Contributor
This seemed a little shady
Recently my mother went into an AT&T store in Marble Falls TX to pay her DTV bill. The manager there told her that they could cut her bill in half if she would put the service in my father's name and cancel her service. My mother said the manager then pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote down her credit card info and her social security number along with some other info. Long story short, she got uncomfortable with the situation and decided to no proceed. She is now very worried about the fact that the manager wrote down her credit card and SSN and that she didn't get it back from her. Is this normal practice at a retail store, and how can I assure my mother that the info the manager wrote down has been disposed of properly?
Juniper
ACE - Expert
•
22.9K Messages
6 years ago
That was a scam. You can only have one account for the house hold. A married couple are considered the same household so canceling account to open in the other's name is not permitted. That AT&T store agent was trying to fraudulently get a new account commission. As this is the process for applying for new service, that includes a credit check. That is best case scenario what is going on.
I would suggest www.directv.com/notmycreditinquiry or if account is created www.directv.com/notmyaccount to submit dispute. That "manager" should look for other employment.
Though AT&T now owns DirecTV, their stores are not DirecTV employees so works similar to being a 3rd party retailer. And as you've experienced you had an individual breaking the rules to try and make a sale.
0
0
shannon02
ACE - Expert
•
21K Messages
6 years ago
Seems odd that they wrote in down on paper instead of entering it into a computer.
0
0
Juniper
ACE - Expert
•
22.9K Messages
6 years ago
Some stores still use traditional paper order forms to give customer a physical copy in addition to what is inputted into the computer or faxed in. I have seen some that were posted (or shared by people I know) where what was "written" did not match what DirecTV actually offers. So it gives a little more evidence on the customer side to dispute with the location making a false offer.
However if SSN was just written down on a sticky note/scratch paper, then that is a big no-no for most business at this point, but people still do it because it is easy.
0
0
TexasBrit
ACE - Expert
•
14.1K Messages
6 years ago
This might be a franchise not ATT owned.
0
0