AT&T Wireless Reviews

I then renewed after talking with a rep who gave me the advertised promotional price for a bundled package. I began using the services and my first bill was three times what I was told it would me. I never received the money promised for the package and when I did it wasn't correct. I called and ended the service within one month because my internet service never worked correctly. I was then charged that amount plus more which I guess was an early closing penalty. I mailed in the amount that I knew I used plus the check they sent from the bundle.

I have creditors such as Allied Interstate and another collection agency constantly calling of sending collection mail. The charges are invalid and now they're on my credit report causing higher interest charges for loans and non-acceptance requests for other services. All my accusations can be verified!

I also spoke to Autum (Customer Service Supervisor) and Rusty(Area manager) which both of them refused to give me the information that I needed to file a complaint. Lastly, I was forward to Cathy (Executive Specialist) who refused to give me the address she told me "TO LOOK IT UP". I told her also that I needed to file a complaint.

I feel that I have been subjected to unnecessary phone calls to AT&T and them putting me on hold for a extreme length of time and in the end there is still no resolution, with them still refusing to give me the option of filing a complaint. I feel like I am getting no where with them, besides a bad head ache and being depressed due to all of the stress. I was given the above address by Rusty Stork, so I am not sure that this is correct.

In March, I called the CS again for the upgrade and I was told I was not eligible. So much for truthfulness and honesty of those people. I am so frustrated I wanted to cancel my account but it will cost me 3 termination fees. They said I had upgraded my other phone last year & when I asked if they had proof they could show, they said they didn't have any. I asked how I paid for that upgrade, they could not answer me. I looked under my credit cards & checking accounts and tried to locate how I paid for any upgrades & didn't find any. I looked under my monthly statements for any changes or "upgrades" on the bill & I didn't find any.

Dreiza ****

the lady stated that i should have received a letter, to which i explained i did not and that would not be a surprise because in my neighborhood we often received others mail. i explained to her that me nor my family could not be without our cell phones and due to no prior notice we had not made other arrangements for finding another cell provider. she was very understanding and stated that she would reactivate all three of our phones for 24 hours to give us some time for getting new service. i asked her at that time if i would have to get new numbers or would i be able to get the new company to use our current numbers. she stated that normally if our service was disconnected which meant we did not contact them prior to having the phones cut off by them that we would not be able to "port" our numbers. she then said but, since you had no prior knowledge and she was reinstating our service for 24 hours that she would allow the portal of the numbers as if we had done it before the service was disconnected. she said normally they would charge us for porting the numbers but due to the circumstances that we wouldn't owe. with that she reactivated the phones and changed the status of the phone numbers to allow them to be ported.

when i explained all of this to Mathew he said that i was in breech of my contract by using it in an area in excess of what was allowed. i let him know that i cannot be in breech of contract if i have no idea of what areas fall into those categories and that me nor my phone had readily available access to that knowledge while using the service. he agreed but stated that if i had read my contract i would understand that this wasn't allowed. then asked me if i had my contract in front of me. i explained no i didn't but regardless my conversation with at&t in December 2007 assured me that i would not owe any charges. i explained to him that i knew my conversation in December 2007 had been recorded and i thought he needed to listen to that as proof of the conversation.

he said yes it was recorded but those recordings were used only for marketing, not for reasons like this. i said ok, then there should be notes on my account showing the December conversation where i was told i would not owe. he said yes there were notes showing the conversation which stated their representative explained to me my financial obligations on "my final bill" which he stated proves she told me i would owe the charges. i let him know that those words most certainly did not prove that i was told i would owe charges, and for that matter she did explain "my final bill" but told me i would not owe charges.

i let him know that because she noted the discussion of the "final bill" with no further documentation that it in no way proves she told me i would owe. he told me it was up to me to prove what was said in our conversation either by a recording or a letter. i let him know that i had a recording that they are in possession of that should be sufficient enough. the conversation turned to him trying to make me say "yes, i ported my numbers" so he could confirm any money i owe. i told him i knew he wanted me to say that therefore i wouldn't, but i that they are the ones who terminated me, not the other way around so there should be no early termination charges.

i also explained earlier in our conversation that there was no way i would have ported my numbers if i would have been told i would owe. i explained that those numbers did not have $742 worth of importance to me. but since she told me there would be no charge i chose to do it. he then stated he wanted to ask me a question that was totally off of the subject, i said ok. he then asked..."if someone gave me an apple, and regardless who gave me the apple, i ate the apple, would that apple have been eaten by me". my response..."not if that one apple cost me $10.00.

after arguing back and forth until i was finally in tears (and i really dislike that i let him do this to me) i told him that i was told i would not owe the money, i was not going to pay the money and if he felt the need to ruin my good credit rating over $742 that i was told i would not owe then do what he needed to do, but he wasn't getting money from me. then i hung up.

now, how can i be held responsible for a charge i was told i wouldn't owe? also where exactly does it state in the contract that i am allowed to be screwed and that as a consumer i have absolutely no rights whatsoever or that i can be lied to and have to accept it? why would a company, in this case at&t be allowed to document only part of a conversation and from those partially documented notes that same company be able to assume what must have actually been said/discussed and use that as justification for telling me i knew because i was told i would owe $742? i didn't read that in my contract. ok so i can't sue them because of the arbitration clause, but shouldn't they have to prove beyond a shadow of any doubt that they told me i would owe???

I've lost $75 over this matter.

I gave him my story and told him I was willing to pay I had just never received a bill. Mr. **** said due to the circumstances they would waive the fees they charge since I would not be problem to collect from. He wanted to collect the full amount and I told him I was unable to pay the full amount that day but did want to take care of it as soon as possible. He said I needed to make a payment as a sign of good faith to pay, so I sent $50.oo payment but sent it to Cingular from our military Bank of America account, trace number **** Company ID:**** this was on 09/30/04. I should have sent it to Financial Asset Management.

When speaking to Mr. ****after that he said payment was not received. I insisted I paid not realizing yet it was to the wrong place. He informed me that he had to have the full payment by our agreed upon date or he would have to send it to my credit report. He said I would need to contact Cingular on the payment I sent to them and they should take care of the refund once they received all money due to them. So on 10-8-04 I sent to the collection agency $120.00 ($20 processing fee). Then on 11-8-04 I made a $338.27 payment ($5 processing fee). So total I paid $50 to Cingular, $458.27 the collection agency. Minus the processing fees total $25. Leaves the $50 that I have been trying to collect from them.

I have proof all money was paid and have verified it several times by faxing requested information to the numbers given to me by Cingular. I was told at first I was due a refund and that it was in the mail by Cingular associates Judy **** and another time by her manager Darla (didn't get last name). Judy said she was putting in for the refund and to call in a couple days to verify it was sent. I did and was told the check was in the mail and I should receive it in 7-10 days. It was not received so I called again to find out the problem. Then I was told no it takes 4-6 weeks and that it was sent on 11-24-04. I waited until that time was up which was 1-12-05.

