I am writing this because this is the 3rd month in a row that AT&T has sent me outrageous phone bills that are way higher than what is originally quoted to me before establishing telephone service. I am a single mother and times, not to mention the economy are hard. Not to mention I am a Lifeline customer so the cost should generally be a little cheaper.
I've consistently stated to AT&T that I don't mind paying for VALID charges that may occur but they are still overcharging me. I only have telephone and internet services with this company and I switched to them because the other company that I had at first, had false advertisings about their services by stating that they had HIGH SPEED internet (I signed up and found out afterwards), when in fact it was only dial-up.(Dial-up in my experience has never been high speed).
Well the first bill that AT&T sent me was originally 243.70 -- I called and tried to ask why they were charging me 5x on a one-time charge for the same amount if it was only supposed to be one-time. Then I asked if they could explain each charge separately so that I would know why it was being charged. The girl (on one occasion) said something about it was "probably" a charge that occured from "taking the modem off the shelf" (her words not mine).
I told her that if that was the case that was an invalid charge because that is what "Shipping and Handling" costs consist of. From that point I kept getting transferred. There were many other problems with that bill but because I need the internet for school I ended up paying it and was eventually told (on a separate day) that I would get credited on the next month's bill.
Ok...when the 2nd bill was supposed to come I had made 2 calls to Germany that lasted maybe a total of 10 minutes. I was expecting the bill to maybe be a little higher because I don't know the international rates. I was expecting the credits to kind of balance it out and still cause my bill to be maybe $60 (original price quoted -- after taxes). The 2nd bill came and I had credits equal to $271.82 and the phone bill was still $84.43. It said that the international rates were about $3.95 per minute. (not bad but lower than price total)
I recently called to change the billing name (after bill had been paid by my sister out of town) to allow inmates to call. Another woman that i spoke with informed me that I wasn't under a bundled plan (even though the first time I had called they said they would set it up that way) and that if I switched my phone bill should be about $10 cheaper (that would set me up at about $40-45 before taxes). I looked up my bill today and it said $82.23
I will be through with school by Dec. 11, which just so happens to be my next payment due date. I don't think I will continue to pay because that's just like saying that I am agreeing to let them continue to overcharge me and I refuse to do that