The Worst Situation Ever! Arbitration May Not Be Enough!

So here's the scoop! I switched to At&t along with many other now customers at the end of this past year when the Iphone 7 became available for sale. I was excited, because for years I had heard about the great service they provided from my co-workers and friends who for many years had service in my area. I loved my new phone and network, and the service was falwless for the first 3-4 months. And then came winter... In the middle of December of 2016 I began to notice that there was increasing instances of my once 4-5 bar power house network, slipping into the 2-3 bar territory. I didn't pay much attention to it though as my LTE and phone service remained strong and consitent during use. And then came Jaunuary. In the middle of Jaunuary of this year, with no warning at all, my service took a huge dive. When I had data available to use on my plan, it still ran at decreased speeds. On top of that, many of my calls were now frequented with the person on the other line often telling me that they could not here me. Or that I sounded like a robot. I immediately took this as someting having malfunctioned in the phone. I called AT&T and decided to figure out how to resolve my issues. They ran a diagnostic on the phone and examined the results only to tell me that my phone was in perfect working order. They ran through other troubleshooting steps, none of which resolved the issue. That's when they decided to check the service in my area. They did so, only to find out that a tower less than an eigth of a mile away from me was severely "degraded", as they put it. Still not quite sure what that means. That was on January 24th. I was relieved to know that there was a direct cause to my problems, and that they had a resolution date when the issue would be fixed. But it wasn't. The date for the resolve came and went and I continued to experience issues. I called back a week or so later, only to find out that the same tower was being plagued with the same issues. They gave me a new resolution date, a week or so out and told me to remain patient. Which I was, until that date came and went like the first, resulting in more horrible service and a third call, only to find out that the tower was still not in working order. At this point it was the end of February. I asked for what could be done in situations like this and I had to demand compensation for the time of service that had past wihout sound service being delivered. I also asked what could possibly be taking the service this long to resolve. This is a multi billion dollar company we are talking about here. They didn't provide me with much of an answer and instead gave me yet another resolution date, which like its counter parts, failed to resolve any issues. I had to yet again demand more be done about the bill I was being asked to pay, as the service was being impeded by the towers continued struggles. At this point we were in the first week of March and as they began to give me yet another resolution date, I stopped them and requested a list of my options should the service tower continue to plague my area furhter into the coming months. I also asked again what could be taking so long for the tower to be worked on by such a large company. I was given very little info yet again and was told that the only resolve option I had was to leave the service. Here's where things get sticky though. The only way I am allowed to leave the service is if I pay off the ETF for the remiander of the phone lease. That is the case despite this being a unique situation and that I am a customer at the complete mercy of the now almost two months of tower struggles which I have nothing to do with. In fact that's the only reason I want out of this service. because the tower doens't and hasn't worked in my area. I talked to multiple billing and escalation people within the company all of which say this is the only way out. I don't see this as fair at all and have already begun to seek council about what I should pursue next. Here is where AT&T is greatly mistaken. 

1. Not only has my service been impeded due to the tower being down, even until this day. But it has been impeded, for a significant duration of time. A time in which the company failed to notify myself, and any other customers in my area that their service may be affected as a result of the plagued tower. Not one call, not one text, not one email. Customer service representatives, confirmed for me that AT&T does not notify customers of tower statuses. And even further, there is no way for a customer to know whether service is majorly affected in their area without calling in, because there is no direct page or service provided by AT&T to notify customers of events like mine. They have a mark the spot app, which allows AT&T to collect info from customers who have issues in certain areas, but nothing that specifically reaches out to customer in good faith to say, "hey, we are having issues, but we are working on it. Just a heads up". STRIKE ONE!!

2. Not only did AT&T fail to notify me of the prolonged tower issues affecting me and others. It also was unwilling, without me demanding it, to add credits to my bill for the time that I had suffered the issues due to the tower being plagued. On three occasions for the past three months I had to request that something be done about the bill. The problem was undeniable and something that could be verified on every level, and yet I met resistance on this. Why is it that this company would be willing to fight customers on something they know they aren't providing, as if they have a case to continue to charge you full price, when THEY KNOW and CAN CONFIRM they aren't doing their part. STRIKE TWO!!

3. The ETF. As I stated before, the tower is still not functioning correctly to this day, and as I write this. Yet another, resolution date has passed and I have talked to multiple indivudals at customer service regarding dropping service. But there is one constant. The ETF. Everyone I speak to wants me to pay 360 dollars to drop my service. That is the remaining cost of the phone as it stands this month. I see this as completely unfair. It is because of AT&T that I am in this predicament. And it is due to an AT&T known issue that has me unsatisfied and wanting to leave. All of the reps said that if I switch networks many of the companies I could go to would be willing to pay up to 600 to add me to their service, but that takes money for me to start. I don't have the money to pay off this phone and leave to start somewhere else. So that means I'd have to by another phone to join in on that network. If I don't have the money to pay this one off and leave, what makes them think I would have the money to just leave and supplement myself; not to maention still have a phone in limbo I have to pay for. What kind of sense does that make? So here's what I did instead. I called and asked to speak to someone in resolutions. My goal was to find out, since I am seemingly stuck with AT&T what my options are, should the tower issues continue to plague my area for some God forsaken reason. I asked, if AT&T would now make an attempt to contact myself and others struggling with this issue, now that I have raised the compaints about their failure to do so thus far. The asnwer was no. I then asked if I would have to continue to call in and demand credits on a monthly basis due to the towers continued issues,(should they continue to persist) or would someone be monitoring the situation from here on out and make adjustments as necessary. The answer was, most likely I would have to call in.  Thirdly, I asked if I had a chance to come back should the issues persist over the next few months and re debate the ETF issue. To which they said no. Does anyone else in the community see a major discrepancy here? AT&T is knowingly failing to hold up their end of the bargain. Without my persistence and, awareness, I would be another customer who in this case would be being taken advantage of by a company that is failing to communicate, failing to make up for their wrong on their own, and failing to do the right thing by an honest customer. That's STRIKE THREE. AT&T you're out! I'm definitely reporting this to the BBC and FCC and I'm going to send this letter to anyone I need to to get this specific message out. This is a blatant wrong doing and this particular situation, in my opinion shows that there are some serious flaws in the AT&T system. I will pursue this to the highest level I can. Especially considering that this is an ongoing  event. I would appreciate anyones input and recommendations as I move forward. Thanks for listening.