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….
No related posts.
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!!
January 9th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
why wont your company give me back my money that you all have taken out of my account with out my permission you have billed my account for timrs for the same bill causing me undo stress and pain im contacting a lawyer i will get my money plus more your company is a lousy company
January 9th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Thomas,
Please note that this blog is on my personal web site; I happen to work for IBM, and neither this web site nor I have any connections with AT&T. I also have no idea whether anyone from AT&T even reads this blog entry or its comments. I deleted your other two messages for excessive profanity.
I am sure you have every right to be angry, but the best thing you can do is simply severe all business associations with AT&T. If you feel the need to sue them, feel free, although very often the only people who in in lawsuits are the lawyers.
January 25th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
I am a past Network Manager with BellSouth during the Merger with AT&T. I could say plenty, but for whomever reads this, I am writing a book about my 31 years with “MaBell”!. It will shock everyone to learn how this huge conglomerate operates. Look for my book, published this year. You will recognize the title.
January 31st, 2009 at 2:00 pm
I am AT&T Wireless’ single largest customer, going on four years now. To put it in perspective, the next largest customer is not even close. I travel internationally as well as someone else on my plan and they are seemingly my only option although Verizon is getting there. I don’t care how many teenage girls you have, if they’re not roaming internationally they’re not in my league.
Based on the ‘horror’ stories I have read here, I feel they have treated all of you fairly, and quite frankly generously if I may be so bold. Being treated as well as you people would be like eating peach pie, and I like peach pie, especially compared to the continuous, systematic pounding they administer to my rectum on a monthly basis.
Where to begin…
- Signed up for wireless internet service 4 years ago. It was their first generation, I knew what to expect so I really can’t complain about the spotty service.
- Signed up for mobile telephone service a year later by telephone (mistake #1) in a different area code than the wireless internet service. They did not provide service in my area code, but an overenthusiastic salesperson said they did and I bought in. Fraud. Sometimes no bars.
- They could not consolidate my internet/phone bill because they were different regions.
- Explained to said salesperson exactly the kinds of calls I would be making and at what times. He assured me that my bill would be $75 flat, given that I would be making off-peak toll-free calls to calling cards, rather than direct international calls. It would not be applied to my minutes given it was off-peak and toll-free.
- Received my first bill for $750. Toll-free calls costing $25 each in some instances because they do, in fact, apply to the monthly minutes. AT&T changes my plan so I get to pay more every month in guarantees. Lucky me. I didn’t sign up online or in a store, so they can be frauds when they are on the phone, as they were.
- I travel internationally and use the phone, paying sometimes close to $4/minute in international roaming charges. Lists of repeated phone calls come into question, 1-minute followed by 10 minutes starting at the same time, disputes on a monthly basis. Bill exceeds $1,000 mark. They do not sell a dual-SIM phone so I can travel internationally and maintain my inbound US service while dialing out via another SIM.
- I add a co-worker onto the line who travels as well. Calls between each other internationally reach close to $7/minute, requiring us to speak like auctioneers. The original $750 bill seems like a dream now as the bill exceeds $2,000/month. I am king of the hill, A #1, top of the list.
- Upon auditing the bill, finding charges on obvious dropped calls (the inbound 2-second variety) which triggers the roaming charge. Auditing and getting credits for hundreds of dollars a month, but it is a fight over each and every call. Still I’m paying over $1,000 a month.
- They shut off my phone service for non-payment of disputed amounts which they told me not to pay while they looked into them. This was fun.
- I cancel the wireless internet service. It couldn’t be used internationally inexpensively so I didn’t have much use for it. I pay the exorbitant penalties for divorcing them, but I never expect to get out of any relationship cheap so my feelings weren’t hurt.
- I start calling them up and making deals… I would say ‘this doesn’t look right, $1,400? Chisel that bill down otherwise I’m going to audit it and take everyone’s time to get more than what you’ll give me.’ This worked for three months, but still paying over $1,000/month.
- I start auditing the bill again and show them the problems with their international service, international charges on top of roaming charges on repeat calls, massive international roaming charges, the highest margin business they have. The escalation process reaches people that will not provide credits solely based on that they have given prior credits meaning that they have carte blanche to screw me if they want to. This was like going to Disney… as a parent with obnoxious children..
- My phone service gets shut off because my internet service wasn’t paid. It turns out that they didn’t really shut off the service. Even though they couldn’t consolidate the bills because they were in different area codes, they could shut off my phone service because my internet service wasn’t paid.
- I made the decision to have someone else in the company audit my bill. My brain tumor has miraculously disappeared, but he’s withering away, a beaten man, fighting over now what we see on the bill as international calls TO me, FROM me, paying exorbitant amounts of money for these calls, duplicate roaming charges and the like. They assure me that they’re not stealing from me but that bill sure does look funny. Maybe I’m doing it and I don’t even know it, having no recollection of the conversation I had with myself on the phone. Colleague’s problem now to convince them I wouldn’t do that… Hundreds of dollars in credits a month, bills still exceeding $1,000.
- They ‘upgrade’ my phone to a phone that they assure has quad-band support, required for international calling in some countries to have any chance at service. I travel to Asia and have a world of problems, every call in and out was painful, repeated, and generally unsuccessful.
- I contact their international support line and they inform me that the phone does not, in fact, have quad band support, hence my problems. They will call me back and come up with some kind of resolution. I was spending a month in Asia. They charge me for international calls to their international line, plus roaming charges, constantly, which has to be identified and documented every month for credit.
- They did not call me back. I know how shocked you all must be but it’s true. My colleague, the now dying man going in for throat surgery who audits the bill, is told that if we pay the entire bill they will upgrade our phone again. Lucky us. They sold me the wrong phone, I want to downgrade back and fix the problem, and they won’t give me the privilege of paying to get out of it until the current month’s bill is paid.
- Paid the current month’s bill. They reneg and say they won’t upgrade the phone. Because of the massive amounts of problem calls on the bill, we are auditing, and they are subsequently crediting, hundreds of dollars a month because of prolonged or repeated international roamed calls rather than changing the phone that they sold me in error.
