FWIW..........I received my phone bill yesterday and all I got billed for was the $19.02 local carrier monthly charges. No long distance charges from AT&T were attached, and there should have been like always. Hmmm........... I wonder why? I think I might like this new AT&T long distance program, call all you want, we might bill you later if our damn computers work!!!...lol

-- Vern (bacon17@ibm.net), November 28, 1999

Answers

Lucky!!! My water bill comes every 2 months, usually 60 bucks or so. Just came; it was 138!!! 200% increase, no reason. They're gonna give me a free plumbing inspection because "that usage is not typical for you". Duh! Can't wait for my power bill. I've got the luck of Charlie Brown no joke, all I get for Halloween is rocks:(

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), November 28, 1999.

Vern,

I believe ATT sent out information several months ago about billing changes. I don't recall what the $ limit was, but if your long distance charges were below "x", then they would wait and send one bill for a 3 month period.

Personally, I hate the policy. There are several people living here making long distance and after 3 or 4 months it can get hard to track down who called where and verify that all calls were legit.

Before you make long distance calls like crazy, you may want to check with ATT or your local carrier about their billing policies.

-- (got@dial.tone), November 28, 1999.

LOL Hokie,

here, another bag of rocks and one for me. I had the same thing happen to me on several different occasions this past year with Sprint. Didnt geta bill, then got one for 3 months. Local cable company input a credit to my bill, I didnt say nothing, last month the bill was doubled. They caught it... I cant get away with nothing. One thing you might wish to check on is 'slamming' this happend to me last month. I called MCI just to ask about rates, next thing I know they sent a message to sprint who cut off my service, lost my credits too and took me 1 hour to get it straight. I received a call from a call center verifying that I had authorized a switch to MCI, I lost it on the csr, who informed me she was from a callcenter and just verifying. What a mess. I would urge ALL to get the slam protection thru your local phone company (which is what i did) so this cant happen to you. I'm done now, and humbly passing the bag of rocks.

-- consumer (shh@aol.com), November 28, 1999.

Yep, it was 5 months of nada AT&T on GTE bill then wham a big AT&T long distance bill. They aren't forgetting :-(

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), November 28, 1999.

These billng errors will be out there, count on it. If you get a power bill for just $10.00 and you normally owe 100.00, dont be too quick to celibrate. Your next bill may be for 190.00. PUC rules state the utilities can go after monies due up to three years back if their was an error on your billing. Sorry.

-- Dude (Billingdude@power.com), November 28, 1999.

got@dial.tone and others-

For "mystery" numbers on your bill-

http://www.anywho.com/

has a reverse lookup function-you can enter the unknown # and find out who it belongs to.Doesn't work if # is unlisted.

-- Sam (Gunmkr52@aol.com), November 28, 1999.

AT&T bills me every other month. They started last summer.

-- nothere nothere (notherethere@hotmail.com), November 29, 1999.