Please note the following regarding my mother's AT&T Universal Card account referenced above:
1) In August of 2009, I personally came to a payment arrangement with your Credit Department for this account, despite the fact that a
payment by me was not required by law, since my mother was the only one issued credit and is
the only legally responsible party.
2) A payment schedule, with no interest, was arranged for the sum of $497.00 per month, which was to be automatically
withdrawn from my personal bank account until the account was paid in full.
3) This arrangement was going along smoothly for approximately 13 months, until my mother received a phone call asking her to verbally
approve a payment arrangement with AT&T through my personal bank account. At that time she told your
credit department that she would relay the message to her son, who is handling her affairs.
4) These phone calls kept coming on a daily basis, with the same reply from my mother.
5) At first, I thought my mother misunderstood the call and was relaying the information to me incorrectly, since a payment arrangement had been working without a
problem for over a year already. Since these calls persisted, I called your credit department to see what these calls were all about .
6) I was shocked to learn that AT&T, indeed, wanted me to verbally agree to allow them to withdraw $497.00 a month from my personal bank account. This is the
same dollar amount that I agreed to with AT&T in WRITING over a year ago. I was told that your computer system could not handle anything over
a year old, and that I would HAVE TO VERBALLY AGREE to allow A, T, &T to remove monies from my bank account . I advised that I would never VERBALLY agree to
have any company remove any monies from my bank account, but would agree to this payment amount if they would submit the arrangement in writing to me. I
had no problem agreeing to this arrangement, as I had previously, but indicated that for my protection, and to avoid any misunderstanding or miscommunication, I
would need to have the terms put in writing. This is certainly a reasonable and prudent request.
7) I spent much time, and many, many, phone calls trying to have someone from AT&T send me a written
agreement, as they had over a year ago, to no avail. Their response was that AT&T does not and will
not send out any written agreement to me for removal of monies from my personal account. I have never encountered any company that insists of only verbal
arrangements. If they had sent me a written agreement initially, why then is A, T, & T refusing to do so now.
8) Please note that the original arrangement was not terminated by me. This original agreement would have continued with timely, monthly withdrawels from my
personal checking account, until the account was paid in full. Instead, however, A, T, & T chose to interrupt it with their ridiculous demand that I make a new
verbal agreement with them.
9) At this time I would like to state that I have tried to work with AT&T and felt that the arrangement that was made over a year ago
worked for both A, T, &T and myself. I kept up my end of the arrangement and I am still willing to have payments taken out of my personal bank account,
IF I can receive the terms of the agreement in writing again. No legal counsel would ever recommend that anyone agree verbally to have monies removed from their
personal bank account. I cannot agree to any VERBAL arrangement like this.
10) Please note that AT&T's present bill shows an interest charge being applied to the balance. This statement will not be paid, as is.
11) I made the last (2) payments, as requested by the monthly statement from AT&T, with no interest.
12) It is truly my hope that this matter can be resolved and that we can continue in an arrangement where this obligation can be paid without a default, which would not be
advantageous or desirable to either party.
13) At this time, I must ask that if a payment plan cannot be achieved in writing with both AT&T and myself, then please desist with any further phone calls to us and move
onto your legal process. Please let me know, as soon as possible, how you wish to proceed.
Thank you.
Yours Truly,
Howard Conklin