AT&T and the ultimate ripoff
We have AT&T for our land line and our mobile service. When we got the landline we asked for the cheapest package there was. The only option I asked to have added was $3.50 per month to UNLIST me from the phone book (talk about another ripoff rant that I'll spare you for now). Total comes to around $25. We have it setup to auto-debit our account. I get an email every month when the bill comes in (electronically).
Today I just happened to look at that email in detail. $46.10... WTF?
I logged in to view the details to the bill to find this:
I have 2 "services" from companies I neither know or authorized to provide me services. I asked Nicole, she hasn't authorized anything either. We have no clue what they are, except that further in the bill the latter charge is explained as some voicemail service. What? we have an answering machine, don't want to pay for voicemail. Never have we requested that.
Quick tangent: Now, mind you, when I made a change to our cellular plan (2 phones) in-person at the AT&T store a few months back I was asked if I wanted roadside assistance and some other add-on for both phones. I declined, but in the next month they had been added totaling $30 additional per month. I called AT&T cellular and the first person to talk to me took away those services and credited my account with extra for my troubles. I was unhappy that it happened but satisfied with the result. End of tangent.
I called AT&T today expecting a similar conversation and satisfaction. The tier 1 customer rep explained that the telephone numbers on my bill (you can see them in the image) were the numbers I needed to call to dispute those charges and services with those third-party companies. I disagreed, AT&T is my provider, and they are the company billing me, the company I am paying directly, it should be on them to help me through this. No, it was left to me. I asked for my account to be flagged to prevent further services from being added. She said that wasn't possible. I flipped out, and she sent me to a tier 2 customer rep. Her name was Cant (as best as I could figure. I tried to repeat it and get her to spell it but she was silent). Again she reiterated that I had to call the companies directly. I explained that I wanted a BASIC telephone service with no frills that PREVENTS any future UNSOLICITED, UNAUTHORIZED add-on services. She said she would be "mailing me paperwork to fill out and send back in". What?! Why is this process made difficult?
So tonight I call the two companies. The first in that list had no idea where my account was signed up from other than it was "online". They credited and cancelled the service. Oh, and I asked what it was I was signed up for since there was nothing in the bill to indicate what it was.. It was a third party voicemail service. Great, I had 2 of them and an answering machine. I'll never miss a call. Funny, but for having 2 "voicemail" services, none of our calls ever went to their voicemail.. And its not the answering machine catching the calls first, we used the answering machine as a test to know when our power came back on while we left town to seek electricity last month. When the answering machine was off, the phone just rang and rang.. Never went to "their" voicemail.
After digging further, the second one has been on our bill since March. This is my fault for not digging through my bills more closely and I take responsibility for that (but I find AT&T still at fault for allowing this to happen without my approval!). I find out from this company that my service was signed up for through "theuseful.com" by a "Mary Jane McGruder" using an email address of maryjane7102003@yahoo.com. This time I asked her what the process was for signing up. She said that through some survey on the website the service was offered and there would have been an acceptance checkbox with a submission. I asked "Is there anything to verify that the person holds that telephone account?". Her response "The process is just how I explained it, Sir."
Here is the crux of all this: To even speak to an AT&T customer service rep about my account, I have to verify my phone number, name, and social security number. I had to do it with each tier of customer service today. However, to add a billable third-party service, someone just has to click a check box on a third-party website. There is no vetting process, no authorization required. The NAME on the account doesn't even have to match!! If you know my phone number, you can sign me up for a billable third party voicemail scam (and I'm sure a couple of you would like to do that, too! hehe).
So where am I at now? Well, both companies cancelled the "services" and agreed to full refunds without question. I imagine otherwise they could face some pretty hefty lawsuits, not having any chain of real authorization for the charges from the party responsible. But, I'm not looking to get money back, I'm looking for a service that will prevent this from happening, without the hassle that AT&T is giving me.
Enter Vonage (Vonage is telephone service via your broadband internet connection). I've looked into them before but they never offered service in the areas I needed it. They now offer number porting and service here, so I'm all over it (meaning we get to transfer our current phone number to the new service)! As soon as I'm done with this post I'll be unpacking the Vonage router I picked up on the way home from work (I'm actually waiting on a referral from a friend so he can get a bonus.. hasn't shown up in my inbox yet). For the exact same cost as our "basic service" (without the added riders) we get unlimited long distance and all of the features. Nicole has been begging for long distance service for quite some time now thanks to AT&T's craptastic cellular coverage out here, so she is already happy with this idea. I'm not making a pitch for them here because I haven't experienced their service yet but the people I have spoken to so far really like it.
So there is light at the end of this tunnel.. I'm quite livid over the whole ordeal though. How can this be legal? No other industry or business that I can think of gets away with this. Someone is making bank off of slipping these charges in to people unknowingly. I fell for one for 9 months.
The point I hope to make (sorry it is so long of a post) is this: CHECK YOUR PHONE BILL CLOSELY! and question the charges! And, if AT&T bullies you around about it, well, you have other options out there.
