What do I do if there are long distance phone calls on my phone bill that I didn't make?

Question

There are international calls on my phone bill that were not made from my house but AT&T insists the calls were direct dialed. I, nor anyone from my house has never called any of these numbers in the 20+ years we have subscribed to AT&T long distance. They are now refusing to check the phone line and insist I pay over $600 in calls that were not made from our house. Any course of action recommended? I live in the state of California.

Answer 1

Look in the front of your local telephone book. You should see a chapter called "Rights and Responsibilities". In this chapter there are several guidelines about complaining about your phone bill including contacting your local telephone provider and contacting the California Commerce Commission. They are the people that regulate and dictate to your local telephone companies. Also, check your NID (network interface device) box. This is where the responsibility of the local telephone company ends and yours begins. It will be a gray box somewhere on the outside of your house. It is possible to plug in a telephone set to this box when your not home and make outgoing calls. You can put a lock on it. Good luck.

Answer 2

That sucks. If they are doing that to you then they are probably doing it to other people and that's not right. I would contact your local news station to see if they will do a brief story on it to see if others are getting scammed or ripped off by the same company.

I would call the phone company and speak with a manager and tell them if they don't do whatever checks that need to be done for them to prove a phone in your house dialed those numbers that you will be contacting the news and a lawyer. I really hope this gets fixed for you.


P.S. Immediately cancel your service with them and go to another local company or use your cell. I wouldn't give them my business a second longer.

Note to Michael C...do you really think he needs a sales pitch right now? And if you didn't notice he said he didn't make these calls so I doubt he needs your service.

Answer 3

I think you should get rid off this service and sign up for a calling card.
I use a service which only charges 1.9 cents/min for long distance and very low international rates ( many under 5 cents/min).
You will get at least 363 minutes when you sign up and you will never be charged monthly fees or taxes or any other fees for that matter. All monnies are spent on the calls. You will also check your account online and have the card automatically recharge. You pay the same rates from cell or home and you don't have to enter a PIN.
Cool stuff. I signed up at http://www.midastel.com

Answer 4

if you need a provider to place your long distance call so efficiently, email me [e-mail]. we have the lowest rates currently available on the market. this is direct dial so dont worry about bulky number codes. if you will confirm your subscription, we will call you right away, within 24 hours to tell you the details.

Answer 5

We have alltell, and that has happened a few times to myself. But I gave them a call. And they took the phone calls off my bill.

Answer 6

call the customer's service number in your local phone company
and ask them to make correction in your bill.