The most bewildering and negative customer service experience I have ever had. {long story}

Okay, I'll try to keep this short, but I want to tell the full story with all of the details to make this this clear, and I am expecting that someone from AT&T (preferably a department head / senior manager) will be informed of this message.

We've been customers with AT&T for a long time. Multiple cell phones, multiple internet accounts, etc. Our experiences with AT&T customer service have ranged from amazingly excellent to above average every single time we have had a need to contact AT&T.

This week, that changed. Our home internet account was about a week overdue, and I noticed I had missed a call from AT&T billing while I was working. The moment I realized this, I jumped onto live support via the web and was connected with a AT&T agent. I clearly expressed to the agent that our account was overdue, and requested payment arrangements be made for Friday, Nov 6th 2015. This conversation took place on Sunday, Nov 1st 2015.

The agent took a few moments to review our account, and after a brief delay - informed us that he would be more then happy to help us. The agent then informed us that payment arrangements were made for Friday, November 6th, 2015 and that our service would not be disconnected. Before ending the conversation, I mentioned to the agent how both of us work from home, and how our internet connection is our lifeblood - and I was assured that there would be no interruption in our services. The agent was polite, helpful, and I left the conversation very happy with the experience.

To my shock, on the morning of Wed, November 4th, 2015 at 6:30am, my network connection ceased to function - in the middle of my scheduled shift. I do VOIP based tech support (high tier) for a large company, and this outage disconnected me while on the phone resolving a issue with a valued client. I assumed this was simply a "hiccup" in network service (which is totally understandable, and nothing I would ever make a big deal about. No ISP can offer 100% uptime, and occasional outages happen) so I grabbed a fresh cup of coffee and thought nothing of it.

After making a cup of coffee (about 3 mins of time), I hit the "refresh" button on one of my browser tabs, and received a redirect from the requested site to att.com informing me that my service had been suspended and to contact AT&T as soon as possible.

This was very frustrating, of course, but I did not think much of it - after all, it was obvious a mistake had been made and a conversation with support would clearly show that I had made payment arrangements and that I would have my service restored in a few moments. I then logged into live chat (Which still worked even though every other site I tried to visit was informing me that my account was suspended and to contact AT&T, I assume that during a suspension AT&T still allows the customer to access support) and explained my situation to a agent via chat.

After giving this agent all of the details of what happened, he then politely informed me that he was unable to help me himself, and that he would need to escalate this situation to a supervisor. I provided my AT&T phone number to the agent upon request, and while I was still in live chat with the agent, I was contacted by AT&T via voice. The person I spoke to was a customer service representative, and the entire story was relayed again. This agent was polite, friendly, and informed me that he needed to escalate this to a supervisor as he was unable to help me.

At this point, I had been in chat and on the phone for nearly a hour, and had missed a hour of my shift. I understand these things happen, and was never in any way rude or harsh to anyone via the phone. I work in customer service, and I have never once lost my cool on the phone with anyone in a situation like this, and today was no exception.

What came next shocked me beyond belief. I was connected with a supervisor, who provided us the single worst experience we have ever had when dealing with customer service. She greeted me, and I proceeded to take about 60 seconds to describe what the situation was. She then interrupted me rather rudely, and informed me that according to her logs, the agent I spoke to on the 1st had "informed me that no arrangement could be made, and made that clear to me."

Nothing could be further from the truth. In no way was the agent I spoke to vague about granting me a extension, and it was clearly stated twice that my service would not be interrupted, that I was granted a extension until Friday the 6th, and everything was fine. I tried to express this to the supervisor, who responded by interrupting me rudely again before I could get more then a few words out to inform me that she needed to place me on hold. When I tried to respond to her letting her know that was fine, I found I was talking to the hold music - she literally cut me off and placed me on hold mid sentence. I still kept my cool.

At this point nearly 2 hours of my work day were wasted, and my shift was due to end. I used my phone to send a apologetic e-mail to me boss letting her know what was going on, and was told that she understood, but the tone was quite disappointed and it was obvious to me that she was not happy with me. This was pretty stressful, as I started this job only three weeks ago and having issues like this so early into my employment is not a good thing.

