removing information from a cancelled account [or the account entirely]

[aldenderfer]

hello! i've left attwireless for another company, and have cancelled my wireless service here. however, the account still holds my SSN, address, and credit card information, and i cannot remove it. i've called account support, and they're claiming that not only can they not remove my account from their records, they cannot even remove any specific information from my account.

obviously, i would prefer to have them purge the account completely. it was recommended that i write them a letter asking to destroy the records, which i'm willing to do, but sceptical of the outcome. is there any other way to do this?

if i've totally overlooked other posts, please forgive me. i could not find anything while searching these forums. also, if i'm in the wrong section, feel free to move the thread!

[youngjm ACE - Professor]

---

aldenderfer wrote:

hello! i've left attwireless for another company, and have cancelled my wireless service here. however, the account still holds my SSN, address, and credit card information, and i cannot remove it. i've called account support, and they're claiming that not only can they not remove my account from their records, they cannot even remove any specific information from my account.

obviously, i would prefer to have them purge the account completely. it was recommended that i write them a letter asking to destroy the records, which i'm willing to do, but sceptical of the outcome. is there any other way to do this?

if i've totally overlooked other posts, please forgive me. i could not find anything while searching these forums. also, if i'm in the wrong section, feel free to move the thread!

---

You may not get any different outcome but it is worth a try.  They do need to keep records for audit purposes and there may be delayed charges that they may need to process depending upon the state of your account.  

At minimum write the letter and see where that goes.

[youngjm ACE - Professor]

One more thought here, they are probably also required to keep the records due to legislative/congressional rules and laws.  For example someone who claims cell phone usage as a business expense could have those records audited 7 years from now.  The carrier may need to be required to support that investigation.  Also the terms of their agreements allow you to dispute somehting into the future, they need those records to document what they did based on claims you may make.