- Report: #564978
Complaint Review: At&T U-Verse - Internet
Reported By:
Kelly -
Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America
Submitted:
Updated:
-
Author Not Confirmed
Why?
At&T U-Verse
Internet, United States of America
Phone:
Web:
at&t.com/U-verse
Categories:
Business Rating:
(0)
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At&T U-Verse Deceptive Business Practices, Refusal to issue refund when at fault Internet
A year ago this month we signed up for AT&T U-Verse, being television, internet and phone services as a bundle. We had our neighborhood canvassed by salesmen trying to initiate business as well as numerous mailings that came and after researching it, we decided to go ahead and try to "simplify" our lives. Boy, was that a mistake!
Since day one we have had nothing but problems with the service. Constant and unexplained interruptions in service, which means all three services stop working. Some days it would happen close to 45 times a day. We have made constant calls to the company, whose best solution is to always send a technician. I think in the entire year, we have had maybe one month where the "interruptions" were tolerable.
Each tech that came to the house claimed the problem was caused by yet a new and more interesting set of circumstances...and as each technician came, they also claimed they knew how to fix it. (Clearly they never did) Over time, our service got worse. Again, we called to complain and request a better solution. And again, we were told that a technician would have to come out to the house to assess the problem. In the year, we have probably had close to 20 techs here, none of which made anything better, one even made things worse. In early December we experienced constant interruptions. Service to all three worked less than 25% of the day. This became more of a liability for me due to having three kids in the house, as well as the fact that I have a brain tumor and need to be in constant contact with my doctors. Another issue that weighed heavily was the fact that if anything should ever happen and we needed to call 911, we were at the mercy of whether or not our phone service would actually work.
We were told yet again that a tech would come out and "fix" it. So we said fine, but this is the absolute last time. A very nice and understanding technician came out. He noticed that one major problem was that the last technician who claimed the problem would be fixed by installing a new gateway piece forgot to even screw the unit back into the wall before leaving. However, we were shocked to find out that this was the least of the problem at hand. We were over 4000 feet out of range. The reason we had been experiencing all the problems we had was due to a very weak signal strength, caused by the distance. His remarks to us was that we should have never been installed in the first place and that he found it really disturbing that after so many technicians had been called out to the home, none of them bothered to address the real issue. He told us that his notations would include his recommendation to cancel services because we should have been made aware that service was not available to us from the beginning. He called a second technician that day and asked for his opinion. The next man agreed that the issue was caused by the distance.
Upon contacting AT&T to cancel and ask for our money back, they told us that they would not be doing so. Why? No idea. After spending the better part of 2 weeks trying to get a manager to call us back to no avail we decided to file complaints with the FCC, BBB, the Attorney Generals office and the Indiana Utilities Regulatory Commission. Finally we got a call from the Midwest Executive Appeals Office. Her claim was that because we agreed to their terms of service agreement upon installation, that we acknowledged that they would not be held liable for interruptions. And she went on to state that this service is comparable to cell phone service with dropped calls. I let her know that yes, the constant "interruptions" were a huge problem and would be better classified as excessive, but the real issue was the distance. And that I had read the terms of service agreement and there is nothing stated there to absolve them of any wrong doing legally. She refused to offer any more than one month credit and said that we were basically out of luck. I tried being polite, tried explaining my side and that we were well aware that the problem was distance. Another interesting aspect of all this was when she informed me that the basis of their not offering any further credits/refunds was due in part because we had only had 3 technicians called to our home in the year. I had 3 technicians in teh month of December alone! Where did all the documentation go? My guess is, out of convenience, it was deleted. Why? To make it look better for them that they can not be held liable. Unbelievable! How can they get away with this type of treatment? And no matter how many times I told this woman that her information was wrong, she wouldn't hear of it. Her response to me was she couldn't believe that all those calls would go "missing". Funny, all the technicians dispatched to my home over the year never had a problem finding it. However, none of them ever seemed to have a clue what was going on or maybe they didn't care to be honest.
Many times in that conversation she tried talking over me and insinuating that I was lying. But when it came down to the comment made by the last technicians, she said the company would be "coaching" him and offering him additional training. I find it hard to understand that those who are actually competent to do their jobs are reprimanded for being honest. She made it very clear that he had no business telling us that and that he was wrong. Then she wanted to hurry up and get off the phone and even told me that she needed to go home for the day.
