Complaint Review: AT&T Broadband LLC

January 7, 2002

TO:
Daniel E. Somers, CEO
AT&T Broadband, LLC
9197 South Peoria
Englewood, CO 80112

FROM:
Heather A.
Seattle, WA

Dear Mr. Somers,

On December 9, 2001, I had AT&T Broadband internet installed to my home computer.

I signed up for 3 months at $19.95 including a modem rental for $10 per month, to increase to $39.95 after 3 months ($49.95 including modem).

The technician arrived promptly at the requested time on Sunday, December 9 and installed our modem to our Ethernet device and was able to connect the computer to the internet via ATTbi.

The following Wednesday, December 12, we were able to connect to the internet that morning, but not able to connect that evening.

I called "Tech Support" via the 1-800 number provided on my installation invoice. I was greeted by an automatic message that notified me that due to the tremendous amount of calls AT&T was experiencing, that I would have to call back again at another time.

I continued to call all of Wednesday night and finally was able to get through to the "basic" level of Tech Support on Thursday, December 13th in the late afternoon. I was told that there was an outage, and that my service should be reconnected by Friday, December 14th.

Friday afternoon came around, and still no internet service. I once again called Tech Support and after waiting on the line for over 1 1/2 hours, I finally reached the "basic" level of tech support and was told that my account hadn't been "provisioned" and that I would have to speak with someone in the "Senior Level" of support to have that problem fixed.

I was transferred to the "Senior Level" of support where I was on hold for 2 1/2 hours. When my call was finally answered, it was not answered by someone in Computer Tech Support, but rather by the AT&T CABLE company. The person who answered the phone was very irritable and before I could explain my situation, they re-connected me to Tech Support, which had me sit on hold for another 1 1/2 hours only to reach the "basic" level of Tech Support, who then re-transferred me to "Senior Level" support where I waited on hold for another hour, only to be connected once again with AT&T Cable Company.

By that time, it was late Friday night, I was frustrated, so I hung up and called again on Saturday, December 15th.

I placed my first call to AT&T Broadband Tech Support at 2:30pm on Saturday, December 15.

I was transferred to "Senior Support' 4 times, and out of those 4 times, I was disconnected 2x's by the technician, and 2 times by the phone-line itself. I called again repeatedly, and was put through the same task of speaking to "Junior Level" tech support, being put through to "Senior Level" tech support only to be disconnected, or transferred to the AT&T Cable Company.
During the entire day of Saturday, December 15, I was on hold, calling, or attempting to be transferred for a total of 5 1/2 hours. In that 5 1/2 hours, I got NOWHERE and was offered NO support whatsoever with the problem I was experiencing.

It wasn't until Tuesday, December 18 that I was finally able (after sitting on hold for over 3 hours) to get my account "partitioned" and was able to access the internet.

During the entire time that I had to call Tech Support, the Support personnel were very NICE, however, none of them were HELPFUL in any way. Every person I spoke to seemed to have a different reason as to why I wasn't able to get online, why I was being transferred to AT&T Cable instead of AT&T Internet, and why I wasn't able to have my problem resolved in a timely manner and why I had to be transferred to a Senior Level of support to get my problem fixed.

On Wednesday, December 26, my internet service went out again. I was unable to connect to the internet, and on Wednesday night, I called AT&T Customer Service AGAIN, to be put on hold for over 30 minutes, to get a tech who told me that there was an outage in my area and that the problem should be fixed within 2-4 days.

I called tech support the following day, Thursday, December 27 and was told that there was no outage in my area, that I should be able to get online. I wasn't able to get online and when I called back 10 minutes later, the 2nd tech of the night told me that there was, in fact, an outage, and that it should be up in 2-4 days.

Friday, I Called tech support again, and was told that the one outage had been repaired, and I should be able to get online---I wasn't. The tech seemed to not know why, and transferred me to "Senior Level" Support. Once again, after being on hold for over an hour, my call was disconnected.

I called again, was on hold for over 45 minutes to get to the basic level of support, was put on hold for another hour, when the phone line was disconnected again.

On Saturday, December 29, I called Tech Support again, was told by Junior Level support that there was no outage, I should be able to get online, and was transferred to Senior Level support. I was on hold for over an hour when my call was disconnected.

It was at that time that I called the billing department and was given a $35 credit and 2 free months of service. I asked the person in billing if I could get a service tech to come to my house and fix the problem since it had been determined through several sessions of on-the-phone troubleshooting that the problem with the connection WAS NOT on my end, but rather on AT&T's end. The person in billing told me that they could not "roll a truck" for my problem, and that he'd be more than happy to transfer me to the Senior Level of Support.

At this point, I was more than unhappy with the service and told the person in the billing dept that I felt that the only option I had left was to get my service disconnected since no one on the Phone Tech end seemed to be the least bit interested in correcting my problem.

The response I got was "Well, sometimes you have to do what you have to do" and promptly disconnected my service.

I feel that the LACK of Customer Service, in both Billing and Technical Support is absolutely shameful for a company of AT&T's size. I feel that since AT&T decided to buy Excite@home's customers, then they should have been prepared to deal with the influx of calls from those customers.

I was not an Excite@home customer; I signed up directly with AT&T and should be treated like the paying customer that I am.

I have had problems with AT&T regarding my Cable, my phone, my long distance, and now my cable internet. Every aspect of this company is shady and there is no way that I could ever reccomend their service to anyone.

Because of this, I have every intention of finding another ISP, and I can't in good conscience recommend you to others. How can you make it up to me? I'm glad you asked. I feel that AT&T should strive to provide actual CUSTOMER SERIVE. It is unacceptable for customers to have to hold on the phone for over 5 1/2 hours in ONE DAY! It is unacceptable for customers to have to hold over 1 hour to be disconnected by the phone lines (hint: AT&T is a phone company too--you think that their phone problems would be non-existent). It is unacceptable, after holding on line for the HOURS that I did, to receive no resolution to my problem, to receive no appology, only a $35 credit and the stern warning that if I were to disconnect my service that I would have to pay to have it reinstalled.

I LOVED the speed of the Cable Internet (during the 11 days that I actually had service!)and I would love to continue to be a customer of AT&T. However, their lack of Customer Service will have to greatly improve before I ever even consider returning to AT&T or before I ever reccomend their service to others.

Thanks for listening to me. I'll be even more appreciative once I receive your response.

Sincerely,
heather

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