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kkarel's profile

Contributor

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2 Messages

Thursday, May 11th, 2017 6:02 PM

First Bill with att

I am sitting here in disbelief as I received my first bill with ATT and it was considerably more than quoted. I called and it was explained that the first bill was always more money with first time charges.... .
I explained that no one told me about any first time charges. I was sent to another customer care rep who then moved me to a billing rep. She read the bill to me. I told her I could read the bill but really did not understand her explanations about prorated charges. I am in my first month of billing. It is less than 30 days and I am billed $81.00 more. This did not make sense. She kept saying the charges were prorated not first time charges. I never raised my voice.I was polite, I simply kept stating I did not understand the bill. She then stated that I could pay what I wanted but the bill was correct. I replied that I wanted to pay what I was promised.She again stated that I could pay what I wanted but the bill was correct. I sincerely did not understand so she asked if I wanted to cancel my account with ATT. She asked if I wanted to do so immediately. I was floored. I replied I would need to find a new carrier first. She said fine. I suppose that with the unexplained hidden charges they do not need long time loyal customers. I will be finding a new carrier today.

ACE - Expert

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14.1K Messages

7 years ago


@kkarel wrote:
I am sitting here in disbelief as I received my first bill with ATT and it was considerably more than quoted. I called and it was explained that the first bill was always more money with first time charges.... .
I explained that no one told me about any first time charges. I was sent to another customer care rep who then moved me to a billing rep. She read the bill to me. I told her I could read the bill but really did not understand her explanations about prorated charges. I am in my first month of billing. It is less than 30 days and I am billed $81.00 more. This did not make sense. She kept saying the charges were prorated not first time charges. I never raised my voice.I was polite, I simply kept stating I did not understand the bill. She then stated that I could pay what I wanted but the bill was correct. I replied that I wanted to pay what I was promised.She again stated that I could pay what I wanted but the bill was correct. I sincerely did not understand so she asked if I wanted to cancel my account with ATT. She asked if I wanted to do so immediately. I was floored. I replied I would need to find a new carrier first. She said fine. I suppose that with the unexplained hidden charges they do not need long time loyal customers. I will be finding a new carrier today.

You first bill is for MORE than one month, not less than 30 days. AT&T (like all post-paid carriers) bills in advance. That means a bill that starts today is for service from May 11 to June 10. However, if someone started an account on April 27 (or made a change), they would not have paid for service they had from April 27 to May 10. The monthly amount is *prorated* so the customer only pays for the part of that first month service was active. Therefore, that bill will be for service from April 27 to June 10, considerably more than normal. 

 

It's also possible that there are activation fees on a first bill as well, which should be itemized clearly. 

ACE - Expert

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13.1K Messages

7 years ago

First month's billing most time has a prorated charge, depending on the billing date of your account. You are billed in advance. Your first month's bill has your first month's charges (prorated over 30 days) PLUS your second month's bill in advance.

If you didn't want any prorated charges, you would have had to pay your first month's bill when you picked up your phone.

ACE - Sage

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116.6K Messages

7 years ago

First bill is not due until you have had service for 7 to 8 weeks, and yes, it is close to double.  

This will also be the case with every other postpaid cellular, TV and internet service.  So heads up if you ever change TV or internet providers.

 

Professor

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1.1K Messages

7 years ago

I think the confusing here is coming from thinking the bill is for services already received.

 

Unfortunately, that's not how postpaid wireless (or many other services these days) work.

 

For postpaid wireless, your bill is generated at the beginning of your cycle. Let's say the 10th. So your cycle is the 10th-9th.

 

In your case let's say you started service on April 20th. Here's what would happen.

 

You get your service on April 20th, all is good.

 

On May 10th, the billing system looks at your account to see what features you had from your start date of April 20th to March 9th and then looks to see what you currently have as of May 10th to bill for the upcoming month. It also sees if you have any one time charges such as activation fees.

 

Within a few days, your bill is generated and includes your prorated month of service (from April 20th-May 9th) as well as your full monthly service charges for the current billing period (May 10th-June 9th).

 

Unless you make changes, such as adding lines, changing plans, etc. in the future your bills will usually be just the normal monthly service charges.

 

It's also worth noting that if you do decide to ever cancel your AT&T service, do it close to the end of your billing period (in this case the 9th), as like most other providers, AT&T does not prorate the final month back in your favor.

Contributor

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2 Messages

7 years ago

I specifically asked the question if these charges were also for the month I am in. She very impatiently said " I will read you your bill again ". She did not answer that question.

ACE - Expert

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14.1K Messages

7 years ago

I agree she should have simple said "Yes," but to be fair, that information is very clearly stated on the bill.

Tutor

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4 Messages

6 years ago

There needs to be further outrage about the scam. The services are called "post paid" yet they are in fact PREPAID!! And to add more insult as one of the gentleman pointed out you the consumer are not to receive a prorated refund for this "prepaid" bill if you leave before the cycle is up. This is just another legal scam that service providers are allowed to get away with. They win on 2 counts. They get your money faster (time value of money) and they keep the leftovers! Consumers need to wake up to this legal scam and tell the AT&T et all to bend over and take it up the tail pipe. If they're going to call it Post Paid then don't have a prepaid scam in the fine print. I wouldn't be surprised if this left over amount from canceled customers ends up being a semi significant line item on the balance sheet.

ACE - Sage

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116.6K Messages

6 years ago

@NoMoreScams99

https://www.att.com/support/article/wireless/KM1009257/

Since this is industry wide practice for all cellular, TV and internet providers, you have quite a big change to make.   

 

(edited)

Tutor

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4 Messages

6 years ago

Ya, it's a deeply engrained scam. Of course if it's legal and a way to make money tons of companies are going to follow suit. And why the heck would you attach a link that describes how this scam works? This is known information. Thanks.

ACE - Expert

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64.7K Messages

6 years ago

@NoMoreScams99 My bill cycle runs from the 23rd of the month to the 22nd of the next month. I have just started my Sept 23 to Oct 22 service month. My bill for that service won’t be generated until Sept 27 or 28. I won’t pay that bill until Oct 14. By then I will have used 2/3rds of the service for that month. Please explain how that is prepaid? If you think that is prepaid, you don’t understand prepaid.

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