Still no refund! On 1-13-05 I called again and spoke to Sue **** and to my surprise they have no record of me being due a refund. She said I would have to prove that I was due a refund. So I traveled to the military post (Ft. Campbell) an hour from my home to get the paper work proving that I had made all payments mentioned above. It cost me $3 to get it on paper another $5 to have the bank fax the paper work to Cingular number 866-816-9048 given to me by Sue **** plus the gas and time it took me to make a 2 hour trip. I was then given a number to call Collections at 866-860-6416 and spoke to Norma and she said I needed to refax the information to Cingular Treasury again so I did this again and never another word (or check) from Cingular.

And two that had been marked out and I couldn't read. One of the numbers I had called was the number to a business. The owner that answered the phone said she had been in business for years and repeatedly got calls for Cingular.

I spent countless hours trying to ensure that Cingular and I got the money owed to each of us. I sat on hold for a countless amount of time usually just to be given another number that was usually disconnected. It was emotionally draining to be threatened with having something negative put on my credit report and trying my best to do right and fix the situation with the company and they were cheating me. Each time the military has moved us I send another fax proving overpayment with my current contact information and I have retained all paper work showing that. Still no payment or contact from Cingular.

I called and spoke with Nathan **** and asked why I was billed so much. He said I was accidentally charged for long distance calls within the USA when that should not be because I am on a cell phone. He said it would be fixed by feb 6th 2008 before "auto pay" draws the money out of my account on feb 16th.

So I explained my problem again and was told that it was international calls to st. George France.

I reported this as fraud because I did not male these calls! I asked if I needed to call back for Renell, was told again that it was impossible, not to worry about it, and that I did not need to call because it would be fixed.

I got another message from Renell **** asking me to call her back at the same number. So I called again, was told by another AT&T rep that it is impossible to reach specific AT&T reps. I explained my problem, and that Renell asked me to call which is impossible. This rep set up a time 11:30am pacific and 7:10pm pacific were I was to be ready for AT&T to call me. I agreed to the call back times.

I was never called for the next 2 days.

I told Kevin that I never received any text message from AT&T which my bill and account will reflect! I was support to be called because it is impossible to reach a specific AT&T rep, and that a text request to call defeats the purpose of a call back! I asked why he would say I was text messages when I was not, and why the case rep did not try to call me after allegedly txt msging me, or call me at home as renell **** had in a third message she left for me. Why no calls when they were support to call?

Kevin spoke to a manager, then told me the calls were to an adult per minute billing number in the Virgin islands!! He said that the case rep "confirmed" the calls came from my phone. I asked how that was possible when my phone is not activated for international calling nor 900 bills. He did not know how they made that determination.

I said I will not pay for calls I did not make and asked if they will shut off my phone as a result. I was put on hold and my call was dropped by AT&T. I gave them my call back number in case that should happen as per kevin request, yet hedid not call back. It was after hours by this time so I was unable to call AT&T again.

Before the disconnect I had told Kevin that my friend Micah Kelly also got a new AT&T phone and also got a $500 cell phone bill. And that I had heard AT&T was in the news for outrageous billings. Kevin did say they had problems when the iPhone first came out in regards to international roaming and data charges, but that was all fixed now.

This problem is not resolved. AT&T has knowingly lied to me about its attempts to contact me. They have changed their story each time I call, and they have now stopped investigating this case when it is not solved!

Mike ****

Basically I have never gotten good reception with att/cingular wireless were I live, So last Feburary of 2007 I called them and told them I wanted to cancel my service because my contract was up and I wanted to try another company to see if my service improved. They told me I should be getting good recpetion were I lived that if I upgraded both my phones and sim cards(because I have Two lines with them) the problem should go away. So I did, I upgraded my phones and renewed my contract for Two more years. At first I did notice a little bit of improvement with the new phones but after a few months it went back to the same thing.

I always believed it was the area where I lived that was bad, but all my friends were able to use their phones inside my house except for me, so I started investigating and it was because my friends all had different companies. I was the only one that had att/cingular thats why mine didn't work where I live.

When I talked to technical support they told me there was nothing they could do because coverage in my area was only good/moderate so with any small interference it brought coverage down to poor, that it was not anything to do with the phones.

I called the next day to follow up(01/31/2008) and to proceed and cancel my service. I explained to the representative that I had already spoken to technical support and they told me there was nothing they could do. I told her I wanted to proceed and cancel my service, when I told her the previous person I had spoken to had told me the termination fee would be waived if they couldn't fix the problem she told me she couldn't do that because that was against their policies. She said I only had the first month to cancel my service after that I would have to pay the termination fee. I asked her why the previous person had told me I wouldn't have to pay anything If it was something to related to their coverage she said I don't know but I will check the notes from the previous person and check. I was put on hold and then she came back and told me she had gone through the notes and didn't find any thing saying they would waive the fee, that anyway they didn't guaranteed coverage. I then asked her if I could speak to a supervisor she then put me back on hold and the after a few minutes later came back and told me her supervisor had gone over my account and that she couldn't waive the fee. I told her I wanted to proceed and cancel my service anyways because at the long run it was costing me more money because I couldn't use the phone to receive or make calls where I live. She then said ok and then some how we got disconnected I don't know if she hung up on me or what happened but she never had the courtesy to call me back, It's not like she didn't have my number, it was in front of her on her computer.

I then had to call them back again and then I spoke to another person and explained that I was in the middle of canceling my service but the call had been disconnected. I restated my problem and she said that in fact if I cancel my service I was goin to be charged the early termination fee. I told her to go ahead with it that I already had wasted too much time on the phone with them.

I have to pay an extra $50.00, and I have to waste my time with them every single time they do something wrong.

ATT, 6 years ago, decided to bill me $175 for canceling my cell phone contract with them. I didn't cancel, I in fact RENEWED! I had a viable contract with them 2 years beyond that time. I never did cancel.

then they sent me 2 FREE phones and proceeded to bill me $200 each.

I have refused to pay this bill. My credit is wrecked and at this point, I have been told by collection agendies - which over the years - my "bad debt" continues to be bought and sold over and over and over again - I have been told that the only recourse I have is to pay the bill. PERIOD!

They don't care about the story. They dont' care what really happened. They call me at 6 am. they call me at 11pm. They call and don't speak. They call and call and call.

I just hung up on yet another call. This was his statement to me:

"for the rest of your life you are going to hear my voice."

What is my recourse? When does this become legal prosecutable harrassment? what do I do if I am NOT rich (I live on disability) and I am tired of being harrassed in my own home several times a day. What can I do? I have notes from over the years of all the times they said that they knew it was their billing error etc but nobody was ever able to fix it and now ATTWireless no longer exists. And I am left in Collection ****!

and I know I am NOT the only one. At some point, this becomes harrassment. If this was a private party doing this to me, I could get a restraining order. How much can collection agencies do?

