AT&T customers, check your plan once in a while
AT&T charges an iPhone user with a service that's not available on the iPhone.
(Credit: Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET)I've been a customer of AT&T ever since 2003, when I got myself my first cell phone ever, and I've been a very good one. The proof: I set my bill to autopay from day one and even convinced a few friends to move to AT&T (mostly so that we don't have to use the minutes to talk to each other.)
I found out Thursday that AT&T hasn't been very nice to me.
I called the company's customer service as there was a noticeable increase on my August bill. A helpful customer representative named Gilbert immediately took care of the false charge without much ado. While waiting for him to get the job done, I ran through my online bill and found a monthly charge of $9.99 for MobileTV service, which I had no idea existed in my plan.
I brought this up to Gilbert and we found out that I've been paying for that service since forever (the last bill kept on the record, May 2008, also showed that I paid for it.)
MobileTV is a service available only to select AT&T smartphones. The service is generally included on the new handset as a trial. I must have accidentally subscribed to it way back when I was still using the AT&T Tilt (I moved to the iPhone 3G in August 2008) as, honestly, I didn't recall even trying this; I hardly ever watch TV. The sad truth is I wouldn't have been able to use MobileTV at all for more than a year even if I had wanted to, as the service has never been available to the iPhone.
I explained that to Gilbert and asked if I could be refunded in full for the time I obviously couldn't use the service. After taking some time to talk to his manager, he told me that according AT&T's policy he could only refund me up to three months. "Basically if you don't wanna change anything on your plan after three months, that means you are happy with it," Gilbert added.
I asked him for a copy of the policy, but he told me I needed to go to a store to get a copy of that. I tried to find that online but none of the AT&T's terms of service mentioned anything about the refund policy. In doing this I, by the way, couldn't find any place where the company's terms of service would enforce the fact that customers must be informed on what they pay for, either.
I tried to reach AT&T for comment and further information on its policy, but so far my call hasn't been returned.
Anyhow, what bothers me the most is the fact that when you get the iPhone, the AT&T (or Apple) representatives who sign you up will inform you that you'll need to pay for a unlimited data plan and there's no way out of it. They then go ahead and change your phone plan to meet this requirement. Yet, at the same time, in my case, they didn't remove or even inform me about a subscription-based service already on my plan that I wouldn't be able to use with the iPhone.
And this didn't happen twice, first when I purchased the iPhone 3G in August 2008 and the second time when I upgraded to the iPhone 3GS just a while ago.
If only AT&T had a policy to make sure its customers know what is in their plan so that unsuspecting ones like me won't have to waste $10/month for something that's never used. Hopefully this will change in the future.
In the meantime, if you use AT&T, make sure you check your bill once in a while, because chances are you might be paying for something you can't use at all.
Dong Ngo is a CNET editor who covers networking and network storage, and writes about anything else he finds interesting. You can also listen to his podcast at insidecnetlabs.cnet.com. E-mail Dong.
calls and dispute through Amex to resolve it. The customer service is bunch of morons and have no idea
what their &(&ing computer system do.
As FYI, no carrier is allowed to charge you a termination fee if you are leaving due to service problems the carrier was unable to resolve.
I think it could be argued that it is 'reasonable' that a company inform you that you will default to remaining subscribed to this because most 'reasonable' people will not assume that something they didn't ask for or want will suddenly be charged to them because they 'did not' act. The default position SHOULD be - you must act to be charged for a service. This sort of behaviour where you must act to not be charged for something you didn't ask for nor use is a form of trickery that many companies use.
Again, we should consider what is 'reasonable' in these circumstances. Yes, it is reasonable to expect people to check their bills, but like blood tests, if you don't know what you are looking for, you may overlook something like this for some time and be wrongly billed - especially when not all companies fully itemise bills (especially the electronic ones) so you may not be aware what is being bundled into a particular category.
As for Time Warner, they wanted to hit me up for equipment fees for a Cable Modem and Router. I got a letter from them stating that the charge would start in two months. I called, told them the aforementioned equipment belonged to me. They told me they had no record of sending the letter to me but would notate the account. Sure enough it appeared on my bill two months later making me call them again. At least I got the letter, but it bothers me that they did it even after I called to straighten things out.
So, I guess my point is that when you have an auto bill pay it's always a good thing to eyeball the charges in case something jumps out at you. I wish we could trust companies to not screw you and then do nothing about months of charges when you spot it, but unfortunately companies only look out for themselves.
Well, now that I convinced my family to consolidate our family plans (AT&T and T-Mobile) with Sprint, we're saving about $2000 (yes, thousand!) a year with their employee referral plan. We all have nice phones (Pre is SICK!) and internet, sprintTV, and GPS, and.... you get the picture.
