se to ruin it to me

AT&T Wireless has lousy cellular telephone coverage, with frequent and repeated dropped calls. And it's getting worse. Calls are being dropped with increasing regularity, and the audio quality of the cellphone service is getting worse. It's so friggin inconvenient. I would love to dump this lousy company, but it appears I'm locked into a two-year service contract. Ugh! I'll do whatever I can to let people know of my experiences with AT&T. I went with AT&T originally because I have an iPhone. Now that I can legally unlock my phone, I'll switch the first chance I get.

I order an iPhone for a new service with AT&T Wireless. AT&T Wireless ported my Verizon Wireless number before receiving the iPhone and activating it, and without my permission and without warning. I lost my stored voicemails and I have no service with either carrier until I get and activate the iPhone. AT&T's CS supervisor (Riston) indicated that this is normal procedure. I don't even have the iPhone or AT&T service and I already deeply regret having signed up with AT&T. I will return the iPhone before the mandatory trial period and I will be back to Verizon Wireless.

I am having a problem with AT&T giving me unjust charges on my wireless cell phone account. I live in El Paso, TX and keep having "Fringe Roaming" charges added to my account – from times when my cell phone connects to a Mexican cell tower, instead of a US AT&T tower. This last month, there were $290.91 worth of charges!

In the past, the charges had been very small ($10 and less) from May 2009 to May 2010 and I never even noticed them. A few months ago my bill was about $40 higher than normal. This is what made me notice these data charges for connecting to a Mexican tower. After talking to customer service a few months ago, the charges were adjusted (I was given a credit). I was told by the customer service people that I didn't have to worry about connecting to these Mexican towers (MOVISTAR, etc) because the charges would AUTOMATICALLY be adjusted off because this was considered “Fringe Roaming” and I didn’t have to pay for them. I was also told I didn't have to turn off my data roaming (which would substantially restrict my ability to use my phone) because the charges would be adjusted for me. I was also told that there is no way to make my phone preferentially use an American AT&T tower, even though my place of work is about one mile from one (which is about three miles from Mexico).

I have had to call AT&T every month for the past four month to have these charges manually removed – even though I was told that the “Fringe Roaming” charges should be removed automatically.

Well, this last month, there was a $290.91 charge for using the Mexican towers. AT&T decided that they weren't going to adjust all the charges. They "determined" that I had “actually been in Mexico.” This is not true. I have NEVER been to Mexico in my life. I am in the Army and work at William Beaumont Army Medical Center, at Fort Bliss in El Paso, TX, which is where my phone usually picks up the Mexican towers (although it also does this randomly while driving around El Paso). There is nothing I can do about it. So, AT&T said they will just charge me $30, for an additional International Plan, instead of the $290.91. They refuse to credit me the full amount because they say I was not in the US.

Additionally, since I am in the US Army stationed at Fort Bliss, I am not even allowed to go to Juarez, Mexico due to the violence there. Every Fort Bliss soldier has orders that we are not allowed to go into Juarez.

If I close my account, they tell me they will hit me with a $500 early termination fee, since I just renewed my 2-year contract a month ago, when I purchased my new phone, plus I won't be able to use my new iPhone 4 that I just bought for $300 a month ago.

What options do I have here? The customer support people refuse to take off the charges, since this "higher department" has “determined” that I actually went to Mexico. Customer service told me that they could enter a code into my account that would prevent me from being able to connect to a Mexican tower again, but warned it could severely limit my ability to connect to a tower. Customer service refuses to take this situation up with anyone else, and says that the decision in final and I must pay.

I assume there are a bunch of other El Paso residents, and Army soldiers at Fort Bliss (let alone all the other border areas of the US) that are being cheated by AT&T in this same way. As often as my phone connects to Mexican towers, I would guess there are a lot of El Paso residents that have been paying these extra charges WITHOUT EVEN PAYING ATTENTION TO IT, and some that AT&T refuses to correct.

I traveled to Europe between 10/11/07 and 10/29/07 and I took my cell phone with me to be used in case of emergency. My phone was stolen from my bag in Prague, Czech Republic, on 10/26/07. I was not aware the phone was missing until after I returned home on 10/29/07. I did not realize the phone had been permanently lost or stolen until after a diligent search turned up no trace of it. This was on or about 11/2/07.

On that day I went to an AT&T store, informed the representative that my phone had been lost or stolen in Europe, and purchased a new phone.

On 11/9/07, one week after I had already shut off the old phone and bought a new one, I received a call from “Janet” at the AT&T Fraud Department telling me the balance on my account was $2, 401.90. I informed her that I contested the charges, and she advised that I should call back to object to the bill once I received it.

On 11/14/07, I received a phone call from “Amanda Rose” from the AT&T “high usage department” informing me that I had a $2, 401.90 balance on my account, and stating that I must pay the balance immediately or my phone would be shut off. She refused to tell me the nature of the charges or to provide me with a copy of the bill that I had not yet received. She simply demanded that I pay the entire balance or she would shut off my phone, despite the fact that the billing due date was 11/21/07, an entire week in the future! I told her that I would not pay those charges until I could review the bill and contest them.

On the evening of 11/14/07 my phone was shut off. This is a business phone and not having it severely affects my business.

I have now reviewed the bill and advised AT&T via the enclosed letter that $2, 049.55 of the charges were unauthorized and were not mine. One can easily see from the bill, (excerpts of which are enclosed), that the phone was stolen on or about 10/26/07 and that the thief then used it over the next six days to make over 900 minutes of calls to the Czech Republic, Ukraine, and other places that phone had never called before. The six day period prior to the phone being stolen, I had used it for a total of 21 minutes, and I think the fact that I was not making these calls should have been obvious and noticed by AT&T earlier than 11/9/07, almost two weeks after I returned home.

I have paid AT&T the balance on the account, (although it was technically not due for another week), for all authorized calls. Is there anything else I can do, other than paying over $2, 000 for calls I did not make, to get them to re-establish cell service?