Complaint Review: At&t Wireless

Some cruise ships (maybe most by now) have on board cell towers. When a switch is flipped phones on (and near) the ship are switched to the special "Cruise Roaming" network at $3 per minute without notice. They are SUPPOSED to wait until they are 1 mile from shore before switching the system on. It sounds like you were near a cruise ship (maybe even a docked ship) and your phone was captured by their system. While you can disable international roaming, there is no way to disable "Cruise Roaming" on your phone or account. I am beginning to think that the only safe phone to have is a prepaid phone where the most you can be ripped off is the amount you have loaded on the phone. Eventually there will be legislation which will allow you to put a hard limit on your own bill so they quit charging (and stop providing service) when the limit is reached. For now, the phone companies have all the power. To be fair, I had a similar problem and AT&T resolved it quickly after I complained to my state's Public Utilities Commission. Good luck.

Your Attorney General's Office in Austin has a Consumer Protection Division. File a formal complaint against AT&T and then head to your local court and file a lawsuit against them in small claims court. (around 700-900 dollars) have your husband file the same suit for the same amount. AT&T will NOT respond or showup and the court will most likely rule in your favor. Do Not let AT&T get away with this.
Then, obviously, use another carrier and tell everyone you know how horrible AT&T is. good luck and go get 'em

I noted the information i recently traveled outside to central america I received unlimited text recently and unlimited internet I did not know about roaming until a friend who worked in att told me I just would like to know am i only charged only if i access the internet other i shouldnt right?please help , but regarding the $2k rip off girl defend your self its a free country u have a right and let them check all they want at least you have the clear thought you never did it just make sure they credit your money back fight back contact them everyday if necessary its money you worked hard for it. Good luck i know youll get back your money

To the AT&T person, are you telling me that AT&T statements are wrong? My statement lists each number on my service individually. All calls and texts from each number are listed with the date and time calls and texts were made and received. I will repeat, I have the statement to prove texts and calls were being made from the same number locally and internationally at the same time or within minutes of each other.

I can account for every person on the plan being in the US via time cards where we clocked in at work. The time cards state our name, SS#, address, phone number, etc. If we were clocked in at work and being paid, there is no way any one of us was on a cruise ship.

Since a manager at an AT&T store was shown the statement with the conflicting information and could not figure it out either, I should be credited for the calls. I even went so far as to show him our time cards and pay stubs proving we were working when this occurred.

AT&T employee, I understand company loyalty, after all it is your livelihood. However, you must know AT&T has had the most complaints with the FCC of any communications company in the past two years. If your company was above making a mistake and "screwing" customers, why would it be listed as number one in complaints with the FCC?

I am sure there are plenty of deadbeats that don't pay their bills and come on this board and whine about unfair treatment. That is not the case with me. I am a college educated professional that pays my bills in a timely manner every month. However, I refuse to pay for a charges I did not incur, especially to the tune of $2000.00.

The reason they upheld the $2000 cruise ship charges is because a department of ours checks into this "I didn't do it" claims and if they can find nothing that supports your claims the charges stand. Do you have a good reason as to how magically $2000 in Mexican cruise ship charges showed up on your bill? I will explain how it all works. AT&T cellphones have a SIM card in them that tracks user use, the sim card records all calls made and sends the data to us where we calculate the charges. So for Mexican Cruise Ship charges to have shown on your bill your phone would have had to have been on a cruise ship that got somewhere close to Mexico. SIM cards can not be duplicated and even if they could our billing system does not allow us to register the same sim card to two different phones on two different accounts. Usually these charges would be reversed if it was a one time mistake so our bill research department must have found a previous incident where they credited international charges before and that's why they didn't do it this time.

A cruise ship by the way can travel near mexico and USA towers in the same day. Regardless Cruise Ships charge a flat rate while on a cruise ship, so it wouldn't matter if you were in Mexico or Kenya.

I have the billing statement to prove calls were being made domestically and internationally at the same time from the same number. AT&T can't figure it out either, but they are unwilling to drop the charges.
In response to the person that said I live in Texas, which borders Mexico, so it could have happened obviously did not read my post. The charges were from a CRUISE SHIP, according to AT&T. There is no way I could be sitting in New Caney (six hours from the nearest Mexico border) and incur cruise roaming charges. Texas is a massive state.
1. I have NEVER been rude or nasty to the customer service people at AT&T. I calmly state my situation, and let them try to figure out what is going on.
2. I do have a problem with people that say they will call you back after they research your case and never do. I always give them an extra day and call them back, but I am always calm and professional. It's business, not personal.
3. I am also understandably upset over this whole matter because I have been a loyal customer since 2002, when they were Cingular. I even talked members of my family and friends into switching over to AT&T since we would get free mobile to mobile.

I will repeat...I have NEVER raised my voice or been rude to a customer service rep. I conduct my business in a professional way, stating facts, not personal opinion or conjecture.

I would love what a judge has to say about all this, after viewing my billing statement; seeing domestic calls and international calls being made at the same time from the same number.

AT&T can most definitely credit your account the money and take care of everything. Unfortunately there business model uses overage charges to make a lot of their money, which is why many customer reps will not credit you anything.

Make sure when you call customer service that you are friendly, maybe have a little small talk with the rep before you get down to business, that way they are more inclined to help you. (I called once, spoke about my area for a little because the rep lived around me, and offered $250 off my $300 in overages without blinking).

Do not give up, a rep or a supervisor can take care of this for you, you just have to find one that is willing. Call over and over again, and stress that this issue is not resolved, and that you want it filed as unresolved.

Three, if a rep has denied your request tell them that it makes no sense for the calls to have been from mexico if the messages registered in the US. If you explain this to a supervisor, they will more than likely credit your account. Make sure that you completely deny the possibility of a call being made from mexico.

Lastly, if you did pick up a signal from mexico, and you think this maybe the case, it is not your fault that the phone is configured to do so. The same thing happened to a guy in Florida. He had multi-thousand dollar overage charge that AT&T was unwilling to drop. The media got involved, and a few days later the charges were dropped.

Just make sure you don't give up. Keep calling and bugging, eventually someone will cave.

you said that you never been to mexico,or made any calls or txt message. well were you close to teh mexico border making calls? if so there is your international calls and chrgs.and by the way no two phones have the said number.so you ask how can that happen,well if you were close to the mexico border,your cell phone picked up the mexico towers.look into the first.my guess is at&t just want say you made calls while on a ship to mexico.some body made the calls.find out who.

you said that you never been to mexico,or made any calls or txt message. well were you close to teh mexico border making calls? if so there is your international calls and chrgs.and by the way no two phones have the said number.so you ask how can that happen,well if you were close to the mexico border,your cell phone picked up the mexico towers.look into the first.my guess is at&t just want say you made calls while on a ship to mexico.some body made the calls.find out who.

you said that you never been to mexico,or made any calls or txt message. well were you close to teh mexico border making calls? if so there is your international calls and chrgs.and by the way no two phones have the said number.so you ask how can that happen,well if you were close to the mexico border,your cell phone picked up the mexico towers.look into the first.my guess is at&t just want say you made calls while on a ship to mexico.some body made the calls.find out who.

you said that you never been to mexico,or made any calls or txt message. well were you close to teh mexico border making calls? if so there is your international calls and chrgs.and by the way no two phones have the said number.so you ask how can that happen,well if you were close to the mexico border,your cell phone picked up the mexico towers.look into the first.my guess is at&t just want say you made calls while on a ship to mexico.some body made the calls.find out who.