Invisible Contract to Servicemembers during Pandemic

@skeeterintexas I’m sure I eventually will, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for it happening anytime soon. The attorneys only got involved a few weeks ago and have yet to send the initial cease and desist or whatever the equivalent would be. Their best estimate was 30-45 days. With any luck it will be anticlimactic and Sunrise will write it off as a loss. ATT won’t be penalized for taking advantage of consumers until more people stand up to them and they’re riding on the bet that most of us won’t. Even if they have to settle 1 claim, it’s worth the risk because people like those arguing on their behalf here keep them from being accountable to “mistakes” or just downright fraud. Not a single one of you has acknowledged the article I posted on my second comment, in which a single low-level employee was arrested for having “sold” over $600,000 of invalid installment plans for phones he stole and resold from the ATT store. That was a single employee in a bust that saw at least three walked out in handcuffs. ATT’s response to me being one of the victims wasn’t even so much as an apology for anything but the inconvenience it caused. Quoted from the email I received from ATT Office of the President:

”Thank you for your recent correspondence to AT&T’s Office of the President. We appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this matter may have caused.

I did review your account and I showed that you were being billed for an installment plan on 4148 since the account was established February 2018.   The remaining balance on the line was $513.27 I did issue an adjustment in the amount of $530 which covers the past amount you were billed for the invalid installment agreement.”

This was the amount of money they had charged me up to that point for a phone their own employee stole. A future email confirmed they used the money they owed me to pay for the invalid line someone else stole:

“The adjustment of the $530 was issued  05/31/19 and applied to the installment agreement that was invalid on 4148.”

In other words, “we took the $530 we owed you and used it to pay for the phone that our own employee stole from us.”

Not one person here has acknowledged the criminality of ATT’s behavior in this. Instead, you’ve all nitpicked my issues with ATT in an attempt to turn it around and make it my fault.

Regarding the U-Verse claim, I have not one single email from ATT with U-Verse in the subject matter. I’ve never received a message from Sunrise or anyone warning me that I was defaulting on this service. As I DID NOT order it. Never had it. All I have is a hard copy of a bill from Sunrise sent in June of this year that states it’s for U-Verse that was started during my dispute with ATT about the invalid line that led to multiple arrests in their company. From A.W. in the Office of the President on down, not one employee who dealt with my dispute is still employed at ATT. 

And yet the reasonable argument from folks like @(Edited per community guidelines)God69 and @Constructive is that during the time I was contacting ATT on a regular basis to remove an invalid (stolen) phone from my bill, I took the time to have them transfer me to their U-Verse department and in spite of having never had cable and living in a house that wasn’t wired for it, I requested to add TV service to my bill and then refused to pay it for 2 years as some sort of “gotcha”. I was the victim of a fraud case in which the people I had to speak to in order to clear the fraud were literally getting put in prison and not one person thinks that the more likely scenario is that one of them signed me up for U-Verse for breaking up their scheme? 

Not one of you has taken even half a second to consider or acknowledge that ATT already broke the law considerably in handling my claims. Instead it’s “CWeebs clearly just really wanted U-Verse and is lying about not paying for it for two years.”

”There’d be a record” (Edited per community guidelines) says. Do you know what the record was for the invalid line? How I figured out that I was being charged for a phone I hadn’t purchased? The only record, on paper, of the transaction was that my phone number ending in 4148 didn’t match the imei number on the bill. I accidentally discovered that when looking at my phone’s about settings while I had a bill in front of me. That was the only indication that there was an error on my bill. It turned out the imei on the bill was for the stolen phone. I received no paper bill for it. Had no receipts. The employee used my switched the imei number on my phone with the stolen phone for billing purposes and suddenly I was paying for two phones instead of one without any other information on the bill showing that there was anything out of the ordinary.

So when you act like there will be a record of it, you’re only speaking from the mindset that ATT didn’t do anything wrong. When I say there was no record of it, it’s because I know ATT is very capable of criminal behavior and I have already provided the receipts to prove it. 

I have a lot more.

What did you call me?

@Constructive yeah you’re right

@Juniper I actually went through the Better Business Bureau during my issue with having the been billed for the stolen phone. It was the fastest way to get the Office of the President to contact me back. It didn’t resolve much though. A.W. from the OOP would respond to the BBB that she satisfactorily resolved my issue and then write to me that ATT owed me nothing. I posted the quotes above from OOP saying that they took they used their debt to me to pay the remainder of the phone their employee stole from them, effectively billing me twice for the stolen phone. This is what the OOP sent me when I told them I did not approve of them using their debt to me to pay for the invalid line:

”I am sorry you feel that way.  I truly attempted to assist and resolve your concerns and you even thanked me for my assistance regarding the matter.”

