AT&T Consumer Reviews - Page 4

MINNESOTA -- I did not pay my bill for two months - which is totally my error. However, I have been a customer for over 10 years and not particularly satisfied with the phone service but too busy to change systems. My daughter happens to be in Russia with no phone service and I called AT&T, offered to pay 1/2 of my bill and the other half on Wednesday this coming week to restore service because I do not want my daughter in another country alone with no phone service.

I was told that they were sorry but they could not accept a partial payment. I asked if they could simply restore her service. That would be enough... again no. I wish I was surprised but I am not. I don't think for a moment that AT&T has a corporate conscience and this is one of those circumstances when they should have made an exception. I have put up with so much over the past 10 years with poor service, dropped calls and now this. I am moving to Verizon after next Wednesday when I pay my bill in full and I would suggest that none of us support AT&T. I did write to consumer affairs.

DEER PARK, ILLINOIS -- I went into the AT&T store at 21690 W Long Grove Road, Deer Park, IL 60010 and registered myself in the waiting list. I was the second person in line, and after the person before me was helped. I noticed that my name dropped to the second place again. Upon asking ** why I was moved to the second spot, **, the Retail Sales Manager at AT&T decides to throw me out of the store. He also gives me a lecture on HOW TO DEAL WITH THINGS IN LIFE... Absolutely rude individuals work at AT&T. Would never do business with them, ever again. All my business goes to T-Mobile or Verizon.

HENDERSONVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA -- Number one, they lied to me about the terms. Number two, it took 3 months for them to get the billing address correct and then they still continued to use the wrong address on occasion. Number three, the tech representative (I think in the Philippines) was condescending when I didn't pick up on some obscure nuance in their system that I had no way of ever knowing. Number four, when I asked to speak to a higher up I was never contacted even though I was promised a return call within 48 hours.

In essence, they have learned nothing from the customer service revolution of the past 30 years. Reason I terminated my service? The bandwidth was so low on occasion, I couldn't download a 1 meg photo via email. Forget streaming with their DSL. A loser company if I ever met one. Never again.

For years AT&T was my home phone service and later my cell. I paid for their line backer insurance all those years and one day my phones started acting up. I called AT&T and had them to check the lines and there was a problem with them. They set up a service appointment with me and no one showed up and no one called. I called them to find out what happened and big surprise... they had no record of the order for service. We set up another appointment. I can see this happening once, maybe twice... but FOUR TIMES!!! I have better things to do than sit around waiting for someone who is not going to show up.

Needless to say I was in full rant mode when they heard from me again and they had the nerve to try to get me to go outside and open their box to check the wiring. Right away I knew they would send someone later to say it was tampered with and they were not responsible, not mention the fact that I would be doing their job for them. That was exactly what I told them,"Your people get paid good money to do this job, I'm paying for the service and the insurance and I want someone here to fix the problem!" The next day my phone was disconnected. At first I thought they were sending someone to work on the lines, or maybe the phones just finally stopped working.

I called my number from my cell and it had indeed been cut off. That couldn't be right, I paid the bill. I called AT&T and they claimed they never got my check, they didn't see anything about my having called several times about my phone lines or the four appointments where no one showed up, it showed that my service had been ABANDONED!!! I would have to sign up for new service. They did not want to come out their pocket to fix my lines. I would now have to pay for the repairs myself. So if you're paying for the insurance on your bill, they are stealing it from you.

I got rid of them and their lousy cell service, any time you can't call 911 from your cell for help or anyone else and you've already had dropped calls, garbled conversations or no service signal where you know you should have a signal, it's time to drop them. (AT&T) They don't have time to deal with you and your cell problems until it's time to sign you up for another contract.

Beware when that time is close, your cell will act up more and more and when you call in about the problem, they tell you it's time for an upgrade and tell you as a valued customer you qualify for a certain phone at half the price... but you have to sign another contract. There was nothing wrong with your cell, it was the provider of the service to that cell.

