New Scam by AT&T?

[Newton]

Recently we've received a bill from AT&T with a much higher charge on the
DSL service. When we called AT&T (after a painful long wait) we learned
that our service was "upgraded". No one from our home asked for the
"upgrade". Then after a long and frustrating fight, AT&T agreed to
"credit" our account as "one time courtesy credit"! But they demanded that
we still have to pay for the current bill. That's ROBBERY!

AT&T has gone more EVIL than it used to be!!

Needless to say we would never bend over for AT&T's new business model:
ROBBERY. And the Public Utility Commission is completely USELESS! It sides
with the evil AT&T in all case.

The consumers are screwed. Cancel AT&T if you can before you get rip-off!

[Jack Bauer]

Newton wrote:
> Recently we've received a bill from AT&T with a much higher charge on the
> DSL service. When we called AT&T (after a painful long wait) we learned
> that our service was "upgraded". No one from our home asked for the
> "upgrade". Then after a long and frustrating fight, AT&T agreed to
> "credit" our account as "one time courtesy credit"! But they demanded that
> we still have to pay for the current bill. That's ROBBERY!
>

So they gave you a credit for the difference between the new bogus rate
and the old rate, yet still demanded that you pay the full amount of the
bill that was in error?

That DOES sound insane, but not like robbery. Scumcast did the same
thing to me. They decide to credit my account and change the rate, but
I still have to pay the amount on the statement. What happens is that
in the following months you will owe less than the usual amount because
of the credit. But it does seem kinda insane that they can't adjust the
amount currently owed.

I guess you could argue that its a scam if they do this on purpose to
increase their current month's revenue and they don't care about the
following months.

[Bill Baka]

I'm way late on this but the f'king PUC actually rents space in the PG&E
building. At least they did, and yes they are totally useless.
Comcast canceled my newsgroup service and didn't give me a refund for
service *not* rendered. AT&T just keeps getting worse and will soon have
100% of a zero market because they have pissed everyone off and no one
is left to sucker.
Bill Baka
Getting screwed by Comcast.

[Mark Anderson]

On Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:01:04 -0800, Bill Baka wrote:

> AT&T just keeps getting worse and will soon have 100% of a zero market
> because they have pissed everyone off and no one is left to sucker.

Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen. Competition at the
ISP level is severely lacking and in many places there is no way to
bypass AT&T since they "own" the local loop even though those loops
traverse over public right of ways. Although the breakup of the original
AT&T in 1984 led to great innovation in telecommunication breakthroughs
that led to these Intertubes being what they are today, SBC slowly
rebuilt their monopoly without a peep from Congress.

IMHO, they didn't properly break up AT&T in 1984. It should have been
mandated that transmission and switching be run by separate entities with
the ultimate goal being the transmission company would be the regulated
monopoly much like your electric or gas company. That way there would be
no conflict of interest like today where AT&T must maintain your lines
even though you may use a competing ISP. Right now regulators do all
they can to make sure AT&T plays nice but if there were separate
companies running transmission facilities, the free market could prevail
and IMHO, we'd have much more competition at the ISP and even POTS
markets.

[SMS]

AT&T canceled my newsgroup service and I went to Sonic.net which was the
same price, but includes Usenet, and includes VPN which I find extremely
useful. I give up free WiFi at Starbucks, but on the very rare times I
would want WiFi at a Starbucks I can get it with a Starbucks card which
gives two hours a day. I'd rather go to Peets anyway!

[The Guy]

In article <hfevoh$qt4$1...@news.eternal-september.org>,
Bill Baka <bb...@comcast.net> wrote:

All I can say is check out your monthly billing statement very
carefully, they will try to sneak in extra charges and hope you don't
notice. I don't have a better option for DSL in my area so I'm stuck
with AT&T. One day I noticed that they were charging me for a higher
DSL speed (I only need the basic speed)...I ran a speedtest with a
couple of test sites and I was still at the basic speed. I took a 2nd
look at my old statements and found I had been charged the higher rate
for several months. Upon calling customer service who determined I was
wrongly charged the person said she would credit my next stmt but
instead they started deducting only a portion every month instead of the
whole amount, took 5 months before I got all the credit.

