AT&T has a lot of explaining to do. ATT overcharged 15,000 customers in California.

The customers were billed separately for each long-distance call made in addition to regular long distance charges, monthly fees, taxes, line usage charges, federal subscriber line charges and taxes based on the overall bill.

ATT has the most confusing and obfuscated billing system in the world. When a customer upgrades a service. ATT charges them for a "pro-rated" amount up until the service was changed and then they charge the customer again for the entire month of service in advance and they don't "pro-rate" the new month. They charge the full amount. That way they are in effect, double charging the customer for the part of the month before the service was changed.

ATT gets away with this because they are the only option for many customers and they operate as a monopoly in many areas. They offer DSL service which is more expensive by itself. If the customer adds a phone, they get a discount on the DSL service, so it appears to the customer that they are saving some money buy having the DSL and phone service provided by ATT.

The actual result is a more expensive bill, because what they tell you on the phone is not really what you end up seeing on your bill. They add numerous additional fees, long distance, wire charges, maintenance fees, caller id fees, call waiting fees, subscriber line charges, federal, state and local taxes, adjustments, prorations and mysterious other charges, deductions, additions and a mind boggling array of nonsense.

Calls to the ATT customer service get you into another maze of choices, press 1 for this, press 2 for that, welcome to ATT, press 0 for this, press 0 again for this, thank you, did you say "cancel my account" thank you I'm collecting more information about your account, press 1 if you would like to hear the main main menu, press 2 for sales...

How do they get away with this, they are operating as a monopoly. When they make a mistake on a bill, you can be sure that it will be in ATT's favor.

ATT's iPhone plan costs 39.99 plus a "data fee" of 30.00. However, you can not have any service without the data plan so the actual cost is $69.99 per month, plus taxes and fees. The final total is actually about 76.26 per month and you are locked into a two year agreement. If you cancel anytime before the two year agreement, they will charge you a hefty cancellation fee of up to $240.00. That is their least expensive iPhone plan and they are the only company which provides service for iPhones.

THREE PAYMENT OPTIONS: Electronically: through Automatic Payment Service or
or Online: AT&T eBill(SM). At an Authorized Payment Location. Or mail to
AT&T Payment Center, Sacramento, CA 95887-0001.
 
BILLING QUESTIONS: Call number in Billing Summary (see page 1), write:
Residence Service, POB 9039, South San Francisco, CA 94083; or Business
Service, POB 78230, San Francisco, CA 94107, or visit att.com. We will
investigate and notify you. If you have a complaint you cannot resolve
with us, write the California Public Utilities Commission at Consumer
Affairs Branch, 505 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco, CA 94102 or at
www.cpuc.ca.gov, or call 1-800-649-7570 or TDD 1-800-229-6846. If your
complaint concerns interstate or international calling, write the FCC at
Consumer Complaints, 445 12th Street SW, Washington, D.C. 20554, or at
fccinfo@fcc.gov, or call 1-888-225-5322, or TTY 1-888-835-5322. Note:
The CPUC handles complaints of both interstate and intrastate
unauthorized carrier changes ("slamming"). The California consumer
protection rules are available online at www.calphoneinfo.com.
 
FEDERAL SURCHARGES: The Federal Universal Service Fee and the Federal
Subscriber Line Charge are charges imposed by action of the Federal
Communications Commission.
 
TARIFF INFORMATION: Call 1-888-319-8800 or visit our web site
www.att.com/servicepublications.
 
LATE PAYMENT CHARGES: If the unpaid balance on your bill is $30.00 or
more, a late payment charge of 1.5% (calculated monthly), or $10.00,
whichever is greater, will be assessed if your payment is not received
by the "LATE" date shown on the Payment Stub. For Access Services, a
charge of 1.5% per month, calculated daily, will be assessed on the
total unpaid balance.
SERVICE INFORMATION
Your local services are provided by AT&T California (Pacific Bell
Telephone Company). Your AT&T long distance services, if any, are
provided by one or more of the following AT&T Inc. subsidiaries: AT&T
Long Distance (SBC Long Distance, LLC), AT&T Communications of
California, Inc., and/or AT&T Corp. You can find the name of your long
distance service provider in the long distance section of your bill.
To view your provider's service publications, including Guidebooks,
Service Guides and/or Tariffs, go to att.com/servicepublications.