Worst Customer Service Ever [ Edited ]

[Brian Heard]

At what point does AT&T breach their own contract with a customer? Funny thing AT&T does... the 30 day out clause. The pivotal point here is, you don't get your fraudulent bill from AT&T until the 30 days as passed. You don't feel the rath of their horrible customer service until after 30 days. So by the time you get your bill with all the miscellaneous, 3rd party, confusing and deceptive charges they try to pass by you... it's too late; you can't get out of your contract. What a scam!

Search the internet, and you will find thousands of posts on consumer websites about AT&T's deceptive business practices and false charges on bills. I recently received a bill with over $400.00 in false charges. It took 6 calls and 6 layers of so called "customer service" representives to get a resolution. And it still is in dispute in part. There is no doubt in my mind, that this is routine for AT&T with the hopes that most people may not look over their bill closely, or just give up on their outrageous resolution process and simply pay it. Think of the millions of dollars that AT&T is getting from such false bills.

I've had such horrible service, that in my opinion, AT&T has breached their end of the contract, and I want OUT. However, irrespective of how horrible their service is, you are bound under your contract with NO resolution process at all, other than to, as one of AT&T's high level (????) 30 year customer relations representatives (Mark {Personal content removed for safety}) put it, "You can hire an attorney and take us to court".  

I could go on and on about my particular situation and the layers of incompetent, un-empowered, and unfriendly customer relations representatives all the way to the top (Mark {Personal content removed for safety}), who by the way would not switch me to his boss, or even give me the number of anyone else I could get to resolve my dispute, and instead kept repeating himself that "I will NEVER get what I want", only finally to hang up on me.

[Per Guidelines:  Keep it Relevant and Appropriate].

[Bartok91]

I'm actually a bit confused by this to be honest. I may not know as much about AT&T as other users, but I hardly believe there are "thousands" of complaints regarding their "deceptive" business.

I don't know a whole lot about this "30 Day Out clause" you mentioned either. Anyway, the massive bill is probably due to going over your minutes/message/data limits. That seems to be the cause of most distress with AT&T customers so far, and probably the answer to these "thousands" of complaints you mentioned.

In short, it's probably due to late fees or other charges. AT&T isn't just going to say "Oh fine, we were wrong." They are a business, they need the money they are owed. Verizon, Sprint, T Mobile, Alltel, etc. They are all the same on this. Of you're going to be rude to them and not cooperate, then in retrospect they shouldn't have to put up with it.

[Evandela ACE - Warrior]

Brian Heard, I can definitely say those statements are false. If you went over you limit for the month, then you will be charged for it.

AT&T does not wait until the 30 day period to mess with your bill. I myself have been an AT&T customer for a while now, and never have I received anything on my bill that was wrong. If I was confused on something, I'd call customer care and it would be sorted out and explained in detail.

In addition, when you signed the 2 year contract, you also agreed that you acknowledge that service is not available EVERYWHERE and as such, AT&T does not assume responsibility.

They are not a deceptive business as you say. The terms were completely stated in the contract. If you want something explained that you are confused about, you can dial 611 on your phone and explain your issue calmly and believe me it will be solved.

-Evandela

[Bwolffdrums]

Brian Heard wrote:

At what point does AT&T breach their own contract with a customer? Funny thing AT&T does... the 30 day out clause. The pivotal point here is, you don't get your fraudulent bill from AT&T until the 30 days as passed. You don't feel the rath of their horrible customer service until after 30 days. So by the time you get your bill with all the miscellaneous, 3rd party, confusing and deceptive charges they try to pass by you... it's too late; you can't get out of your contract. What a scam!

Search the internet, and you will find thousands of posts on consumer websites about AT&T's deceptive business practices and false charges on bills. I recently received a bill with over $400.00 in false charges. It took 6 calls and 6 layers of so called "customer service" representives to get a resolution. And it still is in dispute in part. There is no doubt in my mind, that this is routine for AT&T with the hopes that most people may not look over their bill closely, or just give up on their outrageous resolution process and simply pay it. Think of the millions of dollars that AT&T is getting from such false bills.

I've had such horrible service, that in my opinion, AT&T has breached their end of the contract, and I want OUT. However, irrespective of how horrible their service is, you are bound under your contract with NO resolution process at all, other than to, as one of AT&T's high level (????) 30 year customer relations representatives (Mark {Personal content removed for safety}) put it, "You can hire an attorney and take us to court".  

I could go on and on about my particular situation and the layers of incompetent, un-empowered, and unfriendly customer relations representatives all the way to the top (Mark {Personal content removed for safety}), who by the way would not switch me to his boss, or even give me the number of anyone else I could get to resolve my dispute, and instead kept repeating himself that "I will NEVER get what I want", only finally to hang up on me.

---

Don't bother listening to the other people that posted.  There are certain people on here who have the mentality that if you have a bad experience with AT&T, somehow it MUST be your fault.  They are obviously wrong to assume anything about your situation considering the few details you gave about your experience. 