HOUSTON, TEXAS -- I recently moved to Houston, TX and am unfortunately in an apartment where the contracted provider for DSL/internet/phone services is AT&T. I will put down my grievances in bullets and then expand below: - Shoddy customer service, by far the worst I have seen in this type of industry. - Service activation time is far too long. - Hidden shipping costs charged in Bill. My advice: Avoid AT&T if you can.

First, when I called up for only internet services just for enquiry (I use VOIP for phone), the customer representative placed the actual order itself without letting me know or giving me the order number. As a result, I ended up with two modems a couple of days later. It takes ages before you can get to a grumpy customer service agent who tells you, "Sorry, you need to call up another number as yours is a service request for only an internet connection and no phone." AT&T customer service is pathetic. The internet connection itself got activated only after around 10 days of placing the order. Dunno what they do for those 10 days!!!

Then the billing. Some $50 is charged for installation when all the equipment is set by UPS air for which another $15 is charged. This shipping charge will never be mentioned by the sales rep. And to think of it, the equipment was shipped by air but was useless to me as the account activation did not happen till a week after I received the equipment.

And when I wanted to call up AT&T regarding this shipping fee; another 15 minutes wait before a grumpy agent tells you that you need to call up another 1-800 number. When I do that I get a message “The office is closed for the day!!!" Hello AT&T!! Wake up guys... 7:00 PM CST is not the time to close the shop for the customer service thing. Stay away from AT&T if you can...

12/23: Update: I had written earlier that AT&T sent me 2 modems. I had already returned one of them after speaking to the customer service agent (painfully long time on the phone), but now I have two bills from AT&T!!! One of them for the modem they had sent by mistake and which, I returned without using. This just reinforces my earlier remarks.

12/26: Update: I called up AT&T and after a 30 minute call; the bill for the returned modem has been set right. By the way, the lady on the phone was trying to sell me wireless phone services while she was working on the bill thing. I did let her know that I will be without a phone rather that is with AT&T, for anything!!! I did not have the energy to talk about the shipping charge on my bill... was too exhausted after the 30 min it took AT&T to set right a mistake they made. :-)

1/11: Guess what... I again got a bill for the cancelled account. AT&T sucks man.. real bad... after holding on another 15 minutes I got across to representative who says that it is my fault that I got the bill!!! After shouting at the rep for 10 minutes things started getting across to the rep. She tells me that there is a credit that will be done in my account which will take care of the bill I got. Though this is good news... I somehow do not feel relieved right now considering my past experience. Could be possible that I get another bill from them!!! AT&T sucks.. big time!!!

After posting a review stating cellphone numbers would be published to telemarketers, I was informed this has been rumored on Snoops.com for some time now. I was not aware of it, and we were sent an email throughout our company informing us of this. Stating today was the deadline. I don't want to misinform anyone, I went on Snoops.com and found some info...

I also found the following on the FTC website: April 15, 2005 - The Truth about Cell Phones and the National Do Not Call Registry. If you'€™ve received an e-mail telling you that your cell phone is about to be assaulted by telemarketing calls as a result of a new cell phone number database, rest assured that this is not the case.

Telemarketing to cell phone numbers has always been illegal in most cases and will continue to be so. In response to recent e-mail campaigns urging consumers to place their cell phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry, the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission issue this advisory to give consumers the facts.

One e-mail making the rounds says: €œJUST A REMINDER...In a few weeks, cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sale calls. You will be charged for these calls... To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: 888/382-1222. It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time. It blocks your number for five (5) years. Pass this on to all your friends...

Another version claims: €œThe Federal Trade Commission has set up a "do not call" list. It is called a cell phone registry. To be included on the "do not call" list, you must call from the number you wish to register. Here'€™s what you need to know about the National Do Not Call Registry program: FCC regulations prohibit telemarketers from using automated dialers to call cell phone numbers. Automated dialers are standard in the industry, so most telemarketers are barred from calling consumers on their cell phones without their consent.

