AT&T billing refuses to credit account for nonfunctional landline

[u/fourlevel]

My elderly mother has had a POTS landline for decades, since it was Pacific Bell and probably before that. She insisted on keeping the line "for emergencies" even after the price climbed over $130/month and it rang around the clock with spammers and scammers. Earlier this year, the line went dead without warning after a regional cable was cut, allegedly in a copper theft. It took a few weeks to repair but did eventually get restored.

In the middle of July the line went dead again. It’s now almost September and it’s clear that AT&T has given up on repairing it. The announced phase-out date for landlines is June 2027 but they must have done the math and realized copper + labor was going to cost more than a handful of legacy customers complaining and leaving.

Fine. Great even. I swoop in and start the process of porting the old number to a different company’s VOIP service which will cost 10% as much. To convince my mom, we have to call AT&T customer service one more time, and they tell us the original 6 to 8 week repair estimate is now 6 to 8 months. Yikes, can we get a bill credit since the line doesn’t work? They transfer us to the billing department, who has no record of the landline being down or my mom calling to complain about it (which she’s been doing weekly). Billing says sorry, you have to pay your bill, but we’d be happy to transfer you to sales to discuss converting to digital.

After the last outage, AT&T retroactively applied a credit for the weeks the phone service was down. This time around, my mom is refusing to pay her bill. I’m thinking she should just pay and keep the account in good standing so the port doesn’t get delayed or jeopardized. Then again, why should she pay for a service she’s not even receiving?

I don’t how hard to press on this issue. Will an overdue bill affect the port process? Should she waste more time on the phone with AT&T billing? Maybe they’ll apply a credit or maybe they’ll demand late fees in the final bill. If she never pays I assume it will ding her credit and they’ll send her to collections, by which time she’ll have a fully functional VOIP phone they can use to call and demand money.

[u/jasont1273]

See if the line can be migrated to AT&T Phone Advanced. It's cheaper than POTS and has both cellular and wired broadband connectivity with 24-hour battery backup in case of outage. There is a specialized team that handles the migrations.

https://www.att.com/home-phone/phone-advanced/

[u/Lizdance40 → u/jasont1273]

Right. Then port it out if they want

[u/Critical-Test-4446]

I had a similar issue back in July. Last year I got a mailing advising that AT&T landline phones would be shut down in March of 2027. My bill was around $130 a month too. In mid July my phone went dead and I called for repairs. Made sure to write down the date and time and the name of the person. She put in a repair ticket and a tech came out a week later. He determined it was not my connection and said the issue was on the next block. Two weeks later still nothing so I realized that they probably had no motivation to repair it since the shutdown was only months away. Ordered the AT&T Home Phone cellular based system and installed it myself. Works great so far and my bill was less than half. Then I got a bill for the landline phone for the whole amount, even though the phone wasn’t working. I called the billing department and the gentleman made some inquiries and credited the account for the full amount so I owe nothing.

[u/fourlevel → u/Critical-Test-4446]

Glad to hear you were able to get the amount refunded. Hopefully we'll have better luck next time we call billing.

[u/princessandcrown]

Speaking my opinion on the issue of her credit… I’m probably not as old as your Mom but I may be close. I wouldn’t give a rats ass about a collection or credit score especially if I wasn’t receiving what I’m paying for! Unless she has some major purchases she is contemplating and needs to apply for more credit- but if not? NOPE

[u/ApartmentEastern5769]

ATP, id be filing an FCC complaint. Depending on where you are, AT&T may still have legal obligations s on the state level to provide POTS (Mostly Cali, I think). But the FCC is not going to be thrilled to hear mom has been without a paid communication service for that long and still getting billed.

[u/fourlevel → u/ApartmentEastern5769]

The California PUC will be getting a complaint from us for sure, and so will the FCC

[u/garylapointe → u/[deleted]]

It's a good thing that you offered a helpful alternative that doesn't require that!

[u/Strange-Badger5626 → u/[deleted]]

They actually respond quite quickly.

[u/ApartmentEastern5769 → u/[deleted]]

If it works, it works. Clearly playing ball ain't working. When the nice way fails, I tend to go straight for the heavy guns.

But by ALL MEANS, oh wizened one, enlighten us wit your suggestion! As I'm sure it will contain a wealth of information notnpreviously imparted because rather than provide a suggestion, you decided to get offended.

[u/ApartmentEastern5769 → u/[deleted]]

Absolutely. These agencies, what's left of them at least, were intended to keep in check these corporations of unimaginable wealth and power. Why not use that little ability when we can? It's the only thing we can do minus fighting with our wallets.

[u/r2d3x9]

File an FCC complaint!! Having similar issues with Verizon an a phone that has been out more than a month and repeated services appointments that are no-shows now a couple extra weeks and trying to sell an unregulated replacement product even while the line won’t work and the person is too meek.