This goes to show that the American consumers have been betrayed by their
own government, which has failed to regulate an industry that's based on
and thrived on GREED. Like the failed banking system, the telecom companies
in the US are among the examples of a MISERABLE FAILURE OF THE BUSH
ADMINISTRATION and corporate-governed Republican party.
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.
--
The Guy
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