This morning, I just wasted two hours of my life trying to deal with a bill with AT&T. I am a work-at-home employee, and my company has a contract with AT&T so that when I deal 1-700-xxx-xxxx, I can reach the internal corporate phone network. In addition, long distance calls on my home office line are billed to the company at the pre-negotiated corporate rates. I also had a (long-dormant) AT&T long distance account, dating from before I started working at this company. Starting at the beginning of the year, that account grew a $18 monthly fee. When I tried to make it go away, the AT&T consumer side of the house said that according to Verizon, that was because I had my long distance service through AT&T. Which was true, in a sense — AT&T was providing my service, but through a corporate account. But the consumer side of AT&T didn’t understand that, and were in my opinion, willfully ignorant.
Several phone calls later, I got the 1-800 number for the AT&T corporate side of the house, and those folks said they couldn’t look at consumer/personal AT&T accounts, and implied it was my fault that I had both accounts on the line. (This took over an hour while the support person tried multiple things, all of which was not helpful at all.)
I finally googled for AT&T CEO’s office, and found a number on the consumerist.com web site that claimed to be the AT&T CEO’s office. It had long since been directed to a help center, but after I told my tale, I was quickly transferred to an executive customer support person, who was able to fix the problem in ten minutes.
The only questions remaining are:
1) Why can’t the different parts of AT&T talk to one another?
2) Will this problem really be solved, or will I see another bill in a month or two and have to spend more time dealing with this mess all over again?
3) When will VOIP services put AT&T long distance out of its misery? (Given the absolute frustration of this morning, this can’t happen soon enough.)
4) Will AT&T compensate me for two hours of frustration and of my life that I will never get back. (Not bloody likely.)
One thing is for certain, it will be a long, long, LONG time before I will ever voluntarily choose AT&T to provide service for just about anything. Even an iPhone wouldn’t be enough inducement….
April 15th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Actually, all the phone companies have that disconnect. I had similar fun with Verizon and having DSL billed to Carnegie Mellon at my last apartment, and I’ve been told by telco insiders that it’s endemic to the entire industry.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
1) I’m not even sure the same parts of AT&T talk to each other. We got AT&T DSL once, because the sale lady I called up (when I set up the service) offered to give us a 9 month service “specially for college students”. But after I called back in to stop service, I discovered the next month that I was charged with a $200 early termination fee. Calling in to complain, I was told there was no 9 month service and we’d have to pay.
2) Chances are, you’ll get billed.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Switch to Vonage. Yes, I know they have awful advertising, and there is the possibility that they will implode, but if you’ve got decent reliable bandwidth they do work. I’ve been using them exclusively for about 5 years now. Never had a problem with them. I find their feature to ring my cellphone simultaneously with my home phone very handy. International rates are very low. 2 cents/minute to England, no minimum. Nice since my mother-in-law lived there awhile.
April 15th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
I have Vonage already. I use them most of the time for all of my personal calls, and it’s the number I advertise to the outside world because of the Simultaneous Ring feature; when someone calls me, it calls several numbers simultaneously, including my cell phone and my skype-in number, and which ever picks up first grabs the call. This is great, since I only have to give out one number (which I tell everyone is my “cell phone” number), and if I’m at home, I can pick up on my VOIP line and not burn any cell phone minutes.
One of my big concerns is what to do if Vonage implodes; the simultaneous ring feature is hard to find on most other services, and it’s why I’m still a Vonage customer.
April 15th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
1: Suprisingly, this one might not be due to ATT’s gross incompetence after all but rather due to regulatory requirements (think chinese walls, anti trust, S-OX, etc).
April 18th, 2008 at 11:14 am
I used to be a manager at an AT&T Wireless call center before and during the Cingular purchase, but got out before the SBC/AT&T merger thingy. The problem is that you have agents in each department who are more-or-less only trained in their one specific area. They don’t know much of anything about how other parts of the org work. They are barely struggling to understand their own part. When business hears anything about consumer, they punt, because they don’t know what to do. When the consumer side hears anything about business, they punt for the same reason.
The root of the problem, IMO, is low payed outsourced employees in a position that has high churn, gaurunteeing that the chances of you getting a knowledgeable phone rep are very low.
April 24th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
>the simultaneous ring feature is hard to find on most other services
It’s a given on Grand Central….
April 26th, 2008 at 12:32 am
Funny, funny, someone complaining about bad service dealing with a telco. Are you a cicada by any chance and missed the last 17 year fling? So you’ve been hibernating for 34 years?
April 26th, 2008 at 11:44 am
A few years ago, AT&T started billing me for long distance service on a data only ISDN line I had. After about 6 hours spent on hold and on the phone with AT&T, I finally called the local public service commission and finally got action. All in all, I’d rather have my hands slammed in a door repeatedly than use AT&T for anything.
April 29th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
I’m happy to see that others are experiencing what I am…. I have (had) a Blackberry that they sold me in the fall (neglected to mention I had to pay for “the text and e-mail package” also) - why would anyone buy a Blackberry for other than that/ Anyway, Blackberry pooped - ordered new phone, prevous BB revived, did not need new phone, sent back. Old BB died (officially) and was told can NOT get a new BB until bill ‘resolved’. Called a month prior to dispute 4 months of “wrong” bill with package that should have been mentioned and phone now that I didn’t use. After about 5 Customer Service reps later (and 2 managers), finally talked to an evil lady named - KATHRYN who didn’t think it was a big deal to tell me my ONLY option was to wait for the new bill (3 weeks from now) to come out reflecting changes, and THEN could I get a new phone. Being phoneless (for a business person) did not seem to faze her. She was certainly about the most unempathetic, narrow minded, non-creative thinking person I’ve EVER encountered. And she was in MANAGEMENT. I’m having panic attacks now as I’m NOT in communication with clients and volunteer job and to top it all off - the go phone that the dealer sold me (against “the rules”) has spotty reception. I’ve just spent another ENTIRE day and 10 calls later to be told that they could ship me a new one since I’m still under warrenty…… HATE THIS COMPANY.
