On 9/26/2008 I went to the AT&T Store #M327(1813 Village West Pkwy Suite 103, Kansas City, Kansas 66111) to inquire about the AT&T USB Connect Mercury prior to my trip to Spain planned for October 2008. I had two very specific questions: whether it would work in Spain and how much it would be. Sales person Lisa Overall told me it would work just fine and the rate would be $60 per month flat fee; I was not told about any additional charges, so I signed in. I got on the Internet, checked my e-mail etc. couple of times while in Spain and then it quit working, it turns out that it got disconnected because I spent "too much money" but I only found out about this when I returned home from the trip and then was able to check my e-mail.
This was followed in short order by two bills for a total of more than $20000
I called the store and the manager Alex Montgomery-Soares agreed that Lisa Overall did not correctly explained everything to me, but since it was alot of money, he had to go "higher up" to solve my problem.
To make a long story short, after multiple complaints to AT&T and spending very long hours on the phone, I was told that although I was given by mistake the "National rate" instead of the "International rate", I would still have to pay almost $4000 which would have applied with the International rate, and that was their final decision after reviewing my case. My contention is that if I would have been told about additional roaming charges/outrageous amount of money for very little megabytes of download I would have never signed for it so I don't know why I still had to pay anything other than the promised $60/month flat fee.
After threatening calls even on Christmas Eve, I payed the bill so my credit rate would not be affected, but I think this is abuse/robbery to the poor consumer by a big company and something needs to be done about it.
After googling "AT&T outrageous charges" and seeing the number of people in the same situation, I am surprised that nothing has been done so far and that all of this has not found its way to TV/newspapers etc.
Jose I. Dulin
185 Terrace Trail South
Lake Quivira
KS, 66217
[email protected]