The federal government does not maintain a national cell phone registry. Personal cell phone users have always been able to add their numbers to the National Do Not Call Registry,€” the same Registry consumers used to register their land lines either online at www.donotcall.gov or by calling toll-free 1-888-382-1222 from the telephone number they wish to register. Registrations become effective within 31 days of signing up and are active for five years. There is no cut-off date or deadline for registrations. Business-to-business calls are not covered under the Registry.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- My experience with AT&T raises the question, can a major corporation reach a level of incompetence where they can actually drive themselves out of business. Because if it's possible, I think AT&T can do it. It all started around the middle of October. At this time I had been considering going from normal phone service to digital phone service, which is a bit cheaper. I had actually ordered this from Time Warner, who made an appointment to come out and install the proper hardware.

But then I got mail from AT&T with an offer for their own, cheaper digital CallVantage service, with free activation and a month of free service, so I decided to cancel with Time Warner and order CallVantage. Ordering the service took quite a while because the offer I had been mailed did not match the offer the operator showed on her computer, which did not have the free month and free activation, so she had to spend some time fixing that.

AT&T mailed me a phone adapter with instructions for how to set it up. The instructions told me to check my confirmation email for my login name, but I had never received a confirmation email, so I phoned up and was told the order had been cancelled because there was a port change request against my phone number. This was apparently because AT&T had put in the order before Time Warner had cancelled my order with them.

AT&T had first told me to call Verizon, because they said Verizon was the carrier for all of New York City, but this isn't true. Actually, AT&T was my carrier, but they insisted I call Verizon, who predictably said I wasn't in their system (I think the problem is AT&T no longer accepts new customers for normal phone service and doesn't actually know it still is a carrier).

AT&T said I would have to reorder the service, so I did. Once again I had to verify I was getting the same offer, and found that now they were charging the activation fee, but when I told them that was wrong they fixed it (or said they did). I was also told I could set up my service right away, since I had the adapter. Five minutes later I realized I still didn't know my login and I called back and she said the confirmation email could take a couple of days (which I was later told by someone else was incorrect).

A couple of days later I called back, said I still hadn't received a confirmation email and was told my case would be transferred to a specialist who would get back to me in 48 hours. After 48 hours passed I called again and was told my login name was just my phone number! Apparently it did not occur to any of the other phone support personnel to tell me this.

I hooked up the adapter but it didn't work, and I found I couldn't log into the website with my login name. I called tech support. After some investigation they discovered that neither my first nor second order had gone through. They said the best thing to do would be to wait a few weeks until both orders completely cleared out of the system and then try again.

As it happens, a friend of mine had also ordered CallVantage, and by this time I had learned through her that it was absolutely horrible. It frequently went out and since it worked through her cable modem she was told every time it stopped working she would have to turn off her modem and computer for 15 minutes then restart. Sound quality was poor and when I would talk to her there would be an Echo half the time. She had called tech support, and one person told her it would take a few weeks before the system "settled down," and that after that it would be better. Later a different tech person told her it would settle down in about 72 hours.

It never actually settled down. She had a miserable time until she could switch back to a normal phone line. She said the service was clearly still in the beta testing stage and AT&T shouldn't be selling it until it actually worked. (When she got her first bill, they had charged her both the activation fee and the first month, although they had told her they wouldn't, and had actually charged her conventional rates for the first several days she had used the service, during which she had made some lengthy long distance calls, and she had to go through a series of support people to get these charges removed.)

So at this point I said, "Never mind, cancel my order, I don't want CallVantage." It was cancelled just at the end of November, and I thought that was the end of it. A couple of days before the end of December my phone went dead. I used my girlfriend's cell phone to call AT&T and they said they had cancelled my service because there was a port change request for my number. I said I had not ordered a change in service and they said I should call Verizon. Once again I told them Verizon wasn't my carrier, AT&T was, once again they insisted, and the operator at Verizon actually laughed when I told her my story and confirmed that I was not in their records.

