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At&t dickery
Siska
ShortyRegistered User regular
ShortyRegistered User regular
In March my hubby signed us up with at&t for high speed internet (we live in Raleigh, NC). Our 1 year plan with roadrunner was up and they were increasing our monthly bill, so we were looking for something cheaper. The at&t phone sales rep gave my hubby a list of their plans and he went for one that was $30/month for 12 months. A guy comes over to install it, he needs to drill a hole on our wall. I ask him if there is a charge for any of this, just to make sure, he says no. One month later we get a bill. It's $45 monthly fee plus $150 installation fee.
My hubby calls up at&t. They say they have no record of our 12 month contract and that the installation fee is correct, despite the sales rep not mentioning it and the technician saying it was free. Hubby tells them this was not what he agreed to, they say they can't help him and that a supervisor will call him back. Next day, no word from any supervisor, he calls at&t again, same story. Next day, still no supervisor. What we do get is our internet cut of. More than a little peeved at this point we decide to give it another day. Following day, a Friday, we still haven't heard back from at&t and we still have no internet. My hubby calls at&t again. This time to simply ask how to send their equipment back. With all the other dicking going on we are sure they will be charging us rent even though they cut us off.
Since it seems impossible to get a hold of anyone reasonable an at&t and my hubby runs into some medical problems that are more important, we ignore at&t and their bill for a few months. Mid June, he calls them again to try and get them to waive the fees and to pay what he considers a reasonable amount. He can't get them to waive any fees, pays them $98.31 and let them know he will contest the rest of the bill.
Today we got a new bill. Not only are there the old charges, minus what we paid. But they have also tacked on an $135 early termination fee. Which is pretty amazing considering (A) they told us there was no 12 month contract and (B) they were the ones who canceled the service. They are now asking for a total of $245.99.
Short version: Had internet with at&t for about 5 weeks. They tacked on a bunch of fees and generally had a party with their billing.
We have filed a complaint with the FCC and BBB. Is there anyone else we can report this issue to? And what else can we do to contest the bill? Calling at&t seems to be pointless since even if there is anyone there who is reasonable and able to deal with this, they must not have a phone.
My hubby calls up at&t. They say they have no record of our 12 month contract and that the installation fee is correct, despite the sales rep not mentioning it and the technician saying it was free. Hubby tells them this was not what he agreed to, they say they can't help him and that a supervisor will call him back. Next day, no word from any supervisor, he calls at&t again, same story. Next day, still no supervisor. What we do get is our internet cut of. More than a little peeved at this point we decide to give it another day. Following day, a Friday, we still haven't heard back from at&t and we still have no internet. My hubby calls at&t again. This time to simply ask how to send their equipment back. With all the other dicking going on we are sure they will be charging us rent even though they cut us off.
Since it seems impossible to get a hold of anyone reasonable an at&t and my hubby runs into some medical problems that are more important, we ignore at&t and their bill for a few months. Mid June, he calls them again to try and get them to waive the fees and to pay what he considers a reasonable amount. He can't get them to waive any fees, pays them $98.31 and let them know he will contest the rest of the bill.
Today we got a new bill. Not only are there the old charges, minus what we paid. But they have also tacked on an $135 early termination fee. Which is pretty amazing considering (A) they told us there was no 12 month contract and (B) they were the ones who canceled the service. They are now asking for a total of $245.99.
Short version: Had internet with at&t for about 5 weeks. They tacked on a bunch of fees and generally had a party with their billing.
We have filed a complaint with the FCC and BBB. Is there anyone else we can report this issue to? And what else can we do to contest the bill? Calling at&t seems to be pointless since even if there is anyone there who is reasonable and able to deal with this, they must not have a phone.
Siska on
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I would say 90% of those people NEVER paid a bill some for years and somehow talked reps into owing them money.
North Carolina's AG consumer complaints website: http://www.ncdoj.gov/Consumer/2-2-12-File-a-Complaint.aspx
steam | Dokkan: 868846562
but they're listening to every word I say
Alternatively: Ask to speak to a level 3 tech.
