AT&T Asks You To Pay In Advance To Handle Its Credit Problems
from the and-there-you-go dept
Despite explaining how the financial crisis will impact everyone, beyond just Wall Street, there are many people who still insist that it will have no impact on them. That's simply untrue. While the impacts may seem small and remote, when added up, they'll be noticeable. Richard Ahlquist writes in to show us a perfect example of this. AT&T has discovered that the commercial paper it relies on is now a lot more difficult to get, causing a bit of a cash crunch for the company. So how is it dealing with it? By pushing that cash crunch to you. Rather than its usual habit of billing you for the month that just past, AT&T is telling customers it's now billing them for the month ahead -- meaning that your latest bill may be double (paying for last month and next month). Effectively, AT&T is changing the credit terms on its customers, from net 30 to prepay. Sure, it may not be a huge deal that your telco bill doubles for one month only, but that's still money that's out of your pocket 30 days earlier -- and if other vendors do the same, it could be quite noticeable.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: credit problems, debt, economy, financial crisis, lending, small business
Companies: at&t
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Re: prepay for communications
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Re: Re: prepay for communications
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I wonder...
So far, from everything I have seen so far, AT&T is not exactly...kind... to its resellers. Makes me wonder if I'm gonna get double billed too.
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So tell us Mojo, did the kids pick on you for riding the short bus to school?
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wtf
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Now, this AT&T move is rubbish but common practice in the telecom industry.
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surprised
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AT&T
This is also enough to break a cellular contract too, IMO.
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Funny
Oh, and Bob, if you read your contract, it basically says that they can stick it in whatever orifice they want, and you better thank them for the privilege.
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But I've been following delinquency rates, and this change seems like relatively good business for AT&T. You've heard how people aren't paying their mortgages and are being foreclosed? Well, other credit-based accounts aren't being paid either, like credit cards and UTILITIES. If more people aren't going to pay their bills on time, then the solution is to make everyone prepay. Yeah, it sucks that you need to pay in advance, but the alternative is that those of us who do pay our bills on time get to pay for all the deadbeats. Do YOU want to pay for the guy down the street who decides to stop paying his utilities? I didn't think so.
No, this move by AT&T has nothing to do with the financial crisis. It has everything to do with people not making enough money. If everyone would pay their bills on time, then AT&T wouldn't need to change. The fact that some bank is holding the accounts for a bunch of bad mortgages and doesn't have the cash to loan out money does not impact AT&T's ability to budget its income to pay out its obligations. And the financial bailout that passed in Washington will neither put money nor take money away from ordinary Americans.
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The financial crisis is about banks that have bad mortgages BECAUSE PEOPLE COULDN'T PAY THEM. This has everything to do with the financial crisis. The financial crisis are the people who can't pay, NOT the banks.
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Good Catch, Paul. But I wonder what a long-term solution would look like. Employment dropped for the 9th straight month, and maybe I'm being cynical, but could high unemployment possibly have an effect on people's ability to make timely payments? Where's job creation in the bill?
Half of all business income in the United States now ends up going through the individual tax code, while most large companies are paying less in taxes. That's patriotic. Isn't it great tohave your cake and eat it too?
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Double Bill by AT&T
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new
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That explains a lot.
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Re: That explains a lot.
Sadly, they own the infrastructure, so they can be as childish as they want. Why do we validate this behaviour by paying them money, again?
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Re: That explains a lot.
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Re: That explains a lot.
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A month in advance eh?
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Re: A month in advance eh?
I love my AT&T 8525... LOL
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Yeah but,...
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Correction ,...
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Re: Correction ,...
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they have been billing me a month ahead since last year
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Keep bashing I guess,
Tim
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Re: Yeah but,...
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Re: Yeah but,...
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Prepay works/Double Bill Sucks!
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AT&T Billing a month ahead
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Re: AT&T Billing a month ahead
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hamburger
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GET AROUND IT EASILY
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They've always done this for wireless services
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I don't think so
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Not a "new" thing for most
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Opportunity for Change.. Thanks AT&T
Showem how much you appreciate them fostering their poor
management onto your shoulders by exiting a contract.
These are the magical words:
"This change in billing is a materially adverse change for me and I wish to exit my contract"
This is the law. The rep can argue, but its futile. This is a federal law..
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Ha ha - google it
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This is news?
