First bill not the expected amount [ Edited ]

[gregrhoney]

So....here I am, a new customer, who signed up for a $100/mo. plan and my first bill comes, lo and behold, and it's $126/mo. I call the phone number and at first the rep tells me "it's taxes".  Bad answer.  NOT IMPRESSED!  $26 in taxes...I don't think so.  Then he backpedals and tells me it's pro-rated for the 5 days in July after installation and then for the month of August, but the "bill dates" are 26-31 July....not 26 July to 31 Aug.  SECOND STRIKE!  Then I ask him to compute what my monthly bill will be for my September payment with taxes so I can budget it.  He says he can't do that because the taxes are levied by the government.  While I understand that to be true, he insisted he could not tell me what my total bill would be.  The government may levy the taxes but AT&T has to include them in the bill.  STRIKE THREE!  Getting ready to cancel a service that I've had for less than 2 weeks.  That's probably a record.

<CM Edit - new thread created/subject updated>

[jamileh]

I am sorry that your bill was more than you expected it to be. We should have been clear about the fees and taxes you should expect. 

The first bill for any service typically includes some pro-rated charges and all bills include taxes and fees. 

The agent you spoke with should have been able to give you a very close estimate of what your bill for September should be, but given that taxes are a percentage of the bill; the amount can vary slightly. 

If you will please send me a private message with your name, account number, phone number and the best time to contact you; I will have a member of my team contact you to review your billing statement to ensure we have properly explained how your bill is calcuated. 




To send a private message, you can either click on the link in this message or click on the little blue envelope in the upper right hand corner, click "compose new message" and type my username in the "Send To" field.

[texasguy37 ACE - Expert]

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gregrhoney wrote:

So....here I am, a new customer, who signed up for a $100/mo. plan and my first bill comes, lo and behold, and it's $126/mo. I call the phone number and at first the rep tells me "it's taxes".  Bad answer.  NOT IMPRESSED!  $26 in taxes...I don't think so.  Then he backpedals and tells me it's pro-rated for the 5 days in July after installation and then for the month of August, but the "bill dates" are 26-31 July....not 26 July to 31 Aug.  SECOND STRIKE!  Then I ask him to compute what my monthly bill will be for my September payment with taxes so I can budget it.  He says he can't do that because the taxes are levied by the government.  While I understand that to be true, he insisted he could not tell me what my total bill would be.  The government may levy the taxes but AT&T has to include them in the bill.  STRIKE THREE!  Getting ready to cancel a service that I've had for less than 2 weeks.  That's probably a record.

<CM Edit - new thread created/subject updated>

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You can also see the link below for an explanation of your first bill:

http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB401260&title=Understand+your+first+bill#fbid=wU_ZJnsOm...

[dhascall ACE - Master]

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jamileh wrote:

I am sorry that your bill was more than you expected it to be. We should have been clear about the fees and taxes you should expect. 

The first bill for any service typically includes some pro-rated charges and all bills include taxes and fees. 

The agent you spoke with should have been able to give you a very close estimate of what your bill for September should be, but given that taxes are a percentage of the bill; the amount can vary slightly. 

If you will please send me a private message with your name, account number, phone number and the best time to contact you; I will have a member of my team contact you to review your billing statement to ensure we have properly explained how your bill is calcuated. 




To send a private message, you can either click on the link in this message or click on the little blue envelope in the upper right hand corner, click "compose new message" and type my username in the "Send To" field.

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Hi Jam - I do agree that most sales staff (except maybe D2D) should be able to tell a customer what their bill should be, almost down to the penny.  I believe that all sales staff should be given some sort of a "what if" calculator where they can plug in an address and it gives them taxes, franchise fees and so on.  i do understand the pro-rated part but even then a sales person should be able to use a what if calculator to input start date (middle of billing cycle) and end date of next billing cycle to give total first bill and how much a normal month would be.

The airline and travel industry got hit big time by the Feds for not being upfront about taxes/feeds on airline travel - pay TV could be next, lol.