Just plain MAD at AT&T

[audreyh1]

Porting a number is super easy - essentially painless (now that legislation made it mandatory by customer request).

My main number port from Verizon to T-mobile was a piece of cake. T-Mobile took care of it all and that automatically closed the line on my Verizon account.

Dealing with landlines/cable/physical internet connections - not so easy.

Yes, dealing with AT&T overseas customer service is hopeless. Things go much smoother and faster when I get an obvious US call center on the phone.

 

[aja8888]

I read an interesting article a while back that made it very clear why cable companies, phone companies, etc. have such lousy customer service.

The reason is that the customer has such a high switching cost that he rarely leaves regardless of how badly he is treated. Switching cost includes not just money but also the hassle of finding a new least-worse vendors, porting a number, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switching_barriers

So, it is economically sensible to employ a minimal number of the stupidest, least expensive employees that they can find, minimize the ability of the customer to actually talk to a person, etc. If you're a stockholder you should be happy! Otherwise, not so much.

Recently, I switched from Verizon to Cricket Wireless with my new LG Nexus 5 phone. The switch was completed in 30 minutes in the Cricket store with my number ported and the phone working on their network. It's getting easier these days.

 

[W2R]

Recently, I switched from Verizon to Cricket Wireless with my new LG Nexus 5 phone. The switch was completed in 30 minutes in the Cricket store with my number ported and the phone working on their network. It's getting easier these days.

That's exactly what I did in January, except my iPhone was broken and didn't transmit sound well in either direction during phone calls. So I selected a free new LG Spree phone from Cricket (as a "reward" for porting my phone number over). Cricket uses the AT&T network.

I absolutely LOVE Cricket! I think you will too. I thought Verizon was good, but I am much happier with Cricket. I can hear those who call me, and they can hear me, which is nearly miraculous. I have learned to text (!), and my $30/month includes all fees and taxes so it's less than half the cost of my old Verizon plan.

Verizon was my only cell provider ever, until now.

 

[Brat]

Slightly off topic but when I saw our landline & DSL charge I was shocked, $100 a month.

We have a main handset in the study and one each in the bedroom and living room. Does anyone know of a wireless setup that offers the same features?

 

[COcheesehead]

We live in an online world, and those who choose to pay by snail mail with paper checks run the risk of running into problems when checks get lost, or posted to the wrong account, or delivered to the wrong address.

I can't imagine why anyone would go to all of this trouble rather than just letting AT&T hit their credit card once a month for payment. If there is a disputed charge, you can always challenge it through your credit card. It would seem like your current method of paying your mom's bills is just creating unnecessary aggravation for you.

I agree. My payment is automatic. One less thing to worry about.

There is a lesson in all this though for every one of us that use Billpay. The "remit to" addresses do change from time to time. We all need to check to make sure our payments go to the right address.

 

[H2ODude]

I guess I've been lucky. I do everything with ACH autopay and have never had a problem. If I can I have it go to CC for 2% back, but most utility companies won't do that. I still have them email or snail mail what they're going to take, but there's never been a problem. Only automatic payment problem was my father who lived with us didn't want to autopay for his dial up internet (years ago) and we put it on my card. No big deal. Then he died and I didn't have his credentials to cancel. After several months of me getting A Ex to rebate the amount (and being told to block AT&T from charging me) I finally gave up and canceled the card.

I've had a few times when failed to send CC payment in and got whacked penalties and interest. Both times a pleasant phone call and no problem, it was all reversed when they got my (late) payment. My experience with banking has been that of the many times I thought I found an error on their part, in fact it was mine.

 

[fh2000]

We use AT&T Uverse for landline, and internet. When the bill starts to rise above $100, I call them to see if there is a promotion. I have done it twice now, and each time they lowered the cost to $60 combined. I plan to do that again until they decline me. I will then find somewhere else to go.

 

[Texas Proud]

We live in an online world, and those who choose to pay by snail mail with paper checks run the risk of running into problems when checks get lost, or posted to the wrong account, or delivered to the wrong address.

