From Behind the Badge: Why I hate AT&T

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Why I hate AT&T

Ok, so I get back home Monday afternoon all set for some serious blogging.

Lo and behold, I have no DSL connection. Aaalllrrighty then. We'll just call up AT&T tech support and see what's going on. Below is a representation of my conversations with their customer (dis)service people starting around 3:30pm EST on Monday. The comments are not verbatim responses but convey the gist of my dealings with them.

Lawman: Hey. Sorry to bother you but my DSL is not working. Can you check into it for me?

CSR: Have you tried resetting your router?

Lawman: Yeah, about five times.

CSR: ok, one moment while I check the circuit..... Uh oh. Looks like we have a network outage in your area. The notes here say it should be fixed by 7:30pm EST. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Lawman: Oh. An outage. Ok, so it's not my equipment then. Thanks.

9:00pm Monday

Lawman: Hey, I still d0n't have service. Is the outage still ongoing?

CSR: Yes sir. Unfortunately, the maintenance folks are now saying 8:00am on Tuesday for repair.

Lawman: ok. Thanks.

9:00am Tuesday

Lawman: Guess what? I still don't have connection. What's the status of the outage?

CSR: It's been resolved. The problem must be in your house.

Lawman: No, I don't think so. How about running a diagnostic again?

CSR: sure. one moment..... oh. Looks like we're having some line troubles. 3:30pm EST is the estimated fix time.

Lawman: Line trouble? Good grief. Thanks. Guess I'll have to wait until 3:30 then.

4:00pm Tuesday

Lawman: Ok, so I've now been without DSL service for 24 hours. What's the deal here?

CSR: The problem isn't with AT&T. It's been resolved.

Lawman: Really? Then why would I be calling you then?

CSR: Uh, well..... I....

Lawman: That's about what I figured. You don't have any idea do you other than what they've told you to say?

CSR: well... no.... I... ummm...... Let me transfer you to our maintenance department

Maint: Hi. I understand you're having some connection problems?

Lawman: Right.

Maint: oh. sorry to hear that. All of our line techs have gone home for the day. I can schedule a service call for first thing Wednesday morning.

Lawman: If that's what it takes. You guys don't have 24 hour on call people?

Maint: (laughing) no. we don't work outside normal business hours. And that will be $60 for the technician to pull up in front of your house and check the connection.

Lawman: $60!! Are you kidding me? Ok, so AT&T has an outage on Monday, I haven't had service since, and now it's gonna cost me $60 for you to come out here and check the line? I'm smart enough to plug my router into the test port and see if the signal is there or not. This is ridiculous.

Maint: Right. Well, see you later then.

10:30pm Tuesday

Lawman: Ok. I took my router out to the interface box outside my house. I"m still not receiving a DSL signal. The problem must be in the line somewhere but I'm not going to pay you $60 for what obviously is a problem at AT&T.

Maint: $60? For what?

Lawman: For your technician to come out to my house and check the line.

Maint: Oh. I don't know who told you that. The only time you would be responsible for the service call is if the tech needed to make repairs to the line inside your house.

Lawman: Oh. Well, that makes more sense.

Maint: I can schedule you a tech to come out between 8:00am and 5:00pm Wednesday. I really can't give you a better time because I don't know how many other calls he has booked already.

Lawman: Ok. That's fine. I work nights so please leave a message for him to call before he comes over. That way I'll be awake when he gets here.

Maint: Right. No problem. Sorry about the inconvenience. We'll get this resolved for you soon as we can.

Lawman: I hope so. My patience with AT&T is running out.

3:30pm Wednesday

Lawman: Hi. I was supposed to have a tech come out sometime between 8-5pm today. It's now 3:30pm and I haven't heard anything. Is he still scheduled to come out here?

Maint: What? We don't have anything scheduled for you today. And we stop working at 5pm. There's no way we can fit you in today. How about 8-12am on Thursday?

Lawman: AAAAaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!! Not scheduled??? What the...... [the following remarks have been deleted in an effort to keep this a family-friendly site]

Maint: I'm sorry. You don't need to get hostile with me.

Lawman: You're right. I shouldn't. But you should learn to do your job correctly! Why is it so hard for you people to get your act together??

Maint: I'm sorry about that. You're definitely on the schedule for tomorrow morning. As a matter of fact, I put you on the "priority call" list. You're the first call out on the schedule in the morning.

Lawman: Forgive me if I don't hold my breath waiting. I'll be calling at 7:30am to make sure you actually scheduled the service call.

Maint: That's not necessary. You're on there.

Lawman: Right. That's what I was told last night. AT&T's credibility isn't very high right now.

Maint: well.... I guess I can see your point. I'll put in a formal complaint on your behalf. This never should have happened.

Lawman: At least you got ONE thing right! I'll be talking to you at 7:30am Thursday.