They used the fact that because I thanked them for their time and assistance in the matter as evidence that I was satisfied and that they did not have to repay their debt. Problematically, they $530 I had paid over six months for the invalid line didn’t cover the entire remainder of the line, so my next bill was actually higher than it would have been if I never pointed out they were stealing from me in the first place. They told me over the phone that I should be happy because the reimbursement would cover the next two months of bills entirely and I would have no phone bill fir three months. Instead, they used the money to pay for something else entirely, a bill that wasn’t mine, they acknowledged it in writing and still went through with penalizing me with a bigger bill. That’s why we discontinued our relationship with ATT entirely nearly two years ago. 

But now I’m being told in a customer forum that a bill I received two years after the fact for services I allegedly ordered while all this was going on is most likely my fault. I probably ordered these services on accident from an ATT employee who is now in prison, but most likely wouldn’t have done something shady. 

I’ll tell you this, between ATT and myself, I have the much cleaner wrap sheet. 

@TrollGod69 

As your name includes at least one word the forum filters, it is possible that if you are not "mentioned" exactly correct that the forum would automatically remove what it was programmed to consider inappropriate. So quite possible it was just automatically filtered besides it being a (currently) valid user name, nothing more.

@Juniper This is correct. I am not resulting in name-calling. It isn’t my thing. I simply wrote @ and your username and it censored.

@Constructive you’re clearly part of the problem. I have posted receipts, included newspaper articles proving the arrests of ATT employees involved in scamming me, included quotes from the OOP that acknowledge that I was defrauded and that ATT’s debt to me was used to pay for an “invalid line”, a direct quote from the OOP. It’s pretty obvious that I’ve talked to your supervisors more than you have. And your response is that I am denying proof that you provided? That’s a joke. 

Actually acknowledge my claim or buzz buzz little bee. You probably don’t want none of this. I have a solid track record of leading to the termination of ATT employees, or their arrests, or both. One could say it’s a hobby of mine at this time. The ATT grim reaper, if you will. 

That’s what happens when you are trained to ignore your customer’s complaints and blame them at every turn and then it turns out that the customer was right and was the victim of crimes committed by ATT employees, actually posts the receipts, and you mock said customer, and then said customer takes your identification information up your chain of command and it turns out you were wrong. 

Your options are to be a part of the solution or buzz buzz so you don’t become part of my problem. Thanks.

Lol no one here represents AT&T in any official capacity i and everyone else responding are as customers and I have no fear of you getting or trying to get me fired. I haven’t gone against any code of business conduct violations by posting here with any of my answers so your threats don’t concern me one bit. 😂😂😂

@CWeebs 

This is a public forum, mainly populated by other customers. Those with the "employee", or "associated member" (contracted as opposed to directly employed), are posting on their free time. So their opinions are their own, though they should have a bit more internal factual knowledge to share in general (nothing specific to anybody's account of course).

There is quite the track record with other customers misunderstanding something or refusing to take responsibility for their own grievous errors (beyond simply not ever reading their bill). I don't believe yours is such a case. Sounds like multiple problems that snowballed off each other resulting in the mess you have now. I do hope they finally get this straightened out (sooner rather than later). However threats (indirect or otherwise) have no meaning in the forum, other than possibly triggering action by the moderators regarding unacceptable posting.

Sorry the forum could not provide any better guidance in this situation and hope all goes betting going forward.

Wasn’t a threat. You’d know the track record was legit if you actually checked my receipts. But you won’t because you are a part of the problem. I’m pointing out your inability to acknowledge what would be clear to any half-decent person and your hypocrisy in saying that I haven’t listened to you in the face of proof that you haven’t provided. Whereas, I’ve posted links, quoted emails, and have provided proof. You haven’t even acknowledged it. You talk around me as if I’m saying nothing. You have nothing of value for me or for this issue, so buzz buzz little bee. You aren’t needed here. 

@CWeebs 

I agree that at this point you and @Constructive should just agree to disagree and that it is best to move on at this point. But nothing requires this as it is a public forum, so everybody can continue posting in an open thread.

