The AT&T Experience

Since I went to electronic bill pay - my finances have gotten a lot easier to keep track of. Virtually all of my vendors can be switched to my credit card for automatic payment.

I have four that can't - so I have a monthly reminder to log into their sites and view my statements - then I schedule my payments and forget about them for another month.

Yes, I could allow these vendors to simply draw on my accounts automatically but there are good reasons why I don't do this.

1 of them doesn't have this capability
1 of them is my credit card company. Since a lot of other bills get routed there - it makes a lot of sense to be on top of this bill so I can keep abreast of what is going on.
1 is the cable company. As all cable companies are b@stards - I don't allow them anywhere near my accounts.

The last is AT & (effing) T.

They are also a manual pay vendor, since there's no way to trust them.

But AT&T apparently isn't content with merely being untrustworthy - they go the extra mile to bollocks things up.

This month's reminder arrives and I log into AT&T's website and see an amount that is 60 dollars more than usual.

Naturally, I have questions about this. Clicking on the bill detail - I'm given a message that says the detail for this bill is not yet available.

Great. AT&T knows I owe them X amount of dollars, yet is unable to itemize it.

The due date is still weeks out, so I figure I'm just ahead of their system and log out. I'll try in a few days.

A few days later, I get an email that says this:

Now, in that message are two things I don't like: A bill amount that is more than usual - and a snarky message telling me to pay my past due amount immediately next to a due date that is weeks away.

Sure, I might have screwed up, so I need to see the bill detail - which is apparently ready to view.

Great

I hit their website, log in and...

When we said your bill was ready, we didn't mean you could see it..

Yes, I'm sure their billing dept isn't coordinated with whatever technical glitch spawned this message - but still. Settling my bill is a matter of some urgency for me - and AT&T is making this take days.

Yes, I could call them - but if I've learned one thing about AT&T in the two years I've been a customer it's this:

If you have a problem with the phone company- the absolute worst thing you can do is call them.

As AT&T goes, this is a rather small issue - but consider: I was ready to pay before they nagged me. I was especially ready to pay after they nagged me.

And now I'll wait.

Again.