A little more out in the open?

Computer-Joe · ‎09-19-2008

When I joined this forum, I don't think there were any AT&T employees acting in an official capacity on here. Now, it seems, we are flush with them, not to fault these people in any way, but I'm confused as to what exactly their official capacity is. If their job is to control what we say and how long we can talk about a subject they're doing their job. If their job is to solve problems people are having with AT&T, great. The problem I see though is,often, when they actually address a user's problem directly, it's either with a link to the AT&T support site or they take the issue private (PM me) and we never get the benefit of knowing if, or how, the issue was solved, because neither they, nor the OP follows up on the thread.

I was also hoping their appearance was a sign of more openess from AT&T though. When I first got Uverse, the technology itself was the problem. Now that they seem to have all those issues smoothed out, the company has now become the problem, with huge issues concerning installations, scheduling, customer service, sales, and billing. With all the AT&T "faces" on here, why don't we see any public acknowledgement of these systemic issues with ongoing efforts to solve them.

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SomeJoe7777 · ‎01-30-2008

Moderators: beckyww, pamelaz, ShaunMN -- Lithium employees, their job is to moderate discussions and see that forum rules are adhered to. They also handle forum-specific issues such as logon problems, page rendering issues in the forum, etc.

Community Managers (CMs): ATTAlexCM and jamileh -- AT&T employees, their job is to have an AT&T presence on the forum, communicate with forum members to collect input on the forum's operation, and also the ability to handle certain issues of customer support. (If AT&T's normal support channels are not working for a customer, the CMs can handle billing, account, and other non-technical issues.)

Community Specialists (CSs): txnroger, uversecareT2agent, Delia, Julie, David -- AT&T employees, they assist the CMs and can handle certain deep technical issues that regular AT&T support cannot solve (David).

Community Leaders (CLs): callmeox, Escapee, hpmsrm, mibrnsurg, oz_1, RCSMG, showtime48, SomeJoe7777, spd2demun, texasguy37, Uniblurb3 -- Regular forum members and AT&T U-Verse customers (exception: Escapee is also an AT&T employee) who are active in the forum and have been active in the forum for a sustained time. We refer forum members to the CMs or CSs when required to get their problem solved.

Because some problems, especially those where a customer is referred to Alex, involve personal account information like account numbers or package- & pricing-specific info, that conversation is usually taken private via PM.

As far as the customer service and accounting issues being systemic -- without hard numbers, there is no way to know if that's actually true or not. With 3.8M subscribers, I would say that those issues are less frequent than you might otherwise think because the people who don't have any issues don't come and post here.

Uniblurb3 · ‎09-14-2009

Real good questions CJ and nice summary SJ.

I too have seen an increase in the number of complaints concerning CS, billing issues, rebates/rewards, install scheduling, sales, etc. While there has been an increase in the number of users I wonder if part of this increase isn't due to this forum being more widely publicized as a place for customer support? This can be seen in the below link where "Additional Support" on the right side takes you straight to this forum when you "Go to Customer Communities".

http://www.att.com/esupport/main.jsp?wtSlotClick=1-006H7K-0-1&cv=803

But there may be more complaints we're seeing coming from the AT&T acquired Bell-South region where U-verse is fairly new which we didn't see before.

Regardless the problems were seeing such as the "royal-run-around" in going through CS is a major problem that needs fixed. Most of the other problems we're seeing should also be resolved and hope AT&T takes note.

I also don't like it when the CM's fix problems behind the scenes via PMs and we never hear back if the problems are fixed. But it's my understanding the users posting the problems are asked by the CM's to come back and post if their problems are resolved. We've seen a few of these but not enough. Guess if the users don't want to come back and let us know their problems are resolved there's little we can do about it.

texasguy37 · ‎05-18-2009

Uniblurb3 wrote:

I also don't like it when the CM's fix problems behind the scenes via PMs and we never hear back if the problems are fixed. But it's my understanding the users posting the problems are asked by the CM's to come back and post if their problems are resolved. We've seen a few of these but not enough. Guess if the users don't want to come back and let us know their problems are resolved there's little we can do about it.