April 30th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
I am absolutely FED UP with AT&T. The service is fine. But their India based call center calls me EVERY FREAKING WEEK about chaning my service. I tell them every time that I I only want to know when i can get 6Mbps DSL or U-Verse, and to not call again, but they keep calling.
I want to tell some one there to stick-it, and that if I get one more service change call I’m going to cancel, but When I call the 800 number I just get the same damn India call center that’s the cause of all my frustration in the first place. What absolute cluster frak of company!
May 6th, 2008 at 8:37 am
It’s nice to find comrades who share the same sentiment. Thats the only comforting part of all this. Att is the company from Hell, My morbid mind fantasizes being in a room with all the top executives and ceo and they are defensles and i have a baseball bat and when they quiver and beg for mercy I reply with ” call customer service, Whack!,maybe they can help you”.
i am contemplating starting a “we hate att” club. tee shirts annual get together. Complaints to government, boycott efforts. the works. We have all become slaves to these nasty corporate bastards and their dehumanizing machine voices that are deigned to keep you away from real human beings and real solutions.
Creative minds must band together and find solutions to these problems. here in florida they are monopoly more or less. I will investigate Vonage. Any alternative to this bad company is welcome
May 29th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
I have been using packet 8 VOIP for over a year now…no problems, $5.00 less than vonage and has more features. Simultaneous ring being one of them as well as follow me find me. They also provide for an additional $5.00 monthly a local number in another state which we find handy as all of the in laws are in Fla and we are in SC
May 30th, 2008 at 2:49 am
Interesting. Do you know if Packet 8 VOIP uses standard SIP, and does it make the SIP authentication available to subscribers — i.e., can I use Linux SIP clients for a Linux softphone? Vonage uses SIP, but it doesn’t let you have access to the SIP authentication information, supposedly for security reasons. The SIP login information is locked into the hardware where you can’t get it, or buried in the Windows-only softphone….
June 28th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Breaking up is hard to do. I recently jumped ship from AT&T back in mid March and I am still trying to settle my ‘final’ bill. They have sent me 2 refund checks to date followed by notices for outstanding amounts still due. The last one was followed by a notice from a collection agency no less than a week apart that matched to the cent the amount of the last refund check??? Finding a customer support number to really ‘finalize’ this issue has also been very frustrating. AT&T will join the list of other companies I no longer do business with. The only way to get their attention is to hit them were it hurts, their pocketbook.
July 1st, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I know that everyone just wants to get their problem fixed, but I beg you, have patience with the person you talk to at AT&T. They are the front line employees who have had little training and get very little help from their managers. But they are the ones you should talk to in most cases because they are the only ones who will actually care about you.
The managers, almost to a person, have already been “damaged” by having to deal with so many irate people. They don’t want to have to deal with you, the customer, or their subordinates. Thus the subordinate is left to search through a maze of information trying to solve your problem. Often their hands are tied or else the maze will be so difficult to negotiate that they will not be able to find a solution.
But they will likely be the only ones who actually will care about you. AT&T has them hamstrung by forcing them to follow a long list of do’s and don’ts, often leaving them in a “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” situation. Generally though, these new employees will have empathy for you and will do all they can to help you because they haven’t been completely “damaged” yet. I say “new employees”, because it is most unusual for a front line employee to last over 6 months. And the “damage” that happens is from the abuse they take on the majority of calls that come in, and no manager willing to help them out. Anyone forced to deal with that much abuse without help becomes hardened and uncaring.
Actually then, the mean, complaining AT&T customers and then the “damaged” managers who chose to criticize rather than help their subordinates, are the main reasons for the constant turnover at AT&T, leaving you, the customer with no one to talk to but someone fresh off the street, who knows precious little.
Apart from threatening to cancel AT&T service, those front line people are your only hope of solving your problem. Be patient and let them work out a solution.
July 8th, 2008 at 11:55 am
It seems a few have achieved more than I while trying to file a complaint.
Three months ago, I contracted with AT&T for a pay as you go account. Since I do not use a phone much, I wanted $25 worth of minutes. The salesperson encouraged me to get $50 worth, guaranteeing me that the not used minutes would roll over at the end of three months.
I have realized that the expiration date was July 2. On the fourth, I attempted to use my phone to find that the $38 worth of minutes had expired. A phone call enabled me to purchase another $25 worth of three month minutes, but it did not roll the remaining $38 into my account. I was informed that if I had purchased more minutes prior to July 2, it would have preserved my credit balance.
I decided to file a complaint. Prior to involving the FCC and the BBB, I thought I might give AT&T the opportunity to respond. I was unable to find an avenue to file such a complaint. So, I phoned them again and explained my issue. To my surprise, I was told there was no vehicle for submitting a complaint. I requested an address to which I could send snail mail. After quite a time, the representative gave me 5515 Glenridge Connector in Atlanta. The USPS says that they cannot deliver mail to that address. What a surprise.
Does anyone have an address for these people?
By the way, I just received my credit card statement only to fine that the $25 worth of minutes that I have just purchased, cost my $26.75. That means instead of 25 cents per minute, I am paying almost 27 cents. If you, figure in the thirty-eight dollars worth of minutes that they didn’t honor, I am now paying almost 65 cents per minute.
Isn’t that false advertising? And aren’t there consumer laws to protect us?
July 10th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
They don’t call it U-verse for nothing. Sure, it’s just the name of their TV system, but it’s getting the message out, “We want to control the universe!”
