Tutor
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5 Messages
Illegal billing on low income Access accounts
About a year & 4 months ago I signed up for your low income program. I paid a year in advance. I never received a bill within this year nothing no emails no letters nothing. Then about two to 3 months ago my service was disconnected. Once again no emails no letters nothing. I have a mental disability so I wasn't even sure who my service was through. I called all the companies including AT&T who your low-income service is almost impossible to connect to.
I paid $40 on my bill which was more than I owed & gave them my home address again & asked for paper bills. With my mental condition that affects my short term memory I need a paper bill.
Still no paper bills have come & I finally got ahold of someone on the phone and was able to look up my account online. They're now saying I owe $81 of which $40 is a reconnect fee which I can't find that fee anywhere. What I do find is a $9 a month late fee for a $10 bill. Not sure if you're aware but in the state of California you can only charge 10% late fee. So where's my positive fee for all the 12 months that I paid in advance if you're going to charge me a late fee for a bill I never received.
If I pay the $80 on top of the 40 that means I've paid $120 for approximately 4 months of service when it's normally $120 for an entire year. You tell me how this makes sense.
It appears that you're ripping off the very same low-income customers that you're supposedly trying to help and violating the spirit of your decree with the FCC.
You need to reverse all my late charges remove any reconnect fee and put my account back in the positive and then I'll pay for another year in advance otherwise I'm going to call the State Attorney General who I think is going to be very interested in your 90% late fee especially in fact that you're attacking low-income residents with this scam.
Sincerely, Craig D A[edited for privacy – please do not post personal information]
2laughman
Tutor
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5 Messages
7 years ago
Bull,
First off it can be reviewed every year.. That's not the issue. The issue is I have never been billed.
You can't charge a late fee & a restoral fee if you haven't sent out a bill or tried to contact the customer in some way.
Furthermore, a 90% late fee is blatantly illegal immoral and unethical.
Not sure if you're an ATT employee or not but what an ignorant comment considering the fact.
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Anthony.Dukes
Guru
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382 Messages
6 years ago
Yep, California has a max 10% late fee, unless you agree to something higher. Which you did. It's you're responsibility to read and understand all contract terms and to renew the low income program as needed.
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lawmcbro19
Contributor
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3 Messages
6 years ago
I just read that it automatically renews every year in one of the above links provided by mythoughts, so it should have stayed at $10/mo.
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gdpowell62
Contributor
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2 Messages
6 years ago
Hi, I have a similar problem as yours. I signed up a few years ago, and was supposed to be getting the reduced monthly fee of $10, and since I've had it my bill has been going up, up, and up. I just now got a bill for $64 this month, and that is way off the mark. I also have a mental disability, with a bad short term memory, and if you have gotten any answers, could you please reply to me what you did.
Thanks,
Gary
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2laughman
Tutor
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5 Messages
6 years ago
the late is $32 on a $10, how they get away with that I have no idea.
I too have memory issues that why I paid a year in advance. I solved my
issue by tweeing on ATT's corporate twitter page. They reversed all my late
fees because they never billed me.
They switched me to electronic billing without my permission. & they just
did it again, at least this time it didn't go to my spam folder & I caught
it.
Hope my strategy helps with your dealing with them
Craig
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Lett1981
New Member
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1 Message
3 years ago
You all need to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission(FTC) and/or Better Business Bureau(BBB), this has to be illegal to charge low income individuals who already have a problem paying a bill triple the amount. If more people filed a complaint they wouldn’t be able to get away with this.
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