Implicit charge from 3rd party, almost no way to dispute

[XianMaiPian]

I purchased go phone last year, until recently I found some charge every month, even I did not turn on the cell phone for whole month. I never ordered this service, and never use it, have no idea where it comes from.

RingTones/AnswerTones/Games

-$ 9.99

I filled up web inquiry and get reply from Paula at June 28th, 

Per your request I have removed your third party subscription and
requested a refund.

Please feel free to log in and utilize our email customer care again in
the future to answer any questions you may have.  We definitely
appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
Paula
AT&T
Online Customer Care Professional

But after that, I found my account was charged 2 more times in the same day, that is 30 dollar in same month. 

I also get second reply said 

You will need to contact our Prepaid department concerning how the
subscriptions will be refunded. Their number is 800-901-9878. I
apologize I was unable to assist you with this request.

The  800-901-9878 is just an answer machine without any option to talk to a human being. I log in the gophone page and was re-direct to ATT main support page, all 800 number there all redirect me back to  800-901-9878 , and all email option require login which will redirect me back to gophone page. So all options ends up in a answer machine.  This is excellent! I am wondering is there any way for a gophone customer to talk to any person in ATT??

[ilikewireless ACE - Czar]

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XianMaiPian wrote:

I purchased go phone last year, until recently I found some charge every month, even I did not turn on the cell phone for whole month. I never ordered this service, and never use it, have no idea where it comes from.

RingTones/AnswerTones/Games

-$ 9.99

I filled up web inquiry and get reply from Paula at June 28th, 

Per your request I have removed your third party subscription and
requested a refund.

Please feel free to log in and utilize our email customer care again in
the future to answer any questions you may have.  We definitely
appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
Paula
AT&T
Online Customer Care Professional

But after that, I found my account was charged 2 more times in the same day, that is 30 dollar in same month. 

I also get second reply said 

You will need to contact our Prepaid department concerning how the
subscriptions will be refunded. Their number is 800-901-9878. I
apologize I was unable to assist you with this request.

The  800-901-9878 is just an answer machine without any option to talk to a human being. I log in the gophone page and was re-direct to ATT main support page, all 800 number there all redirect me back to  800-901-9878 , and all email option require login which will redirect me back to gophone page. So all options ends up in a answer machine.  This is excellent! I am wondering is there any way for a gophone customer to talk to any person in ATT??

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Ouch.

You may want to reach out to Jamileh http://forums.att.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/2548143 

You can click the envelope icon at the top right, to send a PM to Jamileh.

[XianMaiPian]

I PM her. Thank you!

[jamileh]

Hi there! 

I got your PM and responded. I need some additional information so we can help out. Will you please read my reply and respond when you have a moment?

To read your PM (private message), click the blue envelope in the upper right hand corner. 

[ilikewireless ACE - Czar]

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XianMaiPian wrote:
I PM her. Thank you!

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You're welcome

[wacko]

The record on the screenshot that you posted shows  -$-9.99 on June 28 is actually about the refund that was added back to your account balance, compared to the -$9.99  that shows for Feb, March, April and May 26 which were the charges for the subscription you got on your account.  So it is not that you were charged when you see the  -$-9.99, as it  was actually when you got the refund.

And though you got charged for several months, the charges for subscriptions/downloads that ATT may  refund back were the charges that occurred within the last 60 days. You can manage, cancel and refund subscriptions/downloads yourself  by going to www.att.com/db. [You need to have your cellphone with you when you do this as you will be sent a free text to your phone about a confirmation code that you will use for you to be able to get to your account purchases on that website.]

There are several ways as to how you get these charges, it could be at some point you received a text from a third party that offer to sign up for certain subscriptions [ you will usually get them from short codes like 4 or 5 or 6 digit numbers]. Sometimes you get these subscriptions when you browse the web on your phone and accidentally clicked on some pop-ups that may automatically sign you up for the subscription. Or you may have been online on a computer at some point and provided your phone number to a specific website to sign in or participate in a promotional offer.

[jamileh]

Thanks for the information wacko.

 XianMaiPian - I've escalated this for you. Thank you for the contact information!

[XianMaiPian]

Thank you for all the information, Wacko! I overlooked the double "-". So yes, I got refund of 2 month. 

[XianMaiPian]

Jamileh, I got a call from ATT billing team. A lady said she will forward my case to the prepay team. Thank you for your help!