. The Great Cable Caper
[[ New notation of warning: According to Atlanta Business Chronicle, this cable company has teamed up with DV2 Inc. Therefore you might check to make sure that any dealings you have with DV2 Inc. are treated equally carefully. Also some folks who have emailed me have suggested that people contact Clark Howard, a renowned consumer advocate in the Atlanta area with a regular radio broadcast. The Advanced Telemedia website was down tonight (11/8/2003), but they are still taking business calls, so beware. ]]
This may have happened to you before. If it has, I truly sympathize. You get home from work after a hard day and you check your mailbox. Like usual there is a pile of bills and a bunch of crappy junk mail advertisements piled up there instead of anything useful. A little disappointed, you grab the stack and head up to your floor, unlock the door and start opening these things people have sent you.
Then you get a bill for something you never ordered, never received and never even really considered requesting. You get a fraudulent cable bill.
How could this happen you might ask? I know that was my first question when I called the Georgia based perpetrator of fraud, Advanced TeleMedia, LLC. Initially I assumed it was just some kind of mistake - although I was soon to learn the only mistake was in my naivete.
My apartment complex, a gated community with around 1000 units changed the company with whom they had maintained an exclusive cable provider contract. I didn't give a darn about that, of course, because I didn't have cable anyway. Apparently, however, the new company, Advanced TeleMedia, LLC chose to install cable in all 1000 units whether the residents previously had cable or not. Hey, if they want to stick wires in my apartment, I apparently don't have the right to say no, so again no big deal.
However, here's where it gets nasty. After sending around numerous notices asking people to transfer their cable to the new company, they turned on the new service. Except I never asked to transfer my new cable - something I couldn't do anyway as I didn't have it before. I also did not sign up for new service.
Nevertheless, here it was. An unexpected $41.95 "Prorated bill for" the dates of September 1st - 30th for my "service" which was "transferred from TV Max to ATM on August 27th." Again, I assumed this bill was just a mistake, and called the company immediately upon opening it. They even have a toll free one eight hundred number 1-800-843-3907 that you can call with questions. Surely, I figured, with a quick phone call this will all be resolved.
Well, I am sure by now you can imagine that it was not, or I wouldn't be writing this lovely little rant. The lady informed me that I had supposedly signed up for it. I asked her to provide me with my signature or immediately remove the charges. She said she could not remove the charges (which was a bold-faced lie, she should have said "would not" and kept a miniscule degree of morality and ethics in her life) and that she would research the issue until they found my alleged signature - which of course will never happen as I had never signed anything with any cable company in Atlanta as of that date.
At this point I grew a bit perturbed and asked the lady if she understood that mailing me a fraudulent bill technically constituted the federal crime of mail fraud. She said that it did not, so I explained to her why it did. Sending somebody a fraudulent piece of mail involving illegal charges or trickery is illegal and because items which pass through the Post Office are suddenly in federal hands it is a federal jurisdiction crime. Perhaps having already dealt with a few hundred other people from my apartment complex who had already called with similar complaints she merely blew me off and put me on hold without returning.
So I called back and asked to speak to a manager. No dice. Another lady, one "Jennifer"... I use quotes because these fly by night people won't give you their phone extension and give you little cause to believe they use real names either. I can understand why if their business is based upon fraud, but anyway, there I was speaking to "Jennifer". She also noted to me that allegedly they had some document with my signature which said I had signed up. When I asked for a copy of it she admitted to not having seen such a document and indicated that they would have to research the issue.
I asked that in the meantime she remove the charges from my unwanted, and unrequested, account. She refused. I repeated my intentions to report her company for fraud to the Postal authorities and added that I figured they were probably also subject to FCC regulations as a media provider. She argued with me for a long time, continually refusing to reverse the fraudulent charges while admitting she had no proof they were valid but steadfastly saying she had to research it. Then she summarily dumped me off the phone as well.
So I called back and asked to speak to a manager. No dice. Well, almost. Ma'am, I explained to the new lady, your previous representative told me the gentleman's name was Vince and that he was the "customer service" manager. I would like to speak to Vince. First she demanded my name and "account information" before she would transfer me to this "Vince". Finally I gave her my address, as I refused to even mention my unwanted account number given the bad guys in this situation have a system which clearly tells you while you are on hold that you are being recorded. Lord knows I don't want to give the kind of people who would send you a fraudulent bill access to a recording of me saying an account number that I never asked to receive.