AT&T has done an excellent job of insulating themselves from the customer. No one of consequence to complain to, no place to write to, no way to impact them in any way.
I once tried to suggest, just suggest mind you, that they start carrying a certain high-end phone. There is no one, nor is there any place nor any way to contact anyone remotely involved in the decision of which phone’s AT&T will carry.
AT&T seems to have a culture that says, “We don’t give a rat’s ass about our customers, but we advertise heavily to get people to think that we do.
Add your experience to the list.
July 12th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
HOW do you ever contact AT& T Wireless? They don’t answer their phones and their e-mail FORM on their web site locks you out.
Their customer service is absolutely useless, and we have been trying to close an account for over a year with no success.
Does anyone have some e-mail addsress where you can actually
contact these pests? Or a PHONE NUMBER where you can actually GET a HUMAN?
August 16th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
AT&T will bill you the contract termination fee even after you die. I just got slapped with $394.38 because my husband died, therefore his business closed, and I canceled his phone service. AT&T customer service reps were cold and unreasonable. I spoke to a supervisor who said “too bad, a contract is a contract, make payment arrangements, there’s nothing we can do.” So everybody take note! When you die, you are still tied to AT&T’s contract. Have your phone buried with you and run a line six feet under. There’s nothing they can do, they say. Seems they want to help you in the here and hereafter.
August 29th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
I have spent 20hours alone last month just talking to At&t I have documented every time I call what time it is when I call who I speak to ect…I have a very huge file on this…Every month there is a prob and on avg (no exaggeration) an avg of 3 hours per call…last month they made a $500 error and the bill comes this month and is still not correct…I have had a problem ever single month with them since I signed up last Sept so basically a year…I can NOT get another service right now because I live in a rural area. They have tried to trick me into signing new contracts and threatened that I didnt they would come and take all my equipment…I have talked to supervisors that do not help or when I ask a customer service person to please have a supervisor call me back (which is supposed to be within 48hours) sometimes has taken over a week to leave me a message to call their same customer service number and thank you for calling ect BULL!!
I cant get anyone to truly help me and I am so tired of calling every month and getting notices that I am going to be disconnected if I dont pay a wrong bill that I have made the payment on (the correct one that was figured out after the 3 hours) that I could just scream or cry>>dont know which!!
I wish there was an office that I could go to in person…I do not care if I had to drive a ways just so I get someone that will actually help me!! My favorite is when I supposed to have this all resolved the bill may not show the corrections (that are still wrong) for like three months which then the cut off notices show up in the mail…then I call and its starts all over again!!
IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN DO TO MAKE THIS HORRIBLE CYCLE STOP????
I HAVE TO PREPARE MYSELF EVERYTIME I CALL EACH MONTH BECAUSE IT RUINS MY DAY! FROM GETTING THE RUN AROUND TO BE HUNG UP ON DURING “TRANSFER” YOU SAY DONT TRANSFER AND THEY DO ANYWAY AND THEN YOU HAVE TO CALL BACK AGAIN!!!! PLEASE HELP ME I LIVE IN THE CHICAGO LAND AREA AND IF THERE IS ANYWHERE I CAN GO IN PERSON PLEASE LET ME KNOW!! PLEASE!! THANK YOU!
August 29th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
CAN I ASK…….HOW MUCH IS THEIR TIME WORTH TO THEM AWAY FROM THEIR FAMILIES THINGS THEY COULD OF DONE…IF YOU ADD UP THE HOURS IN THE PAST YEAR I HAVE BEEN ON THE PHONE WITH THEM…IT WOULD BE WELL OVER 70 HOURS AND 20 HOURS WAS FROM THE LAST MONTH ALONE….MY BILL CAME FOR SEPT AND IT IS STILL WRONG!! I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO ANYMORE!! PLEASE HELP!!
THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR A YEAR NOW!! FROM FAKE TERMINATION FEES/$500 ERRORS/THREATENING TO TAKE MY EQUIPMENT IF I DONT SIGN A NEW CONTRACT THAT WOULD PENALIZE ME AND THEN CHARGE MORE! I HAVE DOCUMENTS AND REF #S /A HUGE FILE FROM WHAT GOES ON TO ME EVERY MONTH AND STILL NO ONE WILL HELP!!
August 29th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
THANK FOR ANY HELP YOU CAN BRING ME!
August 29th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Danielle,
I hear your pain — but most of the people reading this blog (except if there’s maybe an AT&T representative reading this page, in which case I hope he or she is deeply ashamed) probably won’t be able to send you any help, other than perhaps recommending you to try reaching AT&T’s premium help desk, for people who are really pissed off. Normally what happens is that people get annoyed enough that they start trying to talk to the CEO directly, and when the CEO’s office gets swamped with calls, the company will redirect the number to a set of customer support people who are paid more than minimum wage and who actually have the intelligence and authority to fix problems. (I am not at all convinced the normal AT&T help desk peons (a) are paid more than minimum wage, (b) have any intelligence at all, or they would be in a better job, or (c) have any real power or authority to fix problems.) The basic idea is that premium support folks can help fix problems before customers finally walk away in disgust. This number is a little outdated, but hopefully the Consumerist will keep it updated as AT&T changes its phone numbers (they have to periodically move and hide access to the executive/premium support disk, lest it get swamped and it loses its usefulness). So try this web page, but if it doesn’t work, do google searches for ways to reach the AT&T CEO’s office. It will either work, and you can give the CEO (or more likely his secretary) an earful, or you will hopefully get connected to their executive/premium help desk. It kind of sucks that AT&T does this, but that’s the way many companies run their customer support lines these days.
