Legal Question in Consumer Law in California

I don't know what catagory this would fall into. I purposefully cancelled my long distance plan with AT&T a couple of months ago because I was laid off of work. In an effort to reduce the bills I decide to cut out all unnessary costs. I never use my land line. I have a cell phone and use it for all my calls. The land line was installed for high speed internet and for emergency purposes should my children need to contact Emergency Services, I heard that it's easier for EMS to locate a 911 call from a land line than from a cell phone. I recently received a huge phone bill in the amount of $1,080.00. I was shocked! Apparently my teenage son, after having his cell phone privileges taken away used the land line phone to call his ex-girl friend in Oregon, we live in California. If I cancelled my long distance plan shouldn't my son have been blocked from making any calls outside of the prearranged plan that I pay for? Which is local only and only within a 16 mile radius. For over a year I have not used the land line and all of a sudden I have this huge long distance bill that I can't believe. I can't use certain services with my cell phones or cable company if I don't ask for them and pre agree to the service, why would long distance services be allowed if I purposefully discontinued them? Is there anything I can do? Or am I just SOL?


Asked on 9/04/09, 6:42 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Robert F. Cohen Law Office of Robert F. Cohen

Here's probably what happened: You canceled the long distance plan, which would have saved you money. You didn't ask AT&T to block long distance completely, so you were charged the prevailing rate.

I think a conversation with AT&T would be appropriate and, if you don't get satisfaction, file a letter of complaint with the state Public Utilities Commission: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/puc/cec/e_complaint/ . Also, it sounds like your son needs to understand his responsibility for the charges.

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Answered on 9/04/09, 7:35 pm


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