AT&T Broadband notified its customers that it was going out of business. I had to PAY to switch my phone back to SBC. Although AT&T did reimburse me “most", not all, of the fees I was charged, they did not pay for the missed work and time spent chasing the credit and rebates they promised. I spent many hours on the phone with the billing department in Jacksonville Florida trying to get them to understand 2 things:

1. They canceled my service in November without my SBC service in place. I had no dial tone for a week because they could not coordinate the switch with SBC correctly. If it were not for the “rush" status SBC put on my situation, I probably would not have had service for another week or two!

2. After all that, they still were billing me into December for a service they were not providing to me. I paid in full the amount I owed up to December of 2001, after that there should have been credits to me for AT&T billing me for the months after they dropped my service. I was also to receive a check to reimburse me for the switching fees. That didn't show up for months, so again, I had to pay SBC for those fees out of my own pocket.

It seems to me that AT&T came charging into Mansfield Texas promising the world and gave its customers nothing but a bunch of headaches. Most of my neighbors signed up with their service, only to have the service ripped away from them 6 months later. After switching over their phone and Internet accounts, we're suppose to just look the other way when AT&T abandoned us? Is this normal AT&T business practices? No wonder they went out of business.

Let me tell you a little about my experience with AT&T. They missed my scheduled installation appointment (which they setup not me) twice and was late the final date of installation. For my inconvenience, they offered me 3 free months of service on my phone bill. Every month I received a bill that was incorrect and spent 2 hours talking to customer service. The charges were not correct and the credits were not applied against the account. I paid what customer service told me to pay and I was still told by a third party that my bill was past due and my service was going to be interrupted! It seems the billing department does not talk to the installation department and therefore cannot issue any credits without the proper authorization. It took 3 months for everything to get fixed.

I finally got that entire mess straightened out by July of 2001. When the October bill arrived, I was notified AT&T was leaving the broadband business. Are you kidding me? After all I went through to get this service? And not only are they leaving, but you'll have to pay to switch yourself back to another provider. I notified AT&T that I was switching to SBC in November of 2001. AT&T would not release my phone number to SBC and then disconnected my phone before I could get SBC to issue a new one. I had no phone service, no Internet, no 911 emergency. I called the billing department in Jacksonville Florida for 2 months, trying to get them to credit my account for the drop in service. I got a lot of “were sorry", but as of the March bill, it's still on there.

In closing, I would like to tally up all the fees I've incurred since becoming an AT&T customer.

1. 3 days of missed work: 24 hours X $22.00 (my salary at work) = $528.00
2. at least 8 hours of personal time on the phone to Jacksonville FL = $176.00
3. I'm writing this letter at work, again at the expense of my employer = $44.00
4. Pain and suffering = $1000.00

That totals $1748.00 that AT&T owes my employeer and myself. I would gladly take a check for the full amount owed plus interest. I will even waive the amount they say I owe and make it $1681.20 without interest (if they make the payment in the next 15 days!). I'm taking this very seriously, just as they have.

I am a hard working, honest, professional engineer. I feel that AT&T has now resorted to low-ball tactics to try and get NCO Financial Systems involved. They couldn't get their billing straight, so now they want to have someone else finish it. I was willing to let AT&T off the hook and forget this entire mess, but now they're attacking my credit! I WILL NOT let them or any of there paid agents, harass me after everything I went through. I will notify the Texas PUC and hire a lawyer if this matter is not fixed. I guarantee it'll cost a lot more then $66 in the long run. I will not accept any more headaches from dealing with AT&T. I WON'T!!

If this letter is not an eye opener, if it's not strong enough or is lacking in anyway, NCO can contact me at my residence. I'll tell anybody who calls the same thing I wrote in this letter. If AT&T wants to continue asking for something that's not theirs, I will start asking for what's rightfully mine under Texas State Law.

paul
mansfield, Texas

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