AT&T Sales Tactics

AT&T • Slamming • Long Distance • Local • Wireless • Broadband • Telemarketers --- News • AT&T Agrees to Refund Some Ringtone Charges • States Asked to Probe AT&T U-Verse Explosions • AT&T Exits Pay Phone Business • AT&T Changes Contract Policy • AT&T Changes Terms Of Service After Outcry • AT&T Agrees to New Stolen Cell Phone Rules • AT&T Stiffens Language Covering Objectionable Content • AT&T Adds Parental Controls To Mobile Phones • AT&T Slammed Over Rebate Policies • Appeals Court Shreds AT&T Arbitration Clause • Court OKs Rebate Lawsuit against Cingular/AT&T • AT&T Trashes Cingular Brand • AT&T Offers Net Neutrality Concessions To Win Merger Approval • FCC Delays Decision On AT&T/BellSouth Deal • Justice Department Green Lights AT&T-BellSouth Merger • FCC Clears the Way for AT&T-BellSouth Merger • AT&T Trumpets New TV Service • AT&T Web Site Hacked; Customer Data Exposed • AT&T Sues Calling Record Brokers • AT&T Declares Consumers' Personal Data "Corporate Property" • AT&T Plans to Kill Cingular Name • Report: AT&T Acquiring BellSouth • SBC Recast as AT&T • FCC approves AT&T, MCI Deals • Justice Dept. OKs AT&T, MCI Sell-Outs • SBC Will Keep AT&T Name • Consumer Groups Oppose Big Telco Mergers • SBC Buys AT&T • AT&T Will Pay Refunds to New Yorkers • AT&T Will Pull Out of 7 States • AT&T Teams With Sprint to Return to Wireless Business • Minnesota Sues AT&T • Class Action Charges AT&T With Slamming • Another AT&T Rate Hike • AT&T Hiking Minimum Fees • AT&T Faces $780,000 Do-Not-Call Fine • AT&T Will Run Do-Not-Call List • Supreme Court Denies AT&T's Appeal of Arbitration Ruling

Helen of Muttontown, NY, writes:
I switched to the AT&T plan of 5 cents a minute for regional calls and 7 cents a minute for state to state calls in March of 2000. Recently, I was noticed I was being charged 8 cents a minute for regional calls and 26 cents a minute for state to state. I called AT&T last month and the rep said he would straighten the problem out. When I received my July bill, the same charges applied.

I called and was told that in June apparently, my payment was late by FIVE DAYS, therefore I was put into "internal collections" and they switched my program without notifying me. I was never notified that I was put into internal collections. They agreed to switch me back to my original program, but refuse to credit me for the difference in charges. I believe this is a sales tactic to get people to switch to AT&T and then they switch your program without informing you.","I spent two hours on the phone with them. I incurred extra charges, I switched to Bell Atlantic incurring a $10 switch fee and I'm totally disgruntled.

Claire of Sweet Valley, PA, writes:
I also have had problems with AT&T billing me the regular rate, even though I'd signed up with the 7-cent rate. Luckily, I am billed through my local phone company (Commonwealth Telephone Company) and they are very nice. I called right away and told them that I had been billed incorrectly and they immediately credited my account. When I was again billed incorrectly on my next statement, they again credited my account.

Alana of Van Nuys, CA, writes:
Have tried for about six months to get the reward for switching to AT&T from MCI that I was promised. I have complained to AT&T by phone about ten times and by email about 5 times. They've yet to send me my grocery gift certificate, and I can never get a straight answer.

R.M. of Dewey, AZ, writes:
At 8:30 PM MST Wed. Feb. 24, 1999 I received a telephone call from a person (male) who identified himself as being with AT&T. He stated that he became aware that I had just left AT&T long distance service. I told him that his information was correct and that I did indeed (just 5 days prior) change long distance service, after always being on AT&T, to a service that gave me a considerably better rate.

He proceeded to tell me that they now have a new program "that just came out" offering me a plan for 7 cents a minute Monday through Friday and 5 cents per minute on weekends with an added bonus of several hundred free minutes on any weekend. I told him that he was a little too late with this offer but that I would keep it in mind in the event that my new service did not work out to my satisfaction.