And so dear friends.... I still don't have DSL service going on 55+ hours after the network outage that has supposedly been resolved. None of my neighbors have DSL so I can't verify service in the local area.

Man, I hate dial up!!!!!

40 Comments:

At Thu Jun 01, 10:04:00 AM EDT, Neurotic Mom said…

Oh that sucks i hope the problem gets fixed soon.
At Thu Jun 01, 08:30:00 PM EDT, Brooke said…

Sounds like a similar experiance I had with Time Warner.

So, I'm sure they'll be crediting your account for outage time...

HAHAHAHAHAHA!
At Sun Jun 25, 06:20:00 PM EDT, Anonymous said…

I had a similar experience with Time Warner. They asked us to be in all day for a man to come and setup the Roadrunner modem for our Internet phone (yeah, right like I've not got anything better to do than wait for them all day). I told them to call my cellphone as I would be 10 min from the house so I could let them in.

They sat outside our house calling our Internet phone number for which they had come to fit the modem. And since we did not answer they left! Doh!

Thats not all, a week later, they turned up and fitted the cable from our house to the service point in the neighbour's plot - which at that time had not been built on.

Well it turned out that when our neighbour started building, they discovered Time Warner had laid our cable 2 inches below the surface diagonally across their plot and lo and behold the engineers cut through the line! Double doh!

Outsourcing can cost you your brand reputation Time Warner!!
At Tue Aug 29, 02:27:00 PM EDT, Anonymous said…

for your 12.99 per month dsl and being out for 55hrs I am sure AT&T will give you back you $.99. I would be willing to pay the lower price and deal with the occasional headache then pay sixty dollars a month and have perfect service thats just me though.
At Wed May 09, 06:39:00 PM EDT, Anonymous said…

Oh wow, what a terrible coincidence! I recently finally got dsl too from AT&T, but I have to talk to the service often. And they too said there's a black out in their whatever office.

It's been a week since I had it and I only got online like 4 times total.
At Sat Jun 16, 10:46:00 PM EDT, Anonymous said…

sry to hear that you having such terrible service for dsl .. after the second time of contact you should of aksed to speak with a supervisor and if still not resolved then direct your call towards ther operations manager.... the issue is gaurenteed to be resolved and why on the call have them ref to the notes and credit the amount of service for the week of outage to appear on the next billing
At Fri Aug 03, 07:21:00 AM EDT, Anonymous said…

AHH!!!!
I'm in ATT DSL hell right now myself... They have over charged me for a year and evaded all of my attempts to fix the problem - I just googled "i hate att" and got to your blog. It is soothing to the soul to read that I'm not the only one ATT has ignored.
At Mon Sep 03, 05:04:00 PM EDT, Anonymous said…

OK- Don't take that from ATT!!! You should do what I did and sign up for this pre-paid lawyer thing- they handle it for me (for only $17/mo)! This way you don't have to deal with crap like this again... When I have a problem like this, and it gets out of hand, the lawyers make a call or write a letter for me, and trust me, it gets taken care of quickly! I signed up at http://www.prepaidlegal.com/info/msjacksteit
my life hasn't been the same since!! LOL!
At Mon Oct 15, 02:38:00 AM EDT, Denton Melvin said…

Man,

I work for a small company in my home town, we provide DSL... If you call us before 2 pm... your DSL will be working by 5 nearly 80% of the time. .. I currently have ATT DSL (At school for the time being) and so far it hasn't been too bad I guess. not looking forward for the day that this happens to me though... I'll go to the Central Office and fix the thing myself.. lol
At Fri Jan 04, 02:15:00 AM EST, Grouchy in SF said…

THis was sadly hilarious -- in that I completely feel your pain. I am hating AT&T more than ever as I am signing up for AT&T Dry Loop Service after having been a High Speed Internet Customer. Oops on me. Similar dealings with pleasant but totally ineffective customer supper reps really make me wonder how worried AT&T must be. They know their service sucks so they want to be more of a monopoly to hold on to their power. Hm, sounds like that General in Pakistan...
At Fri Jan 04, 10:57:00 AM EST, Anonymous said…

