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AT&T Wireless Billing Disputes

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Christine of Staten Island NY (5/25/04):
I have never used my cell phone long distance or ever went over my plan's allowed minutes. I went to South Carolina from New York. When I received my bill it had $698.17 in long distance and roaming fees.

I NEVER thought of this. I didn't know I'd generate such charges -- it was an honest mistake. I asked if I upgrade my plan and include National service, if the fees could be retroactive or waived. I've gotten nowhere. I have a cell bill which is normally never over $40 and now is $698.17!

Dorothy of New York NY (12/30/03):
I bought a new phone from AT&T wireless on October 27, 2004. I questioned the rep several times as to there being a change in my monthly plan. She kept telling me there would be no changes except that the new plan would cost me an extra $5 per month. It has been a complete nightmare since my purchase date. I have never before gone 400 minutes over and dont believe that I did this time. I dont know what is going on but I need assistance to get to the bottom of this problem because each time I go into an AT&T or call customer care, I get nowhere at all.

I am eligible for a discount that I am being denied and they want to charge me for services I didnt use. I am very frustrated at this point and just want to go back to my original plan and pay what I would normally pay (which is approximately $50/per month. I shouldnt be responsible to check before dialing to make sure that I am not roaming into Tmobile lines (as I was told). I have never left my area. Why would I roam?

This new phone bill is taking me straight to the poorhouse (where I already have a room).

Denis of Banning CA (12/2/03):
In April of 2003 I called to cancel cell phone service on a phone that my daughter was using but that I was paying for. I was informed that I had missed the close of the billing period and that there would subsequently be 1 more months service billing, that the phone would remain active until May 27 at which time the cancellation would take effect. I informed my daughter and she ceased using the phone sometime during the month of May.

I was on a direct draw from my visa account and I noticed that they then had debited my account in the following months, 5/16, 6/16/ and 7/16. Each time I called, each call lasting 30 minutes or more, I was told that someone had dropped the ball and that there would be a credit issued but it would be 60 days after termination of service, so the 60 days never seemed to happen because each time I called started another 60 day wait period.

I finally got a fax number, sent copies, as requested, of my Visa statements, Subsequently my daughter, not me, received a call saying that credit would be issued. Nothing happened. Again I faxed the information, adding a note to "please call me". I was called and informed that a check had been sent, I had not received it, and since it had not cleared she would stop payment and issue another check. That original fax was dated October 7, 2003.

To date, I have still not received the credit due. I have carbon copies of my transactions with this company to be sent to the Public Utilities Commission and also to the California State Attorney Generals office. I am not going to let this go. AOL was recently fined for this very practice. My thought now is to run this through small claims court and to sue for an amount sufficient to clear the debt owed by them to me and for all the time and frustration to date.

Kelly of Hartsdale NY (11/30/03):
I received $62.37 in roaming charges in "Extended Area" service areas along the NY state thruway. Roam charges have never appeared when "extended area" appears on the phone - only when "roam" appears. Therefore it is impossible to use the phone and know what your charges will be. AT&T refuses to refund saying that part of the interstate is not covered by their service.

Evan of Palatine IL (11/10/03):
I was an AT&T Wireless customer since 2001, and I had bought a Nokia 8265 phone directly through AT&T with a 2 year service plan back in October of 2002. Back in June of 2003, I realized that in the few months prior, I was going over my minutes quite a bit because of my new job and I was travelling quite a bit. I then decided to increase my minutes, but stay on my current rate plan, which was the AT&T Regional Plan. However, I was told that it was impossible to stay on that plan, since it was no longer offered by them, and in order to increase my minutes, I would have to switch to a National Plan. Furthermore, I would be charged roaming for any calls outside of my area, which I wasn't charged for with my previous plan. Anyway, I switched plans so I could get more minutes to use.

When I opened my latest bill in July, I was shocked to see that I was being charged for many calls that I made as I traveled south to visit family back in April and May - THREE MONTHS prior to changing my rate plan!

I was furious, so I kept contacting their service department, and I was first told that they put a new policy into effect where "if any customer calls asking to be reimbursed for any problem whatsoever, the representative could not issue a credit." Of course, I never take the first person's word for it, so I called another time, and I was told the same thing! Then, I asked to speak to a so-called "supervisor" and she told me that I could opt-out of my current contract for free, or I could pay the charges for the calls (which added up to around $100).

She even had the nerve to tell me that it would be cheaper for AT&T to lose me as a customer, than to keep me on my current rate plan, because they were using everyone else's towers to provide my roaming service. I was outraged! Unfortunately, nothing was ever able to be resolved, and I paid AT&T in great disgust and cancelled my service with them. I will never use anything even remotely related to AT&T EVER AGAIN. I now have Cingular, and the service couldn't be better.

Sara of Minneapolis (11/3/03):
Our contact with AT&T wireless ran out in August and we had given them a $400.00 deposit to start the account. There were consistent flaws in our billing, and finally 2 months before our contract ran out, we stopped paying our bill, knowing we had a $400 credit at this point (realize this was just a bad idea from the beginning, but it was very frustrating).

Since we did not pay our bill, we found, too late, that even though our contract was up we could not terminate our service with them without paying them what we owed, which was $350. Then they would terminate our service, and send us our $400 in two months. Initially they told me if we did not pay our balance due, our account would be turned over to collections. When I replied saying that seemed illegal since they already had more than what we owed them, he turned me over to a very unpleasant supervisor. He informed me that as of now our account is still active, since there is still a balance due. He said that because of "AT&T's dedication to customer service", they do not pay employees to do things like terminate accounts, so the computer will terminate our account at some point, but he has no idea, and no way of finding out when that will be.

Until our account is terminated, we cannot get our refund and be finished with this, and we receive paltry late fees that the computer sends out monthly. He told me he had no idea when the computer would terminate our account, and if it waited long enough that the late fees caused our balance due to exceed out deposit, our account would then be sent to collections. It is infuriating, and I absolutely refuse to send them $350 for them to have and earn interest on for two months, and it's also difficult for me to believe that they have no way of terminating our account, and sending us our remaining balance.

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