Bills, bills, bills: AT&T hopes to end confusion with new video service

AT&T customers tired of wading through automated telephone trees for an explanation of charges on their wireless bills may find some relief in a new video service offered by the company.

Ma Bell announced Tuesday that it's tackling the issue of confusing wireless bills for new customers as well as those who have changed or upgraded their service. Using animation and narration, a personalized video provides a line-by-line breakdown and "audio tour" of users' monthly bills.

"The videos are automatically created through a technology that AT&T developed with SundaySky," the folks at AT&T told TechRadar, referring to the company that developed the underlying technology used in the service.

"The data is automatically pulled from our billing system, and the animation and audio are pulled together without any manual work by human operators."

Explained

AT&T said the videos act as supplements to the bills customers receive for their first two monthly bills. Bill charges tend to stabilize after two months, thus eliminating the need for further explanation.

The videos are emailed to customers and available online through myAT&T accounts. AT&T claims its the first wireless carrier in the U.S. to offer customers video bills.

U-verse voice, internet and TV customers saw video bills roll out earlier this year, and so far, the service has been met with success, with more than 85 percent reporting that they found the bills helpful.

AT&T phone reps are noticing an ease-up, too.

"The main goal is to help customers better understand their bills, and as a result we've seen a significant reduction in bill-related calls to our customer service teams," the carrier said.

AT&T introduced the service to Mountain Time Zone customers a few weeks ago, and plans a gradual nationwide deployment to take place early next year with refinement and improvements happening along the way.

Check out this video created for "Brian" below. While the voice over is almost unsettlingly calm, it's straightforward and detailed. And, if it cuts down on time shouting at automated voice recordings we're all for the new vids.