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Do I have any recourse??? Ongoing billing issues.

M

miscshorty

Lurker
Please advise...not sure what to do and am sick and tired of calling AT&T's useless customer service department for assistance. Long story, so I apologize ahead of time.

I have had service with AT&T since October 14, 2010. I am on the Family Talk Nation Unlimited, with DataPro 2 GB Smartphone Data Plan, and Messaging Unlimited for families. On the current plan I am on any additional lines should be $ 49.99 each, plus any data plan that I add (information taken right off of AT&T website).

On Oct 26 and again on Nov 20, I added some lines to my account. When I ordered the lines I ordered them to be added to my existing account; not a separate account. The first line I added was done over the phone with an AT&T rep, the second order I placed was done online. Again, both times I placed the order I specifically stated that I wanted the phones added to my existing Family Plan and I also picked the DataPro 2 GB Smartphone Data Plan for each phone that I added to my account. To my understandings that is what I agreed to by placing the order.

Well, when I received the first added line order it was placed on a separate account, not added to my existing Family Plan and AT&T was charging me $ 70 a month for the line, there was no messaging plan added to the order, and no data plan on the phone. As soon as AT&T shipped the phones and I received the CSS and Customer Contract Agreement I called then and they said I was only being charged $ 49.99 and that the phone was added to my existing plan. I called AT&T 3 times to verify that the phone was on my existing Family Plan since it appeared incorrect on my account online. The third customer service rep was the one that told me that the phone was actually placed on a separate plan and that I would need to have my account adjusted when the new bill came out.

After receiving my new bill of $ 489.00 I called AT&T and spoke to them about the mistake and the credits I needed on my account. The credits that were needed were for messaging and data plan usages that were already ordered on this phone. This time, I had to call 5 different times, got hung up on by a supervisor and only got my account corrected after threatening to call the FCC. It was a nightmare.

Well stupid me decided to add another 2 lines to my account in the middle of Nov. This time I decided to place the order online to make sure that the order was added to my existing Family Plan correctly with the DataPro 2 GB Smartphone Data Plan, and Unlimited Messaging for Families already included on my plan. Yet again, AT&T screwed up and changed my order and added the phone to their own accounts, charging me $ 70 a month per each phone, no messaging, and no data plan. I caught it this time before I received my phones and called AT&T again and had them correct it. They assured me that everything had been corrected and that my bill should be accurate.

Well, like usual AT&T lied and deceived me and now I am facing a $ 675 dollar bill. I have already spoken with 2 AT&T customer service reps trying to get the account corrected. My account is still not corrected. I am so frustrated with all the phone calls to AT&T and my issues still being unresolved.

My questions is what recourse do I have? Can I get out of my contract since I feel they violated the TOS by changing my order and placing the phones on separate accounts is not what I agreed to? Do I contact the FCC and complain? Do I file a formal dispute with AT&T and go to Arbitration? Do I just chock it up to AT&T stupidity and cut my losses and pay the ETF for each phone?

I have no idea what my recourses are but there has to be something I can do, as a customer I shouldn't be deceived and be expected to pay.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and again sorry for the long story.
 
I work for AT&T

I cant speak for other employees, but I can tell you customer care is just plain ******ed. I always call in for the customer because I know if I dont, they will do something stupid. They dont know what its like, they dont have customers right in front of them, so I feel like they dont try to help at all.

what seems to me is you are trying to do unlimited minutes correct?


thats

$70 primary line
$50 each secondary line
$30 for unl messaging
$25/ Data pro

from what I read (correct me if I'm wrong)

you have 1 primary + 3 secondary. Assuming that they do not use data except for your primary line, thats

$70 + $50x3 + 30(messaging) + 25(data) = 275

Now each line you activate suffers from a $26 activation fee

that comes out to $353 for the first bill + any prorated charges (it could be more if you have more than one data plan)


now,


do you really need unlimited minutes on all the lines? every family plan starting from the 1400 min ($80 for primary line, $10 for secondary) has the "A-list" which lets you choose 10 people to talk to unlimited outside of AT&T.

It is hard for me to tell exactly whats going on with out looking at your account.


but honestly, as much as it isnt your fault,

you need to go to a store and get it sorted out. when you do stuff over the phone/online things get messed up all the time.

AT&T doesnt "lie" or "cheat" customers, stupid phone reps and confusing online procedures are what makes things go to hell.


If you are in the Bay Area, CA, message me and I'll do what I can to help you (if you want)


Again, I apologize for all the hassle you have gotten...Some people who work for the company are sales people and thats it. They do not care about the phones or the customers
 
It sounds like you have a mess, completely different than my recent at&t experience. One day they may get it sorted out. I would suggest going into a "real" At&t store and getting it settled. You might want to wait until you get the next bill or print it out online so you can show them what you got.

