Complaint Review: AT&T ConnecTech - Miami Florida

Date: Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 11:38 AM
Subject: AT&T ConnecTech and 305-xxx-xxxx
To: [email protected]

Telephone Account number 305-xxx=xxxx (AT&T home landline and DSL service)
Account holder  wife & her husband
Address of phone and account holder 1xxx SW 1xx CT, Miami, FL 33176
Problem: Incompetent service rendered by AT&T ConnecTech Support plus subscription with ETF and possible wire fraud

Gentlemen:

My husband spoke with Rashica of AT&T on Saturday morning November 20, 2010 because AT&T DSL service had allowed the THINKPOINT virus to infect our computer. We were referred to a subsidiary of AT&T called AT&T ConnecTech. He spoke with the sales lady Kathy. She said that AT&T ConnecTechat could remove the virus THINKPOINT from our computer for $129 as a one time charge.
Alternatively, Rashica suggested that I subscribe to AT&T ConnecTech for a year for a cost of $180 and  AT&T ConnecTech would not only then remove the virus THINKPOINT from our computer, but also provide expert tech support for the next 12 months. The $180 yearly cost would be paid in monthly service charges to the phone bill of 305-630-9368 ($15 per month for 12 months). As part of the subscription, we would receive continued expert tech support for one year for such items as removal of future virus infections, PC tune-ups and advice.  We subscribed for the yearly plan expecting AT&T to give us such expert advice and service

What we received from  AT&T ConnecTech was poor advice, discourteous service and some advice that was totally inappropriate, worthless and a waste of money, time and electricity.

Continuing with our tale of misery: After subscribing, the sales representative tried to transfer our call to AT&T ConnecTech, but instead disconnected the call. On calling back, my husband had to go through the screening process all over again except for the subscription sign up. Eventually, my husband was able to talk with the tech support person Eric Montee. Mr. Montee came on the phone to say he would remove the virus. He tried to remove the THINKPOINT virus sent to my computer by the AT&T DSL service. Apparently he has some difficulty as he was joined by Steven Telford. The two of them accomplished some sort of a temporary fix, but did not remove the virus as it reinstalled itself when the computer was turned on the next day.

As soon as the computer was running and lit up the screen on Sunday, November 21, 2010, the entire screen was covered with THINKPOINT's label. The desktop was covered entirely. Immediately in disgust, AT&T ConnecTech was called by us at about 6 pm. The AT&T ConnecTech person answering the phone said he would transfer the call to a technician and that the computer should be left on.
The transfer took place and our call was put on hold for over an hour, at which point, we left a voice message to be called back. No one did. AT&T ConnecTech closed hours later without any courtesy being shown. The computer was turned off.

The next morning Monday Nov 22, my husband called AT&T ConnecTech about 9:30. Again he was put on hold for quite some time. The AT&T ConnecTech who tried to help did not. He could not remove the THINKPOINT's label from covering 90 percent of the screen. He opened task manager, but did not stop any processes from running. He was told that Mssrs. Telford and Montee had stopped one or more, and that one of them was probably "hotfix".

Rather he loaded web pages to the screen, which of course was 90% covered by the THINKPOINT's label. After being unable to work the computer remotely since the permissions required were covered by THINKPOINT's label, he told me that Microsoft Vista had to be reinstalled and that our my personal files should be backed up to a thumb drive. The advice was absurd for two reasons:

Thumb drives do not come that large
The back up would have the THINKPOINT virus even if a external hard drive was used.

The technician in charge of service at the CompUSA store (14951 S. Dixie HWY, Miami FL 33176; 305415-2750) luckily prevented us from following the back up plan. If my husband had followed AT&T ConnecTech's advice of back up and reinstall, we would have wasted money, time and possibly ruined files. On top of that the virus would still be in the computer.

 CompUSA fixed the computer at a cost of $119.99. Attached is the receipt. Attached is the bill and payment. I called AT&T ConnecTech billing this morning and spoke with a woman who said that she understood the problems and would cancel the contract, but that we would still have to pay the first month's installment of $15. She was polite and quite good at her job. But when my husband insisted that the first month's payment had to be canceled as well, she said that only a billing supervisor could do so. We were then transferred to billing supervisor Waldo (employee id number ww8910). He said the woman we spoke with had no authority to cancel the contract. He also said that AT&T ConnecTech would not cancel the billing. He said that incompetency on the part of his technicians was not a sufficient reason.

If what he said about the first billing representative's lack of authority is true, we suspect that the first $15 payment she mentioned as being necessary to cancel the contract was just a con game being perpetrated by the AT&T ConnecTech billing supervisors including Waldo. AT&T needs to investigate our suspicions.

The first step to resolve this problem is for AT&T not to bill me for AT&T ConnecTech. Next AT&T ought to launch an investigation into AT&T ConnecTech carelessly or knowingly providing incompetent tech services and the suspected fraud of having its billing representative say the installment contract would canceled if one installment was paid. We suspect that the intent was to have us affirm the contract by making the first payment. Such a practice constitutes wire fraud.  Even if AT&T did not know, it should have known.