The world thrives on communication today, which is why I'm so upset with the billing or payment at AT&T Wireless Group. Quite honestly, I'm annoyed with this issue.
Here's my complaint: My husband and I, both AT & T customers, him for over 5 years, me for almost that long, went into the Moreno Valley store to upgrade our phones. We also were going to upgrade our plan to a family plan and move from the digital service to GSM. The service rep in the store, Chris, was great, very helpful all along the way. We went in on a Thursday evening after work. We picked out our phones and began the process of combining the accounts.
The first issue, in order to complete the transfer of financial responsibility, we had to call an 800 number... We did so in the store. Well, apparently the 800 number is on the east coast somewhere because at 6:30 pacific time, they were already closed.inconvenience, yes, but not a show stopper. Chris kindly gave us the number, suggested that we call tomorrow, he agreed to the hold our phones for us, and we agreed to come back the next day... Friday.
When we came back to the Moreno Valley store during our lunch time the next day to resume our transaction, Chris found that there was this "outstanding" bill on my husband's account. Let me add that prior to this, to our knowledge, both of our accounts are current, no past due amounts, nothing.
Well, it turns out that when my husband was with AT & T up north prior to moving to southern California, he called and paid his final bill with a service rep over the phone. There are notes on this old account that confirm this. However, we were told that even though he requested his "final" bill in order to start the new service in southern California, the amount that he was given wasn't really his "final" bill amount. There were still 5 days left in the billing cycle. So apparently they left the charges for the 5 days on this "closed" account and now they are requesting that he pay $247 to resolve it. Their own notes that the rep read back to us stated that costumer requested and paid final bill.
So, even though he remained an AT&T wireless customer, they didn't send him another "final" bill to attempt to collect the additional monies, they just sent it to an outside collections agency. Even though they obviously had a current address on him and PHONE NUMBER, he was never contacted regarding this balance. They claim that the bill has been outstanding since 2001. What's ironic is that he's upgraded phones since then, with no problem.
Even Chris, the rep in the store said to the accounts receivable rep, "so you're saying to me, as a representative of AT&T, that we as a company cannot do anything to rectify this situation? Even though we cannot provide him with billing detail and we have notes on the account saying that he paid his final bill and that both accounts (mine and his current) are in good standing, we cannot do anything? Even though, it doesn't make common sense that a man would be paying his bill consistently, close (or so he thought) an account, and then resume paying consistently, and even though we will most likely lose two customers due to this... We cannot do anything as a company?" He was told no, that we must contact the outside collections agency to discuss a resolution.
Since we had driven 25 miles to the store, we even said, look, can we just complete this transaction and we'll pay the outstanding bill and dispute it later, but we don't want this to be a wasted trip. Again, the ar rep said that wasn't acceptable. Needless to say, we are looking elsewhere for wireless service. We will pay the cancellation fees and switch carriers. AT&T has lost two more customers.
I'm not surprised, and do you know why? I've been very dissatisfied with your company in the past. But given the nature of this problem, I'll take my business elsewhere from now on. And I'll definitely tell other people about my negative experience so they can avoid it in the future.
Maya
Moreno Valley, California
U.S.A.
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