I sent the following letter to AT&T's retention department a month ago and have received no response except for another threatening and fraudulent bill notice. I can honestly say I have never received such astonishly poor service from a company in my life and have suffered psychological and financial damage as a result.
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I am writing to you following very many failed attempts to resolve this issue with customer services over the telephone. In short: as a result of spectacularly poor service from your company, and the fact that I never actually ended up with any internet access in my apartment, I phoned up to cancel my U-verse contract and returned the modem within the 30-day period. Despite calling on many occasions and being assured by various customer service representatives that I do not owe your company any money, I am still being sent bills, some of which threaten to take the money from my credit card on a designated date.
I politely ask that you look into this matter and respond to this letter within 30 days, confirming in writing that I do not owe your company any money, and that you will ensure that I am not sent further bills. I would also like you to remove my credit card details from your files so that you will not be able to take money directly from my card. If I do not receive this confirmation, I will take legal advice on how to proceed. I am finding the harassment by your company, and the number of hours I am spending being put on hold and then passed around between AT&T representatives trying to resolve this – none of whom seem able to help – completely unacceptable.
The longer version of the story:
I visited the AT&T store on 53rd Street, Chicago in August to try to set up internet in my apartment. They took my full address, but when the modem was sent out, my apartment number was not included on the package, so the delivery company were unable to deliver it to me, and returned the modem to you. I went back to the store, and they arranged to have a new modem sent out. I later discovered that to amend my address details, a whole new account had been set up for me (hence the two account numbers listed at the top of this letter).
The second modem arrived, with a new scheduled start time for my internet connection. After this scheduled start time, I followed the instructions included with the modem, but the modem was not connecting to the internet. I then spent approximately 4 hours over two days on the phone being moved between various people, finally arranging for a technician to come out the following day.
The technician did not turn up. I phoned up again. Another technician was sent out. This technician turned up half an hour after the allotted time frame, and did not call ahead to tell me when he was arriving (as I had been assured by your customer service representative that he would do). It was only by chance, in fact, that I bumped into him outside our apartment building as I was leaving.
This technician went down to our building’s basement and wired some things together. He refused, however, to come up to my apartment and check that the internet was working – he simply assured me that it would be. It wasn’t. (In fact, when I eventually arranged internet access with another company, AM3, the technician that they sent out informed me that your technician had wired the wrong things together. AM3’s technician was horrified that your technician had not come up to the apartment to check that he had wired it correctly. Our internet access with AM3 is working perfectly.)
I spent several more hours on the phone with your company. I was informed that they could send out another technician to try to figure out why the internet still wasn’t working, but that I would be charged for this service. I declined, and decided to cancel the contract, as I was still within the initial 30 day period. I phoned to cancel, and was given a number to put on the returns label to post the modem back, which I did – also within the 30 day period. I was assured by the representative I spoke to that I would not owe your company any money.
Since then I have received three bills, for the two different accounts that (it turns out) I have with your company. On receiving the first, I visited the store I originally set up the account with, and spoke to the manager, who was sympathetic but seemed unable to do anything other than put me through to more people on the phone. Eventually, a customer service representative assured me that she would remove all charges from my account, and said I would receive a call the next day confirming that this had been done. The next day, I did indeed receive a call, but was interrogated about my posting of the modem. I did not have the tracking number available, and the representative who called me passed me on to technical support, whilst staying on the line herself. After a mutually confusing conversation with technical support, they eventually confirmed that yes, they had received the modem I had posted. The representative agreed that I did not owe any money.
I then received the second bill. I called again from the store, and again – after being passed between a number of people and being kept on hold for a very long time – I spoke to a representative who worked out that I had two accounts open and was receiving bills for both of them. She then put me on hold while she spoke to technical support and was eventually able to confirm, again, that I had returned the modem that I’d received, that the original modem had been returned to them by the delivery company, and that both accounts were now cancelled. She confirmed explicitly that I did not owe any money on either account.
I have now received a third bill, demanding that I “pay immediately” past due charges of $43.60, and adding to this a charge of $55 for “repair labor”. This latter presumably refers to the technician who eventually turned up, wired up completely the wrong things, and refused my request to come to the apartment and check that his work had been successful. When I arranged for the technician to come, I was not informed that I would be charged for this service. In any case, as I am sure you understand, I have no reason to pay for a technician who so clearly failed to do the job he had been asked to do.
To repeat: I have never had any internet access from your company. I have returned the one modem that was sent to me, and I have cancelled my account, both within the initial 30 day period. I would like you to respond in writing within 30 days of the date of this letter, confirming that I do not owe your company any money, that you will stop sending me bills, and that you will remove my credit card details from your files to ensure that future incompetence by your company does not lead to my card being debited. If I do not receive this confirmation, I will take further legal advice.
Thank you in advance for your help.
texasguy37
