Complaint Review: AT & T - Nationwide

Several months ago, I called AT&T with yet another question about my AT&T long distance service bills. This seems to be a monthly thing since they are always changing some rate or fee with out informing the consumer of rate changes in advance. This time it turned out that AT&T had decided to start billing me quarterly, in advance for certain fees. They had also canceled my calling card without notifying me, resulting in my being stranded on the side of the road in the middle of the night with no way to make a long distance phone call.

They informed me that they had a better deal for me than I was getting on my long distance charges. It involved paying them an additional $3.00 per month in addition to the $4.95 that I was already paying. This great change would allow me to get the same 7 per minute deal on 405 and 508 area code calls. In addition, they would give me $6 worth of free calls each month for 6

months just for signing up. It looked like a no brainer for at least 6 months so, I tried it.

AT&T was supposed to take care of sending the order to Southwestern Bell and I was supposed to be able to start using the new service within 48 hours. I asked if I would still need to do the 1010288 dial around. They told me not to do that because I would not get the new rate. So, I started to use what I thought was the new service. At the end of the month, I find that I am now being charged over 30 per minute by southwestern Bell who was picking up the 405 area code calls, not AT&T but AT&T was charging me $3.00 to pick up the calls when they were actually not doing anything. I asked AT&T again if maybe I should be doing the dial around but was assured that my calls were now being picked up by AT&T. They even told me to fax in my Southwestern Bell bill so that they could make sure that everything was changed over correctly and I was credited properly. I faxed it and waited for the next bill.

My next AT&T bill still does not have any 405 area code calls charged to it. The Southwestern Bell bill has 63 minutes worth of 405 calls at rates as high as 34. I call AT&T again and am told that my 405 calls are being picked up by AT&T. But they are not. The smiling voice at AT&T now tells me that it is all my fault for not calling Southwestern Bell and having my service changed, something that AT&T had told me was taken care of by AT&T when I signed up for the PLAN.

I called SWB only to be told that they have a to charge me $10 more for making the switch in addition to the outrageous charges for the 63 minutes. I feel now like I have been lied to and cheated by AT&T for giving me false information when I signed up for the plan. I am not giving SWB one more dime for long distance services. If I liked their long distance service, I would not be using AT&T in the first place.

Now I call AT&T again. This time the smiling voice tells me what SWB is doing is illegal and gives me a number that is supposedly outside of AT&T and for the purpose of reporting a slamming. I call this 800 538-5345 only to find that I am again talking to an AT&T smiling voice who informs me that if I want the 7 plan in the 405 & 508 , I will just have to pay off SWB.

At this point, I want to just go back to the old rate of 12 and do the dial around because it would be easier to not call AT&T every month and waste an hour of my time each month resulting in high blood pressure and potential busted blood vessels in my brain.

The AT&T person who will only give a first name and no office location so that the call can be properly documented for filing a formal complaint and possible investigation by the proper authorities(The Oklahoma Corporation Commission), tells me that she can not tell me what my rate per minute will be in the 405 area code, using the dial around. I kept insisting that there

has to be a rate published somewhere or AT&T would not be doing business in the State of Oklahoma. This person continues to insist that she does not have to give me any rate information however, she can change my service. This does not all add up and at rthis point, I do not believe anything that an AT&T employee tells me.

What really bothers me about AT&T is:

The employees at AT&T are not accountable for the disinformation that they disseminate.

The employees at AT&T will not admit that they do not have the answer and then try to put the customer in contact with someone who does have the answer.

I do not want to hear someone at AT&T tell me that they are sorry for my inconvenience, I just want an honest answer. “I do not know”, is an honest answer.

I do not want to hear about how my service is supposed to work when it obviously is not working that way and then be told that I have to wait for the next bill to verify that it actually works but any calls that do not get charged with the company that is supposed to bill them can not be credited because AT&T can not see them on their computer, so the consumer just gets

ripped off again running around in this circle.

[email protected]

...........badbusinessbureau.com NOTE:

Three other people that are connected with badbusinessbureau.com have experience the same situation as above. We have also recieved 42 other e-mails from other consumers around the country claiming a similar rip-off happened to them with AT&T.