On my February home telephone bill from AT&T, I noticed that my total bill was somewhat greater by about $32.00 from usual. Since, I do not have any service from that company that will produce a variable bill, I went to look at the bill on-line. Here, I am charged $29.90 plus taxes by a company called Enhanced Services Billing Inc. (888 298-3724). I dug deeper into the bill and found the amount has been billed on behalf of EMAIL DISCOUNTS, LLC (800 410-5781). It is some "monthly charges of $14.95" twice, plus taxes. No mention for what service, either. I called AT&T at their customer service number and inquired about it. As per them, they do not know what it is, they will take it off for this month, but, will not put a block, as I asked for, for any company that want to charge me for whatsoever! I also have to contact the other company that is billing so that I am not charged again! They will not do anything about that! I told them, you are the one who is billing me and I did not ask you to send me a bill for another company. I also asked if they have any proof of something I ordered, which they were claiming I did. No, they did not and they do not care to either. So, now the hassle is mine.
I called the company, Enhanced Services Billing Inc. (888 298-3724). What I found out is amazing! On the internet, they ask people to fill out a form with their telephone numbers for some prizes (I do not know even if that is true!) and then start charging them through companies like AT&T. The person answering the phone did not even have my name, just the telephone number. Wow! What a business concept! Just get a telephone number from the Internet, find out which company it belongs to and start charging! The customer service person immediately took my name off the list and blocked the number from future billing!
This seems to be 'Win-Win' game for both AT&T and Enhanced Services Billing Inc. They probably have a contract with AT&T for billing plus some Customer Service handling, and 'whoa', they have a business of billing millions of people for $30.00 every month! I understand, 80% of the people billed, will catch it and ask them to take it off the bill, but, there will be another 20%, millions in number, paying Millions of dollars for 'No Service' and AT&T will not promise they will not bill you for these rogues and you are at their mercy! If you do not notice and fight, you pay! Isn't it illegal? May be not, because, they will take it off, as soon as you ask them! This is a great way to rip you off if you are not watching and for you, there is no protection of law from them either!
0 comments