Switching to Verizon is not an option either because of the types of phones not using SIM cards or some such nonsense, and they don’t have the same international coverage. Additionally the only device they have that will work internationally is a blackberry. The whole idea of phones being exclusive to service providers is just silly.
The saga continues… While I would never recommend legal action, unfortunately it is the only way I can get their attention and in my case, it is cost-effective because a few hours legal work could probably pay for the time. Customer service obviously don’t have an ounce of business sense otherwise they would not treat me this way. You would think someone would have the common sense to cut down on the amount of the auditted bill because of how much it is costing THEM, not only in credits valuing greater than the cost of literally a new phone every month, but in the amount of time it ultimately takes 2 to 3 customer service representatives (one first-contact, and at least one supervisor) to audit the bill every month along with us. Business sense? How about no common sense… Their largest and highest margin customer, all meaningless to them and far from being unreasonable about the issues on my bill. Their customer support is nothing short of atrocious.
I cannot break out of the customer service cycle without going to the legal department which can’t be done without a lawyer contacting them or filing suit, and I don’t want to file suit. I am buying a dual-SIM phone in Asia my next trip to eliminate a substantial part of the international charges, so I can toss their up upgrades out the window. I still pay approximately $15,000 annually for the service, still very much so the grand puba of AT&T losers, but in tinkering with skype and better foreign devices that can be found internationally (China now produces phones that support 3 SIM cards), I hope to reduce this someday soon to under $3,000.
They’re frauds and their customer service department are like children without supervision. They get away with it because they can – people will complain but ultimately they won’t take action against them. The airlines are no different. You have to measure it though, again legal action is probably not cost-effective in most situations because it will cost more than it’s worth and most people can switch service providers. Class-action is a possibility but you would all have to have the same issue. If I could find their other international customers maybe that’s a route but again, not looking for trouble, just to get the right service and not to be fraudulently sold things.
Good luck.
January 31st, 2009 at 8:05 pm
I called AT&T in Nov. ‘08, to enquire about disconnecting my home service and was offered a “more economical” service plan, ‘2-pack, or so I thought. I got billed for a new cell phone, I already had a cell phone plan with AT& T, because of the merger/ buy-out with Cingular. My bill has not been the same, I agreed on one plan, now I am getting billed for another so called ‘basic plan’ which now charges me for long distance and answering service, two services I have no need for. I don’t know about anyone else, I am trying to ‘cut back’, I would like to use my money for other things instead of paying for these CEO’s big ticket items, I am sick of it, everyone have their hands in MY pocket.
February 2nd, 2009 at 8:19 pm
We appear to have attracted a troll. Nothing to see here; move along, remember the risk of feeding the bears in the park….
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:40 pm
My problems are pretty minor compared to some of these other posts, but I had to tell you about this one. I signed with AT&T a month ago and opted for the U-Verse Voice 1000 which gives me 1000 minutes of local and long distance a month which was fine with me.
What I was trying to find out was how I determined how many minutes I had remaining in the billing month before I was charged 5 cents a minute over the limit. I called customer no-service and was originally told that I could track my call history over the television. I said yeah, I remember seeing that so, after hanging up, I went to the TV and checked my call history. Unfortunately, that is only for incoming calls and does not show the length of the call anyway.
Calling back and finally getting to a human, they informed me that AT&T has no way for me to check my minutes and that the only solution I would have would be to track my outgoing calls and track the minutes I was using!!
I asked them if they thought it was kinda strange that this technology driven company could easily tell me on my bill at the end of the period that I had exceeded my minutes and gladly charge me for my over zealous phone usage, but there was no technical solution that would allow me to check during the period.
Calling to make a complaint, I was given a toll free number that was supposed to be a Corporate link, but all it did was return me to customer no-service again.
Has anybody had any luck with moving complaints up the Corporate ladder via email, snail mail, or any other line of communication??
February 23rd, 2009 at 6:53 pm
R Evers: You are very wise to try to direct your complaint up the corporate ladder. Neither the CSR’s nor their managers have anything at all to do with the way things are set up at AT&T, nor do they have a channel to funnel complaints that are called in.
Here’s the thing: From it’s inception, AT&T has done just what it pleases. Remember the days of only 1 type of (black) phone until they finally went nuts and released the pink princess phone? The point is that AT&T has a corporate culture that has not changed since the company’s inception. They do what they want and don’t want to hear about your problems. That’s why CSR’s and their managers are put between you and corporate.
To make things even worse, everyone gets so frustrated with AT&T that they desperately want to take it out on someone who works there, so they yell and curse at the “fresh off the street” CSR’s. These poor souls do not deserve to be treated like insignificant slumdogs. They generally want to and are willing to help, but get yelled at so badly by so many people that most quit within 6 months. Therefore, that leaves you to deal with someone brand new in most cases. Let me ask, how informed an employee were you in your first 6 months on one of your first technical jobs?
Perhaps now you can understand why AT&T CSR’s lack the knowledge one would expect suchlike ones to have. Sure, occasionally you’ll get someone who can take comments 8 hours a day by 90% of the callers like, “I hope you get cancer and die”, “f-word you lady”, and call them names like “Customer No-service”. Those that can take that constant beating and still want to help you are saints in my book, but they are few and far between. Most AT&T employees are either brand new, or they have been “damaged” by jillions of mean people and therefore don’t care anymore.
So yeah, try and find someone up the corporate ladder and shower them with meanness. (Bet you’ll never find anyone. They know all the tricks to insulate themselves) Either that, or be nice to the next CSR you talk to, complimenting them on being able to handle such a job, and then just maybe you’ll get a solution to your problem because that CSR will likely understand that you are one of the precious few “get it”, amidst a sea of offensive, mean, selfish people who keep shooting themselves in the foot by driving off the one person who could help them (the lowly CSR), provided they stay on the job for more than a few short months, which only will happen if callers lighten the f up!!.
Al
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:40 pm
I am an extremely unsatisfied customer of at&t. I have spent over 11 hrs. trying to get a problem fixed of over charging by hundreds of dollars. I have been lied to from the start and am afraid i will have to go delinquent of the bill. I refuse to pay for their lies.
March 4th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Can we start a list of companies that are alternatives to AT&T in the different metro areas?