I can't imagine why anyone would go to all of this trouble rather than just letting AT&T hit their credit card once a month for payment. If there is a disputed charge, you can always challenge it through your credit card. It would seem like your current method of paying your mom's bills is just creating unnecessary aggravation for you.

You need to go back and actually read what I posted...

I pay though the bank... they send my payment electronically... they send all info needed to get the payment to the correct account... AT&T screwed this up somehow... THEY (AT&T) did not want to get the info showing that it was paid electronically.... they either wanted a FAX or snail mail...


You also seem to think that the credit card is the magic.... however, have you ever disputed a charge? You can actually LOSE your appeal that the charges were made incorrectly... if you give AT&T the right to automatically charge your card then it is up to you to prove that the charges are not correct as AT&T (or any company for that matter) will show proof that you do owe...

Nope, I want (when I can) to put in the payments to my bill pay at the bank... now I do have a auto credit to a card for my electricity but I get a cheaper rate in doing so... so they pay me for that....

 

[Texas Proud]

I agree. My payment is automatic. One less thing to worry about.

There is a lesson in all this though for every one of us that use Billpay. The "remit to" addresses do change from time to time. We all need to check to make sure our payments go to the right address.

I do agree with this.... but even AT&T said that should not be an issue since it was sent electronically and never to the remit address... but since bill pay does send out physical checks at time it is good to look...

 

[Texas Proud]

Finally got the proof of payment sent... I had to call a second and third time to try and get the correct info and be on the phone about 15 minutes each... but STILL did not get the correct email



SOOO, I just sent it to a combination of the various email addresses that I got and one hit ... got an email back saying they got my info and it will take 20 days to look at it...



As to some comments.... my mom cannot or will not use a cell phone... I only have 2 choices for internet which is AT&T or Comcast... so unless I can set up a phone system that uses the cell but looks and feels like a land line it will not work... now, the amount of data does not matter as mom does not use the internet.... I only use it to pay her bills... however, maybe I will start to do it from my house since I can save some money....

 

[Ready]

You need to go back and actually read what I posted...

I pay though the bank... they send my payment electronically... they send all info needed to get the payment to the correct account... AT&T screwed this up somehow... THEY (AT&T) did not want to get the info showing that it was paid electronically.... they either wanted a FAX or snail mail...


You also seem to think that the credit card is the magic.... however, have you ever disputed a charge? You can actually LOSE your appeal that the charges were made incorrectly... if you give AT&T the right to automatically charge your card then it is up to you to prove that the charges are not correct as AT&T (or any company for that matter) will show proof that you do owe...

Nope, I want (when I can) to put in the payments to my bill pay at the bank... now I do have a auto credit to a card for my electricity but I get a cheaper rate in doing so... so they pay me for that....

I understand your point. My experience is that when the money is "pulled" (as in the case of using AT&T auto pay) the payments are trackable and there is little wiggle room for AT&T to blame the bank unless there was a legitimate problem with your bank or credit card account. And even if there was, you would immediately see an error and typically receive an email letting you know there is a problem.

When you use a "push" system, where a bank makes an electronic payment to a vendor, there is more opportunity for error, and AT&T will not assume any responsibility for failure of these types of payments.

I'm not suggesting you should not use push payments if that is your preference. But my experience is that they are much more prone to errors and aggravation.

 

[Hermit]

That's exactly what I did in January, except my iPhone was broken and didn't transmit sound well in either direction during phone calls. So I selected a free new LG Spree phone from Cricket (as a "reward" for porting my phone number over). Cricket uses the AT&T network.

I absolutely LOVE Cricket! I think you will too. I thought Verizon was good, but I am much happier with Cricket. I can hear those who call me, and they can hear me, which is nearly miraculous. I have learned to text (!), and my $30/month includes all fees and taxes so it's less than half the cost of my old Verizon plan.

Verizon was my only cell provider ever, until now.

Hmm... My Verizon monthly cost is 29.32 for text and voice. I just asked them for a cheaper plan about a year ago when I was trying to switch but could not get Ting to ship me a phone.

 

[W2R]

Hmm... My Verizon monthly cost is 29.32 for text and voice. I just asked them for a cheaper plan about a year ago when I was trying to switch but could not get Ting to ship me a phone.

