This is an actual chat conversation I had with an AT&T Broadband billing representative...Session ID 2441819. The boring stuff is removed and I edited it for continuity, but it did actually happen. I have a printout if you want to read the full conversation. It's pretty damn hilarious:
I show that your account is suspended for non pay your total balance is 105.90 and of that 49.95 is 48 days past due.
(NOTE: My account was suspended with no warning, no letter [until AFTER it was suspended])
How did this happen? .... I should be on autopay. ... What can I do about making sure our autopay is working?
The auto pay should go through on the next bill. I show that all the information is correct.
You have verified this?
Yes. Is there anything else I may assist you with today?
I'm curious how this happened [if I was on autopay.]
If there was not enough funds in the the checking acct nothing would have posted.
Oh, we had enough funds. That was NOT the issue...
ok, it should go through on the next billing cycle. Is there anything else I may assist you with today?
Again, I want to understand how this happened.
You can contact your bank and ask why they did not let the automatic payment take place.
Do you show in your records that a particular automatic payment failed?
no I do not.
Then again, how did this happen?
you would need to call your bank and ask.
If NO automatic payment failed, why would my bank know anything about it???
because the payment would be coming from your bank.
Let me ask this: Does your billing system show it attempted to draft payment to pay a bill? Or was it simply mailed to us?
Nothing was mailed and I do not see a payment that took place.
(NOTE: After I checked my records at home, I hadn't received a bill since May! So I wasn't notified at ALL that I was overdue. Way to go AT&T Broadband!)
I'm trying to figure out how this happened so it doesn't happen again.
you can call your bank and ask if anything happened
I don't understand why my bank would know something failed if no draft was attempted... that is what you are telling me.
I do not see that anything was attempted or not. We only see payments post. If you have an issue with your autopay, you would need to contact your bank to see if an autopay was attempted from us.
OK... I will contact my bank. You said earlier you show my autopay information "was correct"? Does that mean it is verified and will go through next time, or that we might go through this all over again next month?
I do not see any errors is what I meant.
(NOTE: he immediately disconnected me after that statement... nice!)
Thank you for choosing AT&T Broadband, have a nice day.
Brian S has left this session!
Well then... that's one way to stick it to your customers. :-)
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