AT&T Billing - Overseas Usage

My daughter was fortunate to be able to visit overseas this summer - we
asked her to be frugal on the cellphone usage, and I guess for a
teenager she was.

I have no problem with all calls being rounded up to the next minute.

I am not even particularly concerned with the number of calls listed on
the bill as UNKNOWN 000-000-0000.

But I am fascinated that the number and times of the calls on the bill
are not even close to the number and times shown on the call log in her
phone - for most days the number of calls is wildly different - and yes,
I corrected for the time zone shift between the handset and the
billing.

Specifically, the total of the calls contained in the log is 280 minutes
(rounding up to the next minute). The total on the bill for the same
period is 346 minutes.

AT&T's response was basically to tell me my daughter had deleted a large
number of calls from her phone log. My response was that then she must
have figure out how to insert calls as well since the logs did not
correspond to the bill in either case.

Any ideas of how to approach this situation in a rational manner with
AT&T, or is that pretty much impossible?




--
Hawk3

[Correction] That should have been "BLOCKED 000" not "UNKNOWN 000".




--
Hawk3

At 19 Jul 2012 02:20:28 +0100 Hawk3 wrote:
>
> My daughter was fortunate to be able to visit overseas this summer - we
> asked her to be frugal on the cellphone usage, and I guess for a
> teenager she was.
>
> I have no problem with all calls being rounded up to the next minute.
>
> I am not even particularly concerned with the number of calls listed on
> the bill as UNKNOWN 000-000-0000.
>
> But I am fascinated that the number and times of the calls on the bill
> are not even close to the number and times shown on the call log in her
> phone - for most days the number of calls is wildly different - and yes,
> I corrected for the time zone shift between the handset and the
> billing.
>
> Specifically, the total of the calls contained in the log is 280 minutes
> (rounding up to the next minute). The total on the bill for the same
> period is 346 minutes.
>
> AT&T's response was basically to tell me my daughter had deleted a large
> number of calls from her phone log. My response was that then she must
> have figure out how to insert calls as well since the logs did not
> correspond to the bill in either case.
>
> Any ideas of how to approach this situation in a rational manner with
> AT&T, or is that pretty much impossible?


Does the log (and/or bill) show any unanswered calls? Due to the way
incoming roaming calls are handled (forwarded to the roaming carrier to
make the phone ring, and then forwarded back to the home carrier's
voicemail service after x# of rings) you typically get dinged at least
one minute, sometimes two, for each unanswered call.

In addition, it can sometimes take quite a few seconds for the call to
disconnect in the system even after pressing the end key. 10 extra
seconds makes, for example, that 1:55 call you rounded up to 2:00, a 2:05
call that rounds to 3:00 in the billing system.

Honestly, 280 to 346 is, IMO, "in the ballpark" and I'm not sure how much
effort I'd expend fighting it, but you might get them to meet you in the
middle if you approach it calmly. Can't hurt/might help, as they say.

As for the days and times not matching, that's probably just a billing
quirk. Most international roaming isn't reported to the home carrier in
real time. AT&T might be indicating the times and days the roaming
carrier submitted the charges to them, rather than when the calls were
actually made.