Complaint Review: AT&T Wireless

Hi, my name is Jim, I too have been a victim of at&t wireless and I would be more than happy to share my opinion of at&t, unfortunately after all the abuse, this will be a long letter so I will sum it up to "AT&T SUCKS! "for those of you who are in a hurry to go out and sign up immediately with the phone company that makes hell look like an amusement park!

It all started out on July 28, 2003 after purchasing their service through the at&t online store. I had one new digital line, just received the phone and noticed that the time and back light were not working on my new Nokia 3560. So I decided that I better call them and get this taken care of right away before they blame me for it and make me pay for a new phone. My first call was placed at 2:30 PM that afternoon. After being on hold, disconnected during transfers and fed full of crap from them for 7 hours, I was again disconnected while on hold waiting for the confirmation from a supervisor so I could return this broken phone for a new one that I would receive not in the 24 hours as promised in their back round music commercial while you are on hold, but instead, more like 8 days.

I realized after the last disconnect while on hold that I was not getting anywhere, so I decided that I would make one more call but that this call would be the last one to at&t for sure. So when I finally did get through to a representative after being on hold for another half an hour, I explained that I was mailed a bad phone and that I wanted it replaced, but I was told that I needed the approval of a supervisor. So he told me that he would put me on hold and forward me. Well after being forwarded and on hold for over seven and a half hours already that nice sunny afternoon, I decided to speed things up. I gave the representative an offer he could not refuse. I told him that I was on hold all afternoon and that I would give him a choice, either he solved this problem in 5 minutes, or the damned phone was getting packed up and shipped back that same day and he could shove both the phone and at&t where the sun don't shine.

Well guess what, for some reason after my offer, surprisingly within 2 minutes, I was talking to a supervisor, and within another 2 minutes, I was on my way to getting a new phone and was writing down the address as to where I could send the other phone back to. I don't know if it was something I said or what but all of a sudden, I was starting to think at&t maybe wasn't so bad after all.

That was until I received my first bill. All of a sudden my plan went from a one year plan to a two year plan. I immediately called at&t to correct this problem and they told me that at&t does not even offer a one year plan, and that I had definitely signed up for a two year plan. I totally disagreed with them and after about 25 minutes of them dissecting my bill, they offered to forward me to a supervisor who finally agreed to switch my plan to a one year agreement. There was only one catch though, I had to pay the 'Free Activation Fee' of $35.00? I explained that the plan I purchased was for one year, and that also included the free activation already, but they told me there was no way that they could offer it to me for that, and that the only thing he could do was change the plan from a two year to a one year plan. So I opted to pay the 'Free Activation Fee' just so I would not be locked into something I would probably end up regretting since I did have several problems with signal in some of the areas where I live.

After that call, everything seamed to be going aright with at&t for the next 10 months. (Even I still see ads listed on the at&t website today that offer free activation with a 'One Year' contract.)

That was until June 29th of this year when since my son wanted a cell phone, and my wife and I decided to add another line so we would not have to share the existing phone. So since I already had one line and figured it would be more convenient to pay just one company for service over getting a different carrier, I decided to check into at&t for these additional lines even though the incidents I had less than a year earlier with returning the other phone, the false advertising of a one year plan with 'Free Activation' were still on my mind for the main reasons why I hate at&t. Not to mention the sketchy and poor service in buildings and low-lying areas. But I decided to give them another chance and I found this great deal on what they call 'gsm' phones. Not knowing what gsm stood for, but figuring that if it was something new as described, as even better than digital, it was the way to go. I ordered 2 phone services with phones from their web site. I received them only 2 days later but unfortunately, I was NOT able to use these phones since the map was deceiving and we did NOT have gsm service in this area. Even though I was promised by the representative that they would work, and how at&t was being so mighty white and adding new towers in my area right now just as we were speaking? I was fortunate enough to have service in my house but if I drove about a mile from my house, there was no service anywhere in this area, which is the area where I would be using the phones all the time. I also had service in my front yard, but not in the back. (I do have to admit, it was much better than two tin cans because there was no fear of getting the string slammed in the door and breaking!)

So here is what happened. I received the phones on Thursday afternoon, found out the phones were totally useless, called another representative from at&t and he agreed that gsm phones only usually work in major cities and along interstates, and was again assured that there were new towers going up everywhere as we spoke? Fortunately for me, I just happened to have vacation that next day which was a Friday, so I immediately tired to correct this problem. I called one of the representatives, who was very polite and actually apologetic about this, and had offered that since I ordered the phone in June, when they had the $9.99 special offer on ALL phone lines including TDMA phones, she would switch me over to the other service with the same benefits and then I would get that plan at the June price of $39.99 plus 9.99 for the second phone line.

