Making Sense of My First Bill

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@Kim106 wrote:

Today I received in the mail a lot of mail from AT&T, one of them were papers one of which said "My Bill Estimate"

 

I was wondering if anyone can help me make sense of the charges on My Bill Estimate

 

Account Level

 

Other Charges and Credits

One-Time Charges and Credits

Internet Gateway $100.00

Subcharges and Other Fees $8.07

Government Fees and Taxes $10.50

Total Other Charges & Credits $118.57

Total Account Level Charges $118.57

 

U-verse High Speed Internet

 

Other Charges and Credits

 

One-Time Charges and Credits

Service Activation Fee $49.00

Surcharges and Other Fees $6.39

Government Fees and Taxes $9.15

Total Additional Charges $64.53

Total High Speed Internet $92.81

 

Total Bundle Charges $211.38

 

What I want to know is that these Surcharges and Other Fees and Government Fees and Taxes are they usually at this rate or is this a one time thing, cause I was told that by a customer representative that the fees/taxes weren't suppose(d) to amount more than $1.

 

Can anyone help explain my bill to me?

 

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Is this an April Fools joke?  Taxes and Fees "no more than a $1?"  Yeah, right.   Please contact Alex, one of the AT&T Community Managers for further assistance.  His team should help you understand your bill.  BTW - each locality sets their own franchise fees and they differ from area to area but they will most certainly be over a buck.  Way over.  It's not just AT&T.  It is the same for any telecom company.

Well I told you this is my first bill and thanks for the advice.

http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB412557&cv=803#fbid=9QfgXpGocJE

AT&T also has a video explaination of the first bill, says its available for the first 30 days after your bill is generated. That link gives you steps on how to access it

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@SomeJoe7777 wrote:
My estimates of the taxes and surcharges are for someone who has triple-play (IPTV + VOIP + Internet). If you only have Internet, those taxes & surcharges should be correspondingly less.

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I always used to think that a CSR could never possibly know how much the bill would;d be down to the penny and I still believe that but they should be able to tell a customer that.

AT&T can sure send out a bill with taxes and fees computed on it, so why not use that same system to tell customers what to expect?  Even if it had accuracy of only +/- $5, it would still be better than quoting base pricing only.

I suggest giving CSR's access to the same computer database / calculator.  It should not be too hard.

Recall that airlines, travel companies (Orbitz) and the like got dinged for only quoting base rates in ads.  Now they have to (in most cases) include all fees / taxes (and each airports have unique fees). 

Transparency.

You’re asking a very legitimate questions to a very illegitimate company. AT&T has serious issues telling the truth - to the point in which I started having to record all AT&T phone conversations, which anyone can legally do, so long as you inform them at the beginning of the conversation. AT&T has a long history and reputation of intentionally deceiving the public discourse and its customers to a degree far beyond most businesses.

You need to thoroughly read the Contract. Yes, AT&T probably told you that “you are not under a contract.” Wrong. Sure, you may not be under an annual contract. But everyone who uses any type of AT&T service is legally bound by what’s known as a “terms of service agreement,” which is way worse. AT&T’s agreements are legally binding and enforceable and therefore are considered contracts. Like most service agreements, AT&T’s are “contracts of adhesion” (meaning that they are nonnegotiable and accepted on a take it or leave it basis) and due to the amount of disclaimers, many question whether they are more unilateral than bilateral. What’s really disturbing is, like all service agreements that these technology corporations use, AT&T’s are very easy to overlook because they are all posted online rather than on paper and therefore lawyers take advantage of that and intentionally make them very verbose and extra long just to deter the average person from actually reading what is basically a waiving of immense consumer and privacy rights and guarantees its customers very limited responsibility.

In these contracts, customers give up some very basic consumer rights.

AT&T can completely amend its service agreements at any point without notice or explanation and may change monthly billing due dates and increase rates - as they did to me. And if you feel it’s fraud, you have very little ability to resolve a dispute fairly. I personally refuse to go through their arbitration process but have gone straight to the Federal Trade Commission. Anyone who is doing business with AT&T should get to know the FTC. They are the only organization that can really hold AT&T accountable (https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/?utm_source=takeaction#crnt).

AT&T’S CONTRACT
‪https://m.att.com/shopmobile/legal/terms.wirelessCustomerAgreement.html‬

[Edited to comply with Guidelines]

FYI:  The original question and subsequent posts are from 5 years ago.  Lots has changed in that time....including the Terms of Service.

You people can come up with any little gimmick or trick to try and prevent me from informing AT&T customers of the truth. It doesn’t matter that the post was from five years ago because AT&T is still engaging in the same deceptive and dishonest business practices they have for a very long time. And yes, lots has changed. AT&T is a ogopoly, beleive s He’s above the law and has the right to do whatever it wants.