AT and T Wireless - Unexpected Contract Termination

I had contract with ATT wireless for a year, $49.99/mo, including 2000 free night/wkend minutes One day they sent a bill for $746.52 (!) saying that the contract had expired a month ago, and all calls were billed at 60 c/min afterward. They have not notified me in advance that they were going to do that. It is responsibility of ATT to communicate any changes to the customer clearly and unambiguously. I have never been contacted directly and would have never agreed to any change in rates if I had, much less for a 15-fold hike.

I have tried to resolve it several times with ATT customer service. I was offered to sign up for another year of service with them and then they promised to clear this charge! I'm seeking to have all calls rebilled at the agreed rate, which should bring the bill down to $49.99 The said they do it to everybody as a matter of business practice. I believe that ATT wireless tries to coerce customers to use their service and I wish more people knew about it.

I'm a part-time school teacher with $20K salary. I was paying them meticulously the entire year of the contract, by direct bank withdrawal. They have damaged my credit. They continue to harass me every day via collection agencies.

AT&T Wireless terminated my service because I moved out of their area. The termination occured before September 12, 2003. On this date I contacted as to why my service didn't work and was informed of the termination. I paid all bills due at that time.

In November I received my last bill showing a $175 disconnect fee for early termination. I complained the fee was removed but it left me with a credit of $74.41. I asked for my moneys to be refunded by check or charge back to credit card. I was informed by letter that the account had to be closed for 60 days before request could be made. I called and was told that date would be November 13, 2003. I called on the 13th and made a request. Then I was called a week later by the person processing the request who said it was not 60 days yet, request denied. Then I was told that I must wait till December 7, 2003 to make the request. (I have figured out what they are doing, they are waiting for two billing cycles past the last billing cycle that service was terminated)(My billing cycle ends on the 7th of each month). Also I was told that it could take up to 10 weeks for the refund to be issued.

On December 8, 2003 I made the official request for the refund and now was told it could take 4-6 weeks to process. On January 5, 2004 I received a statement still showing my refund. I called to see what progress has been made and was told on the December 15th, 2003 they cancelled my request due to the account being closed due to fraud. I asked in a astonished voice "what fraud?" and was told I would have to talk to the fraud department. They looked at the account relized an error and said they would have to reopen the account to close it again with the right codes and again I will have to wait up to 6 more weeks.

I have talked to nemourous people at AT&T; Wireless and received the royal runaround. They have two divisions - one analog and one G3 service. They transfer from one department to the other and no one has the ability to make decisions about the account. All I want is the monies I over paid this company, refunded. Also If they are going to terminate service they should terminate on billing cycle day not 3 weeks before and make you wait that period for a refund.