Anyone else have AT&T billing issues?

[OakLeaf]

Again, this has been years ago and when it was Cingular, but my experience was just the opposite. I could spend frustrating hours on the phone with *611, or I could drive into town and have my problem solved in ten minutes by friendly, knowledgeable store employees. So I guess WindingRoad, whoever you've been talking with, you might try the other...

[WindingRoad]

I been talking to both actually, I went to the store today and once again they cancelled the subscriptions and I had them block any subscriptions from here on out. Geez, is it really that hard to charge people what you are supposed to?

[Karma007]

Yup. My husband added me a few months ago, and I STILL can't figure out where extra charges are coming from.

[Trek420]

sigh::: ok let's just go there. I wasn't going to "out" myself but "hi, I'm Trek, how can I help you?" Yep, I'm AT&T customer service rep and a d@mn good one.

Sounds like some of you got slammed, some crammed and sometimes weird stuff just happens. What will follow may be a detailed explanation of the differences between: slamming, cramming and .... weird stuff.

Now here's the disclosure thingy I'm supposed to say before blogging, posting, twittering .... anything about telco sevices online that the following is the humble oppinion of an AT&T employee and not policy or any of that stuff just the oppinion of a very tiny cog in a big company.

[lunacycles]

Hmmmm. I've been with AT&T for about 5 years as they are the only company that actually allows a signal "here and there" in the suburban foothills of Boulder, CO, where I used to live. No issues, and I am pretty anal with my oversight of my bill.... I kept them when I got an iPhone, after having moved back to NM. Coverage not as good as some others here, but works at home and works at work, so I am reasonably happy.
I also work (in my spare time) for a nonprofit that chose AT&T for long distance on the land line. A sweet Israeli made some calls to the homeland on our line, unaware of our long distance plan (no international calls!!), and we were charged a ridiculous amount. I can't remember, but it was at least $3 minute. However, the charming rabbi talked with AT&T and got the majority of the bill reduced. I don't know if this was due to his charm or the customer service of AT&T. However, I can say: I have had NO issues with AT&T. As long as you are clear on the service they are providing, including fine print, they have been fine by me.

[WindingRoad]

Trek what's the deal with when you merge a couple of plans that all this 'stuff' shows up on your bill? It's been a good 5 months we've been trying to get things sorted out. I hate to even imagine how much we overpaid in the beginning when I wasn't watching the bill that closely. I didn't really think I needed to b/c when my plan was by itself I didn't have ANY problems. We both upgraded to new phones so I don't know if the phones cause the issues or what? So frustrating. I'd like to hear some of the inside scoop on what the deal is? How does ATT generally deal with this sort of thing?

[Trek420]

I don't know if this was due to his charm or the customer service of AT&T.

Sounds like a couple of you encountered the dreaded "basic tarrif rate" on international calls aka "I could have flown there for less"

Again, not policy, speaking for myself, my training/philosophy is get that rerated to the cost with a plan. I'd do that for a charming rabbi or for the customer who was just cursing at me and then flushing, ewww

Next up maybe the dreaded prorated charges or maybe cramming (weird stuff that appears on any bill but was not ordered by you).

[Catrin]

I've had AT&T since SBC bought them out (was an SBC customer) and have not had any problems like this.... but as sgtiger mentioned, there does seem to be differences between regions.

[mhami]

Yes, we have had issues with AT&T as well; however, not for cell phone but instead the internet. It took them months and several phone calls to get it cleared up. We were definitely not happy with them.

[sgtiger]

Just for a balanced view, I've had AT&T mobile for years and have been very happy with my service and plan. Dh goes backpacking in the mountains and he's gotten reception when his other friends have not and they've had to borrow his phone to check in. And seeing some of the difficulties that my friends and family have with the other service providers has made me really happy that I stayed with AT&T.

Verizon was our local landline provider in Washington and I didn't care for them one bit. All kinds of billing issues and our phone service would be out for no reason.

On the customer service side, I used to work at an inbound call center (everything from shopping catalogs to mortgages) and do customer service for a couple of cell companies. One of the things I learned at the time is that most big cellular companies are split into regions and that Xcompany Southeast may operate differently than Xcompany Midwest. Depending on which region you've opened your account, you get routed to that regions customer service center and may be the reason why there's such a discrepancy in the service of the carrier.