10 years of service, $200 monthly bill = AT&T values you for $25 [ Edited ]

[3ricwhite]

I have been a customer of AT&T wireless/Cingular/AT&T Mobility for 10 years. I pay my bill, have never been interrupted for late payments, have a monthly bill of over $200 and only call when there is an error on my bill (rarely).

This morning, I got into line at Sam's club this morning to try and take advantage of the .96 Samsung Galaxy S3 sale for 2 of my 4 lines. When the Sam's employee reached me they were out. He did have a multitude of Verizon and T-Mobile tickets for the S3 I could have. I thought to myself no, as a long time customer I don't want to switch carriers I am sure that if I call AT&T they will be able to price-match or at least be able to offer a discount to get the price near. On the way home, I stopped by a smaller Sam's club, no line, same situation. Out of AT&T branded S3s but plenty of Verizon or T-Mobile S3s.

I proceeded to call AT&T once I got home and explained the situation to the customer service rep who IMMEDIATELY placed me on hold and said, I need to speak with my manager. 5+ minutes later another person came on the line, introduced themselves as "Evan" no last name given and explained that they will not honor Black Friday deals. I reasoned with him, I can understand that (even thought I have heard MULTIPLE instances of friends of mine who have AT&T service getting several hundred dollars waived from contract priced phones) and simply asked what he could do. He said he could get the phone to me at contract price, no less. I asked him if the fact that I have 10 years of service, pay $200/month and would constitute $2400 over the next to years alone made any difference and he didn't seem to comprehend so I asked for someone else to speak to.

I was transferred to Heather who introduced herself as a Save Supervisor. I spent another 5 minutes explaining my situation and the lack of customer service provided to me so far. She apologized for the situation and said she would be able to offer me a $25 discount on the two lines I was wanting to upgrade. I asked if 10 years of service and a $200+ monthly bill should only warrant $25 and no further consideration and she responded that I should, "drive around and find another, better deal, closer to what I was seeking."

Really AT&T? Your customer service managers best solution is for me to drive around until i find a better deal? You can't honor a price that was in a kiosk with your name all over it?

I asked to speak to someone else as I felt I now only had two true options remaining. Cancel and get a better price and brand new equipment on ALL four lines with Verizon or find someone with enough sense and reason in their heads to make a sound business decision for a long time customer.

Was I in for a surprise for thinking the latter of the two options was even available. I now had to explain my entire situation again to Brian. Brian was the third manager I was speaking to which you would think he had a more elevated status, position, thoughtfulness and ability to make a sound decision. Brian said the offer made to me was the only offer AT&T would honor. I asked him if he felt like being told driving around looking for a better price was something that he and his representatives should be asking customers to which he deflected by saying,"I didn't tell you that."

When I quickly realized how argumentative and confrontational Brian was, and how little and absolutely no help he offered, I asked to speak to his supervisor. He told me there was no one else to speak to, he was it. I asked who his manager was and he said he was in a meeting. I asked for him to call me once he was out of the meeting and he said no and completely denied escalating the issue any further. I told him that is absolute nonsense and I sincerely doubt he was the final word on ANYTHING specific to AT&T.

It gets even better though. I asked him for an email address and phone number for the complaint department. His response? "Google or Bing it" I told him I am on the ATT website right now, advise me how to navigate to file a complaint, he asked me to type complaint in search and look through page after page of forum posts that were specific to complaints.

It is shocking to me that AT&T as a company condones this type of behavior.

After seeing some of the complaints on the forum I decided to call back and ask for the "Office of the President" and spoke with a manager named Ashley Hill who was not from the Office of the President department but did listen to my complaint and advised me that it would be addressed. She offered the phone I wanted for $149, still a far cry from the great deal that was available this morning. She said she would notate the account and honor the price if I wanted to think about it and call back.

[edited for privacy]

[3ricwhite]

AT&T, I will drive around and look for a better deal, however that deal will be with Verizon.

It's sad to me how I hear several instances about people who call in, raise their voice, scream, yell, use profanity and belittle your employees get everything they want.

But yet someone who calls in, asks for assistance to resolve an issue, tries to be reasonable and keeps their cool throughout gets offered $25.

Shameful....

[ghostryder ACE - Professor]

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3ricwhite wrote:
AT&T, I will drive around and look for a better deal, however that deal will be with Verizon.

It's sad to me how I hear several instances about people who call in, raise their voice, scream, yell, use profanity and belittle your employees get everything they want.

But yet someone who calls in, asks for assistance to resolve an issue, tries to be reasonable and keeps their cool throughout gets offered $25.

Shameful....

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sorry for the issuesswitch AT&T. The real bummer part about your posting here is that this is a peertoo peer forum. AT&T management does not read these forums, so only users reforums forum.

Good luck with Big Red.