Your other solution, of course, is to dump AT&T altogether and try using another long distance or wireless provider. For wireless, I recommend t-mobile. Their weakness is their coverage is not that great in rural areas, but I’m mostly in areas that close to urban or suburban centers, and t-mobile has decent coverage in such areas. T-mobile also has much better (and cheaper) international rates, which is the main reason why I use them — but as far as customer support is concerned, dealing with them has always been pleasant. They have much better customer support than AT&T or Sprint.
August 29th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
After my original comment (#17), I wrote to
AT&T Mobility
5565 Glenridge Connector
Atlanta, GA 30342-4787
A few weeks later, I received a call from a woman who stated that my complaint had been assigned to her. After I explained the issue, she said it was impossible to reinstate the expired balance of $38.
After ten more minutes of discussion, she offered to credit my account in the amount of $10. I explained that it wasn’t really about the money, but rather about integrity and customer satisfaction. Her voice turned formal and she asked me to repeat that I was declining her offer. She terminated the call and I noticed that I had been billed for the call. That’s another $3 that they owe me.
I’m beginning to understand why AT&T was split up years ago. May be it’s time to begin organizing a grassroots effort to lobby our congressmen and senators to stop approving AT&T mergers and acquisitions.
August 29th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
The only thing I can suggest is a registered letter sent to both the president of AT&T and to your state’s Public Utilities Commission. Doing that with Ameritech in the late 80s got me pretty much instant response considering mail delivery times… but it will depend on how corrupt/in the pockets of AT&T the PUC is.
September 5th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
AT&T is a diversified mess. I got all services from AT&T with a hope that it is one stop shopping. However, AT&T, DSL, DISH etc do not talk to each other. I had a complaint about a bill suddenly going from about $100 to $400. It took several calls and hours of my time to get it corrected. They keep on passing you from AT&T to other groups, who send you back to AT&T. They will tell you that someone will call back within 24-48 hours, but no one ever does. The hours lost for this error is worth lot of lost money.
AT&T needs one customer service, which coordinates all services provied. One phone call need to take care of the problem. If they promise to call back, then they must call or do not commit.
I think that BBB need to look into AT&T operations and their billing practices. It is a 3rd rate customer service (C minus) at this time.
September 6th, 2008 at 10:12 am
after all the whining none of you have left a phone number to call?! Thanks!
September 6th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Have you tried this phone number? 210-351-5401. It was on the Consumerist page, which was linked to in the comments. The number is a year old, and I haven’t tried lately (and haven’t wanted to try it since if it works, I don’t want to abuse a good thing unless I really need it).
Part of the reason why I hadn’t posted the number on the blog page was because I thought the Consumerist web page was more of a first place to look than little ‘ol me and my blog. But apparently according to Google, this page is ranked #15 when you do a search “AT&T consumer service”, and the continued number comments to this page long after I had posted this note seems to indicate that people are finding their way to this blog page. So here’s the last phone number I’ve had that seemed to connect to AT&T’s executive customer service. Please try using it in good health, and please report back if it works, or if it doesn’t. If I can provide a service to the poor, long-sufferring AT&T customers, that’s great. Personally, though, unless there’s some reason why you can’t switch, I would recommend switching away from AT&T to some other provider instead of putting up with their really cr*ppy customer service.
September 14th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
[...] on a locked-in platform such iPod/iPhone, so that’s not a problem. And of course, given AT&T’s evil customer service, I won’t be getting an iPhone any time soon (life’s too short to play cat and mouse [...]
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:37 am
The new att is still very good at promising you one thing and giving you something else, they are basicially like all the other corporate giants they want to pick you up by the heels and see how much money falls out. I consider the to be preditors and very unreliable. Thier main goal is to take your money anyway they can. I have had bad experience after bad experience with them and it always involved money and broken promises and failure to do anything about trying to do the right thing. I had left Bell South because of similar practices and was contacted by att and told that yes they had one bad things in the past but they had reformed. Stupid me I bought that line and it has been a nightmare from the time they sent the 3 stooges to connect my phones until present day. I am seriously in trouble with the economy as I am a realtor and requested relif by cutting my phone bill I was told they could do that and they had a new plan only to find out that they just extended my existing complete choice plan and raised my dsl amount and my long distance amount. My decrease turned out to be an increase. I say that when people forget about customer service the are forgetting who made them big. The street goes both ways.
October 1st, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Now I understand why I have been in automated “customer service” limbo! I am writing this during the massive meltdown of our economic system that resulted from huge mergers, outsourcing and deregulation. I travel a lot internationally. Do you still recommend Vonage, or another VOIP? Skype out works in some places, but not others (especially those areas in Africa and Asia with dicey telephone lines). I am so sick of ATT. The more they merge, the worse they get!
October 1st, 2008 at 3:41 pm
I recomend anyone except at&t they are lost at present time. they sent me an exclusively 50 contract. I signed it and sent it back they never put me on it. I called corporate they gave me the number for someone that could help me. I asked the person if they knew about the absolutely 50 plan and they did not. I replied to them how are you going to help me if you don’t even know about the plan she took it personally and hung up on me I think that was a legitimate question. Remember MCI they got so big thier billing was 3 to 4 months behind before they went broke. Can att be far behind it seems they are out of control.
October 1st, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Vonage works great for me for my home phone system. It doesn’t work on the road though, unless you want to pack the Vonage device with you. Other VOIP systems are better for soft phones. (Vonage has a soft phone option, but you have to buy a hard line first, and I think they only support Windows, not Linux systems.)
October 7th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
I established an account with ATT in August for phone and internet service and at the time I was told that a service person would have to come out to complete the installation. At that time I made an appointment for a 4 hour window in the morning. At the end of the appointment when no-one showed up I call ATT and was told that the window was from 7am to 7 pm. I then took the rest of the day off and waited for a service person who never showed up.
