Problems with suncom (telecorp) billing after AT&T buyout

[tylerdurden]

Has anyone else seen billing problems with SunCom (telecorp) after AT&T bought them?

I got my monthly bill on September 3rd. It was the first bill I've gotten that says "AT&T" instead of "SunCom". Everything on it was the same as the old suncom bill except for one thing... they've moved the customer service phone number to a much less obvious spot, buried deep inside the bill instead of on the front page.

There was one other small problem. They hadn't credited my account for last months payment. I checked my bank account on-line, and sure enough, the payment had cleared on August 12th. I called AT&T to see if it had been credited in the time between when the bill was printed and when I got it in the mail, but it had not.

I called my bank and they verified that AT&T had in fact recieved the money and sent an acknowledgement (it was an electronic transfer). I verified the account number etc, everything checked out. I called AT&T back, they said if I could just fax them a copy of my bank statement they would take care of it. However, the latest printed statement I have from my bank doesn't yet have that transaction on it. I called my bank back and they said they would call AT&T and fax everything over that they would need.

The next day, the phone got cut off. I called back, and spoke with the collections department. They said they had recieved the fax, but they didn't have everything they needed. I asked why I wasn't contacted to get the additional information, and they couldn't explain that. I guess cutting off your phone is their way of contacting you. Anyway, the collections guy turned the phone back on, and asked me to fax everything to him instead of to customer service. I called my bank back and had them re-fax everything to the new number, then called the collections guy back and asked if he had everything he needed, to which he replied "yes, this should do it."

Today, I called to confirm that this had been resolved, and after keeping me on hold for about 15 minutes the customer service rep said that the finance department was not satisfied. Again, no one had contacted me to inform me of this development. Now they wanted a copy of the front and back of the check. I explained that there was no check, since it was an electronic transfer, but that didn't seem to do any good. I asked to speak to the finance department directly so I could hear from the horse's mouth exactly what documentation would be needed to resolve this, but the CSR told me that finance didn't have any direct phone number, and that not only could she *not* transfer me to them, she couldn't speak to them herself.

I'm still trying to get this resolved, but I'll be discontinuing my service once I do get it straight. Luckily, I'm still covered by SunCom's contract and my disconnection fee will only be $12.50 per month left on my contract as opposed to the oppressive $175 fee AT&T charges.

I used to have SunCom (telecorp) service in Memphis and I never had a problem with them, so when I moved to atlanta in 1999, I switched to AT&T. I never had any trouble with them in the atlanta area either, so when I moved to Arkansas in 2001, I switched back to Suncom again. No problems here, until AT&T buys suncom.

The really funny part is that this exact same thing happened to me a year and a half ago after AT&T broadband bought MediaOne, who was my cable company back in Atlanta.

[parthery]

Its AT&T in name only...they are still in the process of converting Telecorps billing systems, etc...to AT&T and this will not be done til after the first of the year.

Call back and ask for a supervisor...it was their mistake and I would venture that they will offer you a service credit as a goodwill gesture.

Question... Your online banking, was it Check Free?

S. Cole

[tylerdurden]

My online banking is with Bank of America. I don't know what system they use, so I can't tell you if it's "check free" or not. I haven't had any other problems with their bill pay system.

I've spoken with around 10 people at suncom now since this started and several of them have mentioned that they do have a new billing system. Hold times for supervisors have been very long (20-30 minutes), but when I did get through I was given a small credit to my account. The ten hours I've spent on the phone plus the disconnection makes the $25 look even smaller.

