Nowhere else to post.....AT&T wireless horror story

[salukipv1]

Sorry to have to rant and rave here, there was no rant and rave section that I could find and this is really the only blog I use, so wasn't about to sign up elsewhere just to do that, all ready too hot!!

So I switched cell phone companies recently, leaving AT&T, had quite a few problems.....

Then I get my final bill, for 2 weeks use, and its $20 more than my typical monthly bill!

I call, complain, they offer, haha offer, I suggest a way of reworking the bill so that it is reduced, they agree, so now I'm at $10 less, still discontented I ask tp speak to a supervisor, who is clearly unwilling to listen or do anything about my bill. I try everything, aruging the bill/service stunk, they inform me if I had called before then we couldve helped you etc......mind you I have 2 cell phones with them, mine and a family members. Still unwilling to help a already existing customer. So at this point I eventually hangup, due to the lack of help/savins, after all I'm still paying $10 more than I normally would for an entire months bill!

About a week or less goes by and I call back, speak to, who knows, jenny teenager so it seems......who informs be I already agreed to the previous calls $10 savings so they considre this matter closed or "RESOLVED" sorry. I say resolved? clearly it is not, we argue some, no screaming, then I ask for the supervisor, she tries to say like why do you need a supervisor? I say you wont connect me with a supervisor? eventually she does after another 5 mins of not helping me.

Finally Supervisor gets on the phone, and I can tell probably already is having a bad day, though I suspect she has many bad days. I tell her, my matter is no resolved, unfair etc....etc..., she doesnt want to do anything, I tell her, maybe cause I waited for 30mins to get her on the line and now im not letting her get off, she eventually caves, and agrees to a fair agreement. Which mind you by this point its like what else would I have had to do?

So the outcome may be now settled and fair, though I must say dealing with them, AT&T was a nightmare and in no way do I feel like everythigns peachy, Ive had att long distance at home forever, nto sure if theyre even the same company, wireless/home, but now I'm to the point where I cant recommend them or their customer service at all. I'd love to speak to some upper management.

I also feel like had I not still been a customer, id still be where I was a week ago. Maybe once they looked into my call record they noticed how much they were probably making off of me to begin with, and said ok.

I never use my minutes, Im sure I had the max rollover minutes allowed, and all the while they kept telling me they only billed me for a service I used.....hence the 80 dollar 2 week bill. I want to say, where was my refund/credit for my unused service? right? thats what they need is a service that only bills you for exactly what you used. If you go into the next bracket for cell minutes, bill that, or texts used, bill that, not like oops, you went past your plan, now we get to rape you! seriously!

So maybe someone will read this and agree, or have their own story, I had to vent, least hoping 1 person reads about my fun experience with AT&T.

Oh to add to this, they kept saying, what do you want us to do? and saying things like, we cant reduce costs/prices any further, etc...like they reduced antyhign to begin with, at what point does this all stop? I wasn't asking to not pay a bill, I was asking to be billed fairly. I hate the act like they can't help you, then suddenly, sure in an instant no overages billed.....they lie to you like you're in an interrigation, when we all know, with the wave of a hand they could probably clear youre entire bill. Without reason either, manager says ok reduce it.....or just take care of it. Don't give me that BS that we need a reason....maybe they put in some BS reason to reduce it, but still, they CAN reduce any bill for any reason at anytime.

I've just about had it with all services, CABLE, PHONE, GAS, ELECTIC, I'm going off the grid in a few years I think.

Would like to hear what you guys think of my experience? or if you have any of your own horror stories....please share.

[Aught Six]

I'd go live in a tent if I were you...

[salukipv1]

Considering it.....haha. I think I'll be ok, but wow I was fired up. Does make you think about how much you could save if you really wanted to.

[Aught Six]

My best friend got into a hippie kick some timeago and lived in a tent on a Hawaiian volcano for three years for a couple thousand a year. He said it was the lonliest, most boring time of his life. And all of his books rotted.

[Champlain Islander]

ORIGINAL: Aught Six

My best friend got into a hippie kick some timeago and lived in a tent on a Hawaiian volcano for three years for a couple thousand a year. He said it was the lonliest, most boring time of his life. And all of his books rotted.

Bored.....I bet he got Hawaiiana lei.

[Aught Six]

Bored.....I bet he got Hawaiiana lei.

