AT&T makes you pay to pay

I’m vehemently against any pay-to-pay system. We use your service, and we agree to pay a certain fee. So when the time comes to settle the debt, we shouldn’t be hit with extra fees to cover the cost of processing said transaction. Then there’s the other side to this: Some people are willing to pay it. And furthermore, there are other options for payment, so I should just shut up and use them, rather than complaining about a method of payment I don’t use. Yeah, there’s some legitimacy there. But there’s also a kink in the plan. Sometimes, you can’t pay online. Either the server is running slow, or it’s just not working. I’m not sure how these things go throughout the course of the month, but when the last week rolls around and I’m ready to pay my bills, I always encounter servers that just aren’t processing my bills. And so my option then is to call them up, since the mail would get there well after my bill’s due date. The biggest issue here, though, is openness. As one AT&T customer service rep writes to Consumerist: “I feel this is taking advantage of our customer’s trust, because even when we put it on all of their bills, and let people know, there will be tons of reps that won’t let the customer know they’re being charged for taking their payment.” You know, it’s really that simple. If every rep is required to inform the customer of the $5 charge, I think we’d all be fine with it. The CSR can let me know that it will cost $5 to process this transaction, and I can hang up the phone and avoid that frivolous fee. Of course, that AT&T isn’t implementing this mandatory over-the-phone notification speaks to the nature of this fee. If it was really just to cover the cost of the transaction, they’d have no problem being up front with it. But because reps aren’t required to mention the fee, it definitely has the feel of subversion. The program will roll out nationwide in May. I pray that once informed, no one uses it. [Consumerist]]]>