The supervisor came back, and informed me that there was nothing that could be done and then did things took a turn for the bizarre. She stated that "any time a agent grants a payment arrangement, the agent provides the customer with a confirmation number" and asked me what my confirmation number was. This felt like nothing but a mean spirited way of saying "I know you are lying". The agent who granted my extension never offered me a confirmation number. I attempted to explain this to the agent, who cut me off again in mid sentence and placed me on hold before I had a chance to say more then two words.

At this point, I mentioned the time and date my conversation with the agent that created my extension took place, and asked her to simply look at the chat log for that event to clear up any misunderstanding. After being rudely interrupted a couple times, I managed to get this out, and then was told something I simply cannot believe: that no one who worked for AT&T was able to access those logs, and there was no way anyone would be able to read them. Sure, the logs existed, she informed me, but no one was "allowed" to access them.

I did a facepalm, and attempted to say that I had a hard time believing that and was going to ask for her to please double check on that with her boss, but was again cut off after a couple words and put on hold.

After another delay, she came back on the phone and informed me that there was nothing she could do, and that I would have to speak with a manager, but the hold time could be a while and asked me if I was sure I wanted to wait. Yeah, I wanted to wait. I've already invested a few hours into this fiasco, might as well see it through to the end, I thought. I was still calm and cool, and attempted to say "Thank you for helping me and getting me to a manager" but was cut off after getting the word "thank" out of my mouth, and again found myself talking to the hold music.

Finally, I got through to a manager. Hours now that I could have been working wasted and the knowledge that my boss was unhappy with me for being unable to finish my shift were not making me a happy camper, but as always: I described the situation calming and politely after wishing the manager a good morning. To my shock, he actually let me finish my sentences and listened to what I had to say, which was quite pleasing after my experience with the supervisor I spoke to before him. He then told me the same thing, that his notes stated that the agent I spoke to had informed me that no extension could be granted, which was not the case.

I allowed him to finish (I don't like being cut off mid sentence, and avoid doing that to anyone on the phone regardless of how frustrated I am) and stated "If you would take a moment and look over the chat log of my conversation on Sunday, November 1st @ 6:30 am with the agent, you will clearly see that is not the case."

The manager did not do this, but simply informed me that my extension would be granted as originally promised to me and that he would have my service restored as soon as possible. After hours on the phone. I was nothing but grateful with this problem finally being made right, and thanked the manager for finally making it right. I then took up a few moments of his time letting him know how rude and unprofessional the supervisor I had spoken to was, and asked for contact information (phone or e-mail) of whoever is in charge of the customer service department so I could lodge a complaint. The manager informed me that they don't give out that kind of information, and directed me to the at&t web page to discuss this situation - and here we are.

Again, I work in the support industry. I'm not one of "those" customers who demands free things or discounts when things go wrong, but to me - this was above and beyond unacceptable service. Any "supervisor" who treated a customer the way I was treated (rudely cutting a customer off many times, placing a customer on hold in mid sentence, etc) would find themselves quickly lacking employment.

At this point, my girlfriend and I are strongly convincing ending our business internet service, home internet service, and 3 cell phone contracts and moving to a different carrier. Which is not ideal, as we have been customers for many years, and have always found AT&T to treat us acceptably, as minimal. I would appreciate contact by someone "in charge" of things in the customer service department and to be assured that we will never be treated in this way again. I would like a formal apology for how we were treated, and I would like to have the log of my conversation on Sunday, November 1st read by someone "in charge" and a copy of the log sent to me, for my own documentation.  At this point, knowing that someone took the time to even look over the 6:30am November the 1st chat log and realize that I was in the right all along, and to tell me that would go a long way towards making me believe this was a isolated incident.  A apology from the supervisor was seemed to enjoy some her childish phone antics would also be nice.  I leave it to AT&T to decide what should be done.

We look forward to hearing from you promptly, AT&T, and having this situation made right.  I strongly considered posting this story via social media, but decided that it might be best to send it directly to AT&T first, and giving them a chance to make this right.

Thank you for your time,

Sean and Amanda