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Tutor

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5 Messages

Tuesday, September 30th, 2014 10:03 PM

There Is NOTHING AT&T Can Do To Keep Me After This Latest Fiasco

On Wednesday, Sept. 24th, I went into a local AT&T store to upgrade my phone and to get my mother a new phone and add her to my plan. She has had the same cell phone and plan with a different provider for six years, and her old flip phone, which is her only source of long distance to call me, had began shutting down and dying.  She lives over three hours away, so I only see her every couple of months, but I was going to be heading up to see her in a few days and planned to take her a new phone.

 

When the customer rep. attempted to add an addtional device to my order, it brought up an old past balance from a wireline I hadn't had in four years. For some reason the old balance never came up when I previously upgraded my phone (I was also able to upgrade my own phone this time with no problem), but trying to add a second device would bring up a notice that I had a past due balance. No problem, I figured. Within an hour I had talked to customer service, been transferred to the collection agency that currently held the debt, paid the settlement, and expected to finish my transaction. That's where everything went off the rails.

 

There was still a hold on my account that would not allow me to add the second device. When I called AT&T back, I was told that it normally takes ten days (are you freaking kidding me? This is 2014, not 1970 for crying out loud!) to clear the system, but that I should try calling back in the morning after my payment had been processed.

 

The next morning the money was removed from my bank account around 10am, so I called AT&T's Office of the President. I was asigned a case rep. and case number and told that under normal circumstances, it takes them up to two working days to respond but that they would try to expidite things due to the extenuating circumstances of me trying to have a phone in hand for my elderly mother when I left town on Friday (this was late Thursday morning).

 

Late Thursday afternoon, I received a call from the lady representing my case at the Office of the President telling me she had another individual on the line from the Office of the President: Wireless Division. She told me that everything had been cleared on the wireline side where the debt originated, but that they needed to clear the wireless side so that I could place my wireless order without the hang up I was experiencing. He came on the line and said everything was good to go, and that I could either place the order online, he could walk me through it, or I could visit the store. I told him I would like to visit the store, because the sales rep. had been extremely helpful, and I wanted to make sure he got his commission. He said that was fine and asked when I would be heading there. I told him I was headed there within the next hour or so, and he texted me his direct phone number and email, saying that if there were any complications to let him know and he would take care of it. As you can guess, there were major complications.

 

The hold was still on my account when the sales rep. attempted to complete the order, and by that time it was past 5pm, so no one could be reached by phone. The sales rep. suggested I stop in the next morning and we try again. The next morning he sent me a text stating he had tried the order when he got to the store and that it was still on hold. When I got there, the store manager recommended he call the billing dept. with AT&T, so the sales rep. made the call. He was passed from dept. to dept. for TWO HOURS, sometimes being cut off in mid-sentence, before eventually being told he had to call the dept. he first began with. He was clearly flustered and irritated and at one point said to me, "if this is how they treat me, I can't even imagine how they treat customers!" Ultimately, he ended up on the phone with the woman from the Office of the President, who was working on my case. After everything I had been told up to that point, she told him it had to run its course and that it would take a minimum of TEN DAYS!! The same thing I was told before I began wasting hours and hours of my time and the sale rep's time, not to mention the numerous trips I made across town to the AT&T store over the course of the past week (gas is not cheap!).

 

When I left the store I called the wireless rep. from the Office of the President--the person who told me in no uncertain terms that everything was good to go--and left him a message. By now it was Friday afternoon. I received no call back and had to leave town with no phone for my mother.

 

Monday morning I emailed the wireless rep. at the Office of the President and updated him on the situation. He emailed me back in the afternoon apologizing that the matter had not been cleared up, and stated that he was currently on the phone with another dept. getting to the bottom of the matter and would hopefully have it cleared up asap. I emailed back a response thanking him for the effort he is making and told him I would await word from him, one way or another, as to the status of the situation.

 

It's now late Tuesday afternoon, 6 days after I paid off this past due balance, and I still have no response, no phone for my mother, and I am completely up in the air as to what to do next, as I will be heading back to my home within the hour. As it stand, it appears I will be driving right back up here in a matter of days, using yet another tank of gas and adding more mileage and wear on my vehicle. Yes, I could simply have to phone shipped to her, but I need to spend a couple of hours with her and the phone until she feels comfortable with the phone and its functions. I could also simply take her to U.S. Cellular and have her pick out a new phone and upgrade her plan, but I'm trying to save her a substantial amount of money by adding her to my plan.

 

It is absolutely ridiculous and inexcusable that AT&T cannot verify that a debt has been paid in a week's time and remove the hold. In my opinion, they should be able to verify it the day the payment is finalized. Had I known I was going to deal with this mess, and ultimately waste an incredible amount of time, energy, and money in the form of gas, I would have told them good luck getting another penny out of me, and my mother and I would be enjoying our new Verizon phones right now. Lesson learned. I've been with AT&T wireless for over ten years, since it was Cingular, but this will be the last time I do business with them.

 

In the meantime, I challenge anyone at AT&T to even respond to this stupidity, much less try to fix it.

Scholar

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152 Messages

9 years ago

There should be a system in place within any company where someone as high up as the President of that division has a password to do a manual override in cases like these.

Tutor

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5 Messages

9 years ago

At one point during the sales rep's two hour phone debacle, he was told that the dept. he was speaking to could actually see in another dept's system that the past due balance had been settled, but that it hadn't updated in their department's system yet (if you're confused, join the club). It's as if there's a wall between collections and wireline, and another wall between wireline, and wireless, and it has to pass each wall one by one before being lifted. I can't imagine a more convoluted system. 

 

The sales rep. was also told that they (I'm not sure which dept.) have the full authority to override the hold but refused to for reasons beyond me or him. He said that's why the rep. from the Office of the President initially thought it was cleared (he checked his notes on my account), because he thought it had been overriden. The fact that someone has the power to lift the hold, knowing full well the past due balance has been paid and that there are extenuating circumstances that can't wait ten days or more, and yet refuses to for what appears to be absolutely no reason other than them simply choosing not to, is what has me absolutely livid. You would think someone would say, "hey, this guy wants to give us more money for another device and an additional line, let's get that facilitated." Instead, they would rather tie up their reps, and me, for hours and hours over the course of days, all in an effort to simply run out the clock or wear me down until I stop calling.

 

Employee

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581 Messages

9 years ago

Hello @MSB65802 at this point I am sure you don't want one more person telling you that they are going to help get this resolved for you.  I am sending this with hopes that you will give us an opportunity. 

 

I will need you to click here to send a private message to our team of social media managers that are available to assist you.  It is important that in that private message you include your name, account number, contact number, email address and a good time for you to be reached.  Please also reference this post in your message. 

 

You will be contacted directly from a manager after receipt of your message.  They will review your post for details as well as all of the notes that have been placed on your account prior to contacting you.  Our team of social media managers are amazing and they will help you reach a resolution for this issue. 

 

We appreciate your post and sincerely hope that you will send the private message and give us an opportunity to assist with this issue.  ~Delia

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