I do NOT owe this money. with all the fees added on, it is now over $1000. I won't do it. I have been told that I am being an ******* for not just paying it (by the collection people of course). I have been yelled at and threatened in my own home by bulldogs at some point hired by a company that no longer even exists.

HELP!

Betty *****

cindy

Now they are saying I never canceled, and that THEY shut off my service last February! I called their business service line and was told that they have no record of my cancellation. I told them just to look at the number of calls placed on the business line since last fall (NONE, because I wasn't USING their service because I CANCELED). They kept repeating that they saw no notice in their file of my cancellation. I had a forwarding address, and never received any bills from BellSouth, otherwise I would have contacted them months/over a year ago, on this matter.

What frustrates me the most is that the people who are seasoned complainers and probably threaten lawsuits get their money back but others don't.

When cards finally arrived we have experienced frustration and embarrassment with card denials when attempting to use them. We finally decided to use them to pay our bill and to our amazement ATT took them with no denial. This has been one headache not needed!

When I called AT&T the CSR told me it was a "one time" fee because I purchased a discounted phone and renewed my plan for 2 years! SO, bottom line is the 169.99 phone discounted to 99.99 was really 137.99. I completely dislike this marketing scam type of advertising. I know it is rampant in our society in many businesses. I'm sure other Wireless providers do the same thing. Bottom line to the consumer is to pay close attention to hidden fees when buying a new phone with a rebate attached. Ask questions about all fees at purchase time so you aren't blindsided.

Within 15 minutes of complaining to the state they fixed the problem. Said it was a programming issue. During the previous three weeks we were calling Bellsouth almost everyday, multiple times. They still never fixed the problem, and come to find out at times that out of service message was still be played to callers.

I postponed my flight and all my plans for 2 weeks. When I got the bill it was for 204 dollars. So I called again and they said sorry but the service was NOT cut off yet. So they needed to disconnect the service and give me a credit, and again they said my balance would be around 70 - 75 dollars. Now I had to postpone the flight again another week. I waited as long as I could and they didn’t send the bill. I had to leave.

They couldn't help me so they sent me back to Cingular customer service and they informed me I needed to call AT&T customer service. I was on hold to connect with AT&T and as soon as I got on AT&T customer service they connected me with AT&T's rebate department which then told me they couldn't help me so they were sending me back to Cingular. After 2 hours of holding and waiting and speaking to 5 different people I was not going to have this so I lost it. I called Cingular rebate again and they told me for the phone I ordered I am only allowed to get a $29.99 rebate and the guy actually had the nerve to ask me why I should expect my phone to be free and how is Cingular supposed to make money?

I then spoke to a supervisor which then told me I was misinformed and that I should be happy with a $29.99 rebate! Misinformed? I was lied to! I am now still on hold after 2 hours speaking to the 8th person and I still have not gotten this resolved. I can't even cancel the stupid service because I agreed to a two year contract and would have to pay disconnection fees! I've only had the phone 3 weeks and now I'm stuck with incompetent people and a company that can't get their stuff together.

I immediately called Cingular and was told they didn't see anything in their system re the debit card rebate. I was told to go into the internet and try the Cingular site. That proved to be the most frustrating romp on the web. The website is obviously set up to frustrate and discourage customers from continuing on and simply giving up. After hours of following prompts and ending up where I started I gave up after being unable to even email a complaint.

I moved out of state in Jan 2007 and received a letter from a collection agency stating I owe this money from Bellsouth again. After several calls to Bellsouth and many hours of being on hold, I was finally told they found out what happened, they found the payments I sent but they did not go to the correct account. I was told that because the account was from 2005, there is nothing they can do that I will just have to pay the bill again to clear it. I was told they will not do anything because the account is too old.

I have spent countless hours on the phone and because I am in the military and away from home had to use my cell phone minutes for a lot of the calls.

They sent me the wrong carrying case so I had to send it back and they sent me a new one. Then I noticed they had charge me for both. They never re-imbursed me for the first one that I bought and returned. I called a week after they received the package through usps (I had a tracking number) and they still had not re-imbursed me. Then today I called again 17 days after they received my return and they still had not re-imbursed me my $31.00. Another problem we had is that my Wife's internet never worked on her phone. After 4 calls to tech support the problem was never resolved.

Did I mentioned that they said we would get 100 rebates for each phone and the rebate was actually only 50 dollars for each phone. I cannot believe that a company can function in such a dishonest way. It is unbelievable. I have wasted to much time I cannot believe the trouble that Cingular Wireless has caused me. I have ended my service but I am still not satisfied on the outcome. Let me know what I can do to help you and what you can do to help me? I have much more to Share. Thanks

I am absolutely fed up but, upon checking the internet for other possible providers, I find that BellSouth is the only provider available for my area. Isn't this a monopoly?

We told Bellsouth that we would be discontinuing service with their company and was immediately flooded with calls asking us to sign yearly contracts for the pricing we should already had had and when asked if the additional billings would be deleted they fell at a lost for words.

For several months in a row my new bill was higher than had been quoted to me (having dropped one of the lines and other features). I noticed they were still charging me for one of the lines from my previous home. I spoke with a rep and he issued me a refund for charges from May to October. Now, two months later, I wake up one morning with temporarily disconnected service.

I lost my contact with my clients and now I have to expend more than $ 500 in new business cards and stamps, trying to be connected again with my old clients, but many business lost clients, anyhow. I tried to deal with with Bellsout representatives, but they are trained to give us customers, the RUN AROUND. On 07/28/06, Channel 9 News in Orlando, Florida, presented a 10 minutes segment about more than 1.300 complaints againts this company and the answer that a CEO from Bellsouth offered, was: Bellsouth has more complaints, because they have more customers. Sure, yeah.

But why did BellSouth pull my credit 3 times. 1st time on 06/23, which I knew about. But then, 2 more times on 06/28 and 07/12. I have a problem with this. No one that I spoke with could give me any information as to why this was done. I was told that a supervisor was not available and would contact me within 48 hours. Now I have a $83.28 bill with Bellsouth for 1 day service and a connection fee that was supposed to be waived, along with a lower credit score.

BellSouth pulling my credit 3 times has adversely affected my credit and I am very upset, especially when they can't give a reason as to why this was done 3 times. One CSR named Renico stated that it had been done and there was nothing they could do about it.

I disputed the charges and BELLSOUTH said they were refused and they turned off the phone. They will not turn it back on until I pay $266.32. It was their fault for not setting it up properly and I don't owe those charges. They will not get my business again!!! Unless they make it right.

I work from home, and I told them that I could not afford a $100.00 or more phone bill what can they do for me, the lady said she can help. This has cause me finanical hardship my bills are behind and I have to pay them because I use my phone and internet and fax for making a living.

It's annoying, unethical, etc. I shouldn't have to fight for a free rebate they promised me!