In my case, I am particularly interested in switching to another residential telco in the Fort Lauderdale area).
Any suggestions are deeply appreciated. Thank you!
March 21st, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Just had a problem with the AT&T support system today. I have been making my monthly payments by phone, debited to one of my checking accounts. I received a letter today that my last payment had been returned by the bank unpaid. I called my bank (local division) and they could find no record of the bill being submitted. I called the number given in the letter from AT&T to call if I had questions. They handled the problem (I think), then told me there would be a $5 charge add for calling customer support. Seems that you have to pay $5 to talk to a customer support person at AT&T.
March 22nd, 2009 at 3:36 am
Reading through what several people have written on this website, I apologize for all the incidents that have happened to all of you..
I happen to be a new customer representative with AT&T.
I have yet to be “jaded” by numerous customer complaints that I happen to process on a daily basis.
I deal with prepaid accounts namely the GoPhone – Pay as you Go and Pick your Plan deals with AT&T.
What I offer is this. On my own personal time, with no pay whatsoever from AT&T I offer to clear up and help anyone through any problems with their Pay as you Go or Pick Your Plan accounts.
I’ll tell you exactly what needs to be done with any problems or questions you may have before you contact customer support ( Dial 611).
This way I can save you a lot of time and potential aggravation.
I’ll check on this site everyday to answer any questions you may have.
I can only help prepaid subscribers though.
Please don’t direct any insults at me, I’m going to help anyone who needs help with their prepaid wireless service, I’m sorry for whats happened and I’ll try to help as many people as I can.
Sincerely,
New AT&T Customer Representative.
March 22nd, 2009 at 9:38 pm
I’ve been trying to contact AT&T concerning some questions about data charges on my cell phone. As today is Sunday, their business office/ customer support is closed. Their response to an email is that they will get back to me in a couple of days. To be fair, I did get to talk to a machine…after a while it told me to call back during business hours.
Ain’t no nice way to say this, so I ain’t gonna say it nice. This is nothing but piss poor service for a company of this size. The bastards will take your money quick enough, you would think that they could afford someone to answer the phone (they ARE a phone company) 24/7.
You get ten times better service from Rotor Rooter.
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:09 am
Hello Friends,…..Seems like each has an opinion about AT&T.I do empathise with all my friends who have had negative experiences with AT&T. At the same time, I will call it ignorance on the part of me as a customer,….when I have different options and dont know about it.
Say for Example:
If I have an email problem: who will I contact
Will I contact Billing or Tech Support.I do analysis of where the problem is…
Could it be any application within my system?..What is the amount of help I can get from Internet? I do understand forums are for good at the same time it is a good means of sharing the knowledge that we have than criticise someone.
If I have a problem with my ATT email, since I have Internet connection, what I would do is I would go to http:helpme.att.net (help site of AT&T) and try searching for some info…..try it…trust me ….it really works
if it still does not work AT&T has skilled INTERNET Technicians who really want to help customers….(even if u r upset) call them up.if it does not work the techs will guide you to the right department.If I keep complaining it becomes my problem and that will increase and result in dissatisfaction….and problems will arise with different companies….no company can offer the best support coz it is another human being that is on the other side also…no matter from which country they belong to …Trust me…Each outsourced employee goes through a lot of training and testing process before reaching the phone….sometimes the requirement is huge that some steps are skipped….but one thing is for sure….AT&T looks for Customer satisfaction and is one of the best companies.Its a fact.
March 23rd, 2009 at 12:38 pm
My wife has worked as an AT&T customer service rep for about a year and 1/2, very rare. She is so sweet, and lives and loves to help people. So we thought this job would be great for her. And now, after a year and 1/2, she has the knowledge that a new rep would be lacking. And yet every day, she is hounded, put down, cursed at, and threatened by ungrateful. mean-spirited complainers. Some crazies call in almost every day of the year with the same (usually bogus) complaint.
Here is a typical conversation:
Rep: Thank you for calling AT&T. How may I help you?
Customer: “You sold me a defective phone and seriously overcharged me on my bill and I want this fixed NOW!!.”
Rep: “I am so sorry Mr X. Clearly you are upset, but I want to get to the bottom of this just as much as you. That’s my job. Now, to start could you give me a few details about your phone…….”
Customer (interrupting): “Lady I don’t give a sh#$ about whether you’re sorry. This f*%#ing phone is a piece of junk and my f*$#ing bill went way up too.”
Rep: I’m so sorry Mr X. That must be very frustrating. Let me see if I can help.
Customer (interrupting again): “Lady, you better f*#$ing help and fast! I don’t have time for this sh#$.”
Rep: “I am so sorry Mr. X. I show that you have a Sony W310, is that correct?”
Customer: “I don’t know what the f#@*ing model number is. You figure it out.”
Rep: Again Mr X, I am so sorry for your problem, but I do need to verify which phone you are using so that I can help you with it.
Customer: “You f#@*ing people don’t give a rat’s ass about your customers. I pay your salary and you treat me like this? Lady, I hope you get cancer and die”
Rep: “Mr. X, I am so sorry that this situation has caused you so much frustration. Could you tell me where you purchased your phone?”
Customer: “Why are you asking me stupid ass questions like that? (Shouting) Just fix my f@#%ing phone and fix my bill!!”
Rep: “I’m sorry Mr X, I would like to help you, but the language is getting in the way. Would it be better for you if you called back later when you’ve had a moment to relax? Or I can call you and give you my email address as well.”
Customer: You stupid f#@*ing people just aren’t worth dry sh*#!”
Click
How’d you like to deal with that 20 times a day?
Then from the other side, she is criticized by AT&T bean counters because she logged in 2 minutes late (because her computers took so long to come up, computers that she wasn’t allowed to get to till moments before her shift was due to start!), because her “handling time is “too high” because she really tries to go the extra mile with customers. She is often reduced to tears, several times crying on the phone with the extremely rude ones, only to have them curse at her again and slam down the phone.
So when I see rude people posting their complaints here, I have zero sympathy. If a kindly persons posts a comment honestly asking for help, that is another story. In fact, if I get the details of a situation, I’ll ask my wife what should be done and post it here as well.
