AT&T tech support... unreal

[jdeare]

I have AT&T DSL. Last year I set up automated billing, and recently I got an email that said the card I used was going to expire. When I went to update the card, I discovered that AT&T had changed their account access techniques, now required an Access ID that you link accounts to. I thought I did everything correctly but now I can no longer see my billing info. I tried a bit to get this resolved but eventually I just filled out a paper form that they sent me also. But apparently that didn't work either because I got a notice that the card was declined. Then today I got a disconnection notice; when I called in, they said they processed a payment on 1/16 but now my account was overdue. Doesn't make sense to me but after getting disconnected 3 times while trying to call in, I just paid through their automated phone system.

Now it gets surreal. I want to be able to see my bills online, especially since I also have paperless billing. I try to call in again (different number, but same robot operator...) and sit on hold for 20 minutes. I hang up, and decide to try the online chat they have. I explain what my situation is, and the chat person asks me to allow them to do a screen sharing thing. I'm leery but I go ahead. I proceed to watch as they fumble around my account doing the same things I just did. When that doesn't work, they open a new online chat and proceed to tell the other chat support person the same things I just told them. This goes on for quite some time, and by the end of it my chat support person has gone through 5 other chat support people, still with no resolution. And at the same time, my chat support person was communicating with me by typing in TextEdit (like Notepad)!

I finally had to shut it all down because it was apparent that nothing was going to get resolved. I'll try phone support again tomorrow.

My mind is seriously boggled due to the situation I just described.

 

[QuOk]

Call up and ask for paper billing then switch back to paperless at a later date.

 

[Cardenio327]

Your card expiring is the perfect excuse for you to dump them and get a better service provider, without them being able to try and keep you on the hook. I've dealt with their customer service on two occasions to cancel services (dial up and long distance). They are horrible.

 

[bdcardinal]

This is why I insist on paper billing, and make all payments by check. Where possible I pay my bills in person so I get a receipt.

 

[jdeare]

Yeah, I will switch back to paper if I decide to stay.

Comcast is my other option, and last time I tried to get that, the tech (a Comcast contractor) yanked the jack out of my wall and then was unable to find the hookup for my unit after 45 minutes. Not to mention the incessant complaining about the hours, having to work in the rain, etc... which may be valid complaints, but I'm not sure why I have to hear them.

So... not totally sure one is better than the other.

 

[chevys10]

ATT is hit or miss when it comes to customer service. We have naked DSL right now and recently had a technical issue that was resolved quite quickly and painlessly. When it comes to billing they are the worst.

 

[spasm3]

Att has the worst phone customer service i have ever experienced. Takes hours, no one listens or understands the problem. They have excellent service technicians, they are the ones doing service recovery.

 

[eljefino]

Ironically recurring services can set (get?) a flag from the credit card middlemen to somehow seamlessly retrieve your new expiration date and keep on keeping on. AT&T is too incompetent to implement this.

 

[antiqueshell]

Most of the internet providers telco and cable could care less about the customer, they don't have to because they are essentially monopolies.

 

[beanoil]

AT&T is almost impossible. As bad as AT&T DSL customer service is, their U-Verse division is even worse. But, they are angels compared to Direct TV....

 

[simple_gifts]

I will not extensively detail my bad ATT experience, however it took several calls over several days to several levels of tech support to switch off my land line and make it dry loop DSL. I went thru the tech support and after several hours indicated

"I know how this works; it worked for many years until I put in the service request to have it switched to dry loop; nothing I type into a browser will work unless the PPOE connection is established; BTW I am calling on the phone which was supposed to be disconnected as part of my SR; someone messed up @ the CO"

Many more calls I asked to talk to the manager and she said they are able to resolve 98% of the calls at the first level. I indicated I am in the 2% they aren't able to;

Scheduled a home visit at which I stay home, guy rolls up and indicates no one took the phone out of the loop @ the CO (sounds familiar) He then said, "This should have been resolved without a house visit; this looks really bad @ the customer level"

The saddest thing is basic telcom is what they do, and it is mindboggling they still struggle with the basic requests for service connect and disconnects.