I have no residential telephone service and my bill is $552.76.

BellSouth turned off the services to my main telephone line until I paid the account balance on the 2nd line that I disputed. I had 3 months worth of charges on a line I never got to use, and they denied any responsibility to inform me to disconnect the line that wasn't working.

They have left me answerless as to where my money is and trying to make me feel as if it is my problem to solve. My responsibility in this is to pay my bill monthly, this I do. Yet, an amount of money that was legally supposed to be put into trust and returned to me, as agreed upon - has been lost and no offer to find it and return it is being made. The laziness and unwillingness to help by the customer service department of Bellsouth astounds me!

I have potentially lost anywhere from $100.00 to $200.00 in my deposit not being returned to me. I have also endured the aggrevation of dealing with several Bellsouth customer service reps - which I'm sure most of their customers will agree is quite too much for this company to ask of me!

When I called BellSouth, they said a technician came to my residence to fix the problem. First, I never authorized a service person to check the problem and second, I work from home and no one visited. I refuse to pay a company, such as Bellsouth, for a service I did not receive. I expect to have this charge cleared from my records, but the keeping ignoring me and have now placed the amount with a collection agency.

I had no phone service and they sent me a bill for 205.00.

I have made several attempts to get the matter resolved and have just finished emailing their customer service department for the last time. I find most appalling that i received yet another bill from Sprint along with a letter from collection agency now stating that i owe them 1285.20 which is another $175.17 on a line that was disconnected in November. Then, there is an issue with AT&T. While living in Charlotte, my phone service was provided through Bell South yet i was receiving bills from At&T. At one point i even called Bell South to inquire about these bills and the representative called AT&T who denied ever billing me. A month later i got a letter from At&T stating that there was an error in their system they were working hard to resolve it.

To make a long story short, i am still receiving bills from At&T on that phone number which has been disconnected for over 4 months. Matter of fact i moved from Charlotte to Fayetteville on August 15th 2004 and the most recent bill i got from them was from October 14, 2004. The bottom line is this..who oversees these phone companies and what can be done about this? I have even had MCI cancel an order i placed to disconnect service in Charlotte, told me that they cancelled my disconnect notice and continue to send me bills! I've had it, please help!

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.

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.

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.

Because my phone was not turned back on until 36 hours later, I didn't receive the call from my infant's babysitter informing me that my baby was being taken to the emergency room for a high fever.

This new phone bill is taking me straight to the poorhouse (where I already have a room).

Note, I have never been thrilled with the level of service from AT&T.; When I talk with my friends who have changed to Verizon, they laugh when they hear I'm still with AT&T.; At this point I feel you have violated the terms of the contract I have with you in terms of customer service. I am requesting that the contract be cancelled without any fees. If not I am going to be sending a very detailed account of my plight today to as many agencies who deal with complaints as possible. I am starting to search the website to gather a list of all the agencies including the media. I am so, so upset and frustrated that your people have made it impossible for me to complete a transaction after an hour of impersonal and incompetent behavior.

I ordered a second line for my fiance 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.

I am furious with AT&T; and can only imagine what they're going to charge me on my next bill. I hope that if enough folks complain about AT&T;'s severe lack of compentence then something will be done. I've already filed with the FCC and have been assured that AT&T; will receive substantial fines for their lack of preparation for cellphone number portability (3+ years since AT&T; has know about the compliance date of 11/24/2003).

To date, I have still not received the credit due. I have carbon copies of my transactions with this company to be sent to the Public Utilities Commission and also to the California State Attorney Generals office. I am not going to let this go. AOL was recently fined for this very practice. My thought now is to run this through small claims court and to sue for an amount sufficient to clear the debt owed by them to me and for all the time and frustration to date.

I travel frequently for business and in April, 2003 I was in Salt Lake City for a period of two weeks and this is where it became not just an inconvenience, but a hindrance. I was staying in downtown Salt Lake City and was using my cell phone quite freqently for business related calls which were consistently getting dropped or I had no service at all. After about a week of frustration, I went into an AT&T; Wireless store to find out what the problem was. The store manager told me that this was a common occurance with the GSM network. That just fueled my frustration because had I been told that ahead of time, I would never have switched my service over and would have returned the phone.

As I stated previously, I was on a nationwide plan. She switched me to a regional plan and my bill was over $600! I called AT&T; customer service and was on hold for almost a half-an-hour. Once I was able to talk to a Customer Service Representative (mind you I don't think your organization understands customer service is) she was short and explained to me that it was my fault this had happened because I should have realized that the manager of the store would have placed me on the same type of service plan that I was previously on. After I disagreed and tried to explain to her again what happened (I really decided to give this woman the benefit of the doubt and assume that she just didn't understand the problem) and she became combative.

I then told her that I wanted to cancel my service. She said great and began the process. She, who mind you is representing your organization, did not care that I was going to take my business elsewhere! Without having another cell phone carrier, I decided that I was going to wait until I got another carrier, as to not disrupt my service. After talking over with a few people, I was advised to call back and let a supervisor know what happened. This time was a completely different experience. I spoke with a very nice customer service represenative and she transferred me to a supervisor who cleared the whole situation up.

It took about two and a half hours to get done but I was relieved that I did not have to switch carriers and pay for an invalid bill. I wish that is where the story ended. The $20 phone that was sold to me by the manager of that store in the Gateway in Salt Lake City was awful. The phone book was inadequate and the phone was heavy and large. When I got back to Arizona, I checked with an AT&T; Wireless store to see what I could do.

The selection of Digital Network phones was exactly two phones, one of which was the one that I already had. It seemed to me that AT&T; is trying to force people onto an unreliable network! I pretty much decided at this point that I was going to cancel my service with this organization at the end of my contract in February, 2004. My girlfriend was able to give me her V60 phone and I went to switch my number onto it in the same store that I went to in Arizona on Shea. When the salesperson asked my why I was switching, he didn't care, which didn't surprise me. After using the V60 for about a week, I noticed that I was having service problems again. My girlfriend had warned me about this phone and I wanted to take the risk because the size was much more convenient. When I went back to the store to inquire about the phone thinking that there was a manufactural problem with it, the same saleperson told me that there was a manufactural problem with this phone and many customers return that phone.

Just as he told me this, on the other side of the counter was a customer purchasing this exact phone! I asked the salesperson if he was going to inform that customer that the V60 may have a defect with it and he said that he is not allowed to! Nice policy, AT&T;! I then had to purchase my third phone with AT&T; and had three phones that were of no use to me at all. All in all, I had almost $700 worth of useless equipment and your company could care less! It does not stop here. The phone that I have been most recently sold, is the same phone that I had to begin with, the base model phone that is usually free when ordering new service. Because I had already had an upgrade on my service plan recently, I had to pay $150 for the worst phone available. If I had been smarter, I would have just opted out of my contract and switched carriers. I didn't and purchased the phone.

