Slashdot Mirror
AT&T To Pay $700,000 For Overcharging Consumers
An anonymous reader writes "CNet reports on an agreement between AT&T and the FCC which will require the telecom company to pay $700,000 to the federal government to resolve overcharging complaints. AT&T will also refund charges to customers who were switched from pay-as-you-go data plans to monthly plans after AT&T said they could keep the old plans. 'AT&T has also agreed to an extensive compliance plan (PDF), which includes: consumer notification, training of customer care representatives, and periodic compliance reports to the FCC. AT&T must also conduct additional searches of its records to identify improperly switched consumers and ensure appropriate refunds.'"
an ink dot on himalayas, when compared to unjust profits of telecom vultures
They'll make enough by lunch time to cover it.
Big penalty, that...
A much simpler and far more effective punishment would be if they were forced to run ads (on TV, magazines, online) to let the public know they were overcharging their customers.
Fines don't mean crap to billion dollar companies. They need punishments that actually punish them.
The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity.
...not those who were damaged....
"AT&T will also refund charges to customers who were switched from pay-as-you-go data plans to monthly plans after AT&T said they could keep the old plans."
Will these customers be able to get back on the pay-as-you-go data plans?
Not pay the federals! Ah!
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
With their 2011 revenue (http://www.att.com/gen/general?pid=22537), they generate roughly $697,615/hour in revenue.
I take it the FCC isn't familiar with "Old Testament" -style justice...
Or just pay it to Mother Government.
training of customer care representatives
No company has trained customer care, I said it and I stand by it! If AT&T succeeds with this, they will be the first company to ever have trained ( not necessarily qualified ) customer care representatives.
On a side note and unrelated, I once had an issue with a router where it wouldn't get an IP address from the modem, I called Dlink and the lady on the other end kept saying "I need the IP address of the router sir", I kept telling her it didn't have one and that was the issue, she had NO idea what I was saying and kept repeating the same phrase. Got to love trained customer care! Thats not even my best story!
They started refunds after a year. That means that a handful of people, mainly those willing to spend at least 10 hours on the phone with "customer service" arguing, pleading and begging, got a refund. I would estimate the actual number refunded in 2010 to be a single digit number. If you've ever dealt with AT&T customer service, you will know that 10 hours is not anywhere near enough time to get them to acknowledge you are even a customer, let alone get anything done. I personally, spent 6 hours over 2 days trying to get them to connect a friend's DSL service that was ordered, billed, and paid for before they told me that DSL wasn't available in my area. This was after she spent hours trying to get them to hook it up, and more to get them to stop billing for this non-existent service. They sent her to collections anyway.
Using their low estimate for amount overpaid and assuming they stopped billing everyone after the year (they didn't): .03% * 105,000,000customers * $25/month * 12 months = $9.45 million
At 4% interest over 2 years, they would have broken even on this deal after refunding everybody, essentially committing no-risk fraud. If they got away with it, they make ~$10 million, if not, it didn't cost them anything.
But the estimates I used were WAY lower than reality. They're still overcharging some of those people, so 12 months is actually over 36 months in some (probably the vast majority of) cases. So it's more likely that they made well over $10 million on this fraud.
This is about as effective a deterrent as punishing bank robbers solely by making they repay half the money if they get caught.
What a black swath this will leave on their balance sheets. I'll bet their wrists are still stinging.
mov ah, 4ch
int 21h
From: AT&T lobbying weasels
To: Federal telecom regulators (whores)
Sorry about that, guys. We know this was a little embarrassing for everyone, and it certainly resulted in some extra work for you. Still, the penalties are chump change, so let us make it up to you by buying lunch. Say, for a week or so, in Monte Carlo?
Over the top? Maybe. But these people need a higher exposure to risk for the kind of money they make. They also need to pay punitive damages in terms of jail time or money or both for all the wasted time in government and per individual that has not been quantified.
You start putting a few of them in jail or taking their fucking heads, and this kind of nonsense will stop very quickly.
AT&T is an abusive company. I guess they can afford to be that way when new customers are always pouring in with the allure of something new and better. When I moved, I went to the AT&T office to have my DSL service terminated. Their systems were down but I was promised by the rep he would take care of it. After I moved, I went to a different AT&T office to confirm and they said they couldn't help me because the account was set up in another state. I went online. After navigating through what felt like a John LeCar novel, I finally called someone. I was told it was take care of. A year later, I have debt collection agencies calling me for 3 months of service because it AT&T 3 months to terminate the service (they probably got their act together when the account was 3 months late). I refused to pay the bill. I have letters I have written, along with fax reports proving they received my letters. Yet on my credit report is a delinquent account that is no fault of my own. I have gone out of my way to try to resolve the issue. AT&T will not do anything. The credit collection agencies quickly hang up the phone once I tell them I got documentation of my efforts to resolve the bill. Yet, here I am stuck and screwed. AT&T is under no penalty or harm for their tactics. In the end, I'll probably end up paying it to get it off my credit report. I out a couple hundred bucks. Not a lot. What stings is the most is I have no recourse.
I've always said English was my second language. Had Romeo and Juliet been written in C, I might have understood it.
We at AT&T overcharged the customers lots more than just $700.000. So we win. This is just giving the Feds a little cut for letting us get away with it.
My own company has trained "customer care". They don't work from scripts. Presented with a problem, they try to solve it, and if they find they can't, the come to engineering and get help. They even try to solve problems caused by third party products.
I'm sure the CEO and COO spend more than that on Coke and Whores last weekend.
training of customer care representatives
We at AT&T cannot accept this requirement. Only by not-training our customer care representatives can we ensure the profits that will meet the expectations of our shareholders. By training our customer care representatives we can no longer avoid responsibility and pretend that we didn't know what was going on. Consumers will no doubt mercilessly take advantage of this and pay only the amount(s) they originally agreed to. This penalty, to make us train our customer care representatives, is particularly harsh, and will make us uncompetitive. It is bad for business, bad for the economy, and bad for America.
You do have recourse - tell the collection agencies they're actively engaging in fraud and if they continue to pursue such a baseless claim they'd better be prepared to pay out of the ass in court. Then you ask directly for their law firm's number.
They will almost universally stop. Only medical debt collectors are tenacious enough to stand up to a fraud claim.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
IF it's already on your credit report. You can NOT remove the mark by paying now.
If you pay now you are admitting guilt and enriching the collection company that bought the junk paper. AT&T already got paid by the collection agency when they sold the junk paper (your debt, aka the bill).
Your best recourse is to contact the credit agencies and have the disputed bill noted (for any agency that has it on their credit report).
For future reference, the only way to keep such crap off your report is to pay *before* it goes to collections and then demand the money be reimbursed. You may have to file a suit in small claims court.