ATT&T 611 Customer Service Representatives Lied To Us Twice (Without knowing it)

June 22, 2019

AT&T Complaint

On May 16, 2019, I called AT&T customer service, as requested by our daughter, to see if I could get her removed from our service plan, and her phone unlocked. I was told that we could pay off the remaining balance of $276.96 on her phone and she would be able to unlock it 48 hours after the payment was processed. I was also told that our monthly bill would be reduced from around $200 to $130 plus the ubiquitous taxes and fees. There would be no penalty for removing her phone from our plan.

We have our receipt for what we were told would be the payment to pay off her phone and release her from our plan: 

My daughter then signed up with T Mobile and tried five different times to unlock the phone. On June 11, 2019,  I finally called back to find out what the problem was. Spoke to Katrina in Georgia, who was very pleasant, and emoted empathy. I was told that the $276 remitted to pay off the phone and release us from the contract was applied to the “free phone” (from the BOGO offer) and that we were still being billed $40/month for the other phone. We were not contacted or told that we were still under contract and that the representative’s promises were not being fulfilled. In addition, we are still under contract, and cannot cancel service until November 7. I expressed my dismay and distress at the news, and she offered to connect me with a “Loyalty Representative”, who might be able to help- Ruel L. She was able to refund the $276 that was applied to the “free phone”, but we are still stuck with the monthly charge, and my daughter is now paying for two phone plans because of what the AT&T representative told us in the16th. It is my understanding that these transactions are recorded, so I am amazed that AT&T cannot review the tapes and correct the situation.  

We filed a complaint with the FCC in response to this.

On June 14, I got a text message saying that our Autopay did not go through. I called AT&T at 611, and spoke to Trinity. I wanted him to explain the text message and he could not. There was no reason for this text message. I called to make sure the credit card payment went through as scheduled, and Trinity confirmed that it had. This is inexplicable.

I explained our situation again to Trinity and he said, as did the first AT&T representative,  that my daughter’s phone could be paid off. He confirmed this with his supervisor. My wife’s phone had a small balance to upgrade from an iPhone 8  to an 8 plus iPhone - approximately $10/ month until Nov 7th. There would be no penalty and the revised cost of our plan would be $120.93/ month for the remaining two phones on the plan. He clearly explained what the charges were to my wife. We then authorized payment of $237.37 to pay off our daughter's phone , and we were told that we could unlock it online. 

Then, I got a call from someone saying that he was from the Office of the President of AT&T, in response to our complaint to the FCC. He rudely told me I am still under contract until November 7, 2019.

Customer Service representatives told us twice that we could remove our daughter from the plan, get her phone unlocked, and that there would be no penalty. Payment was made and accepted twice to do this. We have both audio and video recordings of the second conversation, and believe that AT&T has recordings as well.

If an AT&T customer service representative tells you something and takes payment, the company should be accountable.  If we had been told initially that we could not cancel until November 7, we would have told her to keep the plan until then. Our daughter is paying for two phones because of what we were told. AT&T needs to right this egregious wrong. We want compensation for the double payment our daughter has made as well as a generous remunerative compensation for the hours lost dealing with this matter and the frustration endured. We will file again with FCC and BBB and a copy of this is being sent to the office of the President as well.

We will send a copy of the audio tapes of the second conversation if you are unable to locate them.

We look forward to your response. Thank you for your time.

Respectfully,

Charles [edited for privacy-please do not post personal or unique information such as but not limited to full names, employee ID numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, etc.]