[Jaguarandine]

I've been the proud owner of a new BlackBerry Z10 for about 4 months now. About two months ago, I put my phone on the charger before I went to sleep like I do on any night. The next morning, my BlackBerry was flooded with messages from AT&T telling me I was over my data limit. The limit at the time was 300 MB. According to my phone I had used 15,000 MB! At my rate this turned out to be over $1000 in overages. The only apps I had open at the time were Twitter, BeWeather, and the web browser. Of course I immediately call AT&T.

The main problem for me is I don't think this issue is my fault. I have used Blackberries and other smartphones for years without a problem even close to this one. I always monitor my usage, and I turn off my data when streaming, so there was no precedent for this. During the first series of AT&T calls, I speak to reps that say they might help me out.... if I were to increase my family plan (and pay more money in the process). Ludicrous! Eventually, I get a supervisor, and he tells me that he can help me. He'll make full adjustment, but he has to temporarily upgrade me to a higher plan. He says that he needs to give me a callback at the end of the billing cycle, to change my plan back and check a few things, then that should take care of it. He also gives me his name and ID number. Problem is, I never got that callback. Not only that, but one of the reps must've accidentally turned off my voice mail. I didn't find out until a couple weeks later.

Round 2 with AT&T. My first rep seems nice. She recommends that I switch to a family share plan, which actually saves me money and gives me more data (as opposed to what the previous reps were offering). When I mention that I'm not paying one cent toward those overages though, her attitude changes. I don't know if it's AT&T policy or not, but she takes this antagonistic stance that completely changes the tone of the conversation. She says I must pay for the charges and she won't authorize anymore adjustments to my account. She claims that I made video calls, and that I can't deny these charges exist, when the truth of the matter is I've never made a video call on my phone in my entire life! So, seeing the wall she has put up, I ask to speak to her supervisor. I explain to the supervisor the whole situation, but towards the end if it, she hangs up on me! In hindsight, I should have gotten these employees' names and ID numbers.

Round 3. Getting everyone's ID number, it seems like everyone is much nicer. I am transferred to customer care. The guy seems helpful. I explain the whole story and he laughs at some parts. He apologizes for my troubles so far. Unfortunately he says he is not authorized to make an adjustment so large. There is a special department that makes these decisions, I will be informed in 4 days, and that their decision is final. Again, I don't get a callback, so I look at my bill. The adjustment pays for most of it, except $150, which happens to be roughly the amount of the video calls. Sigh.

So here's my dilemma. Do I pay for this? I've been a loyal AT&T customer for 10 years, but this situation with customer service alone has been infuriating and has me thinking about switching carriers. On T-Mobile this would never have happened, due to the way they handle data. They would just throttle me, but even then I could still use it, and I wouldn't be charged a cent. Am I at fault? Should I pay, or should I go through round 4 with AT&T?

[jpvj]

Interesting case.
I would suggest not to try again for two reasons: They already stated their descission is final, so you might have to go the legal route, and the only sure winners are the legal guys sending either you or AT&T a bill in the end.

Since they claim you have made video calls, they should also be able to provide the numbers you have called. As a first move, I would ask them to provide the data. Look at them and see if they make any sense. Not so much for continuing the fight with AT&T, but it would really suck if it happens again.

If the calls are to to numbers you are not aware of, I would inform them in writing that you have not made the call and you never have contacted these numbers. AT&T should probably be able to check the call history to verify it.

If you choose to pay, inform AT&T that you do not agree with their statements and you only pay because you don't have the time and/or ressources to spend more time on the case. This could put you in a better position if it happens again.

Good luck!

[rcab]

your round 2 comments are a little confusing: " She says that I made video calls, and I can't deny those, when I've never made a video call on my phone in my life! So, I ask to speak to her supervisor". You say you cannot deny making video calls and then you say you have never made a video call???????????????. So if you did make video calls then you would be responsible for those charges. I would think you would need to talk with them again and verify the numbers, dates, etc. to determine if you indeed made the calls. I would also think you would want to know what caused this charge so that it does not happen to you again. The next time I doubt if they will waive the charges. Good luck, I have found that it all depends on the mood of the person you are talking with whether you can get relief or not.

[Jaguarandine]

Sorry about that. To clear this up, I'm saying I never made the video calls. I'll correct that comment.

Btw, I did ask the first lady in round 3 about it. I basically said, "who did I call in the middle of the night for several hours?" She couldn't find that information.

[Johberry]

I think it's worth it to go another round, especially if you know it's not your fault. You shouldn't have to pay for the overage. As a fellow long-time AT&T customer, I am appalled that you're even going through all this hoopla. I hope it all gets taken care of. Best.

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[blueyestm]

Here's my question on the video calls. How are you able to do them over the network when none of the rest of us are? I'm only able to do this via wifi which wouldn't go against your data usage to begin with. Personally, I'd be asking them to prove you made video calls and to whom because you're getting tossed a load of BS.

