Office of the President - The Deterring Technique - BE WARNED

Within 24 hours of placing a BBB complaint after a month of no resolution, my "case" was assigned to Catreal *** who works in 'the office of the president'. 

 

Below is the complaint, following about 8 unsuccessful phone calls with the front-end reps as well as with Ebony *** from the "ICU department".

"AT&T refuses to take my word about a reversal that I did not authorize. The representatives fail to take responsibility for system/user bill error.
Made a debit payment from Bank of America on December 8th, 2014, in the amount of $110.41 using a Visa ending in xxxx. Payment cleared on December 10th, 2014.

What seemed to start the incident:
I filed an ACH return after waiting 10 business days for a transaction reversal. My original reversal request was regarding a transaction on 1/09/2015. This was a BANK DRAFT payment, therefore, the ACH return request faxed in from my bank on the 21st of January. This payment was properly refunded as I intended.

I proceeded to make a split payment with two other payment methods which has since cleared. The account should technically be in GOOD STANDINGS with these payments made.

However, AT&T is now reporting that my transaction from December 8th is "reversed". I have made multiple phone calls and received a case number, which has been escalated to their "ICU Department". Upon speaking with the ICU representative, Ebony ***, she was under strong belief that I did, in fact, request the reversal. Tiffany (a supervisor on the normal support floor) claimed that AT&T had successfully processed this reversal, and that the funds were 'received back into the checking account' as well. 

Yet, I did not request any such reversal. Given that the payment on the 8th is the same amount as the ACH Return I requested, I suspect that user or system error led this payment to being reversed in their system (despite it not being refunded to by bank account).
In addition, the checking account is now closed.

I conferenced in Bank of America with Ebony ***. Bank of America was able to confirm the payment from the 8th of December was NOT RETURNED, and the payment did clear successfully.

I am being told that I will get a follow up phone-call after "further investigation". It would seem ATT is more focused on proving that I did, in fact, request the reversal, instead of wanting to help me bring my account back to its positive standings.

Their representatives appear to have a poor grasp of the situation and continuously repeat "What they see in the system" without providing any clear reason as to why the payment was reversed.

I request a refund or credit on my account in the amount of $110.41 to settle this dispute."

Ebony *** was unable to help me after the case was passed to the Office of the President. I did send her some photos of relevant bank statements, but her 'investigation' seemed to have halted.

 

Now...Check out some of my responses from Ebony via email.

FORUM MODS: if you need to censor the emails, please do so, and leave the content. In particular, the timestamps.

After sending in my documents on Feburary 9th:

 

==========

EBONY	Feb 9
to me

Thanks

 

---

From: Carrie H [mailto:***] 

Sent: Monday, February 09, 2015 11:32 AM
To: ***, EBONY
Subject: RE: Bank statement v4

Carrie H <***>	Feb 11
to EBONY

Any status update? Thanks.

---

 

 

***, EBONY <***>	Feb 11
to me

Nothing yet, I did email them this morning to follow up but have not received a response yet. If I don’t hear anything by Friday, I will do as you requested and just issue a credit to your mom’s account.

 

--- 

From: Carrie H [mailto:***]
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2015 3:42 PM
To: ***, EBONY
Subject: Re: Bank statement v4

 

Carrie H <***>	Feb 18
to EBONY

Hi Ebony, it's been over 72 hours without any contact from your end.

Please advise the status of the case.

 

---

 

***, EBONY	Feb 18
to me

I will look into it today, plus forward your request to the OPP agent  that is working your case. Since it has been send to OPP. I cannot make any changes to the account, but will forward info

---

 

From: Carrie H [mailto:***]
Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2015 9:24 AM

 

Carrie H <***>	Feb 18
to CATREAL

Please advise the case of the status.

Carrie H <***>	Feb 18
to EBONY

Catreal with the OPP doesn't even seem aware that my bank statement was sent in.

Please make sure she is 'up to speed' with the situation.

I have forwarded her our conversation anyways.

---

***, EBONY	Feb 18
to me

I have sent her a copy of the bank statement you send plus all the emails from our finance dept. also. But I will check on this for you still

 

 

From: Carrie H [mailto:***]
Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2015 9:28 AM

==========

 

Never heard anything back.

