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AT&T was sending 156 page cell phone bills in Linda Drussel's name to her son in Texas
All Linda Drussel tried to do was add her son and daughter-in-law to her AT&T FamilyTalk calling plan, adding a phone to Drussel’s account for $10 per month. But instead of a $10 monthly fee added to her bill, Drussel got a past due notice from a collection agency demanding $1,182, threatening to ruin her credit if she didn’t pay.
Drussel told WDAF-TV she doesn’t pay her bills late, and had no idea what AT&T was talking about, having never received a past due bill from AT&T. The collections agency was unimpressed, telling Drussel, “Oh come on, Ms. Dressel, you have to know about this — your name is on this.”
Drussel made multiple calls to AT&T trying to get someone to resolve this, but even company supervisors refused to provide any straight answers. WDAF-TV felt Drussel’s pain when they got the AT&T runaround themselves. At one point, a reporter was surprised when AT&T asked her for Drussel’s AT&T cell phone number.
It turns out AT&T didn’t establish service for her son under her own account — instead opening one under her name and charging full price for service, delivering the bill to her son’s home in Texas. When her son and daughter-in-law divorced, nobody paid the bill and AT&T’s collections department decided to pursue Linda Drussel for the past due bill, claiming it was her responsibility.
With a local station’s newscast following the story, AT&T finally determined Linda didn’t ultimately owe the company a cent and has resumed pursuing her son for the past due balance.
[flv width=”512″ height=”308″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WDAF Kansas City Problem Solvers Calling ATT 7-13-10.flv[/flv]
WDAF-TV’s ‘Problem Solvers’ had to be called in to try and get through to AT&T that a Kansas City-area woman didn’t owe the company $1,182 it claimed she did. (3 minutes)
Corporate terrorism on the march
I’m no fan of at&t but this sounds like it was her fault. She asked for a line/account to be added for her son – this was to be an add on account which she would be responsible for, not a separate, unrelated account.
Unless the son went to an at&t store or called up in person and agreed to his own contract, the account was only an add-on to her own account and that means it is her responsibility including any past due balance racked up by her son, regardless of where the bills were being sent.
This was hardly her fault, she requested a $10/mo phone to be added under her account for her son. This is a family plan, what they did was add a individual cell phone plan at probably $50-100/mo instead as a separate account with the billing not even going to her so she never saw it. AT&T did not follow her request correctly for service to be added and proceed to charge much much more than intended.