That's an unbelievable deal - - never heard of anyone here paying that price for (limited?) talk and text except on a temporary teaser basis, so congratulations on some great negotiating! Still, it's too bad that you couldn't' get any data or new smartphone for that price.

I have unlimited text, unlimited voice, and 1 GB cellular data. Plus I got a free LG smartphone to take the place of my broken and unusable iPhone. And, even though I'm getting so much more, I'm paying essentially the same (perhaps less since I pay no taxes or fees). I have zero desire to go back to Verizon even if they would do some extreme negotiations like that here to give me something similar to what I've got (which they won't).

 

[cathy63]

Slightly off topic but when I saw our landline & DSL charge I was shocked, $100 a month.

We have a main handset in the study and one each in the bedroom and living room. Does anyone know of a wireless setup that offers the same features?

You could use an OBIHAI with a Google Voice number and a phone set with cordless extensions for no monthly cost. That's what we do. I ported our old AT&T land line to Google, so we still have the same number we've always had. No 911 service though.

You do need always-on Internet for this to work, and the phone company may not let you have DSL without a regular land-line phone number.

 

[Lakewood90712]

Slightly off topic but when I saw our landline & DSL charge I was shocked, $100 a month.

We have a main handset in the study and one each in the bedroom and living room. Does anyone know of a wireless setup that offers the same features?

We have a Verizon wireless landline adapter for home use. It lets you use a cell line connected to a standard handset. Has a battery in it so it works for a while if the house power is out. It even works with a clarity amplified handset . The best thing is reduced robocalls.

 

[Chuckanut]

I have Ting and my bills are usually under $30 a month. I do not go to extremes to limit my use to keep the bill down, but I also don't stream a lot of music and video. I do try to not update apps or download podcasts unless I am on wifi. Other than that I use the phone like I am on unlimited data.

 

[pb4uski]

We live in an online world, and those who choose to pay by snail mail with paper checks run the risk of running into problems when checks get lost, or posted to the wrong account, or delivered to the wrong address.

I can't imagine why anyone would go to all of this trouble rather than just letting AT&T hit their credit card once a month for payment. If there is a disputed charge, you can always challenge it through your credit card. It would seem like your current method of paying your mom's bills is just creating unnecessary aggravation for you.

You need to go back and actually read what I posted.......

This is what you posted:

WOW.... I am very hot at AT&T right now...


I pay my mother's bills. I saw where the AT&T bill did not show a payment. I was thinking that it was the timing of the payment so did nothing. Well, a month later the bill showed TWO missed payments.....

So, I call AT&T to say that the payments were made. They said tough, we do not have records of these payments.... get in touch with your bank. SO, I go online with Chase and put in a request on proof of payments etc. Now, I notice that the address to send the payment had changed. So, I made a change to the payment system and make the current payment less the late fee since I was not late. I was thinking that things were going OK....

SOOO, call today and am told that NO, it is not Nov and Dec that was not paid but Jan and Feb!!! That they cannot do anything until they get a payment and oh by the way we will charge you $5 to accept your payment over the phone.... If you do not want to pay that $5 you can either go online and pay OR use their automatic system to pay. .....

REALLY You do not apply my payments properly because you changed something on your end, tell me that I can send in proof and then do THIS....
...

From what you wrote in the OP it sounded like the payments were made to the old (wrong) address and that is why the payments were not properly credited to her account.

Why didn't you just concede the $5 phone payment processing fee and save yourself a lot of aggravation?

 

[Hermit]

That's an unbelievable deal - - never heard of anyone here paying that price for (limited?) talk and text ...

Unlimited talk and text so far as I know. Verizon gets farther out toward my place than other carriers. I still don't have cell service where I live. One of these days I will probably upgrade to a smart phone. It may be when I break down and get some hearing aids. I'll have to shop around for a phone at that time. Thanks for the info on Cricket.

 

[pb4uski]

Hmm... My Verizon monthly cost is 29.32 for text and voice. I just asked them for a cheaper plan about a year ago when I was trying to switch but could not get Ting to ship me a phone.

