On September 14 I called my phone and Internet company (AT&T) to discuss some current and past charges that I was not understanding. The bill from AT&T had suddenly doubled. The charges appeared to be from AT&T and legitimate by just glancing at my paper bill, but I found out otherwise after calling them to further discuss.
In speaking with AT&T I found out that charges were being made to my acct for the past three months June09-Aug09 from two separate companies. The first is who this report is filed against, Enhanced Billing Services/Email Discounts LLC, however in doing research it looks like they do business with numerous different names. The second is from a company called The Billing Resource/My Billing Services, again with many different names, per my research. I've already filed a report against them here as well as the BBB. Enhanced Billing Services had been charging me $14.95 for the past three months - as mentioned this is not something I signed up for.
AT&T was helpful, as they reversed the charges for all three months and charged them back to the company. They also told me I would have to call both companies directly to cancel this service, yes the one I hadn't signed up for. Although AT&T was helpful, I'm skeptical as it wouldn't shock me if they made some kind of percentage off these charges. It doesn't make sense to me that AT&T would first allow these charges, not be able to control them, oh but wait they'll also shut off your bill if you don't pay them... Sound a bit fishy?
I called Enhanced Billing Services who said they would cancel this subscription and would refund the charges, but that the charges would take 1-2 billing cycles and then be refunded to my AT&T bill. I will be keeping an eye out to see if the charges are there again next month and whether I do actually get my $ back. Be cautious if this happens to you and you call as they will try and get personal info from you such as your email address, DOB, etc. - which I did not give to them. I asked the person from Enhanced Billing Services how they can charge a person $ for something they did not sign up for. To make it short they said that it's signed up for using an email address, which they listed off to me. The email address is not mine, never heard of it before. It appears that this company, as well as the other one unlawfully sign you up for these services by creating an email address using your own personal information. So illegal! When I asked the rep from this company for their address she asked me why, I said I'm filing a report against this company with the BBB. She of course was not shocked and asked if I'd like to speak with her supervisor at all... Ummmmm no thanks, pretty sure whatever your supervisor is going to say isn't going to change my mind.
This and the other company are a scam. They steal your personal info. Use it to create a false email address, so they can then sign you up for these services and take your money. If I wouldn't have noticed this and called AT&T they would continue to steal my money each month!!!
Here's what really pisses me off... AT&T says that they have no control over these charges, that California Federal Law allows them, as well the California Public Utility Commission.
We'll see if they really refund me my $...in the meantime I'm going to speak with an attorney to see what can be done.
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