Did you know that AT&T just bought Cellular One?We knew that because they sent us a couple of letters explaining the changes in service that we could expect. As companies like this tend to hid things in the Fine Print, we read even the Fine Print. We didn't see anything unexpected in the Fine Print, just the usual your quality is going down and your rates are going up, then this week (May/2008) we got this letter:
"Dear Bob:
We value you as a customer, but unfortunately your Cellular One account is past due. Your service may be interrupted at any time if the balance due is not paid immediately. If your service is interrupted, a $25.00 reconnection fee will be charged for each line of your service on the account we restore...
Regards, Financial Services Manager Cellular One"
Our Cellular One bill was set up as an automatic detection from our bank account. How could it possibly be unpaid, there was at least enough money in the account to cover the Cell Phone bill?
We got on the phone and suffered through they usual Phone Hell you expect when calling the Phone Company.
The person on the phone told us that AT&T was not honoring *ANY* of Cellular One's auto-deductions, or automatic Credit Card payments! WHAT??!!
WHY DID THEY NOT TELL ANYONE???
All this is, is a sneaky way for them to charge you a $25 fee for the *them* to switch over my account from Cellular One to AT&T, which is something I never asked for, did not want, and don't care to have!
What will the ripple effect of this be now? Once a "Unpaid" gets put on your credit report (all "Unpaids" end up there even if it is not credit card related), your credit score goes down, your interest rates go up, and your car insurance rates may go up, because of the new practice of Insurance Companies linking your rates to your credit score, a dubious practice at best, which should be made illegal, but you and I don't enough money to buy any politicians like the Phone Company and Insurance Industry do!
Welcome to the USA!