I HATE AT&T as well !!!!!!!
At Fri Jan 25, 09:20:00 AM EST, Anonymous said…

Want to hear more AT&T frustration?
Case 1) My brother got frauded by someone in Detroit who managed to have $300 in long distance charges billed to him. No matter that he's an upstanding professional with an impeccable credit score -- 3+ years later (and 2 relocations) AT&T still says he owes them.
Case 2) I moved from Detroit to Chicago and simply asked for phone, DSL and Dish TV to all relocate with me. All 3 were screwed up. a)Phone took many many tries to set up & kept 'turning off'. I used my Cingular cell during the time to call AT&T. They promised me $15 for the cell charges. Two years later, AFTER AT&T bought Cingular, I got the $15 by complaining again (approx the 4th time I mentioned that promise in my many many complaint calls) b) DSL was so screwy I never figured it out. I got shifted from customer service to service person to line experts, each with a different explanation. I ended up with 14 days of dial up (they made it sound like a generous gift) before the DSL was set up. c) the DISH was turned off in Detroit weeks before the move date, then NOT set up in Chicago because I had "cancelled the work order" (no... I asked for my Detroit DISH to turn back on until the move!) I now have Earthlink DSL, Verizon cell, set my home phone line to a per call fee (the cheapest plan available) and I've de-bundled DISH from AT&T. (Yes, I pay more in the end but it's worth not calling AT&T every week) and the big, current story...
3) My 74 yr old dad has had automatic bill pay ever since he took an extended vacation several years ago. In December AT&T socked him with a $500+ withdrawal from his account for what appears to be a cell phone someone else fraudulantly set up against his checking account number. He called & was assured it would be corrected. In January, AT&T swiped $200+ more for the same phone he doesn't have. Know what the bank said when he told them to stop allowing AT&T to automatically withdraw? "We have to have AT&T contact us to stop automatic payments." They have a LICENSE to steal!!
I hate AT&T. I really, really hate AT&T.
At Sat Mar 01, 12:23:00 PM EST, Anonymous said…

i ordered the att elite net service only. cust rep said it will be 39.99 bill comes in for 54.99 + 85.76 for modem which i had already sent back. had the service for 5 days. connection would go on/off every 5-10mins. about 20 days after receiving my 1st bill i receive a letter from a collection agency saying my account has been refered to them for collection. so called att to resolve the billing situation, got tossed around spoke to 7 different cust reps. i think att is the worst company out there among all others.
At Tue Jun 17, 03:47:00 PM EDT, Anonymous said…

I just spent 45 minutes on hold to speak to a manager. No one ever picked up. I returned my phone and AT&T won't be receiving my business as a new customer.
At Wed Jun 25, 01:47:00 PM EDT, April Fool said…

I hate att. hate it. cell phone hate it. blackberry sucks. dsl sucks. Service is the worst. Transfer me here, transfer me there. Please tell me your information again. Eat shit and die att.
At Mon Jul 14, 04:20:00 PM EDT, Anonymous said…

AT&T is full of thieves they contacted me several times about their stupid Fast Access DSL and i told em I didnt want it, they fax me a contract that i broke as soon as it got printed and today i received an air package with the dam equipment!!!. HATE EM, as I type I am on hold for 30 minutes so far to address this BS. Hope i never met this company.
At Tue Aug 19, 10:11:00 AM EDT, Moon said…

You must be a neighbor of mine. No, wait I live in Southern California, their service must stick all across the enterprise.
At Tue Aug 19, 11:52:00 AM EDT, Anonymous said…

at&t is the sign of the apocalypse! I am happy (or rather vindicated) to see so many sites dedicated to “Why I hate AT&T” or at&t (their new lower case version of the name). I had SBC global which merged with at&t, ever since at&t took over my cable, internet and phone service I have had the worst customer service ever experienced in my lifetime with any company. I have been repeatedly overcharged, not a month would go by that I was not charged for either a service I did not have, or charged double for a service I did have, or not credited for the payments I made. In utter disgust I canceled the phone and cable service, but kept the internet as my e-mail address had been used for a long time and I did not want the hassle of changing. Let me tell you, at&t sucks even more as an internet service provider. Since February, I switched to their “Dry Loop Internet” (due to canceling the land line) and I have entered the depths of at&t hell. They erroneously created 3 internet accounts in my name, have been billing me on all 3 accounts, and yet only sent me statements for one account (which I paid on time every month). Now I have letters from collection agencies due to non-payment, they disconnected the “live account” rather than the erroneous accounts that they created, and have stood me up more than once when I requested a service technician to reinstall the connection (which they graciously said they would not charge me for! What a favor!). Ask to speak to a supervisor? Sorry ma’am, no one is available. Ask to be routed to the department that handles complaints? Mysteriously disconnected, time and time again. So far I have logged over 20 hours of phone calls to at& t and STILL DO NOT HAVE MY DSL working! Yet they don’t forget to send me a bill!
At Fri Sep 26, 01:47:00 PM EDT, gene @genenimtz.org said…

God, I HATE A.T.+T! I am on disability and usually pay my bill 1 month late. I tried setting up a payment plan and, even though I have a post-graduate degree, I couldn't understand what they were billing me. I called everytime i got a bill and everytime I got a different answer as to what to do.

Eventually, they put me right back being a month late and now my long distance is shut off until I get my next disability check (10/3). I've told them ten times that my doctors are long distance (they're 30 miles away). But they don't care).

