Ridiculous [ Edited ]

[drtheel]

Dear ATT Uverse Universe - 

I have to preface this with saying your product is great and I want it. That said I hope that somewhere someone will hear read or process this.

You have to have one of the most incompetent and incapable customer service systems in the known world.  For a technology company to be this backwards is frankly ironic.  In late September I ordered Uverse for two houses. One in Charlotte NC and the other in Greenville SC.  Days later and with professional installation, the Charlotte spot was up and running and great.  Unfortunately the story goes really South from here.

In a gigantic cluster that culminated today with the explanation that you cannot give me service less than a mile from downtown Greenville, which while not big, is fairly sizable.  Now that came in parallel with emails today that an installer will be here at 9 tomorrow morning.

But let me digress as you are as a business; Four separate times I have waited for an installation to have NO CALL NO SHOW. all of these events were followed up by me, but no one at your company could pick up the phone to advise me of your failure.

There seems to be a discrepancy as to where I live.  Fed Ex, UPS, USPS, Police, Fire, Dominos Papa Johns and my lawn guy can all get here with GPS.  And BTW one of your Techs found me on Google with no problem.  

But HUGE TECH PIONEER ATT cannot actually find me.  During one of my ten plus calls to your centers, someone actually said was I sure of my address.  Now at times I have probably needed help but getting home was not an issue.

I am shocked that you could create an account, supposedly work with 911 system, verify my address etc and then screw this up over and over.

Talked with people in Rochester, Nashville, Wisconsin and Texas _ Natalie Kevin Catherine Susie Cheri Harold “H” et al.  Everyone assured me this was no problem and it would get worked out.

You have sent a technician to the wrong part of Greenville 5 times.  Oddly enough that side of town probably has much less ability to pay for the service but you offer it.  Not here where most everyone would consume it over the other choices.

If I didnt like your service this would be like having my eyes poked out.  You have lots of people that make hollow promises and have zero ability to solve problems.

You should be embarrassed on many levels - not the least of which is making a promise I could have the service then wasting my time only to tell me today you dont even have the service here.

ATT represents the worst of what we face as consumers.  Responsibility and accountability should be core values.  Obviously you simply dont care about individuals as long as money comes in we are all small numbers.

I will figure out ways to fight this garbage because I can only assume you pull the same stunts with abusing your actual customers.

I am confident none of you have the courage to call me so at least maybe someone will read this and fight.

David

[edited for privacy – please do not post personal information]

[pondersome]

I'm hoping I can tag onto another post from another clearly dissatisfied consumer because, for whatever reason, this stupid support site won't accept my original posting.

Is your entire support staff completely incompetent?

