12-13-2011
12:36:06 PM
- last edited on
12-13-2011
01:03:00 PM
by
Phil-101
I couldn't find an address to mail this, so here goes.......
To AT&T Management:
I do not know why we received a recent bill from you. Under the circumstances, which I am about to explain, I expect to never see a bill from you again.
About a year ago I called to discontinue our home phone and spent at least an hour talking to different customer service representatives. The first one convinced me that we should keep the service and go with U-Verse. Then after taking my information, I was told we did not have service in our area. Then they suggested that we get U-Verse for our internet service. Then I was told we could not do that because it was not going to be an upgrade. The next rep, said that you would reduce our rate if we kept the phone service, so we agreed. Everything was fine for a while.
About a month ago, our bill increased an additional $20 with no explanation. I decided, at this point, to look for other options. We decided to go with another company for the phone service and our intention was to keep the internet service with your company. I was told that our current phone number would not be released without me initiating a call to split the two services (we had a “bundle”). I called and this seemed to go pretty well. The customer rep took my information to split the services. I gave him a discontinue date on the phone service and he recommended that we go with the U-Verse service for the internet. He told me that for the 1st year it would be $14.95 a month. I told him that I had been told before that we could not do this, since it would not be an upgrade. He told me that it would not be a problem. He then told me to expect a new modem in the mail. A couple of days passed, I did not get a new modem. I did, however, receive two letters in the mail. The first one said “Welcome to U-Verse” and the second said “Welcome to DSL service”. Being confused, I called your customer service. I was told that the U-Verse order had been cancelled, since it was not an upgrade ( this sounded familiar L).
A couple of days later, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, my son was on the internet and all of the sudden, it quit working. The following morning, Thanksgiving Day, I called your support department. The rep spent several minutes trying to help me trouble shoot, to no avail. At this point, I said “before we go any further can you please check and see if my service has been discontinued?” She said from what she could see everything looked okay, but she had me hold on while she checked. After several minutes, she came back and told me that yes, the service had been discontinued. No one was in the sales department and I would have to call back on Friday to see about reconnecting. I called back again on Friday morning and after giving the representative my whole story, he told me that the service had indeed been disconnected because we could not have DSL service without phone service, but we could have U-Verse. I said we were told we could not have U-Verse service and he told me that now that we didn’t have any service (thanks to being abruptly disconnected by AT&T) we could get U-Verse. We could be connected on the following Tuesday and the amount would be $39.95 a month.
Okay at this point, you could say I was extremely displeased with the service I had received from the various AT&T representatives. First we were told that we could split the services with no problem. We were quoted one price and then told it was going to be about double that price. Worst of all, the service was cancelled without our permission or request and without any prior notification on your part. In addition, when we asked to be reconnected, rather than do what a reputable company would do, which values its customers, and reconnect us immediately we were, instead, told that would have to wait another 4 days! Needless to say, we have had enough!
Despite the poor service we have received from AT&T representatives , I can at least report that each of them was always very pleasant and polite. Unfortunately, though, it appears that the people answering service calls exemplify the old adage that the “left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.” As a result of this problem you left me feeling entirely helpless, frustrated by the bureaucratic “run-around,” and angry that a company would provide its customers such poor technical support.
I expect you to clear up this billing issue immediately.
Sincerely,
Jana
[edited for privacy]
12-13-2011 12:59:20 PM
This sounds so like my recent experience with AT&T! What has happened to them? I have been trying for almost a week to have my phone service restored after it was disconnected in error by AT&T. I have been given the run around from one department to another. I am so frustrated! To whom can I write to resolve this problem!
SkegeeDiva
12-13-2011 02:51:20 PM
Jmassie, send a PM to Alex he is an ATT Community Manager on the forum.
http://forums.att.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user
12-13-2011 07:31:43 PM
Jana,
I sympathize with you! I have never [in my life] received worse customer service than with AT&T and their Uverse product. You referring to the adage of "the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing" could not be more spot on, and even by their OWN employees' admittance to me on the phone.
We've struggled for WEEKS to return our old equipment that we had to return when transferring service to a new home (that in itself is strange). They threatened us with charges, but refused to supply a return label through UPS because they coudn't find our equipment in their system. (Yet, they expect me to drive 30 minutes to the closest UPS store to return their equipment for the THIRD attempt).
Our new equipment isn't working properly, and I'm scared to even attempt to call customer support, as it always results in waiting 20-30 minutes AT LEAST before you can ever get to a support representative, and then when you do, you can count on being transferred 3 or 4 times before you can find someone that can address your issue, but with our experience, never solve it. The end result, you ask? An hour of my life wasted and nothing ever resolved.
At this point I will never refer a friend or family to them to go through the same thing I've been through the last few months. And I think when our "six month promotion" ends, we'll be looking for a new provider that actually cares about taking care of their customer, and can back that up with better support. Quite honestly, I would probably pay double what I'm paying now to know that I didn't have to deal with AT&T's support team again.
