Comments on: Our Cell Phone Company Is Scamming Us

By: George

George — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 01:44:04 +0000

Welcome to att , that is the worst company to deal with, i used to have the same problem i used to have 1000 minutes free nights and weekend and every month i went over my minutes even when i went overseas for 3 weeks and left the phone in the US.
just change companies now. i have tmobile flex acount for 49 i have 600 plus my five, internet and text i just pay in advance .no contract
the customer service is alot better than those thiefs from att. just pay the charge for the contract termination and you will save that money in 2 or 3 months

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By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:07:36 +0000

@Kosmo – It actually depleted our anytime (450 minutes) and our rollover over a two month span. I just didn’t catch it until the second month. Since it was only a $30 overage charge I just don’t see the point in pushing this further. Now if it were a $100 overage it would be a different story.

I just couldn’t understand how they could not recognize the number when even my phone can recognize it. It just seemed a little fishy.

By: Kosmo @ The Casual Observer

Kosmo @ The Casual Observer — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:52:11 +0000

I must be missing something. You had some rollover minutes, but they didn't charge these mystery calls to the rollover minutes, and instead charged an overage? Or the mystery calls completed depleted your anytime minutes, then depleted the rollover minutes, and then resulted in an overage? This seems very strange. Did you ask to speak with the retention department? It seems more logical that if they aren't sure about a call, they should err in favor of the customer. The FTC might have an interest. If some of these calls were coming from other cell phones, they should appear on the other person's phone bill, which you should be able to use as proof of origin. You shouldn't have to jump through these hoops, of course. We have had AT&T for about 6 months, and nothing weird has occurred yet. Honestly, my best overall experience was US Cellular, but AT&T had a lower cost for our plan. I've had problems with Verizon landline and Verizon wireless and refuse to do business with that organization. When I encountered the problems (around 2000) it was pertty obvious that that had no method of tracking a problem and routing it to the correct area. One of my worst customer experiences ever. Kosmo @ The Casual Observer’s last blog post..Dan Brown profile

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:51:06 +0000

@Yana – Thanks for all of the great info! If I ever go over to a prepaid phone, I have a lot of companies to decipher. Isn’t it strange how “new” things (such as your phone) just aren’t built the way the used to be? I bet your old phone was a Nokia “candy bar” phone that you had for several years. Those seemed to last the longest and had the best reception. Why can’t they make things like that anymore?

By: Yana

Yana — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:15:36 +0000

I never went over my minutes in my 12 years with Verizon contract service, but ended the relationship when they refused to provide me with a working phone after I signed a new 2-year contract. They did try, but the phones did not work in my home as they had before for all those years. When they sent me 1/2 a phone without a battery, I decided it was time to abandon ship. They charged me a termination fee which I didn’t pay, and I’m not feeling very friendly toward them. However, AT&T’s network is why I have no interest in an iPhone. The plain truth is that Verizon has the best USA network. I solved this dilemma by going to PagePlus cellular and buying a new phone on eBay. I have been so thrilled with the prepaid service that my husband got a phone identical to mine on eBay, and we hope to stay with this company permanently. We actually have 3 prepaid phones (the 3rd on Sti Mobile) that cost us about $27-$36/monthly for all of them. We like our main phones better than digital cameras for taking pictures. We buy our airtime at BabbleBug (for PagePlus) and CheapPhoneCards (for STi) and do activations through UglyEric. Howard Forums is a good source for cell phone info, some of which is highly valuable.

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:28:15 +0000

@Tim – I think the calls are valid because I think some of them were between myself and my fiancee. I don’t really have a need for them to block them or check them everyday as it is a non-issue now that we are using the house phone more. If we ever get rid of the house phone, I may have to revisit some of your thoughts. Thanks for the comment and stopping by!

By: Tim Hawkins

Tim Hawkins — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:28:22 +0000

Did you ask your cell phone provider if they could block calls like that? Did you determine the source of those calls based on the date/time? Can you see that information on their website, so maybe you could check you call details every day until it happened again? The key here is; are the calls valid or not?

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:46:54 +0000

@BMM – I have been thinking about this for quite awhile. Since we really only use the house phone now, it would probably save us around $90 a month if we switched. However, we have three phones on the wireless account that all have contracts on them. That would be pretty pricey if I were to cancel them all.

Has anyone had any success negotiating lower cancellation fees for cell phone contracts?