This morning, I just wasted two hours of my life trying to deal with a bill with AT&T. I am a work-at-home employee, and my company has a contract with AT&T so that when I deal 1-700-xxx-xxxx, I can reach the internal corporate phone network. In addition, long distance calls on my home office line are billed to the company at the pre-negotiated corporate rates. I also had a (long-dormant) AT&T long distance account, dating from before I started working at this company. Starting at the beginning of the year, that account grew a $18 monthly fee. When I tried to make it go away, the AT&T consumer side of the house said that according to Verizon, that was because I had my long distance service through AT&T. Which was true, in a sense — AT&T was providing my service, but through a corporate account. But the consumer side of AT&T didn’t understand that, and were in my opinion, willfully ignorant.
Several phone calls later, I got the 1-800 number for the AT&T corporate side of the house, and those folks said they couldn’t look at consumer/personal AT&T accounts, and implied it was my fault that I had both accounts on the line. (This took over an hour while the support person tried multiple things, all of which was not helpful at all.)
I finally googled for AT&T CEO’s office, and found a number on the consumerist.com web site that claimed to be the AT&T CEO’s office. It had long since been directed to a help center, but after I told my tale, I was quickly transferred to an executive customer support person, who was able to fix the problem in ten minutes.
The only questions remaining are:
1) Why can’t the different parts of AT&T talk to one another?
2) Will this problem really be solved, or will I see another bill in a month or two and have to spend more time dealing with this mess all over again?
3) When will VOIP services put AT&T long distance out of its misery? (Given the absolute frustration of this morning, this can’t happen soon enough.)
4) Will AT&T compensate me for two hours of frustration and of my life that I will never get back. (Not bloody likely.)
One thing is for certain, it will be a long, long, LONG time before I will ever voluntarily choose AT&T to provide service for just about anything. Even an iPhone wouldn’t be enough inducement….
April 15th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Actually, all the phone companies have that disconnect. I had similar fun with Verizon and having DSL billed to Carnegie Mellon at my last apartment, and I’ve been told by telco insiders that it’s endemic to the entire industry.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
1) I’m not even sure the same parts of AT&T talk to each other. We got AT&T DSL once, because the sale lady I called up (when I set up the service) offered to give us a 9 month service “specially for college students”. But after I called back in to stop service, I discovered the next month that I was charged with a $200 early termination fee. Calling in to complain, I was told there was no 9 month service and we’d have to pay.
2) Chances are, you’ll get billed.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Switch to Vonage. Yes, I know they have awful advertising, and there is the possibility that they will implode, but if you’ve got decent reliable bandwidth they do work. I’ve been using them exclusively for about 5 years now. Never had a problem with them. I find their feature to ring my cellphone simultaneously with my home phone very handy. International rates are very low. 2 cents/minute to England, no minimum. Nice since my mother-in-law lived there awhile.
April 15th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
I have Vonage already. I use them most of the time for all of my personal calls, and it’s the number I advertise to the outside world because of the Simultaneous Ring feature; when someone calls me, it calls several numbers simultaneously, including my cell phone and my skype-in number, and which ever picks up first grabs the call. This is great, since I only have to give out one number (which I tell everyone is my “cell phone” number), and if I’m at home, I can pick up on my VOIP line and not burn any cell phone minutes.
One of my big concerns is what to do if Vonage implodes; the simultaneous ring feature is hard to find on most other services, and it’s why I’m still a Vonage customer.
April 15th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
1: Suprisingly, this one might not be due to ATT’s gross incompetence after all but rather due to regulatory requirements (think chinese walls, anti trust, S-OX, etc).
April 18th, 2008 at 11:14 am
I used to be a manager at an AT&T Wireless call center before and during the Cingular purchase, but got out before the SBC/AT&T merger thingy. The problem is that you have agents in each department who are more-or-less only trained in their one specific area. They don’t know much of anything about how other parts of the org work. They are barely struggling to understand their own part. When business hears anything about consumer, they punt, because they don’t know what to do. When the consumer side hears anything about business, they punt for the same reason.
