid today because I don't want my service cut off?"

"No, we can't do that. I can send you the bill but it will be the same bill that was wrong." She also said that the original bill was wrong because it was put on an automated account due to a mistake AT&T made; that being, the new package I ordered was not put in the system.

I told her that maybe it was just a mistake as she said but also, maybe someone in their company is putting jive numbers in these bills and making off with the extra cash. "I would think your executives would be concerned about that," I told her. I repeated that there is something seriously wrong with a company when a customer cannot see his bill online or by snail mail after an adjustment is made---in this case, an adjustment needed b/c of the company's "mistake."

I also told her I was going to continue to press the issue because I had read other horror stories online here and other people are having similar problems across the country. Keep those stories coming!

[Canuckistanian]

15. As Bartcop says in Bart's Law #2

Bart's Law #2

Any time a person or entity makes a "mistake" that puts extra money (or power) in their pocket,
expect them to make that "mistake" again and again and again. That's why refineries have fires now and then,
because a fire allows them to scream "unexpected shortage" so they can gouge us on the price of gas.