I don't know why I do't switch to something esle, I'm just used to having a "home phone" through the phone provider.

gene@genenimtz.org
At Mon Sep 29, 07:09:00 PM EDT, Anonymous said…

People HELP! I am on the phone with att now to get my DLS fix. I been on the phone since Saturday 9/27/08. They had schedule for someone to come on today but no one showed up. Now they lost the order. I have my, dish, cell, DL, & home phone with att. NO more its all gone. What company should I go to??? HELP.
At Sat Oct 04, 02:08:00 PM EDT, Meng said…

I've had enough with AT&T too.

What about a fresh, $78 bill for a direct DSL service which has been cancelled for two months already? Well, I'm having it right now, and my phone has been on hold with their billing department for nearly two hours, playing their "wonderful" telephone music.
At Thu Nov 06, 08:44:00 PM EST, mj said…

I HATE AT&T!!

My first cell phone years ago, was thru AT&T and even tho I waited until my contract was up before canceling, they charged a contract cancellation fee. When I tried to fight it, they referred my account to collections and I had to arrange to get a lawyer, etc if I wanted to dispute saying my contract wasn't up.

I swore never again with AT&T.

Customer services have no idea what's going on half the time. Even if I call with same problem, they will have a different answer and different department that I need to talk to. If I get thru being on hold.

Ten years later, I needed internet connection temporarily. Unfortunately, AT&T was the only DSL service I could find in my area without contract in my price range. So, I took it. I had to wait 2.5 weeks for the "line to be connected" and of course it wasn't connecting, so they had to call a technician out after when I called about 5 times to "trouble-shoot" my connection problem. After the technician, it was working fine.

When I moved, I canceled without problem (seemingly) and I made sure with the customer service agent that when I close my account, I will have no other charges afterwards and the guy verified. I paid my last bill and moved.

Three weeks later, I get an email from AT&T billing dept saying they tried to credit the account but the account number was no longer valid. I was confused because I didn't know why they were trying to credit my no-longer-active account. So, once again I call customer service and of course the department I needed to talk to was closed - they're only open on "regular business hours." Fine.

Couple of days go by before I have a chance to call them back. During those days, I receive a forwarded snail-mail from (guess who) AT&T. It's a statement for the month of my move. AT&T basically charged me for the whole month and tried to credit my account for the days when my account was no longer active.

Ok, fine. I used those 3 days, I'll pay for the three days, no problem. I call customer services to make sure it's ok to pay the difference only since they can't really credit my account any more.
This time, after waiting 20 min, the customer service agent tells me 1. no idea. 2. call billing department maybe they'll know 3. your account has already been sent to collections. I went, excuse me?

AT&T sent my account to collections company for $5.80! I'm still dealing with them. They're telling me I need to call the collections company to let them know that I am disputing the charges before they damage my credit. Um, yea ...

I HATE AT&T!!
At Sat Dec 13, 01:57:00 PM EST, Harry said…

Ok they almost had me. I was going to Sign up on Uverse their cable tv service. Get a wireless card for my laptop and upgrade my dsl
And they change the rules. The website is impossible
At Tue Dec 16, 02:53:00 PM EST, mike said…

As a former employee i can understand all the anger that is felt.And it looks like it will continue.The company had made a point to tell us to scale down our customer service and we were written up if we did not. they would rather pay fines and close departments than to supply good customer service.Right now they are have combined centers to the Midwest delaying service for other regions.
At Fri Dec 19, 04:50:00 PM EST, Anonymous said…

…AT&T IS MONSTER….
PROBLEM SINCE FOUR MONTHS…..STILL WAITING FOR MANAGER CALL BACK…RUDE PEOPLE AT&T HAVE WORKING FOR THEM….LOVE TO TAKE MONEY BUT NOT SERVICE IN RETURN….SHOULD HAVE LAW SUIT AGAINT THEM….TOLD ME THAT I AM DOING A FRAGRANT ACTIVIES…BUT TIS OK FOR THEM TO USE MY BROTHER’S INFO. AND OPEN AN ACCOUNT UNDER HIS NAME WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION TO DO SO……WOW….I CANT BELIEVE THE WORLD WE LIVE IT

