</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Cal,
Did you make a call from a hotel or a non-company pay phone to get those charges??
If you did, then it isnt ATT, its deregulation that bit you in the butt. COCOT, customer owned coin operated telephones, and hotel networks can surcharge a call by the min. .... You billed the call to your card and ATT got billed so they billed you. )</font>
nope. See attached. This was an in-state call from my home.
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( If the kids made the call, then you NEED to school them to LOOK at the card on the payphone. If it ISNT owned by Sprint, Verison, Bellsouth ect, but Joe Schmukatelli phone co, run away.)</font>
The kids got that lecture when we provided phone cards to them. They use LD a lot, and understood immediately.
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( If it wasnt one of those or any other private party who was billing ATT, then you were hosed by ATT. -Varmintmist)</font>
Yup. Hosed by ATT. I hadn't upgraded from the default plan ATT provided after the 1987 (?) Bell System breakup. That plan was fine until recently.
Last year ATT started charging $3.95 for any month that LD was used. This call (attached) fooled me; I assumed my insurance company had provided a tollfree number. (1-818-...)
When I got the ATT bill I found they had charged me $11.60 for a single call, only 18 minutes in-state! I have some even higher out of state calls buried somewhere here in my shoebox 'accounting system'.
After several months like this I called to cancel ATT. They refused. I learned I had to ask SBC to detach all LD service. SBC charged me $5something service fee for each line cancelled ( 1 ranch, 1 home).
Now I only have flat-rate local service with DSL at home, the cheaper per-call plan out at the ranch, and finally no more surprises.
Next rant: My MBNA Visa card shows 'expires 04/07' and 'Customer since 1975'. I've paid them interest once or twice in 30 years and otherwise paid in full every month.
MBNA just notified me they would soon replace this card with an American Express Card. I called to say I have several automatic deductions charged to that card (newspaper, etc) and cancelling my 'expires 04/07' account would be a nuisance. Also several places I shop refuse American Express. MBNA replied the best they could do was another MBNA plan with a new account number and the card expiration/renewal date in 2005. **** of a way to treat a 30 year customer.
I'm sure this is because they have made less than $10 interest from me in all that time so they have started to purge such unprofitable accounts.
Bah! What next? Why do we need to defend ourselves from arbitrary actions taken by the nation's largest and most profitable corporations? This is precisely the opposite of the thoughtful customer service a faithful customer might expect.
