Telepathy or just pure misery with AT&T and Nokia?

redmarlin3 said:Hey everyone over at Internet Explorer and my friends from Computer,
something happened to me today and I just felt like sharing it with you all.

Yesterday, I got hit with my AT&T bill for May.
The total came to $0.00. (In words: zero dollars and zero cents). 😲

Naturally, I called customer service immediately.
They told me I had "overpaid" some bullshit 😕 and because of that, I don't actually have to pay the bill for May. 😕
WELL, WHEN I WAS ACTUALLY BROKE... 🙄

I'm honestly too confused to write more about this, so feel free to jump in. 😕

What are you complaining about? This is basically their way of apologizing. Just before New Year's, I added that 10 MB mobile data pack, but they didn't apply it right away—ended up costing me about $30 extra on my bill. So I gave them a call, got my $10 back, they finally added the 10 MB, and they even threw in those 1,000 free texts that usually cost $8.25.

redmarlin3 said:Listen up, my fellow Internet Explorer addicts and tech geeks over at PC Mag,
something wild just went down and I honestly feel like I need to vent to someone about it.

So, yesterday I get my May bill from AT&T.
The total amount? A grand total of $0.00. (That’s zero dollars and zero cents, for those keeping score at home). 😲

Naturally, because I can't just let a weird coincidence slide, I hopped on the phone with customer service.
And they basically told me I had somehow "overpaid" some random bullshit 😕 which means, apparently, I don't owe them a dime for May. 😕
BUT WHEN I WAS ACTUALLY PAYING MY BILL, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! 🙄

My brain is currently too fried from this nonsense to even type out a coherent rant, so you guys go ahead and tell me how insane this is. 😕

They're probably just going to hit you with that May bill again in October, only this time it'll include interest. 😁

redmarlin3 said:They told me I "overpaid" for some bullshit 😕

Dammit, if you don't even know what the hell you're overpaying for... 🤷

🤣

Exactly.
Have you tried looking into the specifics? Honestly, maybe don't. My pathological curiosity would force me to find out exactly what's going on, and then I'd be stuck having to pay the back balance. 🙄 😂

Look, honey, you seem a little lost here. I’ve got a $100 monthly plan and I can barely even hit that limit. I make calls and send texts whenever I feel like it without having to constantly check my usage. I don't have some unlimited deal, and honestly, I don't even know which specific plan I'm on. A ton of people around me use T-Mobile, and it's cheap for everyone.

crimsontrucker4 said:Honey, you clearly don't know what you're doing. I've got a $100 monthly plan and I barely even touch it. Calls, texts, whatever—I just go for it without checking the meter. I don't have some unlimited package, and honestly, I haven't a clue which specific plan I'm actually on. A ton of people I know use T-Mobile and they all say it's cheap.

Look, buddy, you're totally clueless... 😕 😁

I never spend more than maybe $110-$40 (once you factor in those extra $3.25 fees for the radio frequency stuff) and I seriously talk my ear off whenever the mood strikes. I'm sending MMS messages almost every single day; I really don't hold back at all. 😬
And yeah, I stay on top of all my bills. 🤷
So it's just weird to me, I have no idea what kind of plan I'm on or when I even signed up for it 😕

But whatever, it is what it is. I keep every single scrap of paper from my statements, but that last bill on $0.00 😬 won't do me any good now... 🙂

Step away from that bourgeois, elitist Verizon nonsense! 🙂
If I didn't have an official account on the network, I'd be going with AT&T 100%.

I swear on my life, this topic is absolutely driving me insane... 🙏 🙏

Anyway, I realized I owe everyone an explanation regarding that bill from $0.00. It turns out when someone was paying the internet service provider, they accidentally typed in my phone number instead of theirs. 😁
There you go, mystery solved.

So, last month I renewed my contract and snagged a new iPhone for basically nothing.
I can browse the web and receive memes just fine, but for some reason, I can't send them.
Nobody could figure out why, so I just gave up on it. ☕

I can't even send memes, and I lose signal constantly on the train from Chicago to Houston (as if I were traveling to some tiny backwater instead of a major US metro area). Their response to this mess? They claimed my settings were wrong and told me I needed to enable specific features on my phone—which I didn't do because frankly, I don't know how!
This morning a friend asked why my phone was off, even though it was working perfectly fine. People are getting frustrated with me because they can't reach me. Naturally, the folks over at AT&T have absolutely no clue why this is happening.

The whole thing is infuriating, but the breaking point was three months ago. Due to a banking error, my automatic payment failed, and I received a warning notice. My bank told me they sent certain files to AT&T a day late, causing everyone's autopay to fail. Apparently, there was an agreement with AT&T that they wouldn't send warnings, just bills, since the customers weren't at fault. But clearly, that wasn't the case. The notice stated that if I didn't pay by November 3rd, my service would be restricted. I paid the bill on November 2nd (making sure to pay before 2 PM so it would clear that same day), yet on November 3rd—boom—my calls are cut off. Of course, I only realized this when I had a life-or-death emergency and had to beg for a phone at the front desk at The Plaza, cursing everything under the sun regarding AT&T.

After spending the entire day calling their customer service, I got some pathetic excuse about how they could see the payment but had no idea why my service was cut off, suggesting maybe the payment hadn't cleared in time. I was livid. It took them 24 hours just to turn my service back on!!

And then, what happens next month... they run a double automatic payment!! And thank Bob the bill isn't small, $230. At the bank, they said AT&T issued the instruction. AT&T admitted the mistake, even though my monthly plan is only about $100. I asked the teller, "So, what do we do now?" and she just deadpanned, "It'll just carry over to next month, and you won't have to pay anything until you use up the credit."

Am I supposed to give them an interest-free loan?! She then suggested I submit a formal request (get this: a request for my own money back) and they would credit it to my account. I didn't feel like dealing with that headache, so miraculously, they didn't even deduct anything from my account last month, and this one was only $36 (ask Bob if they finally balanced everything out)

Anyway, I was actually quite satisfied with AT&T for the first two years, so I extended my contract for another two (how could I have been so foolish?). Since then, it’s been nothing but problems and frustration. As soon as my contract expires, I am running away from them as fast as I can.☕