The Problem
Imagine my shock last night when I got an email from AT&T. This was my first month to have my land line (formerly Bellsouth) and my wireless phones (formerly Cingular) on one monthly bill. AT&T had told me I could save a little money each month by bundling my services and consolidating the billing between my land line and my wireless phones. I expected a little sticker shock, as the land line and DSL generally run around $100, and the wireless also runs a little over $100. I knew to expect the total bill to be easily above $200, and I had prepared myself for that. I was not prepared for a $480 telephone bill though. I got the email after midnight, and I knew I would not be able to talk to a human about it until this morning. But I thought at least I could look at the bill detail online.
I went to AT&T's website and logged in to my account. I kept getting errors as I tried to log in, but I was persistent and finally got to a page that gave a summary for each part of my bill.
$48 for Local Land Line
$43 for DSL 6.0 mbps
$ 8 for my fax line (with another company)
$381 for my wireless service.
Finally I saw the link at the top of the page where I could download a pdf version of my bill. I clicked there, and it took a minute to download my 20-page bill. I immediately scrolled down to find out why the wireless charges were so high. This is what my wireless bill should be:
$60 for the first line.
$30 for three additional lines ($10 each)
$20 for a data plan on one line.
$110 Total, plus taxes and junk fees.
I figure with taxes and fees, and the kids occasionally downloading a ring tone it may jump up to $120 or $125, but that should just about be the ceiling. So where does the extra $256 come from?
- Previous Balance $127
- An extra “partial month” (20 days) on the bill.
- An extra data plan.
The Process
The first call. When 9:30 rolled around this morning I decided it was time to call the phone company and see if we could do something to reign in this monster bill. I dialed the number on the bill and began punching numbers on my keypad in response to the prompts of the automated avoid-talking-to-the-customer system.
The upsell. When I had successfully navigated my way to a human being and told her my problem, rather than addressing the problem, she immediately began to upsell me. She starts checking to see what services I'm currently using and what they still might be able to pawn off on me. She tells me that now that I have “consolidated billing” that I can switch from the Complete Choice program to the Triple Choice program. This is supposed to reduce my bill by about $10 per month, and give me unlimited long distance.
The long distance isn't a big deal to me, because we make most of our long distance calls via wireless, and we never use all our wireless minutes. On the rare occasion that we use long distance from home, I have been using another company that only charges me 2.9 cents/minute. I get a bill every two or three months from them for about a dollar. However, if it saves me $10 per month on the land line and DSL then I figure that's a savings of $120 per year. So I say sure. Meanwhile we still haven't discussed my current bill. The representative tells me that she'll have to transfer me to a third party “verifier” to make sure I agreed to switch to triple choice. She says that after I talk to the verifier I will be transferred to someone in “consolidated billing” who can help with those wireless charges.
The argument. Now when someone needs a third party to verify you agreed to something, alarm bells start to go off anyway. After all, if it was really a good deal for me, why are they so eager to lower my bill and add free long distance? And why would I ever call and complain if everything was on the up and up? So I began my conversation with Mr. Verifier with my guard up.
Verifier: This call is being recorded in case I make a mistake. Did you agree to switch your long distance to AT&T and use the Triple Choice plan.
Me: As long as it saves me $10 per month, and doesn't cost me more somewhere else, that's fine.
Verifier: Sir I need a yes or no.
Me: The lady I talked with said I'd save $10 per month. If that's the case the answer is yes.
Verifier: Sir, I'm sure if thats' what the agent said that is probably the case. But I have to have a yes or no answer.
Me: You said the call was being recorded. I just said “yes”, you have it recorded. You also have what I said about the conditions of that yes recorded.
Verifier: Sir I have to have a yes or no answer.
Me: I just told you, I already said yes.
Verifier: Fine, Thank you sir, have a good day. [Click]
The hangup. I sat for a few seconds and listened to the dead phone line. I've been upsold. I've been argued with. I've been cut off. Where is the part where I get to talk with someone about my bill? I started this process frustrated. Now I'm angry.
