As a longtime customer of AT&T, and a very happy one, until now, I am disputing what I believe to be an exorbitant bill due to international long-distance calling card charges.

In February, I switched over to update my plan and try to cut costs. What a mistake that was. Apparently I never received a new long-distance calling card. And when my husband traveled to England, and used what he thought was the new card, we did not think anything of it, until we got the bill.

Charges are approximately $10 per minute based on collect calls charges. The old card was disconnected, yet it stayed active for international long distance. It really surprises me that the calls even went through.

The previous card had rates of 60 cents a minute. I would never have used a card that had such exorbitant rates. It is beyond my comprehension that these kind of rates still exist with today's technology.

I cannot afford to pay the bill as it currently stands. These total over $700 on two billing periods.

I spent hours on the phone talking to AT&T representatives. If the calling card was canceled, it should not have been allowed to accept any charges. One supervisor told my husband it stayed active in case of an emergency.

So, I am appealing to you to please, please help adjust my bill to the previous rates as a long-standing customer, who would love to stay with AT&T.

-- Karine Enderle, via e-mail

A.We forwarded your e-mail to AT&T and you said that within a day, you received a call from the AT&T Executive Complaints office to say they were looking into it.

You later received another call and the AT&T representative told you that you were not liable for the bill, and that they had not seen these kind of rates in more than 20 years.

The card should have been completely canceled and should not have allowed calls to go through, he told you. You said that you would be issued a credit in a week and would only be charged about 12 cents per minute and an 89-cent surcharge per call. You said those were the rates you previously had, not $10 per minute.

You e-mailed us again to tell us that you received a credit of $721.58 and you were very happy.