My husband and I had planned a two-week vacation to Canada back in July (2014), and we wanted to use our cell phones during the trip. I physically went into an AT&T store to have the international plans added to both of our phones, explaining to the CSR where we were going and our expected dates of travel. She told me that the international plans had to stay on your account for 30 days, no matter that our trip was far shorter than that, and stupidly, I told her that would be fine.
Our trip ended up being cut short by a week, so we were actually only in Canada from 7 July through 13 July. I paid the outrageous $489 phone bill (our bill is normally around $210) for that billing cycle, thinking that would be the end of the matter. Lo and behold, we receive a bill for the next cycle, which started over two weeks from the date of our return, and I'm still being charged an additional $80 total for the international plans. So again I physically go to an AT&T store to resolve the matter and have my bill adjusted. I like to go in person because AT&T has such shoddy customer service otherwise. Honestly, I have never received poorer customer service over the phone than from this company, and they sell phones!
Anyway, an employee tells me there that although she can remove the international plans from my account, she cannot adjust my current bill. For that, I would have to call the dreaded 611. So I do. I get passed from one CSR to another, talking to a total of three different people, each time having to explain my story from the very beginning. The last CSR I talk to says that he will get my bill adjusted but that he wants me to review my billing statements for the last two months beforehand, presumably so I can bear witness to the wonderful adjustments that he's made. He tells me he'll call me back in two to three hours. It's currently between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. EST. I go home and wait. Nothing happens; nobody calls.
So then I get on the live chat feature of AT&T's website to talk to the fifth person that I've had to deal with. You know what she tells me? She tells me that international plans have to stay on your account for 60 days in order to "catch" all of the possible charges from my travels. 60 days! So AT&T expects me to pay $80/month for two months, plus all of the international data roaming charges that we received because apparently, I didn't purchase a data package, all to have cell service for a ONE WEEK vacation. So far this is costing me over $400, and for far less than that amount of money, I could have simply purchased a NON-AT&T (I hate them; I loathe them.) disposable phone in-country. She then tells me, sounding all the while like AT&T is somehow doing me a great favor, or going far above the call of duty, that everything should be taken care of and that my bill should be reduced. But it's not. Nothing's changed. It is now the next day, and several hours have passed since apparently, this was taken care of, but my bill is still showing the same amount.
Oh, and if you are wondering whatever happened to that callback that I was to receive, it came in at 10:30 p.m. when I was in bed. I didn't answer.
I have just finished submitting a complaint to the Better Business Bureau, and I strongly encourage others who have experienced similar problems with this corporation to do the same. Don't just give up. AT&T should not get a pass for being this terrible at conducting business. And in case any of you are wondering why I would stay with a company that I so absolutely hate, it's because I have very few options otherwise. If there was any reasonable alternative to using AT&T's services in my area, I would have left them years ago. But they have a near-monopoly on wireless service here, so if I want any kind of reception, they're it.
No one should ever, ever have to explain their problem with AT&T's services to five different people, the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and a community forum in the mere attempt at receiving the requested assistance. I would love to have all of my international charges reimbursed for the hassle this has caused me, including the half-hour drive to and from my local AT&T store, the half-hour or more spent talking on the phone with their "customer" service representatives, and the half-hour or more spent in live chat, not to mention being woken up at 10:30 p.m. when they called me three times, the time it took to file a complaint with the BBB and the time it took me to post this here (which is largely a recreation of the complaint to the BBB). At the very least, I want the $80 refunded for the international plan charges on my current bill, which was all I was asking for in the first place.