Anyway, finally I was transferred to this Vince person (is person a fair word for a thief?). He repeated his department's answer, virtually verbatim. I noted to him my same plan to report them for fraud. Then he tried the tactic of claiming he could not remove the charges. I asked him if this was true, was he actually unable to remove them or was he just unwilling. He acquiesced that technically he was able to do so but that he would not do so. I noted to him that this made him a complicit accessory to the fraudulent charges. He seemed unconcerned and said that nothing would be done until they found this alleged order I allegedly placed to order the service. Which, of course, they will never find, because I never placed any such order.
So I noted to the unrepentant fraud perpetrator that I would report him by name when possible and that I would also not be paying this fraudulent bill, but that I would be taking action against the company as much as possible due to my fear that this fraudulent charge could affect my credit rating. He repeated that he would do nothing, so I bid him good evening and we parted telephone ways.
My next action was to call the Fox 5 I-Team here in Atlanta. They are one of those nifty little news services which actually works for the community rather than endlessly reporting about dead bodies in car trunks. They investigate government and consumer fraud. Unfortunately I got their answering machine, so I left my contact information. Then I called Channel 2 and got their Witness Report program and repeated the same general message, telling them what happened and my contact information, unfortunately again to an answering machine. Hopefully they will call me back, but meanwhile I will be moving on to other attempts to end this fraudulent practice by Advanced TeleMedia LLC so that they never feel inclined to do it to any innocent person ever again.
I have moved to a house now, and left behind the scummy apartments which placed me under the shadow of this thoroughly unethical company, but my feelings of being illegally threatened, ripped off, and targeted by intentional and malicious and prevalent fraud have not gone away.
For anyone who might wish to spend some free time telling a fraudulent thieving company just what you think of them, here's the contact information:
Direct Form Mail email If I were you, I'd look for direct email addresses. These ethically challenged individuals, last I checked, forward their email to kfaulkner@lanecompany.com which looks like some front company or complaint bureau without any motive to help you, not that ATM seems to have any desire to help you either, judging from my experience with them.
To verify if their information has changed you might check http://www.networksolutions.com and look up AdvancedTelemedia.com under Who's for contact information. When I looked it up, it was as follows:
Advanced TeleMedia LLC
2130 Northwest Parkway I-J
Marietta, GA 30067-9307800-843-3907 (toll free - i.e. they pay for you to complain about their fraudulent activities)
770-612-3286 (if you happen to be local to Atlanta, though I'd recommend dialing the 800 number anyway if only to cost them money so you can offset their misbegotten funds a bit)Registrant:
Advanced Telemedia (ADVANCEDTELEMEDIA-DOM)
2130 Northwest Pkwy., Ste. I-J
Marietta, GA 30067
USDomain Name: ADVANCEDTELEMEDIA.COM
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Rorke, John (YICKZJCOHI) jrorke@ADVANCEDTELEMEDIA.COM
Advanced Telemedia
2130 Northwest Pkwy., Ste. I-J
Marietta, GA 30067
US
770-612-3300Record expires on 05-Apr-2004 (maybe if you have the time you could try to take their address away from them and post a list of their crimes since they haven't yet seen fit to use any of their misbegotten funds to re-register yet)
Record created on 05-Apr-1998 (Stealing Your Money Since 1998)
Database last updated on 9-Sep-2002 21:51:11 EDT.Domain servers in listed order:
AUTH111.NS.UU.NET 198.6.1.115
AUTH120.NS.UU.NET 198.6.1.154UU.NET is MCI. If you have MCI, you are supporting the company that is hosting these unethical thieves. http://www.uu.net/ is where you would go to report ATM for fraud to _their_ internet host, but remember that they are using your money to pay MCI so MCI is not likely to listen as long as ATM has lots of your fraudulently charged funds to pay MCI to allow them to operate their crime ring in your Internet Neighborhood. If you talk to MCI on the phone at any point, you might note to them that they support the fraud company Advanced Telemedia LLC, but don't be surprised if stolen funds don't outweigh your word.
