2 Messages
Extortionist
I had a wireless account with AT&T for well over 10 years. Verizon had a deal to good to pass up last November so I decided to switch over. The same day my number was ported over to Verizon, I went to the AT&T store I visited dozens of times if I had questions or wanted to make changes. I told the Associate I went with another provided and needed to close out my entire account. To me, entire means cellular and the $10 data plan I had on my iPad. The Associate took my information and my driver's license and accessed my account. He told me I was good to go. I January 2024, I get a bill for $59.79. I call and disputed the charge. Laid out that I cancelled my account in the store and gave them the exact date. I'm sure they can look that up to see which Associate accessed my account. I explained that I have not used that iPad since I cancelled my account that past November. I am sure they can verify that as well. They had the nerve to tell me Associates in stores cannot cancel data plans. What? #1- An Associate added the data plan to my account. An Associate had done everything else account related for me the entire time I was with AT&T. #2- I don't work for AT&T. An agent of your company said I was good to go. I don't know internal policies, why would I think any different. They were supposedly going to look in to my situation but are now threatening to send the bill to collection. I have no choice but to pay it but it's short sighted on their part. I've gone from signing their praises to doing whatever I can to affect their bottom line.
This is a really disappointing situation. I never had any major problems with AT&T the entire time I was a customer. Never had any billing issues. I was on auto pay the entire time so a customer they never had to worry about paying on time. The kicker is, I have a few problems with signal strength with Verizon in some areas I travel for work. I fully planned on going back to AT&T once the 3- year term to get my new iPhone is satisfied. Now that they have extorted $59 out of me, I don't know I will do that just in principle. I don't understand companies. They have gotten thousands out of me offer the time I was a customer and likely would have gotten thousands more. Not to mention all the people I will discourage from going with them. They don't consider loyalty!
OttoPylot
ACE - Expert
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24.4K Messages
18 days ago
If the store you went to was an Authorized AT&T Retail Store, and not an AT&T Corporate Store, they are well known to make "mistakes" and give customers misleading and sometimes false information. As far as I know, the only way to cancel your account is to call AT&T and cancel. They will try to keep you as a customer but will ultimately allow you to cancel. If you cancel after your billing cycle you will be charged for the next billing cycle because they don't prorate your charges. Read your TOS.
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skeeterintexas
ACE - Expert
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27.8K Messages
18 days ago
Your final bill is NOT pro-rated. If your cancellation fell anywhere within your billing date, you owe for that month regardless of what a store employee told you.
What day did you cancel? What were the dates of your billing cycle?
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Juniper
ACE - Expert
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32.3K Messages
18 days ago
@mrdlee
The only way to cancel is to call AT&T. Doesn't matter that they can verify low to no usage, simply you didn't speak to the cancellation department. The store cannot cancel your account.
So call AT&T (say cancel at the voice prompt to get routed to the correct department). Be aware there is no proration on the final bill. You pay for the entire service month, no matter how many days into it you cancel.
Finally submit complaint at the store with their manager for their salesperson giving you bad info. Even a BBB complaint on them if you need to go further.
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JefferMC
ACE - Expert
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35.5K Messages
18 days ago
Also, unless the port had already occurred earlier in the day prior to you walking into the AT&T store, it's a good thing he didn't cancel everything, because they would have included the line you wanted to port, which would have prevented the port from occurring. But, yeah, it would have been nice if he'd have told you he couldn't do anything to cancel your service.
At this point, you can file a formal dispute of the charges back to December, you're within the 6 months window.
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formerlyknownas
ACE - Sage
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117.5K Messages
18 days ago
Nervy or not, you were told correctly... You cannot cancel a line of service in an AT&T store, or in a Verizon store, or a T-Mobile store, etc ...
Service provider stores cannot cancel service. The requirement to call to cancel is universal among all US service providers.
You always have to call and speak with "retention" to cancel service.
If you had ported the phone number related to the tablet and your phone to a different service provider that would have canceled service on both, without a call.
However, even if you ask, most carriers do not port data only numbers and they would have left behind the number for your tablet on AT&T anyway, and just assigned a new number and you never would have noticed until you got the AT&T bill.
It's up to you to call AT&T to cancel that line
Billing is done by computer, automatically, based on pre-programmed information.
You not knowing how any of this works does not fall on AT&T. I'm not sure how much falls on the person in the store who's supposedly said "good to go". What even does that mean? Absolutely nothing.
What's the point of you having a portable computer if you don't use it? If you had just used your phone or tablet, and searched "how do I cancel service with my cellular provider" it would have given you full information on how to port your number or cancel service, by calling your provider
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mrdlee
2 Messages
18 days ago
I went ahead and paid the bill. AS I mentioned, I was with AT&T for over a decade so I don't have experience with cancelling services. It didn't dawn on me that I couldn't take the word of the folks that I relied on for the entire time I was with the company. My fault of course. I appreciate all the- mostly non judgmental- comments. I am great at researching the things I feel I need to research :). Lesson learned.
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