AT&T: Rebuilding a Monopoly and Crushing Consumer Rights

In 1983 AT&T had a near monopoly in the telecommunications market, but was forced to divest itself into twenty-two "Baby Bells" on January 1, 1984, after a landmark decision by U.S. District Court Judge Harold Greene. The deregulation was supposed to benefit consumers by increasing competition after AT&T had been found to abuse its near monopolistic status. AT&T has worked hard to regain its former status and has been able to re-acquire some of the Baby Bells, among them Bellsouth. The final approval in Kentucky for the acquisition of Bellsouth Kentucky by AT&T came in the summer of 2007. AT&T immediately began to integrate Bellsouth KY customers in the AT&T system, which did not work out without problems, as my family was about to find out.

A quick web search reveals many horror stories with AT&T's customer service reps and their "do not care" attitude. AT&T seems to think that customer problems are never AT&T's fault. They convey a message of "AT&T is always right!" and thereby essentially exhibit the attitude of a company that knows they have a monopoly in the market and the customers have no choice but to do as they say or have no service at all.

Well, here is our extensive experience with AT&T's billing issues, lack of customer service, and general unwillingness to deal with problems on their end. It took us many hours over several months to resolve our billing and phone line related problems with them. Many of their reps simply stonewalled us. It's only thanks to a select few reps, mostly from the old Bellsouth, and our persistence that the issue was eventually resolved. We never found out what exactly the problem was, nor did AT&T ever admit the problem was on their end. Needless to say, we receive an apology. I have to note, the spelling of some names might be off as some reps refused to spell out their names.

Through the acquisition of Bellsouth KY, AT&T became our new local provider. primus (not affiliated with AT&T) is our carrier for all long-distance type of calls.

On July 12, 2007, we received our first AT&T bill. For local service it should have been under $30, yet it was over $70! We found the extra charges under "Other Company Charges" with AT&T Corp listed as "other company." They charged more than $40 for five long-distance calls made in the second half of June totaling a combined 18 minutes! At the primus rate the total should have been only about a dollar, billed separately by primus. We had not authorized a switch to AT&T long-distance, nor did we dial any special numbers or give otherwise authorization to have our calls put through on the AT&T network. Therefore, in our opinion, AT&T had no right to bill us for those calls.

I dialed the number listed on the bill for AT&T Corp, 1-800-222-0300. I reached a customer service center in India, which was confirmed by the person I spoke to, "Piren Lamb," who had a strong accent. He indicated the charges were correct and refused to take them off my bill stating he was not authorized to do so. According to him our local service provider (AT&T) had routed the calls to the AT&T network.

I asked for the supervisor, who introduced himself as "Peter Clay" and also had a strong accent. He insisted if I dialed the numbers, I have to pay what they charge. It would not matter that AT&T is not my long-distance provider. He told me there is nobody above him to talk to and if I'm not happy with his decision, I should try the local provider. I informed him that would also be AT&T, which he represents. Mr. "Clay" insisted the charges could not be removed, period. After I informed him that I would inform the FCC and the Attorney General about this, he laughed and said, "Go ahead, take it up with the FCC and the Attorney General. It will go nowhere." Upon questioning he also admitted "Peter Clay" is not his real name, which he refused to provide.

Next I tried the local service provider at 1-888-757-6500, which is "Bellsouth now the new AT&T." I talked to "Stan," who instructed me to contact AT&T Corp. I told him they had refused to do anything and had insisted it was the local company's fault, which is responsible for the call routing. "Stan" put me through to "Veronica Smith," who explained that when the regular long-distance provider's network is full, it is standard practice to automatically switch customers to another provider's network, which in this case was AT&T. It is done to ensure the call goes through. Eventually she acknowledged that this is not primus' but indeed just an AT&T standard practice. She agreed to take the charges off and reassured me it would not happen again.

On the very same day, we informed primus about the billing problem. They had no knowledge about our calls having been re-routed nor that it is a standard practice to re-route calls from a busy network. They don't do that. A complaint was opened.

