Business owner says customers couldn’t reach her for months after phone company’s mistake

CHARLOTTE — A small business owner told Channel 9 that her phone company made a mistake and it kept customers from being able to reach her for months.

MiMi Sinclair owns Kreative Designs and Gifts. Her business was largely event planning but during the pandemic, Sinclair had to branch out. “I’ve been doing a lot of T-shirts, embroidery, and cups, mugs, and that kind of stuff,” she said.

She told Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke that in June she took a closer look at her phone bill and noticed she was paying for an extra line and had been for more than a year.

“(I) had no idea how the line even got on the plan,” she said.

Sinclair says she called her phone company, AT&T, and that it took off one of the lines, but it was the wrong one. She said the company removed her business line. “Not only is this my business line, this is my lifeline,” she said.

She says she went without the line for about three days until AT&T gave her a temporary number. “But that phone, because my main number is on my website, I was not getting as much business,” she said. “It’s just no way to calculate what I … lost potentially.”

Sinclair says she tried to get it resolved on her own for about four months. Then Action 9 got involved and emailed AT&T. “Four days later, I was getting a call from AT&T,” she told Stoogenke. “You found me a supervisor, you found me a representative, and you guys got it done.”

Sinclair says she still had to pay for the extra line for the time she had it, but that she got her business number back and that business has picked up since.

Stoogenke says you should always take a moment to skim your phone bill. It may have a lot of pages and different fees listed that can be confusing, but the goal is to catch mistakes early.

AT&T told Stoogenke, “Clearly, this was not an acceptable customer experience and did not meet our expectations for how we serve our customers. We resolved this issue in July by retrieving Ms. Sinclair’s work number for her. We have apologized to Ms. Sinclair for the inconvenience, zeroed out the balance on her closed account and ceased all collections activities.”

VIDEO: Action 9 helps AT&T customer get $1,000 promotion promised

Action 9 helps AT&T customer get $1,000 promotion promised

©2023 Cox Media Group