Apologies in advance for wall of text, but I really need help here, and I'm at my end.
So over the weekend, I end up dunking both my and my wife's phones in the river (long story.) We are enrolled in the ATT Next installment plans (about a year in) and have combined billing for wireless and AT&T Uverse Internet.
Yesterday, my wife and I go into the local AT&T store and pick out two shiny new phones. We are ready to buy, but are told that we must pay off the old phones first (to the tune of $550). No problem, though, I'm ready to pay.
Unfortunately, we cannot pay off the phones because of some weirdness in combined billing. We are told that we will first need to unlink the wireless and UVerse accounts. Again, no problem... if we need to unlink the accounts, that's fine by me.
Unfortunately again, we cannot unlink the accounts until the end of the billing cycle. So, even though I'm willing to hand over around $550 dollars and sign up for two brand new phones, we leave the store, phoneless, about two hours later.
That night, I go onto att.com and find that the website says that I can pay off the phones and purchase new ones online. Sounds good to me. I fill out the web forms, enter in my credit card info, and submit. Voila! I get a confirmation number in an email and verification that the payments have been received, the installment plans are paid off, and the (non-functional) phones are mine. So far so good.
However, when I go to actually buy the new phones, the website insists that the phones are actually *not* paid off (the opposite of what was stated by the email I had just received.) I chat with the representative, who assures me that I just need to wait a bit for the system to recognize the payment.
By lunch today, there is no change in the status. I go back to the store and talk to another sales rep, who after an hour or so on the phone, tells me that they actually can unlink the accounts even if it is not at the end of the month (opposite of what I was told the day before). But, before they can do that, I need to contact my credit card to cancel the pending payments I made to pay off the phones.
The agent from my credit card informs me that only the merchant can stop a pending payment and there is nothing I can do. I go back onto AT&T chat and am told that the payment was made through a "third party payment center" (?) and that the payment cannot be stopped. I was told to call a 1-800 number (a tricky task when you don't have a working phone), and was then, rather abruptly, disconnected by the agent.
So I'm at a dead-end: I have paid off my phone (according to the confirmation emails from AT&T and my credit card statement), but I have not paid off my phone (according to AT&T website.) I cannot buy a new phone, I cannot unlink the linked accounts, and I cannot get my money back. I have spent roughly four hours in the AT&T store, and about two hours in chat sessions (between AT&T and my credit card) and am not any closer to a new phone than when I started (in fact, I am actually $550 in the hole.) Is there any hope I can get this resolved? Soon? Please?