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AT&T Mobility Informative - Look at Yourself - Wireless
Wireless
Thank you for taking the time to read this review, I have been a CSR for AT&T for over a year and during my employment I must state that the majority of the complaints that customers have are brought on themselves by either not reading their contract, which is not our problem if you are too lazy to read what your legally binding yourself to for 2 years, or not listening when they are being told policy and having "selective" hearing, for all you customers that come on these sites and say your now "ex" was able to get a new phone w/ a contact signed on your account at a corporate location maybe you shouldve removed them as a Retail Authorized User on your account when you split up, again not our problem. Also when you complain about overages on your minutes maybe you shouldn't be on the lowest rate plan you can get and use your phone like have unlimited minutes, you get what you pay for, use common sense there are many self service options to review all of your unbilled usage so ignorance is no excuse, also understand that when you lose your phone the only replacement is insurance, we do not owe you a phone if you are not elig for upgrade we do not track your phones and are not your phones babysitter nor do we have any way of changing your upgrade eligibilty, we do have replacment options avail for you at a lower cost but they may require a contract extension depending on the status of the current contract but if you refuse the options we offer that is your problem, CSR do not enjoy being told that we will order you a free phone w/ no contract bc you are irresponsible and lost your equipment..we also don't enjoy when you call in with an attitude, we are much more willing to find loops for you when you act like a human being...when you're a jerk we will absolutly stick to the policy.
As well, when you threaten to go to another carrier bc of our service prices we laugh at you bc they are all just as expensive if not more, you do not get to keep your unused minutes so you will just be paying more in overages every month and good luck w/ VZ bc they will NEVER credit or make an adjustment on an account, you use the services you will pay for every little bit of it and if you don't pay it they WILL send you to collections remember the contract you signed..also w/ Sprint yes you get unl data on there network guess what they have the fewest towers so most of your usage is on AT&T or VZ towers and they consider that roaming and guess what remeber that contract you signed with them, you will pay extreme amounts in data overages, so good luck to you. And don't even get me started with the required data plans, NO carrier requires you to own a smartphone but if you want to own one you will have a data plan, get over it. All carriers require it now w/ upgrades or new service activations and no amount of bitc@#%% will change that so don't waste your time or ours, and for those who say "oh well my son got an iPhone and put his sim into it I didn't sign a contract for the iPhone I don't have to have a data plan" think again, You did sign a contract for our sim card which remains AT&T property and even if you started service w/o a contract bc you already had equipment you still have to sign and agree to our Terms of Use w/ our sim card which CLEARLY states if you put our sim cards into a smartphone you will be notified that a smartphone data plan has been added to the account.
Overall you get what you pay for as with any other service in life, treat your reps with respect and they will work hard for you, you will get treated as you treat them if you call in with an attitude you will receive one as well, put yourself in our shoes, don't tell us how to do our jobs, and remember we want our customers to be happy but not at the expense of losing our jobs which pays our rent, feeds our kids, and supports our family, we will not break policy to keep you a customer bc the same thing you're threatening to cancel and go to another carrier for will be enforced by their policy as well, also keep in mind that it would be much easier for us to just give you what you want when you call in than allow our average handle times to skyrocket bc you want to argue and we have to keep repeating the intial response and you just don't want to accept it than to spend an hour arguing with you. If we can't do it, we can't do it, reguardless of how much you whine, your wasting your time and ours..also a helpful tip, if you are calling in about your bill have the bill in hand or in front of you because you have no idea how incredibly frustracting it is to try and explain billed charges to someone who has no idea what your talking about bc they don't have the respect to call in prepared. we are not psycics we don't know why you don't understand your bill every charge is there and when you say I just thought it was high but I have no idea why that is really unhelpful.
As well, when you threaten to go to another carrier bc of our service prices we laugh at you bc they are all just as expensive if not more, you do not get to keep your unused minutes so you will just be paying more in overages every month and good luck w/ VZ bc they will NEVER credit or make an adjustment on an account, you use the services you will pay for every little bit of it and if you don't pay it they WILL send you to collections remember the contract you signed..also w/ Sprint yes you get unl data on there network guess what they have the fewest towers so most of your usage is on AT&T or VZ towers and they consider that roaming and guess what remeber that contract you signed with them, you will pay extreme amounts in data overages, so good luck to you. And don't even get me started with the required data plans, NO carrier requires you to own a smartphone but if you want to own one you will have a data plan, get over it. All carriers require it now w/ upgrades or new service activations and no amount of bitc@#%% will change that so don't waste your time or ours, and for those who say "oh well my son got an iPhone and put his sim into it I didn't sign a contract for the iPhone I don't have to have a data plan" think again, You did sign a contract for our sim card which remains AT&T property and even if you started service w/o a contract bc you already had equipment you still have to sign and agree to our Terms of Use w/ our sim card which CLEARLY states if you put our sim cards into a smartphone you will be notified that a smartphone data plan has been added to the account.