When I called ATT the next day I was told that the service person never needed to enter my apartment and I had taken the day off for nothing. At that point I asked that the service be closed and the charges waived as I couldn’t imagine using them at that point. The customer service person I spoke with tried to get me to change my mind then agreed to close the account and credit whatever charges were on it – I had never made a single call and immediately returned the modem unopened.
Since then I have called 5 more times to have the charges reversed. Every time I call it seems to be reduced marginally and we are now down to either $30.76 or $15.47 (it differs on each letter I receive from your organization).
I am writing this in the hope that someone will help me get this matter resolved. I have no idea how to contact the head of Att to let him know how bad his billing systems are but at least I can get in touch with the Better Business Bureau, the FCC and the Public Utilities ommission.
October 18th, 2008 at 1:16 am
so, how do I get an iphone with verizon or t-mobile, seeing that at&t is the only thing standing in the way. NO, SERIOUSLY!!!!
October 20th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I will join the ATT hate club if someont starts it.
October 28th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
This is HELL! I’ve spent a total of 11 hours–so far–trying to get my elderly parents’ disconnected phone service turned on. (They are in Florida and I’m up north.) I haven’t gotten anywhere with anyone. I need to fax some information to them, but they keep giving me new, incorrect fax numbers. I cannot call the same person twice, and they all use the same customer service number — every F…ing AT&T office in the country!!! I have the names of everyone I’ve talked to, but nobody knows who anyone is or what office they are in. I managed to get one fax through, but everyone says that nobody entered the information into their computers, so they can’t talk to me. A woman promised to call me an hour ago with some information — just so I wouldn’t have to start all over with a new CSR, and I haven’t heard from her. I don’t really expect to hear from her. Some of these clowns have told me that nobody has a fax machine in their offices, so I couldn’t possibly have gotten any fax number from anyone.
My parents want to switch phone companies, but if they do, their current phone number will be frozen until they resolve the problems with AT&T, who claim that they owe a fortune for several months when they weren’t even home. Their phone was placed on vacation while they were up here, but someone at AT&T decided to turn it back on a couple of months early, and then they claim that someone made a lot of calls from their house, but that’s not true because a close friend was keeping watch over their house the whole time. The neighborhood is very safe and there was no evidence of a break in. (I can’t even check the bills to see about these calls because I can’t get into the web site and my folks can’t find their old bills. They have only the current one. Also, nobody at AT&T can tell me about the calls. They only spout off the amount supposedly owed.)
My parents don’t want to switch phone numbers because they have a very difficult time remembering things, especially phone numbers, and all of their friends and relatives use the current one. Most of their friends are also elderly and have memory problems, too.
I’ve offered to pay the bill and dispute it after the fact (of course, once the money is paid, they won’t even consider the dispute), but they won’t even let me pay it. I’ve tried using their web site, but I can’t register because the registration forms refuse to accept the information, and then after three attempts, the web page tells me that I have to wait another 24 hours before I can try again. I email tech support explaining the problem, and they send me a standard “how to,” ignoring what I’ve said. I know “how to” do it. The system keeps telling me the information is wrong. This Sux.
The point is that I can’t resolve the problem because I can’t reach anybody. I’ve faxed copies of my Power of Attorney to them, but nobody will talk to me because they don’t have a copy of the Power of Attorney. Then they give me non-working fax numbers.
Catch 22: They won’t restore the phone service due to lack of payment. My father gave them his checking account number two months ago so they’d clear the bill. They ignored him. I wan’t to pay the bill, even though it is wrong, just to get the phone working. They won’t accept my money, and they won’t talk to me because they supposedly don’t have the Power of Attorney. I sent the PoA, but nobody knows where it is because I could be talking to someone in Helsinki while the PoA is in Johannesburg. Nobody can transfer me to anybody I’ve previously talked to. Nobody has a F…ing clue.
I HATE AT&T.
Oh, yesterday I spoke with a woman who wouldn’t talk to me because she didn’t have the PoA. I pointed out that I was being penalized for telling the truth. I could have lied and said I was my mother, and they’d have talked to me. What a stupid fool I was! Perhaps I’ll call again and speak with someone completely new, and I’ll say I’m my mother. I wonder if it might help, but I doubt it.
If I wait 24 hours, will the stupid web site accept the information? Probably not.
Oh, by the way, the other phone company has no problem talking to me about anything. They all have direct phone numbers, faxes, and emails. And it’s cheaper. (We’re going with them, anyway, but we’re still hoping to solve some AT&T problems first.)
Sorry about the long, repetitious ramble. I just can’t stand it and I needed to vent. Thanks.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:58 am
Does anyone have the email address to ATT CEO Randall Stephenson? I need to write a very long complaint letter involving all the incompetent ATT personell that I have been wasting my time with. It’s taken over 3 weeks to get a simple DSL line “activated” to a new location from an old location
November 2nd, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Harold @39: email won’t help. Write a physical letter of complaint to your state’s public utility commission, with a copy sent to AT&T Corporate addressed to the CEO; it’s got a better chance of setting something in motion.