On July 18^th I checked our bill online to find only a minor adjustment of about $6 had been made. It did not match any of the charges on the bill. I called the local AT&T again, where I spoke to "Misty." She could not tell me, what the adjustment was for. "Misty" said she could not take off the remaining amount. I would have to call AT&T Corp. I explained that AT&T Corp had previously refused to help and had pushed responsibility to the local AT&T. She simply put me through to AT&T Corp whose rep did not state his name and hung up as soon as I had briefly explained my problem.

Irritated I dialed the number for AT&T Corp and was connected to "Benjamin." After I explained the problem, he stated it is not their policy to reverse charges and neither he nor anybody else would do anything about it. He was able to tell me that the adjustment was for a call made on July 1^st. Apparently we had incurred another $20 plus in charges in the new billing period. He would not provide further details and claimed he could only see July calls. After little further discussion he stated we could talk about this forever but it would change nothing. He would not remove the charges. Then he simply hung up.

It appeared there was nobody willing to do anything about this ongoing problem. We filled out an FCC online complaint form. Somebody had to check into this.

Still, I feared new exorbitant charges and a disconnection of my phone line because I could not pay such a horrendous bill. I called the local AT&T again. I spoke to Mr. "Simon," who insisted I talk to AT&T Corp. I informed him that they insisted it is the local provider's responsibility. Mr. "Simon" conferenced in "Claudia" from AT&T Corp, who reiterated that the local provider routed the calls to AT&T. It would be up to the local provider to remove those charges. She attempted to address this to "Mr. Simon," who had hung up. "Claudia" restated that according to AT&T policy the charges could not be removed. She forwarded my call to her supervisor "Fred Dillon."

Mr. "Dillon" amazingly enough insisted our problem was the fault of primus, which according to him had routed the calls to AT&T. I informed him that primus had no knowledge this was taking place and it was not their policy to route calls on a competitor's network. I added that all other reps had insisted it was the local provider's fault, which is AT&T. Mr. "Dillon" acknowledged that the AT&T policy not to remove charges on direct dialed calls also applies to the local AT&T, but insisted I call primus to have the charges removed. I asked why on earth primus would remove charges from another company's bill, especially if it was not their mistake but AT&T's, which without any approval re-routed our calls. He insisted primus was behind the switch. Further into the discussion, it was again the local provider's fault. When I reminded him that this is AT&T, he just reiterated AT&T's policy not to remove charges on customer-initiated calls. I asked, "There is nothing I as the customer can do about it?" He confirmed this.

Now I was really frustrated. I informed Mr. "Dillon" that in my opinion this is indirect "slamming." Officially my service provider is still primus, but unofficially they simply route all my calls to and bill them through AT&T. Just to make it less obvious, it's being billed under "other company charges" instead of "long-distance." On paper it appears legal, but obviously it has to be illegal, because the customer is left defenseless and is forced to pay. Not surprisingly Mr. "Dillon" insisted that this is not slamming but simply AT&T's policy to charge customers for direct dialed calls on their network.

There was no reasoning with Mr. "Dillon." Finally I informed him I had never agreed to have my calls routed to their network. Since it is their policy to charge a customer, even if the mistake is AT&T's fault, and there is no effort made to stop the re-routing business and to remedy the situation, I would now have to take matters to the next level and inform the FCC and Attorney General. Suddenly Mr. "Dillon" mentioned I could simply dispute the bill. He provided me with the information needed as this is not provided on the bill or the website, which only list information on how to challenge local and local toll charges. Mr. "Dillon" advised me to mail my dispute to AT&T Dispute, PO BOX 944078, Maitland, FL 32794, and let me know he could not do anything else for me.

