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AT&T Wireless Sales Practices

AT&T Wireless • Billing disputes • Unexpected contract expiration • Network problems • GSM service • Number portability • Sales practices • Customer service • GO Phone • Everything else --- News • Cingular-AT&T Wireless Deal is Done • Cingular Buys AT&T Wireless • Software Glitch Blamed for Losses • Cingular, AT&T Wireless In Merger Talks • AT&T Wireless Leads In Number Portability Problems

Benjamin of Goleta CA (12/7/03):
I am the victim of several blatant bait and switches by AT&T Wireless. Their representatives misled both my fiancée and myself on a minimum of three different occasions in the past month and they believe that the best possible solution to that charge is to apologize and then stick me with a bill for your mistakes.

I ordered a second line for my fiancée and was never once told by their representative that there was a $60 charge for the phone itself. I found out when an invoice came with the phone. A week after receiving the second phone I received a letter telling me that they require a $60 deposit for the second line. Again, after the fact.

The second phone had the wrong area code and when I called to ask them to correct the mistake, they switched the area code of my original phone to the wrong area code, so then I had two numbers with the wrong area code. After about 4 hours on the phone with their customer service, they managed to switch the lines correctly. I have now logged over 30 phone calls in the past month, just trying to return the second phone to them, to no avail. I have never received an RMA and they say there is no other way to return the phone.

The viewable used minutes on their website indicated that my original phone had reverted back to zero after the mistakenly changed the phone number on that phone, I called their customer service to verify that my minutes had indeed again started at zero and their representative assured me that I had over two hours left of paid minutes to use. What happened next? I got a $250 phone bill. I've never gone over $35 once in the past.

They won't allow me to return the merchandise they sold to me, their representatives won't give out their last names and half say they don't have an employee number, so none of them has the faintest idea what last one promised to a customer. The last one actually told me, well you used the minutes so you have to pay for them, never mind that I used the minutes based on information given to me by their staff. It doesn't make sense that I would make a 67 minute phone call at 45 cents/minute when I had several other phones at my disposal. I have no intention of paying another dime to their company until they straighten this situation out.