That's even better than the Red Phone in the White House. It's the Clear Phone!

I already get fraudulent charges from AT&T its called a data plan for fricken $30. Of course that data plan doesn't work for all phones on your plan you have to add another...

I just spent an hour on the phone today with AT&T (Bellsouth) trying to pay them money. I had signed up in December for Auto-bill pay (don't want to hear it), and they somehow have decided that they don't want to take my money. But they will put bills not paid as past due. Anyone care to explain the logic in this?

1.) Give them permission to auto-pay themselves from my account
2.) They fail to pay themselves.
3.) They blame me - say I'm past due on the previous month.

I mean how do you pay someone if they don't want to take your money?

After 3 billing cycles the charge still wasn't removed my bill, I told them I will not pay the charge, any of the late charges associated with the unpaid amount in question and I'd be filing a complaint with the Wisconsin Attorney General. They removed the fees immediately since "they understood the inconvenience and since I was a good customer."

@Ingram81: It's considered the customer's responsibility to make sure autopay has been properly authorized and has gone through, unfortunately. So if it doesn't go through by the relevant day, you need to send them a check or whatever equivalent they accept. They'll take your money right enough, don't worry.

Was this on a landline or cell phone?

Perhaps the auto-pay was initiated in the middle of a cycle? I've had auto pay with AT&T for 7 years and never had a problem.

Doesn't the phone company require that the third-party biller offer proof of their authority to bill to that account? I know 30-40 years ago they didn't, and then the rules seemed to change when it became an easy fraud just to charge your phone calls to a random number. Or is the only way to defend your account against such things to put a cramming block on it?

@floraposte: That's ridiculous. How is it my fault if they fail to take the money out? Is it my fault if the bill gets lost in the mail too? Why don't we just say its Comcast's customers fault they suck so bad.

I'm not trying to be snarky, but I spent an hour of my life taking care of something that I shouldn't have to. That was the whole point in signing up with Auto-bill pay.

@everfade: That's also what I was thinking.

I was thinking maybe a landline b/c it was referring to a call from AZ to MN - which would be included in the free long distance on a cell phone.

@Ingram81: I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, just pointing out that that is, whether we like it or not, what we commit to when we sign up for autopay. And that's a reason why some people don't like it. (Wanna hear about my exciting conversation with our local water utility, which withdrew money from my account and then added the payment amount to my total owed?)

How is it that the big phone companies allow 3rd party billers to screw you. It seems to me that by billing for the crooks they have some guilt in the fraud. I guess as long as they get their line fees to hell with us. What a racket. This crap happens all the time. Is there not a hold time or some type of lag that keeps 3rd party billers waiting untill after the customer pays the bill.

@Ingram81:

Try setting up your account on-line, view your bills there, pay your bills there, etc. I never have to talk to AT&T unless I have a problem, less paper too.
Then you can see on the due date of the bill that it is scheduled for auto pay or not.
I am thinking the scheduled auto payment didn't go through for the current cycle. That has happened to me before (due to expired debit cards) and usually if you skip a month because the payment didn't process, they will automatically debit the full amount owed on the next process date.

I had the same thing happen to me. ATT refused to remove the charge. Even SBC backed me up, but ATT refused to budge. They threatened with collections if I didn't pay. After a couple months, I paid the fee and vowed never to use them for personal service again.

This is kind of off topic, but a few months ago I noticed some weird charges on my billing statement which totaled about $21. Turns out AT&T had me signed up for some extra features on my phone like a bid-for-prizes app and some other crap. They took it off without a problem, but I still found it sort of fishy. Just another example of how consumers should check their bills every month.

What? How am I supoosed to seperate this new fraudulous miscellaneous charge from AT&T's regular fraudulous miscellanous charges?

