They don't force contracts so you can hop on another if you like. They compete on price and have razr ( )thin profit margins. And, again, they aren't morphing into a profit machine. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but when you work the Legislature in a quasi government business model there sure is!

I think this is a good thing. Reasons below:

1. I'm tired of waiting for people to count pennies or write a check in an 'Express' checkout lane at places. There's nothing 'express' about that. If you need time, move over to the slow lane.
2. This saves US money. Yup, you heard that. By them charging people $5 to waste an employee's time when there are multiple other payment systems, it saves the rest of us money. If I have a real problem and need help, I'd certainly be upset having to wait in line behind someone trying to write a check to pay their bill.
3. See #2. When someone wastes employee time, it costs us. We pay for AT&T's equipment and employee salaries. When their efficiency goes down, costs go up, and prices go up. Lower the costs and prices don't go down, but at least they don't go up.

And if you can figure out how to use a cell phone and/or call customer service, then surely you can figure out how to use an automated payment system. If you can't, maybe you should trade in the cell phone for an old rotary phone. Click buzzzzzzzzz clack buzzzzzzzzz

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I could say that a million other companies charge $5 when making payments over the phone but in the end that just doesn't make it okay.

The truth is I look at it like this... theres about five or six alternate ways to make a payment and all of them besides mailing a check are considerably faster.


This will decrease hold times and allow us to assist customers who need assistance with their service, rather than taking out the time to submit a payment.

I dont see this as a bad thing. I never called in to pay a bill in my life. Its a waste of my time, and the rep's time who is going to take the payment as well as the time of those who are in line on hold for a more important issue.

What in the world gave you that impression? My money is on them just hiring less HUMANS!

"We are Borg, resistance is futile"

if they are adding a 5 dollar charge to pay then isnt that a change in the contract and with this change doesnt this give you the loophole to get out of the contract if they change it. I think it gives you 30 days,

My bet as well.

My Guess is the meeting went like this:
At&t: "We need to decrease hold times to increase customer satisfaction"

-"We could increase the number of agents we have on staff."
Att: "No. Bad Idea. Training costs money."

-"Well then, we could Train our people better, so they can help customers faster and solve more problems."
Att: "Another terrible idea. Remember save money means more profits."

-"Ok, well we could Make a fully automated system like the airlines have."
Att: "Goshdammit, that costs money too. What are we paying you for??? Get your head out of the toilet. Where's your corporate thinking?"

-"Ok I got it. We should charge people for wanting to talk to a person."
Att: "GREAT IDEA!! That's what we'll do. We'll take the lead just like Sprint did with their CS. Another win for the Good Guys. "

-"But what about the elderly customers, or people who would rather deal with a person?"
Att: "What do you think this is? Our customers are our shareholders. We need to show them profits."

-"I guess we WILL take the lead like Sprint then. I've heard their profits are great. "

There isn't a $5 charge to pay everytime, just in person or over the phone with a CS rep. You can do *PAY, pay online, set up automatic bill pay, or pay at the paystation at the store with no charge. Or you can mail in the bill the old fashioned way.

These things are not included in your contract, so no you will not be able to get out of your contract becase of it. You couldn't get out of the contract when they made the text pay per use more, why would you be able to get out of it for a service fee? (they are subject to change)

Its odd that companies put roadblocks to accept money. I bet if you hit cancel you can make a payment real fast. Once Verizon goes LTE, i am there, with nokia

There are still multiple methods to pay the bill w/out the processing fee as has been mentioned earlier and nobody is being forced to pay the processing fee if they simply take advantage of those methods. My credit card companies and local utility requires an additional fee even if I use one of their automated pmt methods. Welcome to the 21st century.

Yes and thanks for your condescension . However if a customer, like me decides to see a rep , for another reason, and they see i have not paid. The rep cant ask for payment, because it will cost the customer. So the rep basicaly is not a use to the company or the customer. I have worked in many companies, and payments were always considered highest priorty and nothing was supposed to impede payments. I guess a customer walking away from a rep, and not paying is what ATT and others are going for. I wonder if this applies to our sight impaired friends ?

And thank you for oversimplifying it. We can agree to disagree. Have a good day.

BTW: I am certain that sight impaired customers have a process through a specialty group to avoid the fee.

At&t is just giving me more reason to switch with this one. I'm merely ok with the *pay system, but I don't always trust the machine. Cellular Telephone Service is more or less a utility. I can't think of any utility where I grew up or now that you can't pay in person. Hell, you can even pay comcast in person. I'm paying for the service now, and I can talk to a person for free. Why do I now need to pay for something that has been free before? I wonder if they will add $5 to PayGo customers who want to top up?

I used to bank with Wachovia and decided to ditch them when they wanted to charge me to see a teller. I'm thinking....you hold my money, you make money off my money, you give me very little money in return for me loaning you my money, and you want me to PAY to put even MORE money into your coffers?

Anyhow, that one bugged me on principle, especially since there was only one alternative, the ATM.

At least in AT&T's case, as we all know, there are multiple ways to pay the bill. Anybody is free to interpret the changes however they want. The reality is that from a business side, anything that is routine needs to be simplified as much as possible to reduce costs. Reduced costs translate to a benefit for we consumers and, yes, to the shareholders.

Call it an anti-customer approach if you want, but there are customers like me who appreciate getting to be first in line with a real problem rather than waiting behind a penny counter to try to figure out how many pennies it takes to make $1.00, wasting my time and the rep's time.

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