Media Release

12:15 a.m.

 

ALACHUA COUNTY, FL - In August of 2007 AT&T made changes in their billing software that affected as many as 20,000 Alachua County Citizens. This billing error left out the E-911 fee charged on behalf of Alachua County and remitted to the State of Florida for auditing and distribution back to the County.

 

When State officials discovered the discrepancy they worked with AT&T to discover the source of the error. AT&T officials then elected to bill these citizens retroactively for the E-911 fee. Customers are now receiving bills with several months of retroactive fee charges.

 

Alachua County officials have received many phone calls inquiring about the retroactive billing from concerned citizens. Many of these citizens are referred to the County by AT&T representatives, despite assurances from AT&T that they would take on the responsibility of answering customer questions about the error.

 

Alachua County officials have also received reports that some customers have been retro-actively billed in error, and are in effect being double billed, as their records indicate they did pay the fee over the last several months and are also being billed the retroactive amount.

 

Alachua County AT&T customers are urged to carefully examine their phone bills for these charges and to call the AT&T customer service line listed on their bill with any questions. If AT&T is unable to provide answers to citizen questions, then Alachua County officials will work to escalate the issue with AT&T and assist citizens with resolution. The number to call in Alachua County for this assistance is 352-338-7361. 

 

The E-911 fee amount billed is 50 cents per land line phone number, up to a maximum of 25 lines per billing address. This fee has been billed on behalf of Alachua County on land line phone bills since 1987 in accordance with State law. The fee is used to equip and run the E-911 system and pay for personnel who support E-911.

 

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