That's an unbelievable deal - - never heard of anyone here paying that price for (limited?) talk and text except on a temporary teaser basis, so congratulations on some great negotiating! Still, it's too bad that you couldn't' get any data or new smartphone for that price.

I have unlimited text, unlimited voice, and 1 GB cellular data. Plus I got a free LG smartphone to take the place of my broken and unusable iPhone. And, even though I'm getting so much more, I'm paying essentially the same (perhaps less since I pay no taxes or fees). I have zero desire to go back to Verizon even if they would do some extreme negotiations like that here to give me something similar to what I've got (which they won't).

Our airvoice wireless plan (an AT&T MVNO) is $30/month for unlimited talk and text and 1GB of data. You have to bring our own phone but a decent unlocked phone can be had for $50-150.

 

[Texas Proud]

I understand your point. My experience is that when the money is "pulled" (as in the case of using AT&T auto pay) the payments are trackable and there is little wiggle room for AT&T to blame the bank unless there was a legitimate problem with your bank or credit card account. And even if there was, you would immediately see an error and typically receive an email letting you know there is a problem.

When you use a "push" system, where a bank makes an electronic payment to a vendor, there is more opportunity for error, and AT&T will not assume any responsibility for failure of these types of payments.

I'm not suggesting you should not use push payments if that is your preference. But my experience is that they are much more prone to errors and aggravation.

Yes, I agree with your stmt.... The thought process has to be.... do I want to have a problem if the company continues to take money from me even if they do not deserve it or do I want to take the chance that the company will not apply the funds sent from my bank properly....

I do have some that I do have them 'pull', but it is with my CC... so even though I have a chance of a bad charge, I do have more remedy with a CC than with a bank account... I have had many places try and get access to my bank account... some even saying they cannot use a CC... however, when I say thanks but no thanks they find a way to use the CC (our gym)... I know that I can lose a dispute, but at least I have a CC company in the middle of the dispute...


My preference is for me to 'push'.... but I also know that some companies will not allow this... again, the gym as an example... and my electricity provider offered me cheaper rates if they could pull...


Any way, there are pluses and minuses in both cases... and I have seen a problem with pull from the bank that I want to avoid... even if it is rare...

BTW, this is the first push that I have had a problem and I have been using the bank pay system for 17 years....

 

[Texas Proud]

This is what you posted:



From what you wrote in the OP it sounded like the payments were made to the old (wrong) address and that is why the payments were not properly credited to her account.

Why didn't you just concede the $5 phone payment processing fee and save yourself a lot of aggravation?

I also wrote in later posts that I did not think the change made a difference and ATT said the same... it is an electronic payment, so not mailed, and I have looked at the info given by the bank and it looks exactly like the ones that ATT accepted...

I did concede the $5 fee when I finally got someone that was not trying to charge me the $300 bill that they said was outstanding...

 

[audreyh1]

We have AT&T charging Dad's credit card for his account FWIW.

I do put utilities on credit card autopay (pull) if I can - first choice.

 

[JoeWras]

I pay though the bank... they send my payment electronically... they send all info needed to get the payment to the correct account... AT&T screwed this up somehow... THEY (AT&T) did not want to get the info showing that it was paid electronically.... they either wanted a FAX or snail mail...

I do agree with this.... but even AT&T said that should not be an issue since it was sent electronically and never to the remit address... but since bill pay does send out physical checks at time it is good to look...

When you use a "push" system, where a bank makes an electronic payment to a vendor, there is more opportunity for error, and AT&T will not assume any responsibility for failure of these types of payments.

There is a lesson in all this though for every one of us that use Billpay. The "remit to" addresses do change from time to time. We all need to check to make sure our payments go to the right address.

Billpay does not necessarily mean electronic.

I volunteer for a non-profit and am on the receiving end of these "billpay" payments. The system is so fraught with error, it has convinced me to NEVER use billpay.

Let me give a little insight. When you use billpay, there may not be an ACH transaction. It depends on the billpay processor and reciever. AT&T might get it that way, but maybe not! That's a whole different system. If the central processor who handles transactions for many financial institutions can't go electronic, it prints a check and sends it in the mail.

