AT&T Billing Resolved

After my blog posts and Facebook comments on att’s page, a lady from Facebook got a hold of me and took care of the $720.00 termination fee and even adjusted the charges for May’s service. I want to thank those who helped me with this issue. I was really at their mercy and they lent a hand to continue to help me out even though I was no longer their customer. I really enjoyed not having to call their customer service line or deal with their customer service over email. I am glad there was a more personable touch in help resolving my issue. Thank you at&t and to the persons who helped me.

Read about my at&t billing dispute

AT&T Bill Still Under Dispute

READ HERE ABOUT HOW THIS AT&T BILLING DISPUTE WAS RESOLVED

I have been very, very worried about this situation all weekend. It makes things more difficult because this is under my wife’s name and I am trying to take care of this for her before she realizes what happened and cuts my throat. We just can’t afford this $720.00 charge. My business didn’t do well and I just have a regular job now.

I emailed customer service via the website about this on Thursday, June the 11th. This is the response:

“Dear Shawn Welch,

Thank you for contacting AT&T regarding your former business telephone
account.

On your agreement it states the following:

In the event the Subscriber terminates this Subscriber Agreement or
terminates the Complete Choice for Business Package service, the
Subscriber agrees to pay termination charges to BellSouth as provided
below based upon the number of months remaining on the term.  These
charges will appear on the Subscriber?s bill as a charge in the OC&C
section.  Payment of this charge does not release the Subscriber from
other previous amounts owed to BST.

Set charge to be multiplied by number of months remaining on term
Complete Choice for Business Term Plan Program $20

Your term agreement auto-renewed on your bill date of 5/4/09 and you
disconnected service on 5/11/09. Idon’t show any notations on your
account that there was any prior inquiries regarding your agreement,
therefore the charges are valid.

Thank you for choosing AT&T.

Did you know that your customers are probably looking for your business
online?  I can check to see if your business name is available as a
“.com” address and set up a domain name for you.  AT&T offers Shared Web
Hosting and has discounts for our DSL customers.  Just reply back to
this email and I’ll give you all the details!

Sincerely,

Dorothy Malcolm
www.bellsouth.com/smallbusiness
AT&T Small Business Services &caseid=17846944″

I realize the stipulation here; but here is my point… It is not like I am trying to get out of a legitimate deal. I waited the three, long, years until I could cancel without a fee. I called on May 11th–May being the last month of the contract–and I asked the lady on the phone about any fees. My impression of the conversation with her was that it seemed to have already been canceled and there wouldn’t be any fees. I asked her if there would be a cancellation fee and to my understanding, she told me there wouldn’t be anything charged and that I would get a final bill. According to the email above, my account auto-renewed on May the 4th and, since I canceled, I was charged for the full 3 years. This is just very disturbing to me because I have been a loyal Bellsouth/at&t customer for almost 10 years–the last three being the business service. During the 3 year contract; you were great, the people on the phone were great and the technicians were great but the technological service itself was really poor. Every time there was lightning in the area, my internet service went out. I had THREE techs come out and take a look at everything to no avail.  They were never able to repair the problem so I just lived with it. Also, this whole time I have been paying for 3Mbs down stream and I have only been getting 1.5Mbs. The techs said numerous times I can’t get anything faster because I am too far away from the main trunk. I am 29 years old and I am a web programmer. I know a lot about the internet and electronics. I have done several tests myself confirming I have only been getting 1.5Mbs down. This is quite irritating that I have been paying the price of 3Mbs down this whole time. Therefore, I believe the difference makes up for the $720 AND not to mention all the down time from the storms. To top it off, I am being charged for the full month of May when I actually canceled all my services on the 11th of May. I realize I owe a balance for services rendered in the amount of $429.20, which includes the full month of May, that I am willing to pay. I can pay the $429.20 right now but not until the $720.00 is removed from my bill.
Case ID: 17846944

Thank you.

My AT&T Billing Dispute

READ HERE ABOUT HOW THIS AT&T BILLING DISPUTE WAS RESOLVED

I just received my last statement and there is a $720.00 termination charge. The contract was up in May. I decided to go ahead and cancel the business account. When I called the lady was puzzled and said it looked like it was already canceled.  She went through with the request and never told me of any cancellation charge.  Apparently I was supposed to write them a letter 60 days prior to the end of the agreement or the account would automatically renew.  Therefore, I would be stuck with another 3 years of bad service (read the next paragraph).

I want to mention that in the last three years of having this service, the internet went out every time there was lightning in the area. This caused so much grief. I called numerous times and had countless technicians come to fix; but to no avail.  I think this alone would even out anything I owe. To top it all off, they couldn’t get anything faster than 1.5Mbs out to my home even though I was paying for 3Mbs. There is just so much wrong here.

Any advice out there? Please help.