Good point, Uni. The same problem also exists when we or another member of the forum offers advice or information about solving an issue. Frequently, there is no follow-up message from the OP as to whether or not the information solved their problem. There is no way to force them to let us know if their problem has been resolved.

As far as getting the run around from Customer Service, I think most of us have contacted AT&T on a number of occasion with issues. Does our experiences match the experiences posted on the forum? I have always felt that those situations are anomalies because they don't match any of my experiences when I have contacted U-verse. Of course some things are a matter of perception on the part of the posters. I'm always suspicious when they report that the rep was rude to them. The calls are recorded and being rude to a customer would not be tolerated. I have spoken to another of reps, and they have always been super nice no matter how well they were at resolving my issue. Of course some people think that you are being rude if you say "no" or don't give them exactly what they are asking for.

Computer-Joe · ‎09-19-2008

SomeJoe7777 wrote:
Moderators: beckyww, pamelaz, ShaunMN -- Lithium employees, their job is to moderate discussions and see that forum rules are adhered to. They also handle forum-specific issues such as logon problems, page rendering issues in the forum, etc.

Community Managers (CMs): ATTAlexCM and jamileh -- AT&T employees, their job is to have an AT&T presence on the forum, communicate with forum members to collect input on the forum's operation, and also the ability to handle certain issues of customer support. (If AT&T's normal support channels are not working for a customer, the CMs can handle billing, account, and other non-technical issues.)

Community Specialists (CSs): txnroger, uversecareT2agent, Delia, Julie, David -- AT&T employees, they assist the CMs and can handle certain deep technical issues that regular AT&T support cannot solve (David).

Community Leaders (CLs): callmeox, Escapee, hpmsrm, mibrnsurg, oz_1, RCSMG, showtime48, SomeJoe7777, spd2demun, texasguy37, Uniblurb3 -- Regular forum members and AT&T U-Verse customers (exception: Escapee is also an AT&T employee) who are active in the forum and have been active in the forum for a sustained time. We refer forum members to the CMs or CSs when required to get their problem solved.

Because some problems, especially those where a customer is referred to Alex, involve personal account information like account numbers or package- & pricing-specific info, that conversation is usually taken private via PM.

As far as the customer service and accounting issues being systemic -- without hard numbers, there is no way to know if that's actually true or not. With 3.8M subscribers, I would say that those issues are less frequent than you might otherwise think because the people who don't have any issues don't come and post here.

Thanks SJ. Your description of the CMs and CSs are the best I've seen.

I understand the need for some info to be private, but once the thread dissapears into the ether it never seems to come back. Part of the helpful nature of this forum is to be able to see that either "your not alone" with this problem and whether there "a light at the end of the tunnel", so it would be nice, if the CM takes a matter private, to have the CM post back with a resolution (favorable or not).

I would consider issues that span most of the subscriber facing departments (and are often compounded by each other) to be systemic for AT&T. No, I did not count all the posts, but there seems to be a quickly growing number of complaints about customer service related issues starting with aquiring services and going all the way through ending services (and possibly even the collections department), and that's just this forum. There are plenty of other sites that reflect this growing trend. So, just because only 10 or 20 thousand people out of their 3.8 million have posted their issues with sub-par (or aggregious) customer service, there is no problem?

__________________________________________________________
How can you be in two places at once, when your not anywhere at all?
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I really want to become a procrastinator, but I keep putting it off.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are three kinds of people, those that can count, and those that can't.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them." :Bertrand Russell

spd2demun · ‎07-28-2007

One exception is (IIRC) that beckyww is also an employee that has moderator privileges.

And if the CMs get an issue resolved, they should be able to post a quick summary and mark it as Solved since most of the OPs never come back.

hpmsrm · ‎09-14-2009

SomeJoe7777 wrote:

Moderators: beckyww, pamelaz, ShaunMN -- Lithium employees, their job is to moderate discussions and see that forum rules are adhered to. They also handle forum-specific issues such as logon problems, page rendering issues in the forum, etc.