Hello everyone, I am so happy that I found a place where I can leave my info about at&t and their service. If I had my ways I would never get a service from them. "LET ME KNOW IF I TOPE ANY ONE ELSE EXPERIANCE....." here is my story. So, my parents can’t speak well English...so usually I would be the one giving 100 calls to att. So than, my parents decides to move to one apt to another. My brother called att to see if any are able to transfer the service to new place and if there is going to be any charge. Well they said they can transfer the service and they will be not charge. YA RITE LIKE THEY DO ANY FREE OF CHARGE. We believed them. BIG MISTAKE. They charged us for it big time. The transfer fee is more than installation fee. I called to see what in hell is going on. Well I was advice by them that they do not see a note from when my brother calls to verify such info. There for they can not do anything about it. And so I had to pay the money I was so mad, told him this is just wrong. I spend 3 hours with him arguing. I told me the only reason I have the danm land line is that I need the internet. Well at that time he told me that they have service call "Direct Loop"(I think). As long as I have an other product with att. Which is just the internet does not require a phone line and it’s also $25 a month. I was and I end yup paying the bill in full which I should have not. Well he set me up for the account, told it will be starting from this date. Well two weeks after that we got a letter in mail saying they don’t have that service available at are place there for they cant offer us that service. So that I was like ok fine F**k it...that month we got two bills in are mail. One for the $25 and one for the internet and phone line. I was like what the f**k is going on. Oh and byw the $25 account was opened under my brothers name and ssn, who ever called att to open an account with them.

So than i called them again...i am like what the f**k your going one side u say we don’t have a such service and u go head and charge us for it. Well they are like well talk to are tech serv. people. I did that I was told that the $25 service was running to are place from sep 25. I was like than why in hell u send us letter saying we don’t have the service. They are like just pay this $25 and don’t worry about the other bill. BIG MISTAKE AGAIN...(spoke with 8 people 3 and half hours)

Got two bills again from them one for $25 and one with late charges on it which they told me not to pay. I called again...got mad at the person I was speaking too...transfer me to manger (only mgnr I was able to speak to) told me not to pay the bill and will send a letter in mail which say I have no balance to do. I was like OK....

I also did not tell me the $25 is under my brother who is not 18 nor did he call to open an account with you. Advice me to have him call and change the name on account and there will be no charge to do so. I had my brother call them. They say in order for them do change the name they have to cancel the account and open one under my mom. At that time this person informs my brother that the $25 service is not available at my place. "COME ON.....U THINK WE'RE SUTPID...JUST IN MIN THE SERVICE IS NOT THERE....: o......" well they end up give us a service with phone line and internet...which I did not want to it. The only thing we want it was name change. Since the nov. 18 my brother is trying to get the internet running. It has not happened.
We're give a date when the internet should be working at are place. The date came my brother try to run the internet....GUESS WHAT...:O....IT DOES NOT WORK....BIG SUPRISE....MAN...so he called to there tech. people who does not care whose on acc. and whose calling...my brother told them the problem they told him it will be ruing next wed....the wed. came...it was not run. Called again was told this Friday. Called them again...told us call us on this day at 8:00pm at nite...it will be running...did not happened...they continued til dec. 12...I got mad....

Told them what kind of shit and what kind f**k bus. They are running... (Also protented to be my mom cuz she was the one on acc.)..Give all the info they need it and she told me the internet is running but they are having some problem with phone line that is not working..."NOW TELL ME IF THE PHONE LINE IS NOT WORKING HOW COME THE INTERNET IS WORK???????????????????" SOME TIME I THINK THEY THINK WE'RE STUPID AND DONT KNOW WHATS GOING ON.....she told me her computer system say its working...I told if it was working. I would have not been making this call. she is like yes mam ur rite...and this and that....I also asked her how come we don’t have the $25 internet service anymore...she was like cuz its not available at ur place...I told her I was using it for last month and half...how come suddenly its not available at the time my brother called to change the name on acc.? She was like oh I don’t know...I don’t see any of that notes in ur acc.
So I asked her u don’t see a note in this acc. when my brother called to change the name and that...entire she was like not...I was like then who did u cancelled the acc. and open a new one????????? She was like....um...ahhhh...I don’t know. I asked her I want to speak to a manger...she would not let me...nor would she let me transfer...she was like I can put a request when the manger will give a call in 24 to 48 hours...I told her she could do that but I want a manger now...she was like well they all are gone for today...which is 5pm central time....she transfer me to one more person who would not listen to me...and hug up on me....SUCH A NICE CUS. SER.....WHICH THEY BRAGE ABOUT IT.....

So that was last Friday dec. 12 this is today Friday dec. 19 still waiting for a call from manger....

so than I called again was speaking with a person...I told her as soon as I got her that I want to manger cuz I am waiting for their call from a week now...she was like what is the phone # who am I speaking to...I told her I am not giving that info to her but to a manger...she got rude and hug up on me...than I called tech. sup. people...the call went to over sea...I told the person sorry but I need a manager...and I got one...but was not helpful...THE PEOPLE WHO SAYS THAT I CALLED AND THE CALLED WENT TO OVER SEA AND I WAS NOT HAPPY...WELL...ATLIST WHEN U ASK FOR MANAGE U GET ONE...AND THEY ARE NICE AND THEY LISTEN TO U...AND TRY TO HELP U..." the people over here...are rude and would not let to finish whatever u have to say...AND WILL NEVER TRANSFER YOU TO A MANAGER...THAT WOULD BE A DREAM....AND WILL LAUGH AT U..." spoke with a person for hours and never got a manager had to leave my info. So they could call me back...and they will not call me today. will have to waiting for 24 to 48 hours....I don’t know who they think they are...."I THINK CUSTOMER MEANS NOTHING TO THEM....I WISH THE COMPANY WILL BE BANKRUPT...SOON...." they can take urn money but will not provide good cus. ser. they will tell u that if u don’t act rite with them ur not getting any thing do or they will mass with ur acc. more..."STILL WAITING FOR MANAGER CALL...I have never seen such a bad cus. ser......att tops it....
At Sat Jan 10, 03:28:00 PM EST, Pella Cholla said…