The root of the problem, IMO, is low payed outsourced employees in a position that has high churn, gaurunteeing that the chances of you getting a knowledgeable phone rep are very low.
April 24th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
>the simultaneous ring feature is hard to find on most other services
It’s a given on Grand Central….
April 26th, 2008 at 12:32 am
Funny, funny, someone complaining about bad service dealing with a telco. Are you a cicada by any chance and missed the last 17 year fling? So you’ve been hibernating for 34 years?
April 26th, 2008 at 11:44 am
A few years ago, AT&T started billing me for long distance service on a data only ISDN line I had. After about 6 hours spent on hold and on the phone with AT&T, I finally called the local public service commission and finally got action. All in all, I’d rather have my hands slammed in a door repeatedly than use AT&T for anything.
April 29th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
I’m happy to see that others are experiencing what I am…. I have (had) a Blackberry that they sold me in the fall (neglected to mention I had to pay for “the text and e-mail package” also) - why would anyone buy a Blackberry for other than that/ Anyway, Blackberry pooped - ordered new phone, prevous BB revived, did not need new phone, sent back. Old BB died (officially) and was told can NOT get a new BB until bill ‘resolved’. Called a month prior to dispute 4 months of “wrong” bill with package that should have been mentioned and phone now that I didn’t use. After about 5 Customer Service reps later (and 2 managers), finally talked to an evil lady named - KATHRYN who didn’t think it was a big deal to tell me my ONLY option was to wait for the new bill (3 weeks from now) to come out reflecting changes, and THEN could I get a new phone. Being phoneless (for a business person) did not seem to faze her. She was certainly about the most unempathetic, narrow minded, non-creative thinking person I’ve EVER encountered. And she was in MANAGEMENT. I’m having panic attacks now as I’m NOT in communication with clients and volunteer job and to top it all off - the go phone that the dealer sold me (against “the rules”) has spotty reception. I’ve just spent another ENTIRE day and 10 calls later to be told that they could ship me a new one since I’m still under warrenty…… HATE THIS COMPANY.
April 30th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
I am absolutely FED UP with AT&T. The service is fine. But their India based call center calls me EVERY FREAKING WEEK about chaning my service. I tell them every time that I I only want to know when i can get 6Mbps DSL or U-Verse, and to not call again, but they keep calling.
I want to tell some one there to stick-it, and that if I get one more service change call I’m going to cancel, but When I call the 800 number I just get the same damn India call center that’s the cause of all my frustration in the first place. What absolute cluster frak of company!
May 6th, 2008 at 8:37 am
It’s nice to find comrades who share the same sentiment. Thats the only comforting part of all this. Att is the company from Hell, My morbid mind fantasizes being in a room with all the top executives and ceo and they are defensles and i have a baseball bat and when they quiver and beg for mercy I reply with ” call customer service, Whack!,maybe they can help you”.
i am contemplating starting a “we hate att” club. tee shirts annual get together. Complaints to government, boycott efforts. the works. We have all become slaves to these nasty corporate bastards and their dehumanizing machine voices that are deigned to keep you away from real human beings and real solutions.
Creative minds must band together and find solutions to these problems. here in florida they are monopoly more or less. I will investigate Vonage. Any alternative to this bad company is welcome
May 29th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
I have been using packet 8 VOIP for over a year now…no problems, $5.00 less than vonage and has more features. Simultaneous ring being one of them as well as follow me find me. They also provide for an additional $5.00 monthly a local number in another state which we find handy as all of the in laws are in Fla and we are in SC
May 30th, 2008 at 2:49 am
Interesting. Do you know if Packet 8 VOIP uses standard SIP, and does it make the SIP authentication available to subscribers — i.e., can I use Linux SIP clients for a Linux softphone? Vonage uses SIP, but it doesn’t let you have access to the SIP authentication information, supposedly for security reasons. The SIP login information is locked into the hardware where you can’t get it, or buried in the Windows-only softphone….
June 28th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Breaking up is hard to do. I recently jumped ship from AT&T back in mid March and I am still trying to settle my ‘final’ bill. They have sent me 2 refund checks to date followed by notices for outstanding amounts still due. The last one was followed by a notice from a collection agency no less than a week apart that matched to the cent the amount of the last refund check??? Finding a customer support number to really ‘finalize’ this issue has also been very frustrating. AT&T will join the list of other companies I no longer do business with. The only way to get their attention is to hit them were it hurts, their pocketbook.