November 3rd, 2008 at 1:14 am
I stumbled on this site while looking for the address to write AT&T’s CEO but after reading all of these posts, I wonder if it is the worth the effort. I am going to tell my story which does not appear to be as bad as some of yours but nevertheless was extremely irritating to me. A couple of months ago I called AT&T because I didn’t know how to change the number of rings on my home phone before voicemail picked up. The rep said he would send me a booklet and, by the way, did I realize I was paying too much for my plan and that there was a better one? Stupid me, I should have just hung up right then. I let him convince me to change plans because he said I would save $25.00 a month and also have long distance national calls at no additional charge - I had always used my cell phone for those calls and told him I saw no reason to have this charge on my home phone when I could make the calls on my cell phone. I got the voicemail services booklet but there was nothing in there about changing the number of rings. Then I got my first bill after the plan change and there were charges for national long distance calls. I called to complain and the agent stated there were just prorations from switching plans. Okay, I guess I’ll buy that - I really didn’t have time to mess up with it at that point, but then one month later when I got the second month’s bill, it was about $25.00 more a month than I had been paying before the switch. I had now been charged $50.00 more than I would have had I not switched plans. I called to complain and I was connected to an agent named Ashley. If you call and get her, I suggest hanging up and calling back with the hopes of getting someone else. I explained what had happened with my bills and that I didn’t want her to try to sell me any more services, but I just wanted to know why I was sold a product that a ) did not save me money and in fact cost me more, and b) I wanted the charges removed. The first thing the agent said was “I know you said you don’t want to go down that road, but I see you don’t use AT&T for your cable/internet.” I stated I did not want to discuss that issue and that I had my own reasons for not wanting to switch companies. She started to argue with me to try to convince me that I could save money by having AT&T’s cable/internet. I told her I didn’t want to discuss it and I had my own reasons for not changing plans, AGAIN. She was actually arguing with me about this. She never even tried to figure out why I was being charged for long distance calls in error - she just tried to sell me something. She then said she couldn’t handle Indiana calls and she would switch me to someone else who could - isn’t that odd because she could certainly handle my call when she thought she could sell me something. She then supposedly transferred me to someone, but I ended up on hold, where I stayed for 25 minutes before I hung up in disgust. I called back and immediately got an agent named Luke who is an angel who just happens to somehow work at AT&T. He said the original agent back 2 months ago had sold me a plan which would have saved me money but not as much as I was told. He said that he could handle Indiana calls (I suspect all of them can, including Ashley) and that he would help me. He said the original agent had made a mistake which was easy to make and that he (Luke) could fix it for me. He removed the charges, as well, and I then told him exactly what I needed in a home phone and I ended up designing my own plan at a significant cost savings per month. The kicker in all of this is that I told Luke I had called originally about my voicemail and the number of rings, and he said, “Oh, I can fix that”, and he increased the number of rings in about 2 seconds. The irony of this sad story is that the original guy could have helped me if he had any basic knowledge of voicemail and I never had to even have a discussion about plans. I think AT&T customer service reps should be just that - service reps first and plan salepersons last. I am also convince that miserable hateful Ashley could have handled an Indiana call and that she deliberately put me on hold on her phone or someplace where she knew no one would pick up the call to punish me for not wanting to discuss getting AT&T cable. She did not transfer my call because no one picked up, despite the fact there was no wait when calling in the first place, either when I got Ashley or Luke. All of that rude nastiness because I refused to give her reasons on why I didn’t want AT&T for my web. No way do I want all of my eggs in the AT&T basket. Many thanks to Luke for his knowledge, his patience, and his willingness to help - I think we should praise when it is deserved as well detailing the bad things. Maybe we will all get lucky and the CEO will routinely read these sites - I guess we can only hope. Anyway, good luck to everyone. I hope I don’t have to call AT&T for a long, long time!
November 7th, 2008 at 10:47 am
I actually had a good experience with AT&T. I spoke directly to an outside sales rep that works for AT&T named Michelle. I had problems placing an order online and had a flyer with her number on it. She was very helpful, got me the lowest rates possible plus a rebate check in the mail. I am very happy with my service and she offered to help me if I had any issues. She also gave me her email address in case I encountered any problems along the way. mpolitoski@att.net
November 7th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Be careful. Sometimes these outside sales rep can actually put you into an incorrect plan. Some plans have a high monthly fixed rate cost, and in the end don’t actually save you money. So “lowest rates possible” is not a good thing, if you have to pay an inappropriately high fixed monthly charge, and you don’t make enough phone calls to offset the high monthly fixed charge.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:04 am
I thought that Charter and Alltel were hard to deal with and was considering changing over to AT&T. After reading all this and having delt with AT&T in the past I think I’ll stay with the other two companies. Their lack of customer service seems to be higher quality than AT&T. It looks like poor customer service is all any large corporation is going to offer. Until they offer jobs at wages that make employee’s care we’ll always get the same results. In most cases the person we beat up because we’re so upset is untrained and has no authority to make any decisions. They can only tell you what’s on their generic answer sheet. As long as it doesn’t effetct the pocket books of the people on top status-quo works.
November 14th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Well said, T Proctor!
In fact, being mean to the CSR that you talk to first hurts you. Why? Because very few people can take talking to mean people day in and day out. For that reason, there is a huge turnover of CSR’s at AT&T. That means that you will forever be talking to people who are new on the job and thus they will probably not know how to handle your problem. So no matter how frustrated you get, don’t take it out on the CSR. Most of them, who are not yet “damaged” by all the mean callers, really want to help. If you really want to hurt AT&T, be nice to the CSR’s so that they will stay in their jobs, make higher wages from staying longer, and they will learn the tricks whereby they can satisfy you best.
How do I know all this? Because my wife works at AT&T as a CSR. She’s been there about 11 months and she didn’t realize that there were so many mean people on the planet. She is just about to quit because she has to deal with one incredibly mean person after another, 8 hours a day.
Here’s an example. One guy asked to speak to the President of AT&T. Hah! As if. But she is REQUIRED- read that again - REQUIRED to find out what the problem is before she transfers the call up the line. (That also applies if you want technical support. No matter how much you cry, yell, curse, or scream, she still has to find out what’s up before she can transfer) That actually makes sense because, for instance, people will complain that their phone doesn’t work, not realizing that they have to press the “Power On” button first. That actually happens a lot!! So she has to find out what the problem is. That is not optional for her, even if you tell her that you’ve called before. But here’s the guy’s response to my wife trying to figure out what his problem is, “Lady, I hope you get cancer and die.” And then he slams the phone down.
