AT&T Scam with Google Voice

healthagent · 10-30-2009, 03:31 PM

If you're using Google voice, like me, Google will connect and outbound call or you can set it to ring any phone - free of charge.

This means you I can talk on my cell without using any minutes. How scary is this to ATT&T?

Apple Is Growing Rotten To The Core: Official Google Voice App Blocked From App Store

Who's going to buy an unlimited plan when they can use Google voice for free while talking on their cell?

In any case, I officially switched to using Google Voice today and tested it. I made 3 outbound calls and obviously was not using any of ATT&T's services.

Then I checked after each call and each time they charged me 4 minutes. What? I'm not using ATT&T's service, I'm using Google Voices.

So I called ATT&T. At first they tried to blame Google. After that didn't work they confirmed that I shouldn't have been charged any minutes. They asked when I made the calls and I gave them the times.

They had no records of my calls. I said "no ****, you're not going to have any record of it since I wasn't using ATT&T." They obviously, however knew that calls were connected to my cell.

In the end they refunded the minutes and said "they have no idea what happened."

I know exactly what happened; say 10 calls a day are made X 4 minutes = 40 minutes per day charged X 30 days = 1,200 minutes.

So ATT&T figures "we'll get ours somehow, even if we have to steal from our clients."

They assured me that for my account the issue is "solved." We'll see.

stormtracker · 10-30-2009, 04:41 PM

When you place/receive a cell call, no matter who's service you are contracted with, you do route through towers and switch equipment. Believe me, there IS a record of EVERY call you make or receive. Billing (allocation) would not be possible for ANY entity without logging. Don't know what the AT&T CSU was looking at, but the switch tech can log in and see your every move.