But having dealt with the American public myself for years and interacted with 1000’s of people, I have come to the undeniable conclusion that the vast majority of Americans are rude, incredibly selfish, and downright mean. I am a white male born and raised in Houston, TX in an affluent family. But I sure understand the outside world’s hatred of American’s. Most Americans are truly “Ugly Americans”.
And yet, the majority of the frustrations would dissolve if people would just simply be nicer.
I mean, really!! So be kind to your AT&T customer rep, and your problems are much more likely to be resolved.
Al
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Dear Michael Moore,
After reading what you posted I have come up with a solution to your problem.
The reason for the data charges on your phone is due to the fact that it is automatically trying to connect to the internet for updates.
This is considered by AT&T’s network as data usage and you are subsequently charged for it.
This happens whenever you go near any internet hotspot (WI-FI etc..)
From all the calls I’ve dealt with with a similar complaint to yours I would says that your phone is probably a blackberry, an unlocked iphone or a similar type of phone. The more advanced the phone the more things that can possibly go wrong with the usage.
1 solution to this is to call AT&T customer service and have them disconnect your data service. This will stop your phone from connecting to the internet and won’t interfere with the other functions of your phone.
Another solution would be to trade in that phone for an older model (try Nokia) the older the model the less advanced the features are but you won’t get any mysterious charges popping up from no where.
Finally you can opt to switch to a postpaid plan that comes with appropriate plans for your phone that would give you unlimited internet access. From what I see you’re probably on a prepaid account. Most likely the 10c a minute $1 a day plan. Phones such as the iphone, blackberry etc etc, were never meant to be put on prepaid, the reason for this is bec. of all the special features of the phone that require constant internet access that would eventually drain your account balance.
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Dear Mr. Oliver,
Its nice to see that your wife has lasted so long with AT&T.
I’m a customer rep. myself and I’ve got to say that I don’t know if I’ll
last as long as she has.
Please tell her I admire her willpower that she was able to last for so long under such conditions.
Currently I’m trying to help the general public have a better opinion of what customer reps have to go through on a daily basis.
Hence the fact I’ve offered my services on this site to lighten the load so to speak of the other reps.
To anyone reading this please state your problems with your prepaid service and I’ll be glad to assist.
Thank you.
AT&T Customer Rep. (Not being paid to do this)
March 24th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Hello “Customer Representative”,
You are quite kind and what you are doing is so helpful and unselfish. I sincerely hope that you are able to avoid becoming jaded as so many who have worked the AT&T customer rep job have become.
When people are so cruel and mean to others, those to whom their rage is directed (customer representatives) can easily turn from being kind, helpful individuals to defensive, uncaring, vengeful people themselves. Then, as I’ve said before, because they get berated so much and so often those reps leave AT&T rather quickly, leaving mostly new employees working who haven’t had time to fully understand the job. So the customer, by being mean and cruel, only makes it worse for himself and others because now there are mostly newbies answering the phones. Of course, I can understand that people get frustrated, but I never see any reason to degrade another human, especially when they are trying to help you as best they can.
Surprisingly too, AT&T puts incredible pressure on the reps by minutely logging the minutes, if not seconds that it takes to do this or that. That only puts more pressure on the reps who are now caught in a crossfire, getting it from customers on one side and managers on the other, managers who themselves are being squeezed by those above them.
But by trying to penny-pinch by pressing the reps to meet these minute to minute requirements, AT&T drives off jillions of reps requiring them to train a whole new bunch. Very few people stay long at AT&T and the undue pressure from both sides is why. So AT&T actually loses money by going through this merry-go-round of hiring and then losing reps at such a rapid pace.
Simple solution: AT&T, instead of bearing down on their reps, should support them with understanding and help, especially when customers are mean and degrading and irrationally difficult.
And it wouldn’t hurt if the American public would quit acting so incredibly selfish and mean because they will, after all, reap what they sew. Said another way, what goes around, comes around.
Al
March 24th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Dear Mr. Oliver,
I wholeheartedly agree.
We reps are being squeezed by both sides.
The rationale for the minute by minute requirements is due to the fact that it costs AT&T a certain amount per call when someone calls in with a problem.
In order to offset this cost they try to minimize the call time, that and they consider that the rep could have made better use of the time by talking to 3 customers over the course of 15 minutes than just 1 customer for 15 minutes.
The reason I’m using the pseudonym “Customer Representative” is due to the fact that AT&T has so many different rules and regulations I don’t even know if what I’m doing is right in their eyes.
However I saw a need and I seek to fill it.
I’m going to try to suggest to a higher up that AT&T should create an online blog site somewhat similar to this where a customer can clearly write down the problem they have with their service, leave their number (which can only be seen by an AT&T Rep), and the Reps in charge of the site can check on the problem, solve it immediately then just call the customer and inform them that problem is solved or leave a response on the blog which will help them solve the problem.
What do you think?
This would ensure that a lot of problems get solved without having to spend hours on the phone telling the rep what happened then getting transferred and explaining the situation all over again.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
@72: I’m going to try to suggest to a higher up that AT&T should create an online blog site somewhat similar to this where a customer can clearly write down the problem they have with their service, leave their number (which can only be seen by an AT&T Rep), and the Reps in charge of the site can check on the problem, solve it immediately then just call the customer and inform them that problem is solved or leave a response on the blog which will help them solve the problem.
Another way of solving this problem is if AT&T had a global trouble ticket system that tracked the status of the call so that people wouldn’t have to continuously tell and retell their story. A blog is useful in that it can be publicly searchable, and it can hold AT&T accountable if it doesn’t respond right away. But the warning I’d give to any company considering setting such a thing up is they had better respond right away as soon as people report problems. Otherwise it just becomes a public record of a company not living up to its customer service commitments.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Great idea CR! But I can tell you from experience that you will have a great deal of trouble even communicating your idea to someone who could act on it. Sure, you can give it to your manager, but that is usually as far as it will go. But no harm in trying!
Someone may tell you that AT&T already has a “forum”, but you have described something better where AT&T people are responsible for and act on customer problems posted at a certain site. I sure hope it works out.
