AT&T, ATT, U-Verse, UVerse AT&T U-verse Charges Exorbitant Restoral Fees $30 for Each Line of Service in Their "Bundle." Dallas Texas
Hello, last year I was going through economic hardship, and I was was 10 days late on my AT&T U-Verse payment. I guess my mortgage payment was just more important to me. Plus, I thought it would only be a $30 charge due to the fact that I purchased a "bundle" not three separate lines of service, and the fact that my previous provider only had the single $30 restoral fee. This amounted to a $90 charge, which I stupidly paid it instead of trying to get it reversed.
Now, almost a year later, I'm going out of town for 3-4 weeks, and want only my phone and tv placed on vacation hold. My house sitter needs the internet to do college work. So I called AT&T and was told that they cannot place my phone and tv on hold without also placing the internet on hold. That, in fact, their system does not allow them to do so because the services are "bundled."
I just want to know which is it? Am I paying for a bundle or three separate services?! It seems awfully convenient to separate the services when charging restoral fees, but bundle them when marketing and actually providing the service. Please people, let's get a class action going. If not for ourselves, for every other person in America that is getting screwed by these c****.
3 Updates & Rebuttals
marcuswelby
Jackson,Mississippi,
USA
U-verse Changed Restoral Fee Policy
#4General Comment
Tue, April 28, 2015
It was unfair for U-verse to charge fees 'per service' at the same time they were treating the services as a bundle for the purpose of locking customes into a contractually irreducible price level. In 2014, the U-verse restoral fee was changed to the amount of $49 per event, regardless of how many services (e.g. internet, TV, voice) are utilized. While this reduces the fee for customers who use 2 or 3 services, it increases the effective fee for customers who utilize only one service. Since the current trend in consumer behavior is to buy only internet service and 'cut the TV cord,' it is clear that AT&T is planning for the future, in terms of maintaining revenues from restoral fees.
Telecommunication and internet service providers charge hefty fees for service reconnection not because they need to, but because they can. The calculation of costs of suspending and restoring service no longer needs to include the expense of sending a field technician to visit a residence. It still includes costs for printing and mailing notifications, and answering calls about the suspensions and fees. If there was a better way to guarantee that constomers paid their bills on time, the company would not suspend services. In the rare situations when service is restored from suspension multiple times in a single month or even a single day, the fees quickly become exhorbitant.
Because getting timely payments on accounts is important to the company, there is also a punitive component added to the fee, which is intended to serve as a deterrent to delinquency, i.e. an incentive to pay on time. The companies choose to charge as much as their effectively captive markets will bear. An account that costs the average customer $100 each month could be charged double or triple that amount if a few of suspensions are deemed necessary. Clearly, when $90 proved too high a fee for triple-play customers to tolerate, AT&T could cut their fee effectively in half with little sacrifice. What the company lost in per-service fees, they get back in undisputed charges and customer retention.
Tyg... Illiterate troll d******** or ATT crony?
#4Author of original report
Wed, April 08, 2015
Tyg, obviously you are either a troll d******** or an ATT crony. You cannot spell so obviously reading is out of the question. You did not address any of the issues that I (the author of this report) complained about. You only stated that it's "THEIR" game, etc., etc., etc. You forget that I am the CONSUMER. I PAY for their services. Without the CUSTOMER, THEY wouldn't exist.
You failed to address my main greivance, which is that they advertise a BUNDLE, when it is clearly NOT.
Since this happened, ATT has changed their policy and charges only ONE fee of $49.99 to restore ALL services on thier "BUNDLE." I'm sure I will get a Class Action postcard shortly to recover pennies on their illegitimate charges.
So TYG please eat a bag of d****, get your head out of your a**, and learn some grammar d*****.
Tyg
Pahrump,Nevada,
First...
#4General Comment
Wed, January 08, 2014
First...stop whining. Its undignified. This is what YOU chose and YOU have to deal with. Second, a bundle is STILL 3 seperate lines of service, as in each line of service goes to a specific part of the company. I.E. Internet, talk,TV. All seperate sections in AT&T. So when you have a reconnection fee it is for all three as all three departments have to reinitiate your services. Its bundled together for price point and for condensing your bill paying. I.E. paying ONLY one bill instead of three.
YOU are forgetting that its THEIR ball, and THEIR game, YOU are just a participant in THEIR game. If you do not like the rules of the game you are free to move to another service. Which WILL be the same way. Its THEIR ball ect, ect,ect.
YOU may not think it is fair, but WHY should ANYONE be expected to eat the costs of reintiating your services? This is a LUXURY. You DO NOT need any of this to live. As such, YOUR luxurys are going to cost you when they turn it off and you WANT it on.
This is not a ripoff neither is this a scam. This is the cost of NOT paying your bill for a few months then having to pay to turn it on. Had the poster done what was expected of them to do as a customer and paid their bill on time, then NONE of this would have happend to them. But since they couldnt pay their bill, they got disconnected and had to pay to reinstate their services. Not a ripoff, just the costs of being a deadbeat.