AT&T Telemarketing

Patricia of Escanaba MI (9/9/03):
I received a call from telemarketer representing AT&T and he gave me his spiel as to the benefits of switching my phone service. He quoted me a monthly price of $17 plus $7 (approximately). My long distance charges were to be 5 and 7 cents per minute. I asked him SPECIFICALLY if there was any service charge for this rate, and he said NO. He also gave me his name and number to call if I had any questions. He said this knowing AT&T was dropping the telemarketing as of Sept 1st. He lied to me in order to get me to switch. When I got my phone bill it was a confusing mess.- none of the figures were as quoted.

Stacey of Virginia Beach VA (7/22/03):
I was so excited after getting a telemarketing call (can you believe that?) about AT&T Local Service. I had just changed my plan with Verizon to try to reduce our phone bill, so when I found out I was going to save about $10.00 per month by switching to AT&T, with UNLIMITED local calls, I did. I called AT&T and told them the rate I had been quoted and quickly authorized the change with the representative.

When it came to deciding about toll and long distance carriers, I told her I wanted to keep Sprint because I have 50 free minutes of long distance and we rarely exceed that. For tolls, I said it was fine to switch that to AT&T and asked if it is REQUIRED to dial a one before a local toll call. She said yes. So we made the switch. A few weeks later, I receive a partial bill from AT&T saying that I owe over $50.00 in "AT&T Long Distance Services". I immediately called AT&T and explained that the charges on my bill were for local calls. They said that the charges for local toll calls. I said that it couldn't be because I wasn't required to dial a one. They said that I didn't have to dial a one and that if I made the call I had to pay it. I explained that I have UNLIMITED LONG DISTANCE on my cell phone, so if I knew this was a long distance call, I would have called it from it. They said it is not a long distance number, but a toll call. (Of course it is listed under "long distance services" on my bill, but does not require a one in front of the number.)

I also explained that with Verizon, that same number was not a toll number, it was local. They said they don't have to have the same local calling area and that they are not required to notify the customer of the change. I immediately switched to Sprint who requires a one in front of long distance AND local toll calls. I have since received another bill from AT&T. Now my total "long distance not requiring a one" is over $300.00! Can you believe it?!

Damage Resulting: $300.00 plus in charges that I would not have incurred had I known that I was calling a "long distance" number.

Maria of Brooklyn (8/19/03):
On July 24, 2003 I received a bill from AT&T long distance mailed to my NY address for $48.24. The long-distance service was for my home in FL. On this day I placed a call to AT&T and informed them that this was in error and that no one opened such an account.

I was told that the account was opened on May 7, 2003 by way of Telemarketing. I asked the rep. to provide me with proof. He then informed me that someone would contact me with the recording of the call that was made. On Aug. 19, 2003 I recieved a call from AT&T and was played the recording of the call from May 7. The person recieving the call was a female who spoke Spanish and used my name but a wrong date of birth. I informed the rep that It was not me who accepted this call and that I was in NY at the time.

After arguing the charges for approx 30 minutes with (2) reps and (2) different supervisors who were all very discourteous and very unprofesional, the matter was still not resolved and the rep informed me that the charges were still being billed to me. I also informed the rep that At my FL residence, I've subscribed to (Supra Telecom) which is a local phone company service and have a plan which only allow calls to be made to a 40 mile raduis. I did this in order to prevent unauthorized calls to be made.

I feel this is unfair since AT&T failed to properly be sure that the person opening the account was the same person who owns the local account.

Maria should immediately file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission's enforcement bureau.

Vincent of Sugar Grove WV (10/3/02):
My house has been called an estimated 6 to 8 times in the last couple of months by AT&T telemarketers. We have politely refused their services each time as we are happy with our current long-distance plan. Today I came home from work for a quick lunch and received a call from AT&T. I proceeded to interrupt the individual once he identified himself and bluntly told him that we were very happy with our plan and to not call again. I came home from work this evening only to receive another call from AT&T telemarketing again. I again informed the person that we were happy with our plan.

The consequences are minor. My wife and I are to the point however where we feel slightly harassed. We answer our phone with the expectation of a family member, friend or a co-worker to be on the other line. When telemarketers (AT&T is not the only culprit, just the most prolific) seem to out number legitmate callers, we think there is a problem. Are there any recourses to legal action to punish companies that continually harass people in their home? We don't harass them...why do they feel free to harass us?