This past Nov. I noticed a $7.14 charge for LDI (long distance
information)...something I never use. I call their 800 no. and before I
can even explain why I'm calling the person says I'll get credited!!! I
suspect a mass billing error...she says she will credit me the full
amount since I had already paid the bill. My Dec. statement shows only
$2.15 credited, I call them back up and ask for an explanation, she says
they will credit me the rest next month...I think they try to get away
with using your money (it's called 'float' by the bankers and financial
types) for as long as possible in a dishonest way (unwarranted charges)
or hope you don't catch the 'mistake'.
I will test their honesty by not calling them if they don't credit me on
the next stmt and wait to see if they ever do. It that happens I'll be
writing letters to the AG and state consumer folks with copies of my old
stmts...it's not the 7 bucks it's the principle and besides they may be
doing this to thousands of others and hope to get away with it and claim
admin and computer errors if they get caught. Either way they are
either dishonest or incompetent, I suspect both.

Also for those of you that use AT$T DSL and lost your Usenet/newsgroup
service (I did), just use freenews.netfront.net for your newsserver,
works great and it's free.
--
The Guy

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ne...@netfront.net ---

[Sanity]

"The Guy" <chainy...@nyetspam.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:chainyanker60-593...@freenews.netfront.net...

Last January I noticed they were charging me a dollar a month for an
international call plan. I went back through my bills and found out they
were slipping this in for about 9 months. I called them, they apologized and
issued me a credit for the $9. Four months ago I noticed the charge back on
my bill. Again they apologized and removed it. I wonder how many of these
dollar charges they are slipping in without their customers noting it. The
greatest thing in history was the breakup of the original At&t monopoly and
now we have it back.

[sfek...@gmail.com]

Have had an issue with AT&T DSL. They had an advertisement for 19.99 a month with 100.00 rebate for the wireless router (which doesn’t work wirelessly anyway). The first bill was for 63.00. The second month was 125.00 dollars. I called and complained. I told them I havent recieved the rebate in the mail and I also got charged all these fees. They said the 63.00 was to connect the service to my apartment. And the 125.00 was for the modem and the current months bill. I said isn’t it supposed to be for 19.99? They said you went with 3.0 connection and that is a higher price. They clearly did not state this on the promotion. I asked where the rebate was then. They said it should be coming in the mail shortly. Another month goes by and still no rebate. I first went online to talk to their support that way. They explained they could not take care of the issue via the internet. They gave me a number to call. I had to leave a message for customer support to call me back. They never called. I then called them 2 days later to talk to a customer service representative. I told them the same issue. They said well theres no reason why it should take this long, it should be coming in the mail soon. Another 2 months go by and still no rebate. I had enough and called the number online. I got the wrong department so they gave me a direct number. They answered and said you want to call this other number. Completely frustrated at this point, I finally got a hold of someone for DSL Internet service. I asked her why havent I recieved the rebate? She said since you purchased the modem 5 months ago, that promotion is over and you no longer are qualified for that rebate. She said this was the first time they saw I called. I explained to them that I had called a number of times all saying the same thing. Now you’re telling me a don’t get the rebate at all?? I asked to speak to her supervisor. The supervisor then said because I did not sign up for the home phone service I do not qualify for the rebate at all. I told her when I signed up it clearly showed online that my rebate would be mailed shortly so how is it that I do not qualify. She appologized and said that was the promotion at the time. I read that agreement through and through and it never mentioned anything about purchasing the phone service in order to get the rebate. I told her had I known that I wouldn’t have gotten the wireless router in the first place and probably wouldve gone somewhere else. I told her I will be canceling my service. AT&T DSL INTERNET IS A SCAM!!!