@Ingram81: I'm a CSR at a company that offers auto-pay to its customers in attention to monthly billing via paper statement. Sometimes, there are glitches in our system (both technical and human) that prevent accounts from being set up with credit cards on file for Auto Pay. However, whenever this sort of situation happens, we waive the late fees that are accrued. We can't do much else, but we do waive the late fees. Perhaps you should give them a call and ask for any extra charges that you've received as a result of the error be waived.

@TinkishDelight: or, you know fraudulent

@frodolives35:

Unfortunately by law the local LECs have to accept charges from third carrier billers, unless you specifically request to block them. You can call and request the third party charges be charged back to the third party carrier. You can then dispute the charges that way, because then they seperately bill you. Or, you can request the ATT rep to place the charges in dispute, and pay only the ATT part of your bill for up to three months.

Cant AT&T police their own billing system?

@summerbee: IT-Chick: Thanks everyone. Ive been told it will be taken care of. I just unfortunately had to give a little attitude after being transferred 4 times, and having to call a whole separate number. I told the CSR they would get their money as soon as they fixed the glitch as I was not going to mail in any further payments. They told me it could be up to 3 (?!?) billing cycles before a person was in "the auto-pay system". I curtly told the lady well then looks like I'll be 3 payments late then. She said it will be handled immediately. I figure in an economical environment like we are in today, companies cant afford to not take your money. I can afford to get a new internet provider.

@summerbee: That's what happened to me with verizon (wireless) - they didn't seem surprised that their system didn't collect that month's payment, and they quickly waived the late fee. It was annoying to have to call and complain, but they resolved it quickly.

I fail to understand why these laws still exist. I'm willing to accept that at one point, it might have been difficult for the 3rd party companies to bill directly, but it seems now that it would be easy to just require 3rd parties to obtain a credit card and not tack it onto your phone bill. The problem is, the way the law is written the phone companies actually pay the 3rd party companies, who then have to collect the money they've already paid out. This is why they are usually less than enthusiastic about removing the charges. This is something that needs to be solved at the FCC level, removing the ability of 3rd parties to easily access your phone bill. The real problem is that those companies are very profitable, and can afford lobbyists. Moreover, this isn't a "big ticket issue" that is likely to easily draw attention. So it just sits and festers, pissing people off from time to time, but largely going unnoticed. My guess is people are noticing the charges more now because their phone bills are more flat-fees than a base charge plus varying long distance charges. When you're paying random amounts each month for Long Distance, you're less likely to notice an extra charge. But once you're paying a fixed amount each month, the charges start to stick out.

@copious28:

Hahahaha... Oh, you were serious.

How long before ripoffreport gets paid off by OSP Comms to delist any/all of these complaints like they do with Cash4Gold?

Yet another reason why I am happy not to work for them anymore. They seem to be inconsistent with the training in these areas.

I'd much rather deal with this than a $2300 overcharge due to AT&T CS half-assing my transition to their new long distance plans. Took at least 4 weeks to solve.

@copious28: No, they can't. Thank your local congresscritter, and the Law of Unintended Consequences. In a misplaced desire to guarantee competition over certain services, Congress OBLIGED the phone companies to accept these 3rd party services and bill through for them. Naturally, this immediately became a target for this kind of fraud, and the phone companies are left holding the bag -- along with the misplaced ire of people who don't understand that it's not their fault.

@Heartless:

Last year, I wound up with a couple of charge from "ILD Teleservices," a company that also turns up in Rip Off Reports. After many go-rounds with both ILD and AT&T, I got the charges removed. However, when I inquired about blocking 3rd party charges, I was told that AT&T cannot block those charges by law. Evidently, this is to allow collect calls (or so I was told). Now I check my bill very closely every month to see if someone else is trying to get a quick buck off of me courtesy of AT&T.

I had a similar thing happen to me. Someone (we think it was the person who had this phone number before me) kept adding 3rd party voicemail services to my account. To help prevent it in the future, you can demand that ATT set your account to deny attempts for third party billing. The catch is that they can't do it until any disputed charges are resolved, so if this is a pattern, you have to catch it between instances. Still, once I got this to work successfully, I haven't had the problem again.

