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Tutor

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1 Message

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 11:23 PM

Unexplained Data Usage and Incompetent Customer Service

This morning I got an email and I text from AT&T saying that I was approaching the limits of my "data usage" plan and would be subject to the $15/200MB fee.  I immediately logged into the website and saw the on Monday night at 11:53PM my phone sent almost my entire data usage balance of data to somewhere.  Since I don't use the smartphone features of the phone (ie, I don't text, don't email, rarely use the Internet services, have my notifications and locations services turned off), I was concerned that my phone was hacked or there was a network/billing problem.  I called customer service (initially was told that my phone call would be answered in less than a minute and 10 minutes later was still on hold!).  When I finally talked to someone, I explained my concerns and said there might be a problem.  I was told "we don't have a problem we have a glitch!"  When I replied that glitch is a synonym for problem, I was transferred to a technical specialist.  
The technical specialist said that my phone had automatically updated itself.  I asked how could that happen since I make sure all the apps are off (to preserve battery life) and actually that night I had no apps because the last time I synced my phone they all disappeared (I actually reloaded several of them yesterday, using WiFi, while waiting at the doctors office - but that was the day after this midnight data dump).  She told me that when I synched my phone, it updated software and reset all my data settings, specifically the cellular data setting, meaning that my phone was sending/receiving data without my doing anything.  I said that I wanted to know what data was being sent/received, especially since there were no apps loaded on the phone and she transferred me to a "resolution specialist."  
The resolution specialist restated that my phone reset when it was synced (which I said sounded like an engineering flaw) and that she couldn't tell what data was being sent/received for privacy reasons.   I questioned how she could bill me for usage but not tell me what the usage was, and said that if there were no apps on my phone, then the data must have been updates from AT&T and asked why would I be charged (ie apply to my data usage) for AT&T updates.  She said that the updates could have come from anywhere and I asked how could that happen if I had no apps on the phone.  At that point "the call failed" after almost an hour of trying to get this resolved!  I expected her to call me back since obviously she had my phone number, but no one called back.  I was not about to call the main number and go through the whole thing again, so I tried to email customer service.
I emailed tthis story to customer service.  The first response was an explanation that "some games and applications will use data when they are used and sometimes even when they are not open" (again I had no games or apps on the phone) and that "if the phone has push notifications active this may result in an open data session" and directions on how to turn notifications off (again, they were turned off).  My response (in all caps) reiterated that none of these services/apps/notifications were being used and that I still wanted to know know what data was being sent to/from my phone that night.  The second response was a pitch to upgrade my data plan and "a commitment to review my bill and rerate if there are any overages!"   I replied that trying to upsell me rather than answer my question was completely unacceptable and that I was going to contact corporate.  The third response was "reminding me per earlier customer service responses to close my apps" (I DON'T HAVE ANY APPS) and to use an AT&T Hot Spot.
To date, no one has answered my question - what data was sent to/from my phone (that has no apps on it) that nearly maxed out my data plan.  If they can bill for it, they should be able to tell me what it is!  
Time to swtich!!!  Goodbye AT&T

Guru

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294 Messages

11 years ago

For anyone with an android, i recommend you get onavo count application from the play store. It will let you know which apps are using up the most data. It's free. Newer android phones have a built in data manager under settings as well.

That way, the data is automatically turned off when you're about to reach limit, and see what's using up the data. My parents have never gone over using those apps, and they're on the 200 mb plans

Tutor

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5 Messages

11 years ago

Sir I complelely agree with u my wife and I have had this problem and then some we have 5 phones and have been a customer for over 10 years twoyears ago we added two phones to take our 5 phones to all i phones and for a 12 and 9 year old kid at the time we did it nothing was said and we asked several times is thier phones all unlimited data and text and calling our answer on all occasions was yes they are for 4 months our kids used them like crazy and there were no problems then one day we received a text sayin both of their phones were getting ready to go over their data plan well we called them and low and behold our other three lines had been grandfathered in as we were explained and AT&T no longer offered the unlimited plan well we questioned and never got a plain simple answer as to why they can alter their plan but u can't cancel urs now for the past years our bill has gotten higher and higher from 284 a month where it always was to over 700 dollars when questioned and asked about how they are using data when I have taken the phones from the kids and removed the sim cards and put them up and there are still charges occurring they tell me my kids have found them and put them back in the phones well they would have to be safe crackers because I put them in my gun safe then we started watching all our info data and numbers and data will appear and disappear and their response is theres no way that can happen well it does happen and I've about had all I can stand they have even gave us a credit back for two months now one for 90 dollars and one for 60 now why would they do this if they weren't in the wrong or knew they have a problem I'm done I am in the process of contacting the better buisness bureau Guidelines>

. if nobody stands up to these people they will keep on abusing and taking from loyal customers that they don't deserve I hope people read mine and your problem and start paying attention and put a halt to this because one way or another I am.