But like the first reply who was an At&t employee, I question your need for so much unlimited services. I have a family plan with 2 phones with 550 minutes. Yes, we don't use the phone allot, but currently with 10 days left on our month we only have used 81 charged minutes. With most of our families on At&t, we just don't have that much billable time.

Our bill was typically $90 with one unlimited BB dataplan, no texting and a Corporate discount, I expect that to drop to a total of $75 with changing from my Blackberry to Streak, because I don't really use any 3G, it is all Wifi usage. I have only had the Streak for 3 days, my only billable charges were on the first day when it was being activated in the store of 181kb.

Good Luck.
 
I have unlimited on my phones because we use them as our primary lines. We do not have a landline. I am just confused and overwhelmed by it all. I do have an AT&T store not too far from me. I think I will go in there and have everything sorted out. It is just very frustrating and I just needed to vent and see what advice others had to offer me since I am at my whits ends. I agree phone/online customer service sucks (to put it mildly).

MarcMaiden, I wish I lived close cause you seem to be more helpful than other AT&T reps. Unfortunately I live in Oklahoma. But thank you for the offer. I understand about the prorated bills but am being charged $ 70 for each line except one. Which I know is incorrect but am just tired of arguing with phone reps. They are not very bright.

I will go into an AT&T store in the next couple of days and let you all know what happened. I know AT&T does not purposely set out to deceive their customers, I just feel deceived with all the confusion and back and forth phone calls.
 
miscshorty said:
I have unlimited on my phones because we use them as our primary lines. We do not have a landline. I am just confused and overwhelmed by it all. I do have an AT&T store not too far from me. I think I will go in there and have everything sorted out. It is just very frustrating and I just needed to vent and see what advice others had to offer me since I am at my whits ends. I agree phone/online customer service sucks (to put it mildly).

MarcMaiden, I wish I lived close cause you seem to be more helpful than other AT&T reps. Unfortunately I live in Oklahoma. But thank you for the offer. I understand about the prorated bills but am being charged $ 70 for each line except one. Which I know is incorrect but am just tired of arguing with phone reps. They are not very bright.

I will go into an AT&T store in the next couple of days and let you all know what happened. I know AT&T does not purposely set out to deceive their customers, I just feel deceived with all the confusion and back and forth phone calls.
Click to expand...

make sure you have them credit you back the $20 for each line they messed up, credit back the prorated charges, and waive the activation fees.

tell the rep in the store to tell customer care

"you were told that the activation fees were supposed to be waived by a phone rep you talked to but it never was and you would like the fees credit back because of all the mess ups"

thats what i do for my customers and it works every time

try to go during a time where they arent busy so they can be more 1 on 1 with you. remember, some of these guys treat you like a number on a list...dont let them.

if you have anymore problems let me know,

if you do not get everything sorted out and credit back, let me know as well so I can see what I can do
 
Good luck and make sure it is a Corporate Store, not a re-seller.

As far as land-lines, I haven't had a land-line in 2 years either. But my wife and I are both on At&t, so are our parents. We just don't use that much. We had a few family issues that got the minutes up to the 550/month, but we currently have 2500 minutes in rollover and more expire than we use :D

But, if you are concerned about the overages, you can see your detailed usage online. Watch it for a few months and you can see what you really need. I guess with unlimited, you don't get roll-over minutes either :rolleyes:
 
I went to a Corporate AT&T store and asked the sales rep to explain my bill for me because I felt it was incorrect and explained to him why, he looked at my account for about 5 minutes and said everything was correct. When I tried to ask him questions he told me to contact AT&T customer care on the phone and they could further assist me. At the time I went into the AT&T store there was only one other customer in the store except me. Anyway, I called the AT&T customer care line and no one could help me either. When I started asking questions about my bill no one could answer them all they kept telling me was that everything is correct. I also had Smart limits on my phone last month and am still being charged 9.99 for a service I never signed up for. This is so frustrating, now my bill is overdue, was due on the 4th and I refuse to pay it until someone can correct it. I have spoken to 5 different Customer Care and Sales Reps, unacceptable in my opion.
Last month the 5th Customer Care was able to help me, so far nothing.

The worst part about all this is that I have an Accounting background and have worked in Accounting for over 15 years and can not make heads or tales of the bill or corrections that have been made to my account.


MarcMaiden I sent you my cell number to see if you could take a look at my account and my bill and make any heads or tails out of the mess. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
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