 

Catreal *** insists: "AT&T does not have the funds. I don't see it in the system. Our Payment team did not find the payment in the system." That is all she repeats back to me when I inquire about anything. Even if I ask her, "Why don't we perform an audit of the account?" After all, I did have to call in five times over the span of two weeks to get the original ACH return completed. Maybe someone just made a mistake? I told her Ebony with the ICU promised a credit in Feburary if resolution could not be found. She refused this credit and told me that further investigation was required. I asked her if a credit to remediate the situation was plausible. "I don't know." 

 

Backstory: I was splitting my line off onto my own account, and realized that after doing so, the prorated changes would impact the amount of payment (shared with my mother). I wanted the original payment from January reversed. As explained, re-payment was made. 

The "magical reversed fee" only popped up two business days after I sent in an ACH Reversal (for an entirely different bank, and the reversed payment was from a debit card...). Seems a bit too close to be a mere coicidence.

 

Anyways, Catreal cannot give me answers. The last time we spoke, I conferenced in Bank of America again - another rep verified that my payment went through, and no funds were placed back on the account. Catreal repeats: "Oh, well, that's not what I'm seeing in the system here. AT&T does not have the payment."

 

Bank of America: Mrs. *** did not receive any credits or refunds within that timeframe.

 

Catreal: "Well, AT&T doesn't have the funds, so."

 

Me: "So what can I do to prove that I didn't authorize this?"

Throughout this, Catreal updated the BBB complaint. Below is her response, where she completely neglects to mention that the reversal was not authorized by myself. or my mother.

On March 11, 2015, the business provided the following information:
March 11, 2015

Better Business Bureau
Complainant's Name: Carrie ***
Agency File Number: ***
Company File Number: ***
________________________________________
AT&T Mobility ("AT&T") is in receipt of the above-referenced customer's complaint and appreciates the opportunity to respond. Carrie ***, on behalf of Nina ***, states a payment she made on December 8, 2014 is not reflected on her account. Ms. *** requests a refund or a credit to her account for the payment amount.

An AT&T Office of the President Specialist spoke with Ms. *** on February 23, 2015. The specialist reviewed the account. Our records indicate two payments were received for the same amount on December 8, 2014 and January 9, 2015. One payment was reversed and the other was returned. AT&T did not receive the funds. Ms. *** stated she will provide documentation indicating the payment was received. The specialist agreed to follow-up with her on March 30, 2015 regarding those documents after submission.

AT&T regrets any inconvenience caused by this matter. We trust this letter addresses your concerns regarding this complaint. If you have any questions regarding this case, please contact Catreal *** at ***. For all other matters, please use your normal channel.

=================

 

Today, I sent in my statements again, and got confirmation that even though all of our calls are recorded, they can't be pulled and used for a given case. So, would the call logs only become relevant if there was a legal matter involved?

 

Her emails:

=================

 

***, CATREAL M	8:04 AM (1 hour ago)
to me

Thanks. I am submitting your documents this morning. Do you have a the last statement showing the transactions up to  January 23, 2015 because that’s when we received the notification from you bank that 1/9/2015 payment was returned due to Authorization Revoked by customer?

 

Thanks,

Catreal ***

Office of the President

***

 

From: Carrie H [mailto:***]
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2015 2:52 PM

=================

 

Yup... Today, the 17th of March, a month later, she still does not understand which payments I did and did not authorize, even though I have been abundandly clear via email, the BBB complaint, as well as through the phone. Don't get me wrong, I don't remember 100% of my client's details either. At this point, it just looks like she is deliberately being unhelpful, or she is just ignorant.

 

So, in summary, even though two representatives had verbal agreement from the bank and copies of my statement where no reversal is shown, I was still expected to send in new PDF's of the statement, and now I'm waiting for another review. The information hasn't changed at all. What are they even thinking? I don't feel like they're getting paid to help me, but, instead, they are being paid to get me off the phone.

 

I just wanted to share this story so that more people are aware of how AT&T's customers are being treated.

 

I have already tried reaching out via Twitter. This has helped nothing. The problem seems to lie within the comprehension of the agent. 

 

 

If she's unable to help me after this third "review and investigation," I definitely want my mother's phone bill with a company who is easier to deal with. After all, I wouldn't want her talking to any of these people should further problems come up with her bill... seeing as how no one is interested in helping. All of the agents simply repeat back what is in the system.

 

[edited for privacy-please do not post personal or unique information such as but not limited to full names, employee ID numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, etc.]