I signed up with ATT U-Verse just over 5 years ago and have been, for the most part, happy with my service. About 7 months ago, I started experiencing intermittent service interruptions. I called phone support, they ran some tests, conducted some sort of system reset, and the problem seemed to go away. Every now and then the service would drop out and come back but only occasionally and for short periods of time; maybe 3 - 5 minutes or so. Then, about 3 months ago I started seeing constant drop outs. Naturally I called back for assistance. Phone support scheduled a technician who showed up at my house the next day. By his determiniation, the problem was an outside line problem so he called an outside service tech who, again, showed up the next day. The outside tech promptly told me there's nothing wrong with the outside lines and another tech would have to come out. I never heard from another tech so I had to call phone support back. Well phone support can only send an inside tech, which, I guess is okay because the outside tech said it was an inside problem. The second inside guy conducted some tests, spent probably 45 minutes at my house and concluded it was an outside problem and went ahead and scheduled another outside tech. The second outside tech said he didn't see any outside problems but noticed I was missing a ground wire so he scheduled someone to come in and drive a new ground wire. That didn't fix the problem and after several days, again, of constant drop outs, I called phone support. They scheduled another inside guy who, after reading my file, decided to just go ahead and replace the coax that was coming into my house with Cat 5 (I think) and replaced some components in the box outside the house. He scheduled an outside tech to come the next day because he still believed the problem was outside. The outside guy never called and never showed up but somehow still submitted a report that there was nothing wrong with the outside and that it was an inside problem. I'm getting very sick of this finger pointing inside / ouside garbage because I'm paying for a service (and now several service calls), I'm having to take time off of work to deal with the inept phone support and the tech support people that talk a big story but don't actually fix anything, and my service still doesn't work. Well tech #5 was kind enough to leave his card and told me to call back if I had any problems, I went ahead and called him back except he didn't answer and he didn't have voicemail set up. Now, I'm stuck having to call phone support again. Phone support went ahead and scheduled another inside tech even though the last tech I talked to said it was an outside problem (keep in mind, tech #6 never called and never showed that I was aware of). After countless calls and constant problems, tech # 7 replaced the DVR and tech #8 replaced the router and my service still doesn't work. By the way, I'm not sure what trash bin tech #8 pulled the "new" router from but the piece of junk he put in is all scratched up, worn, and splashed with mud. I called tech #8's phone and he doesn't answer either. I'm not sure why the techs pass out cards and beg me to call when there's a problem because there doesn't seem to be any point to it. I have only 1 TV in my house. After all this, there's nothing inside my house that hasn't already been replaced but my service still drops out so, once again, I call phone support who, guess what, can only schedule and inside tech. But I don't need an inside tech. What's an inside tech going to do? Tell me I need an outside tech. Somewhere in this mess, some phone support person said they'd lower my bill for the inconvenience. It's a kind gesture but I'm thinking I need to lower my bill to $0 because clearly there is an entire system of incompetence here. I don't need a bill reduction. I need my service to work. I don't need to listen to some mindless, script reading, broken english babble about how they understand my frustration. No! clearly they don't understand my frustration because if they did, they'd fix the problem. Also, several of the "supervisors" said they would call me back and follow up to ensure the problem was resolved. Only 1 actually called back and, no, the problem is still not resolved.

    So after all this, I have 2 questions.

1. How does U-Verse stay in business? I've read plenty of posts online and even posted the progress on epinions and the "UVerse Sucks" site on facebook. There are a ton of people with the same problem. One tech that was at my house did some sort of neighborhood search and said there are 6 people in my immediate vicinty with the same issues. 6 people in 1 neighborhood and somehow these are all inside problems? Do your outside techs actually do any work?

2. If this is the level of incompetence that I would have to deal with going forward, why should I stay with AT&T? I'm just 1 customer. You won't miss my $105 per month. That's only $1,260 per year. You would think some bright minded individual might actually think, though, that 6 people in 1 neighborhood leaving is not just $1,260 per year, but actually $7,560 lost. But what's $7,560 to a giant like AT&T? Well, maybe that bright minded individual might realize there's more than 1 neighborhood in Michigan. And belive it or not, there's more than 1 state in this country. You would think that bright minded individual might want to do something to actually cause a problem to be resolved. But then I've always been kind of an optimist. I'm probably giving more credit than is due.

[mibrnsurg ACE - Geek]

Both posters should contact Alex, the AT&T Community Manager that has helped many users, by Private Message (his response, blue letter in upper right are PMs). Include your full name, account # and good phone #.:

http://forums.att.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/318276

Let us know how things work out if you can after contacting Alex.  Good luck

Edit:  Most of us here are users just like yourselves and try to help if we can.

Chris

---

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
Need Help? 1-800-288-2020, After he gets acct info, press # a bunch of times, get a menu from Mr. Voice recognition
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

[pondersome]

That's your answer? Contact Alex? What does that say about the legions of people I've already talked to and the 8 technicians that have been to my house? Do none of them know anything or care? Are you telling me you have one singular, lonely employee named Alex who can get the job done and everyone else's job is to just take up people's time until Alex can get around to it? Why don't you help me? Are you not capable? If not, what is your purpose?

