Billing for lines with no active use

The issue is that one of these lines was removed due to transfer of responsibility. However, they left the installment agreement and plan costs on my account, changed the phone number during the transfer

Not how it works.  If the transfer of billing responsibility had been accomplished, you would not have this problem. It is far more likely that the person chose to take a new phone number rather than accept responsibility for the debt that they incurred while they were on your plan. 

When you allow someone to add themself to your postpaid plan you become responsible for any debts they incur by purchasing a new phone. When they transferred off of your plan, they had to take the phone number in order to also take the debt and the phone installments. If they purposely took a new phone number in order to avoid paying off the phone, your choices are limited depending on how responsible they are willing to be:

1.   pay you the full balance owed on the phone allowing you to cancel the line of service.

2.  Accept a transfer of billing responsibility. 

3.  As a last resort, that phone still technically belongs to you. Which means you have the right to Blacklist the phone until either the phone is returned, or paid for.

Unless AT&T made some error in transferring the phone number off of your account (nope) , none of this is AT & T fault or problem and is going to wind up being between you and your former user to sort out.

If this is the only problem you are having, I am not sussing out from your post what the other ones are. 

Thanks for your response. Clearly it's not how it is supposed to work. How can you even say there was no error in transferring the phone number off of my account? I haven't listed account info or phone numbers here for research. I was right there when the transfer was done, so there wasn't any of what you said happened.  The ATT rep insisted that the number had to be changed to move the phone to a separate account. 

transfer of billing responsibility is done online, reps cant do it in store or on the phone looks like they just created a new account with a new number leaving you on the hook for the phone and the line, wouldnt surprise me if it was an authorized retailer as a corporate owned store would have directed you to the TOBR website 

Yeah what you described is clearly not a transfer of billing responsibility. Since you say you were right there at the time that this was done, clearly whoever did this had no idea what they were doing. 

A transfer of billing responsibility can be completed at a corporate store. I am not aware of can be done at an authorized retailer . If they did not transfer the phone number off of your account, that is not a transfer of billing responsibility.

Whoever did this, either is completely ignorant, or lied to you.   I would not put it past an authorized user to take advantage of the opportunity to add a line, taking credit for a sale that did not exist. So they opened a new line that is under no financial obligation. So there's no reason you should not complete a transfer of billing responsibility, and then the person can cancel the new line and the new phone number. 

We want to address your billing inquiry, @xzana. 

A Transfer of Billing Responsibility (ToBR), also known as a Supersede order, is a process where an existing account holder can give ownership of their AT&T account to another individual. This is beneficial for the customer because it:

• Causes no interruption in service.
• Keeps pricing and promotions the same from one account holder to the next.

As @formerlyknownas mentioned, had the Transfer of Billing Responsibility been completed, then the charges for the phone would have transferred over to the receiving account holder. 

Here's what a successful transfer looks like for the recipient:

• They are required to accept responsibility for all applicable terms and conditions. 
• They are agreeing to take over any service term commitments and will be held responsible for any early termination fees if canceled.
• Takes billing responsibility for the service.
• Assumes any installment plan and add-ons associated with the service.

Everything you need to know about a TOBR: 

• You can’t transfer lines or services with a past due balance. 
• If you have combined billing, you need to separate your services, such as AT&T Internet, Phone, U-verse TV, DIRECTV, and wireless, before transferring all or part of the account to a new owner.   

• 1. The accounts can be re-combined by calling us after 2 full billing periods. You'll get separate bills until then.  
  2. Re-combined accounts must all have the same account owner.
  3. The new account owner won’t be allowed to recreate an old combined bundle with grandfathered rights and prices.

You are still being charged for this inactive line of service because the device is still under an active installment agreement and someone has to take responsibility for it. Our ACE is absolutely correct about what your next steps should be: 

• Submit a TOBR request.
• Require the person who has the device in their possession to pay for it in full to relieve you of any financial obligations. 
• Report the device as lost/stolen.

We hope this information helps! We're here if you have any additional questions.

Sydne, AT&T Community Specialist

@ATTHelp 

Thank you. Can you help me address the rest of the post? Basically, I have two lines that were upgraded, but the upgrades are not on the line in which the upgrade was done. For example: Line 1 ends in 1234, line 2 ends in 5678. Line 1 got an upgrade, but instead of the installment agreement and the plan being on Line 1, the installment and a new plan are on 5678 and 1234 only has a plan payment. This example is the same way on 1 other line in my account. How can we get this resolved?  Line 2 isn't in active use by anyone and hasn't been for months.

I have 4 lines that I want to keep. 3 of those lines have installment agreements for devices which is totally acceptable, but two lines are inactive and haven't had activity for months,

That's not at all the situation you originally described. If you have two lines without installment plans, having them canceled should be no issue. You just call and say "I want to disconnect line XXX and line YYY." 

Have you actually done that?

We can look into why you've been unable to remove those inactive lines, @xzana. 

Based on the information provided, we'd like to carry this over in a DM. Please check your Direct Message inbox (it's the chat icon next to the bell icon in the upper right corner of the Forums).

In the meantime, we have an article you can read over to learn more about removing a line from your account. It talks about: 

• Installment plans. 
• Our return policy. 
• How to cancel service. 
• How to transfer service. 
• How to suspend service. 

Please keep an eye out for our DM. We'll chat soon!

Sydne, AT&T Community Specialist

Just an FYI for your new carrier:

Read the bill more often.  After you upgrade, read the bill immediately. Most carriers still have  14-days where you can correct mistakes like the ones you seem to be dealing with.  Which means any time you make any changes to your account you should be reading your bill within one week.

Issue Resolved