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AileenHastings's profile

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Thursday, May 29th, 2014 10:19 PM

Treated Unethically at the Bend Oregon Store and NO ONE AT AT&T IS HELPING US!

Dear AT&T:

 

We have been loyal customers for OVER 20 Years. We have 5 lines with you and have paid thousands of dollars over the years.

 

In February, we went in to the Bend AT&T store. We originally went in because we were “eligible” for an “upgrade” on one of our lines. (It was Shania’s line, [edited for privacy – please do not post personal information] She had patiently waited for several months with a cracked iPhone4, to upgrade to an iPhone 5 at the appropriate time.

 

We went in to the AT&T store, and worked with an employee, I think his name was Cody. (?) He told us “that day, AT&T was rolling out a brand new Mobile Share Value Plan” and that day we could upgrade any line with iPhones for a total of only $199 per iPhone.  Since this was “such a good deal” we ended up upgrading all 3 of the iPhones that day.

 

We were told that we pay nothing that day that the $199 cost of the phone would be taken out at $25 a month until phone is paid off.

 

We are very busy people, and when bills come in, often they just go straight to be paid and we don’t look too carefully, so the March bill came in and got paid without us noticing anything. The April bill came in and it was higher than normal, and upon further inspection, we saw that EACH iPhone WE “UPGRADED” THAT DAY WE CAME IN ON FEBRUARY 2, WE WERE NOT BEING CHARGED $199. WE WERE BEING CHARGED $649.99! 

 

This is completely wrong and unacceptable, and I called AT&T immediately.

 

The AT&T Customer Service person told me how sorry he was, and that it was wrong, but unfortunately he couldn’t help me. That I needed to go back in to the AT&T store and talk to the guy who helped us. That I was to talk to the manager and have this fix it, because they had no access to this part of the contract since we did it in the store.

 

So I did.

 

I took my entire lunch hour (which is only supposed to be 60 minutes long) and spent over 90 minutes at the local Bend Oregon AT&T store. I spoke to the original guy who helped us, explained the problem and asked him to fix it.

 

He told me there was no way he could. That “I, the customer, didn’t understand that ALL CELL COMPANIES TO THIS AND THERE IS NEVER A TIME WHEN YOU ACTUALLY PAY $199. THAT THE PHONES QUALIFY FOR A MONTHLY INSTALLMENT PLAN, BUT THEY ARE FULL PRICE!”

 

I told him that he did NOT explain that to us, and that we would have NEVER upgraded the phones had that been the case. That we felt he completely mis-led us and that I was very unhappy.

 

He then looked through our bill and said to call and get a couple minimal charges taken off that amounted to a little under $6… but there was “nothing he could do” about  doing a credit to make the phones cost what he actually said they would be, $199!

 

I left there so incredibly frustrated, angry and felt taken advantage of as a consumer.

 

I called the main AT&T Customer Service line back, and told them the story. The person I spoke to said he couldn’t help me either, but would transfer me to someone who could. He transferred me to a woman, who I AGAIN told the whole story to, and she told me that there was nothing she could do. She offered no explanation and no viable reason for the unethical behavior that we have experienced.

 

Just so you understand the magnitude of this fraudulent selling practice, we as your customer and as a consumer intended and were told that we were purchasing an Apple iPhone 5 for $199. Instead it is sitting at $649.99. That is a $450 difference PER PHONE.

 

$450 x 3 phones is = $1350!

 

We have been taken advantage of by $1350!

 

We demand that you remove the “Installment agreement of 26 payments of $25 per phone” and only charge us the $199 your sales person said.

 

You must make this right.

 

If you do not, I will go to the Better Business Bureau as well as post it all over any and all social media sites and tell every single friend I have. On Facebook alone I have over 2000.

 

I am in the PR/Marketing/Branding business and my brand perception of AT&T has been forever changed for the worse, unless you make this right.

 

Feel free to call me to discuss further. I can be reached on my ‘cell’ at  or my desk number at[edited for privacy – please do not post personal information]

 

See attached documentation.

 

Sincerely,

Michael  and Aileen

 

Former Employee

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4.9K Messages

10 years ago

Hello, AileenHastings!

 

Thanks for posting. I'm so sorry to hear about all the confusion surrounding the new Next upgrade process. We expect all of our sales reps to carefully explain the terms and conditions to each of our customers, and I will be sure to forward your feedback about this particular store. Could you please send me the address of the store you visited in Bend, Oregon? Meanwhile, we would appreciate the chance to review your account and explore your options, so please click here to send us a private message.

 

In your message, please provide your name, phone number, email address, and the best time to reach you. You can expect a reply within two business days, so keep an eye on the little blue envelope icon in the top right corner of your screen.

 

In the meantime, feel free to message me with any other questions or concerns. Once again, I apologize for the frustration and inconvenience.

 

-Mariana

Scholar

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185 Messages

10 years ago

Wow...that surprise me.

If that employee really said that, it could be miscommunication. Hopefully they will help you resolve this problem as I am pretty sure that is just misinform.

You know, is your word against his, so is hard to say. But you should read over the CSS that's provided to you. Customer service summary, cuz you actually need to sign the document...so...I really don't know what to say from here.

Voyager

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3 Messages

9 years ago

As a consumer so educated in marketing, you would think they'd have the common sense to read and verify any business contract before signing on the line. Dug your own hole on this one...

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