The size of the credit isn't the problem, though. I'll be disconnecting my service because of three big points that I feel are unacceptable. First, they disconnected my service even though I had already opened a case with them to dispute the billing. Everyone I spoke with made the excuse that the system does this automatically, but a human made the policies that were programmed into "the system." There *is* an exception list, but nobody at AT&T bothered to put me on it or even told me of its existence until after the fact. Second, AT&T made no attempt to contact me regarding this matter, other than sending the bill. No courtesy call to say "we haven't gotten your payment, which seems odd since you've got a three-year history of paying on time." When I had all documentation faxed to them and their finance department said that the documentation wasn't enough (even though they weren't specific about what they did want), AT&T didn't call me to tell me they needed more information. Luckily, I called them to confirm things were resolved and *then* I was told they were not. They made no attempt to warn me that my phone would be cut off even though I had alreday initiated a billing dispute with them. After I was told by the collections department that they had "everything" they needed to resolve this matter, I again was *not contacted* when the finance department again rejected the documentation. Third, there is no way to directly speak with the finance department that makes these arbitrary rulings on what documentation is or is not acceptable. If I could have just spoken with them directly instead of passing messages back and forth through the customer service reps this probably could have been resolved in a day. Instead, though, the CSRs claim they have *no way* of speaking with finance other than putting a note in my case and sending it over to them. The collections department said the same thing. I still haven't gotten a straight answer on what documentation they want. Every time they reject the documentation I have faxed they say they want a copy of the "front and back of the check" even though I've explained ten times that *there is no check*.

At this point, I've suffered enough abuse. No amount of account credits will make it worthwile. AT&T doesn't deserve my money. There are plenty of other companies willing to work for it.

[TNDan21]

I can't blame you if all that had happened to me I would cancel too. Sounds like AT&T really screwed up on you and they don't seem to be doing anything to straighten it out.

[ZaphodB]

You might want to initiate a formal complaint with the Arkansas Public Service Commission (PSC)... they are the organisation regulating telephone service provision. Their website is below:

Arkansas Public Service Commission

The reason why I ask is because Check Free with Bank of America had mistakenly sent the suncom/at&t payments to P.O. Box 96067, Charlette, NC 23296-0067 which is a different SunCom. check with your bank to see if this had happened. If it did, let me know. I have a contact at the suncom at the NC address who can confirm if they received the payment or not.

S. Cole

not to quote terms and conditions of the service agreement, however it states that you have to pay your bill in full, even any disputed amounts. It then states that you then inform us of any disputes so they can be resolved.

S. Cole

[TNDan21]

That is true S. Cole that is the address for paymeants on SunCom (Triton PCS) which is separte from AT&T.

[tylerdurden]

Ah, thanks for the tip. I will call the bank and see if this is the case.

[tylerdurden]

Sure enough, my bank did confirm that the money went to north carolina (Triton PCS). It seems AT&T should have been able to figure this out the first time my bank faxed the payment documentation over.

The only credit to my account AT&T has offered is the amount of the disputed payment (which they will later collect from Triton). This is supposed to be a "Retention credit"- that is, they only offered it to me now instead of when they actually get the money from triton to keep me from disconnecting my service. In other words, their idea of an incentive to stay with them is to credit your account with the money you already paid!

[TNDan21]

Glad to see that you got everything straighted out now tylerdurden [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Your bank made the mistake and sent your payment to a separate company and you are upset because AT&T won't give you more credit. Would Visa give you credit if you sent your payment to MasterCard in error?

It's a mistake that happened, but it wasn't AT&T fault.

[tylerdurden]

Yes, my bank made the original error... HOWEVER, my bank faxed the Electronic Funds Transfer documentation to AT&T FOUR TIMES over the course of a week. Each one of those faxes documented that the money went to "SunCom" in North Carolina (the payment was made before AT&T bought TeleCorp). My bank has no clue that there are two seperate companies called "SunCom" and shouldn't need to. If anyone at AT&T was actually looking at the faxes they would have seen that they money went to Triton and we could have resolved the whole matter in hours instead of days. The finance department never actually read the faxed documentation, they just kept complaining that they needed a copy of the front and back of the check (which didn't exist, since it was a electronic payment, as I had to point out to them FIVE times). When I called AT&T to tell them that I thought the money might have gone to Triton, it only took them five minutes to confirm this.

Big thanks to S. Cole for pointing that out.

You're Welcome.

It was only on 9/13/02 that CS was informed of this error. They are working with Triton now to have the payments transfered.

S. Cole