Still, disputing my bill would not stop the ongoing call-routing problem. Wondering, if there might be a router problem, I called the local AT&T and spoke to "Misty" again. She restated she could not remove the charges. I told her that it appears phone calls continue to be routed to the AT&T network and that I want that to stop, now! Clearly, there was an error made during the switchover from Bellsouth to AT&T that caused this ongoing problem. She told me I would have to talk to the repair department. Before she transferred my call I inquired, if she would be willing to remove the charges, if this was clearly their mistake. She stated, in that case she would remove the charges.

I was transferred to the repair department. After finding my way through the phone tree, I reached "Shannon." She found our situation very odd, but sympathized. After looking into it she told me there seems to be something wrong and she would have to transfer me to Ms. "Bush." "Catina Bush" checked my long-distance provider and stated it is AGSI. I told her, we had primus, which has many networks, but I wasn't sure, if this was one of them. She eventually concluded it was an error on their side and claimed she had fixed it. She told me, she would remove all the charges from the bill. When I inquired about the new charges, she informed me she would have no access to those until they are put through by AT&T Corp for the monthly bill. I would have to call back, when I get that bill. When I checked my online bill the next day, the charges had indeed been removed

Soon we noticed our next problem. People who had attempted to contact us by phone complained that it just rang and rang. It never rang on our end, nor did the answering machine pick up. Sometimes it would ring once and then nothing more. Thus, on July 30^th, I contacted AT&T Residential Repair. I spoke to "Lisa," who told me she would check the line and call back with the result. Since our phone would not ring, I gave her my cell number for the call back. She called me back on my cell within minutes to tell me the line was working fine. I inquired if she had tried to call on our landline, because the phone did not ring. She said, "But you picked up just fine." I informed her she had dialed my cell. She told me to hold while she would try our landline again. It only rang once. "Lisa" suggested the problem would be with my cordless phone. I would need a new one. I told her our other phone is not cordless and without extra electrical features. It won't ring either. She said, she could send somebody to check it out, but we would have to pay for that. I told her we would consider our options and call back.

After this our phone sometimes rang properly, even the answering machine sometimes picked up. But mostly it still was just one ring or nothing. We learned to dash to the phone with the hope to still catch the caller before he or she was disconnected again. We did not want to pay for somebody to check the lines, which for outside lines should have been free anyway. We knew the inside lines were working fine.

On August 8^th I checked the new AT&T bill online. It reflected over $200 in new AT&T Corp charges, including for calls made after they supposedly fixed the routing problem on July 18^th. Obviously the problem had not been fixed.

I called the local AT&T again. Ms. "Mills" informed me there were no notes on my account regarding my previous calls and a problem that might have been fixed. She also told me her supervisor would have to correct such a high charge. She connected me to Residential Repair to find out, why the problem had not been fixed.

"Sarah" in Residential Repair told me the carrier code they have on our account is 0132MPC. She sent me to customer service to correct the bill.

"Jeff" in customer service looked up the bill and told me that the "old AT&T" has to take care of this. I explained the problem we had with the last bill and how it was resolved. He insisted on connecting me to the "old AT&T". After my last experience of being referred back to the local AT&T, I made him promise to stay on the line so the issue could be discussed on both sides. He promised, but did not stay on the line.

"Nancy" with the "old AT&T" only saw August charges and was only willing to adjust $5.11. I made her look further back. Even though she eventually found the first problem call for the new bill, she claimed it was only $0.79 and not the over $5 we were billed. She also claimed she only saw a few calls and definitely not the number of calls I had listed on my bill. She transferred me to a "specialist" to investigate the bill.

The "specialist" named "Murphy" claimed, he could only look at August. Then he found the last call on the list from July 21st, also at a much lower rate than my bill reflected. He said he would talk to his supervisor "Mr. Polesle." When he came back he told me I would have to send the bill to AT&T Global Imaging Center, PO BOX 16795, Mesa, AZ 85211, or fax it to 1-877-650-1439, Attn: Billing Department. They would look at it and adjust it. When I asked for the spelling of the supervisor's name, he spelled out "Michael Jackson." Frustrated, I did not inquire about the sudden name change. "Murphy" insisted I take the "send in the bill" route and would not provide me with another option.

