I am just another person monitoring these sites to get an idea of what is "really" going on. I made my preps and took my heat from family and friends, most arent' laughing now as they are spending time following up on "mistakes".

Since the rollover I have had trouble with my phone, trouble calling 800 numbers, eroneous information from my bank = large bank. Just got off the phone with a company that sent me a nasty we will ruin your credit letter and my account was paid off last year. New balance, lots of interest, this account was closed last april. They said it was a computer error and my credit status was not at risk. Do I believe them. Do I have a choice. I requested they send me a letter saying this was an error and it would be cleared up they said "get in line, the computer generated a lot of these and I have been answering calls all morning. It will not be reported to a credit agency and everything is fine. I have spent 10 years building excellent credit, WHY???? These people can take me out in minute with their false information. I am sure I am not the only one. Most people are probably just starting to feel these effects as they get their mail and go WHAT????

Also, I have not received billing for long distance in two months, at least something good about Y2K - FREE PHONE CALLS!!!

Keep up the good posts. We need the information, media is passing by.

-- i am me rane (iammerane@aol.com), January 10, 2000

Answers

Wow - sorry to hear that. Fortunately nothing has happened to me. I just pulled my credit reports over the weekend because some yahoo decided to try and open a credit card on my old address. Luckily the credit card company caught him before he could make any charges.

Thank goodness their computers were working. ;-)

-- H.H. (dontscrewme_2000@yahoo.com), January 10, 2000.

i am.....just a note on the LD phone charges. Seems as though some of the LD providers have adopted a policy of "bill every 3 months, or when the bill gets so big". I've noticed the same thing with our provider - AT&T. Started in the fall. A couple of months of only local charges, then whammy!! Called the local guys (GTE) and adked "Wazzup?" They said the LDs are going to the new billing procedure. Seems as though it saves them money. Beats me?? The only thing that comes to my mind is that the locals are charging the LDs a monthly fee for the billing service. Otherwise, a bill is a bill, and monthly versus every-so-often doesn't make any sense to me. Just MHO.

-- Ninh Hoa (tech@univ.now), January 10, 2000.

Ninh and others: After seeing several comments by earlier posters who were concerned because they had not recently received AT&T long-distance bills, I checked mine and found that I hadn't been billed for the past two months. Sent an e-mail inquiry to AT&T and received the following reply:

"Thank you for contacting AT&T Online Customer Service.

First, I have reviewed your AT&T Long Distance Account, and show that you are currently enrolled in a Threshold Billing Arrangement, which means your monthly AT&T charges will not be included in your local telephone bill until your long distance charges have reached $30.00 or more or if it has been three months since your last AT&T long distance bill.

Nevertheless, I have changed your account back to monthly billing. This will take effect with your next complete bill cycle.

Finally, since AT&T is your long distance provider, you can also benefit from AT&T's competitive, flat rate for local toll calls. This rate varies by state and may be less expensive than your current rate.

To find out if AT&T Local Toll Service is available in your area, please visit http://www.catalog.att.com/cmd/loctoll.

I hope this information is helpful.

You are a valued customer and we appreciate your business. If you need further assistance, please contact us via the following url: http://www.att.com/write/."

Well, I never requested nor signed-up for their "Threshold Billing Arrangement". And I informed them that since I am trying to get by on a steadily diminishing income, I could not afford this "arrangement". I suspect that there are many other folks in the same boat. Anyway, that's why they put me back on the monthly billing setup.

What especially irritates me is that they made the change without notifying me in any way. For some folks just struggling to get by, that could be a real financial problem.

-- Norm Harrold (nharrold@tymewyse.com), January 10, 2000.

Um, threshold billing as far as I understand it, just saves AT&T the trouble of sending a seprate bill. You don't pay any more or any less.

-- Shane Brady (shane@jxie.com), January 10, 2000.

FWIW. In my area at least, Bell South charges ATT a flat fee each time they charge your account. Each month for three months, three charges. Once every three months, one charge. Saves a LOT of money for ATT but I guarantee you will never see a credit on your phone bill for their savings. It's one of those things...."Well, we'll just change everyone thats on residential service and has a history of charges not exceeding 35 bucks a month. Those that squawk, we'll just apologise and change back". Let's see. My informant tells me the charge per account from Bell to ATT is about 0.28. If you multiply that by ATT's 17 million residential accounts, hmmmm. Yep! I could live right comfortable on that for a while...oops, I forgot that was every month, not just a total. Damn that's a lot of money.

-- Lobo (atthelair@yahoo.com), January 11, 2000.