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Morac's profile

Mentor

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110 Messages

Thursday, March 8th, 2012 6:03 PM

Data usage from prevous billing cycle being added to current

I have a iPad with a 2 GB plan.  My billing cycle starts the 3rd of every month.  On March 2nd, I only had used 800 MB of data so I figured downloading a 287.5 MB file would be okay as my usage data would reset the next day.   Well stupid me, the 287.5 MB data counted to the March 3rd to April 2nd billing cycle, not the Feb 3nd to March 2nd billing cycle, despite that AT&T knows that the data was used on March 2nd.

 

I went back and checked my older bills and saw that there was data used from the 2nd of each month on all my bills.  Sometimes data usage would be from the 2nd of the month to the next 2nd, sometimes from the 1st to the 1st of the following month.

 

I called AT&T to complain since AT&T is counting data outside the billing cycle as being part of the billing cycle. I was told that since it takes 24 to 48 hours for data usage to show up in their system, rather then go back and apply data used during the previous billing cycle to that cycle, they simply apply it to the current billing cycle.  Despite the fact that the data wasn't used in that cycle.

 

So basically say your billing date is the 3rd of every month, like mine.  Data from the 2nd of the month (and possibly the 1st) will be applied to that billing cycle.  That's not correct and that shouldn't be happening, but it does.

Employee

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372 Messages

12 years ago

Usage comes from the cycle that its reported in. Happens with minutes as well.

Contributor

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1 Message

12 years ago

I just saw your post after talking with a AT&T Rep. You are correct. My billing Period is 17th of the month. 411mb out of 3072mb, was taken from my new billing period , but the data was used on the 16th. So I am thinking now I only have have 2.6GB remaining to use in my billing period. The Rep explained about the time it takes for DATA to update upto 72 hours. I don't like it because it like living off of next months pay check, bad policy in my view.

Scholar

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115 Messages

12 years ago

 

If a customer is trying to manage their data usage so as to not go over a limit, but it can arbitrarily be charged in a different period, might not be according to contract? 

 

If charges are delayed one month, but not the following month, might that cause 33 or 34 days to be included in charges for the "month"?  I recently saw data charges for 6/01 show up for a billing cycle that starts 6/05 (that's quite a delay).

 

[Edited to comply with Guidelines]

 

 

Professor

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2.4K Messages

12 years ago

This happens. No quick fix

Here is how I handle it:
Let's say you have a 200MB plan and you used 180, but 160 posted to that bill and other 20 carried over to next. If you to over that month by 20 or less I credit it. If over 20, you would have gone over anyways so no credit

Contributor

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2 Messages

11 years ago

Actually, it's even worse than this. I've found that ATT adds data usage from the BEGINNING of the previous cycle to the next cycle, putting me over my limit, then charging me for extra. When I pointed this out to the ATT rep on the phone, she kept trying to change the subject. Finally, she said 'It just takes time for our database to update."

 

What? Are you kidding? Do they do it manually? It doesn't take time for the database to update––they're wrongly moving usage to different cycles in order to bump you over the limit so they can charge you more. This is called fraud.

Professor

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1.9K Messages

11 years ago

It's not fraud at all. It says in in black in white on myAT&T when you log in.. And just paraphrasing here but it says something along the lines of "may take 2-5 days before actual usage is displayed". It's not done manually, it's just a delay in the system. Can they credit it? Probably if you explain to them in a nice way. Not saying it's guaranteed, but saying its purely at their discretion.

Expert

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12.2K Messages

11 years ago


@Evandela wrote:
It's not fraud at all. It says in in black in white on myAT&T when you log in.. And just paraphrasing here but it says something along the lines of "may take 2-5 days before actual usage is displayed". It's not done manually, it's just a delay in the system. Can they credit it? Probably if you explain to them in a nice way. Not saying it's guaranteed, but saying its purely at their discretion.

If roaming data usage it can take up to 60 days to post.

 

delays.PNG

 

1 Attachment

Tutor

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6 Messages

10 years ago

That's bull, if I have 2 gigs left on the last day of the cycle and use 2,5 and they pull it off my new cycle believe I'll be going over by 2.5 gigs on the next cycle that is my data that I payed for and no one can have that data but me....it's called theft, guess, whatever. They know when your over and charge...and yes I'll be keeping records so when they try I'll have them. And they can refund my data as well as my money.

Tutor

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6 Messages

10 years ago

if I have 2 gigs left on the last day of the cycle and use 2,5 and they pull it off my new cycle believe I'll be going over by 2.5 gigs on the next cycle that is my data that I payed for and no one can have that data but me....it's called theft, guess, whatever. They know when your over and charge...and yes I'll be keeping records so when they try I'll have them. And they can refund my data as well as my money.

Tutor

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5 Messages

10 years ago

Maybe that explains why for the past 3 months we've been getting charged overages even though we have a 10GB plan and ALL use wifi 99% of the time!!! Seems like ever since the rates went down for the 10GB shared plan I've been charged extra for overages. Good way to make up the difference and make customers think we are getting a deal?
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