[MicCheck]

Did you ask Sam's Club for a rain check? After all, they were the ones sold out of what you wanted. I'm not sure why you called AT&T to begin with.

[3ricwhite]

No I did not, had you read any part of the first paragraph both your question and thought process would be answered.

I would ask the same question of "I'm not sure why you even posted to begin with." but judging from your choice of words and tone of your message you're obviously some AT&T fanboy who likes to troll this board and thinks yourself witty. When in reality you just like to post inflammatory remarks to other members that add no value or insight to a situation at all.

[3ricwhite]

Ghost, I am sorry for them to. I like their wireless service, but just like uverse, the worst part is having to contact them. Their customer service is the absolute worst for all of their products. It's no wonder they consistently score last or second to last in JD Powers and Consumer Reports rankings.

It's not like I am one of the many customers calling in month after month trying to get a free credit or free month of service here and there and getting it from what I hear. I just want a reasonable deal with a new phone.

On top of it all my wife was in a store to cancel 2 of the lines just an hour ago and they told her that they were honoring the .96 price for new customers only. If that's not a final slap in the face, I don't know what is....

[MicCheck]

Your thought process was "Sam's Club sold out of something, I'll call a completely unrelated company and ask for something, then get upset when they tell me no". I'm sorry you think AT&T owes you a $.96 phone, but it simply isn't the case.

Why did you choose not to contact Sam's Club customer service?

[wingrider01 ACE - Expert]

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MicCheck wrote:
Your thought process was "Sam's Club sold out of something, I'll call a completely unrelated company and ask for something, then get upset when they tell me no". I'm sorry you think AT&T owes you a $.96 phone, but it simply isn't the case.

Why did you choose not to contact Sam's Club customer service?

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would suspect since it was posted today - the infamous black friday

1. no retailer issues rains checks on Black friday door busters or price discounts

2. no retailer prices matches other vendors advertised prices on black friday merchandise

3. ATT, verizon, sprint does not price match other sellers costs

Your cancel and find better pricing is going to cost you - etf's on all lines, purchase of new phones. sorry but good luck with the next carrier you choose - each individual line has a seperate contract and it's own etf

[ghostryder ACE - Professor]

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3ricwhite wrote:

No I did not, had you read any part of the first paragraph both your question and thought process would be answered.

I would ask the same question of "I'm not sure why you even posted to begin with." but judging from your choice of words and tone of your message you're obviously some AT&T fanboy who likes to troll this board and thinks yourself witty. When in reality you just like to post inflammatory remarks to other members that add no value or insight to a situation at all.

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Now that was rude.

First paragraph reads: I have been a customer of AT&T wireless/Cingular/AT&T Mobility for 10 years. I pay my bill, have never been interrupted for late payments, have a monthly bill of over $200 and only call when there is an error on my bill (rarely). Nothing about Sam's club here...

Second paragraph spoke of going to a second Sam's club looking for the same deal and regretably they were sold out, of the AT&T branded S3 but had "plenty of Verizon or T-Mobile S3s". So that statement indicates that more shoppers bought AT&T branded S3s than the other carrier's phones. Seems with that statement that AT&T is more popular in your area. But nowhere did you state that you tried to get a rain check for the sale item. Did you try to get one? I know with that kinda deal I would have been asking any manager I could find for one until they told me that they do give them out because it was "Black Friday".

You also stated in your second paragraph that since Sam's club was out of them, and that, "I am sure that if I call AT&T they will be able to price-match or at least be able to offer a discount to get the price near." 

Well, as you found out, AT&T would not honor Sam's club discounted pricing. 

It was obvious that the call center had been handling a lot of calls similar to your question that supervisors were taking the calls as soon as they came in.

Granted, your statement of their demeanor to the questions could have been addressed differently, however AT&T was not going to honor another store's sale. True bummer for sure.

[drumn_bass]

Black Friday "Doorbuster" deals are offered by retailers to attract shoppers into their stores on a busiest shopping day of the year, retailers take major financial hits on those offers hoping to make up for them on other products, that is why they only have limited quantities and don't even price match their own deals at the later date. If other retailers started matching each other prices that the whole Black Friday Doorbusters fun would be absolutely pointless and there would be no more Black Friday. There is nothing wrong with playing a game, but please, know the rules. 

[roland19]

So just to verify AT&T is supposed to price a retailer being wal mart SAMs clus inc who you pat a member ship to they buy AT&T devices from the manufacturer rather it is AT&T , sprint , Verizon etc. they will not price match competitors I'm very sure they have rules they have to follow or even as a manager could potentially lose there job as these large corp giants replace call center agents on a reguapr basis they are over worked and under paid maybe next year do some shopping before the largest shopping day of the year everyone thinks they are entitled to something and in this case you are wrong. Sorry 3ricwhite I disagree with your Black Friday sob story try amazon or another online retailer next time instead of shopping with the rest of the sheep on Black Friday