Comcast does the same thing on my cable/inet connection.
I've have Sprint, and Verizon and Cingular before AT&T and they too have always charged a month in advance for service plans and prior month actual usage.
If you look at your Auto insurance or any installment program, the vendor is always "ahead" in charges so if you choose to leave or not pay, they can disconnect or cancel service so you won't be into them for too much if you skip.
This has nothing to do with the current "meltdown" or tight credit market. Look at your credit cards: you first "pay" the accrued interest, then what's left goes to lowering principal.
Move on, there's nothing to see here.
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Locate Foot . . . Aim . . . Find Trigger
And then they lose the asset of Good Will--customers who will be planning to use their services and pay them an ongoing revenue stream. But they don't have to account for that until the following end of fiscal year.
So in the interest of liquidity, they created the illusion of Doing Something so they won't lose their jobs for a few more months.
Totally bogus. No advantage to AT&T, grief for customers, some of whom will stop using this kind of service altogether if the double billing makes them unable to pay, promotion of allowance for bad debts to actual bad debts . . . . oh . . . I get it. They plan to sell a pile of sh . . . sheets of paper to the government bailout program.
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Mike, it might be nice if Techdirt's forums gave you the option of voting comments under the threshold.
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So just don't feed the troll.
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working capital
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ATT billing et al
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Pay in advance
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Those of you who have extra income and see this direction as a minor inconvenience, the best of regards to you. For the rest of us, the only way to stop this kind of abuse is to stop using the services we think we can't live without. Its funny, you can either choose to reduce your dependence on these conveniences or by not paying, have them cut off from you. Ultimately its the same outcome. I'm digressing, the consumer didn't invent credit, the supplier did. If no one used credit, "demand" it wouldn't exist. The fact that our currency is based on credit is sad. Again it points to accountability, our leaders representing all of us, not just the financial interests of the few.
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AT&T up front payments
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Re: AT&T up front payments
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Mortgages are paid in arrears by definition. At the end of November you've accumulated interest and that is what you are paying. For example, at the end of Nov. you'd have $100,000 principle plus $500 interest and you've make a payment for something slightly more than $500, bringing the principle below its original value.
Sigh...
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AT&T
So I set up Broadband for the Internet & went totally cellular for voice communications. And get this AT&T! I'm not a kid, I'm an older white male.
With policies & poor customer service, AT&T going to lose their core customer base of older individuals!
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Re: AT&T
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Mortgage paid in advance ?
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AT&T Advance Billing?
I began working for one of the Bells, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AT&T in 1971. A few years ago, I also retired from the same company.
At that time I began, the Bells had been billing a month in advance for service and a month in arrears for LD for YEARS. They have never stopped to my knowledge.
So, why is this a change worth noting? It's no change at all.
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Pull The Article
Why not just pull this article?
I don't have any idea what morsel of information it was based on to begin with. ALL the phone companies...land line and cellular..along with all the cable and DSL companies...and who knows who all else...have HISTORICALLY billed in advance for their services.
This is a non-story story, getting the uninformed steamed up for no good reason.
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Re: Pull The Article
Some of us here in the southeast where AT&T is deciding to stuff the shaft up our back sides are already paying $4/gal for gas every day, if we can find it, on top of the BS everyone else in the country is putting up with. So forgive me if I find you lack of research uninspiring.
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Re: Pull The Article
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redpill ranting
It's things like this that make me question a few things.
First off, ask youself, Red Pill or Blue Pill. You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed, and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you just how deep the rabbit hole goes.
1. The fact that AT&T LOVES to give money to people in Congress. Why didn't they just add some pork to the Bailout bill? Did they become a customer-focused company and quit playing the game? If this is so, BRAVO.
2. Taking a "standard industry practice" from the wireless world and applying it to landlines seems far from bad, but people like Mike are keen to see the far reaching effects.
3. Taking point #2 further, it presents a much more worrysome issue: could the next bailout come from telecom sector? Yeech. Hope it's not so.
Remember, folks, it wasn't that long ago when California had a Budget Surplus under Democrat Gray Davis. I imagine Davis felt pressure from receiving hefty contributions from Enron, and was persuaded to spend the entire some-billion dollar surplus on purchasing the state's electrical grid from Edison Electric. This odd purchase was shepherded by Enron, a heavy campaign contributor for Davis' re-election effort.