Community Managers (CMs): ATTAlexCM and jamileh -- AT&T employees, their job is to have an AT&T presence on the forum, communicate with forum members to collect input on the forum's operation, and also the ability to handle certain issues of customer support. (If AT&T's normal support channels are not working for a customer, the CMs can handle billing, account, and other non-technical issues.)

Community Specialists (CSs): txnroger, uversecareT2agent, Delia, Julie, David -- AT&T employees, they assist the CMs and can handle certain deep technical issues that regular AT&T support cannot solve (David).

Community Leaders (CLs): callmeox, Escapee, hpmsrm, mibrnsurg, oz_1, RCSMG, showtime48, SomeJoe7777, spd2demun, texasguy37, Uniblurb3 -- Regular forum members and AT&T U-Verse customers (exception: Escapee is also an AT&T employee) who are active in the forum and have been active in the forum for a sustained time. We refer forum members to the CMs or CSs when required to get their problem solved.

Because some problems, especially those where a customer is referred to Alex, involve personal account information like account numbers or package- & pricing-specific info, that conversation is usually taken private via PM.

As far as the customer service and accounting issues being systemic -- without hard numbers, there is no way to know if that's actually true or not. With 3.8M subscribers, I would say that those issues are less frequent than you might otherwise think because the people who don't have any issues don't come and post here.

I agree.....very helpful. Thanks S.J. ....I'm gonna print it out and find a place where I can refer to it when needed because....very honestly....things have progressed so far from the days when I first joined the forum back in 2007 and there was just the participants, the CL's & the moderator....it's all getting just a bit too complicated. I'm sure intentions are good but I'm also wondering if we're making progress or getting tangled up in an organizational malaise.

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dhascall · ‎04-21-2008

Add me to the list who would like to see resolutions and / or the CM's asking the OP to mark the thread solved, if the OP was satisfied with the resolution.

SJ's list was complete except for CN's - Community Nothings, such as dhascall, lol.

ATTAlexCM · ‎12-05-2005

Thanks everyone for your feedback. This is a great discussion. Generally speaking, when a Community Manager reaches out to engage privately, it has to do with account specific information (private) that the Community is not able to help with. In most cases, the resolution is unique to that account and not something that the Community can help and/or benefit from. I want to assure you that we are the first to encourage users to participate after we assist with an account specific issue that requires private and direct attention from AT&T. I agree that if there is a solution from one of these private engagements that we should and do share with the Community. If we can be of additional assistance, we are a PM away. Thank you for making the AT&T Community great!

Regards,

Alex

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Did a post have a solution that worked for you? Help other people find solutions faster by marking posts that helped you as an "Accepted Solution". Learn about accepted solutions here.

Keep in mind; I am an AT&T employee and the postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent AT&T’s position, strategies or opinions.

Computer-Joe · ‎09-19-2008

ATTAlexCM wrote:
Thanks everyone for your feedback. This is a great discussion. Generally speaking, when a Community Manager reaches out to engage privately, it has to do with account specific information (private) that the Community is not able to help with. In most cases, the resolution is unique to that account and not something that the Community can help and/or benefit from. I want to assure you that we are the first to encourage users to participate after we assist with an account specific issue that requires private and direct attention from AT&T. I agree that if there is a solution from one of these private engagements that we should and do share with the Community. If we can be of additional assistance, we are a PM away. Thank you for making the AT&T Community great!

Regards,
Alex

Does that mean if there is no sharing after an issue is taken private, that a resolution to the problem was unable to be reached?

If so, some of us would be interested in that info as well.

__________________________________________________________
How can you be in two places at once, when your not anywhere at all?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I really want to become a procrastinator, but I keep putting it off.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are three kinds of people, those that can count, and those that can't.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them." :Bertrand Russell

ATTAlexCM · ‎12-05-2005

Computer-Joe wrote:

ATTAlexCM wrote:

Thanks everyone for your feedback. This is a great discussion. Generally speaking, when a Community Manager reaches out to engage privately, it has to do with account specific information (private) that the Community is not able to help with. In most cases, the resolution is unique to that account and not something that the Community can help and/or benefit from. I want to assure you that we are the first to encourage users to participate after we assist with an account specific issue that requires private and direct attention from AT&T. I agree that if there is a solution from one of these private engagements that we should and do share with the Community. If we can be of additional assistance, we are a PM away. Thank you for making the AT&T Community great!

