AT&T rep adds new lines to a customer's account and finances $2K in gear without permission (UPDATE)

UPDATE: AT&T reached out to us today to tell us that it has spoken with the customer and "resolved his concerns." A spokesman gave us the following statement:"This occurred at an authorized retailer, and this individual no longer works with our accounts. We have apologized to the customer for this experience, which did not meet our expectations for how we treat customers, and have resolved her concerns with the account."

An AT&T customer who happens to be a Reddit subscriber claims that his identity was stolen by an associate who worked at the Watertown, MA store where the victim shopped. According to his post on Reddit, the associate added two new lines to the customer's account without his consent and also financed over $2,000 in equipment in the name of the customer. 

When the customer disputed the charges, AT&T did not believe his story because the victim's ID was scanned and the carrier had the image in its files and said that it proved that the account owner had agreed to the equipment purchases and the addition of the two new lines. The customer responded by saying that his ID was scanned because the AT&T associate took a picture of it without his knowledge. It should be noted that the receipts of the devices that the AT&T associate allegedly financed through the customer's account without his permission do not show the customer's signature.

The issue has escalated over the past two months as the victim has complained to the police. He also is refusing to pay a $900 bill from AT&T until the charges added to his account by the associate are removed. But since he hasn't paid his bill, AT&T has suspended his account.

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An email that the victim just received from the carrier says that he has one month to pay his bill or else he will be responsible for over $3,000 in equipment charges. And without cellular service, he can only use his phone over Wi-Fi for data and cannot make or take calls on the unit. Interestingly, the official AT&T Reddit account joined the thread to say, "Hi there, we are here to help. Please send us a private message with your fraud reference number, your name and the best contact number to reach you."

The customer responded by writing, "You are not here to help me. If you were this would have been cleared up 2 months ago. I wouldn’t have the police involved and my line wouldn’t be suspended and then canceled in 21 days. So yeah, you guys are really here to help!" That last bit was sarcasm in case you couldn't tell.

Another Redditor said that refusing to pay the bill is not the best way to dispute charges since it leads to the suspension and then the closing of your account along with the loss of your phone number. Meanwhile, it seems that the associate accused by the customer of committing the bad deeds has vanished and even the police can't find him. To make matters worse, AT&T won't give the cops any information they have on their missing employee.

The victim writes, "It’s awful! I don’t even care what they do to the employee, I just want the charges off my account! The employee stopped showing up for work once he realized people were on to him. Police are still looking for him. AT&T won’t give any of his info to the police. The police have to subpoena AT&T HR (Human Resources) to get his info."

If you are having an issue with AT&T, you can contact customer care by dialing *611 from any AT&T phone. Or, you can head to the AT&T support website by tapping on this link, heading to the section about submitting a notice of dispute and doing just that.

We wonder whether AT&T has had a change of heart now that the associate allegedly involved in this whole sordid affair has simply disappeared. The scary part about this story isn't just that AT&T won't believe its own customer, but that there doesn't seem to be anything that the customer could have done differently to prevent it from happening. And that makes all of us vulnerable to having something like this happen to you or me no matter which wireless firm we use.

Why would an AT&T associate get himself in such a mess? The goal is to hike commission payouts and these days not much raises the amount of an associate's check more than selling additional new lines for an existing account.