On the other side, AT&T (or my non-profit) get a big old stack of checks with no supporting information at all. I bet you AT&T gets a box of these every few days (EDIT: nope, I read further and found that AT&T should get them all ACH since they are a utility, but the problem is similar anyway due to incomplete information channeled through the billpay system. Read on.) The checks all look the same, but have different formats of "memo" information based on the financial institution. Some are good about passing along memo info, some are not. Usually, it is just a bare check with a name and address and no supporting information.

To make matters worse, the billpay processor will group same "to:" address checks together, despite the "remit to." In my opinion, this is illegal, but they do it anyway to save postage. For my non-profit, it is a mess because we have multiple non-profits at the same address. The billpay envelope comes with whatever random "remit to:" is first in the envelope at that address. So the stack of 10 checks behind may be a mix of multiple institutions if they share an address. It is not uncommon for small non-profits to share an address.

So whomever handles the mail may put the stack of checks in on mail slot and then you hope that the person handling it is prompt and properly distributes the check.

More than once, instead the harried treasurer just cashes the stack not realizing they are different "remit to" addresses. Since banks now just have a reader that only cares about the "amount" field, the checks are cashed to the wrong institution.

This is just one of the many ways things go wrong. AT&T probably doesn't have my little problem, but they have the problem of the "memo" data which shows the account -- if the billpay people put it there at all.

 

[JoeWras]

Did a little reading and supposedly AT&T being big enough will get ACH transactions from any billpay institutions.

It still doesn't change my mind because seeing how poorly the information is presented on the paper checks probably transfers to the ACH transaction too. AT&T likely gets terrible (or no) memo information in order to attach it to the correct account.

 

[Texas Proud]

Billpay does not necessarily mean electronic.

I volunteer for a non-profit and am on the receiving end of these "billpay" payments. The system is so fraught with error, it has convinced me to NEVER use billpay.

Let me give a little insight. When you use billpay, there may not be an ACH transaction. It depends on the billpay processor and reciever. AT&T might get it that way, but maybe not! That's a whole different system. If the central processor who handles transactions for many financial institutions can't go electronic, it prints a check and sends it in the mail.

On the other side, AT&T (or my non-profit) get a big old stack of checks with no supporting information at all. I bet you AT&T gets a box of these every few days (EDIT: nope, I read further and found that AT&T should get them all ACH since they are a utility, but the problem is similar anyway due to incomplete information channeled through the billpay system. Read on.) The checks all look the same, but have different formats of "memo" information based on the financial institution. Some are good about passing along memo info, some are not. Usually, it is just a bare check with a name and address and no supporting information.

To make matters worse, the billpay processor will group same "to:" address checks together, despite the "remit to." In my opinion, this is illegal, but they do it anyway to save postage. For my non-profit, it is a mess because we have multiple non-profits at the same address. The billpay envelope comes with whatever random "remit to:" is first in the envelope at that address. So the stack of 10 checks behind may be a mix of multiple institutions if they share an address. It is not uncommon for small non-profits to share an address.

So whomever handles the mail may put the stack of checks in on mail slot and then you hope that the person handling it is prompt and properly distributes the check.

More than once, instead the harried treasurer just cashes the stack not realizing they are different "remit to" addresses. Since banks now just have a reader that only cares about the "amount" field, the checks are cashed to the wrong institution.

This is just one of the many ways things go wrong. AT&T probably doesn't have my little problem, but they have the problem of the "memo" data which shows the account -- if the billpay people put it there at all.

I never said bill pay is always electronic.... you are quoting us incorrectly for your rant....

I see where you changed your post... I KNOW that ATT is getting it ACH... I also KNOW which vendors do it it that way and which do not... my water bill is paid by a physical check, but all other bills are paid electronically...

Just because you have a problem with your accounting system does not mean bill pay is bad... heck, if every one of those people sent you their own individual check you would have to process them correctly would you not You seem to be putting your groups incompetence onto the bill pay system when it is not the fault of bill pay...


As I said, I have been using bill pay for 17 years and have had very few problems.... this is the first one that involved an ACH... and it was not even MY bill ....