Just in the last couple of months, I have been traveling to Orange County, CA and my service has worsened. Not a big surprise! Dropped calls and every other call doesn't even go through. I am in one of the more densly populated areas of the United States and this is the type of service that I am getting. I went into an AT&T; store in the Irvine Spectrum to find out how to finally opt out of my contract. After telling this entire story to the salesperson, he appologized and told me that for the amount of usage that I have, the current phone that I have is the worst possible phone. Not a surprise here, either.

I was then told that I would have to pay $175 to get out. I was thinking about it and called AT&T; Customer Service again. This time the first person that I talked to was great. She did tell me about an option that I could swtich my service plan to another person and I would not have to pay for the cancellation fee. I explained to her that I wouldn't switch this service to my worst enemy and she laughed. Even your customer service people know about the level of service that you provide. Amazing!

She then transferred me to Chris, a Resolution Specialist. I had a brief discussion with him. Apparently the Resolution Specialist only specializes in one resolution - the customer is wrong and that is it. After all that I have been through, he couldn't even waive the cancellation fee, which brings me to where I am now. I am currently in the process of switching my service and keeping my number. I can only hope that this law allowing customers to keep their cell phone numbers when switching service is going to stimulate a better customer service enviornment. This is probably precisely the reason why your Resolution Specialist has only one resolution; a last-ditch effort to squeeze every last penny out of their customers and to try and force them to stay if they do not want to pay the cancellation fee.

She even had the nerve to tell me that it would be cheaper for AT&T; to lose me as a customer, than to keep me on my current rate plan, because they were using everyone else's towers to provide my roaming service. I was outraged! Unfortunately, nothing was ever able to be resolved, and I paid AT&T; in great disgust and cancelled my service with them. I will never use anything even remotely related to AT&T; EVER AGAIN. I now have Cingular, and the service couldn't be better.

Until our account is terminated, we cannot get our refund and be finished with this, and we receive paltry late fees that the computer sends out monthly. He told me he had no idea when the computer would terminate our account, and if it waited long enough that the late fees caused our balance due to exceed out deposit, our account would then be sent to collections. It is infuriating, and I absolutely refuse to send them $350 for them to have and earn interest on for two months, and it's also difficult for me to believe that they have no way of terminating our account, and sending us our remaining balance.

When I got the phone and called to get set up, I was told "Go Phones are not available in your area." I asked them why the website did not pick up on my zip or state, then not allow me to order? That would only seem logical. I finally switched my phone to a regular plan, and 3 months later I still don't have my refund. I called, and a lady said nastily, "It will be 3 to 4 billing periods before you see it." Oh, so I'm out the cash in my checking account. All in all, I've been really happy with the coverage I get here in Alaska. It never goes down or says it can't find a signal.

Considering that she did not even have the courtesy to inform AT&T that she had changed her mind we have a hard time seeing how a one-month minimum charge is out of line.

I was aware that my selection in picking out a new phone with my traditional "digital" service was very limited. The store only offered 4 phones that were compatable with digital service, none of which were to my liking. The store offered a wide variety of much better, more equipped phones that were only available by signing up for a new contract with their new GSM service, which even the salesman I dealt with admitted was still under development, resulting in less coverage. Now here's the catch. I have the option of either buying a better phone with inferior service (in comparison to my old service), or I can purchase an inferior phone (in comparison to the phones that were available on this new service) that has the same excellent service and coverage that I had prior to my phone being "old" and no good.

Reluctantly, I agreed to sign up for the new GSM service to get the phone I wanted (the Motorola T720), after being assured by the salesman that if I was not satisfied in any way, I had a 30-day period to return the phone, hassle-free and go back on my old plan. The salesman said that in a year or two, their GSM service would be just as good or better then their digital coverage plan. What does that do for me? I don't care about 2 years from now, I care about now. If I had a free choice to get the product and service I wanted, this wouldn't matter, but I didn't. I had to sign up for a service I didn't want to sign up for in order to get the phone I wanted without changing carriers.

And let me talk about this new GSM service for a minute. It's HORRIBLE! I probably got half a dozen to a dozen dropped calls in the 18 months I had my last phone. In the 12 days I've had this new phone I've had more then that. I cant get a signal in my home half the time, and when I'm at work most of the time. Why would AT&T; Wireless offer a service to its customers that is so inadequate compared to its other services, and even more important then its competitors' services. Needless to say I'm bringing this phone back to the exact place I bought it and severing my ties with AT&T; completely, this includes my long-distance home plan. AT&T; has lost a loyal customer and until now avid permoter of their products and services. I don't believe Sprint will have the same crooked business dealings.

I feel this is not fair, I have been timely with my payments and held up my end of the contract and feel they should hold up their end and provide a continuance of the same service I had at the initiation of the contract.

I contacted other (competition) cell-phone sales/service providers and they said if I had purchased and signed with one of them and that my cell-phone is still under the OEM warranty to bring it into one of their stores and it would be exchanged with a new unit from stock. I have learned after numerous calls that AT&T; wireless does not share that same customer service philosophy as their competition. In conclusion I will be without the usage of my cell-phone for the duration of the repair and yet still mandated under the wireless service contract to pay the monthly minimum service charge without the benefit of a cell-phone.

I avoided getting a cell phone until I found the offers irresistible. But after having friends receiving $1,200 bills I made sure I understood the fine print. The best plans are for local service only. This means if you use them out of the area (or purchase a plan in an area with poor coverage) you will incur roaming charges at around 70 cents per minute! (Ouch!)

I wouldn't even consider using my phone outside my plan's calling area and can use a phone card if I travel.

I also bought my phone at a national chain that I knew I would honor an exchange or upgrade without the hassle one might find from an independent agent.

Armed with all offers available from the different companies, the knowledge of coverage in my area by each company, the technology and price of the phones offered -- I was able to get Cingular to give me their best plan (1000 anytime rollover minutes; no roaming in plan area; long distance included; detailed billing; and all bells & whistles like voicemail, ID, etc. -- all for $40/month!)

Cingular matched a competitor's offer of waived activation fee of $36 for new service. At Best Buy (yes I know), I was able to get an amazing phone with the latest technology (and special edition face plates) for free (after rebate)!

I had a few things to tweak with Customer Service in the first month, but I have been genuinely happy with Cingular.

The other thing I'm aware of is that many of the companies have "districts" for customer service. I talked to other wireless customers (in my area only) to ask them about coverage, billing problems and general advice -- which helped me a lot in making a decision. Some companies are stronger in certain markets over others.

I know that if I live in an area that has no/poor coverage or is oversubscribed, I would either wait until circumstances improve -- or at the very least find a plan that has no "roaming" or a 30-day trial period without any penalties or fees. You will also pay more for less "anytime" minutes in these areas because of the no roaming fees.

I have repeatedly called this company and I have written two letters to the president of the company. I have also filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General. This was referred to the Bureau of Consumer Protection in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Over the months, a customer rep has called and told me that there will be a check at the end of the month.