I decided to call primus to check the carrier code. "Nadel" from primus informed me the carrier code is a Vic code and it is 0132MPZ. He also let me know that since the middle of June only an international call shows up on their list for our account, nothing else. I was relieved to find our international calls were still routed properly.

Having the correct carrier code, I contacted AT&T Residential Repair again and spoke to "Doug." He told me, if I can make a call down the block without a problem, then there would not be a switch problem. It did not interest him that I did not have a dialing problem and only local and national long-distance was routed incorrectly. He insisted I talk to AT&T Long Distance and connected me to the "New AT&T long-distance CRC."

"Gene" from the "New AT&T long-distance CRC" told me this would be a problem for residential repair, not long distance. I have to say, "Gene" is a great customer service rep and tried to help me to the best of his abilities. He connected me to the "old AT&T," now "AT&T Legacy," to investigate the problem with the repair department there. He even stayed on the line through the next few connections from rep to rep.

"Christa" at AT&T Legacy explained that during the switchover we were not switched to our old long-distance provider but somehow to the "old AT&T" (billed as "AT&T Corp"). The correct switch should have been made latest after my last complaint. She connected us to AT&T Legacy to find out, why the switch had not been made. I silently wondered why she had introduced herself as being with AT&T Legacy. With all these name changes, do even they themselves not know whom they work for?

"Kimberly" at AT&T Legacy confirmed that we are not an AT&T long-distance customer. She referred me back to the local AT&T. "Gene" (still on the line!) told her that I originally was transferred from there. She was unable to further help us. "Gene" said, he would try to sort it out with Residential Repair. He promised to call me back.

"Gene" called back with "Linda" from "AT&T Legacy" on the line. "Linda" confirmed we are not a customer with them and she could not help me. She said we are with the new AT&T, which "Gene" denied. She also saw all the previous complaint calls and claimed the fix to the system was made on July 21st. I explained that I had been told there are already August charges. She understood the billing issue. However, she stated she only sees one call for $0.79, which does not match anything I have. She told me I need to fax the bill in (same number as above, now attention to AT&T Global Imaging Center) and then call AT&T Corp. The billing difference seems to happen, when they send the bill to the local provider, who then puts in the new rate. "Linda" simply said, "It's all because they have not switched over everything completely." She acknowledged this should not happen, especially since according to her records things were fixed on July 21st. She told me an adjustment would be made once they would see the bill.

"Gene" noticed that we were getting nowhere with the other AT&T reps. He told me he would try to dig a little deeper to find out, why the switch did not happen correctly. He also told me Residential Repair had confirmed the correct carrier code. It all looks like it's being sent to the right network, but there seems to be a problem along the line. He wished me good luck with the billing issue and was sorry to be unable to assist with that.

We faxed the bill to the number provided to us and included a cover letter informing them the FCC had been notified of last month's billing problems and would be notified again of this month's problems. In addition, the KY Attorney General would be notified, if the issue would not be resolved.

Later, as instructed by "Linda," I called AT&T Corp where I spoke to "Oscar," who claimed to be a Senior Billing Assistant for AT&T. Again I was told the local provider is responsible for removing the charges. He also inquired repeatedly, if we had another phone line besides this one. We only have one landline and an Earthlink DSL line, which is billed separately. I told him that "Linda" told me to fax the bill and call AT&T Corp. He insisted the local provider, AT&T KY, has to take care of it, because he couldn't see the bill or any of those charges, and wanted to transfer me to them. I informed him they would just send me back. He insisted AT&T KY has to make the changes. Then he suddenly became flirty and told me my voice is very beautiful. I bit my tongue and made no comment fearing I might have responded with a couple not so ladylike insults. After about fifteen seconds of dead air he said he would connect me now, but before he would do that, he attempted to sell me AT&T long distance. I just said, "With all the problems I'm having, NO WAY!" He connected me to AT&T KY (the former Bellsouth KY).