Service quality has been top notch, getting it, not so.

 

[Nick R]

And people think Time Warner has bad customer service...

 

[sleddriver]

I too have ATT ADSL and have dealt with their pain-in-the-[censored] customer no service on more than one occasion. That is till I figured out to only speak with their customer retention dept.

As soon as the first line people answer, tell them to transfer you to the customer retention dept. When they pick up ask for their direct toll-free number. In the future only call that.

Occasionally even there you'll get an idiot. Tell them you're going to call back, hang up and ....call back. They make this an obstacle course. Let them know you're willing and able to run it.

I keep a running log every time I deal with them: Numbers, names, what occured, who-said-what, etc. When even that doesn't help, I file a complaint with the Tx PUC. That ALWAYS gets their attention. PRONTO. After all, they're a state regulated utility.

 

[Kruse]

I could tell a story that would take over an hour about how bad customer service is with AT&T. It involves having a new land line installed in our new house, but keeping an existing number. Several things that really stick in my mind about it all:
1. The customer service operator flat out called me a liar even though she was 500 miles away and knew nothing about the chain of events.
2. They shut down the phone service for our number, but didn't schedule in the guys to dig the new line for service to the new house for a full two weeks after the fact.
3. After fighting with them for over a month to get our service reinstalled, the customer service lady said that we were SOOOOO lucky to have them as providers for our phone service.
4. The bill for all of this work was hundreds of dollars higher than what were were verbally quoted.
5. We had a faulty service box several miles down the road that would literally make the phone unusable when it was raining or windy and they wouldn't come out to fix it.

I could go on and on.

 

[Brons2]

I have a regional company, Grande Communications, and they are the best! Excellent customer service and excellent service quality. I pay for the basic service which is 3Mbps which is $27 but I actually get 5.5Mbps when I do a speedtest at speedtest.net!

 

[jdeare]

I'm pretty sure I'm going to cancel and try my luck with Comcast again. I haven't been on a promo for at least a year so cancelling shouldn't be an issue.

Seems like anyone who has dealt with AT&T has a horrific customer service story. Seems like a great way to do business!

I used to use a local company that was great. The one time I had an issue, I walked over to their office, sat down with the guy, and it was fixed in minutes. Alas, they stopped offering anything but T1 lines.

 

[coolbird101]

I have had several bad experiences with ATT service dept., in fact right now our internet service goes out around 5:00 everyday and becomes an on and off thing until about 7:00, I explained this and yet they still sent me a new router, how could my router only be bad during these two hrs. everyday? Now a tech. is supposed to come by, we needed a tech in the first place. We had Comcast previously, had an issue with picture quality on the tv, guy comes out and says you have a bad connection up on the pole but I cant get to it unless you have your neighbor move his rv, neighbor was out of town for a couple weeks, so I get upset and cancel the service, wouldnt you know they found a way up the pole the next day to disconnect us. My two choices are both really bad and there is no competition so there is no incentive for these corp. to improve, may even be owned by the same big wig. Its like being in a really bad relationship with no way out..

 

[jdeare]

I feel your pain, those are my only 2 choices as well.

 

[eljefino]

Had New York telephone in college. (A "NYNEX" company-- now Verizon after being Bell Atlantic. Guess merging back together is what they had in mind when they hatched the "baby bells".)

I was moving out, new tenant moved in. They had a way you could switch the service to a new billing-responsible party without disconnecting it. Perfect. Did it.

Spring (long distance) didn't get the memo. So I was still on the hook for long distance billing for a phone line I was not in control over. Months passed without straightening it out-- I think the summer tenants cancelled the line in september and put me out of my misery.

Since they thought they had "free long distance" they went nuts, calling 900 numbers etc.

I never paid the bill and it was still on my credit report when I bought my house. Haha, I got the loan.

 

[mechtech2]

Go to an ATT store in person.