AT&T Suckage

[RedRoseSpiral]

AT&T has majorly screwed up me and my father's bills. I moved back in with my dad six months ago after my mother and her husband moved out of state so I could finish my degree. Roughly two months ago I decided to get my dad a cellphone on my account for emergencies, etc. It's gone down hill from there.

For some unknown reason AT&T combined me and my father's bills into on, namely his landline bill, while still sending me a bill of my own. For the past two months dad has gotten a bill with the messed up charges. He has called a total of five times now to get it straitened out. Each time he has called he's been told it was a mistake on the company's end, they will take care of it, and for my father to only pay his usual $61.36. Every month he gets a bill saying he owes an extra $200.

They constantly play pass the phone with him and each department says that it's the other who can fix this problem whenever he calls even though he was told the last time he called everything was fixed. It's gotten to the point where we're both about to drop all services we get from them and go somewhere else. And you can trust me when I say they won't be getting a cent more from us no matter what their records may or may not say. Who knows if they're actually right?

Dad's on the phone with them right now. I'll update you when he's done.

UPDATE

I didn't get to hear all of the call because I needed to take a shower before my job interview, but here's what I did hear:

The member of upper level management is now saying that we owe AT&T $200. This is the same $200 we've been told four times before was a mistake on their end and we do not have to pay it. By the end of the call my father was livid. I'm not positive but I think he told the guy to shove it up his ass. He might have said it after the call was done. I'm not sure. All I know is I did hear him say it while I was showering. Haven't seen dad since then so I don't know what else was said.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Hang in there if you otherwise like their service. I had some messed up bills from Verizon that took over a year to correct, and when they finally got it fixed they messed up something else. Fortunately that one was fixed in a couple of months.

[Darkforge]

send them a complaint in writing and send it via courier so that they have to sign for it, that way they can't say they never recieved it.

Phoning them is all well and good and can get some things sorted, but if phoning doesn't work then send them a letter and make notes on overything. If you can, start recording the calls you make to them as well (make sure to inform them its recorded)

best of luck

[blas]

I feel for you. AT&T is just a shit company to deal with at times.

I can only list with the fingers on one hand the number of times that they have gotten our monthly bill RIGHT, not overcharged us or put stuff on there that was never downloaded or purchased.

[marlovino]

When I had a problem once with At&t I went to main store in town. I talked to them on resolving the issue. When the told me it can only be handled by calling it in, I did that in the store and they got to watch the 'pass the buck' crap they were giving me. They took over the call and got it sorted for me and cleared it up.

Maybe you can try fixing it that way.


p.s. it was about my cell messing up. They would claim warranty, transfer me then they would claim insurance and transfer me then they would claim warranty, etc, etc, etc.

[Sightings Reporter]

Ugh. When I first got a cell phone (2003) I said that I needed a plan that would allow me to make calls from states A, B, C and D without roaming charges. I was told I had nationwide service and that I could make a call from just about anywhere in the USA without roaming charges. (Hey cut me some slack, I was new at the whole cell phone thing). I do remember asking, so if I go to City D and make calls, there would be no roaming right? I was told, correct.

I went to City D a few weeks later with friends. It was a terrible trip as one of the friends brought a girl he had met online with us. I spent a good deal of my time on the phone with a friend back home letting off some steam.

My phone bill came a few weeks later $400.00...all charges from that weekend. I called. No, you don't have blah blah blah...but we will be able to take off those charges and put that plan on your phone.

Two weeks later, I went to City B to visit Fiance. Made some calls while there to home city and what not. (Making sure my phone did not indicate roaming). Phone bill came $350.00. What? Called again...same thing. I had that phone for six months and each month, I had a major problem with my bill. I ended up just sucking up and paying the cancelation fee then getting a phone on my now dh's plan!

[HYHYBT]

Hearing all the complaints about what is now AT&T, I'm only amazed at what apparently is my amazingly good luck. I signed up with what was then Bellsouth Mobility in 2000, was with Cingular for the entire length of that company's existence, and of course have been with AT&T since and have never had any trouble with service.

[Andara Bledin]

AT&T's billing departments (because they bought a dozen baby bells and never integrated any of the services into one system) don't seem to have the first foggiest idea what the heck they're doing, most of the time.

