SBC - Ameritech ripped off my account, their customer service lies and they are not reversing fraudulent charges Chicago Illinois

In mid January I had called to cancel my autopayment because this would be my last bill from Ameritech and I wanted to avoid having problems. The customer service representative assured me it would be cancelled. When I received my next bill I noticed the bill was still going to be taken out of my checking account. I also noticed $349.50 charges from Integretel Inc. I immediately called Ameritech to dispute the charges, as I was not home when the charges were billed. The representative, Cynthia, said she would begin the dispute process and a credit would be issued.

On February 20th, my checking account was debited for $397.79 - which included the full amount of the charges I disputed weeks prior! I once again called to complain. I was told that not only was there apparently no record of the fact I disputed the charge, but also that I would have to wait 60-90 days before a credit would even be given. At this same time I asked why the payment was taken from my checking account and the representative said they had no record of my auto-payment being cancelled.

On March 4th I received my "final bill" from Ameritech. Once again I called because the charges from Integretel were not reversed. The representative said I would have to wait the 60-90 days, as Ameritech is only a "billing agent". I find this preposterous as my friend had over $400.00 from Integretel on his January bill. When he called to complain, a credit was immediately issued and the credit showed up on his next statement.

In addition my friend was told that Ameitech has been receiving a lot of complaints about bogus charges from companies that are imposing charges stemming from pop-up ads on websites. Ameritech was aware of the problem and was taking a pro-active approach to reduce customer complaints by reversing the charges on customers' accounts.

Why such a vast difference in the way you are handling disputes from one person to the next?

Richard
Oswego, Illinois
U.S.A.