Regarding the way AT&T watches the “handling time”, clock in time, break time, lunch time, availability time, etc, etc, I certainly understand their desire to minimize costs and get the most benefit from their workers. However, if their excessive, incessant, and oppressive pre-occupation with clock watching results in trained employees quitting work, as it most certainly does, then the cost of re-training a whole new group of people who will also be quitting again soon (and the cycle continues forever) most certainly will exceed the cost of a seasoned employee doing a good job, making a customer happy, keeping the business at AT&T, despite their handling time being a minute or two over the desired ideal.
The point is, by trying to wring every last drop of productivity out of an employee, they also end up killing an employee’s desire to work at AT&T, resulting in those continual new employee classes that fill up the parking lot for a short while, until they quit too.
So I’m not saying not to supervise employees, I’m just saying that customer service reps need to be given just a little bit of space to decide how best to spend their time. Either that or AT&T can continue to make less money than they otherwise would have due to running off employees and having to retrain new ones. Not such a wise business decision.
Surely someone at AT&T has seen the regular and continuous and huge Customer Rep turnover, and the gigantic cost associated with retraining forever. And to solve the problem, all they have to do is lighten up…..not much….but just a little bit. Oh, but it is so difficult for a big company to change it’s culture….even a little bit.
March 24th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
The source of AT&T’s desire to wring out every single drop of productivity out of it’s employees is the “Six Sigma System”.
Six Sigma seeks to identify and remove the causes of defects and errors in manufacturing and business processes.
It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization (”Black Belts” etc.) who are experts in these methods.
Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified financial targets (cost reduction or profit increase).
For example if a company produced 100 bags a day yet out of those hundred 2% are defective, it doesn’t seem like such a big deal. However if the company produces over 1 million bags a day that 2% is equivalent to nearly a couple thousand bags in the end the company has wasted money producing those bags.
Through the Six Sigma method of training a company seeks to reduce loss in the manufacturing, production and administrative processes to less than 99.99% Equivalent to .0003%.
* One Sigma = 690,000 DPMO = 68.26% efficiency
* Two Sigma = 308,000 DPMO = 95.24% efficiency
* Three Sigma = 66,800 DPMO = 99.73% efficiency
* Six Sigma = 3.4 DPMO = 99.9997% efficiency
Such may be the case in the manufacturing process however applying the same principle to customer service as AT&T does right results in the high turnover rate of its customer service reps.
Reps aren’t machines and shouldn’t be treated as such. The moment a company does this even with the best of intentions the result is always hard on the individual.
This is just my own personal opinion though and is in no way directed against AT&T as a whole.
March 24th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Dear Mr. Tytso,
A global ticket system is already in place with AT&T.
As a rep I’ve used in several times when I need to get back to a customer.
What happens is that we make a commitment. Document what the customer needs and a commitment team calls the customer and deals with the issue.
What is lacking though is a method where AT&T can deal with a customers problems without the customer having to spend a lengthy time on the phone.
Hence the fact I’ve suggested creating a web blog that an AT&T customer can use as a method of communicating his problem and having a rep deal with it without the customer having to wait on the phone for an extended period of time.
March 24th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Six Sigma. Interesting, if not a tad obvious if one knows how to multiply or at least use a calculator.
Of course, I wonder how long it will be before some scholar figures out that if they can only take that .0003 percent and divide it by half that over 50 years the company would have saved another $100.00!
Whew. THEN, we could relax.
Al
March 26th, 2009 at 8:14 am
Its really good to see that there are people who have a heping nature ….and trust me….if you need help ….pls listen to the customer care reps they will have a solution to your probs.I can state a live example of what happened with a tech support…..A customer calls in and says that he is a professor in one of the reputed colleges within US and needs to connect to the internet.Initially the customer is not ready to listen to the customer rep saying that he has greater knowledge than the rep.
Actually the situation was that the customer moved and ordered for a dryloop service…the old email address was downgraded to dial up and the customer had the old email address on the modem.Obvious he would not be able to connect to the internet using the DSL service with a email address that is dial up enabled.The rep understood the issue and was trying to convince the customer that there was a small registration that had to be done…..As we call the customer was very reluctant to listen to the customer rep… and disconnected the call….saying it was a problem with AT&T.Luckily after 3 days the same agent received a call ….guess what the same customer…who did not have internet ..called again and the call was received by the same agent…(Agents badluck…)This time the Agent requested the customer literally begged the customer to listen to what he was saying so that the problem could be fixed….after a heavy dose…the customer obliged and the registration was done in just 10 mins and the customer was online….
Had the customer just listened to the customer rep …..the member or the customer would be able to enjoy 3 days of internet service which could avoid the frustration to a great extent….So no matter how educated you are …please listen to the customer representatives….coz they are trained on the AT&T lines …and how AT&T works….Just that you are a Microsoft certified technician or a great professor does not matter….Its your problem that matters and please listen to the customer reps and sure your problems will be solved…..There might be some issues where one can say …I listened to csr’s and now my system does not work….BEWARE Dear customers the probing done by the techs are what gives them info….coz they cannot see whats happening on your system….If you give wrong information to the CSR then yes, it could lead to a wrong output…..so please be careful with what you hear and what you say….If you did not understand what the tech says, ask him to repeat……The techs will repeat…after all they are there to help you…coz in training the techs are taught not to use jargons and use simple words…so sometimes it could be possible that the techs might use jargons…so stop them right there and say…Dave I did not understand the word you said …can u pls help me understand what you just said or what I need to do ….the tech will definitely help you….
I will also give another situation….a customer calls in and says that she has no connection…After verifying the account the csr says that the account is being deactivated….Customer says that if it was the president calling it would be reactivated right away…I also want my internet connection right away….The customer was very frustrated …tech tried to educate the member but the customer was just not ready to listen…..So the quickest way to solve a problem is to please listen to the CSR’s …They are there to help you…no matter if their BOSS shouts at them or they have personal problems in their lives they are there to respond to customers with a smile…and thats what I like with AT&T csr’s…..So please be patient.AT&T is a good Company …Just know the ways of how you can resolve your problem and sure your problems will ease
I follow a small trick….to solve my problems when I call a company…I befriend the csr….and what happens…the end result my problem is solved faster and quicker….and if a call gets disconnected ….I dont have to callback coz my friend on the other side…the csr will call me …no matter even if he has to plead his boss….to resolve MY Problem…..Try it ….It Works….
