As a 25 plus year AT&T customer, I just swithced to TMobile. Much better plan, better features and no contracts with tons of fine print. So today I was billed $75 by AT&T for service between 7/2 and 8/1 and I switched my service on 7/4!
Rather than prorate the bill for the 2 day usage they claim that the full amount is due for the month because they bill in advance. Pedro told me its the customer responsibility to know that if they are switching services they need to do so at the end of the month. In addition, I had to pay off the iphone before they would unlock the account. Yet, they charged me a 17th installment even though the7/3 pay off amount included that payment.
When I went to the AT&T store to unlock my phone (another AT&T trick to make it difficult to switch) the sales guy there never said anything about the advance billing consequence.
I suspect they do this to 10's of 1000's of customers resulting in millions of dollars tof profits for services they never have to deliver. To me its not about the money now - its the principle of them treating people unfairly and to me its illegal. You shouldn't charge someone for services they never use.
[Edited to comply with Guidelines]