Ms. "Harris" introduced herself as an "AT&T Residential Customer Service Representative." She was the second helpful rep I encountered. She, too, stated "AT&T Legacy" would be responsible for taking the charges off our bill. I explained "AT&T Legacy" had just forwarded me to her. I also told her about all the billing issues we had experienced in the last two months. Ms. "Harris" looked into the matter and eventually told me she would talk to repair for me while I was on the line. Later she informed me that the line could not be checked with me being on the phone but she did not want to hang up on me, because she would not be able to call me back. She made several attempts to fix the problem and eventually put me on a fifty-five minute hold to try and get a hold of somebody at "AT&T Legacy." Ms. "Harris" came back on with "Carlos Cooper" from "AT&T Legacy," who claimed to be a "Billing Supervisor."

"Carlos Cooper" inquired whether I was dialing any special access codes or the like. I explained that I as usual had dialed 1-area code-number. He claimed primus was switching us over to AT&T, but then also immediately stated it is the local providers fault, which Ms. "Harris" (still on the line!) insisted is not the case as on their end everything is correct. I explained that the charges until July 18^th should at least be taken off the bill, because that is the time frame for which repair acknowledged they had switched us to the wrong network. But "Carlos Cooper" simply insisted he could not remove them. He repeated the AT&T mantra "if the customer dials, the customer pays, no matter what," and reiterated the AT&T policy not to remove any charges, period. He offered no recourse other than to take it up with the local provider or primus.

After Ms. "Harris" realized that "Carlos Cooper" was of no help at all, she let him off the line. Then she agreed to take the $200+ in charges off our bill pending further resolution. She also instructed me to call primus to make sure we do not get routed to the AT&T network anymore. At this point I was just glad she took the charges off and did not want to argue with her that primus was not involved in the re-routing of our calls. Ms. "Harris" also promised to investigate further on her end to get the issue resolved.

Funny enough, in the evening we received an automated AT&T Customer Satisfaction Survey call inquiring whether we were happy with the rep and the service we received. The time of call or the rep in question were not identified. I gave bad ratings and commented about each individual I dealt with and how rude they were, except for "Gene" and Ms. "Harris," who had been genuinely serious in their attempts to help me.

An hour later we received an automated call from "AT&T Repair" with the information that our line is fine. There was an option to have them call us back, which we used.

The next day I was happy to see the charges had indeed been taken off our bill. But I was scared of the next bill, because I knew the problem had not been resolved.

Mid-morning I received a call from "Betty" from AT&T Repair, another nice lady. She inquired about our phone problem with the phone not ringing. Simply airing my frustration I told her about all of our AT&T problems. "Betty" suggested the routing problem might simply be a programming error. Even though the correct carrier was listed, a programming error might cause our calls to be routed to AT&T instead of primus. She promised to look into this issue and to get back to me with her findings (she never did). Then "Betty" informed me the line for our residence had been tested and that it is fine coming in and going out of our residence. She, too, suggested it might be our cordless phone. I explained that the problem persists with the different cordless and non-cordless phones we have tried and as of now we simply sprint to pick up the phone, when we hear a ring, to hopefully catch the call. She was a bit puzzled and insisted the line tested fine. I finally stated that we are looking into signing up with another carrier (we really did), because our problems persisted with AT&T. "Betty" seemed genuinely surprised by this and suddenly quite insistently promised to check out both problems.

After this I called primus. I spoke to "Masum," and informed him that AT&T was insisting primus is routing our calls back to the AT&T network. "Masum" told met that it is impossible. He confirmed the carrier code again and the fact that we had filed a complaint the previous month. In regards to that complaint he let me know they are still working on it and it could take two to three weeks to be resolved. He took our new complaint information and provided me with a second complaint number. He also asked me to fax in both bills with a note of the complaint number and a statement that AT&T claims our calls are re-routed to the AT&T system by primus. We did this.

