HELP!!! AT&T is charging us for calls that should be FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

siveson · ‎03-08-2013

Hello: My husband has an iPhone and has been an AT&T customer (450 voice minutes plan) for many years now. Starting about 6 months ago, we noticed that his bills were indicating he was going over his alloted 450 minutes (and using up his roll over minutes). At first, we thought it an anomaly. But it started to happen EVERY month - and his calling habits were no different. So I took down all the numbers that he called (from the ATT website) and fed them into the little app that indicates whether they are charged or free calls. I found the vast majority of the calls were supposed to be free and we filed a case with AT&T to investigate. After some time, AT&T reimbursed us for $175.00 or so. Now the same thing is happening again and once again, I plugged the numbers into their app (which is no longer convenient to find) and, once again, the vast majority are no charges. Called AT&T again. They told us the refund was a "courtesy" and the charges were correct. Now I don't know about you, but when does AT&T EVER refund $175 for "courtesy". Something smells really rotten here. They keep asking my husband if he want's to switch to the "unlimited" plan - since now it's cheaper than paying the overages. (They also want to know if he wants to subscribe to AT&T U-Verse!!). Has anyone else experienced this issue????!!!

21stNow · ‎07-07-2010

siveson wrote:

Hello: My husband has an iPhone and has been an AT&T customer (450 voice minutes plan) for many years now. Starting about 6 months ago, we noticed that his bills were indicating he was going over his alloted 450 minutes (and using up his roll over minutes). At first, we thought it an anomaly. But it started to happen EVERY month - and his calling habits were no different. So I took down all the numbers that he called (from the ATT website) and fed them into the little app that indicates whether they are charged or free calls. I found the vast majority of the calls were supposed to be free and we filed a case with AT&T to investigate. After some time, AT&T reimbursed us for $175.00 or so. Now the same thing is happening again and once again, I plugged the numbers into their app (which is no longer convenient to find) and, once again, the vast majority are no charges. Called AT&T again. They told us the refund was a "courtesy" and the charges were correct. Now I don't know about you, but when does AT&T EVER refund $175 for "courtesy". Something smells really rotten here. They keep asking my husband if he want's to switch to the "unlimited" plan - since now it's cheaper than paying the overages. (They also want to know if he wants to subscribe to AT&T U-Verse!!). Has anyone else experienced this issue????!!!

Exactly why were the calls supposed to be free? Were they mobile-to-mobile calls? There are many possibilities as to what happened here, but it would take more details for us to give a good guess.

siveson · ‎03-08-2013

AT&T has little app that you plug numbers into to indicate if they are charged or free...

Jenniffer1869 · ‎03-08-2013

I just signed up with them after being a Sprint customer for years. They told me several lies just to gain my service. This company is a very bad provider and definitely needs to make some changes. With Sprint I had 3 IPhones with the the unlimited talk to any land or cell phone, unlimited texting and unlimited data which I paid approximately $210/month. When I signed up with ATT I requested a plan comparable to my Sprint plan and now 1 month later-my bill is over $600. I can't believe they can get away with this!!!

siveson · ‎03-08-2013

I just went back into the "mobile to mobile app"...to find it you log into your account, select "messages and e-mail" from the links at the top of the page and scroll down to the Mobile to Mobile lookup tool. You can click the link to add in several numbers at once. Check it out and see if you might be being charged for mobile to mobile numbers. In order to do that, you need to copy ALL the calls for a given month and plug them into Excel. Then delete the duplicates. Then just go down that list of unique numbers and start plugging them into the app. When you find the numbers that should be charged, go back to the original list and highlight those numbers. Now sort by the highlight and add up the minutes. I guarantee that if you are not on an unlimited plan...you are paying for mobile calls that should be free...Check it out!!!!!!

21stNow · ‎07-07-2010

I haven't used that checker because I haven't had a need to. I know that I have two friends on AT&T and my calls to them show as M2M and don't come out of my Anytime minutes.

When you check the mobile to mobile results, are these numbers AT&T numbers or non-AT&T numbers? If they are non-AT&T numbers, do you have mobile-to-any-mobile calling on your account? This is different from Mobile-to-Mobile (M2M), which is only for AT&T numbers. For example I have M2M, but I don't have mobile-to-any-mobile calling. If I put a non-AT&T number in this checker, it tells me that it is eligible for mobile-to-any-mobile calling. However, I know that I don't have that feature on my account so those calls will be deducted from my Anytime minutes or Nights and Weekends minutes.

21stNow · ‎07-07-2010

Jenniffer1869 wrote:
I just signed up with them after being a Sprint customer for years. They told me several lies just to gain my service. This company is a very bad provider and definitely needs to make some changes. With Sprint I had 3 IPhones with the the unlimited talk to any land or cell phone, unlimited texting and unlimited data which I paid approximately $210/month. When I signed up with ATT I requested a plan comparable to my Sprint plan and now 1 month later-my bill is over $600. I can't believe they can get away with this!!!

If this is your first bill, you probably have a full month's service fees because you are billed in advance and a partial month due to the pro rata charges for the first month. You also would have three activation fees (~$35 for each line). That could bring your bill to around $600. I would estimate that your normal monthly service charges are less than $300, but I have no idea since I haven't seen your bill.

The bill does contain a breakdown of every charge so that you can understand what triggered the total amount.

siveson · ‎03-08-2013

Hello: Yes, my husband has unlimited mobile to mobile calling on his plan...

21stNow · ‎07-07-2010

siveson wrote:

Hello: Yes, my husband has unlimited mobile to mobile calling on his plan...

If your husband has unlimited mobile to mobile calling, but not unlimited mobile to any mobile calling, then calls to non-AT&T numbers would be charged against his Anytime or Night and Weekends minutes.

Does he have unlimited text messaging?

siveson · ‎03-08-2013

No...not unlimited text messaging. He has the Nation 450 plan - which according to AT&T has unlimited ANY mobile to mobile calls. I can't stress enough that he had had this for years and NEVER exceeded his call minutes. Until 6 or 8 months ago when this all started. I'm thinking that why would AT&T offer unlimited mobile to ANY mobile calls with a 450 plan when just about EVERYONE these days has a cell phone. So 90% of the calls my husband makes are to other cell phones. I think AT&T realized this and then, unanounced, changed their policy on calls to cell phones....

21stNow · ‎07-07-2010

I used to have the 450-minute plan; this plan never included mobile-to-any-mobile calling. Mobile-to-any-mobile calling is only included on plans that have unlimited text messaging. This is why calls to non-AT&T customers are billed against his minutes.

wingrider01 · ‎05-26-2008

siveson wrote:

No...not unlimited text messaging. He has the Nation 450 plan - which according to AT&T has unlimited ANY mobile to mobile calls. I can't stress enough that he had had this for years and NEVER exceeded his call minutes. Until 6 or 8 months ago when this all started. I'm thinking that why would AT&T offer unlimited mobile to ANY mobile calls with a 450 plan when just about EVERYONE these days has a cell phone. So 90% of the calls my husband makes are to other cell phones. I think AT&T realized this and then, unanounced, changed their policy on calls to cell phones....

been like that forever, basic mobile to mobile on all plans is mobile to att mobile, the only change recently is the modification of unlimited texting, they add mobile to any mobile with qualifying voice plan. Not unannounced changes, no modifications. No carrier makes changes to basic voice services, that can break the contract and allow the end user to exit without etf.

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/plans/voice/sku3830290.html?source=IC95ATPLP00PSP00L&wtExtndSource=...