Charlotte woman felt she had right to drop phone company, but says she was charged thousands

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By Jason Stoogenke

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The main reason Kissa Hale had Verizon was because her parents were on her account and they live in a rural area with limited cell service, but Verizon worked well there.

Then an AT&T representative offered her a better price. “He gave me a quote for $180 which would have been significant savings over what I was currently paying with Verizon,” she told Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke.

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She said she told him she had to be sure her parents would still have a good signal.

“He assured me that we would work through that. He pulled out the coverage map,” she said.

So Hale decided to switch.

“Sounded great. However, that is not how it played out,” she told Stoogenke.

She said AT&T’s bills were higher than promised. “The new bills are coming from AT&T which are nowhere near $180,” she said. “They’re more like $300.”

And, even worse, she said her parents didn’t have a good signal. “They’re having to leave the house to make phone calls and receive phone calls.”

She felt she had a valid reason, even a right, to break up with AT&T. So she went back to Verizon. But, she said, AT&T sent her a bill for more than $2,000 for an early termination fee and the full price of the phones.

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“I paid the money. I contacted you guys,” she told Stoogenke. “You all intervened, emailed AT&T on my behalf, at which point someone called that was willing to accept the phones back and refund the charges.”

“If you guys hadn’t stepped in, I don’t know what I would do. I would just be out thousands of dollars,” she said.

AT&T never explained its side of the story to Action 9, so it's not clear what the issue was.

Anytime you switch phone companies:

  • Read the fine print.
  • Get prices and promises in writing if you can.
  • Be aware you could owe thousands.

If you’re happy with your provider and get a better offer, you may want to see if your current service will match it.

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