Got AT&T? - Just Say No

I canceled my AT&T long distance home service today. It was a little scary at first, but then I realized I can get another one, and now have MCI/Worldcom via a reseller. Contact me if you are interested. We have been using cheap calling cards for a while now, but it was time to replace the bloated and unfriendly ATT with someone else. I needed to send them a message. They just can't believe it when you say you want to stop your long distance service, as if you are saying "I no longer need water service, please turn off the water and stop billing me".

 

Yeah, we were charged for a $0.70 call that we didn't make and our bill from ATT was $12.88! You may ask "How could a single call cost that much"? It turns out that ATT stopped just charging us only when we make a call, but last May started adding a $3.95 monthly fee. For some reason (Like perhaps the fact that we have not used them for long distance in months) they didn't start charging us until now. Ok, so that's less than $5, right? Then they have a $2.99 fee that goes to Qwest (They say) to cover Qwest's cost to take the ATT bill and add it to the envelope and send it to us. Hello? $2.99 per phone bill to print and add 2 pieces of paper? Talk about your conspiracies... Let's see, then there is a "Carrier cost recovery fee" of $1.99. An "In-state connection fee" of $1.95, tax, and a "Universal Connectivity Charge" of $0.69.

 

If you want to know what all these fees are, you can call to find out, but each one has a different phone number!

 

I just called them all and I recommend that if you don't know what these charges are that you find out.

 

My new provider has very low rates and a monthly fee of less than 1 dollar a month.

 

There was one moment of humor. After I finally got them to turn off the long distance, the rep then offered me high-speed Internet DIAL-UP service at a very good rate... somehow I remained in my chair and was still civil to her...

 

(hris