Funny. I googled "I hate AT&T" and looky what I found!!!! Everyone having the same damn problems. I recently cancelled my home phone with AT&T to go for a cheaper, VOIP, that offers the same damn services as AT&T, and only pay $10 a month for unlimited local and long distance. First I talk to cust. service, and they tell me that they have to convert my phone service to a dry loop. Okay. They ask why I needed it. I explained to them that after 5 years of paying exhorberrant phone bills enough was enough. Even after I tried to get my bill knocked down. All they could offer me was internet and phone for a total with taxes, $80 a month. So, the girl informs me that the changes have been made. I check to see what the prices are going to be. She informs me that the price I was paying would be increased by $5. So, I double check and inform her that I was paying $30 for internet. She confirmed that I was and that because I was dropping the phone service, it would now cost $35 because they were bundled for a lower rate. Some rate I was thinking. Next she informs me that she is going to transfer me to the disconnect dept. "What are we disconnecting?", I ask. your home phone. "Isn't that what you just did?"
"No. There's another dept. for that". So I get the disconnect dept. Literally, after 30 sec. of talking to the "disconnect" dept. I inform them that all I was trying to do was get a dry loop installed and that my new phone carrier would handle the "disconnect". The woman agreed with me. She then proceeded to tell me that my bill was going to cost me $40.
"Excuse me?" I just confirmed with customer serv. and I was just told my internet would increase by $5.
"That's correct".
"What's correct?"
"Your service will increase $5"
"So, it'll be $35.
"No, it's going to be $40"
"Okay, let me break it down to you. I was paying $30 for my service. I was informed that because I was paying $30 for the internet bundled with the phone, it would increase $5. But, you're telling me it's going to cost me $40?
"That's correct." What the hell? Is this Abbot and Costello? Who's on first?
"Let me talk to your supervisor." I no longer ask at this point. Supervisor gets on the phone. She informs me that her rep is correct and the cust. service rep. was wrong, because I have the best DSL AT&T has to offer.
"Ummmm. No, I don't. Your DSL packages go from Express, Pro, to Elite. I have DSL Pro."
"Exactly. That's the best we offer."
"Let me ask you a question?" I wait for her to respond. "If you were to see an ad in the paper for a dozen eggs at $.99 and you go to that store and they tell you they have run out of those eggs, but they have another brand available for $1.10, is that bait and switch?" She replies that it is. "Okay, so what we have here is a bait and switch. Correct?" I inform her I was done dealing with her and immediatley contacted the Illinois States Attorney General and reported them. What a joke. It doesn't end there. It took AT&T 3 weeks to get my dry loop up and running. First it was the connection to the house. Guy came out checked the connection, and informed me that it was all set, yet, and I quote "I can't actually make the connection in the box. Federal law prohibits me from making the connection. You'll have to do it yourself. Just move the wires from the preexisting phone service to the area I marked with a marker designating a dry loop connection. Once I leave your yard, whatever you do is in your hands....." end qoute. Huh?! What the hell? Why the hell are you in my yard if you "cannot" touch "your" equipment. I told him to get the "f" out, and called AT&T. Lo and behold, they've never heard of that. Next up. Waiting for a line tech. to come out, would take a day and a half, so I figure, what the hay. I know how to move low voltage wires without killing myself, so I do. No problems. Waiting for the DSL to kick in. Waiting. Waiting still. Okay. 24 hrs go by. So, I call them up. Talk to a tech guy. Alright. The problem is on their end.
"We'll have a guy out this afternoon. We'll call you back with a confirmation in a couple of hours." 2 hours later, no call. Wait another hour. You know. Give them a benefit of doubt. No call. So I call them. New tech person. "Wow. We don't have you down for a technician to come out today. In fact, there is nothing on your account for anybody to come out at all. We can't get anyone there today. We'll schedule it for tomorrow between 8 and 5." I have little patience, and by this point I have lost it with them completely. I have no longer greeted them cordially. I refer to each rep as "stupid" or "jackass", and they really respond to that. So, the next day I wait, and wait and wait. Nothing. Call them after 5.
"Really? No one came to your house? That's never happened before." Yeah, right. "We'll have someone out there tomorrow morning garuanteed." Next day. No one. Call, and this time I have them get a hold of someone with sense. It was dispatch, and it was the boss. I tell him I need someone now. He assures me that someone will be out. Finally, one hour later there is a guy there. He checks everything , and everything on my end is cool, but there is a problem with the connection where the line comes in to their service bax a mile or two away. Okay, fine. He comes back.
"Can you check to see if you have DSL and internet connection on your router?" Yeah. I check. it's connected!!! Cool, I think to myself. Go to log on. Nothing. Cannot display web page. No internet connection. So again, here we go. Call tech support. Oh. They have to cancel the old account and sign me up for a new internet account. Informed that this was done already. So, we run through some diagnostics with the router, which is fine. Now, they say it's going to take another day for it to register. Friday comes and goes. I am working and again no patience for stupidity I turn it over to my wife, God bless her, now deals with them. Saturday, after my wife is on the phone with them for hours, it suddenly starts working. Everything is lit up, and we have internet, I can surf the web again! Oh, that sweet, sweet web! The problems don't end there. Here I am today. Made a $45.60 payment to keep my internet running, because, ladies and gentleman, pay attention to this. If you do not have phone service, and all you have is an internet account that bgins with a "0", that's a zero, you cannot pay your bill over the internet. It gets better. When you pay your bill by phone, you cannot pay it automatically over the phone. You have to pay it with a live person, who by the way, charges you an extra $5 for processing it, over the phone. If I choked everyone to death at AT&T, I do believe a jury would feel my pain, and let me go free. By the way, I am again, going to let my Attorney General know that there is no possible way to pay your bill without an extra $5 tacked on. Next bill I get will be sent back with postage due. For the rest of my days with AT&T, which I hope, is not long.
At Thu Jan 22, 07:20:00 PM EST, Anonymous said…

