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October 31, 2009
Fee for service not provided
Last May my wife and I travel out of the country for four weeks. First I called Qwest to suspend my home phone and internet service. I was told I could do that for a monthly fee of $5 only. Encouraged by the savings I called AT&T to temporarily suspend my cellular service as well. I talked to customer service rep that sounded very helpful. I explained my reason and intention to save some money by temporarily suspending my service while I was away and the agent was happy to help. When I ask what would happen and what I need to do, I was told that upon my return I can call AT&T and service will be resumed.
Upon my returned, I called AT&T and my service was established. When I receive my next month bills, I noticed that a full monthly service fee was assessed for the entire time I was out of the country and while my service was suspended. In addition I was charged $35 reconnection fee for each of the two lines I have. In all the calls I made to AT&T, I was not informed at any time that there would be no savings by suspending my service and there was no mention of any extra reconnection charges.
When I called AT&T customer service, I was told that it is AT&T policy to charge for a full month service fee. Remember this is for a suspended service. After talking to a couple agents I talked to a supervisor. I explained to the supervisor that if I was told that there would be no savings by suspending my service, I would have simply shut down our phones and traveled abroad let alone agree to pay another $70 in reconnection fee for the two lines.
When I ask why I was not told about the charges, the supervisor said that it is AT&T’s internal policy not to tell. I found this to be very deceiving and unethical business practice. Since AT&T could not explain to me why I should pay for a service that was not provided to begin with, I was forced to disconnect my service.
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