BS: Broadband users, check your bill

Subject: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: curmudgeon
Date: 14 Nov 02 - 04:48 PM

Last Friday I was paying bills and observed that the ATT Broadband bill was double. I had paid the last bill a couple of days late so I called to make sure it had been recieved. I won't go into the complex details here, but ultimately I discovered that they had been charging us for basic TV cable ever since the Cable modem had been installed. We haven't even watched TV in twenty years.

So if any of you have computer cable, but not TV, check your bill carefully. The charge is on the back of the bill under "Basic Service."

If you find yourself in a similar situation, report it to your municipal authority for redress, and please, post it here.

I really can't imagine that I'm the only person this has happened to -- Tom

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Nov 02 - 04:58 PM

USA users, stop assuming that everyone here lives in your country

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 14 Nov 02 - 05:32 PM

However, it's a good idea to check your bills wherever you live. I found that my credit card company had been crediting my payments to a different account and then billing me for my real, unpaid account.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 14 Nov 02 - 05:56 PM

So the short story here is everybody check all your bills...

Thanks for the reminder Tom...

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: Sorcha
Date: 14 Nov 02 - 06:06 PM

Yea, we do have both, so yes, I do have to pay double. Pisses me off. Mr and kids watch the Idiot Box, and I am on the Idiot Machine........LOL

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 04:43 AM

"Mum, there's a man at the door with a bill"


"Don't be silly, it must be a duck with a hat on"!!

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: Willie-O
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 06:22 AM

Count yerself lucky if you can get a bill for broadband access...as long as you can afford to pay it.

And of course, check what you're being billed for.

Dialup is tiresome. Out here in sticksville, my only alternative is satellite, which is way too much money for way too slow of a "high speed" connection.

W-O

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: GUEST,Peter from Essex
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 11:48 AM

The same applies to UK cable bills. They really can't cope with people who don't want the full set of TV, phone and broadband.

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: Amergin
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 11:53 AM

you'd be surprised how many folks do not regularly check their bills...we get calls all the time from folks who have been getting billed for internet service they never signed up for...and have been paying the bills for months....

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 12:03 PM

Our billing for cable tv and cable internet access are billed separately, even though they are both with the same company.

Also, I didn't see anything in Tom's original posting which assumed anything about nationality.

Thanks, Tom, for the heads-up.

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 12:29 PM

And I'd like to point out that having high speed access is not a luxury for us, but a business necessity for me -- I'm a freelance graphic designer and have to move large files around. And it wasn't available to us until about a year and a half ago. As a matter of fact, until then we only had one economical ISP to choose from that didn't necessitate using long distance charges to access. Cable arrived in our area right about the same time they decided to sign up people for just computer access with demanding basic TV access as well. Neither Tom nor I have watched television since 1983.

AT&T isn't the only one -- you have to pay attention to all bills as they'll try to get away with anything they can.

Linn (Curmudgeon's spouse)

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: Bert
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 01:35 PM

Well that's AT&T for you. They sold me a service which they didn't provide and then kept billing be after I had cancelled. I still get a call from them every so often asking for $140 odd Dollars. I had cancelled when the bill was $38. I take great delight in asking them when they are going to start providing the service which they advertized.

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 07:57 AM

We once had a bailiff knock at the door for an unpaid gas bill of £150 odd... I invited him in and suggested that if he could find a connected gas appliance, I would double the £150 and throw in the video.

He left without a video and with a rather sheepish expression.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 17 Nov 02 - 12:31 AM

I haven't made any detailed checks of the situation, because I have discounted a cable connection for other reasons; but I was told the last time that I made an "informal" inquiry that I couldn't get a cable internet connection unless I had cable TV installed.

The implication was that I was required to pay for the cable TV, whether I used it or not, in order to get a cable internet connection.

If I get interested, I'll certainly look at the contract very carefully.