[JefferMC ACE - Wizard]

What it says is that this is a customer forum.  The poster who suggested you get in touch with Alex is another AT&T customer like you.

Alex is not a customer, he is an AT&T employee, one who has been successful in bringing order out of the Chaos that is AT&T.  If you want help, follow the poster's suggestion.

If, on the other hand, you just want to complain, please don't let me stop you.

[pondersome]

Forgive my cynicism, but on 3 of my calls to AT&T I've had the phone support people tell me they're customers just like me so they understand, and they'd personally take responsibility to help. Naturally, I assumed that's part of their script so when I saw it posted here, I assumed I was hitting the same dead end. "Assumed" twice in one sentence. We all know where that leads. Just like I assumed the problem would be fixed by now. I guess I should know better...

[BeeBeeSA ACE - Wizard]

If you don't want to work with Alex I would recommend that you send a Private Message to the AT&TCustomerCare customer service team. They will reply back with a PM (blue envelope in the top right of the page). Their normal business hours are from 7am to 10pm Central Time.

[jamileh]

---

pondersome wrote:

That's your answer? Contact Alex? What does that say about the legions of people I've already talked to and the 8 technicians that have been to my house? Do none of them know anything or care? Are you telling me you have one singular, lonely employee named Alex who can get the job done and everyone else's job is to just take up people's time until Alex can get around to it? Why don't you help me? Are you not capable? If not, what is your purpose?

---

Hi there - I understand you're very frustrated because you've tried so many times to get the support you need and haven't been able to. 

mibrnsurg suggested that you contact Alex and BeeBeeSA suggested contacting ATTCustomerCare because we have a team who's purpose is to help people with issues like yours. Our forum is driven by customers like you who enjoy helping other people but there are some issues they can't help with because they require looking at your account.

Please send a private message to ATTCustomerCare with your name, account number, email address, phone number and the best time to contact you. They will have a member of our team contact you directly; no hold times, no explaining your issue to multiple people, and you'll have one point of contact to work with. 

I know you have been disappointed in the past but if you'll give us a chance to help make things right; I'm sure we can get this resolved. 


To send a private message, you can either click on the link in this message or click on the little blue envelope in the upper right hand corner, click "compose new message" and type ATTCustomerCare in the "Send To" field.

[jamileh]

---

drtheel wrote:

Dear ATT Uverse Universe - 

I have to preface this with saying your product is great and I want it. That said I hope that somewhere someone will hear read or process this.

You have to have one of the most incompetent and incapable customer service systems in the known world.  For a technology company to be this backwards is frankly ironic.  In late September I ordered Uverse for two houses. One in Charlotte NC and the other in Greenville SC.  Days later and with professional installation, the Charlotte spot was up and running and great.  Unfortunately the story goes really South from here.

In a gigantic cluster that culminated today with the explanation that you cannot give me service less than a mile from downtown Greenville, which while not big, is fairly sizable.  Now that came in parallel with emails today that an installer will be here at 9 tomorrow morning.

But let me digress as you are as a business; Four separate times I have waited for an installation to have NO CALL NO SHOW. all of these events were followed up by me, but no one at your company could pick up the phone to advise me of your failure.

There seems to be a discrepancy as to where I live.  Fed Ex, UPS, USPS, Police, Fire, Dominos Papa Johns and my lawn guy can all get here with GPS.  And BTW one of your Techs found me on Google with no problem.  

But HUGE TECH PIONEER ATT cannot actually find me.  During one of my ten plus calls to your centers, someone actually said was I sure of my address.  Now at times I have probably needed help but getting home was not an issue.

I am shocked that you could create an account, supposedly work with 911 system, verify my address etc and then screw this up over and over.

Talked with people in Rochester, Nashville, Wisconsin and Texas _ Natalie Kevin Catherine Susie Cheri Harold “H” et al.  Everyone assured me this was no problem and it would get worked out.

You have sent a technician to the wrong part of Greenville 5 times.  Oddly enough that side of town probably has much less ability to pay for the service but you offer it.  Not here where most everyone would consume it over the other choices.