Alternatively: Tell them if you don't have a supervisor on the phone in an hour you'll be going to the local paper to advise people to stay away from their service.
Supervisors are always there, they don't need to call you back. That's a line they use to get you to hang up and hope you forget about it. Call back every hour and claim a supervisor has yet to contact you.
I don' t want to say to be belligerent to the sales person (or whatever they are), but certainly don't take any of the shenanigans. Don't let them "tell you how it is" or "explain the situation to you" or anything like that. Meet those sorts of things with "That's your problem, not mine. I'm going to get this taken care of right now, now how can you help me do that?"
I had similar problems, and the folks at the store, while they aren't able to solve anything in person, can call the company and get direct lines.
You probably shouldn't have paid anything, and you should it make it clear you fully intend to dispute any and all charges/credit claims.
I never quite get how internet/cable contracts are binding, because you never actually sign anything.
During this time I never really thought about cancelling my X-Box Live subscription because it was in the middle of finals, moving, and worrying about other shit going on in life.
For that time I never had an X-Box to sign into live and just recently thought of it. I've called back twice, talked to a supervisor once and they've told me there's nothing they can do and expect me to pay $2x.xx for the service that I didn't use for two months.
Should I bother calling back about it or just pay up? I understand it was my fault, but again I had a few more things going on.
I will echo what others have said...that being try to get a supervisor on the phone. Don't wait for them to call you back because that won't happen.
If you can't get a supervisor, try and get whoever is on the phone with you to explain how you have been charged for an early termination fee as well as an installation charge. It is pretty commonplace for AT&T to waive the installation fee when you sign up for a year/contract. So the one bill that shows the early termination fee and the installation fee contradicts itself.
Good luck with this, hopefully it gets resolved and you don't have to pay them anything else...or even better, you get what you did pay back. But I don't think hell will freeze over today.
You should make a new thread for it and not used someone else's unrelated thread, is what you should do.
Most places do not accept correspondence at those addresses.
I can't speak for the OP, but I've never been asked to sign anything by any of the cable/satelite/fiber installers I've ever dealt with. I do find it odd every time though.
First off, here's my story. I signed up, specifically asking if the promotion was a contract, or a drop in/drop out thing like with comcast or charter, and was told by the sales rep there was no contract. So after a month of not receiving my first bill I called to verify the deal I was getting (same $30 rate, actually $25 because I was bundling it with my cell) and the same thing happened. Installation fees and the monthly bill was $45.
So when I tried to cancel I was hit with the early termination fee. I asked what it was for and was told that I was signed up for a contract. I asked them where they could show a call recording or piece of paper I had signed for a contract, and they told me THAT PAYING THE FIRST MONTH'S BILL MEANT I WAS SILENTLY AGREEING TO A TWO YEAR CONTRACT! I asked them where this was stated on my bill or the paperwork I was sent when I signed up and they told me THAT THEY WEREN'T LEGALLY REQUIRED TO INFORM ME OF THAT.
At that point I told them I'd be contacting my attorney and they should do the same, and I recorded the call.
SO anyway, after getting nowhere with them on the phone, here's what worked. I googled ATT Twitter and found they had a customer service account. I think it was like @ATT_customerservice or something like that (you'll have to look it up) and I was put into contact with @ATT_Susan (I think, I can check for you later) and basically bitching about it on twitter got me in touch with a level 3 rep that I couldn't reach before. They wiped the termination fee and because the original problem for me was shitty speeds they even wiped my first months bill so I owed them nothing.
If you have any questions or need more detail feel free to ask. It took me a solid month of calling, e-mails, and a pretty vicious twitter campaign before they took off the charges. Basically those early termination fees have no legal merit and are listed NOWHERE on their site or paperwork, they just assume we're too lazy or scared to fight them, but they'll remove them if you just politely remind them that judges aren't complete idiots in small claims court.
