- Report: #322924
Complaint Review: AT&T - Atlanta Georgia
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AT&T
5565 Glenridge Connector Atlanta, 30342 Georgia, U.S.A.
Phone:
800-331-0500
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AT&T GO PHONE... charged minutes for not answering my phone Atlanta Georgia
I bought a AT&T Go Phone about 3 months ago. I don't use the phone alot, only for emergencies. So I keep a low balance on my phone. I started getting calls from numbers I didn't know, so I would not answer them. I didn't forward it to voice mail, I didn't silence the ringer, I just let it ring.
All of a sudden, a message shows up on my phone that I was charged $0.25 for the last call. Sometimes $0.50. After this happening about 5 times in 1 day, I call AT&T and explain to them what is happening. The customer service lady pulled up my call history and told that those were legitimate charges because I had answered my phone and there was nothing they could do for me. End of conversation.
I hung up and got another call from an unknown number. So, I immediately called AT&T back. This lady did her job a little more through, but still no help.
She asked if I had forwarded it to voicemail or silenced the ringer, either of which would cause a charge on the phone. I told her I did nothing, just let the phone ring. She spent about 10 minutes trying to figure it out, when she asked me to hold, so she could speak with her manager.
After about 5 minutes, she came back and said that according to her manager, those were legitimate charges because I answered the phone. I said, "Whatever..." And asked if they could change my phone number....sure...for $36. So, I told her that I might as well buy a new phone for $19.99 and start all over. Her response was, "Well, then I suggest that you use your current minutes up first because we won't transfer your left over minutes."
I put $15 on the phone on 3/24 and now only have $3.00. In the that amount of time, I made about $4 in calls, so that's $8 in charges for calls that I didn't answer. I will not be putting anymore minutes on this phone and it will get tossed in the trash. I will also make sure I let everyone know about this.
Malinda
Green Bay, Wisconsin
U.S.A.
All of a sudden, a message shows up on my phone that I was charged $0.25 for the last call. Sometimes $0.50. After this happening about 5 times in 1 day, I call AT&T and explain to them what is happening. The customer service lady pulled up my call history and told that those were legitimate charges because I had answered my phone and there was nothing they could do for me. End of conversation.
I hung up and got another call from an unknown number. So, I immediately called AT&T back. This lady did her job a little more through, but still no help.
She asked if I had forwarded it to voicemail or silenced the ringer, either of which would cause a charge on the phone. I told her I did nothing, just let the phone ring. She spent about 10 minutes trying to figure it out, when she asked me to hold, so she could speak with her manager.
After about 5 minutes, she came back and said that according to her manager, those were legitimate charges because I answered the phone. I said, "Whatever..." And asked if they could change my phone number....sure...for $36. So, I told her that I might as well buy a new phone for $19.99 and start all over. Her response was, "Well, then I suggest that you use your current minutes up first because we won't transfer your left over minutes."
I put $15 on the phone on 3/24 and now only have $3.00. In the that amount of time, I made about $4 in calls, so that's $8 in charges for calls that I didn't answer. I will not be putting anymore minutes on this phone and it will get tossed in the trash. I will also make sure I let everyone know about this.
Malinda
Green Bay, Wisconsin
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Malinda
green bay,Wisconsin,
U.S.A.
update
#2Author of original report
Fri, May 09, 2008
I know I chose the .25 a minute plan. The point is that I was being charged for unanswered calls. That's the problem I have with them. If I don't answer the phone, why should I be charged minutes. I'd also watch how long your calls are lasting and how much you're charged. I began to notice, using up the last of the money on the phone, that for any call over 35 seconds, I was being charged .50. My job requires me to call an auto-mated phone line, and it only takes about 40 seconds to hear the message, and I was charged .50. Glad it's working for you, but for anyone looking for a prepaid, I would think twice.
Gwen
Lansdowne,Pennsylvania,
U.S.A.
One possible explanation....
#3Consumer Suggestion
Thu, May 08, 2008
One possible explanation as to why you might have had the problem you did is because there are several different pay as you go plans. This should have been explained to you at the time of purchase. One of these plans deduct a $1.00 fee for each day that you use your phone and then charge around .10cents per minute for each call you make. Therefore with this $1.00 per day fee you wouldn't have had to use the phone that much to quickly eat up $15 in airtime. The other plan is a $25 cents per minute plan. I would suggest to anybody who is going to buy the Gophone to skip the prepaid cards and just go with a prepaid monthly plan for gophone users. Its a much better deal and you never have to worry about any extra fees. They have plans for everything from light go phone users to heavy go phone users and you are not locked in to any contract. Plus if you have extra minutes leftover each month they will carry it over for you. I have been a At&t go phone customer since about 2001. In all fairness to the company I have to honestly say, I have only had few problems and any issues I had were always quickly resolved by the company. I would never sign any two year contract with anybody for fear of being locked in, overcharged and stuck. Therefore, I feel as though the GoPhone is the best thing that ever happened to mobile phones. I love the freedom of being able to maintain control over my cellphone bill while still having access to most of the same features that regular contract users have and all with NO STRINGS ATTACHED. I can call anytime and cancel my service and I will owe $0. I also brought my mother a go phone and her time goes pretty quick too but she also talks alot on it. She called me other day and told me she brought another cheaper prepaid phone that comes with minutes. Within an hour after buying it she ended up giving it away because calls were not as clear as when she used her At&t go phone, network coverage was horrible and the phone was not even as easy to use so she is now back to At&t. Because my credit is not bad I am constantly getting solicited by other providers to sign contracts for cellphones, including my DSL provider (who shall remain nameless) but I would prefer to stay with at&t go phone. I even have full network coverage underground while riding the subway to work everyday. What other company can match that???? I am sorry it didn't work out for you though.