IN CASE YOU ARE INTERESTED, I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE HAVING TROUBLE WITH THESE THIEVES. I HAVE BEEN RECEIVING EMAILS FROM FOLKS WHO HAVE HAD SIMILAR TROUBLES ALL ACROSS THE METRO AREA. MANY OF THEM HAVE BEEN CONCERNED ABOUT INTERNET SECURITY AND THUS NOT AGREED TO HAVE THEIR EMAILS POSTED, BUT OTHERS HAVE AGREED PROVIDED I KEEP THEIR TRUE IDENTITY SAFE AND ONLY LIST THEM BY AN ALIAS. THEIR EMAILS, HOWEVER, ARE HERE WITH NO EDITING EXCEPT THAT REQUIRED TO REMOVE THEIR IDENTITIES:
From: L. at bellsouth.net
To: Conrad Hubbard <conradhubbard@earthlink.net>
Date: Thursday, May 22, 2003 10:32 PM
Subject: Re: ATMSure, I wouldn't mind if you used "L. at bellsouth.net"....
I think you do deserve some sort of apology.....but I guess you
shouldn't expect one from a company like that. It's just crazy how stuff
like this works, eh?
I'm jealous you have Comcast...L.
On Thursday, May 22, 2003, at 05:26 PM, Conrad Hubbard wrote:
> Well I moved, and now I have the choice of Comcast, which I have
> taken. I still want ATM to give me a formal apology and solid evidence that they
> cleaned up my account, because I never even asked for an account and
> never even had cable from them.
>
> I would love to post your email on the website, if you don't mind, so
> long as I leave out your actual address and real name. I'd say "L. at Bellsouth.net" or something of that sort. I've been getting
> emails and I think it would be cool to post them, without identifying features.
>
> --
> Conrad Hubbard - Webslave
> The Chip http://www.conradhubbard.com
> "Promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for
> limited times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective
> Writings and Discoveries" - U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 8
>
>> From: L at bellsouth.net
>> Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 15:21:36 -0400
>> To: conradhubbard@earthlink.net
>> Subject: ATM
>>
>> Hi Conrad...
>>
>> Just ran across your little fiasco with ATM running a google
>> search.....funny, I was trying to get their number because I also
>> have a beef with them. I feel for you, they are such a shitty company. The
>> cable absolutely SUCKS, and like you, we don't have a choice of cable
>> company's either.
>> Good luck, I hope you really screw them!
>>
>> L.I HAVE SOME MORE WHO HAVE GIVEN PERMISSION TO POST UNDER INCOMPLETE CONTACT INFO. I'LL PUT THEM UP SOON, WHEN I GET TIME. IF YOU HAVE BEEN SHAFTED BY ATM AND WANT TO COMPLAIN TO THE WORLD, TELL ME, GIVE ME PERMISSION TO PUT IT UP, AND I'LL ADD IT HERE. EVEN IF THEY DON'T KNOW ABOUT MY SITE, THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE WHO FIND MY PAGE ABOUT ATM DO SO VIA GOOGLE.COM SEARCHES FOR ATM OR ADVANCED TELEMEDIA.
I've already gotten one email from somebody claiming that his local ATM representative got this website, and was "horrified". Apparently he wasn't horrified enough to get his company to send me a formal apology and give me something in writing to show any credit agency that might ever think that ATM somehow was owed some blood money of some sort.
If you are from ATM and you see this page, I hope you have a couple of ethics and a moral or two because I'd like to hear from you. Please get the company to give me a formal apology, in physical written form that I can keep in a file cabinet in case I ever need it, and please get ATM to give me a written document indicating that I have never had any service from them and have never owed them a single penny for any reason. I will not feel truly safe from your unethical company until you give me this, in physical writing, with signatures, because you so directly perpetrated fraud against me and untold other people. I suspect that my web page would continue to encourage people to mistrust your unethical company so long as my web pages remains in existence, without another single effort on my part, but I plan to continue to add the complaint letters of those who give me permission to add them. I suppose I should start putting them on separate web pages so that more of them show up as individual files on web searches for your intentionally fraudulent company. I sincerely hope that, if you do not make good on this crime on your part, the universe and/or whatever higher power exists within it makes sure that you meet justice according with the fact that you have intentionally made others suffer for no reason except to garner your 30 pieces of silver.
UPDATE: Advanced Telemedia LLC faxed me a document saying my account balance was zero with a vague and a dangerously short letter stating they were "sorry for the inconvenience". As far as I am concerned this is a month or two late and a few hundred dollars short. I want a REAL apology, one which explicitly states that they tried to jack me, and I want a signed letter explicitly stating that I never owed them any money for any reason whatsoever. Until I get something in physical writing explicitly stating utter and complete fault on their part I will not feel safe from their intentional and apparently systemic fraud and abuse... AND YOU SHOULDN'T FEEL SAFE EITHER!
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