AT&T Modem Rebate
E Z Peaces
their terms conditions.
It says: "Free DSL Modem with term agreement: Offer available to active
subscribers of AT&T or BellSouth Dial service who purchase and receive
FastAccess DSL. In exchange for a free DSL modem customers must maintain
FastAccess DSL service for at least twelve (12) months from the date the
modem was shipped or installed by BellSouth, and pay all applicable
charges in connection with FastAccess service in a timely manner. If
FastAccess service is terminated or in the event service is terminated
for a violation of the BellSouth Internet Service Agreement, including
but not limited to failure to pay the monthly FastAccess service charge,
an early termination charge of $75.00 (representing the full price of
the modem) if service is terminated between 0 and 6 months from the date
the modem was shipped or installed by BellSouth or $37.50 (representing
one half of the price of the modem) if service is terminated more than 6
months but less than 12 months from the date the modem was shipped or
installed by BellSouth will be incurred."
The only charge besides the monthly fee was for the modem. When I
signed up, their website informed me that I'd have to go to their
rewards page and click for the rebate to cover the cost of the modem.
I'd have to do it within 90 days. I'd be billed the $75 on my first
bill, but I'd get it back.
Their rewards page said I couldn't apply for the rebate until a month
after I'd signed up. After a month, the AT&T site said they had nothing
about a rebate and if it was about a modem I should check with
Bellsouth. Bellsouth's site kept saying they had nothing on me.
I kept checking. There was no modem charge on my first bill. I'd been
a DSL customer nearly two months when the second bill came.
FastAccess DSL Modem........... $75
Credit for Installment Billing -$75
Purchase - 1 of 1 Installments $75
Total $75
They seem to be saying, oh yes, the modem is free as promised except
that they are charging me for it twice.
That section of the bill gave me a number to call if I had any
questions. I called and got a machine that gave me four choices, I
think. Three were for ordering stuff and one was for technical support.
There was no option for billing questions.
Did AT&T make me a promise they never intended to keep? What should I
do now?
Jeremy Pleedle
does bellsouth not have internal support "usenet" type groups you could ask?
larry
their billing system is STILL screwed up.
At the end of each DSL term, we can't renew the sale plan.
So we "switch" to another sale plan, that is usually $1-2
around our last plan. The switch is scheduled the last of
the old plan. Another long ATT story!
When we get the next bill, we're billed the high rate for
the old plan, AND for the new plan. If we demand to pay
what we really owe ($35 less), they say we'll be
disconnected. (bill paid on time for 36 YEARS!)
The next bill will credit the old plan SALE rate. Third bill
will finally credit the rest of the $35 overcharge, but then
there is a charge at the new rate for a two week overlap
while they were fixing the billing. Takes 3 separate 20
minute phone calls to reps that have no idea which service
was billed and tell us the billing is never wrong, but will
correct itself on the next bill ;-)
I wouldn't consider a rebate from them. Our modem was FREE
except for a $9.95 shipping charge. Now they're doing the
gift card crap.
-larry / dallas
John Weiss
> The new at&t is very much the old AT&T,
> their billing system is STILL screwed up.
Yep!
Last month our cell bill came, and still said to send it to Cingular. This
month our cell bill came, and said to send it to AT&T. It also said we hadn't
paid our previous bill, and added a penalty fee.
I checked with my bank and found the check to Cingular had been cashed by AT&T
at an entirely different address -- 19 days after we sent it!
I called to get the penalty fee removed from the bill, and the customer
non-service gal said she would do it "on a one-time basis" because we hadn't
had any other late bills. I asked her to verify that no adverse credit reports
were sent because of their mistake, and she told me she wasn't authorized to
remove/rescind any such reports, but none were indicated in my record.
Looks like time to get my free annual credit reports!
John Weiss
>
> I called to get the penalty fee removed from the bill, and the customer
> non-service gal said she would do it "on a one-time basis" because we hadn't
> had any other late bills. I asked her to verify that no adverse credit
> reports were sent because of their mistake, and she told me she wasn't
> authorized to remove/rescind any such reports, but none were indicated in my
> record.
>
> Looks like time to get my free annual credit reports!
Just got the next bill today...
I got my $1.10 penalty back. I also found out that retrieving voicemail from
Guam costs $1.99/min!