I called AT&T again. They began transferring me from one department to another. The analog phone service people said the problem came from CallVantage, that the order had never been cancelled. CallVantage said "No, the order had been cancelled long ago." I was finally transferred to a specialist who would consult with various people in various departments while I stayed on hold.

Finally after being on hold for 20 minutes the recording telling me to wait disappeared and after five minutes I gave up. They had asked for the cell phone number so they could call me back if we got disconnected, but they did not call me back, and I had no idea who I had last been talking to or how to contact them. I had also used up an hour of my girlfriend's minutes for nothing.

After my girlfriend went back home I had no phone, so I contacted AT&T through a form on their website. (Normally I would have gone to a friend's house and borrowed their phone but I had bronchitis and was not up to facing the winter weather.) After a couple of days AT&T replied to tell me their records showed I was no longer a customer of AT&T (keep in mind I had explained the entire story in my message to them). I sent a reply repeating what had happened.

They emailed me back to tell me to phone the repair department, although I had explained I had no way to make phone calls. I explained that to them again. They then told me that they were the CallVantage division (I had just used the contact AT&T form on the website) and couldn't help me. I said, "Are you telling me there is no way to contact anyone in repair by email" and they sent me a url for a different form that contacted regular analog repair service. It had taken them five days to send me to the right people.

The repair department of course emailed back to ask me to call them. I emailed and said once again that I had no phone and that since I have no way to fix my own phone, I have explained the problem in detail already and when I'm on the phone with them they just keep me on hold that there was no reason to actually have me on the phone. They then emailed me again to say there was no way they could reinstate my number, it was gone, and gave me a number where I could call to get new AT&T service. Instead I went to Verizon's website and signed up for phone service, which will presumably be turned on in a couple of days.

It is my greatest hope in life that I never again have to deal with AT&T.

JACKSON, CALIFORNIA -- Your AT&T employees misrepresent and lie to its customers. I went into an actual AT&T store on the 17th of July 2013 and bought a mi-fi device which I had to pay $49 for and sign a 2-year contract. I asked the representative to sign me up for a 3 GB plan, and for some reason I noticed when I got home that I was signed up for 5 GB instead. I was also prorated to pay an extra 6 dollars or so on my next bill, because for some reason my billing cycle started on the 19th of June and not the 17th.

While at the AT&T store, I was also very clearly told that I could at any time downgrade my service to any of the other plans from 10 Gigabytes, to 3 Gigs, to 500, and finally down to 250 MB. Now 3 months later and the data being sucked up while I sleep, I decided to downgrade the Mi-Fi plan to 250 MB and get home internet service instead, while I would still pay the $14.99 a month for their lowest plan.

So I got my home internet from AT&T BTW, and I call their customer service on 21 of October 2013 (Monday) to try to save some money, while I try and do the right thing and fulfill my contract. I tried to cancel on the 19th right before my next billing cycle but they are closed on weekends. I called because I wanted to downgrade my service and use what data amount I thought was appropriate. Come to find out the information that I received at the AT&T office in Jackson, CA was wrong. The plan, which I was offered apparently is only available for tablets, not mi-fi the lady on the phone told me.

When I told her that their company's representatives are misleading and not telling the truth, she told me to drive back to that Jackson, CA (which is almost 100 miles and talk to their manager, and tell them to train their employees better). So now I have to do the job that AT&T managers should be doing and I should pay $ and time for the mistakes their reps make. And there's nothing the customer representative could do, so I ask her to cancel my service then, because I wasn't going to pay $50 for a service that I wasn't going to use. She said she couldn't do that for me and then she transferred me again to someone who had the capability to cancel my service.

SO I was put on hold for another 20 minutes and another customer relations expert answers the phone with no capability of doing anything to help me either, except he said he could change my plan and change it into a mobile device plan where I could pay $14.99 a month, but "I would not be able to use my mi-fi device", meaning I would be paying $15 dollars until July 2015 for no services offered whatsoever.