July 1st, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I know that everyone just wants to get their problem fixed, but I beg you, have patience with the person you talk to at AT&T. They are the front line employees who have had little training and get very little help from their managers. But they are the ones you should talk to in most cases because they are the only ones who will actually care about you.
The managers, almost to a person, have already been “damaged” by having to deal with so many irate people. They don’t want to have to deal with you, the customer, or their subordinates. Thus the subordinate is left to search through a maze of information trying to solve your problem. Often their hands are tied or else the maze will be so difficult to negotiate that they will not be able to find a solution.
But they will likely be the only ones who actually will care about you. AT&T has them hamstrung by forcing them to follow a long list of do’s and don’ts, often leaving them in a “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” situation. Generally though, these new employees will have empathy for you and will do all they can to help you because they haven’t been completely “damaged” yet. I say “new employees”, because it is most unusual for a front line employee to last over 6 months. And the “damage” that happens is from the abuse they take on the majority of calls that come in, and no manager willing to help them out. Anyone forced to deal with that much abuse without help becomes hardened and uncaring.
Actually then, the mean, complaining AT&T customers and then the “damaged” managers who chose to criticize rather than help their subordinates, are the main reasons for the constant turnover at AT&T, leaving you, the customer with no one to talk to but someone fresh off the street, who knows precious little.
Apart from threatening to cancel AT&T service, those front line people are your only hope of solving your problem. Be patient and let them work out a solution.
July 8th, 2008 at 11:55 am
It seems a few have achieved more than I while trying to file a complaint.
Three months ago, I contracted with AT&T for a pay as you go account. Since I do not use a phone much, I wanted $25 worth of minutes. The salesperson encouraged me to get $50 worth, guaranteeing me that the not used minutes would roll over at the end of three months.
I have realized that the expiration date was July 2. On the fourth, I attempted to use my phone to find that the $38 worth of minutes had expired. A phone call enabled me to purchase another $25 worth of three month minutes, but it did not roll the remaining $38 into my account. I was informed that if I had purchased more minutes prior to July 2, it would have preserved my credit balance.
I decided to file a complaint. Prior to involving the FCC and the BBB, I thought I might give AT&T the opportunity to respond. I was unable to find an avenue to file such a complaint. So, I phoned them again and explained my issue. To my surprise, I was told there was no vehicle for submitting a complaint. I requested an address to which I could send snail mail. After quite a time, the representative gave me 5515 Glenridge Connector in Atlanta. The USPS says that they cannot deliver mail to that address. What a surprise.
Does anyone have an address for these people?
By the way, I just received my credit card statement only to fine that the $25 worth of minutes that I have just purchased, cost my $26.75. That means instead of 25 cents per minute, I am paying almost 27 cents. If you, figure in the thirty-eight dollars worth of minutes that they didn’t honor, I am now paying almost 65 cents per minute.
Isn’t that false advertising? And aren’t there consumer laws to protect us?
July 10th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
They don’t call it U-verse for nothing. Sure, it’s just the name of their TV system, but it’s getting the message out, “We want to control the universe!”
AT&T has done an excellent job of insulating themselves from the customer. No one of consequence to complain to, no place to write to, no way to impact them in any way.
I once tried to suggest, just suggest mind you, that they start carrying a certain high-end phone. There is no one, nor is there any place nor any way to contact anyone remotely involved in the decision of which phone’s AT&T will carry.
AT&T seems to have a culture that says, “We don’t give a rat’s ass about our customers, but we advertise heavily to get people to think that we do.
Add your experience to the list.
July 12th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
HOW do you ever contact AT& T Wireless? They don’t answer their phones and their e-mail FORM on their web site locks you out.
Their customer service is absolutely useless, and we have been trying to close an account for over a year with no success.
Does anyone have some e-mail addsress where you can actually
contact these pests? Or a PHONE NUMBER where you can actually GET a HUMAN?