In the early afternoon "Chris Goodlet" from AT&T Repair called to inquire about our phone problem. I explained both problems, but "Chris" only knew about a noise problem. He said he would be right out. I informed him that I was told I would have to pay, if somebody would come to check things out, which I was not willing to do. He was a bit confused and said I would not have to pay and he would only check the outside line. Only if there is a problem with the inside line would I have to pay to fix it.

Within two minutes "Chris" was at the door. He checked the outside line and stated everything was working fine and sounded "clear as a whistle." I explained again about how the phone doesn't ring or sometimes only rings once. Yet, if I catch the call or make a call, the line is fine. I explained the cordless, non-cordless test as well. Obviously, the phone was not the problem. He inquired about DSL, which we had for such a long time, it was unlikely to suddenly interfere with the regular phone. I also stated our problem, in fact all of our problems, started in the middle of June, when AT&T started to switch Bellsouth customers to their system. His face lit up and he immediately seemed to know what the problem was. He told me he would change the modem at the main box. He also gave me his card so I could call him, if the phone/DSL wouldn't work after that.

Five minutes after he had left I noticed a service interruption for both, the phone and the DSL line. Within thirty seconds both were back on. "Chris" did not call to test, if everything was working fine now. I used my cell to dial my home number. Voila, the phone was working perfectly fine with each single attempt. It has ever since

Coincidentally, that very same day we received a letter from Ron Doyle, Executive Appeals Manager for AT&T, dated August 8^th. The address was AT&T, Customer Care Unit, P.O. Box 580, Lee's Summit, MO 64063-0580. He writes, "Please accept my apology for any inconvenience you have experienced with regard to the AT&T account you were billed for. Unfortunately, I have been unable to reach you by telephone." (Yes, it took so long to actually get somebody to look into and fix the ring problem!) "Although I regret the circumstances that prompted your complaint, I appreciate the opportunity to be of assistance. Your local carrier is responsible for the routing of all long distance calls. AT&T simply bills for calls that are routed over the network. The disputed charges would need to be reimbursed either from your local carrier or Primus. AT&T considers the charges billed correct and no further adjustment is warranted. I apologize for any frustrations this may have caused. If I can be of further assistance, please feel free to call me at 1-800-848-4158 ext. 2914. If I am not available, please leave a daytime number and a convenient time to reach you. You may also reach me via e-mail at ronniedoyle@ems.att.com."

Now I had in writing the nonsense they have been spouting the entire time. It seems at AT&T they are just pushing the responsibility from one unit to the next with the hope the customer eventually might just simply give up.

On August 24^th I decided to inquire with primus to find out about the status of our complaints. I was told the AT&T bills we had faxed to primus had been forwarded to AT&T with the agreement that AT&T would re-bill us at the primus rate. I was told the problem had been fixed and our long-distance calls should now be routed through primus.

In the evening we placed a long-distance call and on August 29^th we were able to confirm with "Gargin" from primus that the call had indeed been routed through their network, not AT&T's. He let me know, if in the future there are any doubts about who our long-distance carrier is, to simply call 1-700-555-4141. If the automated message doesn't thank me for choosing my respective long-distance carrier, then there is a problem. Naturally I gave the number a try and was able to hear the correct message.

On September 7^th, we received another letter from AT&T. It's a 'cc' on a letter AT&T sent to the FCC in response to our complaint and a simple restatement of the first letter.

I also checked our new AT&T bill online. Again we owed over $200 in long-distance charges for calls made between July 28^th and August 11^th. As it was the weekend, I decided to wait until Monday to make the next round of calls.