The second call. Again I dial the number on the bill. Again I navigate the automated avoid-talking-to-the-customer system. Again I finally get a human, who asks how I am today. So I told her. I'm angry. I called to talk about my bill, I was upsold, I was argued with, and I was hung up on.
The apology “I'm so sorry sir! That should not have happened. That's not the way we do business! I'm going to transfer you to consolidated billing myself, and I'll stay on the line until we have you with a representative.”
The upsell “But before I do I have to offer you [some gadget, I quit listening here] for only [too much money] that you could finance.”
I can't believe it. I just told this lady I'm angry about being upsold, argued with, and hung up on, and she's upselling me AGAIN??? So much for “That's not the way we do business!” I tell her I'm not interested, and she asks, “Why, is it just the price?”
“NO IT'S NOT THE PRICE! I JUST TOLD YOU I WAS ANGRY ABOUT BEING UPSOLD INSTEAD OF HELPED WITH MY BILL, AND YOU ARE UPSELLING ME AGAIN!”
The handoff So, she transfers me to the representative in consolidated billing, finally. I'm probably 30-40 minutes into the process by this point. But this guy will be helpful, right?
The Rationalization
Finally, once I get to this guy, I can actually talk about my bill. I told him about my shock, and about the three things that made it high. I actually got some relief on the least of the three. But with the other two I'm just stuck.
Penalty One: Why do I have a “previous balance?” I am set up on bank draft. They draft my account every month. There should be no previous balance. My new friend tells me that before I consolidated my wireless bill with my land line bill, I was paying in arrears. But to have a consolidated bill I have to now pay in advance, so that puts me a month behind. So on this bill, I have to pay for the coming month, and I have to pay for this month, that should have been paid last month. Is that clear as mud? They tell me I can save a little each month by switching to consolidated billing, and then they make me pay an extra month the first billing period, effectively eating up 2 years worth of what I was supposed to save.
Penalty Two: Why am I being billed for both a full month and a partial month (20 days) on this bill? Well evidently when I was paying the wireless bill separately, it was due on the 2nd day of the month, and the land line bill was due on the 22nd day of the month. So now I have to pay for those extra 20 days on the first consolidated bill. So it's not bad enough I have to pay for two months on one bill, now I have to pay for two and two-thirds months on one bill.
Penalty Three: We added the fourth phone line back in October when my son graduated from Army Basic Training. He bought himself a new phone, and gave his old phone to his sister. She has the new line because he kept his old number. For some reason this bill shows a $20/month data plan on her phone that we never ordered. My friend at “consolidated billing” tells me that according to his records, the data plan was added the same time the line was added. I told him that I specifically remember the lady in sales asking me if I wanted a data plan, and telling her NO. He asked if I got any kind of rebate. I told him yes. He said the rebate was conditional on taking a data plan.
That's just not true. We priced the phone over the Internet. It had an “Internet Only” price. But we didn't buy over the Internet. We wanted to see if my son could get a military discount, so we called AT&T. After we discovered we couldn't get the discount, since the account is in my name, and I'm not in the military, I told the sales rep we would go back and buy the phone on the Internet. She says, “I can take care of that for you here on the phone.” I tell her I want the Internet discount, she says she can add that discount for me. She never says I have to take a data plan for it.
I told consolidated billing buddy that I knew the sales calls were recorded, and I'd be glad for them to pull the call and see if I ever agreed to a data plan. He folded his cards and gave me a $40 refund for the data plan, dropping my bill to a still staggering $440.
Conclusion
I don't know when I've been treated much worse by a company I've done business with for so long. Since we just added a line this past fall, I'm stuck with a contract for almost 2 years. You can bet the memory of this gouging, and this poor service, won't fade in 2 years.
1 comments:
A few years back, ATT was our long distance carrier. We changed to MCI when we discovered that we were consistently being over billed in viewing the billed amount v/s actual usage.
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