I was hit with an outrageous international call charge. I was charged $10.55 per minute for a call to Afghanistan to talk to my son who is serving in the U.S. Army. The first 3 calls were not answered but I was charged $10.55 for those unanswered calls. The fourth call, he answered and we talked for a total of 20 minutes. My international charge for a total of 23 minutes was $242.65. This does not include the "FED UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND" fee, STATE and MUNINCIPAL taxes for a grand total of $290.90. This is only the international charge and does not include my normal domestic phone charges.
I feel that this is an absolute injustice and although I know that most international calls are important to those making them, the fact that families of our American soldiers can not talk to them and hear their voices and visa versa, is disgusting. My son, along with thousands of sons, daughters, husbands, wives, sisters and brothers, are being punished for being in a foreign country, fighting for OUR freedom. They need to hear familiar voices. They need to hear "I love you", instead of reading it in an email or letter. We, as parents and loved ones, need to hear our soldiers laughter, sorrow, anger or any other emotion that they want to share. It sickens me that AT&T abuses the American people by charging these ridiculous fees. It sickens me that after receiving that first 'international' bill most will not be making those calls to say "I love you".
What does it take to fight this unfair, overpriced violation? How do we as Americans and military families change this? I don't know but one thing I do know... I would love to send AT&T's upper management to the Middle East, set them down in the middle of a desert and tell them "You aren't going to talk to any of your loved ones for 1 1/2 years and by the way, your life is in constant danger and they may NEVER hear your voice again"
Those of us who can't afford these phone calls are, in a sense, being told the very same thing. I'm disgusted. I'm angry. I'm heartbroken.
I received the bill yesterday(Friday) and will be calling AT&T Monday to contest the charge. I'm sure I will get nowhere but they will definitely know my thoughts on this matter. Does anyone have any ideas how we can fight for our rights and actually be heard?

Susan Ovadia
Proud Army MP Mom
Ohio
[email protected]

I am writing to inform others of how bad AT&T has treated me as a customer. I will start at the beginning. I use AT&T phone service but previously got my internet service from the local cable provider. Although I was on the “Do not call” list, I received approximately 8 calls from AT&T sales people in 4 months who tried to get me to switch to their DSL service. Some of them were very aggressive and even acted like jerks but I calmly asked them to stop calling me, yet they continued to call. Even though I didn’t appreciate all of the unsolicited sales calls, I needed to save some money and decided to make the switch. Part of the reason for my decision was based on AT&T’s television advertisements where they claimed I would get a certain reward based on the service I signed up for.

I called AT&T on October 28, 2007 and signed up for the DSL service and was told that I would get a $75.00 rebate check for the modem and a $125.00 reward check after I filled out the coupon and mailed it along with a copy of my recent cable internet bill. I was told it would take 4-6 weeks to receive the reward check. I checked online and as soon as I was eligible, I printed off the form, filled it out accurately, signed it and sent it along with the copy of my cable bill to the correct address provided. I did everything promptly and accurately. Then I waited almost 6 weeks and did not receive the checks. Towards the end of December, 2007, I called AT&T’s customer service department to find out the status of the checks and was told that I was disqualified. When I asked why, the girl couldn’t give me a legitimate answer and acted like she couldn’t care less anyway. I hung up and called back and got the same response from another representative. They didn’t even know how to qualify me again. I asked to speak to a manager and was told it would be 24 to 48 hours before a manager could call me. That was a convenient way to blow me off.

I waited a couple more weeks and called back in early January, 2008. This time I spoke to a lady who acted like she knew what she was doing and cared more about me as a customer. She said that they had been having trouble with their reward program but assured me that she had re-qualified me for the $125.00 reward. Then I spoke to her manager who re-qualified me for the $75.00 rebate. I was told that it would take another 4-6 weeks. I did receive the $75.00 rebate check in the mail about a week later. If I hadn’t called back when I did though, I doubt that I would have gotten it. However, the $125.00 reward check never came. So I waited until February 8, 2008 and called the reward center. I explained the situation again and was told that I was once again listed as disqualified. I was livid. I was then told I had to call the AT&T customer service center again because they were the ones who needed to rectify my qualification status. I then called the customer care center and was told that my $125.00 reward check was actually mailed the previous day on February 7, 2008 and it would take 7-10 business days to receive it. I called again and talked to another representative who confirmed that the check was sent and also confirmed the tracking number.

