Anyone else have AT&T billing issues?

[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.

[Crankin]

We switched to AT&T for our mobile service when DH got an I Phone almost 2 years ago. The coverage in our area is much better than Verizon, which we had previously. Never had any problems with the bill. I hardly use any of the huge number of minutes I get, so our bills are pretty straightforward. DH's company pays for most of the bill. We don't text, so I suspect that's why it's so cheap compared to others I hear about.
We have Comcast for our land line and they are good, too.

[Eden]

We solved all those problems by just going with a DSL internet and telephone land line (which we would dump all together if it weren't necessary for our TIVO to function...) which has no extra charges. It is a flat monthly fee with no charges per call and no charges for long distance. Both of our cells are prepaid. Again no extra charges. You just put minutes on the phone and minutes are minutes. No extra minutes taken off for long distance either!

[Trek420]

.... basic service and DSL, or basic service, cell phone, TV services or whatever .... you can be crammed and sounds like that's happened to some of you. Cramming is any unauthorized charge from another company on your telco bill.

Usually on the last page of the bill but not always. Read your bill!!

How do these get there? I don't know. Some say it's Facebook games, others say contests or drawings, from internet cookies or that someone gives out your phone/account number to order the service they want ....

I really don't know. But everybody don't just pay the bill because it looks about right. Read, we print both sides of the paper.

If you've been crammed call the number on that page of the bill (above the charge) and demand an explanation/reversal. Then call your local telco if the company won't adjust or even if they do to make sure it's allllllll being reversed.

The preceding is not the policy or opinion of a company that begins with the letter A and ends with T, it's only my humble opinion.

[Eden]

.... basic service and DSL, or basic service, cell phone, TV services or whatever .... you can be crammed and sounds like that's happened to some of you. Cramming is any unauthorized charge from another company on your telco bill.

Not so sure that can really happen to us anymore - we don't have basic service + DSL, our phone service is DSL (our phone goes into the modem) and is provided through Earthlink. As far as I know the telco firms no longer have any access to our bills.

[PamNY]

I've had really good service from AT&T both in person and on the phone. Of course, as everyone has noted, experiences can vary.

[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.