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A California man claims AT&T is running a phone refund program that cheats customers out of the refunds they’re properly entitled to.
Plaintiff Simon Meron claims that AT&T’s handling of its own return and refund process for mobile phones is so ineffective and poorly implemented that it violates several consumer protection laws.
He alleges the company fails to follow the terms of its own mail-in return program, keeping refund money that it should have sent to its customers within a specified number of days.
According to Meron, AT&T offers a return policy for new phones that lets the customer return the phone for a full refund within 14 days of purchase.
Customers may ship the phone to AT&T with a request for a refund, and within 14 days of receiving the phone AT&T is supposed to send the customer a full refund, Meron says.
But in practice, AT&T creates a thicket of false promises and customer service runarounds that prevents customers from ever receiving this refund, Meron alleges. He says the company never intended to honor its promise of a refund. Rather, AT&T tricks customers into purchasing a new phone and maintaining their AT&T plan, he claims.
Meron claims he bought a phone from AT&T in October 2015. He says he sent it back to AT&T for a refund within 14 days of his purchase and expected to receive his refund 14 days after that, in accordance with the company’s refund terms.
At the same time, Meron alleges that AT&T refused to cancel his service contract. So he had to purchase a new phone in order to keep using his AT&T service, he claims.
Fourteen days later, Meron says, he still had not received his refund. The plaintiff claims he called customer service and was told the refund was on its way, but several days later it had still not arrived.
Meron says he ultimately made 16 phone calls to AT&T customer service, trying to track down his refund. He claims he was frequently reassured that he would receive his refund, though in other phone calls he was either put on a long hold or the call was dropped.
To date, Meron says, he has not received the refund that AT&T has promised him several times.
Meron filed the AT&T class action lawsuit in California state court in May 2016. Defendant AT&T has since removed the case to federal court.
If certified by the court, Meron’s proposed Class will represent all persons who bought a phone from AT&T and shipped it to AT&T for a refund but whose refund was not processed within 14 days of the date AT&T received the phone.
The AT&T class action lawsuit seeks an award of damages, and restitution of all money gained via the alleged unlawful business practices, plus costs of the suit and attorneys’ fees.
Meron is represented by attorney Stephen Noel Ilg of ILG Legal Office.
The AT&T Phone Refund Class Action Lawsuit is Simon Meron v. AT&T Corp., Case No. 3:16-cv-03739, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.
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52 thoughts onAT&T Class Action Says Customers Get Runaround Instead of Refund
Is this lawsuit still going on? at&t is doing this to me and I just found out it not only just happened to me this last month, but it also happened to me when I cancelled my direct tv account. they said I didn’t return something that I in fact and the guy told me “Oh yes I see it here you did return it, there must have been a glitch in the system. you will have to call our collections department” but guess what at&t doesn’t have? a collections department so instead of talking to at&t I somehow ended up talking to the collections company they sold my account to which did not go well and when I finally talked to at&t again, they told me there is nothing they can do because this happened in 2021. I have cellphone service with them, and I could see my tv service on the app. I assumed when it said there was a $0 balance, and my account was closed that it meant I was done, and they got their stuff back. within the 2 weeks of me cancelling DirecTV .
Flash forward I can’t get a refund on my phone even though I did everything they have said I needed to and that I didn’t need to worry I would get my refund on bank account as soon as they received the phone which was only 2 weeks old with no physical or liquid damage it was a malfunctioning phone and I took picture of it before I put it in the box which shows the phone was still in excellent condition but now they said I can have a credit of $290 given back to my at&t account after charging me $1022.29 because the value of the 2 week old Z flip5 is only worth that much and that they will not be giving anything back to my bank account and also want to recharge me the same amount next month of $1022.29 not including my phone bill
I returned phone to att they claim they never received my moms phone couldn’t fig how to use the new iPhone 15 pro max so we returned it In 5 day after receiving now I’m out $1100 and paying 115.00 month for the service on the phone for last 6 months
I also bought a new iPhone 14 pro max traded in older iPhone 13 Pro Max for a $1000 credit off the new phone they claim to never received that phone as well both phone I followed up on after 2 weeks of sending was told it was received and it take some time to process the credits 2 weeks later which make 5 weeks after sending back still to refund or credit In that time I no long have the tracking number information they say all calls are recorded but not the ones when they admitted to receiving so I’m out $2100 in phones and $115 a month for last 6 months for new line added for mother
Please add
I have the same issue I sent an iPhone 11 brand new for an upgrade and they claimed they received a another phone a red blackberry that I never in life even owned and it was full of mold with no battery I called them and they try to say i sent them that phone … still waiting on my refund while paying the phone bill bc they want me to pay the remainder of the iPhone 11 I sent out!
Please add me to this suit I have videos and pictures of the iPhone 11 plus the delivery paperwork from the post office .. my refund was supposed to be $800 which never got credited nor reimbursed
They refuse to give me refund for old phone of 800.00 they promised. I’m on disability and cannot afford new phone without the trade in. They scam people