AT&T continues to bill me after service is canceled

Hello @LelandT

We understand you're having an ongoing issue with your old landline that you canceled but still being charged for.

In this case, you would have to call in at 800.288.2020 to get this handled with your landline billing issue.

Charles, AT&T Community Specialist

This answer has no value whatsoever.

That number connects me with an AT&T system which has already consumed more than 4 hours of my life.  I know from experience that no one I can get connected to through that number had the ability to even call up my account information, much less cancel my service or adjust my bill.

Allow me to share my experience from the last time I tried interacting with AT&T's customer service line, back in November of 2018.  I took notes.

First I spoke with Adam.  I explained my problem (I wanted to cancel my AT&T long-distance service on my home landline phone) and he said he couldn't help with that, and that I had to call a different number: 800-331-0500.  

I called that number and spoke with Manny.  I believe Manny dealt with cellular phones; when I explained this was a landline issue, he gave me a couple of different numbers to call.  They were 877-737-2478 and 800-246-8464.  Supposedly they were to do with landline telephone service.

Calling those numbers connected me with Mary-Ann.  She said to cancel my long-distance service I needed to contact long-distance repair service and ask them to cancel my service, at 800-580-6576.

That got me to Emanuel.  Unfortunately the bottom of the sheet of paper on which I kept my notes has been ripped off and I can't read any information about what he had to say, but if memory serves he either gave me a new number or connected me with a different department.  I know I spoke to people who thought I wanted to cancel wireless internet, and some that thought I had cellular service, but none that had anything to do with long-distance landline service.  After Emanuel my notes are less detailed, but in succession after that I spoke with:

Charlie

Camille

and finally Mary.  When I got to talk to Mary, I just immediately asked to speak with her supervisor because it was plain at this point that this was just an unending runaround with no hope of resolution.  I have a number next to Mary's name, 877-366-3200, which I think is a number she gave me to call back on in case I was disconnected trying to speak with the supervisor.

Then I got to speak to Frank, the supervisor.  He couldn't actually solve my problem, but he did at least UNDERSTAND my problem, which was not really something anyone else I'd spoken with seemed to be able to do.  He explained that some years back SBC acquired most of the old AT&T, and does business under the AT&T name now.  Pretty much all of what is currently branded as AT&T - internet, wireless, cellular, and so on - are all really SBC.  What I have is long distance service back from well before this -- like 15 years back.  Frank explained that the old AT&T still exists for this legacy long distance service, and there is really not much of a corporate connection between them.  Frank suggested that I contact my landline local phone provider (Verizon, as it happens) and ask them to change or cancel my long distance service since with deregulation that's something they can do.  Frank explained that no one in the vast telephone maze I can access with the number you provided above will be able to help me with this legacy long distance issue, because they are in a completely different company.

So I contacted Verizon and asked them to cancel the long-distance service on my home phone, which they did on 26 November 2018.  And that, I thought, was that.

But then I got an email notification from AT&T that I had a bill due December 9.  I figured this was the final bill, so I paid it.

Then I got another notification of a bill due January 8 2019.  After some investigation on the customerservice.att.com site I found some billing details and it turns out that *this* bill included service through November 26.  There was a monthly minimum charge plus some surcharges.  So I paid that, thinking that surely this would put an end to my relationship with the corporate entity known as AT&T.

But no.  I just got ANOTHER billing notification for another monthly minimum charge plus surcharges, due in early February.  Nowhere on the customerservice.att.com site is there any way I can find to contact a human person that actually understands this issue.  That website itself says that I don't appear to currently be an AT&T customer (which I am not, and which if I have anything to say about it, I never will be again) and does not provide any (useful) contact information.  They seem perfectly happy to continue charging me monthly minimum fees in perpetuity, though.  All of the links on the site go to corporate AT&T (that is, SBC) sites that don't even recognize my phone number.

I am not interested in spending another four hours of my life wading through your insipid phone jail tree -- I want you to stop sending me fraudulent bills for services you are not providing.

Hi @LelandT,

We would like to investigate this for you! I am sending you a private message (PM) to help in this matter. Please check your forums private messages by clicking the envelope in the top right section of this page or click Forums Inbox. Locate the PM and reply to my message with the requested account details. We look forward to your response and the opportunity to help you!
Lafayette, AT&T Community Specialist

LelandT, I feel your pain. I cancelled my landline on May 7, 2020, and because of some bad experiences similar to yours I took detailed notes with each call including a confirmation number. It is now August 2020 and they are still billing me. I've resolved to be at peace with names and confirmation numbers. If they have an issue with me not paying, they can take me to court or send me to collections where I will promptly show my records. Funny thing though, remember the days when if you didn't pay your bill they'd turn off your service? I've yet to receive one of those warning notices. LOL!

I am experiencing the same issue. I canceled my landline service which came bundled with a landline in 2016. In 2019, I upgraded my wireless. I just realized  AT&T  had been charging for this old internet/landline account since 2019. After over 2 hours and getting bounced around,  I am finally on the phone with the collection department and they were finally able to locate this old account. They told me that they were only going to refund me for 60 days.  I am trying to tell them I believe a  glitch in their system caused their system to auto-charge my bank acct around the time I upgraded my wireless, but they are still not willing to look into their faulty system and refund me accordingly.  It was this level of poor service that made me stop using their internet and start using xinfinity in 2016.  After I requested to speak to a Manager, she added another 60 day refund so a total of just 200 dollars,  but they have charged me incorrectly for close to 1200 dollars. 

Two year old topic.  60 days is pretty much standard, it took 2 years for you to realize you were being charged for something you thought you'd canceled?  Closing this topic to posting.