If I didnt like your service this would be like having my eyes poked out.  You have lots of people that make hollow promises and have zero ability to solve problems.

You should be embarrassed on many levels - not the least of which is making a promise I could have the service then wasting my time only to tell me today you dont even have the service here.

ATT represents the worst of what we face as consumers.  Responsibility and accountability should be core values.  Obviously you simply dont care about individuals as long as money comes in we are all small numbers.

I will figure out ways to fight this garbage because I can only assume you pull the same stunts with abusing your actual customers.

I am confident none of you have the courage to call me so at least maybe someone will read this and fight.

David

[edited for privacy – please do not post personal information]

---

I'm sorry you've had such a difficult time. I'd like to help and we definitely want to help.

Will you please send a private message to ATTCustomerCare with your name, account number, email address, phone number and the best time to contact you?




To send a private message, you can either click on the link in this message or click on the little blue envelope in the upper right hand corner, click "compose new message" and type ATTCustomerCare in the "Send To" field.

[pondersome]

"I know you have been disappointed in the past but if you'll give us a chance to help make things right; I'm sure we can get this resolved."

A chance? What have my countless calls and 8 service technicians to my house been if not each a chance? The Tigers had 4 chances to win the World Series and they blew all 4 of them. You can't keep blowing your chances and still expect to come out on top. At some point you have to produce and it shouldn't take 3 months.

This statement is a perfect example of a scripted response that I'm sick of hearing over and over without seeing results.

My job requires I have internet connectivity from home. If I don't work, things don't get done, I don't get paid. My boss doesn't afford me these endless "chances" you speak of because I live in a world of responsibility and accountability.

Now I've contacted Alex via PM and I've provided my account number and phone number but this is the LAST chance. Of course, you may be happy to see me dump my service because lord knows you don't want vocal customers with legitimate concerns raising a fuss since all you have to fall back on is scripted responses.

[jamileh]

I'm sorry if I've upset you. I promise, none of my responses are scripted (except the line about the info to send in private messages). 

We'll get you the help you need; thanks for sending Alex the information. 

[BeeBeeSA ACE - Wizard]

pondersome~~~~~I'm not trying to add fuel to the fire but if you would have stopped by here earlier with your issue it would have probably been resolved by now and your upset factor would have probably been a bit lower than it is now.  I can sympathize and understand why your frustrated but the community managers here can REALLY get things done to benefit cases exactly like yours. 

They WILL get you fixed up if you just give them the chance to. 

[pondersome]

So to keep things in perspective, I work in contract management. I personally have written over a hundred million dollars in contracts to giant corporations recognized worldwide. Under no circumstances would we ever allow our customer service team to exhibit such lackadaisical behavior. We would never allow a problem to languish for 3 months and we would never force the customer to seek out multiple sources to resolve the same problem. One stop shopping. I should not have to go through multiple departments of phone support, then back and forth between inside and outside technical support, then online forums to get a problem resolved. The business acumen exhibited here is absolutely appalling.

<CM Edit - keep it courteous>

[jamileh]

I am sorry that your experience has been so difficult. We are truly here to help and will do everything we can to get this issue resolved for you. 

I have responded to the private message you sent to Alex and sent you a second message from myself. 

I will personally follow your escalation and you are welcome to send me a private message if at any time you feel you're not getting the response you were promised. We cannot change what happened in the past, but we can work with you to get you back where you should be. 

[pondersome]

    Jamileh,  I appreciate the oversight. I'd like to make an interesting point if I may. For the first 2 months, I was polite, courteous, and thankful. I deal with customers under fairly intense situations and I know what it's like to be on your side so I've been more than understanding for more than long enough. It hasn't been until I've been abrasive and harsh and rude that I've finally gotten some reaction. Why is that? Why does it have to go that far?