I just received a letter from Young America stating that I was not a customer. I called and they said to ignore the letter and that I would receive a check in 20 days. Why do they keep promising the check and promote customer dissatisfaction? I have been waiting four months for this rebate?

Tamra had better read that contract carefully.

I have to leave home daily and find a spot to get messages. I can't change service because of the publishing of the numbers, on the resumes, since a new service will have a different number. I have two very expensive paperweights.

I immediately called the company and was told that yes I owed this amount because when I changed plans my free nights and weekends were no longer included. Well, I tried to talk to a manager but was put on hold for 20 minutes or more at a time. Each time I would talk to someone their story would change. I would ask to speak to the person I had already spoken to and would be told that person had gone home even though I had spoken with them 20 minutes earlier! It was very frustrating and I finally told them to shut the damn phone off and I would not pay anything! I lost my temper because I could not speak to anyone with any authority nor could I get a straight answer from anyone! Very frustrating!

Colleen is making a big mistake. She should pay the bill, then sue the company in Small Claims Court to recover her payments and costs. Her present course leads only to more trouble.

So when I cancelled they told me that because I had changed my number that it renewed my contract for two more years. I would have never signed a two year contract. When I did sign the contract it was with Pac Bell not Cingular. I feel I was seriously mislead. After I received this bill I have sent them four letters requesting that they send me a copy of the two year contract that I signed and that I would pay the bill even though I disputed it. To this day they have never acknowledge my request, and I refuse to pay the bill.

When I requested proof of a new contract or upgraded phone they would say things like "it's your responsibility to keep any contract you sign. We don't keep contracts." Eventually they shifted their position away from the upgraded phone story to one where I spontaneously called up and asked over the phone for a new two-year contract. The most frustrating aspect is the Cingular black-hole - any letter that I would write would not be responded to. When I would call they would act like I had never called before, and would end the call with something like "I'm going to send this to our resolution department. They'll contact you within two weeks."

Obviously, I would never hear from them again, and the whole Kafkaesque routine would start again the next time I would call. I eventually just let them send it to the collection department. I had a similar thing happen with Household Credit a few years ago and it took me eight months to get it resolved. It was not worth it. I spent a huge number of hours getting them to correct their mistake. I just don't have the time anymore.Extreme stress and frustration. I'm a student and I could pay the $150, but I can't just throw money around for no reason. I also feel they win if our system allows them to skim money from people by blackmailing people using a threat of a negative credit rating.

We managed to discover the problem and take the steps necessary to get our boy home. The consequences on the measly $103 in arrears to Cingular are difficult to measure, and the $55 per month additional expense of having my cell phone active again is not going to break my back. But my plan was to minimize unnecessary spending until all our other bills were caught up to date, rather than risk losing the house, getting cars repossessed, having utilities shut off, driving without insurance, or telling the kids to gorge themselves at school because we couldn't afford to feed them at home. Cingular's policies put my family at risk. I take some satisfaction in that Cingular has had to reduce its own workforce by 60% in the past year and a half, and hope that they have to reduce it by another 60% in the coming year and a half, starting with the executive offices. I will do my part by switching to another cellular carrier at my earliest convenience.

Hours on the phone was the most upsetting. I now know what they mean about going "postal" I threw my phone across my yard after being on hold for one hour and finally getting someone, telling them my problem and then I lost the signal. The feeling that I had no control over the situation that I was just waiting for them to tell me how much I owed them. I was able to get out of my contract without paying a penalty.

This practice causes my airtime for the next period to exceed my limit of 550 minutes, resulting in additional fees and taxes over and above the pre-paid charge. This practice also leaves the consumer completely in the dark regarding how many minutes to expect on their monthly bill ... my cellular telephone only tracks calls in real-time, when they are actually made, not when they might show up on my Cingular bill.

It seems to me that Cingular should be going back and retroactively applying roamer minutes to any unused time from the month in which the calls were ACTUALLY PLACED, rather than billing them against a period in which they did not occur, and do not pertain to. I have complained about this practice to Cingular's customer service department with no satisfaction (I was treated rudely and laughed at by their representative, Ms. Kara Hannah, for making the suggestion).

It has been pointed out to me that this was disclosed in the agreement that I signed when I entered into the contract with Cingular, and as such, it is legal for them to perpetrate this billing practice on their customers. However, in my opinion, even though it may be legal, that doesn't make it ethical or right. Is there any logical reason why a reasonable consumer should have to accept this type of billing practice?

My cell phone bills for the last two months, and on one other, prior occasion, have been between $100-140, when they should have been about $75.

Two months later after trying to switch the plans the way we'd been told we could do, we were advised against this action because of the fees that would accrue for roaming charges if the cycle had not been completed. I tried to inquire regarding the matter to see if another plan may fit our needs but to no avail. I explained that we wished to cancel the service as the terms of the contract had been totally misrepresented and falsified. Cingular Wireless agreed to cancel the contract but insists on us paying the $150.00 fee, which we feel is completely unfair.

We refuse to pay the fee as the Sales Associate who sold us the contract was new on the job (only a few days with the company) which I was told by the Manager early on after an earlier discrepancy with the phone. We have had the service for two months and have had nothing but problems from PacBell.

AT&T added a page of long distance charges to my fathers Sprint bill totaling $170.27. My father mailed the bill to me because he got so upset he thought he would have a stroke over it. I told him Id call and take care of it. After three weeks, seven Customer Service Reps, two Supervisors, seven solid hours, and a dozen excuses, I'm no closer to resolving this.

I will try to give you a concise version of events: 3/13/01 7:30pm Called AT&T at 1800-222-0300. Spoke to Tony. Told him these calls were not my fathers and he transferred me to Ms Brown. Ms Brown told me I had to order a wire check with Sprint or call 1800-222-3000 to order a wire check from AT&T. She wasn't sure though, if the customer would have to pay for that.

I called Sprint and spoke to Jennifer in the Repair Dept. She told me that Ms Brown was incorrect. I should call during business hours and get Customer Service to order a CMI to investigate the charges.

• 3/14/01 3:35pm Called Sprint at 1800-339-1811 and told them the story (for the fourth time). They transferred me to an AT&T dept. Back to them, I was told that both the wire check and CMI excuses were not correct. They said I should call AT&T Customer Service again.
• 3:50pm Spoke to Monique at AT&T Customer Service. She told me shed have to call me back because their computers are being updated. She promised it would only be 45 minutes.
• 5:00pm Called and demanded to speak to a Supervisor. Was given to Craig Gentry. He surmised that the problem could be with the recent change in area codes. He suggested I call Bell South in Florida at 1-904-780-2355.