The option in BBM settings to turn on bbm video/voice calls over network is greyed out for the rest of us.

[Jaguarandine]

I'm wondering how I could even touch my phone to make the calls at the time if it was in the other room charging.

[jpvj]

Sorry about that. To clear this up, I'm saying I never made the video calls. I'll correct that comment.

Btw, I did ask the first lady in round 3 about it. I basically said, "who did I call in the middle of the night for several hours?" She couldn't find that information.

In that case I would definitively ask them for documentation. It should be easy for them to provide, and it should be just as easy for you to prove if you know the recipient or not. Maybe even get the recipient to confirm he/she did not receive any calls from you.

It's not really clear from your post how long time the device should have downloaded so much data.
Assuming it happened during over night: 15GB / 7,5h = 2GB/h which is approx 33,3MB/s on average. This would require LTE speeds.

Ask for documentation, prepare your arguments well and if you are certain it is a mistake, your "final" decission could be not to pay.
In that case they will have to look into the case again.

[jpvj]

I could also be very interesting to get some info about what kind of video calling was done (BBM, WhatApp, Skype, ...).

[blueyestm]

Does it show in your account for video/chat calls like when we normally make a phone call? I clearly can't judge this since I don't have the option to do any of it over the network.

[vlad_tastic]

I switched to Verizon few weeks ago...Can't look back at AT&T...Verizon is great

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[Jaguarandine]

Thanks for all the help so far. Round 4 with ATT right now. They claim they can't figure out anything about the video calls except that I made some. I'm speaking to a manager.

[blueyestm]

Ask about the OS upgrade lol

[Jaguarandine]

So I ask the rep "If you can't figure ANYTHING out about the video calls I supposedly made, how can I dispute the charges? Am I supposed to take your word on it?" Lol. She says she's not sure. Next, she says that the adjustment was toward the overage in general, and did not specifically exclude video calls. Haha. Onto rep #3....

[Johberry]

So I ask the rep "If you can't figure ANYTHING out about the video calls I supposedly made, how can I dispute the charges? Am I supposed to take your word on it?" Lol. She says she's not sure. Next, she says that the adjustment was toward the overage in general, and did not specifically exclude video calls. Haha. Onto rep #3....

Omg, that is ridiculous! Keep trucking on! If they can't even bloody explain themselves?! You shouldn't have to pay! I have a feeling you're going to win this battle. They should not only apologize for their mistake, you should be compensated for having taken so much of your time trying to dispute the charges. Best!

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[Jaguarandine]

I got the adjustment! Thanks to everyone that contributed in this thread. To be honest, I was ready to give up and just pay the remaining balance. But when AT&T called me this morning and said I need to pay the past due balance immediately, that set me off. Surprisingly, I think I got the same person that hung up on me in round 2. If that was her, it's possible she felt guilty, or maybe it helped that I got her name and employee ID number this time. She was very nice.

Btw, the rep had no idea what the BB10 10.2.1 OS upgrade was, lol.
Edit: Well of course she didn't, but I didn't want to be transferred again, and start yet another battle. I've been expecting the new update, but if it doesn't come soon, I'll be using sachesi, just like I did with 10.2.

[blueyestm]

Congrats

[cbzeduser]

Something similar happened to me where all of a sudden AT&T claimed that my data charges for last month were several times higher than they've ever been, even though my usage was actually lower. Still need to call and dispute the charges...

AT&T are shady.

[cbzeduser]

Something similar happened to me where all of a sudden AT&T claimed that my data charges for last month were several times higher than they've ever been, even though my usage was actually lower. Still need to call and dispute the charges...

AT&T are shady.

UPDATE: So I called AT&T and disputed the charges. It turns out that on the very last day of the billing cycle, AT&T claimed that a massive amount of data usage occurred (which just happened to bump me over the data limit for that month, hmmmm...), even though I know for a fact that I was not doing anything data-intensive on the device. After looking at my data usage for previous months, as well as the last-day timing of the data spike, the AT&T rep gave me a credit for the overage charges.

My advice to anyone who sees strange data usage according to AT&T's stats is to check your bill and usage reports closely and dispute anything that looks out of whack. I noticed some other discrepancies in my AT&T reported data usage for previous months as well. AT&T are shady.

I also asked about the rollout of 10.2.1, was transferred to a tech rep, who could not give a date for when AT&T expected to roll it out to us. She said, though, that it should be possible for me to upgrade my phone to the new OS even if it is locked to AT&T, so if I have time next weekend, I may give that a try.

[Jaguarandine]

Kind of funny that AT&T is basically telling us not to rely on them for the 10.2.1 upgrade. Doesn't get much clearer than that.

[curtis742]

You may have been hacked or cloned. Close file sharing and network connection.

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