1): Ask for a ticket number for every single call. Keep the ticket numbers around, along with your own notes of what was discussed. Reference the ticket numbers in your discussions with the rep.
2): Stay calm but firm. If they're trying to tell you that you have to pay whatever bullshit, tell them, unemotionally, that that is not an acceptable resolution to the problem, and request to speak with a supervisor. Explain to the supervisor that you have in front of you the number for the AG of consumer affairs in your area, and that you already have an email written and waiting to send to Consumerist and the BBB. Again, not angrily, just - this is what I am going to do.
Explain to them that you would like the charges reversed now, while you are on the phone with them, today, not after a thirty-day review. They'll send you to escalations. Ask them for a ticket number before they transfer the call - reps almost never intentionally hang up on people, but the phone systems in these places are (perhaps surprisingly) incredibly shitty, and disconnects happen.
When you speak to the guy in escalations, tell them that you would like a reversal of charges on the credit card, not a credit on your phone bill or a check in the mail. Tell them that you will be calling the credit card company tomorrow to see if this has happened. Tell them that you would also like a letter in the mail acknowledging that the charges were in error and that you owe them nothing. Tell them that if they do not do this, you will call the AG of consumer affairs, and that you will send the emails to the Consumerist and the BBB, and that you'll call whoever your local Channel 5 News "This Company is Dicking This Dude" guy is. You will get results. Block out a chunk of time for this - it'll probably take two hours, half of that at least on hold.
Under no circumstances should you hang up. They can't hang up on you unless you threaten their safety or become abusive, and their job is to get you off the line. After half an hour of calm, patient, firm, "No, you are going to reverse the charges. That is what is going to happen. It is going to happen today," their manager will walk over and ask what the hell. Fifteen minutes after that you will start moving towards results.
I don't have a twitter account, but I may make one just to bug them there too.
Am I crazy or does that sound potentially like the most basic of all phishing schemes?
also don't threaten to take your story to the newspaper, of all the calls I took this threat was more of a joke to me then anything else, most threats are. Reporting to BBB and AG is a goodd idea though, and asking to speak to a supervisor is a good start, most of the level 1 minions literally cannot do anything because they don't have the power to do anything.
It also depends who you talk to when you call because for example my team at best buy was shunned for giving out any money to make people feel better about their interaction, other teams were encouraged to give money out. Just keep on calling and requesting to speak to a supervisor, they probably have a million tickets in their database already with your issues so the supervisor should be able to look all of this up and help you (hopefully)
there is always another level above the supervisors too
Yeah, but isn't it poor form for them to ask for personal details in such a fashion?
He asked for Siska's contact information. You know so he can contact her. Its not like he asked for her social and bank account info.
If he's going to help, it's eventually going to take more than an email address. I just think it would have been better if this Chris would have pointed Siska in the direction of some sort of AT&T conflict resolution phone number/address/etc. than to ask for any degree of personal info.
This isn't how things like this work. I'm not sure why you're convinced that it's "poor form", either.
When I had issues with Bank of America not clearing my paycheck for deposit when they said they would, I couldn't get any help at my branch office, or over the phone. Within 20 minutes of complaining on Twitter, though, I received a direct message from a BoA verified account, and that person most definitely asked for my phone number.
After calling and verifying my identity, they fixed my problem right away. That is most likely how most large, corporate social networking teams will operate.
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An at&t representative, finally called on july 28th. Hubby gave her a brief description of our little issue. She said she would investigate and get back to us. Later, that same day, we got a letter from a collections agency :evil:. Our latest at&t bill said it was due on august 6th, so confused and very pissed about that. Bitched some more on At&t's facebook page and then e-mailed them, as well, about that. Sent the collections agency a snail mail contesting the bill.
Today, august 1st, the at&t rep called again and left a message. Said she would have rest of the bill waived. We will request to get that in writing, in case the collections agency misses the memo, or some other future craptastic issue where at&t again claims they have no idea what the hell we are talking about. But anyway, cautious yay!