I explained that Ive wasted enough time trying to get AT&T to fix their own error. I shouldn't have to make all these calls to different companies and investigate where AT&T made the mistake. He agreed and had a conference call with BellSouth in Florida. Well, BellSouth wouldn't even talk to me because they told Craig that it is an AT&T snafu. AT&T tried numerous times to push their mistake onto every other phone company. I refused to let Craig off the line now. He transferred me to Kevin Morgan, supposedly a Supervisor in Hollywood CA. We went over everything for an hour and a half. He thought that when the area codes were changed in Florida, my fathers was the same number as a Sprint Wireless phone. My father was being charged for those cell phone charges belonging to a different customer.

He said Id have to now call Sprint Wireless.

• 3/15/01 3:50pm Called 1800-339-1811 and spoke to Patricia. She transferred me to the Business Office. I spoke to Coritha there. She suggested changing my fathers phone number altogether since AT&T cant seem to fix this. My father would have to call though, to authorize this. In the meantime, shell get AT&T to take off the charges.
• 4:30pm Kevin at AT&T said the charges of $170.27 will be removed. He gave me Confirmation #NC******. It will be about a week before Sprint gets the order and takes off charges. Also, he will note the problem on the computer so that my father will no longer get these erroneous charges. I thanked him profusely and thought all was well.
• 3/18/01 AT&T sends my father a letter (dated Sunday, the 18th) stating that they have reviewed the charges and they are correct as is! The name on this letter is incorrect and the phone number they are referencing is also incorrect:
• 3/29/01 My father receives a letter from Sprint stating that they will be turning off his phone service if they do not receive the past due balance by 4/8/01. In a panic, he calls me.
• 7:30pm Chris with Customer Service says I should call 1800-222-0300. Ive explained that MAYBE AT&T has the information mixed up. MAYBE these charges belong to the area code they have on my fathers letter? I did AT&Ts; job so that this might finally be resolved. I, myself, called that phone number on their letter and, SURE ENOUGH, the gentleman there said he uses his phone for business calls.
• 7:40pm Spoke to Pauline Chadwick at AT&Ts; Long Distance Billing for Business Dept. She gave me Confirmation #NB*****. She said there's no promise that they will take off charges though. She said shed call me back in a few days, after she gets an answer from someone else.

I asked her for her direct line or extension since Ive gone through this over a dozen times now. Not to hold her accountable (God forbid!), but just to allow me to reach someone who knows the story so I don't have to repeat whole complicated mess again. She told me, No, you cant get me again. Just dial the 800 number. I then asked for a supervisor and she refused, saying, No, there's no one else you can talk to here.

As of this date, I don't know what to do or who to turn to. I feel that AT&T has no interest in taking care of this. If I cant investigate and tell them whom to charge, they will not bother. I tried everything. I cant spend any more time or aggravation on this. Also, I made the long distance call to the number on my fathers letter. Ill have to pay for that; I don't understand why AT&T didn't call it and find out for themselves. They do not cooperate at all though. I feel this is a form of extortion. They can tack any amount or any calls on someones bill, then refuse to look into it and correct their own error. What is a consumer to do now? I feel they expect me to pay the $170.27 just to be sure my fathers phone isnt shut off. After all, he IS elderly and in poor health. I find it hard to believe that they can do this to people.

However, each and every month since purchasing this phone we have either had to call the Cingular office or go to the retail store to straighten out billing problems. We have been and continue to be billed roaming and toll charges even though we were ASSURED usage in the areas described WOULD NOT result in these charges. Granted, each month the charges have been removed and the customer service rep has promised the problem has been fixed (after I spent hours on the phone), but we continue to have problems.

When I have to spend TWO HOURS on the phone trying to fix a problem that has been ongoing since July 2000, something is seriously wrong. I called the customer service office at 4 pm CST on Jan. 25, 2001, and spoke with Frank. After he checked things over and over again for over 45 minutes, I grew tired of waiting and finally asked to speak with a supervisor. Frank flatly refused to allow me speak with a supervisor! I was forced to hang up and call back immediately. I then finally spoke with a supervisor named Gary who saw the problem and promised to fix it and call me back with the correct billing amount. I waited over an hour to hear from him (after he promised to call back in 5 or 10 minutes) and finally had to leave for a meeting that I was already late for. He finally called an hour and a half later and left a message on my answering machine that he would call the next day (1/26) but he never called back.

To say that I find this type of treatment unacceptable would be an understatement! The time and effort I have been forced to put into trying to correct something I'm not even at fault for is ridiculous! I have contacted Cingular through their website (email) at least six times and called their office several times, only to be put on hold. Nothing I have done has helped! They WILL NOT contact me regarding this billing dispute!

Another AT&T; rep. kept forwarding me back to the menu system that connected me to her, where I would have to enter my phone number, and personal information all over again, go through numerous prompts, and menus, only to be reconected back to the same person, repeatedly! I never did get my problem solved, and my phone is still totally useless when roaming. I have spent a total of 6 hours playing phone-tag with AT&T; trying to get it fixed, but to no avail. I have found AT&T;'s customer support to positively horrible, and their product is totally sub-standard!

I went to the mall and talked to other AT&T people and was told I couldn't call the places they said for free. Only one small area. Also to cancel the contract would cost $200 per phone after 30 days instead of $10 per phone per month of the 12 month contract. I was suppose to have 500 more minutes and a big calling area.

I would not have ordered these phones if I had been given the correct information. Now I just want my money back but instead of just taking the phones back to where they came from, I must wait for a certain mailing label from the company and they estimate the time for my refund of $207 at about 30 days. I was misled and even though they had me pay for Fed Ex, they are only paying for regular mail and holding my money up. I wanted to go in person to make sure they don't say there was damage etc. I end up paying about $30 for four days of cell phone use.

I called AT&T to complain and expected to have them gladly remove the excess charges. After a personality conflict with one supervisor "Monica", no one else was permitted to override her decision to help me. I e-mailed the company only to receive another "I'm sorry" response. I am willing to fight the big boys if that's what it takes to prevent excessive consumer charges and the lack of record keeping these companies have in these situations.

Billing 2/28 to 3/28--my bill was credited for a "MISDIRECTED CALL" for $104.13, they were still asking me to pay $93.03.

This is a scam. I will not pay. Another letter went out to AT&T. They were also advised I would be contacting Consumer Affairs. There should be some type of law to protect the innocent consumer.

Unfortunately, AT&T has been refusing to back off these charges to Chad, which are the result of a scam supposedly aimed at adult site visitors.

AT&T then said they were regular 900 calls, but they would cut the price in half. We refuse to pay anything, we did not do this. Every time we called back AT&T they changed the story. First they say they are internet related calls, then when we tell them we can prove they weren't they change the story. Finally they said it was going to investigations.

I called back myself and talked to a woman named Ida in the Massachusetts office. She said we were cleared of the charges and a credit would be made to our account, it would take up to two billing cycles to hit our account. She even gave me a confirmation number. I asked her if a lot of people were having trouble with these calls to Chad Africa, and she told me no because AT&T had an account with this company, and other companies like psychic hotlines.