I hate ATT too, it, sadly, is comforting to know that others have as many problems with att as I do.

I will never again do business with any att company.
At Fri Feb 20, 02:05:00 AM EST, Anonymous said…

Thank GOD!! I thought I was the Lone Ranger.I could do a stand up comedy act on att,in fact I have had 5 or more neighbors at my place with the speaker phone on so they could listen to the crap that comes out of their mouths.No one would believe me,so I had a little party and the laughter was so loud that I was put on hold with their "WATERBOARDING MUSIC",Then they drop the music and go to silence and I explain to my friends that their monitoring the room while red flagging me,so I tell my friends that I KEEP records of NAMES,DATES,TIMES,LOCATION OF ALL TRANSACTIONS AND CORRESPONDENCE WITH THESE IDOTS (I know there listining)and everyone is in total disbelief while laughing their ass off when some nimrod finally gets on the phone and says "WE ARE GOING TO FIX THIS RIGHT NOW,SO PLEASE HOLD FOR OUR TOP TECHNICIAN,PUT ON HOLD AGAIN AND THIS TIME THE MUSIC IS SOMETHING LIKE "ANDY OF MAYBERRY"and we're hurting so bad from laughing when the next nimrod comes on and say's,This is Mrs. Chin and she will help you with your problem.Our conversation got to be so "OUT THER"and the laughter was so loud that Mrs.Chin's final words were (MAY GOD STRIKE ME DEAD IF I AM LYING)I'm sorry, you have CHINESE DEPARTMENT,let me get you ENGLISH.The people we're rolling on the floor in laughter.Then I was disconnected.Ya notice how att never says their sorry?because their not and who wants a mouth full of sorries from a bunch of "NITWITS"anyway.This is only one of many stories in my notebook on the "KNUCKLEHEADS OF at&t".Thank You
At Fri Feb 20, 02:19:00 AM EST, Anonymous said…

HOW DO THESE PEOPLE STAY IN BUSINESS? BECAUSE MOST PEOPLE DON'T CARE AND WOULD RATHER PAY THEM THAN FIGHT THEM.IF HALF THE PEOPLE READ THEIR BILL AND PAID ATTENTION,THIS CRAP WOULD NOI BE HAPPENNING.THIS IS WHAT MY DAD PUT ON MY BIRTH CERTIFICATE.
"ADMISSIONS FREE,YOU PAY TO GET OUT!!"
At Fri Feb 20, 02:29:00 AM EST, Anonymous said…

Anyone out there wanna bet that DELL and AT&T ARE ONE AND THE SAME?
At Fri Feb 20, 02:35:00 AM EST, WHOWL said…

If anyone ever ask's "what's TUNNEL VISION?
You'll know what to say.
At Sun Feb 22, 09:38:00 PM EST, Anonymous said…

why do we need this crap anyway!?
At Mon Mar 02, 12:27:00 PM EST, Dielle said…

Ug! I hate them too!!! I'm so glad it isn't just me feeling like I'm getting the hamster on the wheel treatment! I really AM getting the hamster on the wheel treatment!
At Tue Mar 03, 11:51:00 AM EST, sickofit said…

