Contributor
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3 Messages
AT&T continues to support fraudulent business practices
This is the third time in the past 2 years that I was quoted one price by a customer service rep and later found out that the pricing was incorrect and I have no means to get the original pricing. How is AT&T allowed to continue these unfair and fraudulent business practices?
I called yesterday to renew my uverse service and the rep also looked at my wireless plan. The conversation quickly switched away from uverse to our current wireless plan which I just changed in September. We had a 3 GB family share plan and the customer service rep told me (repeatedly) that I could easily upgrade to 6 GB for only $3 more per month (plus tax... he said it would be about $4 with taxes). Of course I agreed and he made the changes. I received no e-mail confirmation of the service change yet when I checked my account on-line, it showed the 6 GB plan... but it was $20 more per month.
I was not able to spend another hour on the phone so I used Chat to ask for the special pricing I was promised. After talking to two different representatives for about an hour on chat, I was told that no pricing like I was given was available. What made a bad situation worse is that the representative on chat kept me on-line by telling me that she was checking (several times) but in the end said there was nothing they could do to honor the pricing the original rep promised.
This happened last year with my uverse account... I was promised specific pricing only to find out that the agent lied and simply bumped up my current sevice to a more expensive level. Prior to that, I had the same situaiton when I was promised special wireless pricing if I upgraded our current phones to iPhone 6 using the Next plan. In both of these situations, I had to call many times and wait on hold for hours only to be told that no pricing like I was guaranteed existed or could be given out.
How is AT&T allowed to get away with this? They will never provide these initial quotes in writing and now that makes sense to me. They can't give you anything in writing because they are using a classic "bait and switch" formula and hope the customers don't check their bills afterward. What options to customers have to report these illegal activities? Can anyone help?
Gary L
ACE - Expert
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16.5K Messages
7 years ago
@WhatAboutUs They did this to your two other times, why don't you just look on the site??
The prices are published there and you can make the changes yourself on-line...
Or come here and ask. We'd have told you.
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formerlyknownas
ACE - Sage
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117.4K Messages
7 years ago
It would depend on which plan your 3 gigs was on. The old Family Share plan had $40 line fees, the Mobile Share Value plan had a discount (40-15) $25 line fee. The new plan has $20 line fees.
If you had 3 lines on Mobile Share Value plan and we're moved to the Mobile Share Advantage plan the line fees are $5 less, so the net increase would be $5 a month, even thought the data was $20 more.
You have to look at the net result, not just the cost of the data plan alone.
"Special wireless pricing for upgrading"? Sounds like sales speak for moving you to a new plan.
I know nothing about Uverse as I don't use it.
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WhatAboutUs
Contributor
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3 Messages
7 years ago
I was actually calling to cancel my uverse service if they couldn't renew my current pricing. I had to call last year and threaten to cancel before they offered me a discounted rate to remain a customer. In fact, I am usually calling to cancel service when they make one of these offers. Unfortunately, they turn out to be too good to be true.
Regardless if I shop on-line or call, AT&T ethics should remain the same, right? It should NEVER be okay to make a fraudulent offer for any reason.
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WhatAboutUs
Contributor
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3 Messages
7 years ago
I was on the new plan. I just switched in September 2016 so I had the $20 line fees and 3 GB shared data (with no overages) for $40. So $100/month. The bill went up to $120/.month.
Trust me, I double checked everything before I reached out to AT&T for help. My billing rates increased $20/month after the rep made the adjustment. The sad part is that AT&T never sent me a confirmation like I received when I changed it back (on-line).
The really sad part is that no one ever goes back to listen to the original recording to hear what the sales reps are actually telling customers. I know they record these calls yet they never refer back to them in situations like this.
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