@TinkishDelight:

on your bill you'll see a section for it (if they exist) with the company name and how much their charging

should be on the 3rd page typically

What is AT&T's cut on these 3rd party charges? 5%? Pretty sure there is a conflict of interest issue that might keep them from policing this.

Besides the complaint to the FCC, people hit by such scams also should complain to their state's public utilities commission.

My husband's business line got hit by a couple of such charges, and calls to AT&T and attempts to contact the crammer had no effect. A letter to ATT, CCed to CPUC (California's utility commission) and FCC got results--AT&T was directed by CPUC to remove the charges, as the cramming companies weren't registered with the state!

I had a similar problem two years ago. ATT could not remove the auto charge from the "3rd party biller" per deregulation laws. I finally got a one month credit from the party who had placed the charge on my line. But the seven months the charge was one my phone as "voice mail" was never repaid. The "voice Mail" charge was vague enough that, like most other folks, I assummed it was for ATT voice mail service. I only discovered it was a sham when I bought an answering machine and called ATT to cancel voice mail and was told by them it was a third party billing and not associated with their voice mail.

When I called the 800 number on the phone bill I was told by the party who had added the charge that I had subscribed to the service on the internet. The only website I had entered my home phone number on was a site that offered 100s of discount coupons for free and all I had to do was fill out basic personal info like address and phone number. I stupidly thought at the time that since no credit card or bank info was being requested that it would be safe to give this info. That is how they got my info and simply sent a 3rd party billing info to ATT who accepted it as they were required to do by law. A search on the internet verified it was done this way many others who had been misled on the internet when requesting free coupons.

I now know to put a non existent phone number on any website request that asks for my home phone number. And, by the way, I never received any free coupons!

This is also why all the fraudulent ringtone websites are able to thrive. Enough people stupidly put in their cellphone numbers and - voila - they have a $19.95 3rd party charge that shows up every month buried in the fine print.

Hahaha....I've been screwed by AT & T twice now. The first time was for some calls to France. I called AT & T to dispute the charges, telling them that I don't know anyone in France and that I had no reason to call France and that I did not call France. After some wrangling, the rep agreed to remove the charges.

And just recently, on a AT & T bill, there were about $30.00 worth of collect phone call charges from a 3rd party biller. I Googled the company and it turns out that this company does the billing for collect phone calls made from jails and prisons! I don't know anyone in jail or prison (that I know of). I certainly did not authorize collect phone calls on that date. As a matter of fact, I had made a long-distance call at the same time that one of these collect calls were made. I haven't yet called to dispute the charges because I know it's just going to be a hassle. But I guess I should, since it is $30.00. AT & T (or any other phone company) should go f**k themselves!

Had the same thing happen to us, shortly before Christmas. We called the 3rd party company, to no avail. Called ATT, and they told us to pay our bill minus that charge. Next month, all was resolved. It must be a regional thing.

Hi every one ,plz forward me the complaints u have with att and i ll look into it and see wat i can do for u . mail me the compelete issue with your phone numbers and i can definately try to help u with watever i can .or atleast try to suggest u a few things which will stop these kind of errors happening in future i ll also suggest u to keep ur phone bills low . u can mail me at billhelpatt@aol.com.You can also find me online some times so u can chat with me about ur problems using aim messanger..

@Christopher Carey: You're talking about your wireless bill. This story is about wire line bills.

BTW, your data plan is so you can surf the web on your cell phone and not get charge $10 every time you connect to the web.

Besides the complaint to the FCC, people hit by such scams also should complain to their state's public utilities commission. My husband's business line got hit by a couple of such charges, and calls to AT&T and attempts to contact the crammer had no effect. A letter to ATT, CCed to CPUC (California's utility commission) and FCC got results--AT&T was directed by CPUC to remove the charges, as the cramming companies weren't registered with the state!