Regards,

Alex

Does that mean if there is no sharing after an issue is taken private, that a resolution to the problem was unable to be reached?

If so, some of us would be interested in that info as well.

__________________________________________________________
How can you be in two places at once, when your not anywhere at all?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I really want to become a procrastinator, but I keep putting it off.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are three kinds of people, those that can count, and those that can't.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them." :Bertrand Russell

It really depends on the issue. Either way will gladly share what we are able to.

Regards,

Alex

--------------
Rethink Possible
Private Message (ATTCustomerCare for account specific help)

Did a post have a solution that worked for you? Help other people find solutions faster by marking posts that helped you as an "Accepted Solution". Learn about accepted solutions here.

Keep in mind; I am an AT&T employee and the postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent AT&T’s position, strategies or opinions.

jamileh · ‎06-20-2011

Computer-Joe wrote:

ATTAlexCM wrote:

Thanks everyone for your feedback. This is a great discussion. Generally speaking, when a Community Manager reaches out to engage privately, it has to do with account specific information (private) that the Community is not able to help with. In most cases, the resolution is unique to that account and not something that the Community can help and/or benefit from. I want to assure you that we are the first to encourage users to participate after we assist with an account specific issue that requires private and direct attention from AT&T. I agree that if there is a solution from one of these private engagements that we should and do share with the Community. If we can be of additional assistance, we are a PM away. Thank you for making the AT&T Community great!

Regards,

Alex

Does that mean if there is no sharing after an issue is taken private, that a resolution to the problem was unable to be reached? If so, some of us would be interested in that info as well.

Hey computer_joe,

Alex gave a great overview of why we reach out privately to assist some folks with their issues and I understand your follow up question.

He mentioned that the private messages/assistance is done in situations where the issue being addressed is account specific. This means that the resolutions are often account specific as well and we (AT&T) can't talk about private info in a public setting, even in those rare situations where we can't do anything to assist.

I think there are two things we can do to help increase the amount of "closing the loop" here:

1) Alex and I will increase our efforts to encourage folks we're working directly with to follow up their initial post with a summary of the resolution.

2) You guys can encourage the people who post issues to come back to the forum once their issue is resolved to let folks know what happened.

I love this discussion and it's very important to both Alex and I that we have a virtual "open door" whenever possible. Let's continue to work together to make this community an even more awesome place to be.

--------------

As of May 1st, I am no longer serving as the Community Manager for AT&T. This account will no longer be able to accept private messages. If you have an account related issue, please send a private message to ATTCustomerCare.

Did a post have a solution that worked for you? Help other people find solutions faster by marking posts that helped you as an "Accepted Solution". Learn about accepted solutions here.

I am an AT&T employee and the postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent AT&T’s position, strategies or opinions.

dhascall · ‎04-21-2008

Thanks Jam. As I have discussed with you offline, if there is a person who posts and offers you no follow up through PM's or re-visits to the board, within a set trime frame to be locked with the statement "No contact was made by the poster to resolve the issue. There are few( not all) that post anti-AT&T statements when it's not clear if they even have an issue or even subscribe.

Computer-Joe · ‎09-19-2008

Thank you, both Alex and Jam. I look forward to the increased interactions.

__________________________________________________________
How can you be in two places at once, when your not anywhere at all?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I really want to become a procrastinator, but I keep putting it off.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are three kinds of people, those that can count, and those that can't.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them." :Bertrand Russell

spd2demun · ‎07-28-2007

Not so, I'd say more of a CR--Community Regulars!

dhascall wrote:

Add me to the list who would like to see resolutions and / or the CM's asking the OP to mark the thread solved, if the OP was satisfied with the resolution.

SJ's list was complete except for CN's - Community Nothings, such as dhascall, lol.