I also told him that I had recently checked with them (AT&T) about any better LD programs and was told that the program that I was on (One Rate Plus Plan) was the best program out there. At this point he became rather insistent about me changing back to AT&T. I then asked him "Didn't you hear what I just said"?

At this he started calling me every foul mouth word that any sailor ever heard, every "F" word combination that most people ever heard for a period of around 15 seconds, finally telling me to get the "F---" off the phone.

I immediately contacted (finally) a live person at an AT&T 800 number and reported what had happened and was told by that person (female) that she was writing the incident up and will report it. This morning 2-25-99 I have attempted to contact the AT&T Director of Consumer Affairs but no one at AT&T will give out that information. My US Gov't. published book "Consumer's Resource Handbook" lists a Ms. Susam Mach as that director but the listed telephone number is no longer valid.

I fully intend to communicate with someone with a little authority at AT&T yet, in addition to communicating this incident with the Arizona Corporation Commission and the State of Arizona Attorney General's office.

Declan of College Point, NY:
I was charged by AT&T for using a Bell Atlantic phone card when I used the card outside of my local calling area. I was never informed by either company that I would be charged $2.84/minute if I used this card. I was then told by a AT&T representative that if I purchased local service from AT&T that the charges would be dropped. I never wanted to drop AT&T so I decided to sign up for the local service with the promise that the charges would be removed.

When I got the next month's bill I noticed that the charges were never removed and I called AT&T. I informed them that I was told by their employee that the charges would be removed and they should have never billed me in the first place. It was because of that promise that I signed on with AT&T for local service. I feel that I was sold local service on false pretenses and the charges should be removed from my account.

Andrew of Highland Park, NJ:
I was contacted on February 9th by AT&T by Adrianna. She attempted to convince me to switch from MCI to AT&T. She could not do so because she was a novice so her manager, Nathan, attempted to make me switch. He offered me permanent rates that outmatched MCI's rates. I decided to switch.

On February 15th, today, I called AT&T to complain about the rudeness of one of there callers, they ran a check on my service. They said that the service I was given was not applied, non-existent, and that there was nothing they could do about it. They have no means of contacting Nathan to attempt to correct the situation. All they offer is a temporary deal but we lose out because we had a permanent rate with MCI.

I asked for them to honor the price and they said it was impossible. It is very unfair that they cajoled me into switching with a false promise. It is False Pretense, False advertisement, and Misrepresentation. This is very unfair to me the consumer.

I am not even sure if MCI will return me to my previous rate. The rate I had with MCI was 29 cents a minute to Austria and 20 cents to Germany. On Sundays this rate dropped to 9 cents a minute. The monthly charge was $4.95. Mr. Bryant offered a permanent rate of 17 cents to Germany and 25 to Austria and 9 cents on Sunday with a $5.95 charge per month.

MCI's offer was also permanent. AT&T said that this rate was only possible for a promotional period of 6 months. At which time it would be 29 cents a minute to Austria 7 days a week. It is very unfair! I don't know what to do. I've reported this to the National Fraud Information Center and requested the documents from NJ Consumer department. I want to do more.

Jim of San Pedro, CA:
We were offered by one of AT&T staffs their long distance packages/rates. Since the lady that we talked to said that domestic state to state calls would be 5 cents a min., we accepted their offer, but since we are just new here in this country we did not know that domestic and international calls could be separated.

I told the lady from AT&T that we will still be using our present long distance provider since it is cheaper, so I asked her if it is all right that we are just getting their domestic plan and not the international, she said it's fine. Now we received our bill and that the only time we knew that all our long distance calls to the Philippines went through AT&T, since it was a direct dialed call. Now we have been calling them and asking if the could give us credit on our int'l calls since one min costs $3.16 and our bill is $515.00 for the month of March only. We really cannot afford to pay that big amount.

We were misled to thinking that domestic and international long distance can be separated. It's like false advertisement. I made it clear to the AT&T staff that I am not getting the int'l service, she acknowledged and never mentioned that I have to dial a 10-10 number so it won't go in to the AT&T account.

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