I have used AT&T for my business and home telephone for years. I was a Verizon customer for many years (since 1994, as Cellular One) and was very happy with their customer service -- but recently I have started making a lot of trips to Hong Kong, and because Verizon does not work in Hong Kong, I decided to make the switch to AT&T. When I switched, I purchased a Blackberry Pearl telephone.
I used the Blackberry for many months, and was generally happy with the service. For Christmas, my wife purchased an IPhone for me, and I started using the Apple telephone.
On Monday, May 26th of this year (memorial day!) I accidentally damaged my IPhone (got it wet! -- Don't dive into a pool before checking your pockets!) Immediately I contacted Apple customer service, and spoke with a representative who stated that I could get a replacement for $199.00 at an Apple store... But, she also told me that I might want to wait, because the 3G IPhone was being released, and Apple and AT&T would offer an upgrade for the same $199.00 price.
So I waited. I turned my Blackberry back on, and waited for the 3G phone to be released.
When the 3G phone was released, I called Apple to ask about the repair for $199.00 -- They told me "Well, Apple has changed our policy, and we no longer are offering replacements for non-warranty damage, like water damage. - - But it doesn't really matter, you can go to AT&T and they will upgrade your phone for $199.00.
So I went to the AT&T store. They told me, I wasn't elegible for the $199.00 upgrade, and I would have to wait until the end of September for the upgrade. OK, I was a little ticked at Apple for misleading me, so on the way back to work, I called Apple.
The Apple representative said -- "Oh, AT&T is wrong. You are elegible for the upgrade price. Go back to AT&T right now, and get your phone -- I've contacted AT&T and let them know you are coming."
So I went back to the store. When I finally got a chance to talk to a representative, he looked at me and said : "There's nothing in the computer. I can't give you the upgrade."
So I called Apple back while I was in the store. After being on hold for an hour, I finally got the same person back at Apple -- they were shocked. They bumped me up the ladder to a customer care person (Shelly) and she asked to speak to the person at the AT&T store. The AT&T representative took the phone, listened to Shelly for a second, and then hung up on her and handed me back the phone.
I looked at him, and he said "She didn't say anything I didn't already know. You aren't elegible."
Just then my phone rang, and it was Shelly calling me back. She said "Sorry, I got disconnected from the AT&T representative." I said, "You didn't get disconnected, he hung up on you." She said "Are you kidding?" I said, "No, I'm not kidding." Then she asked to talk to the AT&T representative again. So I handed him the phone. Again, he hung up on her.
She called me back a few seconds later and said, "Get out of that store. I can't believe they are treating you like that."
So I went back to work again. Shelly from Apple called AT&T customer care, and talked with Ms. Shivers from AT&T, who assured me that the people at the store were incorrect, and apologized for their rude behavior, and gave me a credit of $69.00 on my bill. She assured me that when I went into the store next time, that I would be able to upgrade my IPhone for $199.00. However, when I tried to get her extension (so I could call her back if this went wrong.... which is what I expected at this point.) she told me that no one at AT&T customer care actually has an extension, and that it is impossible to call someone back that you have already spoken to. Talk about setting up your customer service to ensure that the customer gets no service!
Well, guess what? The people at the store were just as rude the next time I was in there, and also said I would still have to pay the $200.00 penalty, regardless of what Ms. Shivers had put on my statement.
So I called Shelly back at Apple, she said she would look into it. I never heard back from Shelly.
So --- I'm off to Verizon. Funny how nobody at AT&T even cares either. My business lines are going to Birch (they are dropping in 2 x T1s, one for voice, one for data, for less than AT&T was charging.) My home telephone and internet is going to Comcast (and Comcast is terrible too -- but not as bad as AT&T.)
And I wouldn't have really cared, if I hadn't gotten the run around from Apple and AT&T -- and if AT&T reps hadn't kept telling me different stories.
I charge $400.00 an hour for my time normally, and I wasted almost 8 hours on this... But the good thing is I will be saving a lot of money on my business phone - -I was being way over charged at AT&T...
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Message Edited by Sentry on
09-04-2008 04:40:29 PM
i would have went to a different store...
apple has excellent support i used the Genius bar when my screen was going out and the yreplaced my iphone free of charge.
