AT&T user's erroneous $6,223 bill is reminder that AutoPay can wipe you out | Hacker News Reader

AT&T user's erroneous $6,223 bill is reminder that AutoPay can wipe you out

phonearena.com

29 pointsspeckx14 comments

Why is it legal for the consumer to be on the hook for mistakes by the company? They did not move the customer to the right plan, put them on a service he didn't ask for and now customer's the one who has to pay for it? Seems like many companies could just do this and inflate their earnings.

>Why is it legal for the consumer to be on the hook for mistakes by the company?

Customer support didn't even get back to the guy yet. Seems like a stretch to conclude that he's "on the hook" for it. This isn't any different than getting a credit card bill with a fraudulent charge on it, and having to call the company to get it reversed. Yes, it's a hassle, and might affect you negatively in the short term, but it's a stretch to describe the situation as "the consumer to be on the hook" for fraud.

I've always done autopay to a credit card, to the point that if its not offered I wont do autopay.

Yeah, I use cities virtual card numbers for most subscription services.

One of the reasons why I switched autopay off for everything (other than my car insurance, which does give me a discount). I want to be in complete control of what comes and goes in my accounts.

And do regularly call in for a discount or fee revision. A few years ago AT&T credited me over $700 for years of over-charging for an improperly disconnected line. I got the refund after about an hour of calling and trying to just get a cheaper plan. You probably don’t want to trust AT&T, but if you pay them remember to treat them as “efficiently” as they do you.

I have since adopted Privacy.com cards with limits. It has saved me more than once. its a great service.

Autopay accounts should always be separate. I opened a second checking account with my bank, and every month or so I make a deposit. That way if something like this happened it's not gonna get that much and its all separate

That might be worse - if the autopay amount is even a few dollars over what you put into the separate account, you'll be on the hook for an overdraft fee, which you _definitely_ won't be able to recover.

You can tell your bank to not approve overdrafts, at least in the states. They word it real weirdly at the bank, but you want to opt-out of the "overdraft protection" (the protection letting you purchase things you don't have money for).

That prevents overdraft charges, but not declined payment/NSF charges from the biller or your bank.

What if one autopay blocks another?

I don't really do autopay, but I've adopted using a separate account for all bills, and I explicitly move funds as I pay them (pretty easy these days with Zelle). I've since changed this out of laziness, but at one point I didn't even have a debit card attached to the account where my income is deposited to. (the financial equivalent of one-way data binding?)

First net is the worst and likely to cause more issues - I migrated off of it, putting my lines back on an (existing) AT&T account.

It was mid billing cycle so I was told there’d be a prorated charge on that account. Sure, no problem.

There wasn’t.

Skip ahead three months. I’m paying my regular account bill on time. I get a text message saying “your account is about to be disconnected for non payment” with no indication of amount or account number. And within 30 minutes all of our family lines had indeed been disconnected.

Now the shit show began.

Go into AT&T store. “What’s your account number?” Don’t know, here’s my details. “I can’t find any other accounts here.” “How do I pay what I owe?” “You need to find an account number.”

Huh. They give me a number to call. I sit down there in the store and call it and wait.

“We can see you had a first net account, but I can’t see the number or the amount owed.” Plan to transfer me to FirstNet. “We can’t find an account.”

I just want to give you an amount that is less than $100. I’m right here with the cash/card, willing but no one can tell me how I can pay it.

This went on for days and escalations before someone found out the deal. I was one of the first subscribers, and they had screwed up so many of my account details and line details that we essentially had to go through, pay some money, then cancel and reactivate a bunch of lines and make sure to preserve numbers and then have managers apply approvals to waive activation charges and on and on and on.

All told, probably 6-8 hours on phone and in store. (And on phone while “working on it”, not just waiting on hold.) for $43.25.

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