March 18: I called AT&T and cancelled my home office phone and fax numbers. The agent told me I'd get a final bill, and thanked me for using AT&T.
April 3: I receive a final bill from AT&T. Upon opening the bill I saw a charge of $329.90 for contract termination fee. During my time as a customer I was never asked or required to sign a contract for service.
On April 4: I called AT&T (800-480-8088) and spoke with their agent Belinda. I explained that the charge must be a mistake. She said that I had a contract with AT&T, and that the charge was what was required to complete the contract.
I then asked her to please send me a copy of the contract, or to send me a copy of the conversation where I agreed to pay them for service they didn't have to provide.
She told me that there was no written contract nor was there any recording or notation in my file that I had agreed to anything, but a verbal contract existed and therefore I was liable for the $329.90. I told her that I was never made aware by any representative of AT&T at any time of the existence of a verbal contract.
I told Belinda that I was not going to pay this amount as I felt it was an unwarranted charge. She put me on hold and said she would see what she could do. After several minutes she came back to the phone and said that she could take $200.00 off the charge since I was such a good customer. I told that I just didn't have the money to pay it.
She then said "Let me see what we can do, and I'll call you back within two weeks and let you know. I never heard from anyone about these charges until I got a threatening letter on April 20.
April 20: I received, by US Postal service, a letter threatening collection titled "COLLECTION ALERT". The letter informed me that unless I "Pay the $329.90 within 10 days they would turn it over to a National Collection Agency."
April 29: I called AT&T in response to the collection letter, and after being shuffled around for several minutes, I finally got to speak with Shawnta. She put me on hold while she "did some checking" and said their offer of reducing my final bill by $200 still stood, and that there was nothing more either she or AT&T could do.
As a small business owner my good credit is my lifeline, so I told her I would pay the $129.90 to stop the collection threat. Before ending our conversation Shawnta had the nerve to ask me if I was satisfied with the resolution offered by AT&T. I told of course not, that I felt that they were committing fraud and extortion to collect monies not owed, but with the threat of ruining my credit I had agreed, under duress, to pay their extorted amount.
Henry xxxx
Mt. Sterling, Ohio
U.S.A..
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