(When I say befriend…pls be within the boundaries….)
Once I learnt a lot from a CSR about the culture of a country and also about how I can solve an ocurring problem myself and also how I can protect my computer from a big virus(windows virus….lost many nights sleep because of the virus) and he just educated me….did not stay on the line….but his education was superb…i followed it and my computer was virus free….This happens when someone on the other end becomes your friend…It is upto me if I want to be a FRIEND or just a CUSTOMER(A normal person).
one last feeling:
Kudos to all CSR’s and AT&T employees.You all are great and all deserve a pat…..Great Job and continue the great work…I really appreciate you for all the generosity that you are ready to help AT&T customers without pay…something more than what your job demands…..thereby showing how much customer oriented you are…(a true customer service..) I used to think always….”nothing is done for nothing” but you proved me wrong…I really appreciate you and request you to continue doing it.Can you ever imagine some other companies reps coming and offering solutions for free ….I doubt it…So Great Job AT&T Employees…..Congratulations….Hats Off….Please continue the good work…..
March 26th, 2009 at 8:46 am
@78: Dave,
With all due respect, if you don’t acknowledge the massive number of times when CSR’s drop the ball, your credibility is greatly diminished. In my particular case, as documented above, I was absolutely correct, and the CSR’s I was talking to simply were not empowered to solve my problem. It really did take an escalation to the AT&T’s “president’s office” in order to reach someone who was empowered to solve my problem — after I wasted several hours on the phone talking to CSR’s that could only see the very tiny part of AT&T that they knew about.
Granted there are particularly clueless people who call any help desk — but the help desk which is optimized around the fundamental belief that “the customer is always wrong”, or “the customer is always clueless”, is going to give spectacularly bad service to a customer who is sufferring at the hands of an AT&T screwup, or some other real problem which is AT&T’s fault.
If someone with your attitude or beliefs worked at AT&T’s help desk, I have no doubt why AT&T has such a bad reputation with respect to customer service.
What T-Mobile does very well is that their CSR’s are trained well enough that they can tell if someone is technically clueful or not, and if they can determine that this is someone who knows what they are talking about (probably mostly buzzword recognition plus enough training to know when the customer is using the buzzwords correctly), the customer is immediately bumped up to a level 2 or level 3 tech. So when I had to do something advanced with my phone (for example trying to mate my GPRS/Edge capable phone to my laptop using Linux), and I got the wrong response, the CSR I talked to could tell that I was giving a well-formed problem report, with lots of technical details, and nothing extraneous, and it was clearly not a “did you plug it in” sort of question. I got instantly bumped up to someone clueful in the T-mobile data divsion who was able to determine they had signed me up with the wrong data plan, and it was fixed quickly. Better yet, the person on the phone respected my intelligence.
From what I’ve been able to tell, AT&T doesn’t do this. And the reports from customer service satisfaction surveys seem to bear out my impression (Business Week did an article on this a few months ago.)
March 26th, 2009 at 9:07 am
It is unbelievable that after all the times ATT has deliberately added services that were not ordered to our accounts, that they come to this site and proclaim thier innoniance. I have even had thier own agents tell me that they do try to add items so they can get a comission hoping customers wont notice and complain. You can believe what you want , but I am telling you from expericece they create most of thier problems from just plain being dishonest and stonewalling. The lower eshlon does not have any power to do much I have always had to speak to corporate to get justice. Att has always been dishonest and probally will be. The comments you see by thier personell are probally made by good agents who really try, but I wonder if they they really know the real ATT I sincerely doubt that tey do, and I feel sorry that they take the abouse for angry customers who just want Att to do the right thing and are being frustrated in thier quest to get the justice they are entitled to. Att quit cheating people get er done
March 26th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
It is unbelievable that after all the times ATT has deliberately added services that were not ordered to our accounts, that they come to this site and proclaim thier innoniance. I have even had thier own agents tell me that they do try to add items so they can get a comission hoping customers wont notice and complain. You can believe what you want , but I am telling you from expericece they create most of thier problems from just plain being dishonest and stonewalling. The lower eschlon does not have any power to do much I have always had to speak to corporate to get justice. Att has always been dishonest and probally always will be. The comments you see by thier personell are probally made by good agents who really try, but I wonder if they they really know the real ATT I sincerely doubt that they do, and I feel sorry that they take the abuse from angry customers who just want Att to do the right thing and are being frustrated in thier efforts to get the justice they are entitled to. Att quit cheating people get er done
March 26th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Dear Mr. Sage,
I’m sorry for what happened to you. Though I cannot speak on behalf of AT&T itself I apologize for any inconvenience that might have happened to you as a result of the actions of any one of my fellow representatives.
Reps. usually aren’t allowed to add features on an account without the express permission of the customer. At least that’s what happens in our prepaid dept.
What might have happened is that due to the current financial crisis a lot of cash strapped reps might have added in the features for the commissions they receive.
This is frowned upon and is a pretense for termination within the company.
Just call customer care Mr. Sage and ask if you’re signed up for any “subscriptions”, “promotional messages”, or “extra feature packages”
that have been added in the last week or month.
A rep can easily go into your account history and look this up for you as well as credit you the money back for the inconvenience that you suffered.
The entire process shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes at most.
Again Mr. Sage I apologize for what you had to endure, it must have been very irritating and I’m sure that if you call customer service and ask them to check exactly what I just wrote down earlier they would be glad to help you out.