    You are the first person to have contacted me more than twice. Isn't that sad? In 3 months, only 1 person has contacted me a third time. I know you said your lines aren't scripted but I can assure you several phone supervisors have told me they too would personally follow my issue until it was resolved. My matter is still, as of yet not resolved and do you know of all those people, only one called back? And at that, she only called once.

    Do you know 4 of the technicians left me their business cards? One practically begged me to call if I had anymore issues. I've called them and they've never answered their phone and only 1 responded to a voicemail. The one tech that pleaded with me the most didn't even have his voicemail set up so I couldn't even leave him a message.

    By the way, I had to leave work a little while ago to drive home and meet technician #9. Technician #9 is a nice enough guy, he's an inside tech. Do you want to take a guess at what he told me? That's right! For the 5th time now, I've had an inside tech tell me it's an outside problem. Current score is 5 inside techs all telling me it's an outside problem against 4 outside techs telling me it's an inside problem with technician #10 coming tomorrow to tie it up I'll bet.

    I'm sure you know the old saying, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Well fool me 9 times and clearly I need therapy because something is clearly wrong. So, again, I appreciate your oversight, but please be informed. If technician #10 comes and says it's an inside problem, please tell Alex not to bother with anything because there won't be a service to check.

[jamileh]

I just spoke with Roy, the Social Media Manager who will work with you and he let me know the two of you have spoken. 

Again, I cannot apologize enough for the way this has been handled in the past but Roy will explore every option and be your point of contact. 

[pondersome]

    Roy has been in touch and has been very determined to get this problem resolved.

    Technician #10, from what I understand, pencil-whipped my repair ticket to say, "No problem found" within minutes of tech #9 leaving my house. There was no phone call, he didn't drive out to my house, I would argue he didn't bother test anything. To him, I was just another inconvenient open ticket that had to be closed; doesn't matter how, just close the ticket.

    Fortunately, Roy made some calls and got another tech out to my house within the hour. I talked to tech #11 when the work was done and he said he found the problem in 5 minutes. So now, how is it that after 3 months, endless phone calls, and 10 other technicians does it take a guy just 5 minutes to isolate the problem? Fixing it took him maybe another 10.

    I didn't really understand his explanation so I walked down the hall to the IT department and went over it with one guy there. He was very skeptical from what I provided, but maybe I didn't explain it well so we'll leave it at that. Roy, however, assured that the explanation, and the report the tech submitted made perfect sense.

    Roy went so far as to sit on the phone with me for a whole hour while he tested and monitored my line. I understand you guys have a lot to do. One full hour with one customer is certainly admirable.

    From what I can tell, you've built your house on a bed of sand, or, maybe loose gravel as far as metaphors go. You have a dedicated group of concerned Social Media Managers that are relying on technicians in the field that, albeit not all but enough of apparently, either can't fix it, don't want to fix it, or don't care either way.

    By the way, unfortunately, my service was out again last night.

[jamileh]

I see that you and Roy agreed you'd let him know how things went. Please contact him directly and if you'd like he will explain the technical details again so you're clear on the process. 

I'll let him know that you've posted an update here. 

[pondersome]

Technician #12 stopped by yesterday and fixed a broken terminal. Did technician #11 "fix" my service by plugging into a broken terminal? It doesn't matter anyway because my service was still out for another 2.5 hours after he (tech 12) left.

This is a line about 1,250' long from point A to point B. Fiber optic or copper, it doesn't matter, it's a glorified extension cord from a switch to my house. 3 months and 12 people later, I can't get someone to plug in an extension cord for me.

[jamileh]

Thank you for the update. 

Please contact Roy directly as well so he can stay on top of the situation. I will let him know you've updated the thread.  

[Wingless]

I just wanted to thank you for spelling "ridiculous" correctly.  Hope you get your U-verse related problems sorted out!

