AT&T won't cancel

[Torellian]

What is the name of your state? WI
My dad wants to cancel his AT&T long distance service. He contacted them to cancel and was sent a bill anyway for 3 months. Then he contacted the local carrier and was told he needs to talk to AT&T. I also emailed AT&T and they responded saying that it would be taken care of right away, and then went on to say it may take 2 or 3 billing cycles to take effect. The bills keep coming. So what should he do? Just ignore the bills? Can they take legal action, or is what they are doing illegal?
I've heard stories like this and worse about AT&T. So it sounds pretty common.

 

[bisto]

1 question - do you owe them money? I have had the same thing going on for months, but every statment I get is for $0.

Also I had a problem with AOL. I cancelled my account 4 times and they kept billing me. They said I cancelled but NEVER TERMINATED the account. Get your dad to say TERMINATE THE F'ING ACCOUNT.

But if there is acharge on the account you better get them to refund the charges or it will go against our credit. Same **** -different company.

 

[Patrick15]

I used to work for AT&T. The local company controls the lines, ie, programming, routing, whatever you want to call it. AT&T or any long distance provider can not cancel your intralata or interlata long distance service. Only the local company can cancel which they will charge between 5- $10 to do. (One time fee) If your local company has already canceled AT&T I suggest that they contact the AT&T lec recourse center (they will know the number, assuming the charges appear on your local companies bill, if billed directly by AT&T good luck!) and advise them of the cancelation date. AT&T can look in OSCAR ( a records management system) and see the CARE order from your local company. If your local company refered you to AT&T and did not cancel your service I suggest they reimburse you AT&T's fees and get it canceled.

I use the terminology of telcos because knowledge is power. I work for a local company now and there is nothing like calling AT&T who says "You never sent us a disconnect order" and saying back, "Look in OSCAR!". I wish I could see their faces because you hear the silence when they look in a system they didn't think you knew about and see the order