I was talking with customer service with the landline division - you know, those twisted pair people - trying to sort out a problem with my call-forwarding. They mentioned that I might want to try AT&T Uverse as it would save me about $50 a month over my present package of landline and DSL.
So I went online today and signed up. The site works fine, as it should, and the "chat window" worked well and the customer service person answered all my questions.
Great. I am signed up for Uverse with an install date of October 11. What could be easier?
Oh, wait. This is AT&T, the General Motors of phone companies.
About three hours later, I get this e-mail from AT&T:
Dear Robert {Personal content removed for your safety},
Thank you for your recent AT&T Order. Our records indicate that service already exists at the address you provided so your order could not be processed.
To complete your order, contact AT&T and let us know if you are changing the existing service or want to set up additional new service at the same address.
Please give us a call at 1-877-833-5989 (Mon-Fri 8 am to 10 pm, or Sat-Sun 8 am to 5 pm Eastern Time) to provide the necessary information we need to complete your online order.
To prevent an automatic cancellation of your order, it's important we hear from you within 10 days.
Thank you for choosing AT&T.
So I call the number. After goiing through a DTMF tree and waiting on hold, I talk to a live rep. Give them the customer number.
They want to know if I want Uverse service in additon to my existing DSL service. Let me ask you a question: What *person* would want both services?
No one, of course. She then acts mystified as to why I would want to switcth from DSL - like this has never, ever happened in the history of AT&T.
Isn't it AT&T's corporate policy to migrate users from DSL to Uverse? Isn't this why it is priced more attractively?
Oh well, no one at customer service has ever heard such an extrordinary thing! Imagine that, wanting to switch from DSL to Uverse! This is a toughie!
So she changes tactics. This is a security measure and they want to make sure no one is slamming my phone line! OK, I get that. But I am calling from the phone number in question. Just look at your caller ID!
"We don't have caller ID, sir!" she says.
No caller ID? YOU'RE THE PHONE COMPANY FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! No caller ID! My credit card company has caller ID and can verify who I am when I call, automatically. My bank does this as well. Apparently this is beyond the technical capabilities of AT&T.
Next, she says she needs permisssion to cancel my DSL service, but that "another department" has to handle that, and she isn't sure how to get through to them.
At this point, the call gets disconnected.
I call back. Go through the same rigamarole. About a half-hour invested in this, now.
After much runaround, I finally get a supervisor. The previous operator I talked to has "locked" my account so it cannot be accessed by anyone. So, he says to call back tommorrow or later or sometime or whatever.
Hmmm.... Maybe I should let the order get cancelled and go with Comcast. Maybe they actually want my business.
This makes me sad, as I am an AT&T shareholder, have used AT&T landlines at both homes, have an AT&T cell phone since before the Cingular days, and even use an AT&T bsuiness phone system.
And it is sad that AT&T is adding to its cost-structure by making users CALL IN to "confirm" orders entered online. What a waste of resources and manpower! A whole call center just "veriftying" orders made over the Internet. What hambone thought that up? The Union rep?
But it seems that the left hand never knows what the right hand is doing, at AT&T.
This reminds me of the early days of DSL at AT&T - you'd have a problem with the DSL connection, and the DSL customer service department (separate from the landline operation) would blame landline. Landline would say it was a DSL problem. Net result is that the customer is whip-sawed between two departments denying responsibility for anything.
How about just ONE AT&T instead of four schitzopherinic companies?
dhascall
