This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Cramming: Read Your Phone Bill!

AT&T may be taking your money and you don't even know it!

Yesterday, I received the bill for my home phone with AT&T. I noticed it was around $5.00 more than last month’s bill, so I closely examined it. I see “AT&T Long Distance Service” and beneath that “minimum usage charge.” Well, since I have free long distance on my cell phone, and have my home phone forwarded to my cell phone, I had taken long distance off my home phone years ago. So I called AT&T to ask about this. Here’s what I was told:

Apparently, AT&T is “offering a new service” that they “advised about in last month’s bill” stating they were “adding the long distance service in case of an emergency." I pointed out that my long distance is free on my cell phone, and, because of this, I had removed long distance years ago. He asked “don’t you want this service in the event of an emergency?” to which I replied “NO!” I also informed the Customer Service Rep “what you’re doing is illegal! You cannot add services to a bill without the customer requesting them! Take it off now, and if you billed me last month, refund that, too, or I’ll report you to the FCC!,” which I’ve done anyway.

Apparently, Clark Howard spoke heavily about this “cramming” scheme. Don’t be a victim! I strongly encourage you to scrutinize each and every bill you get for services. I believe many of those “strange named” charges itemized on the bills is a scam as well, to make you believe you’re actually paying for something, but the FCC may require them to do this. I call them hidden and junk fees. If you find it on your bill, even if it’s only $5, report it! Do the math on $5 X how-many-customers?

Find out what's happening in Stone Mountain-Lithoniawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Educate yourself. Be sure to thoroughly read information at this link:

http://www.fcc.gov/guides/cramming-unauthorized-misleading-or-deceptive-charges-placed-your-telephone-bill . You can also file your complaint through this link online.

Find out what's happening in Stone Mountain-Lithoniawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?