On September 10^th I called AT&T Corp and spoke to "Sophia." After providing our account information to her, she immediately stated that we don't have a long-distance account with AT&T. I expressed my astonishment that they charge us anyway. She sounded a bit puzzled and restated that we don't have a long-distance account with AT&T. I informed her that primus had told us they had inquired with AT&T and the problem had been pinpointed and resolved. AT&T was supposed to take off the charges and re-bill us at the primus rate, which overall would only be a small fraction of the AT&T charges. "Sophia" found a note from a "specialist" according to which he/she had issued a credit to our account for all the charges and mailed an adjustment letter to the local AT&T to adjust the bill accordingly. She confirmed that the adjustment was meant for all the charges and that no new charges had accrued after August 11^th. She indicated the credit would show up on our next bill. However, if I would need an adjustment earlier, I would have to deal with the local company, because they send out the bills. Then she inquired, "since we don't have AT&T long distance," if we would like to sign up for the service. I just said something to the effect of "NO WAY!"

I contacted the local AT&T. Mr. "Lewis" only found one note on our account, a stern refusal from AT&T Corp to remove/adjust any charges they put through. An adjustment letter had not yet been received. Mr. "Lewis" instructed me to call AT&T Corp and initiate a three-way-call with them, the local AT&T, and myself. He refused initiate it.

I called AT&T Corp again and spoke to "Maudie." I had a terrible time understanding him. It seemed I had reached an Indian call center again. He confirmed that a "specialist" had made a request for an adjustment. However, according to "Maudie" the adjustment still needed to be approved by AT&T Corp's management and was pending further investigation to determine the cause for the routing problem. This statement made me wonder, because it appeared the problem had been fixed now. "Maudie" would not initiate a three-way call claiming he could not give the approval for the adjustment, which also had not yet been approved by management. He advised me to wait two or three more days for the adjustment to come through but expressed his astonishment that the approval had been pending for almost two weeks. At the end of the call, "Maudie," too, tried to sell me AT&T long-distance "for just $2.99 a month."

On September 12^th I tried AT&T Corp again. "Marvin," yet another rep with a strong accent, had trouble pulling up our account. Eventually he claimed we only owe $47. I inquired whether that was before or after tax. "Marvin" checked the files and suddenly said we owe about $84. He offered the same excuses we had been given before for the routing problem. I explained that I don't care about the excuses. No matter what happened, they were supposed to re-bill us at the primus rate and issue a credit. "Marvin" proceeded to connect me to a supervisor.

"Jacob," the supervisor, confirmed that an adjustment letter had been issued. He also confirmed on August 29^th a credit had been issued and the local phone company had been informed. He let me know it would take about fourteen days for a credit to show up. Because it was now the 12^th of September and no credit to the bill in sight, which was due in full on the 24^th, "Jacob" agreed to arrange for a three-way-call with the local AT&T.

During the three-way-call "Jacob" "officially" informed "Jennifer Cook from Accounts Receivable at Bellsouth the new AT&T" that a credit had been issued, who in turn acknowledged a credit would be given. She said, it would take about seven days to show up on the online bill, but might go through earlier. She provided me with the new bill total. The numbers did not quite add up, and I inquired, which time frame this credit was covering, because the previous two months I had managed to get the charges taken off my bill. I was ready to pay for those calls at the primus rate. "Jennifer" stated that she doesn't know and asked "Jacob" to provide further information. He had already hung up. "Jennifer" reassured me the bill was taken care off and the adjustment had been made.

I waited until September 20^th to check the bill again. No adjustment had been made and full payment was due in four days. At this point I was too angry to rationally speak with anybody related to AT&T and had my husband make the next call. He spoke to "Shawna Atkins" at the local AT&T, who found plenty of notes on our account. She was amazed by the amount we were charged for the few calls we had made. Without further ado she adjusted the bill. I confirmed this the next day, when the online bill had been updated.

Since then the bills have been correct. I'm just glad the nightmare is over. We never found out what the actual problem had been and can only venture a guess that "Betty" and/or "Chris" found it and fixed it, since our problems ceased to exist after our interaction with them. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything remains problem free and I never have to deal with AT&T customer service again!