As for myself, I shall move on. Though if I think of anything that might give you any additional help I would pop back in, but I think you have already reached the end of anything I could suggest.

@Juniper I’m not here to threaten anyone. These are my actual experiences that I’ve dealt with from ATT. I see the ATT tag on the name. As a general warning, I obviously have no actual capacity to fire anyone, there have been multiple ATT representatives who have gotten involved in my claim, refused to believe me or attacked me otherwise, and they are no longer working for ATT. ATT does not want to reimburse my claim or resolve it because they don’t want it publicly legitimized. I know this. Doesn’t matter what I say in regard to letting it go if ATT would, ATT has been very cautious to not resolve the issue because it would incriminate the company. They have no problem at all, however, scapegoating employees and incriminating them. The terms of the forum say I can’t name names, so I’ve been cautious with the exception of Stephenson. I have a list of employee ID numbers of people who took on my claim, fought or attempted to blame me, and then were terminated from their position once it escalated. I didn’t ask for that to happen. ATT just did it. When I say there were a lot of arrests made, I mean it. A lot of them. And ATT has acknowledged in writing that I was the victim of criminal fraud. So it isn’t a question as to whether I messed up on my end. ATT already acknowledged that I have told the truth in writing from the OOP. There is a record of that at the very least. 

My problem is that in spite of ATT acknowledging I was a victim of criminal fraud from ATT employees, they won’t accept responsibility from those employees. So while they’ve been arrested, I was stuck footing the bill. ATT had no problem at all stating in writing that the phone I had was stolen and that ATT charged me for an illegal line. But because they won’t accept responsibility they didn’t return the money. As that would be an admission of guilt on the company’s part. 

I’m mad about it. I don’t care if the employee who scammed me was acting on their own free will or if it was ATT. I care that money was stolen from me and that it has impacted almost every bill I have. The mistake employees of ATT make is that they can get in on it and blame me for it in spite of ATT having already acknowledged the crime took place, and they take it out on the employees. 

Honestly, I don’t take joy in that. I don’t want anyone to lose their job. But I keep good notes because this is legitimately a legal case. I have an actual attorney. I take really good notes of the employees who talk to me and what they say to me and ATT has a nasty habit of cleaning house.

I’m not the reason employees are expendable. I don’t know why I show employees a dang newspaper article verifying my claims and they still blame me and make fools of themselves. But they do. And word gets around.

It may sound like a threat. And I don’t know how ATT supervision would react to what you do or say on these forums. But it’s 100 percent sincere. I have told many employees that they most likely do not want to be involved in my claim. Most realize it right away, which is why it has been escalated to the CFO and OOP. But every once and a while someone doesn’t believe me, thinks I never spoke to Stephenson and that my claim was never raised to the OOP, and for reasons beyond me they get antagonistic. I write it down. If you saw my file at ATT you’d probably pass me up the chain.

i get it. Ticks me off no less though. I want it resolved. Hopefully my attorney fixes it. 

I don't know about the rest of the participants in this endless (and totally non-productive) thread but

Update: AT&T missed deadline to respond to initial demand letter with legal documentation for claim. A new demand letter is being drafted by my legal team for the terms of (Edited per community guidelines). That should go out in next seven days. I don’t know how long the process is expected to be after that but should be getting monthly updates. 

Today, just want to confirm that AT&T was unable to provide any documentation, billing charges, or proof of services to myself nor were they able to provide that information to my attorney. 

Word of advice: save all of your documents, make sure you note the identification of any employee you speak to regarding your billing and services, and don’t get off the phone with your provider without getting the information you need to prove the conversation took place and what it was about. If it’s your word against their word you will lose every time. Even the other clients will turn on you and say you’re the lying party. Look no further than this thread. Everything from saying my claim is impossible, to denial, that I’m a liar, and that like others before me I’ll complain and then bounce and never be heard from again. Big businesses like this have the power to cheat you and then vilify you to their own employees and customers so that you are made to look like a bigger fool for being cheated. So, protect yourself and be a diligent note taker. 

I will update when I hear from the law firm again. 

Update: AT&T made first offer and we are taking it to be done with it all. Attorney said it was the highest first offer he’s seen come from AT&T. I don’t know if that’s true. Could be blowing smoke. But it’s a relief nonetheless. 

Thank you to those few of you who in good faith actually gave me the benefit of the doubt here. With this whole ordeal the worst part of it was having so few allies in spite of rigorous record keeping.