Overall you get what you pay for as with any other service in life, treat your reps with respect and they will work hard for you, you will get treated as you treat them if you call in with an attitude you will receive one as well, put yourself in our shoes, don't tell us how to do our jobs, and remember we want our customers to be happy but not at the expense of losing our jobs which pays our rent, feeds our kids, and supports our family, we will not break policy to keep you a customer bc the same thing you're threatening to cancel and go to another carrier for will be enforced by their policy as well, also keep in mind that it would be much easier for us to just give you what you want when you call in than allow our average handle times to skyrocket bc you want to argue and we have to keep repeating the intial response and you just don't want to accept it than to spend an hour arguing with you. If we can't do it, we can't do it, reguardless of how much you whine, your wasting your time and ours..also a helpful tip, if you are calling in about your bill have the bill in hand or in front of you because you have no idea how incredibly frustracting it is to try and explain billed charges to someone who has no idea what your talking about bc they don't have the respect to call in prepared. we are not psycics we don't know why you don't understand your bill every charge is there and when you say I just thought it was high but I have no idea why that is really unhelpful.
Comments:
Posted by jktshff1 on 2011-02-27:
Feel better now?
Posted by jktshff1 on 2011-02-27:
Mornin Alain, Yea, but all in all it was a good review. I voted it VH
Posted by bluediamond98 on 2011-02-27:
Clarification regarding Sprint "Everything" plans - You receive unlimited data. Period. You do not incur any overage/roaming charges for data usage because they don't have enough towers or the most towers or whatever. I have only received a "Roaming" charge for usage outside of the country and I use a slew of data. You will be hard-pressed to find another plan comparable to the Sprint Everything Data 450.
Posted by Alain on 2011-02-27:
You're right, Jkt, there are some good points here. I'd hate being a CSR. Blue, thanks for the good info!
Posted by FlitteringFirefly on 2011-02-27:
I despised being an AT&T CSR for the reasons above. It was probably the worst job I have ever had. It may have been because I went from dispatching ambulances to hearing people scream about their Blackberrys not working... Your email and text messaging is not a life or death emergency.
Posted by bluediamond98 on 2011-02-27:
My daughter is a CSR for Verizon and I hear the same issues all the time. It IS a difficult job. Still though, I remind her that it is NOT a free public service. I paid $300 for that iphone 4 and a nice tidy sum every month to keep it going which they receive on time. That said, if it isn't doing quite what it should be doing (missing texts or VM msg), I am going to call - repeatedly if necessary. It isn't a life or death emergency but I fully expect it to do what I am paying for it to do and I expect a reasonable level of service when I do so.
Posted by jktshff1 on 2011-02-27:
Blue: Good point, when ya call in you should get an answer rather than a runaround or a "high volume" of calls on hold.
Posted by madconsumer on 2011-02-27:
this is a well written well informed review.
i have been with at&t for over 10 years. i simply love my mobile service and provider!!
i have been with at&t for over 10 years. i simply love my mobile service and provider!!
Posted by ChuhBaca on 2011-02-27:
There are some good points in this review. Being a CSR is a tough job. I did it for 2 years for the Post Office.
Blue, however, reflects the consumer's point of view. Yes, you should always be polite and treat people with respect; as people. That being said, it is a 2 way street. Customers also expect to be treated like people and not policies.
A lot of these companies don't respond to politeness. All you get is a very nicely worded apology and a "tough luck".
You are also right about comparing the competition. All of the big cell phone providers have similar price plans, and similar levels of robotic customer service. No competition leads to frustrated consumers.
You talk about receiving the same complaints over and over. If that's true, why doesn't the company work on creative ways to reduce these complaints? New pricing structures, improved reception, phones with the desired smartphone features without the data plan (such as touch-screens, full keyboards, Wifi only, etc...)
That brings us to my last point. Some people would very much like some of the smart phone features, but can live without accessing smart phone data service (Wifi). The FULL cost of a phone is very high! In fact, given the technology in other electronic devices, I would say that the price of cell phones is unjustifiably high!