10 business days passed and still no check. I called the AT&T customer service center this morning, February 22, 2008, and once again had to explain the history of this issue. The girl set up a conference call for me with her and a manager at the Reward Center. I explained the problem to her and she told me that I was still disqualified and the customer service center would have to qualify me again. She said it would be another 4-6 weeks before I would receive the check. I said “This is ridiculous. I never should have been disqualified the first time.” I then asked the girl who was still on the call from the customer service center to let me speak to her manager. This time she got a manager who wasn’t worth much. The moron had no idea what to do. I asked him to set up a conference call with a manager at the reward center to get this straightened out once and for all. He told me he couldn’t do that even though the customer service representatives could. That didn’t make any sense. I told him to call a manager at the reward center and have him call me but of course that never happened. I then called the customer service center one more time, explained the situation again, and she contacted a manager at the reward center. I was told by this manager that the disqualification was only lifted today and it would be another 4-6 weeks before I received the check. I said “You are just stringing this along. How am I to believe I will get it then after the experience I have already had with AT&T? I have already waited over 3 months. Why can’t you send it now?” She curtly told me that she would not change it and that’s the way it was. Nobody ever gave me a good reason why I had ever been disqualified because there was not one. I hung up.

AT&T is the worst company I have ever dealt with. They are trying their best not to send people the reward money they were promised. I am appalled by their carelessness, irresponsibility, and unethical behavior. I did everything right according to their rules and all I have gotten from them is misleading information and lies. The customer service center and the reward center keeps passing the buck back and forth and cannot seem to communicate correctly and get their act together. What is amazing is that they are a communications company! I am sorry that AT&T was allowed to buy BellSouth back and become more of a monopoly again. Their television commercials are lies. They are experts at getting your bills to you on time and I have paid every one of them on time, but evidently they will not honor their word and pay many of their customers the reward that they promised them. I have read similar complaints from other customers on the internet and that is probably the tip of the iceberg since most of the customers have probably not said much.

I am speaking up because now it is not so much about the money as the principle of AT&T doing the right thing. Nobody likes being lied to and given the run-a-round but that is what they have given me. They are unethical and pathetic. I would recommend to anyone who reads this message that you avoid AT&T. They don’t seem to have a thread of decency.

We have been without phone service in our bedroom since December 5th because AT&T in their infinate wisdom cannot get it together enough to get you connected to the right person who can help you. When you ask for a supervisor you get put on hold for up to one hour I'm sure so you will quit trying. I decided not to quit one day and spent 3 hours on the phone with these Yahoo's. Nobody at the phone service department had the brains enough to help us out and to this day we remain out of service in our bedroom which we pay for monthly like a good customer. My wife is disabled and uses the bedroom as sort of her office and she has been without for quite some time not to mention God forbid something should happen to her while she is in the bedroom and she cannot dial out.

I'm sure AT&T has great lawyers however some day the little guy is going to win and I hope they wipe them out of business.

Looks like we will be calling Verizon and hope for the best.

Trying to get someone with AT&T service who speaks English is bad enough. Trying to get a service rep who can "define" terms is worse. The agents (I spoke with 8 in total) kept changing the terms, "re-charge" and "re-fill" intermittently. When I asked for a definition of "re-charge" I was told it meant the same as "Re-fill". So, when I asked for a definition of "Re-fill" I was told it meant the same as "re-charge".

This is of no help, morons.

Then I spoke with GARY, some queeny B$%&H who was snotty, rude, unprofessional, and a BAD rep for any organization. Hey, Gary, you little snot-nosed ball licker, if you and I were standing face to face and you spoke to me in that tone, in that manner, with that indignant air of superiority and impatience, I'd lay you out flat. The fact that you didn't have the balls to tell me your last name or provide me with your costumer service number will never hide the fact that you are a sniveling little queen. You might have gotten away with it this time, but someday, soon I can only assume, you will get your queeny little swishy A%# fired for being a B&%$H. Happy freakin' holiday, you coward.

I made the mistake of ordering AT&T DSL service. I never even completed the installation process before it wiped out my entire computer system-all documents, pics were gone, and my computer was frozen! A tech person was sent out, but he had no clue what to do, so he calls another tech on the phone who claimed that HE was frustrated -what about me? After 30 min. or so, they basically tell me to get a new computer! I was furious. Luckily I was able to fix the problem on my own-no thanks to them. I'm sending this crap back ASAP and I'll stick with dial up service. So buyer beware. The service here sucks, and if you have a technical problem, you're on your own.