This is so refreshing!!!. We call them every stinking month because the morons can't get our "package" to stay the same price. We just called to complain yet again and we got HUNG UP ON. Very professional. I hate them.
At Sat Mar 28, 08:41:00 PM EDT, Anonymous said…

you should see how they treat their employees . You can tell how committed a company is to its customers by how they treat their employees if you think customers are the only ppl who get treated like they dont matter , you should see how the employees are lied to and treated like 7yr olds. the pay is crappy to. Heard the adage You get what you pay for? in the employees case its tru, too bad it isnt for the customer huh
At Fri Apr 10, 08:41:00 AM EDT, Anonymous said…

I hate AT&T. I quit them and went to Vonage because their customer service is a disaster. Unfortunely, they are the only DSL provider in my area and I have to have the DSL service for the internet and the phone. Every day for the last three days I have been on the phone to them for 2 hours tryging to get the service straightened out. That company is a total mess. Nobody knows what their doing. The automated phone answering is a joke. This is a company in major melt down. If there is anyway that you can avoid it you should.
At Fri Apr 10, 01:18:00 PM EDT, Anonymous said…

i miss COMCAST.
I'm tired of AT&T DSL speed and whenever the weather is bad, it doesn't work! Ive been online for 30 min today, and I couldn't get anything done because of this!
At Fri May 01, 08:18:00 PM EDT, Anonymous said…

AT&Ts pricing just illustrates what crooks they are. All of their plans are BAD VALUE TO THE CONSUMER. When I called to express concern, the sales rep laughed at me and told me I was crazy if I thought what I thought. He even went so far as to say that not one person has called in with the same concern and I'm the first and only person who feels that way. I told him thank you, hung up, called the Better Business Bureau, reported AT&T and then cancelled my account. I couldn't be happier being back at Verizon.
At Thu May 07, 12:03:00 AM EDT, New Albany said…

We canceled our service with AT&T about 45 days ago. Today I got a phone call from Alliant Law Group asking me how I wanted to pay my $37.00 outstanding bill to AT&T. After questioning the caller he finally admitted he was not really a lawyer but he then denied Alliant was a collection agency. So, within the first 5 minutes of the phone call the caller pretended to be a lawyer then denied he was a lawyer then lied that Alliant was a collection agency. This is the type of people AT&T hires to represent them.

By the way, I did not owe AT&T anything because my account was on auto pay from my bank account and the bill had automatically been paid, on time. But, one hand didn't know what the other was doing. AT&T sent my account to collection when the account had been paid in full. Of course the "Lawyer" from Alliant Law Group did not believe me until he checked with AT&T. Is it any wonder AT&T is losing business?
At Sun Jun 07, 09:37:00 AM EDT, walkerb1 said…

AT&T doesn't do ANYTHING unless it brings in money. Keeping your service going or transferring it to a new address merely maintains income to TA&T. They don't care about this, since they feel that they will not lose an existing customer (that income is fixed). If you want to get a response, ask everyone that you talk to from AT&T who their competitors for DSL, local phone service, etc are in your local area. They won't want to tell you, but they know that if you push the issue, they are required by federal law to disclose this information. They know if you are asking such a question you are looking at doing business with a competitor. This generally sets off a small chain reaction in the company (They are about to lose revenue that their accounting process considers to be fixed income) This will get a "problem solver" assigned to your case. This is someone who's job is silently work your issue until it is resolved. They only do this when it becomes obvious that they are going to lose a source of income (residential, or business doesn't matter) Most people don't give AT&T warning that they are going to leave, so they can't do anything about it. If you just use the normal complaint process, they assume that you are too dumb to do anything else, and they have you for ever as a source of revenue. The "problem solver" knows one thing that the average consumer doesn't, namely "How to get things done within AT&T's dysfunctional up internal environment".You'll never see or hear from this person, but he will follow your case/problem and make everyone in AT&T work together till your problem is fixed, and then you'll get an email asking you to fill in a customer satisfaction survey.

I have worked for AT&T for 10+ years. You have to understand that no matter what they say, you as an existing customer do hot matter. You only matter if you are a new customer to AT&T in some way, or if you are about to become an ex-customer of AT&T in some way. You can directly threaten to go to another provider, but they will not take you seriously. You have to do things that look like you are about to take action.
1) ask who their competitors in your area are.
2) ask if your phone number is portable to another service provider (even when you know it is, asking is the key)
3) tell then you are thinking about moving your residence/business, and ask if there are local areas they do not service, then let them know that these would be your primary targets for relocation (after you get an answer of course)

From Behind the Badge

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Why I hate AT&T

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