Can you believe that? But that is what these CSR’s have to endure.
How long would you last in a job where someone told you things like that? A CSR is merely the buffer that AT&T puts between you and them, to where the ones who are actually in power don’t have to listen to you complain. Seek those powerful ones out and give them an earful. But give the newly trained CSR who is going to be told by callers that they hope that they die of cancer a break.
I know your cell phone problem is frustrating, but does that entitle anyone to berate his/her fellow man/woman? Have the brains to go after the right people for christsake!!
November 14th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Al,
Your wife should probably get a better job. Seriously. And people who are frustrated by AT&T’s bad customer service should find another cell phone company. Personally, I find T-Mobile service to be infinitely better than what I had to suffer with AT&T. Whenever I’ve had some complex technical problem with my cell phone, including something off the beaten path such as interfacing my cell phone via bluetooth to a Linux laptop to connect to the internet via GPRS, the level one help desk person at t-mobile is very quickly able to figure out that they are talking to someone technically competent, and I get transferred to someone who is a fellow techie. I don’t have to waste hours proving my technical competence and explaining that yes, I remembered to turn the phone each time I talk to the t-mobile help desk.
The only reason why I had to deal with AT&T is that my company picked them to provide services for their work-at-home employees — in other words I had no choice. Given the complete incompetence of the several AT&T help desk personnel and the hours of my life that I will never get back, I am determined to never patronize AT&T; not even if that’s the only way to use the Apple iPhone.
The problem with having your wife work at AT&T is that she’s not allowed to give good service, and isn’t given the tools to be able to give service. Even if people are polite to her, I can’t see any decent human being able to last long in such a position. As long as customer service is viewed by management as a cost center which needs to be reduced to bare minimal levels, and not as an opportunity to delight the customer, it’s really hopeless, both for customers and for the poor saps that have to staff the help desk.
The fact of the matter is that if AT&T can’t get its act together, it doesn’t deserve to stay in business, and so the best thing for people who don’t like their customer service is not to scream at help desk personnel, but to figure out how quickly they can quit sending money to the company. For example, if you are a professional, your hourly rate is such that if you have to waste several hours in an hopeless attempt to get decent customer service, it’s probably cheaper to pay the early termination fee and switch to another cellular provider.
November 21st, 2008 at 4:02 pm
I appreciate your reply tytso. A couple of things you may want to consider are:
It is extremely unlikely that AT&T is going out of business.
You said that you cannot see a decent person lasting there. Actually, many decent people work there now and have lasted for a good amount of time. Despite AT&T, many try very hard to satisfy callers. But my point is that many more callers would be satisfied if they treated the CSR’s more kindly.
You see, the CSR’s would last longer and subsequently attain more and more knowledge, being able to answer more and more questions as time goes on. Besides treating their fellow man poorly (and what does that say about the mean caller?), mean callers are just shooting themselves in the foot by being mean. By so doing, they run off budding CSRs and so they will be more likely to get someone new when they call again.
They fact of the matter is that it is always better to be kind, rational, and understanding. If you become the raging mean guy, you might, in some cases, get your problem solved. But you’ll be growing a cancer inside you at the same time. Certainly not all cancer is caused by meanness, but my guess is that a good amount of it is. Just how important is that phone when you’re bent over double with stomach cancer?
Solution for one situation: Instead of screaming, cursing, and demanding satisfaction now, say, in a kind voice, I’m having they same problem that I had with my cell phone last time I called. It won’t…………. The last CSR wasn’t able to help me. Can you, or should I be transferred to technical support?
Really, is that so hard?
I understand that the big companies are usually very selfish and uncaring. Usually, all they care about is the bottom line. That is the reason for their existence. That is not likely to change. That’s why we humans, as frustrated as we may get, have to be willing to work with one another as best we can, and not take our frustrations out on one another. If we do, nobody wins.
FINAL: Treat your CSR kindly. They can’t fix every problem, but the experienced ones can fix the majority of your problems. If you cannot get satisfaction, go as high up in management as you can. (The CSR’s manager is not high enough and not even worth trying)
Be kind. Thank the CSR who really does their best and seems to care.
Al
December 1st, 2008 at 7:18 pm
I am finally free of AT&T and couldn’t be happier. They are the most money sucking hole in the universe. When my daughter and I switched to T-Mobile my number was ported over by T-Mobile but my daughter kept the new number and the line didn’t get canceled. Do you think they would understand the situation and not charge the time difference, from discovery by the bill and calling to cancel. No, they would not have that kind of customer service. Now that will be one bill I will carry on my credit because I am not paying it. This blog should keep on rolling and advertise the crap company they are. If I could do more to tell anyone not to sign a two year contract with them. I would. Thanks for starting the roll. Other companies please roll over AT&T till they fold.
December 1st, 2008 at 11:52 pm
I am sooo mad ……. I have had att&t for many years and have never been treated so badly. I recently decided I was going to bundle, get there dish, phone, etc. However, because of the trees in my yard I had second thoughts . My neighbors had dishes and they were not satisfied, so I tried to cancel. Well I cancelled and they still have my money. I cancelled well before a tech came out, I mailed the modem back at my expense. To make a long story short when I call, no service peeps will come on the line. The message I get is its past business hours lol. I just want my money back and the bbb better business bureau says i am justified. Pissed off from Texas and NOT TAKING IT. THESE HIGH MUCKING MUCKS ARE GOING TO SINK IN THERE OWN MUCK IF I HAVE ANYYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT. All you people out there who have been a 20 30 year old user of this company you might want to think twice. Better deals else where and though I am not so trust worthy when it comes to the big companies, I have learned 20-30 years with a company gave me no upper hand. Please when they will not even let you talk to custermer service, and if you do get a hold of one you get disconnected not once, not twice, not three times, not four times not five times etc…..Call it a day, find a semi honest company that will at least answer the phone. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm amazing how quick they answered when I wanted to bundle…………….oH PS I DID NOT SIGN A CONTRACT NOR A RECENT OF ANY KIND,
A PISSED OFF TEXAN
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:04 pm
My wife and I have had AT&T land line service since… they BOUGHT BellSouth. (2 or 3 years) We’ve had a two cell phone service package with AT&T…since they BOUGHT Cingular wireless. I would NEVER have signed up for their services. The ONLY way they got our service contracts, (and our money) is NOT because they offered superior services. It was because they had enough MONEY from screwing the pre-existing customers to BUY the competitors. Sad for the consumer, but true.
