Many of you will remember a time, before the anti trust breakup of Ma Bell, that hatred for the phone company was almost universal. Well, recent behavior by the giant communication company AT & T has brought me full circle to those days before 1982 of cursing the telephone company.
My partner brought his Cingular cellphone to our relationship in 2001. The phone and the service were both simple and affordable. In 2006, Cingular was aquired in full by A T & T, and little problems began to pop up. He would get charged for texts, even though his plan did not include texting. Frequently, the texts were sales pitches from A T& T. We would have to call and have the charges removed, an unneeded pita several times a year.
I handle the bill paying, and if there was a problem, they refused to talk to me. Another slow burning fire under my chair.
Over the last two years, the date that the bill arrives and when it is due have been inching closer and closer together, frequently less than ten days between opening the envelope and when they would add a late fee.
Yesterday I retrieved the bill from the mailbox and found it was due in only six days. We decided that it has been intentional, squeezing us into paying late fees and pushing us toward giving this greedy corporation access to our bank account via electronic bill paying.
Enough. He called last night to cancel his long time and highly profitable (to them) account. They would not let him cancel. This morning he drove to the A T&T store, where they pushed for retention for a long time, but after an hour, he finally was able to end his relationship with the giant phone company.
We have a few weeks to find cellular service for a fellow that may use his phone ten times a month, doesn't want texting, selfies, videos or data. He hasn't decided if he wants to keep his sturdy flip phone or if he wants to keep his number.illing practices;
Changing a long time account isn't pleasant, and A T & T didn't need to lose the business, but their billing practices finally convinced us that like Wells Fargo, they would continue to enhance their income with shady business practices.