Complaint Review: AT&T Wireless and Alexandria at AT&T Broadband

I have two complaints, one with AT&T wireless and the other with AT&T broadband.

Let's start with the wireless issue. I was an AT&T customer for numerous years in Canada and recently relocated into the U.S. I decided to be loyal to AT&T and stay with their service. Also, I was interested in their Canada service which seems only they have.

A few months with their service, I had several concerns which needed to be addressed, one of which happened to be the inability for their service to work in parts of Canada where it worked with the Canadian affiliate. I do a lot of business there so I need the service.

I had contacted customer service and was assurred that the problem would be fixed. They stated that it seemed that my phone was not registered properly in that system. This was March 2001.

In June, I again returned to that part of Canada and once again, my phone would not work. I contacted a customer service rep. that again told me that it may be that my phone was not registered properly. This was only after putting me on hold for over 30 minutes because they wanted to run through the technical checks. Although I appreciated their thoroughness, I did not appreciate being told that there was no work order ticket that was placed for my original complaint back in March. They had to do it again. You see, I'm only in Canada for short stints so I usually don't know if the problem is rectified until the next time I'm in town.

In August, I am in the SAME predicament...my phone does not work in that area. Again, I'm told that I need to start a work ticket and they would look into the matter on my behalf. Now, what I failed to mention was that I am paying extra all along for this service that I am supposed to have in Canada.

In October, guess what?! I'm again without service in the area in Canada. This time the customer service rep tries to tell me that maybe it's because I am in a remote area. I respond by telling the rep that I am in a major urban center and that I did not have any problems when I was registered with the Canadian affiliate to AT&T. I also told them that I had spoken to the Canadian AT&T customer service people and they told me that it was simply that I was not registered properly on the service I was with. Even though I told this to the rep., they told me that I needed to start a ticket to allow their technicians to get to the root of the problem. At this point, I am extremely irate. I ask the rep what they planned to do for me since I have been paying extra for service that never seems to be available to me when I need it. They told me that they would give me an extra 100 minutes. I told them that I wanted them to reimburse me for the month's service charges since I was in Canada for the month and could not use my phone. They refused saying that I got a good deal because they gave me 100 minutes. My rebuttal was that I didn't need 100 minutes for a phone that I could not use. The rep (like all the rest) was extremely rude and did not try to use interpersonal skills to address my frustration as a customer. All she kept saying was that I needed to start a ticket with which I kept replying that I had already done so many times without any results. All I wanted at this point was some assurance that this problem was going to be fixed and that I was not going to be paying for service that I wouldn't be able to use that month. She kept telling me that I had to start a ticket and that she would not give me the charges for the month. At this point, I told her that I wanted to cancel my service. She told me that if I did this, I would be charged for cancelling early ($30). I told her that I was told when I signed up for service that there was NO contract (part of why I signed up so soon after arriving in the U.S.) and that I was surprised that I would have to pay an early cancellation fee. She told me that there was a contract and that it wasn't her problem that I wasn't told as she was not the one who sold me that service. Frustrated and extremely irate, I told her that I refused to pay this fee and that I still wanted my service cancelled and I wanted to speak to a superior who might be able to address this situation. She tells me the only person available is her supervisor. I ask her to put her supervisor on. She puts me on hold and after approximately 6 minutes, she gets back on the line and tells me that there is nothing her supervisor can do either. I was shocked that her supervisor would not get on the phone and speak to me directly.

The rep then continues to tell me that I must pay the fee and that she would cancel me right away. Funny how they can cancel your service immediately but they can't register you on a service properly over the course of seven months!

I went back to being a Rogers AT&T customer out of Canada. To date, I have not had any problems with my service in either country although I had one problem with my bill to which it was resolved with their customer service people immediately and courteously. Immediate attention and courteous treatment was essentially all I wanted. I will never go back to being an AT&T customer within the U.S. It is unfortunate but I am not impressed.

The second situation has to do with AT&T's broadband cable internet service. Unlike their wireless service, I had never had a problem with the internet service. Excite, which was their service provider went bankrupt and I was transferred to Charter Communications. I was told that AT&T was still going to offer internet services but not through Excite. I decided to inquire about their services as I was impressed with their internet service prior to this situation. Upon speaking to their customer service person via internet live chat (chat session ID #1481885), I was given a run around that I couldn't believe was happening. I simply asked what speed their new internet service would be offered at (up and down speeds in kilobytes per second). The response I received was "blazing fast". I thought that maybe my question wasn't clear so I asked it again but with more specific wording so as not to be misunderstood. I again received the same response. Upon asking again for clarification, I received such responses as "fast upload and download speeds", "blazing fast and we are working to make it more better"...I think you get the picture. On the last attempt to get this rep to clarify "blazing fast", she told me that "I am sorry but my company policy doesn't permit me to (clarify kilobytes per second)". I then ask her if she can give me a name or phone number where I can call to get this info. She ignores my request several times. Of course, at this point I respond that "it seems that you or your company has something to hide when it comes to the speed of your internet connection, if you do not know, please just say so". This chat session gets terminated at this point. Needless to say, I am not with AT&T for my internet service either.

All-in-all, I ended up paying the $30 cancellation fee, in fear that the company would report it as a late charge to a credit bureau. I would appreciate it if you could forward this letter to the people in charge of this/these companies so they can address their customer service people and get them properly trained. If you could do anything about getting me my cancellation fee back, it would be great too, although I've pretty much kissed that goodbye.

I hope this helps someone else not get into this situation.

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