Back in September, we had a fence put up around our property. I called the 1-800- Call before you dig gang…TWICE. ALL of our utilities were clearly marked. I walked our fence contractor around the property and made SURE HE understood where all of the utilities were. Well, at the end of the first day of digging, our next door neighbors phone line was out. They called AT&T. The service tech that came out to fix the problem, found our neighbors phone cable, buried in our back yard…NOT marked. That was the beginning of a very long and painful journey for us.
The root cause of the problem:
1. The original installation of the phone cable was improper AND illegal. (BellSouth and subcontractor) We did everything we were supposed to.
2. Finally, when the AT&T technicians show up to repair the damage, all they had to do, was install another (legal) phone cable from the drop box at the street to our neighbors house, on THEIR property.
3. Evidently, that was too complicated for the AT&T field technicians.
The FIRST thing they did, was disconnect OUR phone line from the drop box. I just happened to be at home, on the phone, when they did it. So I went out and asked them politely, to please undo whatever they just did to disconnect my phone and return our service. Simple enough? WRONG.
Not only did they NOT reconnect the frigging wire they just disconnected, they then proceeded onto our property, went in the service box mounted on the outside of our house, and THOROUGHLY scrambled the connections in there so well, a team of telecommunications engineers couldn’t repair it in a month.
And then the fun started. Call AT&T “Customer Service”. What a JOKE. Only it isn’t funny when you’re losing years off of your life from the stroke level blood pressure surges, from dealing with absolutely THE rudest, most ignorant, could-care-less, customer service representatives I’ve had the misfortune to deal with in my life.
We went for about one business week, without ANY phone service whatsoever. Our calls were ‘transfered’ (to the infinite void of the telephone wires were dial tones don’t even live), disconnected, “I can’t help you with that, you’ll need to call 1-800-blah-blah-blah. We waited on hold for hours. Finally my wife called from her place of work. When she finally reached a human, the human told my wife she could not help her. My wife asked, “Can you disconnect our service?” To which the little idiot on the other end of the line replied, “Sure”.
Now THAT’S customer service.
Between the $77.00 a month landline with ALL of the bells and whistles, caller ID, voicemail, long distance, etc. etc. (Everything you can get on a landline) AND the $70 a month wireless bill, we’ve been paying AT&T about $150 a month…FOR YEARS….FOR PHONE SERVICE….and we didn’t have the service! Do you think they offered to pro-rate our bill and subtract out those days we paid for service and didn’t have it? Not on your life. Not a company that bills us by the SECOND…and we went without service for DAYS because of their incompetance.
Now, if had an automobile that gave me that much trouble, I would get rid of it and get another one. If I had ANYTHING else in my life, that gave me THAT much trouble, I would get rid of it and get another one. But guess what, I CAN’T get rid of that evil, lousy, profanely expensive, worst-customer-service-in-the-world phone company….
And they know it.
However, I COULD call and have every single little bell and whistle CUT OFF of that phone line. Turns out, I didn’t really need that $60 worth of crap a month on the line anyway. I use my cell to make the long distance calls. We bought a $20 answering machine to replace the voicemail. I miss the caller ID, but I’m not going to pay AT&T one red cent more than I absolutely have to, until I can figure out a way to NOT PAY THEM AT ALL. And they could care less about that too. What’s one customer? Pish-Posh.
One pissed off Tennessean
December 19th, 2008 at 10:50 am
My most recent problem with AT&T (I’ve had many in the past), while not as frustrating as many of the ones listed above, shows that their entire customer service system at AT&T is so totally inefficient and ineffective that I can’t imagine they are capable of accomplishing anything.
I received a disconnection notice for failure to pay our bill. The reason I didn’t pay the bill was because they have an old address that lists only our building name. The building hasn’t had that name for years, but I continued to receive our bills for all those years, so I never noticed. Now that we are not getting them I called to have the address changed to the proper street address. Simple enough request you would think. Send our bill to the proper address, so that I can pay you.
It took “four” customer service representative attempts to change the address to be told that there is only ONE customer service representative in the whole entire AT&T universe who has the authority to correct our address. When I was transferred to my personal Super CSR, what did I get……….of course, voicemail.
Happy Holiday!
December 27th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Please be civil… I have just declined to approve a comment which read:
If you are frustrated, and want to give details about how bad AT&T’s customer service is, feel free to leave a comment — but please be civil, and please leave details so we can all judge for ourselves the quality (or lack thereof) of AT&T’s customer service.
Thanks!!
December 30th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
I am in ATT Iphone hell. I bought 50 mb on an international plan for my trip to Japan for %59. I followed by webusage on my iphone and went about 2-3 kb over the 50mb limit. I got back a $300 bill which included a prorated fee for the previous month of $40/ the %59 and 13 extra MB that were not registered by the iphone while I was abroad/ and about $30 for 15 unanswered incoming calls. The ATT customer service was stunningly firm that there was no room for error in terms of the bill and no credits were issued. They called apple who claimed not to stand behind the MB usage function on the iphone. Yeahh 51 MB for about $200!!!! Stunning. Will be looking around for another service - I am furious!!