This is my fourth or so attempt at reaching someone to try to resolve my issue.
On May 11, My husband and I received a letter saying that our account — account number available — had a balance of $44.84 and was in danger of being turned over to collections. This is not the account number associated with our wireless service, but the letter was addressed to my husband — his middle name, however, not his first name, which appears on the account we use. On May 14, I called to speak with a representative to get things straightened out, find out if the charge was valid and deal with the matter. I gave the gentleman I spoke with the account number and, after asking me to repeat it multiple times, he told me he couldn't pull up the account and that if he couldn't find it, he wasn't sure what happened but that we could disregard the notice. He also told me he would continue looking into the issue and would call me if something changed.
All that being the case, I was surprised to come home Tuesday, July 9, to a letter from a collection agency telling us that the account had been turned over to them and we had 30 days before the balance would be reported to credit bureaus. Wednesday morning, July 10, I first called the collection agency to acknowledge that we received their notice and I would be dealing with the matter. Then, I immediately called AT&T customer care and requested to speak with a supervisor. I explained the situation to her and included what I think has happened, only to be cut off in the middle of my explanation for her to tell me the same thing over and over, that the balance existed, which at that point I obviously already knew, and to tell me she could not help me and tell me that I need to call the collection agency, which I tried to tell her I had already done. Past a certain point, she didn't let me get a sentence out without speaking over me. I ended the call in hopes I could deal with the matter at a later time and with a cooler head, because she offered no assistance or explanation, only repeated the same sentence over and over, while I was trying to talk.
I can explain here what I believe to be the situation. My husband and I had previously been on our parents' AT&T wireless plans. My husband's father canceled their plan entirely, no issue there. I wanted to be transferred from my family's plan to a new plan with only my husband. And I requested to keep my old number. The issue we ran into in the store, however, was that my number had been in existence for so long — more than 10 years because my family has been with AT&T as long as it has existed in our area — that it was carried over from the company AT&T bought out and, thus, existed in a different market from the plan our sales representative created for my husband and I. Our sales rep then had to go through several people to find a plan to merge our numbers, which was complicated because they existed in different markets. This process took two store trips. Eventually, the sales rep was instructed from whatever technical support he found to split me from my family's plan so my account existed alone, create new account for my husband and transfer everything he had done the previous day in a fashion that made it possible to merge that account with my standalone account. This process meant my husband had an account created March 24, and a second account created March 25 that was merged with mine. I was assured that there would be no charge and no issue with creating the new account, that once the process was complete, it would be canceled, as if it never existed. I'm almost certain that is the delinquent account. If knowing the story wasn't enough to believe this, the original accounts were created under my husband's middle name, an error on the part of the sales rep, and I since have had his name changed to his first name on the account we use.
July 12, after no success with phone agents, I commented on the AT&T Facebook soliciting assistance from a representative there. I received a reply requesting I email my contact information so I could be helped over the phone. I did so, and included this explanation, and received no reply email and no call from anyone. July 15, after asking AGAIN why I had not been contacted, even though someone asked me for my information to do so. I got a reply email from a different representative explaining that the gentleman who asked for my information WAS ON VACATION and would get back to me the following day. July 16, I got no contact, email or by phone. Today, I look here. I've never felt less important to someone I paid for a service in my life.
If we had a delinquent account, why did we never receive a bill for the amount so I could address the issue before we got a notice about it being turned over to collections? Why was I told to disregard the notice if there was any chance it would be turned over to collections? The first customer care rep I spoke with must have had some issue or there must have been some mis-communication if he was unable to find or gain access to the delinquent account, but the supervisor I spoke with was able to bring it up with no issue. Why was the woman I spoke with unable to do anything for me if she was a supervisor? All she did was repeatedly, and rudely, explain that it didn't matter what happened, "the bill was established the second the account was created, no matter what my sales rep told me, and that she could do nothing but take a payment."
I don't mind at all to pay what I owe, IF I owe something and it can be justified to me. At this point, I feel lied to and treated terribly because not only was I told there would be no charge for something that there is a $44.84 charge for, this situation has escalated to involving a collection agent and possibly ruining my credit. The collection letter was dated July 3. This gives me until Aug. 2 to resolve the issue in some manner before my credit is affected.
I hope anyone can offer some assistance for my issue that should have never existed and since has become a personal debacle.