AT&T, privacy, and business ethics

[LamarWashington]

I just got this email from AT&T about my CPNI usage. Apparently they want to use my private info for marketing purposes. Here's what's wrong with that.

I'm already a customer, leave me alone. Stop advertising new services and products to your own customers it's an annoying waste that clutters the website, my inbox, and wastes time when calling customer service.

Second, they were going to take my private info anyway if I did not respond the long, confusing e-mail with unfamiliar abbreviations like CPNI. They are profiting from every instance of non-response. Most people don't have the time or don't care enough to contact AT&T and request not to have their privacy invaded.

The language used is deceptive: "By checking this box I am requesting that AT&T restrict the use of my CPNI." that's the quote. See, it seems like they are restricting you, because of the purposefully confusing language. In reality, they are being restricted. I wonder what they have to gain that they would phrase it in a backwards way like this, surely AT&T has no concern for clarity when communicating with customers.

Bad show guys. Most people aren't going to notice, the rest probably won't care, but I hope there are a few people who demand more from a company they pay thousands of dollars to annually.

[LamarWashington]

Oh yeah if you want to opt-out be sure to have your account number. I had to look mine up because I have never needed it for any interaction with AT&T ever.

[jamileh]

Thanks for your feedback about the email you received, I appreciate it. Though I'm sorry you were not happy with the email or process, I'm glad you took the time to let us know how you felt about the overall experience. 

You can always adjust your marketing preferences on att.com by logging into your account and editing those preferences on your profile page. Here's an article with a bit more information.

[dawiz25]

As a customer, I am appalled that you would share my information if I did not opt out. You should make it an opt-in so that you have to make a conscious choice to do so. Why must AT&T take advantage of users? Bad on you AT&T, it may not mean much to you but when my contract is up I will take my business elsewhere.

[JFizDaWiz]

They only share your info within the company if its any consolation.

[grapesfan]

I completely agree with Lamar.  Your email says if I want AT&T to use my CPNI, I don't need to do anything.  You are making me do something in order to protect my privacy?!?!   My General Marketing preferences already say not to send me anything.  Will I need to keep checking them after 33 days in order to find out if you have changed them?  This is not what I consider good customer service.  It doesn't sound as though you really believe that the "protection of our customers' privacy is of utmost importance."  

Also, I am a careful internet user.  I did not want to click on the link in your email, so I logged on to my account.  Was there a link to respond to this CPNI request?  No!  And when I searched for "cpni" all I got was a link to this forum.  Very poor.  

[disgusted_in_sf]

Congrats AT&T, you set a new low for customer service. No, it doesn't matter that the info is only shared internally - the way you implemented this policy is transparently and comically sleezy. I'll be moving to another carrier soon.

[DrTaras]

Thanx for posting this LamarWashington, as another poster noted, when you search ALL of ATT, the ONLY link to CPNI is this post. Amazing bait and switch! Also, look at how many posters to this thread have posted only 1-3 times. ATT has found new ways to activate grass-roots complaints against them!

I do want to thank jamileh for posting a link on where to go to check your marketing options.

[VegasWilson]

I try to, whenever possible, not click links in emails, especially if they are asking me for information. In this case, the link I'm taken to only asks for my account number and zip code. I tried to find a link on the AT&T website to decline the sharing of our CPNI, but was only able to find these community messages. We already have our marketing preferences set to "no" (blank). Is this sufficient? And if so, why send out that email telling us we need to opt out?

[Tylerj22 · Accepted solution]

Here is the link to the page to STOP AT&t from using CPNI from your account: https://www.att.com/ecpnioptout/InitiateCPNIForm.action It's really wrong that this link is not being left up by the admin.

[kittymama]

It looks like they got that fixed.  I searched on the website for CPNI, and got a link to the page where you can opt out.  However.....when I went to my profile, I had to opt out for all three phone numbers on my account.  This is wrong, wrong, wrong!  If I, as the owner of the account, do not want to be solicited, that should automatically apply to all the numbers on my account.  I shouldn't have to jump through a bunch of hoops to make sure that my husband and mother in law don't receive calls and text messages!

[tickedoff1]

Thanks Tyler for that link, it was the only way I found a place to opt out, which is ridiculous!  I searched for CPNI and only got a link to this forum, they are hiding the opt-out page so people will get frustrated and not bother.  Ridiculous that you have to opt-OUT rather than opt-IN!!!

[tickedoff1]

Did anyone try calling the number in the email?  I am in Oregon and you have to listen to a long message to find your state and press "1" to "9", and then at the end of the list, after Oregon wasn't even mentioned (don't think Washington was either), they give you another number to call!!!

AT&T ... if we have to go through this, you know where we live, give us the right number in the email!

[jamileh]

Thanks for posting this link. I've marked it as an accepted solution so it's easier for other people to find.

