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‘He spent 40 hours on the phone,’ couple says they got the runaround before getting a $1,000 refund from AT&T

Return policies certainly vary from store to store. In this case AT&T offered a 3-day full refund return. The phone was returned but the refund was not.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Sometimes the deal is too good to pass up. The savings just too big. The extra features and kickbacks too enticing. A few months ago, Mark and Beverly Vernon stumbled onto one of those deals.

AT&T was offering a “Bundle Package” that included two new cell phones, cell service, internet, cable, and phone service for a lot less than they were paying at the time. 

“We would save about $150 a month if we bundled with AT&T,” said Mark Vernon.

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A salesperson came to the home and signed them up and a couple of days later an installer came by to run the cable and internet lines, “He was here from 9am to 9pm,” said Vernon.

The garage now has a tangled mess of wires that were installed or left dangling after being disconnected, “It’s a mess,” said Vernon. Not happy with how the work was done or left Vernon decided to just fix it himself and move on.

That, however, turned out to be the beginning of a few issues the couple had with AT&T. After just a day Beverly quickly realized the reception with AT&T was not nearly as good as her previous provider. She was having trouble hearing people on the other end and decided to return the phone for a full refund.

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AT&T had given them a three-day period to cancel or change any part of the deal without penalty. Beverly Vernon went to the store and returned the phone. The couple waited a few weeks for the refund before calling AT&T, “My husband spent forty hours on the phone,” said Beverly Vernon.

Over a two to three-week period Vernon continued to call about the refund on the phone and the payout he was supposed to get for switching. Vernon says he was passed around from one person to the next without any resolution. Eventually, he was put in contact with a supervisor, “They (AT&T) told me an investigator closed the case and that was the end of it and it would not be reopened,” said Vernon.

A couple of days later he reached out to our Call 4 Action Volunteers, “My wife says give WFMY News 2 a call they do it all the time,” said Vernon. Our volunteers reached out to AT&T and explained the situation. We provided detailed documents that were given at the time of the purchase.

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We also reached out to one of their corporate executives to insure this was being investigated, “We weren’t getting anywhere,” said Vernon.

About a week later a spokesperson for AT&T reached out to us and told us a refund for the phone had been issued along with an additional refund for switching to AT&T from another carrier, “If you can’t get anywhere call News 2,” said Vernon.

In this case, we were able to work with AT&T and get a refund upwards of $1,000, “I watch you help people all the time and it touches my heart,” said Beverly Vernon.

We checked back with the couple a few weeks after they received the refund and everything was working out well. 

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