Tutor

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5 Messages

11 years ago

Amen sir these people have no explains for this and they have even went as far as say their techs don't know what they are doing and will tell u anything just to keep u quiet and have credited us back two months in a row now if they weren't at fault why would they do this it's a good thing I couldn't come through the phone on the last manager my wife spoke to because he wouldn't be chewing anything soild until he got his new dentures put in lol. Please keep telling and reporting this issue these people are getting rich off loyal customers but I'm fixing to be an unloyal one soon if something and let them send me to the credit agency I'll still go to another service and they won't ever get another penny from my family.

Contributor

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2 Messages

10 years ago

I started with 4 gigabytes for a 2 line shared mobile data plan in 01/2013. I'm all the way up to 20gbs because they say I have apps running in the background which the previous customer rep turned off. Basically I use less than 10gbs

Former Employee

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636 Messages

10 years ago

All AT&T is recording is when/how much data your sim card is requesting/sending

If there is an issue on the phone, there's no way for AT&T to tell. All they can to guesstimate how or why.

(Like the water company looking at your water meter)

Consider getting an app like "My Data Manager" to give you a second opinion, and a timeline.

Sometimes, phones have internal records for their usage. What kind of phone are you using?

-Alex

Voyager

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3 Messages

10 years ago

well thats bull crap then huh all you guys want is money and blame the users for it right LOL..


@loganic wrote:

All AT&T is recording is when/how much data your sim card is requesting/sending

If there is an issue on the phone, there's no way for AT&T to tell. All they can to guesstimate how or why.

(Like the water company looking at your water meter)

Consider getting an app like "My Data Manager" to give you a second opinion, and a timeline.

Sometimes, phones have internal records for their usage. What kind of phone are you using?

-Alex


 

Master

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4.1K Messages

10 years ago


@dotcum wrote:

well thats bull crap then huh all you guys want is money and blame the users for it right LOL..


Does the water company tell you how you used the water, or just how much you used?  Does the Electric company tell you how you used the electricity or just how much you used? Does the gas company tell you how you used the natural gas, or just home much you used?  Does your home internet provider tell you what web sites you visited, or just how much data you transferred through their connections (if they even tell you that)?

 

Why should a cellular data provider be any different than any of the above utility providers?  Why should a cellular data provider track the details of how you use the data and what you are doing?  If you want that, then talk to the NSA.  Oh wait, that would be invading your privacy to track that level of detail, so if they track it, they're invading your privacy and assisting the NSA in spying on you, but if they don't track it, then they're incompetent fools who can't run a business...

 

Sounds to me like some customers just want to blame the service providers and and accept responsibilty for their own actions.  I've had a smartphone with AT&T for close to 10 years and every time there has been an increase in my normal data usage, I can tell you why that was.  I can also see that over the time I have been a smartphone customer, my data usage pattern has been slowly increasing (with each new deivce or OS upgrade on my existing devices).  It only seems normal that as the content progresses, so does my usage and data consumption.  For me to blame my service provider for my usage pattern changes would only be failure for me to accept responsibility for my own actions.

Contributor

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1 Message

10 years ago

Ok, how come I've used 3 gigs in two and a half weeks, and have had my data turned off and not using my phone, and my wife has used 3 and a half gigs in same amount of time, and her phone never leaves her hand? 

 

Contributor

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1 Message

8 years ago

How about trying to monitor your data usage even once try it for a month and let AT&T know right away if there is any issues. it's just monitoring your data that's simple.

ACE - Expert

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16.5K Messages

8 years ago

On of my (many) theories:

When new phones and new operating systems come out, new versions of apps are released (sometimes multiple versions over several days). If your phone is downloading them in the background, you might never notice, if it's only one or two apps a month. But if it's all your apps doing updates it could chew through your data pretty quick and make a more noticable dent.

 

Keep in mind, all those months you don't go over might be 99% usage, it only takes a little more to go over the limit.

 

This is going to be much more of an issue on the plans with smaller data amounts.  

 

 

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