March 27th, 2009 at 9:33 am
I did not go on this site to speak to someone from ATT and you do not want me to publish all the problems I have had with your company over the last 30 years. You dont have a clue what we go through and you make it sound like its a simple as picking up the phone. Here is one of recent problems that took hours to resolve and having to deal with corporate to do it. I canceled dsl for my office and at&t just took it off the one line, and moved it to another line without my permission instead of canceling it as requested and adding a lot of charges. It does not do any good for you to just make it sound like a piece of cake and you are right and we are wrong. We have real problems with at&t Sir and your company at&t is 99.99% responsible. I dont want any replys from someone that does not know the facts., or the next time I publish the nightmare created when the 3 stooges came to hook my lines at a new location and some at&t 2 line phones and it took 5 days to complete. maybe 5 days of down time at a business dont mean much to you but to me in this economey it is critical don’t miss one call. It is time for you to take real responsibility for what you do or don’t do nnot just a bunch of lame excuses . You talk about hard times well I am a Realtor whose office was forced to close after 30 years. I dont try to make money dishonestly just because times are bad. I think you just need to stick with your prepaid department and stay out of our business since you dont seem to have a Clue what goes on at the real at&t
March 27th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Dear Mr. Sage,
In an earlier post I did mention that I would deal only with prepaid. I know that I can’t possibly relate with what you went through Mr. Sage but since I’m a customer rep. of AT&T I do feel a certain amount of shame and responsibility for whats happened to you.
As such I took this chance to apologize as best as I could on behalf of the company (without them knowing).
And the advice I gave Sir, if it was not what you were looking for, I apologize for that as well. I was just trying to help out.
You do have a valid point Mr. Sage that in fact I don’t know whats happening in the other parts of the company. However as a part of the company that knows and has read what you have been through I have to take ownership and responsibility for what happened to you and apologize even though it was the responsibility of another department.
Again I apologize for whats happened to you Mr. Sage and I assure you that AT&T is doing all it can to improve its services to its customers.
It may not be a perfect system Sir, but it works as best as it can.
March 31st, 2009 at 1:36 pm
That’s why AT&T sucks. Do you need VoIP? Get it. And use independent VoIP provider. You don’t need to depend on crappy overbloated providers, right? Then, come on and just use another service provider. VoIP is good in sense that it is YOU ARE who selecting service provider in any geographic location and only need IP protocol up and running to access VoIP features.
Actually, if AT&T runs VoIP for you, you have no gain vs classic telephony. Why do you expect sucking company to start suck less? Just due to changed protocol? That’s futile. But VoIP is location-independent. Just use another company. So, internet is provided by one operator and VoIP by any other company of your choice. Putting all eggs into a single basket is a bad idea. Especially when this basket have to be carried by AT&T.
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:04 pm
I used to be a AT&T representative working at the warranty department. Unforunately I have resigned because of health issues. Little did I know, that my health problems is caused by the stress I get from work specifically, every single time I get yelled and cursed at. First, as representatives please don’t think that reps doesn’t want to help. Helping customers is their job, if reps fail at that, they can be pulled out right away. They agreed to that policy when when they were hired because they need to, desperately. Second, calls are being recorded and a quality specialist (manager) listens to the call simultaneously, and believe or not, reps are supposed to say certain words exactly, say thank you atleast 2 times, say customer’s name atleast 2 times as well. Read instructions, terms & conditions in exact verbatim to the customer and make sure the customer accepts it, and many more. Third, nothing personal. Please don’t think that reps hold personal grudges if they don’t give in to your requests, often, reps or even supervisors (in some cases) are not in the position to decide about your requests. It’s nothing personal. If you’ll ask me, when I was still a rep, If I was in the position to decide about the customer’s req, I would NEVER EVER declined a customer. I will say yes everytime. I’ll screw the policy. But I was just a rep that time at AT&T.Lastly, I called a colleague of mine from AT&T, she said that, AT&T customers have increasinly become more and more abusive and aggressive that it resulted to mass resignation of reps, despite of the global money crisis and shortage of jobs. I guess AT&T reps opted to suffer unemployment rather than being called names, cursed and yelled about something they don’t have control over with. And the result, the waiting time to talk to an AT&T rep will increase since there are less reps manning the phone.
I guess, all I’m trying to say here is, reps and customers should work hand in hand. Talking in aggressive manner and being abusive doesn’t get anybody anywhere.
April 4th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
[...] AT&T: Customer support horrors [...]
May 2nd, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Just wondering if I am one of thousands who never knew this complaint site existed, or one of millions who found this and wondered if complaining would do any good?
My e-mail has been non-existant for a week. I tried again today, 11:40 a.m., I cannot talk to a real person except one who does not speak English, who, by the way, was “vry, vry oopoogetic and vry, vry sowwy of my unheepeenus” and connected me to a site with recorded messages for what I wanted, I was disconnected at 12:11 p.m., having no answers, support or help, so the “contact” line is a joke.
I was not abusive, never am, just want my mail to work. Guess I’ll call billing next and tell them to give me a discount for the weeks my internet has not worked. In the meantime, I will find another company. I am a very busy person, a writer with deadlines, cannot wait 5-10 minutes for a DSL extremely fast program to say the server cannot be located, the session time has expired, click on help, which does not exist.
If this is such a tremendous problem, we all need to quit worrying about the problem and find a solution. Mine will be to change companies.
Good luck everyone. It is apparent you will need it.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I am in ATT hell!!!!!!! I am about to call the Clark Howard show to find out what I need to do to get out of this hell. It started when I called about my modem going out. They said while we are holding for this to process, lets see how we can save you money. Mobile service came up and based on the numbers, I was going to save a lot by switching to ATT from Verizon (whom I’ve never had trouble with). Everything seemed to be fine till I got my first
bill(s). I got one for the 2 cell phones I agreed upon, then I got another for 3 cell phones I knew nothing about – 5 cell phones, 2 accounts, all in my name. So I called, was on the phone for 2 1/2 hrs, talked to 7 people and ‘thought’ I had it straightened out. A couple of weeks later, I got a bill for $488 for the 3 cell phones I didn’t order and a bill for the other 2. Called again, was on the phone ‘only’ 2 hrs this time. thought i got it straight only to be disappointed again. So I call yet again and told the guy to cancel everything, I didn’t want cell service with ATT. He was very nice, he supposedly cancelled my regular bill, submitted to have the $488 bill removed, and cancelled my service. Well I got a letter from a debt collector yesterday. Unbelievable!!!! the only thing I knoe to do know is call the PSC and/or the Clark Howard show. I will do without before I use ATT again!
