RE: Dissatisfied former customer – {Personal content removed for your safety}
To Whom It May Concern:
I have been trying to contact AT&T for the last several months, however it appears clear to me that your company intentionally makes this process complicated which only adds to my belief that AT&T really puts customer service at the absolute bottom of its to-do list.
My problem is that your company has me in collections for an account that has been closed for around a year or more and I believe, given the circumstances, that AT&T did not live up to it’s end of our agreement causing a disruption of my service. I do not think it is fair that I am in collections when AT&T stole money from me and refused, inexplicably, to provide me with a warranty-replacement device after it was recommended BY AT&T that a replacement was in order.
In short, I was having signal issues, which your company had originally given me all kinds of excuses for (including “there are too many iPhones on our network” - by the way, customers don’t like to hear that the service they are paying for isn’t adequate because you are giving it to other customers.) Ultimately it was decided BY AT&T that the problem was likely my Blackberry and it was recommended TO ME that AT&T replace my phone. All if this should be documented by AT&T.
Since I work on the road and I use my cell phone as my primary line, it wasn’t convenient to call AT&T’s customer service from ANOTHER PHONE LINE during its operating hours and as such customer service would not approve the phone replacement until I could do so and they could walk me through a factory reset of my Blackberry. Ultimately, I purchased a second mobile phone (obviously from another provider) so that I could both have a phone that was reliable and also be able to complete the AT&T-recommended replacement of the Blackberry that I had. After finally doing this, I was then told that I could not have the replacement (that, again, I was told BY AT&T I SHOULD GET) until I updated the operating system.
So, as if to say that my phone – which once worked fine – was now malfunctioning due to the fact that the operating system that came with it was somehow, suddenly the defective, I was to download the update and all my problems would just go away. Frankly I was insulted that your customer service department would think I am so stupid and I was annoyed that even more of my time was wasted so AT&T could stall on giving me the replacement phone that, several MONTHS prior, it deemed the proper solution.
My new problem was that I don’t sync my phone to my computer – when I explained this to your customer service staff and then asked if I could bring the phone to an AT&T center to do the update, I was told that I could not. When I asked how an individual who might not own a computer would go about updating their device – as I assume is the case for some – customer service told me that they would recommend the person use a friend’s computer or go to a library. To this I asked if this meant that AT&T offers “self-serve customer service” (sarcasm was intended). – I really hope that AT&T does, in fact, record their calls for “quality” or whatever because if so, you will hear that I am not making any of this up.
Finally, I did the update and, of course the problems still remained – including a newer one where the phone’s screen would blank out. After sending previous letters and many conversations with customer service, AT&T was still not willing to send me a replacement phone. One of the last times that I pleaded with customer service to execute the replacement, I was asked if my current phone had any damage. When I said that it had some scratches from normal use (i.e. picking the phone up and putting it down repeatedly) I was then told that this “voided the warranty” but it was ok because I had been paying for insurance.
I was instructed to call the insurance department and upon describing the condition of the phone they told me that the phone was STILL UNDER WARRANTY and that the insurance department couldn’t help me – I would have to go back to warranty. I followed instructions, contacting the warranty department once again, and was referred back to insurance. In short, AT&T weaseled its way out of providing me with a warranty replacement and essentially was stealing insurance money from me, unwilling to provide insurance for the phone.
I am not sure if AT&T wonders why it loses customers, or if it simply doesn’t care. But in my case, it was because for months, AT&T continued to take money from me for service which it (at first) admitted it could not adequately provide and if that wasn’t the truth, then which I could not take advantage of because of a malfunctioning device which was under warranty at the time, but AT&T was unwilling to honor for reasons unknown to me. To make matters worse, I was then prevented from using the insurance, which I had been paying monthly for and to top things off, when I finally stopped paying for the services that AT&T was not providing, you put me in collections. I do not mean to be rude, but this is {word filter evasion} ridiculous!
I stopped calling your customer service because I found that to be a waste of time. I have written previous letters, only one of which did I ever receive a response (that was the time when AT&T told me they would replace the phone, but at the time I did not realize was merely a big joke on me and that I’d be running through hoops like an !diot while AT&T continued to take my money.) Contact information is obfuscated on the website and a real mailing address seems non-existent.
I have no intentions of paying any more money to AT&T. I deserve a warranty replacement for the device that I had and paid for. I deserve my money back for the insurance that I paid for that your company would not provide. I deserve money back for the months that I was experiencing dropped calls and sub-standard service that your company blamed both on a potentially defective phone, broken towers, and too many customers with iPhones and at the very least, I deserve to be taken out of collections and have any supposed outstanding balance wiped out.
When the situation is resolved, I would appreciate someone from AT&T contacting me at xxx-xxx-xxxx by email at xxx@xxxxx.xxx or by mail at the address below. Thank you in advance for your help.
Jason
Remember that Wild Banchi... 1993-2010 
Posted from Apple iPod Touch
