Complaint Review: AT&T

On October 2, 2010 I called AT&T to make changes to my account. I wanted to terminate one line and upgrade my I-phone data plan so I could use tethering. The first person I talked to was a nice man. He did a fairly good job. Then he transferred me to a customer relations rep named Sheila Williams. The nightmare began. Within a minute of listening to Sheila talk I concluded she had no idea what she was talking about, however I always have patience when I call customer service with any company so I let her continue. It took Sheila at least 10 minutes just to figure out what kind of account and device(s) I had with AT&T. I'm just estimating here, but I think it took her another 15 minutes to figure out what I wanted even though I must have repeated it about a million times. Then I got to enjoy Sheila's sales pitch. LOL! I have to mention that anytime I call customer service with any company I am prepared to hear the sales pitch, so that usually doesn't upset me. I also usually set aside 30 minutes because I know there are some idiots working for every organization in the world. I listened to Sheila make her pitch. I told her no over and over again. I explained to her the reason why I was saying no. Before I had even called AT&T I had already figured out what was best for me and the guy I talked to before her had already answered any questions I had about it, so I knew what I wanted to do. All AT&T had to do was do what I told them to do. At about the 40th minute, Sheila started in on her sales pitch again. That's when I told her I had been on the phone for 40 minutes and I was losing my patience and to make the changes that I wanted to be made. Sheila actually laughed at me which make me angry. I asked her several times to let to talk to a supervisor immediately. She let out another laugh or two and acted like it was funny that she was giving the worst customer service ever. She then told me that she was going to get a supervisor. I waited another 10 minutes. She came back and tried to "smooth" things over with me (if that's what you want to call it). I explained to Sheila why I was upset with her performance. Sheila told me that she felt like I was trying to intimidate her. Are you freaking kidding me? I called to make changes to my account. I listened to you and I declined. You refused to listen to me. I wasted a lot of time. That's when I got a little upset and demanded to talk to your supervisor. Sheila tried to turn the situation around on me and lay the blame at my door which is an egregious mistake to make when trying to satisfy a customer. I told her that. I told Sheila the customer is always right. Sheila replied that's not true Mr. Bracey, nobody is always right. Sheila is right, but you never say that to the customer. She is the worst customer relations rep I have ever talked with. Sheila also claimed that I was trying to "get a rise" out of her. Yes, it's true. I was trying to anger her by asking for two changes to be made to my account and then complaning about her awful performance. Honestly, have you ever heard of anything so stupid in your life? I pay AT&T good money and when I call them I expect good service and to be respected. She just kept running her yap for another couple minutes while I demanded to talk to a supervisor. Finally I got to speak to one of her supervisors, Joe Donaldson. I was just happy to talk to someone with a fully functioning brain. Joe made a pitch, but I declined and he said that what I wanted done would be done. Actually I asked them to give me my termination fee back because of their awful service that day, but he said they couldn't do that.

The entire call lasted close to 2 hours. Sheila told me she was fresh out of training in her defense. Unfortunately, that's no excuse for a performance like that. They need to lock her in that training room for the next month and brainwash her with videos on how to treat the customer. She had no consideration for me or my wishes. 2 hours is a lot of time and it wrecked my entire day. She acted like the whole thing was a big joke. If I were running that corporation I would have fired her on the spot. She does not need to work in customer service ever again. Anywhere! I'm also trying to get in touch with the CEO so I can tell him about this experience. It wasn't just bad or I wouldn't be so upset. It was the most awful experience I've ever had with customer service. I've never had a customer service employee talk to me and disrespect me the way Sheila did. Up until now I was very happy with AT&T. Now I hear that Verizon is going to start selling the I-phone soon and I am seriously considering switching as soon as that happens. I will be sure to update this report later.