Complaint Review: AT&T Wireless

In January I ordered an additional line on my wives AT&T mobile phone service in Fort Collins. A phone was delivered with a number of 970 948-xxxx. I gave the number to my family in Denver and coworkers, and the phone seemed to work fine. Last month, a friend complained that they were not able to get me on the phone. So, I called AT&T and they did an "over the network software upgrade", told me to turn it on and off 3 times, and that they had checked it out and said that everything was fine. I called the phone from my work and it worked. Having been reassured by AT&T that my phone was in working, I ordered cards, letterhead, invoices, sequentially numbered carbon copy job estimation sheets, laminated contact cards, advertising materials, etc. with the number; in addition, I started making contacts with local customers, suppliers and distributors for a business that I had just started that month.

It turns out that AT&T made a mistake when they issued the number (970 948-xxxx) to me, it is local to Aspen, Colorado, and CAN NOT be reached from Fort Collins without making a long-distance call. My family could reach me because it was long-distance and coworkers could call because of the sophisticated phone systems that recognized my phone number as being long-distance and automatically dialed accordingly. This morning, May 17, I talked a Resolution Specialist with AT&T and they offered to wave the AT&T fee to change the number, which does not start to cover the cost of changing the number. I have lost time, lost printing costs, lost business from customers not being able to call me, lost respect and reputation by giving out a nonworking number, and missed appointments because I could not be contacted. All at the very start of a business.

Brian
fort Collins, Colorado
U.S.A.