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Comments
When Linds' got her new phone, they asked if we wanted VZ Navigator and some other service. I told them no. She said that I had the VZ Nav. for free for one month and all I had to do was cancel it on the phone. I marked it on the calendar and made sure that I canceled it before the month was over. The next bill I had a $10.99 charge for VZ Navigator. I called and went back and forth with them. She finally told me that I did in fact cancel it and they would credit my account the next month. I've always been satisfied with Verizon and they usually work well with us. But in the end I still pay approx. $112.00 a month for two cell phones. I could go cheaper but we both use more than 700 minutes per month total. Our plan is 1400 min. and the next lower plan is only 700. We use approximately 800-900 a month (Peak and Non Verizon calls) We have no home phone!
We've had this happen to us a couple of times, too. We've had the same number since I moved to BL and a couple of years ago, someone signed up for an email account (with privacy protection, haw-haw) using our phone number, then there was another random-ass service that showed up on our bill a few months ago. The third-party companies I've talked to will flag the number as non-addable, but you can't call every 3PC in existence to make sure it doesn't happen to you.
Yup, thats exactly the problem.. If you buy a service from AT&T then it should be THEIR responsibility to handle this stuff.. not yours.
It would be like taking my car to the dealer to have it fixed, just to find a rider on the bill for $100 from Xzibit coming along and deciding that I needed ground effect lighting under my car. Do I want that? No, and I didn't ask for it. Will I use it? No. And when I dispute that charge with the dealer they tell me its tough luck, I have to take it up with Xzibit.
No.. no other industry is allowed to get away with that tactic. I don't know why telcos do.
I had a similar thing happen 3 years ago. Since we don't auto-debit, my wife has to write a check each month. I got home from work one day and she asks me to go through the phone bill. I had a similar reacation... WTF???!!! I called Vuhrizuhn (The stupidest company on the planet. Not for this, another stunt they pulled a year before that...) and asked what the deal was. The term is "slamming". Most people never even notice it. People just sign up services to random accounts attempting to raise money. But, the thing that gets me is that the phone companies (Vuhrizuhn / American Telephone and Telegraph) just act like they don't even grasp the concept of security.
I think there is some sick part of people's brain that make them think this is OK. After all, they aren't stealing from you. Its not like they stole the money. They give you the service and you give them money. Its like thats OK. I still consider it theft. In effect AT&T & the others got caught in your bed room pulling money out of your mattress and agreed to put it back. If it had been anyone else, the sheriff would have been called and someone would have been in jail for a few hours. BUT! Because AT&T and other mega corps (corpse???) are that they get a pass.
You might take a look at this:
http://ago.mo.gov/publications/slamcram3.htm
especially "File a complaint". If I were you, I would definitely complain far and wide about this. It's completely ridiculous that this sort of thing is still allowed, especially in this day and age where everyone's so worried about privacy and identity theft.
Thanks!!! Yeah, you better believe I'll be fighting this far and wide.. In fact, my vote -might- have just swung last night had McCain promised to enact law that forces telcos to prevent unsolicited services, but alas, My Friends, I didn't catch that in the debate. Oh well..
(heh)
From that URL (very good, btw. thanks for sharing it!):
"Call the crammer and explain you did not request the services. Also, ask who authorized the services and request a copy of the document or tape recording authorizing the services."
The first one (OAN Services, Inc.) could not tell me how the service was signed up for, just that it "had to have been some website or survey online". They said that they are a third-party billing company for many other services (in other words, AT&T allowed a third-party company who was a third-party billing company for someone else.. Just where did my money go?)
The second one gave me the url that I posted earlier, but you go to that website and there isn't any obvious service being pitched there (though it is a "marketing" site).
Another point from that URL:
"Immediately contact your local carrier, say you did not authorize the charges and ask that the charges be removed. Your local carrier has authority to remove the charges, but it may require you to contact the crammer first to try to resolve the dispute. If so, ask for the crammer's phone number."
I believe this totally.. the point about "your local carrier has authority to remove the charges". I had 2 AT&T reps on the phone that both stated there was nothing they could do. They didn't even offer to help should I have problems disputing the charges with those companies.
I'd remain an AT&T customer for home phone service today if the following had happened yesterday:
1 - AT&T would take ownership for their mismanagement of my account and fix the problem
2 - AT&T would have flagged my account to prevent this from happening. Immediately, on the phone.
Good consumerist article on cramming (just for the sake of SOA):
http://consumerist.com/370199/watch-out-for-cramming-on-your-phone-bill
About 3 years ago I noticed a charge on my bill for $12 dollars a month. As I checked old phone bills I found it had been on there for 4 months and I didn't know what it was. When I called the 3rd party number (because qwest told me it wasn't their charge or responsibility), I found out it was a screen saver package for my computer. Skye had clicked on a "Get a free Screensaver" thing and downloaded it. She evidently didn't read the microscopic print at the very bottom, or in the "check here if you agree" box after the 10,000 word disclaimer, about the monthly charge after 1 week. When I called and complained (because she was a minor and had no authority to change or add anything to my phone bill) they took it off. I think they just know many people don't look at their phone bills.
Its all wrong.. Goes back to my point of dealing with the phone companies directly.. They won't even explain my bill without verifying my address, social security number, etc.. Yet there is no such process for a third party company to go through in order to approve additional charges to your account (fraudulent in most cases!).
The more these comments build up, the more I think I'll be printing them out to send to my state and federal representatives. Give them something to read while they are on "break" as our economy crumbles. :P
I too despise AT&T. It would probably be less aggravating and more satisfying to take AT&T to small claims court and/or file complaints with the BBB and the IRC.
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