This is why you pay attention to your bills. (Warning: LONG)

Hey everyone,

I wanted to post this as kind of an educational thing for those who may not know.

I have At&t. I switched over my post paid phone to prepaid about a month ago (3/26/2011).
Reason why is because I just never really used the phone as much and I didn’t like payingout my ass for something I never use. Prepaid just works for me.

So as of that date I went to the AT&T store, and switch it over to prepaid. I had gone tothe store before and was told my contract ends on 3/18/2011. I was never informed ofreceiving another bill from the AT&T rep. As I understood it, the bill refelcts usage but pays for the next month over(THIS PART BECOMES VERY IMPORTANT LATER ON). I use to work for radioshack
and sold AT&T phones, so that’s what I understood it as.

So here’s the conversation, with the first lady.
Girl: “Hello thank you for calling AT&T.”

Me: “Hi, I’m calling about a bill I received about a late payment charge for a bill, that I never received.”

blah blah usual stuff, background check on the bill, etc.

Girl: “Well the bill refelcts usage and the payment goes for the next month over.”

Me: “But I payed the Feb - March bill, which goes towards the next month over, so what am I being charged for if I already paid it?”

Girl: “Well your cycle was for march 1st - april 10th, so the bill refelcts your usage in march before you cancelled on 3/26th”

Me: “That’s my point, if I paid for march already with my Feb - March cycle bill, then what does the $45.98 go towards.”

Girl: “Well it goes towards the amount of usage for MArch 1st - March 25th, before you cancelled it, and you got credited for the amount in the month that you didn’t use”

Me: “You’re missing the point, I paid for march with my Feb - March cycle bill, according to you, pays for the next month over.”

Girl: “Well the cycle dates PAY FOR THE CURRENT MONTH…”

Me: “No no no, I don’t agree to that. You just said it pays for the current, but you just said three times that it pays for the next month over. So which is it?”

Girl: “It pays for the current use.”

Me: “According to my understanding and what you just said three times is that it pays for the next month over, so which is it?”

Girl: “Yeah I tend to say it pays for the next month over I’m really sorry, it was my mistake…”

Me: “Can I please speak to a supervisor, if possible?” (Before the girl said that ^ , she paused and choke because she knew I caught her in a lie).

Supervisor: “Hello Nicholas, Morgan was just speaking to me about your problem.” etc…

Me: “Hi, I received a late payment bill on a bill I never received, and I’m wondering what I’m being charged for.”

Supervisor: “Yes I’m looking at the bill now and the payment is for the March - April cycle.”

Me: “But I switched over my phone on March 26th, which according to my understanding was paid for on the Feb - March bill”

Supervisor: “Well the billing cycle for March to April pays for the NEXT MONTH OVER”

Me: “Oh ok, so I’m fine then. Because according to what you just said, and what the other girl said, the bills pay for the next month over, she told me it pays for the current bill, you just said it pays for the next one over, so I don’t have to pay for March because I paid for it on the Feb - March bill which transfers as payment to the month of March, which I cancelled on March 26th, which was already paid for. So, I had no usage anytime after that, making these charges false.”

Supervisor: “…”

Supervisor: “Ok well what I can do is make that adjustment and call you back and let you know.”

Me: “and what are the adjustments you will be doing?”

Supervisor: “I’m going to zero out the bill for you and get that taken care of.”

Me: “Thank you very much.”

Just got the call back. She zeroed out the bill and I’m getting a confirmation letter in the mail.

WATCH YOUR BILLS AND STATEMENTS.

TLDR:
I got charged for false charges with AT&T. Called them up. Caught them in a lie, got bill cancelled out.

AT&T is notorious for doing this. Why do you think all the T-Mobile people were crying when AT&T bought them out?

Weird thing is, this is the only issue I’ve had with them. Good thing I knew how shit worked.

I’ve had verizon do this as well. Matter of fact even worse. I had a bill in my name for a phone with verizon that was never in my posession or used by me.

I owe Sprint $867 still…I never signed up nor have i ever had a cellphone that wasn’t prepaid…Fuck phone companies!

That should’ve been a simple matter. It has more to do with the fact that the people there were idiots than anything else. People at the call centers have all the info in front of them to fix shit like that; fucking dumb.

yeah, telcom companies are slimy as fuck!

i was working for a law firm for a while, and these guys call up at random one day, speak with the receptionist and ask “do you want to continue your service with AT&T?” naturally her answer was yes.

so about 6 months or more later i’m looking through our telcom as a newish employee there and look through our ATT contract and see that it should be out of the 2 year cancelation fee period and we are overpaying so i switch us over to… something else i can’t remember now. Anyways i cancel everything with at&t, give them the cancelation notice etc.

2 months later we get a 900+ dollar bill from them for “breaking our 2 year contract early”. naturally after checking our contracts i knew this was bogus crap so i call them up.

this dumb ass on the phone, then the dumbasses supervisor try to tell me that the receptionist re-entered a new 2 year contract with AT&T and that i just need to live with it. I start asking questions like “do you have any signed contracts to back up your claims?” of course they didn’t, but they tell me “we have a verbal contract with (receptionist’s name)” naturally working at a law firm i inquire into why they feel that they can form a binding verbal contract with a non-authorized employee of our company, they basically tell me to fuck off after 2 hours.

I consult the lawyers there (dumbass att trying to argue contract law with a lawfirm) and get my facts right in order. I file a BBB complaint against them and within weeks am contacted by like director of regional sales or service or something who try’s again to assert to me that the charges were legit, over the next 4 months i have to argue with them until finally one of them checks with their legal department after we threaten to file suit and BAM “oh we are so sorry, we zeroed the charges out”

these slimy fucks knew that this shit wasn’t in the least way legal and just hoped the average consumer wouldn’t know the difference.

I love stories like this.

Oh yea def.
It’s just retarded that they couldn’t catch on to what they were saying haha.

One time I had an extra $1088 charged to my student account for tuition (even though the rates didn’t go up and I already paid the tuition for the semester). They removed the erroneous charge as soon as I questioned them about it.