The only minor problem was that the phones I had were for gsm service only so she also offered a trade for the same type of phone in the TDMA service at the same price which was free after the discount and would set this up immediately for me also. So I would be going from the Samsung 426 to the Motorola V60c. All she had to do was forward me to get this simple problem dealt with? Well, this was at 1:30 in the afternoon. I sat on hold for about 20 minutes and I was disconnected. Then I called the same number back, ( 800) 388-3235) After that, I was forwarded from one department to the next, until finally someone supposedly knew how to get me that deal in July which was no longer available since it was a June offer. His name was Juan and if anyone had any questions, to contact him. This was at 7:25 p.m. Only 6 hours after I started my journey to a waste of my day of vacation, a waste of gas since I had to drive 100 miles for nothing and not to mention that I got nowhere with getting my problem solved.

So here is what he did, he "SAID" that it would only take a few seconds to change my account to the correct account and supposedly the account was all set up after a few minutes, but I would have to keep the same numbers so it would be billed correctly. The only thing I had to do was drive 50 mile (100 mile round trip) to the nearest at&t Store to pick up the two new phones for free, and return the other two phones with the return mailing label that he was going to get right out in the mail for me. (By the way, it took 5 calls and 2 weeks to finally receive these return labels. But I knew that I had to keep on them so they would mail the return address labels to me, since I already figured out their plan of waiting until the 29th day so that I could not get them back within the 30 free trial period and then I would automatically be locked into their service and stuck with two phone lines that I could not use for another whole year.) Anyway, back to Jauns bright idea, so I asked if that would work for me to walk in the store and just get two phones and he confirmed it would.

So I get to the store at 8:15p.m. only to find a not so very pleasant sales person who was already contacted by Juan and she told me there was nothing she could do but to sell me two new plan at a higher price, or I would have to pay the full prices of the 2 phones which were $169.00 each and jaun would have to reimburse the money? So I told her that this was not what I was told and that it would be even a bigger joke trying to get the $350.00 back from at&t than the joke they already pulled by making me drive over 100 miles to pick up nothing. So then she huffed and puffed a few times, picked up the phone, dials a number and hands me the phone. I asked her why I was on the phone and she said that I would have to talk to then again.

Well, I can tell you right now that I knew I was not going to be so fortunate as to talk to Juan again. So now I am at the store for another hour and a half of being on hold, transferred and disconnected. I finally get through and they transferred me 2 more times with being on hold with each brief discussion before I was transferred to the "CORRECT" department that could set this up for me and confirm it with the salesperson at the store. Well, at 9:55 the salesperson realized that I had gotten no where and explained that the store closed already an hour ago at 9;00 and the mall doors had to be locked by 10:00 or the alarm would go off. Wow, what a bummer, and I was finally being forwarded to the "CORRECT" channel so that they could set me up with the correct plan, and I was told that I had to hang up because the store was closing. Anyway, I was able to briefly talk to one more representative who was polite to give me the number of the direct line of somebody, possible the president of at&t even? She did not say whom, but I was sure it had to be someone important and she just told me it was the number to call. The one who could fix this problem once and for all. When she gave me the number, guess what the number was? It was the same number that I started out making my first call of the day to, only 10 hours earlier. So I told the representative this and surprisingly, she was shocked so she read off another number that I could call on the next business day. So my day of vacation was finally over and the bottom line was I had 2 phones that did not work in my area, I wasted a day of my vacation, actually 10 hours of the day, drove 100 miles and still did not have any thing accomplished or any phones that will work in my area.

Since it was the July 4th weekend and at&t was closed on Monday, I had to wait until Tuesday to continue my venture but was sure that I would finally get this problem solved since the last person I spoke with on the phone that Friday gave me the secret code, better than the number for the Bat Cave, even better than a number for the red phone. Yes, It was a "Direct Line Supervisors number"! But after calling them at noon that Tuesday and sitting on hold for another 45 minutes, I had just about had more than I could handle with at&t when the out of no where a "Friendly" voice greeted me and the nice gentleman said that he would have this problem solved in just 5 minutes. All I had to do was wait on hold until he set it all up for me. Well guess what, after the 5 minutes which actually turned into about 35 minutes, everything was not taken care of and all I had to do was be forwarded one more time to have it all set up? At no surprise, the 'Just forward' turned into another 25 minutes. After finally actually talking to the lady who could finally create this miracle at at&t, I asked the lady if she could read off the promotional deal just one more time so I could verify that it was correct. Well guess what? It was not the deal I was promised. Actually, it was a digital share plan with a whopping 450 minutes only instead of 1000. It did not include the second line for $9.99, but instead, $19.99. It did not include the friendship minutes and night and weekends were limited to 1000. All this for only an additional $25.00 a month more versus the original plan I was offered with 1000 minutes, unlimited mobile to mobile and nights and weekend included. At this point I realized that I had totally had it with at&t.