Later, Davis, (Who was somehow fully credited with the California Energy Crisis of 2000 and 2001) was recalled. Davis was replaced with highly-qualified [sic] Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
All this is odd, because it seems the Arnold is now prepping a $7B bailout package for his entire state, which, if the original surplus was kept and spent in a more fiscally responsible way-- building small business for example, Davis would still be in charge.
So who is to blame? It seems it's the now defunct Enron. Which is interesting because Phil Graham, McCain's old Campaign adviser who did a good job in creating a secondary energy market for derivatives from the American Consumer. This is what we now call the "Enron loophole" This piece of work, who had to repeat three grades, also had the gaul to call us a nation of whiners.
As Chris Matthews says, follow the money. With Paulson being #1, and other directives, it seems to have a big focal point back to Goldman Sachs.
I await the day when Jim Cramer absolutely and unequivocally disowns Goldman Sachs, and even refuses to call them back.
I never want to hear "My old buddy pal at Goldman Sachs said..." The whole CROX and CMG stock debacle should show what his value is on TV. He's a smart guy, don't get me wrong, but as I sit down, drinking LVMH.PA, I try to understand where we all went wrong.
Jimmy man, we like ya, and you know what, we're going to fight for ya, but come on out and sit here with us on the linoleum floor for a few days. We don't know what to do. You were too smart for Goldman, man... Come sit on the floor with us. Let's fix it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaG9d_4zij8
Think about it.
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Re: redpill ranting
I have also spent time wondering where we all went wrong.
I think my pondering started one day when I was tired of the bureaucracy at work and googled that term. Bureaucracy by its very nature creates waste and only grows. Think about it, to cure bureaucracy issues wouldn't your first impulse be to make new policies. Isn't that more bureaucracy? I read one article that spoke of bureaucracy as if it had ended the Roman Empire. I fear our government to be headed the same direction as they add more bureaucracy which wastes more taxpayer money and then they want more money that we don't have.
The second thing that got us here today is greed. People being greedy and buying everything from overseas must have had some impact on our country. Now we have less money because it is overseas. I guess it is like some sort of Karma in return for being greedy.
Greed is pretty scary though. Now, we have cheaper (in both sense of the word) items made only to last a few years instead of decades. This costs us more in the long run.
Society is not about innovation anymore because they are greedy. This greed has caused the patent problems we often read about on techdirt.
I wish things would change and people would all work together to make things better but money stands in the way of that.
I am literally scared because the way things are going there will be desperate people doing desperate things.
freak3dot
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Re: Re: redpill ranting
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And now you know...
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"how risky it is to TRUST the consumer in times like these..."
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war
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AT&T Prepay
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AT&T
ability to budget its income to pay out its obligations.
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Gomez
Credit Card Debt
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time for T Mobile!
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start charging us in advance for the food that we MIGHT buy next month. Crap total Crap. The local electric company imposes a fuel surcharge of 50.00 per month. This is also crap. Fuel prices have went down and now thats all profit for them. This is just another way to rob the public
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WHAT A RIP OFF !!!!!!
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Quit paying in advance
Last night after 2 phone calls their billing department we silent. I said no. No negotiations, no advance billing, no loans. They then tried to add 4.95 late fee for not paying them in advance. I explained I'm not late, my bills have been paid on time in the month of service that I am using and have not intentions of paying for services in advance.
I don't pay my employee's in advance for work they haven't performed so they don't get paid in advance to services rendered. The $4.95 late service charges got waived but this is a monthly battle.
Same with ATT, I just told them no. I've had to pay one month in advance when I signed up with the lecs, and realize you can't get service unless you initially play their game, but after 1 month, I don't pay because I've already paid them. I tell them that straight up. No.
Charter, ATT, no one gets loans without paying me internest for the free money. While on the phone with ATT I dropped my service plan, less minutes and told them I'd pre-pay with a go phone and they ended the conversation with we appreciate your business.
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AT&T nonsense rip-off
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ATTN ADVANCE BILLING
This amounts to an interest free loan at the expense of you guessed it- you!! The congress ? Useless -IN the 21st century there is no difference between corporations and dictators....I urge anyone who reads this to join the recyle party spreading through the mid east and be ready when it hits our shores.Do this by recyling congress until they relearn the message of representation.ATT is the proverbial canary in the coal mine
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