Computer-Joe · ‎09-19-2008

Better than irregular

__________________________________________________________
How can you be in two places at once, when your not anywhere at all?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I really want to become a procrastinator, but I keep putting it off.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are three kinds of people, those that can count, and those that can't.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them." :Bertrand Russell

Computer-Joe · ‎09-19-2008

OK, so here is my follow up. Alex tried to help me determine if I was eligible for ADSL2+. Alex put me in contact with Nicole, who put me in touch with Caroline who talked with me for a while and then called me back with the verdict.

Alas, they were unable to do anything, so I remain banished to DSL Land.

Regardless, I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you Alex for your efforts as well as to Nicole and Caroline.

__________________________________________________________
How can you be in two places at once, when your not anywhere at all?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I really want to become a procrastinator, but I keep putting it off.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are three kinds of people, those that can count, and those that can't.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them." :Bertrand Russell

mibrnsurg · ‎07-15-2008

CJ, what's your protocol on the info page of you modem, if you have access to one, 992.1 or T1.413 Issue 2 , 992.3 or 992.5?

Chris

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-800-288-2020, After he gets acct info, press # a bunch of times, get a menu from Mr. Voice recognition
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

Computer-Joe · ‎09-19-2008

Still using a speedstream 4100. Unsure of protocol at this moment.

__________________________________________________________
How can you be in two places at once, when your not anywhere at all?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I really want to become a procrastinator, but I keep putting it off.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are three kinds of people, those that can count, and those that can't.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them." :Bertrand Russell

mibrnsurg · ‎07-15-2008

You're definitely still on plain old ADSL unluckily. But eventually ATT will be phasing it out as they add more ADSL 2/2+ cards in the VRADs to service ADSL users. They want to discontinue using DSLAMs in the CO.

Chris

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-800-288-2020, After he gets acct info, press # a bunch of times, get a menu from Mr. Voice recognition
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

Computer-Joe · ‎09-19-2008

mibrnsurg wrote:
You're definitely still on plain old ADSL unluckily. But eventually ATT will be phasing it out as they add more ADSL 2/2+ cards in the VRADs to service ADSL users. They want to discontinue using DSLAMs in the CO.

Chris

My problem is my trunk line does not intersect with a VRAD. It passes about 75 feet from it and actually runs on the same poles as the fiber feed to the VRAD for the last 300 feet to the CO. I'm only about 2800 feet max from the CO, but apparently the CO does not have/support IPDSLAM and they have no future plans to put a VRAD at my cross-box.

What's really frustrating is they refuse to divulge any timelines, even a rough estimate (6 months, 1 year, never).

Right now the only thing keeping me from going to comcast is seven important email addresses I've had with AT&T for nearly 10 years and all my webhosting and registered domains are on AT&T/Yahoo servers.

__________________________________________________________
How can you be in two places at once, when your not anywhere at all?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I really want to become a procrastinator, but I keep putting it off.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are three kinds of people, those that can count, and those that can't.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them." :Bertrand Russell

Escapee · ‎09-09-2009

They do put IPDSLAMs for Uverse in the COs. Not sure if they can do TV but they are for business internet connection. They are trying to turn down the ATM DSL system by replacing it with the IPDSL protocol. I have no idea if the CO you are feed from has a 7330 shelf which supports the IPSLAM.

I am an AT&T employee and the postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent AT&T's position, strategies or opinion.

spd2demun · ‎07-28-2007

SKP, maybe you can pull a few strings and help Bro CJ out?

Computer-Joe · ‎09-19-2008

Escapee wrote:
They do put IPDSLAMs for Uverse in the COs. Not sure if they can do TV but they are for business internet connection. They are trying to turn down the ATM DSL system by replacing it with the IPDSL protocol. I have no idea if the CO you are feed from has a 7330 shelf which supports the IPSLAM.

I specifically told them that all I wanted was Internet, no TV or VOIP, but that could've gone in one ear and out the other.

__________________________________________________________
How can you be in two places at once, when your not anywhere at all?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I really want to become a procrastinator, but I keep putting it off.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are three kinds of people, those that can count, and those that can't.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them." :Bertrand Russell