July 11th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Ok, here’s another one: I’ve had AT&T service (or a subsidiary) my entire adult life – 30 years. All my local, long distance, mobile, and DSL have been AT&T products (DSL being the occasional exception depending on availability wherever I was living at the time…) Recently, my DSL modem just quit. I ran all the suggested tests and it was obvious the modem was bad. After 30 minutes of being transferred from group to group (apparently, equipment ordered via their website isn’t visible to their reps…), I finally reached a person who ran some tests and agreed a new modem would need to be shipped out to me. They agreed to “expedite” the shipment since I was totally withouth internet service, but after a week – still no modem. I again called AT&T – again was shipped from group to group – and finally reached their “retention” group who found records of the original call and determined that someone had “FORGOT” to ship it. No, they couldn’t overnight it, and yes, it would be another week before it would be received. NOT! I went to the local Verizon store and ported my mobile service to them, and switched to Cox Broadband, local, and long distance service the next day.
Because I wanted AT&T to know why they lost a customer of 30+ years, I wrote the CEO. About three weeks later I received a call from a man who claimed to be the CEOs executive assistance. He offered no explanation for the screw up but did offer to give me 2 months free DSL service. I explained I also switched all my other services, and he said he could not speak to those items, only the DSL. Excuse me, but the CEO of the company can’t address ALL the company’s products??? In other words, don’t bother writing the CEO – it will only get pushed down to some minimum wage clerk in the call center who has no authority or desire to address a customer’s issues.
July 30th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Danielle! Calm down! Get medical help. Find out where the LED on your computer indicating that you have the caps lock on is and when it is lit turn it off! Using caps lock in a forum is rude. It is the same as screaming at someone. Yelling at people who you are asking to help you is counterproductive and is probably why you have the same problems month after month!
Stop it!
July 30th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
Rhea–
We all have job stress. People yelling at you didn’t cause you to quit, your reaction to it did. Why make it personal when the customer on the other end of the phone has paid for the honor of speaking to you when you are being paid for the honor.
July 31st, 2009 at 12:12 am
Dave–
I am smarter than you because I can speak and write in complete sentences, and every word I use is used correctly. I am also MS certified and have a college degree. This may seem irrelevant to you, but that is because you are what is known as “unskilled labor.” Sorry to be cruel, but your rants are barely understandable so it’s no wonder the customers who call aren’t inclined to think you know what you are talking about. And, when I call customer service it is because I have already done all the things a first level rep wants to try and I need to be escalated right now.
And, just a pet peeve, but why make a person go through the whole rigamarole of punching in your phone number to even start into the system when every single person following will ask me again? If the system isn’t capable of using that data then why ask for it. And once you’ve verified I am me, why can’t you do a warm transfer that fills in the new rep as to who I am and why I’m calling?
Give it up. Until you can express yourself clearly don’t make me talk to you when I have a true problem.
August 3rd, 2009 at 9:04 pm
I’ve just spent the past hour on the phone trying to figure out what’s wrong with my tv service through U-verse. The internet I get is working, but my tv hasn’t been able to load for the past 2 hours. I’ve called the “24/7″ customer care line like my bill, and box say. And the call board is absolutely nauseating!! I hung up the first time, and decided to try and fix it myself. The second time I called and suffered through 10 minutes of “say this” to be directing here or “I’m sorry, did you say..?” It’s giving me such a head ache! When I finally thought I was going to be directed to a live body I was told that the center I was looking for was closed! so call during normal business hours. So I thought maybe I should try again and the same exact thing happened! But it is the so-called 24/7 tech support line!!! I am so frustrated. I’m done with ATT and will be searching for a new service very soon. It’s not worth the money, time, and traumatizing experience with “customer care”. And to make everything better I went on the website to try and find this tech support on there, and had a hell of a time trying to find that too. And when I did find the “how to reset your tv converter box” I clicked the link and an error came up that this site was temporarily disabled. thanks U-verse and ATT. I would officially rather stub each and every one of my toes one after the other and break them instead of trying to go through this nonsense again. I am a super unsatisfied customer
October 7th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
There has got to be something we can do…In May 2009 I went into an AT&T store in San Diego, CA to renew my contract (big mistake) and requested the Military Discount be applied to my bill. I gave my military ID to the store associate, and was assured that the discount would be attached to my account and it would take two billing cycles to credit my account. My July 2009 statement arrived, and the discount had not applied. I called ATT customer service, and got the usually “I am so sorry, I will take care of this”. August and September came and went, still no military discount. I called every month about this, and each time I was told that it would be handled. Finally my October statement came, and the 15% military discount had applied, yet my bill was more than the previous month. I had spend hours each month on the phone with customer service in the previous 6 months, and was very annoyed at this point. I called customer service again and was told that they now apply a $36 activation fee to the military discount. I had never been told about a fee, and the fee would not have applied had the discount been properly credited in May 2009. When I spoke to the manager, I was told that the fee would apply and he would not be reversing it. I asked for his managers name and was told “I don’t know my managers name”. Who are we suppose to contact when we are being robbed by these companies. This has happened month after month, and it just makes my blood boil that, as a consumer, we are forced to pay these fees. Our only options are 1. pay the fee….2. not pay the fee, and get service shut off…..or 3. pay the cancellation fee and find new service. It is flat out robbery. This ordeal with ATT has cost me A LOT OF TIME, and money I started to get the feeling that they make these discount so hard to get that they wont have to give them at all….but they sure like having the praise for offering military benefits. We, as consumers, have no say and no voice against these companies. We have no way of defending ourselves. These companies are not providing the services that we are paying for. The contract goes TWO WAYS….. What can a person do?
I will not pay the fee. I will continue to pay my bill every month, but I will leave a $36 balance until I find a way to have it reversed. Although $36 may not be a huge amount, AT&T is making millions by treating each customer this way. I find it unbelievable that they can just apply fees with out notifying the customer, and then refuse to reverse it.
October 26th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
I am in need of the top manager for customer service. My best friend’s credit rating has been RUINED!!! because of the idiots at ATT. HELP!!!! She has spoken to 9 people in one day and no one has been able to help her. They tell her the problem is being taken care of but it never is fixed. This has been going on for 4 months now and she is at the point where her some of her long standing credit cards are dropping her because ATT cliams she owes the money for a line they never connected!!! When is company going to take care of their customers!!!!