I Hate AT&T (rant)

[Jeff in BigD]

I get my bill for cable & internet through AT&T. In November I went to a new check book & made the usual payments. I thought everything was hunky-dorey. Not so much. First the net goes out, then the TV. I call to ask "WTH?!" They say that the checks were returned. I called the bank & it turns out the bank printed that book with the wrong account number (the 3rd & 4th numbers were switched). I play a fun game of run around showing the bank & AT&T what happened. After a week or so, everything falls into place...or so I thought.

I cancel the digital cable & go with basic. The guy comes to install it & we give him our box. The bill comes for $400 some-odd dollars, the charges being for the box. I had to make a couple phone calls tp verify that the box had been given to the service guy & then there was peace in the land...not quite.

I started paying with a credit card just to keep a better handle on the account. In late January I get a call asking if I want to combine the cable & internet bill into one bill. I said yes, because I figured that it would make things a lot easier...guess I was wrong. I make a payment for the net & cable, then a couple days later I get that the balance is $73 (she later claims that she doesn't see it, though it's on my CC report plain as day) & I figure that it's for Feb's balance.

I've been seeing these commercials for Comcast internet & cable. I was like "cool, looks like they were finally able to bust up the cable monopolies & we finally have competition"...heh...

Tonight the internet went out & I'm calling up AT&T to find out what's up. I first get the automated crap along with the line "thank you for calling AT&T, soon to be Comcast" - dashed hope. Then the automated line asks for the usual "who are you?" stuff & then it claims that I need to pay them $170!

I get the internet problem fixed (obviously ), but then I ask about the $170. They say that the debt goes past November & that I can request a copy via fax or go online (online is working right now) & that I'll have to fax the info to them to try to get this settled.

The tele-person says that she can really only get info on the internet stuff, not the cable stuff. Shouldn't her info be consolidated since my internet & cable bills were? I asked her to seperate the bills & she then says that she can't seperate them anymore. I made a remark then that I guess I was lucky that my permission was asked for in the first place.

Arrgh! I'm completely frustrated. I'd look for other options if I wasn't addicted to cable TV & broadband internet. I'm thinking that I'm starting to understand what it's like to be a crack w****(for lack of a better term).

 

[dianeschlicht]

DH works for a national security company who relies on phone lines for alarms. He goes with anything but AT&T in any area he can! They mess up more than any other phone company, and in security, you can't have that!

 

[Mskanga]

Jeff I only had AT&T for cell phones until a couple of months ago, I got rid of them for bad service. I hated them.

 

[Gail T AGAIN]

I hate AT&T, to put it bluntely they SUCK! I am sick of paying for my cable TV and internet a month before I use it. I am probably ruining my credit but I wait till the month is over then pay it. Just to call them they are horible, press 1, press 2 hey ATT&T press this

 

[SJCSuzy]

AT&T is the worst! DH and I just switched over to DirectTv and are done with AT&T. The don't offer cable internet here yet but if they do we won't be signing up.

 

[TLinden16]

We have had a lot of problems with AT&T as well. We had a guy come to our door last year, and sold us (and a number of our neighbors) bundle packages for phone, tv, and internet service (although we didn't go with the internet service). The information they gave us was completely wrong--the calling area for the phone was a lot smaller than he told us it would be, we started having to pay 7 cents a minute for local calls that were free with Verizon. He told us that we would get a break for having a bundle package with our normal cable, but we found out that we would only get the break if we signed up for digital cable. We started getting bills for AT&T long distance when we never made a call.

When we switched to AT&T digital cable, they guy set a couple of the TV's up wrong, and we had to switch the cables around to use the VCRs and DVD players again.

Customer service is pathetic. They seem very uninformed, and are often down right rude. I don't lose my temper with people over the phone very often, but AT&T has done it to me three times in the past eight months.

So, you're not alone hating AT&T, Jeff.

Karen

 

[olena]

My brother calls them Atni-Christ Telephone & Telegraph.

I don't miss cable at all.

Jeff, when we were at AT&T's mercy, Chris had numerous opportunities to practice and develop escalation techniques. He'd keep a running tab of whom he talked with and when, etc. If he didn't get anywhere with someone, he'd ask for the supervisor. If supervisor was busy, he'd demand a direct number for the supervisor. If the supervisor did not return the call, Chris would call back and ask for the next level up. The direct number was handy, so we didn't have to go through the stupid electronic menus. Chris wasn't shy about penning letters to the public utility commmission and informing the company that he was doing so. That seemed to be the only way to get things done and it worked. Every time the cable was out, which was frequently, we'd call for a credit for that day.


I don't miss cable at all. Best of luck, Jeff.

 

[Claudia1]

We had AT&T WorldNet for use during travel. During our last trip, we couldn't get on. Tried and tried.

When we got home, DH spent 4 hours on the phone and on the net, trying to get us back up. They said that we changed our password. Not in a million years!!!!

We always have password that we can remember and user name and password were jibberish. They had changed it and we couldn't use it.

Dropped them fast!

 

[Jeff in BigD]

Ok, I called again & had them seperate the cable & internet bills (which will take 20-30 days). Oh & here's another little gem...apparently the small print on the cable thing was that the $28 per month (which was an ok deal) that they were bragging about for cable was only good for 3 months...now, for non-digital basic cable (no movie channels or anything) I'm supposed to pay $40 a month.

I have to take my credit card statements down to their office & show them the charges.

Arrrgh! I thought all this crap was supposed to make life easier.

 

[4greatboys]

Originally posted by Gail T AGAIN
press 1, press 2 hey ATT&T press this

LOL, Thanks for the laugh. No problem with AT&T yet (knocking on wood) but I do have one cc company that we are fixing to cancel because of crap like that.

Gail..I think you should get that put on some tee-shirts and make a fortune!

 

[Grog]

I had AT&T for a couple of years and had nothing but trouble. It seems like every couple of months there was a billing problem of one kind or another. I finally dropped them about a year ago when a co-worker recommended SBC for long distance. I picked from a list of plans that they offered and haven't had a problem since. As for cable and broadband, I use Time Warner and Roadrunner. Haven't had any problems with either one, and it keeps the cable and broadband on one bill.