AT & T Took Away Ability to Control Auto-Refill Date

After going on social security last year, and realizing that my checking account would be funded on a date which varies from the 8th to the 14th, I set up my GoPhone Auto-Refill charge to come directly out of my checking account to occur, as I thought, on the 18th of each month.  My actual rate plan would renew around the 25th.   Things were going so swimmingly that I rarely paid attention to the messages I would get, first when my bank account was charged, and later when my phone was refilled, except to be happy that it was happening. Until today.

Today, the text message said my bank account would be charged on the 13th, which brought me up short, since that’s a little too close for comfort to this month’s SSA deposit.  I went back through my statements, and, sure enough, AT & T has been creeping ahead with the payment date every month. 

Naturally, I contacted customer “care”, and what do you know?  In their infinite wisdom, AT & T has determined that no one should be able to fund their account more than 24 hours before the plan renews.  

What I want to know is: why?  Why make such an arbitrary change?  Doesn’t it occur to their management that their customers might want to exercise control over when their bank accounts will be charged, especially when the date of the charge changes from month to month? Doesn't it occur to them that many of their customers might be on fixed incomes with very little wiggle room?

Doesn't it occur to them that many of their customers rely SOLELY on their cell phones for telephony, and can't risk being without them due to the vagaries of a fluctuating calendar?

An even better question is: do they even care? 

I doubt it.

Here’s a creative suggestion: Take the $50 charge, divide it by 30 to get $1.67, and multiply it by 365 to get the total daily charge on the prepaid plan for a year. Then divide that by 12.  The result is $50.69.  Round it up to $50.70 to take care of that pesky Leap Day.  Then just charge that amount for a true monthly plan, and nobody has to watch the calendar every month to ensure they’ll be able to keep in step with a corporation’s arbitrary schedules.  Geez, the float on the sales tax alone would be worth it, wouldn’t it? 

And you might actually have happier customers.    But you wouldn’t want that, would you?