[felixday]

So, do I have to do this for each phone number?

[SSeeplane1]

whats the big deal

it only took me 6 attempts to log in to the opt out web page and another 3 attempts to get a successful confirmation of the opt out request being submitted for processing

never got a postive indication that my request had been granted

att is the best....

[jamileh]

@felix - If you have mutliple account numbers, yes. 

@SSeeplane1 - I'm sorry you had such a difficult time. Were you getting errors or was the site timing out? That's not a typical experience. 

[Amorgan90]

It is wrong to handle customers in this fashion. It's rotten to assume customers want extra sharing of their CPN-I - whatever that may include today or in the future!

[Amorgan90]

I tried to optout from the Att account sign on but there was absolutely nothing about CPNI. I tried searching their whole site and looked for it under Manage Account Support etc-nothing! Is this a bogus ploy to get our account # if we optout?
I tried the phone# but it said get the acct# from the email but only the last 4digits are given in the email! ComOnMan!

[jamileh]

---

Amorgan90 wrote:
I tried to optout from the Att account sign on but there was absolutely nothing about CPNI. I tried searching their whole site and looked for it under Manage Account Support etc-nothing! Is this a bogus ploy to get our account # if we optout?
I tried the phone# but it said get the acct# from the email but only the last 4digits are given in the email! ComOnMan!

---

The link to opt out is available in this thread (https://www.att.com/ecpnioptout/InitiateCPNIForm.action) and can be found by searching for CPNI using the search box on each page. 

AT&T is not attempting to secure any information from you. We already know your account number, entering it is the way we ensure your options regarding CPNI are recorded. 

If you're not sure of your account number, you can see it on your billing statement or by logging into your account at www.att.com. 

Please let me know if you continue to have trouble. 

[Amorgan90]

I am paperless so I do not have a paper bill anywhere and rarely ever sign on because I pay using the *pay feature on the phone and don't see the bill. I feel this is wrong for sight impaired customers too. They CAN'T read the notice or see enough to find their account # and do the phone optout or go to the website. They have their bill drafted and never see a bill or any email ever!

[jamileh]

Thank you for your feedback. It is certainly your choice if you want to login to review your account and/or bill, just wanted to make sure you were aware the option is available.

Our customers who have trouble seeing a printed bill do have options like large print bills or in some cases, bills may be printed in braille. 

Here is a link with some information about accessibility: http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/articles-resources/disability-resources/disability-resources.jsp

[meridethtohayes]

I would like to that AT&T CUSTOMERS for helping us figure out how to FIX WHAT AT&T EMPLOYEES are so shamefully and obviously trying to hide--like our friend jamileh, here.

[althea1954]

I am trying to get to an ATT employee. there was no place to contact one on the home page. So I have signed in to chat to do so.  However, now I am on the main page as "welecomed" as a new member.  I originally wanted to find out about this email that came in about privacy because the account number is not mine.  I guess after spending an hour trying to do this online I will just call tomorrow and straighten this out.  Because now I am even more upset that my name is blasted on the site and I didn't want that to happen. I tried to remove my info that I just created to chat and there is no place to do that either. 

I want to reduce people getting my info and instead by trying to do so I have done the opposite!!!

[AnalogCustomer]

@jamileh,

I've been a customer since the old analog days (early 1990's), put up with the hand off to Cingular, then back to AT&T.  I also work for CS center (different company), and I can tell you that this 'process'  would never be allowed to happen.  The customer is concentric to the business. Period.  Leaving the link off a customer's main account page is illconcieved at best.  It's irresponsible at worst.  Then again, the customer shouldn't need to do anything to protect themselves.  As another post mentioned, this should be an 'opt-in' process.  NOT the other way around!   As an agent of AT&T I would hope that you;ve pulled the andon cord, and made certain this issue is escalated to the greatest extent possible (all the way to the top of CS, or beyond..). 

By making this a 'back door' move, AT&T has clearly damaged it's relationship with it's customers...(I can't beleive this isn't a concern).

From my perspective, I'm guessing this happened one of two ways:

  1. Sudden push by marketing, resulting in a poorly executed plan.

   2. Lack or absence of prior planning, research, resulting in a poorly executed plan.

  3. All of the above.

AT&T clearly could have done this better, making it a win/win, rather than a 'you loose'.

That said, I'm so close to leaving AT&T you can't even imagine... Don't bother with the CS "Thank you for your feedback..." response.  Just do your customers (and therefor yourselves) a service and fix the problem.  Thanks.

[jamileh]

---

althea1954 wrote:

I am trying to get to an ATT employee. there was no place to contact one on the home page. So I have signed in to chat to do so.  However, now I am on the main page as "welecomed" as a new member.  I originally wanted to find out about this email that came in about privacy because the account number is not mine.  I guess after spending an hour trying to do this online I will just call tomorrow and straighten this out.  Because now I am even more upset that my name is blasted on the site and I didn't want that to happen. I tried to remove my info that I just created to chat and there is no place to do that either. 

