Insurance added during upgrade without permission by store employee

Depends on the store. If you go to an Authorized AT&T Retail Store this is quite common. You can always cancel the insurance after the fact if you check your bill. Retail Stores are not owned or operated by AT&T and do not have AT&T employees. They look exactly the same as AT&T Corporate Stores. 

As far as legal action goes, you agreed to binding arbitration when you agreed to AT&T services, which is very common with all carriers. You can always file a complaint with the BBB. They will forward the complaint to AT&T Corporate and you will get a call from a Senior Manager in the Office of the President and you can discuss the issue directly with him/her.

I'm not sure what legal action there would be for $17 insurance. At worst you have to call to get taken off one bill and then remove it from your account online. 

As long as they credit the charge, you're made whole and don't have any damages. 

I agree that it's unethical, but unfortunately you will run into that with salespeople everywhere. 

You are exactly correct that someone in AT&T management, likely the store management, is pushing its employees to add insurance and possibly the $6 next up even after customers have expressly stated they do not want it. This is extremely common for authorized retail stores to do.

   If the store you do business with is an authorized retailer AT&T has little control. Authorized retailers are franchise stores that are privately owned and are just authorized to sell AT&T goods and services.

Good on you for checking your bill and you should immediately contact AT&T and request credits going back as far as 6 months if they have added inappropriate charges to your bill.

I don't know what the legality is, anytime you bring something to AT&t's attention they have the opportunity to make it good. And there is some responsibility on us customers to read the bill and bring errors on the bill to their attention in a timely manner.

I would think it would become a he said she said as to whether insurance was requested or denied.  

@OttoPylot @MicCheck @formerlyknownas Thank you for your responses.

I definitely always check my bills and most of the time easily dispute credits back to my account, it's just a matter of it being a time waster when having to do that or others that's don't catch it.

I did not realize that authorized retail stores are not owned or operated by AT&T, therefore, this brings good context for the situation and practice. The retail stores must get bonuses the more services they sign up customers for.

I understand legally I agreed to binding arbitration when I agreed to AT&T services, but there are situations where there are (Edited per community guidelines) (Edited per community guidelines) happen, for example a recent one for added admin fees to bills to large number of customers. This is primarily what I was referring to but not like I have good legal knowledge. Sounds like if one of those (Edited per community guidelines) (Edited per community guidelines) ever happened for these type of charges, they would need to be for the owners of the AT&T authorized retail chain rather than AT&T itself.

Anytime you make a change with a rep, log onto your account afterward and make sure nothing was changed that you didn't want. Most extras (like insurance) can be removed yourself, so you can get ahead of the game. As much as possible, do what you need online so you're the only human involved.

We shouldn't have to do that, but like I said, you're going to run into dishonest salespeople no matter the business or item being sold.

People are correct that some of those stores out there, most of them probably are owned by a 3rd party.    But if they are adding insurance onto your account without your consent is not just an inconvenience,  its illegal.   This is not something just to blow off considering it is happening to a number of people and I am pretty sure that a lot of people dont bother posting about it online.   In the example I am currently dealing with it, the parent company of the stores is called Prime Communications,  their phone number is 281240-7800,  if you ask the store they should tell you if they are 3rd party, ,or ATT itself can tell you.   Their salespeople (primes) receive financial compensation for adding insurance.   They are a direct authorized representative of ATT. 

I have dealt with this twice now when helping my mother and sister with their ATT purchases and upgrades.   This last time they said it is automatically added by ATT and they cant do anything about it and cant remove it.  That is a lie.   They also added the up nextup plan on 2 phones with out our consent, did not even talk about it .   Few years back, same store they added insurance to 2 phones even though we told them NOT to do it.  It was only 7 at that time, but considering we told them not to add it, we thought it was fine, my mother and sister did not check the bill and it was there for 2 years.   7 does not seem like a bit deal, but when you put it on  phones and have it run for  years, that adds up.

I see a few disturbing responses as well here,  trying to deflect form the serious problem this is.  OttoPylot, not sure where you are going with  binding arbitration,  if they are adding things to a bill that are not part of the primary service you are agreeing to, that is illegal, its not just between you and ATT, its between ATT and the law itself.  Stop muddying the waters.   As consumers we need to address this and address it aggressively or it will continue to happen. 

My suggestion is find out if the store is owned by ATT or a 3rd party.   Reach out to ATT to let them know what happened.   Then file a complaint with the FCC.    I will be filing one myself.    Now not sure what will happen,  if they will face any consequences at all,  but the more people that bring up this problem the better chance they will.   

@nobodypanic  Read your TOS. It is written by a room full of lawyers to protect the backside of AT&T. That's what Binding Arbitration is for. While I agree with you that adding something on to an agreement without explicit agreement by the customer is definitely boarding on illegal but it happens quite often with these Retail stores, and continues to keep happening. I don't like the idea of AT&T not having any better control over how these stores operate. That's why I NEVER do business with AT&T in a store other than swapping a SIM or registering a new phone that I have purchased outright elsewhere.

The point about Binding Arbitration is if you seek outside legal counsel the first thing they will look at is the agreement you signed or agreed to, and you will be stuck with arbitration as your first option.

We recommend filing a complaint with the BBB and/or the FCC. Both organizations won't do anything with your complaint but they will forward it to AT&T Corporate, who will in turn assign it to a Senior Manager in the Office of the President and you will be contacted. That way you can discuss the issue directly with AT&T and with someone who has the authority and resources to handle issues like this. These contracts with the Retails Stores and Outlets (Target, Costco, Sam's Club, etc) are long term and my hope is that the more complaints that go thru BBB and/or the FCC that will force AT&T to seriously reconsider their business relationship with these companies when the contacts come up for renewal consideration, and possibly drop them altogether. 

Phones have a one year warranty. Having insurance the first year isn’t necessary.  I’m being billed with cover 4 for 2 lines and 1 of those lines has approved coverage for a single phone. 
     This billing is listed in the long list of fees and taxes. The cover 4 

has is divided, 2 charges. AT&T has gleaned $1355 from me and refuses to refund. 
        “This is my error for not identifying their unethical  practice. 
Financial elder abuse scam by AT&T. You  don’t provide service so now you resort to criminal activity. How many million dollar (Edited per community guidelines) can you afford. 
            Such a shame , innovation and productivity , used to be AT&T.  

You can always cancel the insurance and update program up to a period of time after you made the purchase. It's in the TOS and on your account information if I remember correctly, but you need to carefully check your billing whether it is autopay or not and do so in a timely manner. It's your responsibility to check the receipt/paperwork and your account for anything that doesn't look right.

Just for clarification, the warranty does not cover lost/stolen or physical damage. That is where a protection plan (insurance) comes into play even in the 1st year. Personally it is better for me to have money set aside and then I can get a replacement phone of my choosing instead of deductible and then whatever phone they have to be "equivalent".

That difference and have some bad sales people (be it directly AT&T employed or Authorized Retailer) is something all providers deal with. None are immune. Doesn't excuse what dishonest sales people are doing of course, just some info to be aware of.