AT&T/Cingular charging me $1800 for fradulent calls

[mintchocolate]

What is the name of your state? Maryland

I am being charged $1800 for fradulent cellular phone calls I did not make. The phone was stolen from me in Panama on Thankgiving day, upon my return to Maryland I called and reported the phone lost (Sunday after Thanksgiving). The company that is going through a merge claims not to have any record of my call to report the lost phone. I have submitted 3 faxes to their resolution dept. without any response. Customer service has no record of all calls I made or faxes I have sent to resolve this matter.

I can prove I did not make those calls from Panama since I was in the United States, my passport is stamped with my return on Saturday after Thanksgiving)

What can I do ?

 

[seniorjudge]

What is the name of your state? Maryland

I am being charged $1800 for fradulent cellular phone calls I did not make. The phone was stolen from me in Panama on Thankgiving day, upon my return to Maryland I called and reported the phone lost (Sunday after Thanksgiving). The company that is going through a merge claims not to have any record of my call to report the lost phone. I have submitted 3 faxes to their resolution dept. without any response. Customer service has no record of all calls I made or faxes I have sent to resolve this matter.

I can prove I did not make those calls from Panama since I was in the United States, my passport is stamped with my return on Saturday after Thanksgiving)

What can I do ?

Keep after them.

Deal with them ONLY in writing.

Send a copy of your passport.

The important thing is not to give up.

 

[mintchocolate]

Keep after them.

Deal with them ONLY in writing.

Send a copy of your passport.

The important thing is not to give up.

What if they ruin my excellent credit report?

They do not respond to the faxes I send to their resolution department.

Should I write to the billings dept? That is the only mailing address I have.

 

[seniorjudge]

What if they ruin my excellent credit report?

They do not respond to the faxes I send to their resolution department.

Should I write to the billings dept? That is the only mailing address I have.

Ask for validation:

Standard answer on expired SOL and/or validation letters.

SOL
http://www.bcsalliance.com/y_debt_sol.html

http://www.fair-debt-collection.com/Disputing_Collections/SoL-dispute-letter.html


Validation letter samples you can get at :
www.creditinfocenter.com
and www.creditboards.com


I am NOT a creditor-debtor lawyer; stand by for further help.

I am NOT vouching for the accuracy of these websites!

 

[mintchocolate]

AT&T/Cingular charging me $1800 for calls I did not make

Any more ideas? Should I file a complaint with the FCC, they have an online complaint form.

I really am afraid of them ruining my credit.

 

[seniorjudge]

Any more ideas? Should I file a complaint with the FCC, they have an online complaint form.

I really am afraid of them ruining my credit.

You can try filing with the FCC but normally they will say this is a contract problem and do nothing.

 

[mintchocolate]

AT&T/Cingular charging me $1800 for fraudulent calls

I filed a complaint with FCC and sent them a certified letter explaining my position (I don't want to pay for calls I did not make) along with a copy of every fax I have sent.

I received a form letter from them saying that they know I have contacted customer support but they don't offer any solution. They also left a message on my answering machine saying to call back that they want to work with me.

What should I do?

 

[seniorjudge]

Q: What should I do?

A: They also left a message on my answering machine saying to call back that they want to work with me.

 

[mintchocolate]

AT&T/Cingular charging me $1800 for fraudulent calls

Well, if I call them back I would not be dealing with them ONLY in writing. Should I call them back?

Please clarify.

Mintchocolate

 

[djohnson]

I'm going to take a different stand on this. I don't think your passport is going to help you are all. I have phones in my name that others use (my kids for example). It doesn't mean it was stolen or lost. What kind of report did you file for the stolen/lost merchandise in Panama? What else was taken? Just the phone? It's going to be up to you to prove you notified them to cancel the phone by a certain date. You would still be responsible up until then. Do you have where you sent them something CRRR? I think this is going to be harder than you think. You may consider trying to make a deal with them.

 

[seniorjudge]

Well, if I call them back I would not be dealing with them ONLY in writing. Should I call them back?

Please clarify.

Mintchocolate

Call them.

Find out who you are talking to and their address.

After you review with the person what you have discussed, then write a letter to that person stating, "You and I talked on [date] about [details]. If I have made any mistakes in the description of our conversation, notify me in writing within ten days please."

 

[mintchocolate]

AT&T/Cingular charging me $1800 for fraudulent calls

djohnson,

The phone was left in a cab on Thanksgiving day, that is where it got lost, and someone picked it up and made the calls. I called to report the phone lost as soon as I came back to the US (Sunday after Thangsgiving). They claim they don't have a record of my call. I can see that I would have to pay from Thursday to Sunday when I reported the phone lost.

A week later I went to the mall and got a replacement phone (Dec 4).

I did not get billed with the fraudulent calls placed between Thanksgiving day to December 4th until February. I had no knowledge of these calls until the end of January that someone from Cingular called threatening to cut the service.

I have called numerous times to talk to different customer service representatives, and every time they claim they don't have any records of my previous conversations nor any of the faxes they direct me to send to their customer service.

The only time they acknowledged that I had contacted them was through a form letter they sent dated Feb 9th and I did not get it until last week. The letter just states that I have contacted them but they cannot offer any solution.

Mintchocolate

 

[chadro]

What is the name of your state? Maryland

I am being charged $1800 for fradulent cellular phone calls I did not make. The phone was stolen from me in Panama on Thankgiving day, upon my return to Maryland I called and reported the phone lost (Sunday after Thanksgiving). The company that is going through a merge claims not to have any record of my call to report the lost phone. I have submitted 3 faxes to their resolution dept. without any response. Customer service has no record of all calls I made or faxes I have sent to resolve this matter.

I can prove I did not make those calls from Panama since I was in the United States, my passport is stamped with my return on Saturday after Thanksgiving)

What can I do ?

youll be liable only for thursday-fridays calls. The passport is your proof that you did not make the post friday calls.

 

[mintchocolate]

AT&T/Cingular charging me $1800 for fraudulent calls

Thank you,

I will give them a call (again), and continue to get the name and customer id of the customer service representative and tell them I won't pay for the calls. As it is, I have paid the undisputed part of the bill and cancelled the service.

Their customer support is not connected at all to their resolution department, they don't give you a contact name at the resolution department only a fax number. You can get the name of the customer rep, but you cannot write to him/her. The faxes as far as I know go to la, la land.

Sometimes I really think they are trying to wear me out and make me pay the bill. I have been an AT&T customer for years and my monthly bill has been around $100 for four phones, since they merged with Cingular their customer support is awful!

Also, they were trying to force me to stay with them. My contract ran out years ago, so I could cancel anytime. When I asked to cancel the contract they told me I had to stay until the billing cycle was over (Feb 14). So I said, okay cancel on Feb 14th. On that day they left a message on my answering machine asking if I was SURE I wanted to cancel, and based on that message they did not cancel the service. On Feb 16th I realized the phone still had service so I called and very angrily demanded that they cut the phones immediately. They did, but they charged me for 2 days, from the 14th - 16th. I paid that since I don't want to argue about two different things and two days are not a big deal.

I am so glad I am not one of their customers anymore!


Mintchocolate

 

[mintchocolate]

Okay, back to square one.

I called, and the customer service rep said, they cannot help me, they do not give their address ONLY a fax number to the resolution department.

Are they allowed to do that? Is my only choice to pay the bill?

Mintchocolate