Just two days ago we get a phone call from Vincent in investigations with AT&T saying they are reinstating the charges. When my husband told him we already had a confirmation number clearing us of the charges, he said that was only a credit while under investigation. Now he says that we do owe the money. He told my husband I misunderstood Ida, and that there was no way that she told me that AT&T even has accounts with companies like these (adult porn).

This is a pure lie to cover-up their poor service. This was ongoing from October 1999 when I got the service until now. I called, wrote a letter, sent various emails and the response I got was incredibly blunt. I was told "the service is not guaranteed to be reliable" and one person even referred me to the terms and conditions of the agreement stating that they were not liable.","This is my only phone.

I am currently seeking a post-MBA job and have been unemployed since September 1999. In spite of the fact that my family and friends have a difficult if not impossible ability to reach me on my cell phone using a few tricks I told them (hitting redial multiple times), I do not know what prospective employers did.

I called my local phone company, Bell Atlantic, and they said they would remove it from my bill and return it to AT&T. So, now my fight is with AT&T. I have used this same calling card for about 15 years and never have I incurred these outrageous charges. I was NEVER notified by either my local phone company or AT&T that if I did not have AT&T as my home long distance carrier would I be subject to these outrageous charges. Can they do this?

They should be required to notify the consumer of these rip-off rates. I use Excel Communications as my long distance carrier and have been very happy with them. After talking with them I found that if I had their calling card the charges for those same calls would have amounted to $38.00. Is there anything that can be done with AT&T where they never notified me of these automatic charges and outrageous rates?

I very seldom use this card. The last time I recall using it, I was in England and needed to call my daughter's doctor as she has a very serious medical condition which requires constant medical supervision. The card was abruptly canceled after my second call to the US. I was unable to keep in contact with my daughter's doctor because of this.

Upon our return, I called AT&T. Their reason for canceling was "unusual use." I was furious that AT&T indiscriminately discontinued the use of my card and potentially put my daughter at risk because of it!

I also had another phone card from my local carrier, Bell Atlantic, which I now use and a card from my employer that I do use somewhat frequently. During my most recent medical emergency this past May, I used my Bell Atlantic phone credit card. I knew there was a surcharge for using a phone credit card and the rates were a little higher, although I had no idea what the rates were. These rates are not published and not easily accessible to the average consumer.

I get a special rate from AT&T of ten cents per minute 24 hrs a day, 7 days per week. I assumed the card rate would be somewhere in that vicinity. Boy, was I wrong. My phone bill amounted to $444.00 for that one month.

I was completely dumbfounded and overwhelmed at this charge and immediately called AT&T because I thought it was a mistake. I learned (after the fact), that because I used another phone company credit card I was charged at much higher rates. I argued that if I go into a Sears store and choose not to use their credit card, I would not be charged (penalized) a higher amount for my merchandise.

I also explained my horrible situation in England when AT&T indiscriminately canceled my card for 'unusual use' and that is why I am very reluctant to use the AT&T card. I protested that rates for credit cards are not advertised and if I had known about the excessively high rate, I would have found another method (perhaps purchasing an AT&T phone card).

The AT&T representative did offer to credit my bill $100.00, but that would need special approval(I'm not sure if I have that credit yet). I still think the bill is way too high and I asked to speak with a supervisor. The AT&T representative refused to let me speak with a supervisor, stating that is all that could be done.

I beg of you to intervene on my behalf. My daughter's hospital stay/surguries are over $100,000 and she has another surgery scheduled in July. Because this was of an emergency type medical issue and was done at an "out-of-network provider", the insurance company is not wanting to pay for it. Her medical supplies cost me over $100.00 a week and nursing visits at $90.00 per visit are 2X week.

My salery is only $34,000.00 gross per year. Because my daughter is 18 (she still lives at home), her father is no longer financially or legally responsible to help with her care. I am financially devastated, plus she wants to go to college in the Fall. I really need help in reducing this phone bill.

I am angry the pnone companies to not adequately inform customers about a) high rates using a phone creidt card; b) can indiscriminately cancel your card at their discretion for virtually no reason and w/out checking with the customer. My vacation was ruined because I could not stay in touch with my daughter's doctor. I was humiliated in front of my family and friends because I was told my AT&T card was no longer active.

Upon conversations with a couple of Customer Service Reps., and a message from a Manager, they have no record in their file of my request for the One Rate Plan and will not adjust my account. The last Customer Service Rep. I spoke with, Terry, said she feels that my complaint is extremely legitimate and she agreed with me when I told her I was not planning to pay my bill until I receive an adjustment. She was going to specifically speak to her Manager about my situation and have her Manager call me back. Her Manager left a message that she would try back, but left me no way to contact her directly.

Last night and again this morning I tried to get some sort of acceptable response through their online customer service, but received the same results. A customer service rep. wrote back that they reviewed the notes in my file and cannot make an adjustment. I specifically requested direct contact information for someone above the Manager level with whom I could discuss my situation. I am awaiting a response.

I called to have the situation resolved and was told that Fredericksburg was not covered, and I would have to FAX documentation to them showing them why I thought Fredericksburg should be. (It didn't matter that I have had service for 8 mos or so at that time and my previous bills had calls in that area that were not billed at roaming rates, or the fact that it was on their web site.)

I talked to 3 alleged supervisors that would resolve the situation, but in fact did nothing. I placed appx 50 calls to customer service trying to resolve the problem. Finally I was able to get AT&T to credit the account for the overcharges, at which time I was told that I would probably get billed incorectly again because Cincinatti Bell did the billing for them. I don't know if the threat of class action lawsuit meant anything, but at least this month I was not billed for roaming in my Home Rate area.

Unfortunately the poor service did not end there. Starting July 3rd, AT&T voice mail system has been unreliable. I called to complain and was read a prepared statement that "We are working on it" It is now July 27 and they are "still working on it". All I want to do at this point is cancel this service and be done with it. At this point I have spent over 2 hrs trying to accomplish this task. It appears that once they have you, they make it IMPOSSIBLE to get rid of them,

I have spent at least 20 hrs on the phone trying to resolve these matters. I have been stressed out from dealing with the representatives of AT&T that are totally clueless of the services that they offer. I work for a large Net company and I am on 24 hr call by phone, the phone service has proven to be unreliable (Often the phone would not even ring and with the voice mail problems I would not know that I had been called) all of this causing co-workers to be agitated when they finally reached me through other means.

Every time the voice mail indicator goes off erroneously I worry that I missed a call and that it was escalated beyond me. I was told today by a representative that regardless of all of the features that they offer, that I should not be basing business on this phone.

We suggested to Mike that if he really wanted action, he should sue AT&T in Small Claims Court. His response was:

What it really sounds like is AT&T has you in their back pocket. Obviously you condone overcharging, and incredibly poor customer service. Thanks for the lip service.