Were customers notified in advance about the administrative fee?

Here is the thing as much as they want to say it is fees and you are still paying the price advertised. While that may be technically right it is still a underhanded shady way of doing business imo. 

 I noticed the same thing on my bill today called and they where basically like yeah we are charging you more and there is nothing you can do about it....  Its a game of how much money can we bleed out of people and still advertise our low prices. sure its a dollar one day then 5 somewhere down the line then ten.

Hypothetically they could raise "Fees" exponentially all while keeping their low "advertised" prices. This is not the first time AT&T has pulled something like this I have only been a customer maybe half a year and for the first few months they refused to pay my wife's equipment fee from her previous carrier. It took hours of phone calls and a complaint to the BBB to even get them to do what they sat down and told her they would do in the store. Low and behold a few months later and I am already being charged more then what I agreed to.  If I arbitrarily stopped paying my bill by a dollar a month I wonder how long it would take them to want that money from me?

Whoever says you should just find another carrier is right that's what I will be doing on my next day off. You will get no Justice from this company.  Hopefully enough people will get the message and go somewhere else.  good luck man!

Is this a "legitimate justification" to pay for their acquisition/merger? Ain't no secret. 

Chicago Times, 6/29 reported: AT&T wireless customers are expected to pay almost $1B in new fees every year to the company after it increased a monthly "administrative fee" this spring in a moved that went largely unnoticed, according to an industry analyst. The analyst, Walt Piecyk of BTIG, initially estimated that AT&T could pocket roughly $800M more annually from the higher fee, before revising that figure upward to $970M once he learned that the fee hike also will affect tablets and smartphones on AT&T's network, not just cellphones."

Just got my July bill, with a second Administrative Fee increase this year.  It's gone from 0.76 to 1.26 to 1.99 in just a few months.  Very deceptive pricing scheme in mho.  Last time I tried to discuss online, but got a we just chare what we're charged with no explanation as to who gets the Admin Fee.  Awful.

[Per Guidelines:  Keep it Relevant and Appropriate].ATT will have to diclose the intent of this "adminstrative fee" increase and justify it and prove that it is nit just a rate hike to help finance the Time Warner acquisition and bolster revenue to make up for Directv loses. There has to be an actual administrative cost to justify the increase.

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@Jacquemo wrote:

This may require a class action lawsuit as ATT will have to diclose the intent of this "adminstrative fee" increase and justify it and prove that it is nit just a rate hike to help finance the Time Warner acquisition and bolster revenue to make up for Directv loses. There has to be an actual administrative cost to justify the increase.

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@Jacquemo

Please read your terms of service.....  You cant sue att as a class you gave up that right....

@Jacquemo

Since when has any business been required to justify raising prices to make a profit?  

“Since when has any business been required to justify raising prices to make a profit?“

...since False Advertising became a criminal offense. If you advertise one price, but charge an increased price, that is false advertising. That’s why they have to put “mouse print” disclaimers for additional fees and taxes on such things. But “mouse print” does not always satisfy the law if the intent of the advertised price is to fool consumers. And only the government can levy taxes. Additional “mouse print” fees need further justification to avoid claims of false advertising.

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@overwatch wrote:

“Since when has any business been required to justify raising prices to make a profit?“

 

...since False Advertising became a criminal offense. If you advertise one price, but charge an increased price, that is false advertising. That’s why they have to put “mouse print” disclaimers for additional fees and taxes on such things. But “mouse print” does not always satisfy the law if the intent of the advertised price is to fool consumers. And only the government can levy taxes. Additional “mouse print” fees need further justification to avoid claims of false advertising.

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Here's you justification: "The Administrative Fee helps defray certain expenses AT&T incurs, including but not limited to: (a) charges AT&T or its agents pay to interconnect with other carriers to deliver calls from AT&T customers to their customers; and (b) charges associated with cell site rents and maintenance."

https://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/additionalcharges/index.jsp?_requestid=12716

...no, the justification would be why those costs are not already included in the price advertised to consumers. Why are the Administrative Fee costs separate from and in addition to the advertised price?

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@overwatch wrote:

...no, the justification would be why those costs are not already included in the price advertised to consumers. Why are the Administrative Fee costs separate from and in addition to the advertised price?

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@overwatch

why does the cable company have a RSN fee that goes up every year or how about a local broadcast fee that goes up each year...  See where I am going its common practice and the FCC and FTC don't care...  They have done nothing about under the line fees period.