AT&T / Cingular Wireless
Preteen Son's Phone Treated as Main Account Holder and Internet Block Bypassed
- 12-03-2009
- 6
Electronics and household app.
As a long term customer of cingular it was time to add my preteen son to our plan. I was fully aware of the dangers and together with the sales person at the store we took every precaution to ensure his cell phone would be blocked and safe.
We set his phone as the second user with no authority on the account and then placed limits on how many minutes and text's he could use. We blocked the internet and made my phone the main phone for the account.
I was shocked when I received a bill for $700.00 for one month. How could this happen. I called the billing department. There must be a mistake? No ma'am the account shows the phone accessed the internet 5 times totaling a number of hours. I was shocked first of all that my preteen was able to access the internet unsupervised and secondly that HIS phone was able to after we placed the block.
When I asked the billing person why his phone able to do this she said, "He is the main account holder and has all access on his phone." My jaw dropped. He had been able to do anything for over a month. My phone had all the blocks.
Wait it gets better. I canceled everything and then they started charging me drop fees.
One year later my brothers son asked for a cell phone and guess what happened? Would you believe it, the same exact thing. Not only the same scenario but I had given him the phone because we were not using it any more. It was the same phone.
They allowed his son to go over his 200 text's by 800. Then when he called to ask they told him his son was the main account holder.
How can this be? What a huge money making scam. My brother threw a huge fit and they reversed the charges but you would not believe the mistake that happened again the next month. You guessed it. They made his son the main account holder. But now he new what to look for so he called right away and had it corrected.
I wonder how many thousands of dollars they have made this way.
Company: AT&T / Cingular Wireless
Country: USA
Site: wireless.att.com