The last unsolicited call I got from my phone company offering me a "high speed internet connection" (the call was on my unlisted FAX line) I informed them I might consider it if they would mail me a specification of what equipment I would need, what performance they would guarantee, and how much it would cost. I got a 23 page package that contained NONE of the requested information, and that literaly lied about the initial hookup costs.

(Their "data package" failed to mention that in order to get their "free 3 months" I would have to sign a contract for a year - and pay for it "up front" at a price that they refused to give me when I called to confirm that their package was all B.S.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: artbrooks
Date: 17 Nov 02 - 12:40 AM

Broadband=Earthlink (yeah, I know...they are now part of the "great AOL family", but their spam buster works). TV Cable=Comcast...can't get the History Channel w/o cable. And I check BOTH bills carefully...ah, for the days of utility regulation...

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: Bert
Date: 17 Nov 02 - 02:18 AM

Hey John, I'm surprised that you actually got anything in writing. Everytime I ask one of those callers to send me details in writing, that's the last I hear from them.

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 17 Nov 02 - 02:25 AM

Bert - Yeah, they sent me a whole wad of paper, but all it said was "this is great," "you'll really like it," "you'll have a lot of fun," "we're really great people"   ---- it might as well have been from Microsoft - they won't tell you that Word's a word processor, either.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 17 Nov 02 - 03:35 AM

I had great difficulty in persuading my employer that Word was a computer programme as well as a word processing package. Mind you, I was sueing them under the data protection act at the time - a manager left a deeply personal, easily identifiable report about me in Word on the computer, that was open to all staff (which counts as public as far as personal reports go).

Funny how things change their nature as soon as money becomes involved......

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: mmb
Date: 17 Nov 02 - 10:02 AM

I have decided that my quality of living began to erode at about the same time 70+ channels of Cable TV became available in my building for $11/month. It was a special promo: greatly reduced rate if every resident subscribed. And because I do much of my work on my laptop at home, I also added Roadrunner.
    When I called Time Warner/TampaBay customer service to ask if the cable modem can be retained if I discontinue the TV programming, I was told "no problem." I will be off the TV programming at the end of this billing cycle, and will report back to the group on my experience after the next bill rolls along.
    (Now I need to figure out how to hook the rabbit ears back up to my TV so I can continue watching the Today Show in the mornings and The West Wing every Wed. night. Some addictions are harder to break than others!)    M.

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Nov 02 - 11:54 AM

Check the check/cash is also good advice.

Once you get home after a gig is too late to find you are 100 short.

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 17 Nov 02 - 12:41 PM

Sorry, that should have been: "just computer access WITHOUT demanding basic TV access as well"

We had a runaround with them last year shortly after we signed up, regarding the plan cost. When we heard (not on TV since we don't watch) that computer cable would be available without TV cable, we called. They not only confirmed that, but gave us the current sign-up deal, which was free installation and a reduced monthly rate for 3 months. So we had it installed. (Another story is the installation fumble -- not having enough cable to get to the road, leaving us on a Friday without some pertinent numbers for getting on line, etcet etcet)

Then we got our first bill -- with a $150 installation charge and higher monthly rate. We called, of course. The Customer Disservice person said that it didn't count unless we had it in writing -- and we did the deal over the phone. (Uh huh)

Well, we read the fine print on the back of the bill and discovered that the town, which basically gives permission for this sort of commerce to happen in the town, is the ultimate arbitor regarding problems. So Tom went down to the town hall and got advice from the Secretary of the Board of Selectmen. We paid the bill and enclosed a letter explaining the problem. The Selectmen got a copy of all of this and, I think, another written explanation. Within a couple hours we got a call from a very apologetic person at AT&T and got a credit that extended until the following January.

I guess billing hassles are an annual occurence . . .

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Broadband users, check your bill
From: GUEST,Folkmonster
Date: 17 Nov 02 - 07:54 PM

I've been receiving bills for £0.00 from NTL for the last 4 months. No doubt they will cut me off soon. Trouble is, they can't, I don't have a cable service, I have a satellite and I have ADSL.

ho hum.

FM