A while back I was in a rough patch financially and my service was disconnected to to non payment, which I understand. I had called in about simply getting the account closed, in order to keep the bill from rising. I was told that you cannot close or cancel an account with an open balance remaining. Eventually I scrounged up the cash to pay off the bill in full.
When I did I used the online automated method like I always did because of ease of use and the fact that I don't like giving my card over the phone. done, paid, the account showed zero balance. Good I thought, minutes later I called up AT&T to confirm that I was paid and to make sure that my phone and account were shut off permanently and I would not be billed anymore. The rep, lets call her Gal, informed me that my payment was all the way through the end of the month and that she would set it up to go ahead and shut it off and close it at the end of the month so I at least got my moneys worth. At no point was there a mention of a reconnect fee. I confirmed with her that I was paid up and done and that when this is auto closed I will still be done and my account will be zero balance, Gal confirmed "yes"
Fast-fore-ward several months and I find in the mail a letter from a collection agency telling me that AT&T has sent me to collections over a strange amount. I then sorted through the pile of junk-mail, finding several of the AT&T envelopes. I had ignored as junk mail upon seeing their logo since to my knowledge, as I was informed of by Gal, I was paid and done with AT&T. Reading these I find out that I was charged automatically a reconnection fee along with late payment fee for this reconnection fee. Well this is a big mistake, I'll just call them up and get this fixed before they do anymore damage to my credit score.
So I get on the phone with the first rep and go through the history and the problem. She simply says its a legitimate charge. That since I had paid online it did the reconnect fee and reconnected me automatically. I responded that I was not informed of the reconnect fee nor did the previous rep who extended the service through what I had paid for tell me there was one. Had I been told I would have a reconnect fee I would not have allowed her to reconnect the service. I would have shut it all off as to not be billed anything further and that she did the reconnecting and extending the service on her own. which I only agreed to since she didn't inform me of the reconnection fee. Gal only repeated the same the charge was valid. so I asked to speak to supervisor.
Guy Then came on after a long wait and immediately summarized his conclusion of my situation. Ended by offering to half the amount they sent me to collections over. I refused by reiterating that this is a billing error caused by either the original uninformed rep or the automated system. That when I had called to confirm payment and cancelation of the services and account I was told I had done so and there were no other fees and I would not see anything but zero in the future. Guy repeated his previous statements and said there was nothing more he could do. So I asked if he had a supervisor?
Lets call this supervisor Sal. Sal came on the line after some time and reiterated what Gal and Guy said. I re-explained that there would have been no reconnection fee if I had gotten my services and account closed that day, which was my whole intent in calling back when I did. Again that the only reason that it did not get shut off was that the rep at the time told me since I was already paid up through the end of the month she was just going to set it up so it closed at the end of the month so I got my moneys worth. she repeated her argument that it was a valid charge and that there was nothing that they could do and that I needed to handle this with the collection company.
I decided to change the question and asked sal, If I had called that day and gotten ahold of you by chance and asked to have my account closed and everything shut off, would I have been charged a reconnection fee? she said she would have handled it differently, and that she would have closed the account before posting the payment, that way it would not have been reconnected. since I had paid online it was reconnected automatically and the rep I called had no obligation to tell me of the reconnection fee because any active account with a past due is automatically reconnected and charged the reconnection fee upon continuing services. That since I did no do it that way the fee was valid and there was nothing she could do.
I was in my opinion justifiably angry and admit speaking loudly and a bit aggressively at this point. Because I felt that rather than looking at the situation objectively and seeing that the error was in the billing system regardless of it being a combination of automation and rep oversight. It appeared to me that each time I was handed off there was an agreement of, hey I told this guy “X” back me up here. My suspicions seemed to be confirmed when Sal started trying to dump my call by saying, “There is nothing more I can do so unless you have any other questions I can answer or help you with today...” So rather than have my call dropped and my billing error ignored, I opted to say yes, do you have a supervisor and can I talk with them.
After again a lengthy wait on hold Bel came on the line acting as if she knew nothing. I hoped that meant that she was going to approach this differently. I was wrong. After I got done with my explanation there was the notable pop from being taken off mute that I kept hearing throughout this whole ordeal before she began. Confirming my fears she began with the the same lines of denying the billing error and saying that there is nothing that can be done. even making the argument that it wasn’t really a reconnect fee but a suspension fee. Also that nothing I was saying could be backed up or proved and that almost none of the things I said the other Rep did or said was noted in the account and because of that she cant do anything. She then began the dialog to dump the call.
Again to try and prevent this in hopes of getting this resolved I asked if she had a manager. she dodged by saying you have been through three others and myself, there is nothing that can be done. I asked if she was the manager of the call center then. she said no. I asked to be directed to them. she responded by saying that they were not directly available to take calls. I asked If there was a number or email I could have or that I could get a call back from them when they are available. she said no, there is nothing more that we can do for you, you have to deal with the collection agency we sold your bill to. Bel then proceeded to do the dialog of dumping the call and hung up halfway through her saying the word goodbye despite my attempting to keep talking with her about it.
Why is this not seen as a billing error and why was there such terrible customer service by the representatives.
Through this whole thing I was told so many different conflicting points of information.
First was that I couldn’t close the account without paying the past due in full, resulting in not only further billing while suspended service, including late fees adding up to over a hundred dollars I would not have been billed had the very first rep I talked to long before this not told me the wrong info. Also blatantly lying by saying was a valid charge because it was a disconnect fee and not a reconnection fee. regardless of it being an uninformed rep giving me bad info or a rep lying just to get the call to end and ignore my situation to back up what a previous rep said. I cannot believe a company would train their reps to ignore situations cut and dry as this billing error just to make the money. I can only hope that the seven or so reps involved in all my calls were all the bad apples in the bunch and I simply got them all by bad dumb luck. I also would think that a company build on the very foundations of communication and communications systems would have not only better customer support and relations. But that these communications reps would be well trained, well informed, and better communicators as clearly these were not.