Complaint Review: AT&T Authorized Retailer

Nearly a year ago my girlfriend upgraded her phone at this location and signed a new contract, you know standard procedure, yada yada yada...or so she thought. This past September she canceled her service with AT&T and had to pay an early cancellation fee (no problem) but about 3 weeks after doing so, she received a nice little letter in the mail from a company known as Airlink communications. Airlink informs her that she owes them an early cancellation fee as well for somewhere in the neighborhood of $300.

The salesman at this store neglected to tell my girlfriend that when she was signing the contract to renew her service, she was also signing a contract with this third party. When she contacted Airlink to find out the nature of the service they've allegedly have been providing her, all the customer service rep told her was that they provide the cell phones to the AT&T store and that she has a month to pay them the cancellation fee before it will be placed on her credit report. Is it just me or when I BUY a cell phone (especially upgrade), I'm through paying for it at that point? On her monthly bill, she was paying the normal rate for her service plan. My girlfriend went back to the store and spoke to a manager about the issue...and after 2 days of supposedly "asking his boss", he tells her its nothing that they can do about it since the salesperson that sold her the phone didn't work there anymore. So instead of caving in to these crooks and paying the additional fee, she reported them to the Better Business Bureau, who advised her to file a complaint with her Attorney General's office, which she did. So now the case is under investigation.

The moral of this story: All potential customers beware! This store does business with a third party associate and not all of their sales representatives will tell you that when signing a new contract you are signing not only with AT&T but with Airlink Communications. Perhaps my girlfriend should have stood in the store for a hour or two to read the ENTIRE contract (which even afterwards she may still wouldn't have completely understood all the lingo in it without a lawyer present), but at the same time you have to ask yourself: does the average unassuming consumer REALLY do this every time they buy a cell phone? Besides, either way you look at it, its crappy customer service for your sales reps not to explain the contracts in full with customers or hide certain things that would require of them the inconvenience of having to read the entire thing themselves. I also highly doubt that anyone with any common sense or who value their money is going to want to really pay 2 termination fees if they feel the need to prematurely cancel their phone service for any reason...