I want to reduce people getting my info and instead by trying to do so I have done the opposite!!!

---

Althea - Were you able to speak with someone to address this issue? If not, please send me a private message with your name, phone number and the best time to contact you.




To send a private message, you can either click on the link in this message or click on the little blue envelope in the upper right hand corner, click "compose new message" and type my username in the "Send To" field.

[jamileh]

@analogcustomer - Though you don't want to hear it, your comments are appreciated. Feedback like yours (and the rest of this thread), is what makes it possible for me to give information to the people so we can make positive changes. 

We definitely want to make every interaction win-win.

[cmarion1]

I just received the email posted below.  After calling the number provided and lodging a complaint stating that this was a violation of my privacy and I absolutely do not want my personal information shared with any 3rd parties;  I was told by the CSR and her supervisor that this was a "phishing attack" and I should forward it to the att abuse email that I was given.  

After attempting to complete and submit the form, a dialogue box came up stating that "there was an error submitting the form" try again later. I tried two different browsers and received the same error.  The CSR acted like she'd never heard of ATT providing my CPNI to 3rd parties and couldn't beleive that this was something that ATT would do. Riiiiiiiiight.... if Facebook is making a billion dollars selling  the personal information of it's users, why wouldn't ATT attempt to do the same thing regardless of what they're feeding their employees during their training. 

Here's the thing. I'm paying close to 100.00/month and on average use less than 150 minutes /month with data/internet that was grandfathered in as I've been a customer for well over 5 years.  If ATT wants to keep milking their loyal mobile customers then I would suggest ATT work on changing this incredibly shady policy and be a bit more transparent when it comes to the use of their paying customers' private information. ATT has an incredible amount of competition out there now and after this, I'm incredibly likely to cancel my contract and save several hundred dollars a year using another service. 

Tuesday, June 12, 2012 5:03 PM

att.com | Support | Log In   

An important message about the privacy of your customer information (Customer Proprietary Network Information or CPNI)

Dear xxxxxx, Regarding Your Account: xxxxxxxxxxxx The protection of our customers' privacy is of utmost importance to the employees and management of the AT&T family of companies (AT&T)*. Please take a moment to read the following important message about the privacy of your customer information.  AT&T companies that provide telecommunications and interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service (which permits VoIP customers to both send and receive calls to/from customers with traditional telephone/telecommunications service) would like to share your customer proprietary network information within the AT&T family of companies for our own marketing purposes, including using that information to offer you additional products and services.  What is CPNI? Your CPNI includes the types of telecommunications and interconnected VoIP services you currently purchase, how you use them and the related billing for those services. CPNI does not include your telephone number, your name or your address. Protecting the confidentiality of your CPNI is your right and our duty under federal law. As an AT&T customer, you can restrict the use of your CPNI even within the AT&T family of companies.  To allow AT&T to use your CPNI, no further action is required. AT&T will not use your CPNI to offer you other products and services until at least 33 days after this notice was mailed to you. AT&T and our authorized agents will not sell, trade or share your CPNI with anyone other than those who are in the AT&T family of companies or are AT&T authorized agents, unless required by law.  If at any time you would prefer that AT&T not use your CPNI to offer you additional products and services, you may:  - Click  here  to submit your request electronically - Call 1.800.315.8303 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and follow the prompts - Call 1.800.288.2020 and speak to a service representative Your decision to permit or restrict the use of CPNI will remain in effect until you decide to change it - which you can do at any time without charge. Restricting our use of your CPNI will not affect the provision of any AT&T products or services to which you currently subscribe, nor will it eliminate other types of marketing contacts.  Thank you for choosing AT&T. We appreciate your business.  *The AT&T family of companies are those AT&T companies that provide communications-related products and/or services, including the AT&T local and long distance companies, AT&T Corp., AT&T Long Distance, AT&T Internet Services, AT&T Mobility, and other subsidiaries or affiliates of AT&T Inc. that provide, design, market or sell these products and/or services.  Thank you, AT&T Online Services www.att.com

Contact Us AT&T Support - quick & easy support is available 24/7. Moving Soon? Stay connected with AT&T. Visit us online at att.com/move. Online Information AT&T Community Repair Wireless AT&T Device Tutorial Network Coverage

[maquis]

ATT customers get no respect......  It's not like we have loads of free time to spare opting-out of some sleazy marketing crap from ATT.  I am sick of this and will respond with my feet.  I fired ATT land-line service seven years ago when they "slammed" my long distance service; I've been a happy Vonage customer ever since.  Verizon looks like my next destination.  What a way to loose a 10+ year multi-cell line customer......