Teacher
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47 Messages
ATT deactivated my paid VOIP phone plan without notice
2 days ago, I noticed no dial tone on the home land phones which uses VOIP over fiber. It had been working for years 2 days prior.
I am in the middle of a AT&T billing cycle and use auto-pay to pay my bills, so there was no lag in payments.
The internet serviced from the same gateway router had no disruption of service.
When I spoke to support, both tech support and sales support said they could not understand what happened but that the phone plan had been canceled with no audit trail of why.
I told them to reactivate the plan since I paid for it.
They said the phone number that I was using for 30+ years had been ported to T-mobile and could not be taken back.
It was unbelievable that AT&T would allow this to happen to a paying customer and without any notification.
Then they went into sales mode and said the plan I had PHONE 200 was no longer offered for $32.95 and that the new plan PHONE 250 was $39.95/month. This started to reveal the underhanded tactics AT&T uses to get customers to have to get a new plan for more money.
Then they said that they felt bad about what happened and would waived the $5 plan installation fee but that I would have to get a new phone number as the other had been ported to T-Mobile.
They also offered a 1 year promo for a plan of unlimited call for $24.99 that would eventually go to $34.99 after a year.
I told them I couldn't trust that AT&T would just drop service on me again and try to get me to move to another plan. So I opted out of all land phone plans.
Instead I purchased the cell2jack device for onetime charge of $34 which allows all the land line phones in my house to work as before but uses a bluetooth connection to my mobile phone.
It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I saved money in the long run and still had use of my home land phones.
Either AT&T knew what they were doing to drop a phone plan that a was paid without any notice or were just that incompetent that they could not even figure out what happened.
To be fair, everyone I spoke to AT&T was very courteous but did not have the tools to figure out happened, which doesn't reflect well on the bookkeeping by AT&T.
I wish I could trust AT&T but after this unbelievable episode it seems they don't know how to treat customers.
Sales said I would still be billed for the PHONE 200 plan in the next billing cycle but would be reimbursed in the billing cycle after that. We shall see.
ATTHelp
Community Support
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232.9K Messages
5 months ago
Hey @leishirsute,
The Community Forums are a public support option where other users, and AT&T, will try and assist with high level support needs. This means we won’t be able to look into account specific concerns. To get the help you need for your unique issue, please review our Contact us page (AT&T Customer Service - Phone Numbers & Live Chat (att.com) and choose the best option to reach out to us. You can call, chat, or reach out via social media and we can review your specific issue and provide you support. If you feel your issue isn’t account specific, and can be answered generally, please let us know and we’ll be happy to help”.
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Zoey K, AT&T Community Forums Specialist.
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spoom2
Expert
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19.7K Messages
5 months ago
File an FCC complaint if you aren't getting anywhere through normal channels.
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leishirsute
Teacher
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47 Messages
5 months ago
I dropped the land phone service since AT&T can't be trusted to do it again.
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JefferMC
ACE - Expert
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36K Messages
5 months ago
You have been a victim of slamming, it's prevalent enough of a SCAM that there's a name for it. AT&T offers a slamming block to make it harder for someone to slam you, but it also makes it harder for you to change services when you want to. Without the block, all someone needs is your account number, phone number and PIN.
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leishirsute
Teacher
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47 Messages
5 months ago
If it is slamming, AT&T doesn't know how to get an audit trail of it.
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JefferMC
ACE - Expert
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36K Messages
5 months ago
There's your audit trail. It got ported. If you didn't do it, you were slammed. You should open up an FCC complaint if you want your number back.
The FCC complaint form is here: https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=39744
Choose "Slamming (change of your carrier without permission)" for Phone Issue.
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leishirsute
Teacher
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47 Messages
5 months ago
It's not a very good audit trail as At&T can't even determine who authorized it and when it was actually done. AT&T said I will receive a decreased amount in my internet + phone bill since I no longer have phone service. I thought slamming is when your active phone is ported to another service provider without authorization. In this case, my phone service was cancelled. AT&T said someone else at T-mobile now owns that phone number. I called it and got a mobile phone voice mail.
About 2 months ago, At&T switched me from DSL to fiber connection. All went well and I had service for internet and phone for 2 months. I wonder if they have a glitch in their conversion.
Thank you for the FCC link. I'll wait a billing cycle to see if I'm charged for land phone service that is no longer available.
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JefferMC
ACE - Expert
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36K Messages
5 months ago
It is.
Why would the number have made its way over to T-Mobile unless it was ported to T-Mobile?! Numbers don't just wander between carriers of their own volition. No, it's on T-mobile because it was ported there. The previous carrier of a ported line treats the account as cancelled.
Yeah, the account that someone set up at T-mobile and ported your phone number to. Disconnected numbers don't get reassigned in two days.
Every single thing you've said points to slamming. Take my advice, or continue to wander in the wilderness.
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leishirsute
Teacher
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47 Messages
5 months ago
I'm not sure I believe AT&T when they say the number was ported as the tech person indicated he was baffled as to what happened. I suspect AT&T messed something up in billing or with the conversion for DSL to fiber and have such poor record keeping that they can't determine what happened.
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JefferMC
ACE - Expert
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36K Messages
5 months ago
You said you got a "mobile phone voice mail." How do you know it was a "mobile phone" voice mail? I assume it was because the carrier was mentioned in a greeting. I admit I misread this the first time and thought you said "T-Mobile phone voice mail".
It only takes 5 minutes to fill out the FCC form. You've spent more time typing comments here. Just do it. If you were slammed, this will be the road to fixing it. If you weren't slammed, maybe it'll make AT&T "fess up" to what happened.
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