So I asked, whether I would be able to exchange my mi-fi device for a mobile device and still continue using their service while paying the proposed $14.99. He said "No, your 14 day grace period has expired." I asked whether my cancellation fee could be waived and he said "unfortunately no" for 100th time. I swear their training consists of saying "unfortunately" in front of every word. So I stopped negotiating and said that I just want to cancel and am would not like to take advantage of his awesome offer of $14.99 because me paying that amount would amount to $315 by the time my contract expires vs. the $138 cancellation fee/penalty.

How does that do anything to help me out? When they should have stood by their word and at least trained their staff properly. Then, ** the customer relations expert also says that I would be charged for an extra month through Nov. 19 because I called 2 days after my billing cycle started. I asked him to prorate it and he said they can't do that, they have no such capability. Then I called him out of it and said that they charged me with a prorated amount in the beginning why, so don't tell me there's no such thing as prorating.

So he said he'll look into it and only charge my for 2 days of this billing cycles, after he attempted to lie to me and say that they work on the weekend. I called on the weekend and the machine told me to call during the work day. This is ridiculous, they just straight out lie to you to get their money from you. They lie to me to get me signed up, they lie to me to try to make me pay $15 a month for no service, they lie to me and say they can't prorate to get an extra $50 out of me and they lie to me, saying they can't stand up for their representatives lying to me and waiving my fee. Then they call me a valued customer.

Please waive my cancellation fee, because I deserve to be told what I'm buying and signing up for. I deserve to be told the truth. I will continue writing people to try to get the customer service and services I was promised or you also should have to hold up your side of the contract. It's not one sided, you should also be responsible for your employees not telling the truth. Thank you in advance.

EVERETT, WASHINGTON -- So I go into the store at 10am to return my phone and cancel my account. I lost the debit card I used for the purchase and reported it stolen. So the associate says come back at 3 so they can give me a cash refund. They had to wait till the tills had enough cash for the refund. So I leave and come back at 3 and see the same guy. He passes me over to the manager named **. He states the same story again and says they still don't have enough cash to do it.

So the manager himself says he will text me when they get the cash. He even sent me a text saying so to me. So I leave and time passes. I decide to go in at 5 to see how it is coming along. The manager starts to go through the tills to make sure they have enough. Then he stops and starts talking to the other manager **. Then after a minute conversation with her he comes over and says they won't be able to do cash. Then says they will need to send a check that may take 30 days to get. Then he states that he called all the other store managers to see if they can do it but they weren't able to find a way. He all of a sudden changed what he said from the beginning.

So then I talk to AT&T over and over. I got some calls from some execs but they never returned my call once I called back. They said I need to deal with the store and that they will refund everything but the restock fee and that they will just credit the account for that. Which doesn't help me since I'm closing the account. Then I go to the store for the 5th time now and of course receive the worst service yet.

** the manager skips over me and helps 3 people behind me. Then I flag her down and she says she thought I was with someone else. I tell her I just want to cancel the account and just get away from AT&T. She then puts me on the phone with customer service and walks away. Then she goes on lunch and I'm sitting there with no one helping me in person and on hold for over 30 min. Then the lady I do talk to says she can't help me because I don't know my number and that I should know it. I replied I had the phone for such a short time and why does it matter if I don't know you don't tell me what I need to know. She then says she can't help.

I told her, "They usually look it up by SSN can't you do that." She hesitates and says "yes" and I told her "I want a manager." She puts me on hold for 20 min. I decide I am over AT&T. I walk up to the reps in the store and tell them sarcastically thanks for the wonderful service once again. I dropped their phone on the desk and just left.

They are a joke there. I talk more and more with AT&T customer service and some say I will get a full refund but then say they can't and its just a big cluster **. I don't know if I will get my refund. I believe it when I talk to someone and then I go in person and they don't know what the hell I'm talking about. They have the worst customer service possible. Most of their reps don't know what I'm talking about until I basically explain it over like 30 times. Each phone call is at least an hour and I've wasted too much already.