They owe my work over $10k in overcharges that they recently "disappeared" from the bill, they keep changing the account numbers on our accounts without any notice, they categorically refuse to honor the contract we have with them or to at least honor the part about consolidating our bill into one statement, and until we caught them at it they were also charging us for a dozen lines belonging to a neighboring company who had also been paying for them for quite a long time.

We've even had one guy admit that none of the different departments really have any way of communicating with each other and it's a total nightmare for everyone involved.

I'd have nothing to do with them, myself, if it weren't for the fact that they bought my local service. I won't even let them call me because they'd keep harassing me to get their long distance service (why the hell would I not use my cell service, which has no distance charges?) and only stopped after I threatened a harassment suit against them.

^-.-^

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I feel for you. AT&T is just a shit company to deal with at times.

I can only list with the fingers on one hand the number of times that they have gotten our monthly bill RIGHT, not overcharged us or put stuff on there that was never downloaded or purchased.

And they have a tendency to raise the charges without prior notice as well, on top of the addition of "extras" that weren't ordered with the service.

Which is why it's strongly encouraged that customers check their bills each month and also any notes they have from phone conversations with customer service to find any discrepancies. Then call and work on getting any discrepancies straightened out ASAP.

Every so often, my Mom has to call and get the charges lowered on the phone bill (it's in her name, so she has to contact them whenever she finds something on the bill that she didn't ask for or give permission to add.) Usually it's the LDS (long distance service) which we don't use and she's told them repeatedly that she does NOT WANT, yet every so often they add it on and then the bill is way more than what she was told it would be before. So then it's another round of phone calls and talks with supervisors to get the mess straightened out. Then it'll straighten out for awhile then a few months down the road, we're back on the hamster wheel, so to speak.

It's frustrating as Hell, but in our area we're limited to choices for phone and DSL service (it's basically Blue Ball, as I call it or digital phone from local cable provider and they're too expensive and Mom has concerns over power outages.)

Makes us miss Southern Hell (which in the 90's became HellSouth before it merged with Blue Ball about 3 years ago) that much more . . .

[Sliceanddice]

see this is why my father choose t-mobile

[fma_fanatic]

And they have a tendency to raise the charges without prior notice as well, on top of the addition of "extras" that weren't ordered with the service.

Which is why it's strongly encouraged that customers check their bills each month and also any notes they have from phone conversations with customer service to find any discrepancies. Then call and work on getting any discrepancies straightened out ASAP.

Every so often, my Mom has to call and get the charges lowered on the phone bill (it's in her name, so she has to contact them whenever she finds something on the bill that she didn't ask for or give permission to add.) Usually it's the LDS (long distance service) which we don't use and she's told them repeatedly that she does NOT WANT, yet every so often they add it on and then the bill is way more than what she was told it would be before. So then it's another round of phone calls and talks with supervisors to get the mess straightened out. Then it'll straighten out for awhile then a few months down the road, we're back on the hamster wheel, so to speak.

It's frustrating as Hell, but in our area we're limited to choices for phone and DSL service (it's basically Blue Ball, as I call it or digital phone from local cable provider and they're too expensive and Mom has concerns over power outages.)

Makes us miss Southern Hell (which in the 90's became HellSouth before it merged with Blue Ball about 3 years ago) that much more . . .

Yeah...pretty sure that's cramming - highly illegal and your mom needs to report this to the FTC ASAP, as they don't like that one bit. Even if she doesn't want to submit a report, she needs to.

[wraiths_crono]

AT&T: bend over and take it.

(best part is I work for them, and 100% agree with most of the said stuff {I do interweb support please don't hate me!}

[Nohbody]

Except for the occasionally crappy connectivity for my DSL line, I've not had any real problems with AT&T or BellSuckSouth before the borging.

Verizon Wireless's billing department, on the other hand...

[Nohbody]

Except for the occasionally crappy connectivity

I knew I should've kept my big mouth shut...

For the past day and some change my connection drops sporadically, usually each within a relative handful of minutes of one another. Being an intermittent issue, by the time I get through to their (un)help desk, it's back up, and they can't find any problems with the line.

[AriRashkae]

AT&T: bend over and take it.

(best part is I work for them, and 100% agree with most of the said stuff {I do interweb support please don't hate me!}

Don't worry, we know it's not your fault.