After battling AT&T for months with no satisfaction, woman turns to local television to get refund
Melody Kasick said that she normally avoids talking to people stationed inside kiosks who are trying to push some money-saving plan on her. For some reason, this time she stopped at an AT&T kiosk after the sales rep promised her that they could save her money. To top it off, she found the deal being pushed by AT&T to be intriguing. As she recalls it, the plan would reward her for being on autopay by bundling a new cellphone and her internet service.
As a person who likes to get proof, she asked the salesman for a receipt and he told her not to worry about it because the receipt would be on the phone. So when Kasick left the store, she had no proof that a transaction was done. She had no confirmation number or any documentation of any kind. Of course, something went wrong quickly as within two days she received a pair of handsets from AT&T. But feeling overwhelmed, she didn't handle everything the way that she should have and sent back both phones to AT&T without even opening the packages.
After shipping the phones back to AT&T, Kasick received paperwork showing that AT&T had received the two phones and this, she figured, was the end of this sad little chapter of her life. Except that it wasn't the end of this chapter after all as she started receiving monthly bills from the carrier even though they showed that she didn't use the service at all. And when she called AT&T, they requested a passcode that she didn't have and had never received. Because they couldn't verify her identity, the carrier would hang up on Melody.
Kasick eventually went to an AT&T Store to speak with a manager who told her that he couldn't remove the autopay even though he tried to stop it. So our heroine decided to get in touch with Sacramento's KXTV, a local ABC affiliate with a series called "10 On Your Side" dedicated to helping consumers. Within 24 hours after contacting the television station, Kasick received back the $500 she had paid AT&T.
"Our goal is to resolve customer concerns quickly and, unfortunately in this instance, we fell short of our standards. For that we apologized to the customer and resolved her concerns. Passcodes are just one of the steps we take to secure customer accounts."-AT&T
If there is a lesson to be learned here, it is to make sure that you get a receipt whenever you lay out any money, whether it be via cash or a credit card, to complete a transaction with a wireless provider.
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