AT&T customer hit with $6,223 bill after being on pay-per-use plan for one day

WTF?! Nobody likes an unexpectedly high expense, especially when it's an AT&T wireless bill that instead of being the usual $250 is a massive $6,223. That was the shocking amount a Redditor was charged, and it was due to accidentally being put on a pay-per-use plan for a single day.

Redditor Usual-Guava-8899, who says they are a first responder, has been with AT&T for over a decade and has always used unlimited plans. They usually pay around $250 - $266 for four lines and some monthly installments for phones, but last week the bill was a slightly higher $6,223.60.

The user said the only change that had been made recently was moving their line over to FirstNet, a nationwide wireless broadband network for first responders.

Courtesy of Usual-Guava-8899

After an hour on the phone with AT&T customer service, during which time the customer rep and the supervisor insisted the bill was $205 even though the online account said $6,223, Usual-Guava-8899 went to a corporate store in Dallas for help.

It was discovered that when the account was migrated to FirstNet, AT&T accidentally placed the customer on a pay-per-use plan – for a single day. In those 24 hours, he used 3,097 MB of data. At an obscene cost of $2 per MB, the charge pushed the total bill up to $6,223.

How is this even legal?

The associate said they had contacted the office of the company president to address the matter, and that the user should expect to hear something back later that day. Two days later, AT&T still hadn't responded.

In an update to the original Reddit post, Usual-Guava-8899 wrote that the office of the president had referred the matter back to the store to take care of it. The store manager is apparently working on the problem right now. The user also clarified that they had not traveled internationally or been on a cruise during the pay period.

This isn't the first time an AT&T customer has been hit with a bill of around $6,000. In 2022, after one month of service on a plan that AT&T calls its "Unlimited Starter" plan, TikToker Lulú was hit with a bill of this size. As with this current case, the company had charged her $2 per MB of data for the 3,003MB she used.

@luluxv.xo My whole day is ruined. I spent an 1.5 hour on the phone with customer service crying. Ive called multiple times in the past few weeks & everyone told me my bill was going to be $120. Idk how this happens. @att #greenscreen #attscam #phonebill #capitalism ♬ Not me starting a TikTok trend purrrrr - Prestonisoverparty