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unhappy10yrcust's profile

Contributor

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2 Messages

Thursday, April 30th, 2015 12:02 AM

Overcharging

My husband and I have had AT&T for more than ten years.  In the beginning, everything seemed fine.  The charges were manageable, the coverage was unbelievable, and we were very happy.  At the time, he was on his own AT&T account through work, and I was on my own.  Eventually, we were on the same account and things still seemed O.K..  Then my father died, and since I was now an only child of a widow, I worried about my Mother not having a cell phone.  We immediately bought her a phone, not the top-of-the-line model, but just a nice one she could use in an emergency.

 

This is when we started having problems.  I started working from home, so I didn't need my phone as much, and my Mother basically only used hers for emergencies.  AT&T started increasing our bills every month, we've tried several times (6 or more times) to work with them by changing plans, but NOTHING has been resolved.  For 3 phones (1 Smart Phone and two old model flip phones), we are paying over $200 a month, and yet people just starting their 2nd and 3rd year with AT&T, have multiple devices (Smart Phones, Tablets, etc.), are paying half that.

 

I have to ask,  what kind of company treats its most loyal customers like this?

 

So, goodbye for good AT&T.  You should've treated your customers better, because we will now tell anyone who will listen that you penalized your loyal customers for having a death in the family!

ACE - Sage

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117.2K Messages

9 years ago

Have looked at your bill to see what you are paying for?
There is no reason for your bill to increase unless you are exceeding an allowance of some kind.

For all you know someone has committed fraud and added a line.
Look at the bill and determine what plan you are on.
What are the fees per line
What, if any, overages are being billed.

On a Mobile share plan with 3 GBS of data for the smart phone and 2 basic phones, your bill should be $120 plus taxes, which can be as high as 25%, depending on your state.

Contributor

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2 Messages

9 years ago

No, that is not the problem. It is that they will not give us a smaller allotment of calls for only 2 phones, when we have 3. We have thousands of rollover minutes each month, but as I'm sure you already, know, they are only good for 1 month and only after you've met your minutes. We could just do pay by call (I honestly cannot remember if they gave us that option.), but you never know what might happen with that. You could get a $600 bill for accidentally touching a button and not realizing it.

For now, we're shopping for a new company. We've already gotten rid of AT&T for Uverse, because of similar problems and highly inconsistent connectivity issues. Moving on is just the next logical step.

ACE - Sage

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117.2K Messages

9 years ago

It seems clear you are on an old, and more expensive plan. I'm still confused how and for what, you are getting overage charges.
If your phones are out of contract, you could switch all to GoPhone pay per use plans. This would work well for the flip phones. The smart phone would do well on the $60 plan with 2 GBS of data, unlimited talk and text.
1. What are you being charged extra for?
2. Are all the phones still in contract?
3. Are you aware of the mobile share plan and its costs? You bill would be substantially less once the phones are all out of contract and on mobile share.

ACE - Expert

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64.7K Messages

9 years ago

This sounds like not only is the OP on a legacy Family Talk plan which were all based on the number of minutes to share, it also sounds like they were buying way more minutes than needed. I think the reason they can't move to less minutes is those plans no longer exist. They will let you keep your old plan but not make changes to it. If they want to change their plan, the only option is mobile share. With 1 smartphone and 2 flip phones (and presuming the smartphone is out of contract), they could get unlimited talk, text and 3 GB of data (which should be plenty since flip phones use very little data) for $105/mo. Seems to me the OP does not understand the plan they are on and don't know there are options.

Community Support

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15.2K Messages

9 years ago

Hi there! @unhappy10yrcust  Thank you for posting your billing concerns. I’m sorry to hear this has not been resolved. As lizdance40 mentioned you may want to go to a mobile share plan to lower the monthly bill.

 

So we can further assist you with our available plans, please private message me by Clicking Here and provide the following information:

 

Your first and last name

Your account or phone number

The best date and time to contact you

 

Thanks!

Charise

New Member

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1 Message

4 years ago

I currently have a service with AT&T and have been with your company for years. One day I needed an extra cell phone, so I saw the deals and went in store to purchase one. I got an iPhone and I was to pay in installments. Now, I am stuck with this phone and I cannot get out either way. I tried to go in store to cancel, but the worker said I couldn't cancel until  I paid my first bill, and I understand however, my first bill was nearly 200 bucks for one phone!!! Just one line!! I looked online, and with ATT you can get 5 lines for the price I am being charged for one phone! (it may be 4, but I know the price is around there. And I mean iPhones at that price!!) Anyways, I asked her why the bill was so high? She replied that it was my first bill and being a new customer all my one time charges were on the first bill....but why then did I pay 150 the day I got my phone, for so called "one-time" charges??? I told her, well I need to see why I paid that much the day I got the phone and why I'm having to pay again, but she told me again that she couldn't tell me anything about the phone until I paid the nearly $200 bill that was past due. I mean its been a rough year for everyone, so I don't need to go into detail on that issue, but I do pay my bills, and I don't like the fact that this is now on my credit and I am stuck with a huge bill for just for one phone!! Now the bill is even more, because they have been charging me nearly 200 a month, the bill for this one phone is higher than my home bundle, which includes direct tv, internet and phone!! That makes no sense!! I wanted to add a line, actually 3 lines, because I saw that it would be the same price for the 4 or 5 lines as the one line, but I haven't been able to do that either!! I just don't understand why such a good company would charge so much for one phone!! I wanted to cancel that day I had went in, but the lady wouldn't even let me do that! So I need some help with this issue, as I need 3 more phones, and would like to remain with att but not if its going to be so high every month!! I can go to a prepaid and pay half of that and be just fine!! We had 2 hurricanes hit us this year, lost our jobs, I had an emergency appendectomy a few weeks ago, etc...but I am working and can pay its just that I don't need half my pay check going for one cell phone!!! Please help!! 

(edited)

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