So I told her that this again was not what I was offered, so she politely offered to forward me to another department to set it up correctly. As she was looking up the number, I told her that I could make it really easy for her and that I knew how to solve it. Then like a dumb ditz, she replies 'how'? So I told her that I wanted to take these existing 2 lines plus the third line that I had had now for 11 months already and cancel them all. That they could take at&t and shove their service up their you know what. Well not to any surprise, her next words were- - - - "I am sorry but I can not do that, I will have to forward you to a different department that can handle this for you'! This was probably the first time I laughed that day since the nightmare began. I will have to forward you to a different department to cancel? Anyway, after being on hold another half an hour, not surprised since I did not expect any speedier service in the cancellation department, I finally was a relieved man and the 2 lines were canceled. I did have to listen to the "No, You don't want to leave at&t and the good old tower raising speech", but the abusive nightmare was finally almost over, (I though). Also, unfortunately since the 3rd line still had 22 days left for the 1-year contract to expire, I was not able to discontinue that one without paying a $175.00 early cancellation fee. Even though I offered to pay for the last month without the privileges of using their limited signal phone service, but she said that would not be possible and that I would have to call back on the 30th. of the month. I guess she was hoping I would forget to cancel on the 28th of July at 12:01 A.M., (the first minute that I could finally wash myself from the hell fires of at&t!) and that they could automatically sign me up for another year. You can mark my word; I sat up on the eve of the 27th just so I could finally cancel that line, figuring the trauma would finally be over once and for all.

But like Jason and Freddie, They just keep coming back! Only 5 days later on August 2nd. I receive a bill in the mail. I open it up figuring it must be for that last line I canceled that previous Wednesday, but it ended up being even another big shock. It was the bill for the two gsm services that I use from 2:00 PM on July 1st. through 1:00 PM on July 2nd. when I called to have these 2 lines canceled. Now guess how much it was for? An unbelievable $133.90. Not bad considering that I was promised by both the representatives both on that Friday when I canceled, and also the representative again that following Tuesday when I reconfirmed that these phones were canceled that there would be no charge since these phones came with a 30 day no fault return policy meaning that I would not be charged as long as the phones were returned in good condition within the first 30 days, and especially since I only had these phones for one day, that there would defiantly be NO CHARGE what so ever.

I bet you will never guess what I did when I got home from work that night of August 2nd. 2004? That's right, I sat on the phone with at&t! First for 30 minutes before I was actually talking to a representative, and then for another 15 minutes while I waited to talk to a supervisor since she could not remove those charges, even though she was willing to remove the activation fees. (The activation fees were waved before I even purchased these lines. It was part of the promotion) Then for another 45 minutes after I had a very sweet talk with the supervisor, they were finally removed! At first the supervisor refused to remove the charges, but after a little persuading, he surprisingly changed his mind. Guess it must have been something I said to the supervisor about promising to start a CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT if the charges were not dropped that changed his mind! All he had to do now was forwarded me back to a department that WOULD remove the charges which was another 45 minutes and I was finally released from the evil at&t torture chamber. The only thing I wonder now is that even though I was promised that these charges were dropped, I can not wait until next month when I will have to go through all this again because I am sure that somehow these charges will reappear, not to mention that I am sure that the other line that I canceled last week I am sure will haunt me for months to come, maybe even longer because I am sure they will figure out how to send a few more bills for that phone too, even though I have not used it all month already.

So I hope after reading my adventures with at&t, it will help you make up your mind about ever purchasing anything from at&t wireless and I am sure that you really do not want to hear my final decision about their services, but I am sure you can guess it! By the way, what does gsm stand for anyhow? I am sure the 'G' stands for 'Garbage', but what about the 'SM'? Or is that a spelling error by at&t and should it instead be 'BS' but no one at at&t knows how to change the name in the computer? But out of all actuality, the main reason I wrote this long letter is because first of all, it did not take nearly as long as the time spent on the phone with at&t, but the main reason is that I do not want to see anyone else be taken down like I was!

Jim
Whitelaw,, Wisconsin
U.S.A.

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