If you have AT&T, check your phone bill

[LogDog75]

I have AT&T for my home landline. I received an email saying my March phone bill was $155.42, double what is usually is. On top of that, I was being charged $6.55 for a late charge. I have autopay for this bill so how could I have a late payment charge.

I went online and checked my credit union account. It shows AT&T has been making automatic withdrawals from my checking account as usual. I signed into my account on the AT&T website and my payment history shows the same thing as my credit union account shows. It also shows my current bill to be $155.42.

I called AT&T customer service and explained the problem. The lady I spoke with checked my account and confirmed everything I said above. She removed the late charge and reduced the bill to what it should be. She then, voluntarily, told me this has been happening to other people as well.

If you use AT&T, check you phone bill closely. If there's an error, call customer service at 800-331-0500. You'll get an AI assistant and just say "Customer Service" and you'll get through to a human.

[flvegan]

1. Any explanation as to how this "error" just "happened" to you and others?

[LogDog75]

5. No explanation was given

I'm thinking it was a software glitch since she said it has happened to others.

[Jacson6]

8. GREMLINS are every where!

[PJMcK]

2. Brilliant

Thank you!

[usonian]

3. AT&T has a few nasty habits, and they seem more than accidental.

Overcharges, and charging for service after you've disconnected. That happened at a small company where I was I.T. manager.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. I have AT&T for my cell service.

AT&T has been putting pressure on me to stop using paper statements and to allow it to withdraw money from my checking.

I've refused.

In a passive-aggressive response, AT&T is mailing my bill late. (I'm in NJ and the billing's in IL.) And I receive it four days before the due date.

We all know the Post Office is currently sluggish in its deliveries. Therefore, even if I mail the payment the very next day, I'll get a late fee and interest charges.

I'm on top of it.

I have the mailing address of the billing. I get my billing online and I know the amount due. I simply mail a check to AT&T by the 5th of every month, knowing it has 10 days to the due date and I will avoid arguing with a customer service rep for the late fee, etc.

[LogDog75]

6. I went with the paperless statements

It reduces the amount of paper I have to file and with the email bill and later shred. I can file it a email folder marked ATT and call all the bills up wherever I am.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. AT&T forces auto-withdrawals if you want to go paperless

That was a change they made a couple years ago as I used to just login and do 1-time payments.

I, believe it or not, have AT&T as a legacy "long distance" provider for my Verizon landline (after all the transitions from Bell of PA and then to Bell Atlantic and then to Verizon).

I don't want ANY "auto pay" stuff. If the provider lets me pay online without an extra fee or stipulations like AT&T, I have been doing that. Otherwise - send me the bill in the mail.

So like I did yesterday, I got a 3-month AT&T paper bill in the mail (the monthlies were too much for them so they bill every 3 months since the monthly amount is pretty small being only "long distance" ) and will mail it the next time I am out running errands.

I remember reading an article a bunch of years ago about a woman who lived alone and whose home was eventually foreclosed on. And when the sheriff went to clear the house, he found the woman dead inside (and she had been deceased for something like 2 years according to a coroner). She had done auto-pay for all her bills including the mortgage and when those auto-pays drained her accounts, the notices started, and eventually lead to the foreclosure, and no one knew she had passed away until her accounts were overdrawn, and her home was being seized.

[Jacson6]

7. I just had a billing problem with Spectrum Cable.

My online bank changed my payment to $1 instead of the monthly $40. Spectrum sent emails and started calling me. I'm on a fixed income so I would pay $80 on April 1. The person on the phone insisted I would lose my service if I didn't pay that very day. I told the kid it is only 15 days late so settle down.

[calimary]

9. Thank you, LogDog75!

Good advice!

[dlilafae]

11. I had AT&T business lines

LD75, sorry to hear that you had a negative experience with the telecomm company. ~ It has been my experience that they consistently gouge their consumers through billing. I do not respect them, and have chosen never to do business with it again. ~ Unfair business practices.

[Jack Valentino]

12. "Landline" ?? What's that ?

Yes, I originally planned to get a 'land-line' when I moved in here five years ago---
mostly out of 'habit'--
but came to the conclusion that I talked to so few people, it wasn't worth the expense!

Now I rely on a Boost Mobile account for my smartphone
which I signed up for in January 2021 at "covid prices" I guess--
it was and is still only $10 a month (but not available to new subscribers)

(The asterisk to this is the account only gives me 1 gig of "data" per month---
but since it gets almost all data from my wireless internet at home, that doesn't matter!)