[ptankers]

I just read David's post and I have to agree with him. I wish it were not so but it is. I am a retired Senior Manager from Bellsouth. I still have very much AT&T stock and my son works for AT&T, but, this company appears to have lost all focus on customer service. I have recently experienced major service issues involving wireless and u-verse which I recently subscribed to. Both situations were beyond anything I would have ever imagined. I have been trying to get several u-verse issues resolved now for several days with no luck. I have a defective receiver (goes to black screen and must be rebooted almost daily if used) and recently lost HD service. I reported both and gave tech support the model and serial number of the defective receiver. They said they would send a premise tech who would correct the HD problem and the replace the receiver. My service tested a problem inside. The premise tech failed to replace the receiver and I arrived home as he was about to leave. He said there was nothing on his ticket about the receiver (there was--he lied) and then he said he could not change it because he had already referred the trouble outside. When I told him I would call and complain about him if he left without replacing the receiver, he shrugged and left. I called tech support back and they said they would overnight a receiver. Meanwhile the facility tech came out and checked everything outside--problem still testing inside. Receiver came today and it is the WRONG RECEIVER. I gave them model and serial number when I spoke with them. I called tech support back and they said they would call with another appointment. I haven't heard back and still have trouble. One of the calls I made to tech support, I was in queue for 12 minutes and finally hung up. I have had two premise techs here since I subscribed to u-verse and neither had a clue what he was doing. On the wireless issues I had a couple of months ago, I finally sent Ralph delaVega an email ( I previously worked with him and know him well) and received no response. I believe he would have responded had he seen the email so I assume that someone screens the emails. There is not even a "contact us" email opportunity anywhere on any AT&T web site which pretty well sums up how much they care about customer service. I know many of the remaining network employees who are all very frustrated with the direction the company has gone in with regard to customer service. AT&T is worse that Directv and XM radio---that puts them close to the bottom of the barrel.     

[jamileh]

I am sorry you've had such difficulty with your services. If you will please send a private message to ATTCustomerCare with your name, account number, email address, phone number and the best time to contact you. If you're still having trouble with both your wireless and U-Verse services, please include both account numbers. 

Contact Us information is located in multiple areas on att.com and our forums. You'll find it at the bottom of each page on both the forums and the main att.com site and under the SUPPORT section as noted in the images below. You can also click on the SUPPORT link at the top of each page to access Contact US information. I hope that helps!

To send a private message, you can either click on the link in this message or click on the little blue envelope in the upper right hand corner, click "compose new message" and type ATTCustomerCare in the "Send To" field.

[pondersome]

I think I've tied the neighborhood record for having 15 people out to my house to fix the problem. At least 1, maybe 2 were managers though so maybe the old record still stands.

At any rate, for the sake of argument, I'll call the last guy out here tech #15. Tech #15 replaced a broken coil. It hasn't been a full 24 hours but I have to go to work so I'll put it close enough to say service has been up for 1 day.

This being an intermittent problem, 1 whole day doesn't mean much, but it's a start. I promised Roy I'd come here and say something nice if the problem is fixed so we'll keep an eye on it.

[jamileh]

I'm glad to hear that things are looking good. Roy and I have chatted about this issue daily and are both invested in making sure this issue stays resolved. 

[pondersome]

Okay, so this breaks the rule of not posting novels, but I promise, it ends (eventually) on a positive note.

Do you know why most people don’t cut their own hair? Because they’re too close to the situation. They have a limited focus that prevents them from seeing what is only inches away all around them.

That’s what I see is the problem here. AT&T is so compartmentalized, so “siloed” that none of these little boxes have any idea about what’s going on all around them.

Phone support constantly sends people into endless loops of getting nothing done. Technicians go back and forth between inside, outside in a process that languishes seemingly forever. I tried following the “Contact Us” links that Jamileh kindly provided, by the way. These sites are only marginally user friendly to people that don’t work for AT&T and it sent me to various screens that asked me which service I’m having trouble with 3 times. Three times it asked me the same question then finally dumped me into a chat room that undoubtedly sends me back to the same endless loop that the phone support people have going.

