My AT&T experience.

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
it came back into the network, they charged me $7/minute (for about $120 total) for a "3rd party" calling card. They admitted misrouting the call and said the charges were in error, but they would not wipe them, insisting I take up the matter with ATT "legacy long distance" apparently a different company, even though they share the same billing and logo. ATT legacy would not clear the charges either. About 5 hours on various account lines and I hung up and let the bill go to collections. (immature/stupid i know) I will probably pay that bill eventually,


I had a similar deal with sprint long distance. In hindsight don't bother yakking on the phone with those jokers, fire off a letter, it preserves your rights better.

I let the "debt" go to collections, wrote the collection agency a letter telling them the debt was not mine and I wasn't paying it. Fast forward to my mortage, it was on my credit, I got the loan anyway, the loan officer didn't even ask about it. Don't pay it unless they take you to court, then you can explain yourself. (They won't)

 

[Y_K]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
...people use mobiles instead of thought/planning.
could not agree more. I believe it was Amoco CEO who'd fire his deputy executives if he saw them using a cell phone. His argument was that they had logistical structure - secretaries, assistants, deputies of their own - capable of proper planning and fall-back options.

Anyway, I use ATT for voice and Verizon MiFi for data in a business and I am happy with ATT and unhappy with Verizon. ATT worked flawlessly last month in UK and Continent and was more cost effective than a funky SIM card alternative that do voice fine in France and SMS only in Italy and nothing at all in Germany.

 

[PandaBear]

I have been very happy with ATT voice call so far and I've been with them for 10 years. I like the rate plan the most due to unlimited night/weekend and mobile to mobile, and have logged almost 3000 mins per month on these free mins and on a 450 mins plan over a family of 5 plans.

If you are a casual phone user and you have other casual phone user in your family (mom/dad/brother/sister/spouse/inlaw), the cheapest way to go is always a small family plan. $90 for 5 lines per month sounds good to me (disconnected landlines in 2 homes as well)

 

[jimbeamalki]

I have AT&T phone and computer. Few months ago modem for computer dies. Call AT&T hotline and guy says it may be the power supply. Go to local AT&T store with modem, tell nice lady my problem. She takes modem, goes in the back to have it checked, comes out and says, "Yes, it's dead." Cough up $105 for new modem. Go home and just for kicks, hook up new power supply to old modem---it works! Hook up new modem to old power supply, no workee! Keep power supply, take new modem back and get my $105 back, but forgot to ask if they work on commission.

 

[TooManyWheels]

I was very happy with AT&T DSL and phone service. That is, until, out of the blue, they decided to disconnect the DSL.

Not a billing issue. No actual reason that they could state when I followed up to ask. Their best guess was that they were supposed to disconnect someone else but got me instead.

Well, stuff happens, I can (grudgingly) accept that. What I couldn't accept was the general obfuscation and do not care attitude about getting me reconnected. First they said it would be two days. Over the next week of no service and my follow up calls, the remedial horizon got longer and longer. Apparently, connecting broadband service is of no priority, even if they have mistakenly cut you off, and there is no, I mean ZERO, escalation procedure to counter the process. I finally was reconnected after twelve days. The only reason it happened so quickly was because I inadvertantly reached a customer service person who knew that the reconnection cycle was slower than the new connection cycle (interesting, no?), and who set me up for a complete new service installation.

 

[BearZDefect]

Alltel - err Windstream - just as hopeless and unhelpful as any story above. After a few years of service I couldn't stand them anymore. It seems to be endemic in these legacy communication businesses. They are usually monopolies in the wired business, which might explain their attitude.

Same goes for cable companies, though I must admit that except for dreadful installers and the typical gouging, the monopoly cable company here is much better than the likes of comcast.

It has been a good development that landline phone companies and cable companies have offerings that compete head to head. A duopoly of this sort has to be better than a monopoly.

 

[javacontour]

Originally Posted By: javacontour
Fortunately, I was able to fix my own AT&T issue.

I have fiber to the home and switched to uVerse in Jan. However, they seemed to have left the RJ11 jack in the box that converts the fiber to a copper phone signal.

My TV and internet worked, but my phone kept dropping out. After going through the "reboot your router" etc I was able to narrow the problem down to being in my homes wiring.

So I open the network terminal interace box on my home and realize they have that box feeding my home phone lines as well as my uVerse gateway trying to drive the same lines. I disconnect the phone connection in the NTI box, and voila, rock solid phone.

Now if only they would stop billing me for my regular phone service. Every month, on the 26th, I get another bill, I make another call, I give them the AT&T ID's of all the folks with whom I've previously spoken, I get the apologies, credits on my bill, etc, but get another bill the next month.

We'll see in about 10 days if they've finally fixed the billing issue.

At least I don't have to pay. I simply have to call every month.

Now why don't they just give me some free uVerse for the hassle?


Seems the billing issue was "fixed" in my favor. I've gotten the same credits again, and a check for over $270 showed up in my mailbox.

As much as I'd like, I'm not cashing that check. Nor am I calling them. I don't want to break this