If anyone wants the details: sprint.com/sero and type in russ.s.mcguire@sprint.com for the username and 383 for the ID number.
Then you can check out the plans (cheaper than normal rates, especially for family plans). Coverage is pretty good, though my Dad complains about dropped calls a here and there. Internet is really fast.
BTW I'm not affiliated with sprint in any way, just a happy customer.
Yes, AT&T shouldn't charge you for a service that you can't use, but you have a responsibility in this also.
It's unfortunate that you didn't look at your bill earlier. It makes it difficult to have any sympathy for you.
It is up to you to check your bill from time to time. you said: "I must have accidentally subscribed to it way back when I was still using the AT&T Tilt"
Well you subscribed to it, you should have canceled it... or never subscribed to it.
I cannot be very sorry for you... In all honesty i am just impressed that ATT is going to refund you ANY money.
1. People who auto-pay online, don't necessarily read their statements.
2. AT&T clearly has buggy software that doesn't recognize when services and phones aren't properly aligned. If AT&T's rep cannot see this as their mistake, it's time to switch.
it's not unethical because you COULD use it. lots of people have multiple phones for multiple purposes and switch their sim between them frequently. if you had, you could have used it. granted, you didn't use it, but that's beside the point.
Too many companies take stock and rely on that most people in American society are too busy with too many things to super-scrutinize every little thing, and so ream us for this extra money.
a) learning from an error and communicating that so we all check our own bills rather than falling into the same trap, and
b) pointing out what any reasonable person would expect from a organisation - full disclosure. You'd expect to be informed that this 'free service for a month' that came with your phone will default to 'full paid subscription even if you don't use it (lets not even get into if your phone can't access it). Clearly the author was not made aware of this.
c) a reasonable person would expect to be informed by the provider that 'your current phone will not be able to acess x, y and z on your plan. Would you like to continue subscription for these (in the case that you might swap your sims) or would you like to terminate them? That is what any REASONABLE person would expect because it is reasonable of the company to do so.
d) even those who check their bills, if they are uninformed by the retailer on matters a reasonable person would expect, it is likely they would not understand their entire bill - this is particularly the case when many providers bundle things in order to 'hide' charges.
So on the question of ethics, for those who don't quite understand ethics, yes, it is quite unethical for AT&T to not have fully informed the consumer on the implications of their choices and actions (or lack there of) at the point of subscribing to the first phone (that could access the service), and then the two subsequent iPhones after (that could not access the phone). It was clearly a conflict of interest on AT&Ts part to not inform the consumer of a reasonable expectation which translates unethical behavior.
(although they might try to charge you all the years and see if you bite)
I get an email every month telling me my payment is due. I go in and check every single charge to make sure I'm not paying for something I didn't subscribe to, or if something looks odd I always call them to find out what it is. I also know how much it is I should be paying in an average month so anything above and beyond that I catch.
It's just being responsible.
The author is alerting others to check their bill, he is not suggesting no fault on his part. That being said, a clear policy on such matters is reasonable to expect and law always expects 'reasonable' behaviour - hence, if he were to escalate this to the appropriate consumer affairs equivalent body in his jurisdiction, he would have a very good case as AT&T have acted unreasonably in not informing him of the implications of his actions (including not acting) nor have they acted in a way that was not a conflict of interest.
don't be "that guy" who expects customer service to bend over backwards when you didn't bother to look at your own bill. there are plenty of other reasons to trash at&t - this ain't one of them.
So using the SAME CREDIT CARD they have on file for my freaking Autopay, I paid it just now. Perhaps AT&T had some kind of systems upgrade in August that's screwing everyone over?
Chances are, you're not using either of these charges and if you call them up they will remove them permanently.
Gilbert's kinda right and it doesn't have to be in writing if you ask me. Common sense clauses need not be written. Maybe you were taking your sim card out of your Iphone and watching tv on another phone that supported it? They don't have to know that. Or maybe they should have noticed the lack of TV watching activity and sent you a letter or something? Large company >> impersonal service. Not ideal, but true. Not for us to like, but to accept.
But hey, I work in customer care, I DON'T CARE and I do have a disturbing tendency to be on the company's side.
They should get in the habit of telling the truth. What it really means is that AT&T policy is this since they really don't know that a customer is happy with it. I love the irony in that you had just said you weren't happy with it and they told you that "um no, really you were happy wiht it!".
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by umbrae
September 18, 2009 12:03 PM PDT
- This is true of every Wireless Carrier in the US. They are all rats and snakes and slip things in all the time.
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