I believe you, because I have had similarly bad experiences with AT&T.  They don't believe you, because they haven't.  Your story is common with AT&T not only on this forum, but on the internet in general.  There are pages on facebook with thousands of people on them dedicated to how horrible AT&T is.  There are surveys showing that AT&T has the lowest customer satisfaction among the big carriers, but because they've had a good experience, anyone who had a bad experience must have been doing something wrong.  It's a silly mentality, and it's wrong for them to assume things like that about people and situations they know nothing about.

[Stephono]

Actually about 98% of the time is customer error not knowing how to correct the bill or manage features. Now I do agree at&t could have better features and security as well. Like you said in your post fraud, now what kind of fraud are we talking about? Third party purchases? Some third party purchases is actually called "Cramming" Look it up, the FCC is taking care of that, none ATT fault. So what kind of fraud?

[Bubey2]

Send a complaint letter to the FCC and DOJ , your state representiatives.   Might help in resolving why ATT & T-Mobile Merger should not be approved.  When we have problems who's going to help us?  I had to fight ATT for "2 years" when I first signed up (7 years ago) because the rep lied to me.  Keep good written records, no phone calls, you want everything in writing.  Then if they should turn you in to a credit rating gency you will have your info to rebute it.  Keep it up, you will aventually get it straightened out.

I have sent my letters to my state rep's and all those involved in the Merger discussion and votes.  Hate to see one company have so much power.

Hope you get to  see this.  Seems as though helpful things which are negative against ATT seem to disappear or  the forum in shut down as it is the moderators opinion enough has been said on the subject.  Silenting the users and customers rather than help solve the problem.  I thought we had freedom of speech in this country ???

I for one am going to switch and see if I luck out with good customer service. If more of us would do this they might get the mesage and re-co their way of business.

[youngjm ACE - Professor]

Brian Heard,

If you would like to vent than great you have done that!

If you would like some assistance from other users about interpreting your bill and/or what is incorrect and what we might suggest to help you push the right buttons, please post some additonal information without your personal data.  Like you most of us are customers. 

To those who have never had a probelm, great.  I have been fortunate to have not had any major issues but they do exist and I think we can help you navigate the process.  There are also some community managers here who represent ATT and may be able to help you too. 

Good Luck 

[Jodi B.]

Mr. Brian Heard,

I must say that I agree with you 100%. At&t is definitely on the top of the latest list of companies with the worst customer service, that is not an opinion, it is a fact. It does delight me that there are a select group of at&t customers who have yet to experience at&t's true colors. I can only speak for myself when I say that I will NEVER purchase anything else from them and I will NEVER suggest them to anyone again! I have been with them for years now, the service was great in the beginning of my contract...but that changed rather quickly. I have been in a battle with them for the past 6 months! I have 3 devices that do not work properly, including the device I have linked to my account now. So long story short for the past 6 months I have been paying for "service" for a device that doesn't work. I have called and been hung up on on multiple occasions, as well as being disconnected from chat support because they don't know what to do. I guess my point is to be careful when dealing with them. They will tell you ANYTHING to get a little bit more change from you. From now on when I speak to them, I right down the agents name, direct number, and record the conversation...that's how deceitful they are. Anyway, I am starting the cancellation process for my family plan really soon. I will not be tied down to any phone company when they cannot honor their side of the contract. If I have to take my dilemma farther, I will! THEY are breaking their own contract when they do not provide you with the relieble service you were promised when you signed the contract. To the ones who are having no problems with them, enjoy it while it last! Mr. Heard, I wish you the best. And I hope you are able to break free from them, get with another company, and get the service and satisfaction that we as customers deserve. Good Luck!

[Dixon7]

This is an interesting thread.  I have been trying to find a way to post my request.  We may all have complaints about different companies -- just going to a restaurant one night is terrific service and the next is awful.  But I have to say that AT&T has been very consistent in their inability to fix the problem, their unwillingness to compromise to fix the problem, and their inane suggestions to address the problem.  I was told to go outside and make a phone call in order to get my cell phone to work.  Here is a post I did on another site - my goal is to become their number one headache -- they are sure the #1 cause of all of mine. 

Hot off the press -- AT&T retains their title as the world's worst company, with the worst customer service by far.  Congratulations!!  I have posted, begged, called, written, tweeted and cried trying to get help.  We have two cells phones, which are both used as business lines.  We cannot make or receive calls because people can't understand us because the quality of the call is so poor.  We cannot receive calls - we have the phone in our hand and it doesn't ring or show a history that a call was received, yet we get a ding for a voice mail that was mysteriously received.  AT&T's response has been to tell us to go outside to make a phone call.  We are moving and the house we bought has ZERO coverage for AT&T.  Verizon works great, but not AT&T, whether it is our phone or contractors that tried.  When I asked AT&T to let us out of the contract because we can't make phone calls when we are in an area of "excellent coverage", much less in one with zero coverage, they stonewall and will not work with us at all.  We are desperate -- we tweeted about an issue with Wells Fargo and got a response within an hour.  It has been a week and no one from AT&T will respond.  This is a sad situation for such a fine company.  Any ideas would be appreciated. 

