Contributor
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1 Message
Customer service horror story
I will try to be brief.
Two months ago, police showed up at my home stating they were responding to a distress call. There was no call initiated from our end, so we called ATT and advised them of the potential crossed line. Over the next two months, I have had several technicians visit my home and failed to resolve the issue (even though they claimed they did). The police returned several times, and it got so bad that I was forced to suspend my line so the police would stop coming. To add insult to injury, I was billed outrageous technician fees and 411 fees for services that I did not request or initiate. Though I was promised by customer service that these fees would be reversed, they reappeared on my bill after one billing cycle. I have spent HOURS and HOURS on the phone with representatives trying to resolve the issue. Every time I call, I get passed from one person to another and need to repeat my situation to an average of 4 different people per phone call. I have had enough of this nightmare and want to simply terminate my entire relationship with AT&T forever. (It's sad to think that a 20+ year customer gets no respect or assitance.) I called again today and after a 45 minute phone call and speaking to 5 different departments, I was told that I would need to get a supervisor to cancel my account. Conveniently, no supervisor was availible. I gave the representrative my phone number and asked that they call me with a solution to this misery. I refuse to attempt to call anymore. The situation is so bad that I am considering having my attorney handle the matter by sending them a letter or something. I just can't take it anymore.
Please advise. I hope I can get a solution without getting routed to some call center in India.
Jeffster
ACE - Professor
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2.6K Messages
7 years ago
You can send a private message to the escalation team at ATT Customer Care and someone will get in touch with you in two to three business days to help you get a resolution to your problems.
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ham3843
Scholar
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421 Messages
7 years ago
Yet more proof that AT&T customer service is a joke, and needs to be totally
overhauled. The overwhelming majority of the phone reps are inept, incompetent,
and unable to ever correct any issue you have. Not only that many times these vegetables on the phones add to your problems!
If ATTU-VerseCare can't help you, PM me and I will give you a contact at
AT&T Corporate HQ executive offices.
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SlipJigs
Contributor
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2 Messages
7 years ago
Why would the police have to make a return visit once they knew that the call did not come from you?
I’m not surprised at the response you’re getting from AT&T. I have a story of my own, like many others. Because of what I had to go through with Comcast recently to get my account cancelled, I took to documenting every phone call, every name of the rep I spoke to, what department it was. Starting from the first call to set up new service, I have been lied to at least a dozen times. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that some things were blatant lies, withholding important details, or just improperly trained reps. Through all this, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend. It used to be that if a customer was told something that wasn’t true, the company would stand behind it. Now, I’m pretty sure that reps have been trained a certain way to respond to these allegations from customers. I’ve heard several times, almost word for word each time – “I’m sorry that you were given that information but it’s not correct.” Then they make some sort of “attempt” to rectify the situation that involves upgrading my service with a “special discount” or something like that.
The more I deal with various departments and customer reps, the more I’m convinced that these tactics are deliberate – not just the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.
These policies and practices are certainly unethical, but are they legal? With Comcast, I was past due on my bill and service was suspended. I chose to cancel service, but was told that I simply could not cancel. The reason given was the “No changes can be made to the account with an outstanding balance”. Meanwhile, I’m continuing to accrue charges, even without active service. With AT&T, it seems that they’re not saying you can’t cancel service, but they make it so that it’s nearly impossible to do so.
So as I mentioned, I’ve documented everything. I’m and seriously considering filing a report or complaint with the Public Service Commission, or maybe even the state’s AG. Also thinking about contacting the local news stations that all have the “Help me with this situation” segments as part of their new casts.
There has to be some recourse for the consumer even though we are fighting “City Hall”. Document everything, all the details. I even signed up for Google Voice, which has a feature where you can record your phone calls.
Good luck to you.
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ham3843
Scholar
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421 Messages
7 years ago
@SlipJigs
I wasn't willing to believe this but increasingly because of how often the issues seem to occur I also now believe that the actions of these supposedly incompetent reps is being
done deliberately at the instruction of management.
I've noticed that when I deal with these phone reps, that they probably have notes indicating that I will not play along, and refuse to agree to any service changes at all, unless it is in writing by e mail, interestingly if you ask these reps to send such confirmation they REFUSE, and then want to quickly end the call.
If I end up cancelling my service I will be sending a certified return receipt requested snail mail to the AT&T Corporate HQ executive offices, which provides you with a physical receipt so that they can't claim you never informed them of your desire to cancel. I have a feeling if I cancel using the phone reps the cancellation will not be processed...Am I wrong?
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SlipJigs
Contributor
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2 Messages
7 years ago
You just can’t trust what you’re told over the phone. Even sending them the letter still could mean it could take a few months to straighten everything out – and during that time either you end up in collections or they take the money from a card you have on file.
So far, I’m pretty sure what you see on the myATT website is accurate. So If you make a change to your service or cancel and if it’s reflected on the site, then it’s probably good. I asked to be taken off auto-pay (which the site wouldn’t let me do), and they did, but I checked the site for the next three days to make sure it didn’t magically revert back.
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ham3843
Scholar
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421 Messages
7 years ago
Yes, this is very accurate. I've been told by a couple of folks here, employees, and
ACE people that if you do things solely on the myATT ordering pages you WON'T have anything change from what you agree to. It's when you CALL/USE CHAT to alter your account or change/order new services when you run into serious trouble that never seems to get resolved.
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