You have no idea how many customers you’re losing because they just can’t get through the tangled barbed wire you call “Help”. You can’t possibly know because they can’t get through to tell you.

Phone support should have a mechanism that automatically escalates a chronic customer. Instead of regurgitating the phrase, “I understand your frustration”, they should employ a new method that says, “I see this is the 4th time you’ve called for the same problem. I apologize for the confusion. Let me escalate this to a Social Media Manager.”

Technicians shouldn’t be closing tickets. The customer should be closing tickets. The problem isn’t solved until the customer has what he or she needs, not because the tech would rather be somewhere else.

Websites (if you can navigate through them) should remember that I’m having trouble with my U-Verse service, especially if I’ve clicked on that option twice in the last 20 seconds.

But these problems aren’t with the individual departments. This problem lies solely in the lap of management. Phone support doesn’t escalate problems because management doesn’t let them. Technicians pencil whip repair tickets because management allows that to happen. All of this translates directly to loss; lost customers, lost revenue, disproportionately high expenses, it’s all loss for AT&T.

When I went to our IT department to get a better understanding of what the outside tech told me, the first thing our IT guy said was, “Oh, that’s AT&T. This is the same thing they told me. I tell everyone, ‘Don’t use AT&T.’” We have several hundred employees in our location and several locations throughout the US. If those employees are going to people they work with and trust, and they’re getting answers like that, that’s lost customers for you.

I’ve recommended your service to others and some have signed on with U-Verse. But I can tell you now, if anyone ever asks me, anything I tell them will come with a very clear caveat, “It worked great for a while, but if it breaks, good luck…”

Andre, the 15th person out to my house, found a broken coil and that seems to have fixed the problem. The first person was an inside tech and he said it was an outside problem. I understand maybe the first outside guy missed it, it happens, I’ve got it. The third person, another inside tech, said it was an outside problem. From that point on, everyone involved up until Andre got to my house was waste. All of those wages, all of that gas, benefits, insurance, everything, it all falls squarely in the column of waste in the ledger because it was all non-value added expenses for your company.

I skimmed through the trouble logs in the forum and these problems are everywhere throughout the entire country. All of this non-value added waste is millions, maybe tens of millions of dollars that AT&T is incurring because the company is not being managed capably.

Sometimes, when dealing with customers, perception is more important than anything else. This is the perception, not just mine, I’ve read this throughout the forums. Phone support is useless, technicians are incompetent, equipment is garbage, management can’t be described adequately without having your post deleted. Obviously, that’s not all true and perceptions like that will exist regardless of industry, but scale is what’s important. These people may be a small fraction of 1%, but look at your numbers. In 2011, AT&T made $34.6 billion. Even 1/10 of 1% is $34.6 million. How much do you have to lose before someone decides these are problems that need to be managed?

Perception being what it is, this is also my perception. I suspect this letter will be skimmed over by someone who can’t do anything about it anyway and will probably be forgotten before lunch. Maybe I’m just wasting my time.

Now, it’s been a long time getting to this point, but I did promise Roy I’d say something nice. My intent here is positive. I’ve been happy with my service for the most part for over 5 years. I don’t want to change. I only happened to stumble into the forums because I was looking for reviews on other services because I was determined to change. The forums could also use some help; definite room for improvement there as well, but in the end, it got my service fixed and I did something I wasn’t planning on doing. I paid my bill and continued my service. That’s why you’re in business, right? So I know there are people that can get things done. They may be hard to find, but they’re in there somewhere. Roy spent way more time on the phone than I ever expected and kept me up to date. Managers showed up at my house. The problem is (seemingly) fixed.

[jamileh]

Thank you for the feedback, I appreciate it. 

I am glad that we were able to work with you to find a solution to this problem. I'll make sure Roy's manager sees your kind words. 

In regards to the forums, if you have suggestion on them; please feel free to give us that feedback here: http://forums.att.com/t5/U-verse-Community-Suggestions/bd-p/uverse-Community_Feedback