He only saw his closest neighbor on a weekly basis (a male). He was miles down a trail from the nearest gravel road--no car, just a rusty bike. He eventually met a girl when he moved to Hilo to work at a health resort, and moved back to the mainland with her within a few months.

[JoeRE]

Thats interesting, it closely correlates with my experiances with AT&T. Different people give you different answers, all partially true, all distorted to confuse you. Either they are the difinition of a bloated corperation or I think it may be policy for them to do the whole run-around thing. I am not going back any time soon.

[AmateurHunter44857]

Haven't ha d aproblem with AT&T because we don't use them, we have Verizon. We did however have a problem about 9-10 years ago with AOL. We had dial-up for a while. My brother was taking college classes online and he'd be doing homework and get kicked off the internet. Well they had just introduced Roadrunner Broadband in our area so we got Broadband. We called AOL and told them we were caneling our service. 2 weeks go by and we recieve a bill from them(it was for the next month, not the month we used their internet for 3 weeks). We called and told them we had canceled our service 2 weeks prior and we paid our bill for that month. They fought and fought with us about canceling our internet service. They tried to talk us into going back to them and offering us all these deals and what not. They still refused to cancel our service. We ended up having to go see a lawyer and he wrote a very stern letter to AOL warning them of the consequences of their actions if they didn't cancel our service. AOL promptly cancelled our service and told us we didn't have to pay the bill (we weren't going to anyhow). Ever since we have NEVER recommended AOL to anyone. We've heard the same horror stories from plenty of other people.

We've been with Time Warner and RoadRunner since 99' or 00' can't remember and have never had a problem with them. When our house burned down, they didn't charge us for the cable modem, remote and Digital Boxes we lost. After we moved back in we called to set the internet up. My brother already knew how to do everything but Time Warner said they HAD to send someone to the house to install it. The guy showed up to the house, hooked everything up and didn't charge us a dime. A year or so later that cable modem took a dump. We called Time Warner and they sent a technician the next day to figure out what the problem was. He said the modem was faulty. He went back to the Time Warner office, picked up a new modem, brought it back, installed it and once again we weren't charged a dime. This is why we have been loyal customers for 8 or 9 years. There are plenty of other options around here as far as broadband internet but if a company is going to treat us well in the customer service department we will stick with them.

[Canuck_Buck]

...Deleted by CalHunter.......everytime...

[bergall]

Regarding the phone thing, AT&T wireless is a division of AT&T LAND line. The telephone company. They are a huge corporation. They are arrogant. In their mind, WE ARE THE PHONE COMPANY. With that in mind, my wife works for Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon land line co. (completely different and separate management and corporate structures between the two). She is the manager of the data network over which all Verizon Wireless applications transmit (GPS, music downloads, ringback tones, the TV thing that's still being implemented, etc.). She does not deal with users like us calling in to complain about something. She got a misrouted call to her desk phone from an irate customer. Seems a woman bought a cell phone for her daughter and paid for a moderate number of text-messaging on a monthly basis. This was so she could keep in touch with her daughter who was going away to college. Seems that just going away to college does not indicate intellect because the little idiot ran up a $950 cell phone bill between calls and text messages (mostly text messages). It was this woman's first bill from VzW and she was looking for someone to explain the bill and advise why a $950 bill would break the bank. Now, we have an idiot neice in the same situation; her father and my sister-in-law are divorced and the old man gets the privilege to pay for her text messaging so we don't care...hehehehe.... Anyway, after hearing the story from this woman my wife called the manager of the billing department and told them to wipe out the bill. Nada. Zip. Gottz. Then advised the woman to handle her daughter's obvious ignorance because a repetition would not result in so amicable an outcome. Poof ! No more problem.
What happened with AT&T is that their mutants would not 'go off the menu' and act like human beings assigned to a customer service unit. Customer service to them, is making sure the company gets paid, not that you're happy. As demonstrated, when someone takes in interest in ACTUAL customer service, a lot can be done and everybody gets to feel better. A $950 bill is absolutely nothing to any of these companies, and a small gesture that costs them nothing gets HUGE dividends in customer loyalty, service and referrals. I like to say "They'll not learn without the Churn". (that is, the rate at which customers leave the 'fold' and seek service with competitors). VzW has the lowest churn rate in the industry...