I asked to speak to someone else, someone above her. She told me that although she had a manager, that she personally was the highest up the chain we would ever get. I asked for the name of the CEO and she gave me a name, too bad it was wrong. I had to research it on my own to get his correct name and contact information.
I have sent correspondence 14 times to this man, only to be ignored at every turn.
Every time we are contacted, it is by the same rude woman who claims that the only offer that they will ever make will be the "goodwill" offer of one month. Two days ago she called yet again and said that she has put in a request to have our services terminated. (No, we did not authorize this, but in their terms of service agreement it also states they can terminate for any reason, even if there is none)We have spent the last two months alone trying to get this taken care of. She has offered to send yet another technician out, but apparently doesn't understand that not only is this a constant inconvenience to me, that I wouldn't ever think this technician would remain impartial if she is the one sending them out.
She claims that we have the attention of the CEO, too bad she cannot say his name correctly. And if we have his attention, why does he ignore us?
How easily they take our money, too bad they cannot stand behind their product and make right the wrong. They are responsible yet they hide behind their logo and refuse to settle this matter. They would rather bankrupt a hard working family than accept the fact that giving us our money back is the right thing to do.
How easily they take our money, too bad they cannot stand behind their product and make right the wrong. They are responsible yet they hide behind their logo and refuse to settle this matter. They would rather bankrupt a hard working family than accept the fact that giving us our money back is the right thing to do.
AT&T not only is greedy, they apparently could care less about their customers. We have been loyal customers for over 12 years. Clearly maintaining good business ethics was not something they put on their priority list. Shame on you AT&T! It seems as though they will string this along as long as they can to continue to avoid their legal responsibility.
Avoid AT&T U-Verse, avoid AT&T altogether if you can! We will take our business elsewhere since loyalty and good standing means nothing to them. Buyer beware! They not only hire these clowns to go door to door in areas that service is not available, they also send out technicians who aren't properly trained to your home and refuse to solve problems.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Indiana family
United States of AmericaLatest Installment in the Saga with AT&T
#2Author of original report
Tue, February 09, 2010
So emailing the CEO has gotten me nowhere. After over 20 attempts to contact him, I am still ignored. Every complaint we filed with all those agencies, AT&T's response is always that they have issued a "goodwill" offer that we continue to refuse. Their offer to us has never changed, it still remains as a one month credit. Funny, how I have spent two months trying to get this matter resolved and they won't even give me that much back.
Last week, the executive appeals lady that we had already dealt with called. Of course, my phone was not working at the time, go figure. So she called my husband at work and informed him that AT&T would be disconnecting our U-Verse service as of 2/09/10, which is today. So not only won't they be reasonable and accept where they are liable, they want to hurry up and terminate services so no further action can be taken by us. We did NOT authorize termination of services mainly due to knowing once that took place they would conveniently lose all other documentation on the case. But they state, as written in their terms of service that they can terminate service for any reason at any time. And that's exactly what they did.
So at some point today, I will no longer have internet access or phone. We already switched our tv service so that's not an issue. But of course today is a major snow storm. So clearly they don't care if I might need to communicate with the outside world or need to ever call for help. It's just far more important for them to maintain they are not wrong or responsible and ignore us.
I am astounded by the lack of attention they give to you when there is such a problem. Yet they hire all these subcontractors to go door to door in areas where service is not even available. You'd think they could realize that the practice of that alone is deceptive, back off the door to door sales people and give me back my money based on if nothing else, good business practices. However, that is not the case. They have only proven to me that they are unreliable, untrustworthy and unworthy of my time and money. I urge you all to be wary of what can happen. Because, just like in my situation, these people are very willing to take your money...they just aren't willing to stand behind their product and give the money back when they know they are in the wrong. I think they rely solely on the fact that most people don't have the money to hire a lawyer, nor the time to spend fighting this out in court. Can you imagine how long the legal reps from AT&T could drag this out in a court of law?
Save yourselves the time, money and headaches involved. Use satellite or cable for your tv and whatever other company you can for phone and internet. Maybe a smaller conglomeration would be more likely to treat you with more respect and value your business.
