Comments on: AT&T: Customer support horrors

By: jeanette

jeanette — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:05:37 +0000

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!!!!

By: Amber

Amber — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:42:45 +0000

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.

By: lizzy

lizzy — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:04:25 +0000

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

By: Spooky

Spooky — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 04:12:09 +0000

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.

By: Spooky

Spooky — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:37:26 +0000

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.

By: Spooky

Spooky — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:27:04 +0000

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!

By: Rick

Rick — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 19:32:48 +0000

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.

By: Tracy

Tracy — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:50:44 +0000

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!

By: d j barnosky

d j barnosky — Sat, 02 May 2009 23:33:30 +0000

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.

By: Why is customer support so hard? at Telecom Rebirth

Why is customer support so hard? at Telecom Rebirth — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:18:45 +0000

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