Last Updated on January 27, 2022
Or then again, maybe you will, given my luck lately for dealing with extraordinary levels of ineptitude of companies that are clearly letting the computers that do their thinking for them run completely amok.
I’ve just been overbilled by the New AT&T. No, it isn’t a joke. I only wish that it were.
For those keeping score, here’s the recap, updated to this latest snafu:
- In mid-July, I signed up for “Auto Draft” service, which allows the New AT&T to automatically debit the payment due from my checking account on the due date. One less thing for me to worry about, assuming they don’t screw things up. I received an email from them thanking me for enrolling. So they clearly knew I had done so.
- In August, I got an email saying my payment was past due. I went to the website and saw that the payment was due. So I attempted to pay it online and a box popped up warning me that since I was already enrolled in Auto Draft, I should not proceed with a payment because doing so could result in my checking account being debited twice. So I followed their website’s instructions, and waited for them to just debit the money as I had previously instructed.
- They didn’t. My telephone service was suspended. I called — on my cell phone — and explained why I hadn’t paid, and reminded them that they had my account info: just debit the payment and be done with it! They informed me that it takes at least a full month for Auto Draft to kick in, no matter what the website says. So I paid. Phone was back on that day.
- September’s payment was due on Wednesday, Sept. 10. They authorized a debit from my account on Thursday, Sept. 4th for the amount due plus a $30 reconnect fee for my prior month’s “late” payment. On Saturday, Sept. 6th, they suspended my internet service for “non-payment,” despite the fact that they had already authorized the auto draft two days before that for a payment that still wasn’t due for another four days. When I called and pointed all of this out, they told me there was nothing I could do until the billing department returned the following Monday. I asked for a supervisor, and my internet was restored that Sunday.
- Fed up with two months’ worth of foolishness, I cancelled my home telephone service on Tuesday, Sept. 9th.
- At the end of September, I received October’s bill, in which they charged me $31.40 for long distance service they clearly knew I didn’t owe, since the local telephone service that would utilize long distance was no longer active. Somehow, their computer system was able to reason that I shouldn’t be billed for local service, but couldn’t quite jump to the same logic when it came time for long distance. I called, and they assured me that they’d credit not only the erroneous long distance service, but the $30.00 reconnect fee they charged me for “non-payment” despite my being enrolled in Auto-Pay at the time that fee was erroneously billed.
My high-speed internet service runs $47.95 a month, plus a few taxes and minor fees. Nothing like the fees they tack on to a telephone line, but I expect that to come any day now. So at most, my bill ought to be $51 or so.
When you know what they’re supposed to charge you, it becomes pretty easy to spot an error.
Figuring that I should owe about $51, and that they owe me the $30 reconnect fee they billed me in September, I was expecting a bill for about $21. I’m lousy at math, but even I can get that far.
So imagine my shock — or lack thereof — when I get my bill for November and see that the amount due is $79.66.
It appears that they credited me $31.40, from the previous month, which would take care of either the long distance or the reconnect fee, but clearly not both, and only charged me $51.11.
But they have billed me $31.71 for another month of long distance service. And they still know that I no longer have that telephone service because they still didn’t bill me for local service. And if I try to make a call on that line, nothing happens.
I think it’s going to be a long day.  Not necessarily for me, but for the operators at the New AT&T who get to sit through this sordid mess.
Again.
