The agent said, "I hear this about AT&T all the time!".
"Just AT&T?" I asked.
"Yep.", he replied.
I have been an AT&T customer for over five years. I moved from Texas to North Carolina over two years ago. At that time I went into an AT&T store and purchased a new phone and switched my number from a Texas number to a North Carolina number. Note: I was switching from one AT&T number to another AT&T number. That transaction generated a $40 charge somehow - a charge that I would have been happy to pay no-questions-asked.
I was not told about the $40 charge by the AT&T representative that helped me pick out a new phone and switch my number. I was not told about the $40 when I went to paid my phone bill each month. The $40 was not conveniently tacked on to my one of my bills as it could have been. I was not told about the $40 dollars when I called to freeze my phone service because I was deploying to Afghanistan. I was not told about the $40 dollars when I came back from Afghanistan and called AT&T to unfreeze my account. At no time did I receive a letter or a call or any information stating that I owed $40 to AT&T.
But I did find out eventually. I found out when I got an alert about a potentially negative report on my credit report. This happened because AT&T sold my mysterious $40 debt to collections agency. I found the collections agencies information and immediately called them and paid my $40. This was the only negative report of any kind on my credit report. But sure enough it drove my credit score from a the 700's to the mid 600's. This could be on my credit report for years!
So, of course I called AT&T customer service and asked "Why couldn't you have just let me know about the debt rather than drive my credit score down?". The only answer they gave was that they had mailed notices about the debt - TO THE AT&T STORE IN TEXAS. Why would they do that? Even more confusing, they mailed these notices AFTER I had moved my number and information to a North Carolina number. I talked to two different customer service agents who agreed that AT&T had made a mistake, but had no other way to help me.
Here is the interesting part - When I called the collections agency to pay the $40 debt, the agent I spoke to said:
"I hear this about AT&T all the time!".
"Just AT&T?" I asked.
"Yep.", he replied.
Now I'm sure that he wasn't supposed to tell me that, but I think he sympathized my situation - he probably had a phone company that he had to deal with, too.
So this is what happens when you are a loyal, bill-paying customer of AT&T. You get sent to collections agencies for a tiny debt that could have been avoided but for an administrative oversight on AT&T's part - at least that's what happened to me.
AT&T's stupid mistake is COSTING ME: I'm getting ready to buy a home, and there is a huge difference between the home loans I would be offered with my credit score in the low 700s and the loans I will be offered with my score in the mid 600s.
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