I understand the frustration of dealing with customers, but they are keeping the company in business. Also, keep in mind that a lot of frustration you are getting can be traced back to decisions made by your executive management. Not all, but some.
Blue, however, reflects the consumer's point of view. Yes, you should always be polite and treat people with respect; as people. That being said, it is a 2 way street. Customers also expect to be treated like people and not policies.
A lot of these companies don't respond to politeness. All you get is a very nicely worded apology and a "tough luck".
You are also right about comparing the competition. All of the big cell phone providers have similar price plans, and similar levels of robotic customer service. No competition leads to frustrated consumers.
You talk about receiving the same complaints over and over. If that's true, why doesn't the company work on creative ways to reduce these complaints? New pricing structures, improved reception, phones with the desired smartphone features without the data plan (such as touch-screens, full keyboards, Wifi only, etc...)
That brings us to my last point. Some people would very much like some of the smart phone features, but can live without accessing smart phone data service (Wifi). The FULL cost of a phone is very high! In fact, given the technology in other electronic devices, I would say that the price of cell phones is unjustifiably high!
I understand the frustration of dealing with customers, but they are keeping the company in business. Also, keep in mind that a lot of frustration you are getting can be traced back to decisions made by your executive management. Not all, but some.
Posted by raven2010 on 2011-02-27:
As someone who was a call center manager for a competitor of AT&T, I can tell you 99.999% of this review could have been written by me or one of my reps.
Folks need to read what they sign and ask questions f they dont understand. Most of the large nationwide carriers work very much the same, so threatening to leave wont get you any kind of advantage.
Find the carrier that has the best coverage in your area, understand your plan, understand what will happen if you lose or murderize your phone, etc.
Screaming and being dramatic wont change anything, I promise.
Folks need to read what they sign and ask questions f they dont understand. Most of the large nationwide carriers work very much the same, so threatening to leave wont get you any kind of advantage.
Find the carrier that has the best coverage in your area, understand your plan, understand what will happen if you lose or murderize your phone, etc.
Screaming and being dramatic wont change anything, I promise.
Posted by JISCal1 on 2011-02-27:
I would much rather a CSR come here to vent than to take it out on me when I am on the phone. BTW, the points made here are valid. I hated AT&T's cell phone service but their customer service was awesome! They were kind but the bottom line is I knew when I shut off the service that there would be a termination fee on the way. It would have been nice if the fee would have been waived, but I knew that it wouldn't go away just because they were nice to me.
Posted by Ytropious on 2011-02-27:
I agree OP! I think a lot of people who have overage issues would benefit from not being on a plan at all, they need to go the prepay route. It's gonna be easier for everyone involved.
Posted by leet60 on 2011-03-01:
Just a few comments from a former AT&T mobility CSR. One is regarding the incorrect statement "you do not get to keep your unused minutes ", while that is true with the major carriers, many smaller regional carriers do indeed allow you to carry over your unused minutes.
As for the tone of the post, it seemed to place a lot of the blame on the customer. I can vouch for the fact that many times there are issues that are wholly AT&T's problem and representatives are told to mever admit that issue or to give the customer misleading information.
On my part, as a long time customer service representative, customers deserve to be treated with respect. While working for AT&T I rarely found a situation I was not able to difuse with kindness, good listening skills and good communication. The bulk of the calls received are frustration over equipment malfunctions and billing misunderstandings both of which are easily resolved.
As for the tone of the post, it seemed to place a lot of the blame on the customer. I can vouch for the fact that many times there are issues that are wholly AT&T's problem and representatives are told to mever admit that issue or to give the customer misleading information.
On my part, as a long time customer service representative, customers deserve to be treated with respect. While working for AT&T I rarely found a situation I was not able to difuse with kindness, good listening skills and good communication. The bulk of the calls received are frustration over equipment malfunctions and billing misunderstandings both of which are easily resolved.
Posted by Droppedcalls on 2011-03-08:
OK, so what do you tell the folks who are wondering around downtown, waving their arms in the air, clutching their iPhones like zombies - looking for a signal, any signal? Are they unreasonable? Are they 'stupid' because they signed up for a service that the company cannot deliver reliably. The only thing I can count on from AT&T is the bill will come every month, whether the phone service worked or not.
Posted by MRM on 2011-03-08:
Amen, Droppedcalls, Amen...
Posted by MRM on 2011-03-08:
I am fortunate that theres a carrier that has a plan of $25/month with no hidden fees and no contracts.
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