Now to find out why they billed my wife for a text message...
Anthony Matonak
...
> Just got the next bill today...
>
> I got my $1.10 penalty back. I also found out that retrieving voicemail from
> Guam costs $1.99/min!
>
> Now to find out why they billed my wife for a text message...
Probably because they sent her a text message saying they are
changing their rates. :)
Anthony
Rick
>
> The new at&t is very much the old AT&T,
> their billing system is STILL screwed up.
Oh Jeez, I was REALLY hoping this wasn't going to happen when Cingular
became "the new AT&T." I though Cingular was just absorbing some
piddling remaining AT&T consumer equipment, and that some Corporate
idiot thought the AT&T name would somehow be better than Cingular for
business.
It's the old AT&T all over again. And the worst of it at that. It took
some boob 15 minutes on the phone yesterday to tell me how many message
units I had used in the last billing period. She couldn't figure it out
and had to have a supervisor coach her through the process. I could have
walked to their billing office and looked it up faster myself. It then
took them over 20 minutes to "research" and finally come around and tell
me I couldn't order a replacement battery for my cell phone through
AT&T. Total time on the phone for all that non-service? 39 minutes.
We had Cingular service since 2001 with minimal problems. So far, the
AT&T version hasn't screwed up a bill - yet. But if this is the way it's
gonna be we won't be with "the new AT&T" much longer.
So.... Who's a happy camper with their cell phone service on the east
coast? Looking for recommendations for a new carrier.
Rick
Logan Shaw
> larry wrote:
>> The new at&t is very much the old AT&T,
>> their billing system is STILL screwed up.
> Oh Jeez, I was REALLY hoping this wasn't going to happen when Cingular
> became "the new AT&T." I though Cingular was just absorbing some
> piddling remaining AT&T consumer equipment,
It's not like that at all. Cingular didn't buy or absorb anything[1].
Instead, ownership of Cingular had for many years (always?) been shared
between SBC and BellSouth. Both of these are basically Baby Bell
companies, SBC being essentially Southwestern Bell.
Then SBC bought both AT&T and BellSouth. The only thing AT&T had of
value by that point was its name. BellSouth had a bunch of local
subscribers (traditional landlines) and the other piece of the puzzle
of ownership of Cingular.
So this gave SBC full ownership of Cingular and ownership of the name
"AT&T". Since essentially everyone hates BellSouth and SBC, they
renamed themselves to "AT&T", just like any shady or disreputable
business changes its name after people catch on to their antics.
- Logan
[1] Well, except for the long-defunct AT&T Wireless, which had been
spun off of the real AT&T 5+ years ago and acquired by Cingular
after then, but that was long before all this "the new AT&T" stuff.
Rick
Doesn't work in this case. 8-)
On the east coast we hated AT&T as a long distance carrier and for their
internet service. Just hearing that same, tired "All Around The World"
1990's anthem song in the background of their "new" TeeVee commercials
is annoying me enough to drop them as my "new" cellular carrier. I mean,
why on earth would they recycle the same d*mned song they used in their
old commercials through the point when their consumer services went
belly up, and and try to call the company "new" anything? All it does is
bring back memories of how bad the "old" AT&T was.
Where's the marketing genius that came up with that one? "Hey! I know
everyone loved AT&T! I didn't research that, but I just *know* it! So
let's remind them we're just like AT&T used to be by using the same
background music and the same voiceover guy in the "new" AT&T
commercials we used over six or seven years ago! This will be great!"
Oh well, their business probably won't last very long - again.
Anyone remember AT&T Worldnet? Remember when they tried to change from
unlimited monthly internet to a fixed number of hours for the same
price, plus extra per hour fees if you went over? The most bass-ackward
decision an isp provider could have possibly made at the time. After
people dumped the service in droves in the billing period before the
change went into effect, they tried to get you to come back, promising
unlimited internet again - at a higher price than you paid before. And
as it was, they waited a couple months before the mailers went out,
begging people to come back. Ummm - THAT didn't work very well.
There was even a usenet news group created over this for Worldnet users
alumni who left the service - part bitch about Worldnet, part posting
board for people trying find each other at new isp addresses after they
dumped AT&T.
Puleeze, remind us of anything but the old AT&T...