Sharon of North Woodmere NY (7/16/03):
AT&T keeps calling us for no reason whatsoever. Every time I ask to talk to a supervisor to try and get this fixed, they hang up on us. They call every night and it is getting annoying. I don't know if it is telemarketing, but they should not be calling us every night.

Bill of Los Angeles (9/7/02):
I received an unsolicited telemarketing call from someone representing AT&T long distance. I have very little patience for telemarketers, and interrupted her long-winded (and obviously scripted) pitch to ask her how much the lowest rate they've got is. She asked me how much I was currently paying, and I told her that it shouldn't matter. I asked her again just to give me their best offer and I'd let her know if I was interested or not. Then she quoted me 4.5 cents per minute, any time of the day, with no monthly fixed charge added. I was surprised at how low that was, so even though I hate to encourage telemarketing by buying anything they sell, I said I'd go ahead with it.

A month or so later I received my first bill and was irked to find that I was paying 10 cents a minute for most of my long-distance calls (5 cents for "off-peak") plus being charged a $3.95 monthly fee. Thinking that it was an error on their part, I called and pointed it out. I was told that there's no such thing as a 4.5 cent per minute charge with AT&T, and they would not credit me the difference. I asked them to check the recordings of the sales calls I assumed they made to verify my story, but was told they don't record those calls. I asked to speak to a supervisor since the so-called customer service rep I got was clearly not interested in my problem, but I got the same frustrating responses from that person as well.

I asked to speak to HER supervisor, and got patched through to a voice mail. I left a calm message asking to be contacted to discuss this matter, but no one ever called me back. So, a couple of days later I switched to IDT which was much cheaper than AT&T's best rate. Then I started getting the most outragious calls from the AT&T telemarketers again who kept trying to get me to switch back. I told them their rates were uncompetitive, and I now hold a grudge against AT&T as well, so they're wasting their time with me. But they wouldn't take no for an answer, and basically resorted to hounding me. I finally had to tell the guy who was the worst offender that it seemed that there was no way to not agree to switch back and end the call amicably, and that he was forcing me to hang up on him. That didn't stop him either. I heard his pleads for me to reconsider grow fainter as I placed my phone back down to hang up.

I had really thought that AT&T, as big as they are, would never resort to such horrible sales tactics as I witnessed, and that they would be far too smart to completely disregard a complaint from someone who could easily be a life-long customer if treated right. I will go out of my way to avoid using AT&T for any service they offer from this point out, and will encourage others to do the same.

The economic consequences were very minor, probably less than $10. I was very upset at having been lied to so blatantly by their telemarketer, and then being treated by customer service reps as though I was trying to pull a fast one on THEM!

Judy of San Jose, CA, writes:
One year ago, I dropped my AT&T long-distance phone service after finding other long distance carriers who could provide less expensive rates. I disconnected from AT&T and the next month, received a bill for their normal billing amount. It took three phone calls to get credited for that bill.

Almost immediately, the sales calls started; telemarketers trying to convince me to come back to AT&T. I remained polite, declining offer after offer for several months, until one Saturday in June when I received three calls in one day while trying to paint my bedroom walls. That was my last straw. I requested that they stop calling. They didn't. By September, I was receiving daily calls again.

I then requested to be placed on their "Do Not Call" list. The phone calls continued until November, 2000, with the explanation that it takes AT&T 30 days to implement any request from former customeres to be placed on the "Do Not Call" list (note the discrepancy in the time period of ACTUAL calls versus AT&T's so-called 30-day implementation period). On January 3, 2001, at 7:30 PM, I received ANOTHER sales call from AT&T.

As a former employee of AT&T, I remained a faithful customer for many years. I decided to disconnect from AT&T because I was displeased with ever-increasing phone rates. As a former customer of AT&T, I EXPECT to have my wishes honored to avoid harassing sales telephone calls. It ain't happening. NOW, I would like to be placed on their "Do Not Call Until January, 2101" list. I figure by that time, I'll be 153 years old and might change my mind about their services. In the meantime, how on Earth can I get the phone calls to stop?