Simple Order Turned Into a Nightmare

[CGGIBS]

I recently inherited my father's house. It took over three weeks to accomplish the simple task of changing from the Uverse my father had to a simple AT&T land line phone with DSL internet. Even though I asked many times if the Uverse service would cause a problem, it took countless hours on my cell phone, on the internet, three tech visits and three days without internet service to discover that Uverse and regular AT&T DSL cannot physically exist at the same house.  I was told to keep the Uverse until the DSL was working.

This information should have been known by all. I'm sure I'm not the first to do this change. The CS reps and techs tried their best to resolve the problem but they were not trained properly and they're systems would bring up incorrect and/or conflicting information, even within their own departments. The internal AT&T phone system, of all things, is faulty. AT ONE POINT WHEN A CS REP TRIED TO TRANSFER ME TO THE TECH DEPARTMENT, I WAS CONNECTED TO SOMEONE'S HOME PHONE!

The automated phone line constantly gave me conflicting information. The website also gave me conflicting information and would, about half of the time, direct me to non-working pages. Twice I logged in and someone else's account came up.

After all was finally installed properly, I still had to go back and get the billing corrected. Not only was I billed incorrectly, I never received a paper or online bill. I only knew a payment was due because of the time I spent on the website.

Why did I not just cancel the order and go elsewhere? Because AT&T has a MONOPOLY on residential land line service in our area.

I am not just one disgruntled customer who had bad luck. Other people I know have had very negative experiences with AT&T. The customer blog is full of similar stories and an AT&T employee told me he/she hears these stories every day. I have sent a letter to corporate and contacted my congressman about the T-Mobile take over. I'm planning to report this to whatever government agency will listen.

AT&T has no business being as big as it is. It cannot handle the services it provides internally or externally. It already has no competition for land line phones in many areas which infringes on my right to choose. If it takes over T-Mobile, it will only become worse and will, even more, reduce competition.

Although I still have not seen the billing for the internet portion, so far everything seems to have finally been resolved. I have no complaints about the people I spoke with but I have a big problem with AT&T as a company. These issues must be fixed. AT&T is doing a great disservice to, not only it’s customers, but to it’s employees and stock holders. If these issues cannot be resolved, AT&T must break-up just as Ma Bell did so many years ago.

Needless to say, I'm sick of mega corporations giving lousy service, raising their prices and trying to eliminate the competition.

[qb55]

I too have had some similar issues, and I am a retiree from AT&T, this is how we get treated. I have been going thru my nightmare for almost a week, with no resolve.

[bobnoakridge]

That's okay.I was forced to "upgrade" to Uverse from DSL.I went from a 6mbps download speed to 768kbps.Same price though.Oh and it gets better.Took the 4 days to figure out why my internet wasnt working.After I sat at home and wasted a day for a tech that never showed.Then about a week ago I get a bill from my old account for $120 cancellation fee.This after ATT sent me a refund of $17.00 because I paid and only used a partial month.Apparently ATT and ATT Uverse dont know each other exists.After speaking to three different people they finally took the $120 cancellation fee off.Oh and I only moved to a different building in the same complex.