Sorry for the rant, but I so don't want this. Cingular was good. AT&T
anything could always be counted on to come up with the dumbest customer
service and policies. "New" customer service has already slid off the
face of the earth. Sound familiar to "old" AT&T customers?
Rick
whaa...@yahoo.com
month, but still hadn't seen an update to the rebate on any of the
following websites:
http://www.bellsouth.com/reward
http://rewardcenter.att.com/Default.aspx?AC=yes
http://bellsouthrewardcenter.com/promocenter/bellsouth/index.shtml?bcid=rewards_tracking
(quite a confusing list of sites... and their may be several others I
didn't list.)
I guess if it has happened to several of us who are posting about it,
it's probably happening to a lot of others who aren't posting...
I called the number 1-866-342-4271 and spoke to a really nice lady
about our reward. She said that a lot of problems have been occurring
because the website customer service haven't been good about sending
the information over to the Rewards Center for processing.
1-888-321-2375 does NOT work.
Have the date you ordered handy (and hopefully it is still less than
90 days ago). Again, call 1-866-342-4271. Be really nice, they will
do their best to help you - and give you a confirmation number for
your DSL modem rebate.
She gave me a new web site to check AFTER they submit the request for
the rebate check. It is:
www.vipgiftprocessing.com
Within minutes of hanging up with her, I checked and could see that
the check is being processed - but will probably be mailed in a month
(or hopefully less).
HTH!!
George Grapman
210-821-4105 and asked for the executive offices. The check came two
weeks later.
Same thing happened with the promised Visa gift card. The funniest in
a long line of excuses was that they needed to verify my address.
E Z Peaces
but no answer. I had intended to monitor it longer, but
misc.consumers.frugal-living has such a flood of messages that within a
few days I didn't see the thread. Somehow it popped up today.
I phoned and my check is scheduled for November 1. I don't know if
there will be more hassle. It's within 90 days of the beginning of
service but longer since I ordered it.
E Z Peaces
Years ago AT&T registered me for a long-distance plan without my
knowledge. I'd made no long-distance calls, but they gave me only a
partial refund and said they couldn't help me any more.
I'm not the only one to get the brush-off. In August I wrote to the
state attorney general to complain about the rebate. They'd advertised
a free modem. After they sale their email said I'd have to apply for a
rebate. Then an email said I'd have to apply within 90 days. They gave
me two websites and a phone number, all of which stonewalled.
The AG forwarded my complaint to the phone company, giving them ten days
to reply. That was nearly a month ago. No reply.
larry
> The AG forwarded my complaint to the phone company, giving them ten days
> to reply. That was nearly a month ago. No reply.
att (etal) don't reply to complaints, even those from the fcc.
It's much cheaper for them to just pay the fines.
The customer pays those as a cost of doing business ;-)
-larry / dallas
E Z Peaces
Well, I dialed the number whaa_hoo provided. The URL whaa_hoo provided
says my rebate has been approved and will be mailed about October 12.
Today an AT&T representative phoned to respond to my August letter to
the Attorney General. She said I didn't qualify because it's limited
customers who already had Bellsouth dialup service.
I said the phrase in their Terms and Conditions, "subscribers of AT&T or
BellSouth Dial service," has meant telephone customers for a hundred
years. I said a service accessed by a telephone line, such as internet
access, is a dial-up.
She said I was wrong. Telephone service is not "dial service." She
said she'd never heard telephone service called anything but POTS. Then
she said as a special one-time courtesy my next bill would be credited
with the rebate.
Patents may be the best place to check terminology because patent
lawyers are supposed to get it right. From 1879 to 2007, 579 patents
have called telephone customers subscribers. From 1941 to 2004, 67
patents have called telephone customers "dial service subscribers."
(Perhaps before 1941 telephone service would also accommodate phones
without dials.)
I've found 162 patents calling internet service "dial-up service" and
none calling it "dial service." I've found patents referring to
telephone subscribers with internet access and customers who use the
internet to access subscribed content, but I haven't found any patents
about subscribers to internet access.
That makes sense as a subscriber signs up for published content, not
communications. Telephone customers would be exceptions because the
service includes a subscription to a phone book.
It seems to me the AT&T representative told me I was excluded from the
rebate because they interpret their Terms and Conditions according to
their slang, which may change from day to day, and not the established
meanings of "subscribers" and "dial service."