CARBONDALE, PENNSYLVANIA -- This is about what happened the first day of my payment agreement: Called to make first payment on March 2, 2012. The recording, of course, had indicated that the account is blocked from check or credit card payments. Wow, really? AT&T customer care to the rescue. How is this possible when I'm on an arrangement already.

Here is what actually happened: The end of October 2011 I paid 235.24 to AT&T via a credit card ending in **, has been closed recently also. This credit card belonged to my Mother. I have a bank account with her and I use this card to pay my phone bill on occasion. Without me knowing my mother later disputed the charge on her credit card, forgetting this was my phone bill and I had already paid her. Apparently, this dispute had backed out the 235.24 from AT&T in February 2012. Soon after I had made my first arrangement as above for 165.93. Wouldn't it be nice if AT&T would have made me aware of this mishap.

Discussed this issue with Customer Server personnel. They had indicated that a credit card payment from October was taken off my account on February 22, 2012 which I did not know at this time. Now they say my account is 140 days past due and they cannot make an arrangement. After discussing this further with a supervisor, I was told to pay the 235.24 that was backed out in October 2011 and then I could make an arrangement the next day after I make a cash payment.

I promised to pay 235.24 the next day and would call the back to make further arrangement. Was promised by the customer service representative that they would not suspend my account unless this payment is not honored. We were all in agreement.

March 3, 2012 sometime in the afternoon my service was suspended. I called them immediately and asked why this happened when I was promised they would not shut off my service if the payment gets made. Keep in mind I work until 4 and had to make the bank to make this payment. The customer service representative had suggested that I pay the October 2011 return of 235.38 then they will un-suspend my service. Then I was told to call them back to make a new arrangement with them. All was fine at this point. We all agreed!

March 3, 2012 4:15 pm Called AT&T to confirm that I was on my way to make the payment of the 235.24 as promised. This time I was told that was not enough to get my service back on. I have to pay $545.19 now because it's 140 days old. I have told them that I was promised by the customer service representative prior that I only had to pay October's bill then I can make a new arrangement and get my service back on. This customer service representative told me they cannot do that.

Thus, I was lied to twice (2) by AT&T Customer Service. I requested a supervisor to talk to. Again I got the same line from the supervisor and no way were they going to budge. I threatened to go to another company and they really didn't even care. Very awful business practices. I requested to go over the supervisors head and again they gave me the same deal.

I told the manager that what bothers me the most is that the customer service representatives can lie and get away with it. This manager would not work with me and she claimed that they cannot override this for me. Anything can be overridden so I did not believe that for one minute. Another manager who really didn't care to help much less care that I threaten to closed my account and go to another company.

Perhaps AT&T is right to expect me to pay the 545.19 because it was not their fault this happen. However, as they can see it wasn't my fault either. Consequently, I had expected them to work with me and help me with an arrangement and not suspend my service. Moreover, there was no problem with me paying for the services, I like having the services and I certainly was not trying to rob them. Since this was a mistake by a third party, I expected them to work with me. I guess I expected too much and now I know the company's true colors.

When it comes to customer care please don't ever rely on it because it's more like "customer don't care" and you usually get a foreigner on the line that gives you the same spiel every time. "I am sorry to hear you have a billing issue...", what a scam and lack of humanity in today's business. Whatever happened to "Operator may I help you?", a real human from your own country asking to help you. Call me old fashion but, at least you were a person then, not just a number to add to some CEO's bottom line.

Needless to say once my contract is up, I'll be moving to a different company. These large companies had forgotten about Customer Care. Lose one customer is not going to affect their pockets by much, so they really do not have any care of Customer Loyalty and there is no personal customer service that really cares if you stay or leave them. The bottom line is billions of dollars aligning the pockets of CEO executives and losing a couple accounts a day is the least of their worries. If each customer took away millions of dollars of their prized shares of stocks, I bet they be better at it and enhance their customer care service. Shame on AT&T!