[youngjm ACE - Professor]

Since you have so many lines and the cost to change to a new carrier can be expensive, have you considered a repeater for your building? Depending upon the number of lines, a Micro cell migrate even do it for you? You may want to somehow see if the issue is your building blocking ATT especially If the phones work outside?

Not a great answer in terms of covering the costs but at least you may be able to use your phones.

Good luck

[Dixon7]

Thanks for the reminder -- I have a MicroCell -- another $200 that is down the drain -- and I don'.t consider two cell phones "so many lines".  We work from our home,so there is no "building" that would be blocking the signal.  It is not just at our home -- it is everywhere.  The service has become so lousy that I am losing business because of AT&T.  I have more dropped calls now than I did when I had a cell phone that weighed 10 pounds bolted to the floorboard of my car.

[RicoLX]

Sounds like something changed in your coverage area for sure. What prompt the microcell in the first place? did you need it initially or did it come months later to improve service?

Personally, if i found that I needed a Microcell, it means my araes not that strong and I need to look at another carrier possibly

[aristizzle]

I think everyone has done enough venting and bringing up the same thing over and over again... "AT&T was ranked lowest in customer blah blah", can we please get back to the point before a mod closes this thread, sheesh. Someone should make a rant thread, can't even discuss something without the thread being spammed...

OP what $400.00 charges did you receive that were fraudelent? I'd love to hear....

[RicoLX]

How is the thread spammed? The OP posted fraudulent charges up to $400, bad customer service, bad phone services and no resoltuion. Additiional posts are those with similar issues why they consider att "the worst customer service ever". Under the folder the op initiated, he/she gets their issue addressed and allows others to post why they consider it 'the worst CS ever' otherwise, we'd have that many more folders of same name x however many disassitisfied customers.

[Bubey2]

This is a good place for "venting".  One can see others problems and possibly how they got solved.

I find closing down a site because some from AT&T feel like it.  To me that is messing with our Freedom of Speech.

Not a good way to build customer satisfaction.  If they want satisfied customers, then get the problems solved with

the "first" complaint.  I'm a 7 year customer and it's now been good. But with free ATT M to M calls it keeps my

bill down.  99% of my call are to you my family (11 of us) are all on ATT.  But since ATT broke their contract with

me I no longer have my 1000 minute plan for $40 per month.  I now have 550 minutes for $50 a month.  My contract

said I could go on with my monthly plan forever.  Just had to buy my own new phones.  So how can you justify ATT

has the right to cancel my contract and force me to go to the new pricing and lower minutes ?  Yes, I can go to

another carrier but that would effect my calls to the family as they would get charged for an incoming call, not from

an ATT phone.  All around we the paying customer looses.  Is that fair?  No, life is not fair and at my age I'm getting

very tired of inequality all over the place.  So keep writing your complaints to ATT in the hopes they will respond but be sure to copy in the FCC, State Representative, DOJ, and anyone else you can think of that has some power to help

you and other people in the same spot.

[Per Guidelines:  Keep it Relevant and Appropriate].

I wish we could write good things about them, but unfortunately it is always the negative that get the publicity.  Maybe a new thread could be started with Kudo's on particular subjects.

Now go out and have a good day !

[RicoLX]

Yes'm!

[laurivillarreal]

does this post even reach anyone at att?  I was on hold for  30 minutes 3 different times today and finally reached a stupid person who could not get my phone number straight then the third time i called i got someone willing to help BUT i got another phone call on another line FROM MY BOSS!!  i asked if the att lady could hold and for two minutes she held then i hear the busy signal!!  I am ready to disconnect my phone and go to verizon.  any had verizon?

[Stephono]

I had verizon, lets just say thats why im with at&t now. Honestly you will get problems on any carrier you go to.

[RicoLX]

Stephono you are correct! Thats what we need to realize, no company is perfect. When we move from one carrier to another we basically trade one bucket of problems for another. Some are able to find that "happy place" with mama bell and some are happy at big Yellow or Big Red. Once we found it, then when things pop up, we lewrn how to interact with csr and tech support in a way that makes things more understandable and a possible quicker resolutiom

[Ann154]

I think I am experiencing a deja vu moment while reading this thread and that's all I am going to say.

[RicoLX]

Well...they need to,vent no harm adding my two cents

[RicoLX]

You know, I have an account on the Verizon forum. I think I will log on over there and see if theres been similar issues as the op's problem. I wonder how big red handled anything, im sure nothing as similar as post #1 but maybe....let me see....

[spish]

Considering AT&T is not a goverment organization I'm fairly certain that their monitoring what is posted on their own website does not go against freedom of speech.  Same thing on sites like facebook.  Facebook is a privately owned company which means that whatever you write may be censored however the moderators see fit because they are the ones running the company and therefore they are responsible for what is posted.  The mods here I honestly think do a great job keeping things appropriate while avoiding censoring negative comments.  But yeah, sorry to say if you think this infringes on your freedom of speech you are incorrect.  As for all the other posts, I believe Mr.Kropcircles actually addresses almost all of these issues extremely well in his recent post

[pamelaz]

I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to post your comments and opinions related to this topic. This topic has been thoroughly discussed and will now be closed.