AT&T Rant!

I have had DSL service with AT&T (Southwestern Bell originally) for over 12 years. It has been near flawless.

Recently (back in June I think) I was trying to increase the bandwidth to help make the board faster for you guys. I was seeing a little income from the click ads here, so I thought it was worth the $15 more a month to double the speed.

I tried to upgrade my DSL service via the Internet, but it wouldn't let me, so I called the customer service. The person was very nice and took care of it for me. I verfied about 15 times what the new price would be, and even though the computer system was giving him a little trouble he assured me that it was the right price.

A couple of months later I'm looking at the amount due and it was about $32 more a month than I expected. I looked and I wasn't being charged the price I was ASSURED I would be paying.

I called in to AT&T customer service and after about 45 minutes I was told the price was right and all they could do would be to put the service back to the lower speed. I tried to speak with a supervisor, but she wasn't available.

Over the next 3 weeks we played phone tag. Finally I called in and told them to put me back on the prior service, along with the previous amount.

Very friendly, and apologetic they put me back on the lower speed service and ASSURED ME that the price would be back to what it was for the last 3 years!

Well I looked at my bill today and yep I'm back on the old service but I'm being charged $22 more a month than the original amount!

I called in and ask the guy WTH!?!?!?! He tells me that to get that original price I need to be on a 12 month contract. WHAT!?!?!?! No one said anything about a contract, they just ASSURED me the price would be back to what it was originally. I even made them tell me the EXACT amount so there would be no doubt.

He looks at it shows that I've had a anual contract renewal for the last 3 years. I asked isn't that something that I would have to renew? "Ahhhh yes, ahhhh, I'm not sure, ahhhh anyway to get the lower price you need to be on a 12 month contract. You want to get on that contract?"

I told him I wanted to speak with a manager.

So a manager gets on the phone and I explain my 6 month ordeal of promises and lies. He tells me the price is set by the PUC and he can't change them. I told him everyone is really nice at AT&T and sounds helpful but I'm not getting anything I want and it seems that several people that I have dealt with DO NOT have a clue as to what they can and can't do in AT&T. Bascially I'll do the 12 month contract but what is he going to do for me?

He said he'd give me a $50 discount off the bill. I then asked what about the wrong amount I'm being charged on last month's bill? He said he take care of that, then he stopped and said I'll take $100 off the bill.

Frankly I was hoping for 6 months free service, but this is fine.

So it isn't that the people at AT&T aren't willing to help, they are, but something is seriously wrong when a customer with 12+ years on their DSL cannot get what they are promised.

If I was using just plain old Internet I would be contacting another provider right now and ordering from them then cancelling my AT&T service when the other was installed and working, without hesitation! Bottom line is someone or something inside AT&T is seriously wrong. You can complain but no one seems to have the ability to give you want they tell you, or promise you.

I don't think AT&T is alone in this, but this has been my recent experience with them and I wanted to make sure that I at least made someone aware of it.

We have been good Verizon customers for a number of years now. Included in the standard deal is free minutes to verizon phones. Then we get a huge bill one month. All our free minutes were now being charged for. I have long conversations with my son and my wife has long conversations with a girl friend and not to mention all the times a day she calls me just to hear the sound of my voice.

So, we call and complain, and are assured something happened with the computer and they would take care of it. Next bill comes and guess what is on it. My opinion for what it is worth is that companies are just trying to do what some credit card companies do, just see what they can get away with.

We had house phones with AT&T when we moved back to Texas in '06 and asked for the very basic package. The amount we were quoted was 19.95 per month including taxes. We agreed to that and the next day they hooked it up. When the first bill came it was for 35.95 and I called and the lady explained it was a hook up charge that was on the bill that drove it to that amount. She assured me that it would be credited after 90 days. So I paid the bill. the next months bill was 28.95 and I called again and she again assured me that it was a one time charge for supplies involved in my hookup but she would credit me for them so only send in a check for 19.95. I sent the check and the following month when the bill arrived it listed me as in arrears for $9 which I was told I was being credited for the previous month and it had been 90 days by then and so when I called about the $9 I asked about my credit that was due at the end of my 90 days. I was told that that would be applied against my bill in a $10 per month amount until it was used up.
My wife and I discussed how many calls we had made in the 3 months we had the phone and came up with a grand total of 8 so we decided to have the service discontinued. We decided that AT&T was too underhanded to trust so we have never considered them again but I still get at least one offer in the mail every month to try them again and also including cellular services.

I tried at&t when it was Cingular. I was switching my phone number from tracfone (a pre pay service) It took them over 3 weeks to get the number changed after they said it would take 5 days (Might have said 7 but I'm pretty sure it was 5) I went to one of their stores several times and all the people there wanted to do was sell me a new phone. Finally after getting the number switched the coverage was okay, but on the first bill was extra charges for all the times I called customer service. I went into their store here in Anderson and after about 15 minutes of dealing with rude salesmen I said I wanted to see the manager, when she finally came out of her office she said it was a "standard charge" I held up my phone and asked her to repeat what she had just said. She did and told me she really didn't have time to speak to me. I let her know that I was recording her with the video camera on the phone after telling me to stop a couple times she said she would call the police and have me escorted out. I told her to go ahead and that I would be contacting their head office and showing them the video as well as putting it on you tube. She then cancelled the charges, let me out of the contract with no fee and apologized for my troubles. Now I'm back on the prepay with no problems whatsoever! Luckily I don't spend a whole lot of time on the phone so just picking up one of their minutes cards every couple of months has worked out rather well.