After finding no ways to send an email to customer service, and since I don't really have time to call 288-2020 and go through all the options and be put on hold many times to reach a person who might not care about my experience, I have to post my story here. I’ve been a loyal customer for many years, used every service and currently have a wireless family plan with AT&T. However, the latest experience with AT&T described below was extremely frustrating. I hope AT&T will take this seriously and do something to improve the quality of the services they provide.
My extreme dissatisfaction with AT&T’s goes towards the sales agent and the processes for establishing a new residential U-verse high-speed internet service at my home.
On Monday, 7/30/2012, my husband and I went to AT&T store located on 3314 University Ave., Madison, WI to order a new U-verse HSI service for the duplex we just moved in. We decided on the 12.0 Mbps Max Internet and the sales agent told us according to his “price sheet” we would receive a special rate ($23.05 off for 12 months) as an existing wireless customer which would bring the monthly rate to $24.95. After he ran the order through his computer system, however, he told us we could only get a “$18.05 off for 12 months” promotion. He explained that the information on his sheet was from 2011 and the rate might have gone up since and went on to say that he should probably use a new updated sheet... We accepted his explanations and put in the order based on our belief that a sales agent at a retail store SHOULD have the most updated and accurate information on AT&T’s products and promotions.
Later that afternoon I was really bothered by the thoughts that we as long-term customers did not receive a better offer so I went to AT&T’s website to look for other promotions. I started an order online just to see what kind of price I would get and I was able to get the "$23.05 off for 12 months" offer right off the web order. I was surprised so I called the sales agent about this and asked him to fix our order and honor the promotion. He called back and said that he would change our order to receive the $23.05 off promotion but the change will not be reflected in the computer system until the first bill comes out hence there is no way for us to know if it’s actually been done properly.
For our new U-verse HSI service, we’ve chosen self installation and the service was scheduled to be activated on Friday, 8/3/2012. We were told that a service technician will come and install a new “interface box” and do the necessary wiring on 8/3/2012. The service technician did come but only finished half of the job (i.e. only worked outside the house). Even though I was there to grant him the access to work on the inside wiring, he still told us that we need to call AT&T and ask them to send a different service crew to do the job. And we didn’t receive the call he promised to make with any further information. At that point we had no clue as to what the problem is and what exactly we should be calling about to get the installation done. All we knew was that we don’t have the much needed internet service on the date we were promised. It was very frustrating because we had planned to skype our family overseas that night for important family matters and we just didn’t have the internet!!
The next day around 1pm (Saturday, 8/4/2012) we went back to the same sales agent at the AT&T store for help. After we described what happened, he told us that we might need to pay an extra $99 to get the inside wiring done in order to receive U-Verse HSI. We started to become annoyed by the delayed service and the additional costs so we asked if there is anything he could do to help us. What he told us was totally shocking. He told us that if AT&T doesn’t work for us, we could cancel the order and use other service such as Charter or TDS. We couldn’t believe what we heard and said to him “so you are going to just give your customers away like this?” He then went in and talked to his manager. He came out after several minutes to tell us that he could call the technical service department to schedule another technician to our home to get the service done (or take a look what needs to be done). We felt that this should already be the first thing he did instead of telling us to cancel the order or switch to a different company! He also mentioned that after the first bill we could call him to waive the $49 activation fee and the $99 extra installation service fee.
40 minutes of standing by the counter later, the sales agent finally called the technical service and put me on the phone to talk to them directly. The person at the technical service was very nice and was able to secure an appointment for us and said that the technician will arrive between 2 and 4 pm that day and he will give us a call before his arrival. We left the AT&T store and went to a coffee shop 5 minutes away from our home to use internet while waiting for the technician's call. Couple minutes later, I saw a missed call and it was the technician. I immediately called back and told him that we will get home in 5 minutes to meet with him. But he told me that he already went and because my landlord did not grant access for him to work in the basement so he left the house already!! I was shocked and asked if he could still turn around and meet us at the house and we could let him in to finish the work. He told me he can’t because he already closed the case ticket and because it’s his last shift so he is ready to get off work. He said the only thing we could do is to call AT&T again to schedule another appointment. He also said that he would make a phone call for us and call us back but he never did. He was completely unhelpful.
At the point we became really frustrated that we almost decide to just cancel the service. 15 minutes later around 2:30pm, we received a phone call from the AT&T Dispatch expressing concern and asking us why we canceled the appointment. I told him we didn’t, the technician did and we’d like to get another technician as soon as possible. He said he could send a technician between 4 and 8pm the same day. This time we stayed at home and were afraid to miss any phone call or AT&T service truck. We waited for 5~ hours, missing the dinner plan we had made with friends, and the technician finally showed up at 8pm. Luckily, this guy is really helpful and knows what he is doing. He finished the inside wiring and made sure the signal comes out from the right phone jack. We finally had the internet service installed right at 9pm on Saturday (24 hours later and lots of phone calls and driving around).
While I am thankful for the helpfulness of the last technician who ultimately completed the installation, I am very disappointed in AT&T’s ability to establish new service in a timely manner. I am especially very unimpressed with the knowledge and attitude of the retail store sales agent who first failed to provide us with special offer and then wanted us to go with other company’s service when issues came up, not to mention the technician who closed the service case before even reaching me so he could get off duty early.
I hope you understand my frustration and disappointment, which has caused me to lose faith in AT&T’s ability to effectively resolve customer service issues. I am hoping that when the first bill comes out, I will see the correct special offer being applied and the $99 installation service fee and $49 activation fee waived. I also believe that it would be appropriate for AT&T to provide additional credits or offer toward our monthly service fee and extend the promotional rate beyond the first-year of service. I am hoping a AT&T representative or someone will respond to my message and tell me what AT&T would do to recover the errors and regain my trust and loyalty as a customer. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
H.Y. P.
