AT&T Wireless Consumer Reviews - Page 7

I have been a Cingular/AT&T customer for over 8 years. Last July I needed a smart phone for my home business. I ended up with the iPhone because it was cheaper to sync with my mail street account. A year later, my son knocks the phone out of my hands and the screen is broken. I go down to the AT&T store for a replacement, explain the situation to the "greeter," and signs me in. I wait 20 minutes for a sales representative only to be told that the entire city is sold out of iPhones. Any phones keep as back ups for existing customers? Nope. I am told that I have to wait 10 days to get a new phone. Nevermind that I need it to run my business.

I call customer service and they inform me that I can order a replacement online and get it in 1-2 business days. Great. I go online and it makes me register. No problem. I go through the process which requires that a temporary password be emailed to me. Guess what? No email. Another call to customer service and after 30 minutes on the phone, she makes me find an old phone and swap sim cards so that she can text the password to me. After all that, iPhones are sold out online (unless I wanted to shell out $300 more for a 4G).

I call customer service AGAIN, explain my situation with my phone and my business. All I get is "iPhones are so popular, we can't keep them in stock, blah blah blah." They also informed me that they are first, come first served and that they don't keep any back for replacement of faulty, damaged or lost phones. I was basically told that I was Shit Out of Luck. Would they give me a 4g or 3GS 16gb for same price as the phone I wanted? Heck no. I was told that I either need to wait for my phone to arrive in stock or buy a more expensive phone.

I call customer service AGAIN to ask about my contract buyout. Of course ask why and I tell them. I need a wireless carrier that is reliable and will take care of me if I have phone issues. Of course this representative wants to make a phone call to see what they can do and then I am on the phone with the district inventory manager. She acts all concerned saying that I can give her my credit card number and they will move me to the front of the line WHEN they come in(no specific date). I explained that I run a business and need a new phone immediately. She said she was going to check all the stores in Nashville and call me back in 15 minutes. Guess what? She never called.

Bottom line- all AT&T cares about is selling as many iPhones as possible. They play the exclusivity of the phone as their trump card and let customer service go down the toilet. They run all these huge promotions that deplete their stock and create hype while failing to plan for the existing customers. On the phone, they act like they care but refuse to "make it right" or come up with any sort of solution.

I am done with AT&T. I am switching to Verizon who happens to have the best customer service rating in the wireless industry. I have had 2 friends break phones and they had replacements THAT day. Verizon even offered them the new customer price on the replacement phones with a 2 year contract extension, something AT&T refused to do for me. There are better alternatives to the iPhone. I highly recommend you stay away from AT&T.

KALAMAZOO & PORTAGE, MICHIGAN -- I knew when AT&T announced they were buying Centennial it was going to go downhill. The store I used to pay my cellular bill at when it was Centennial was local, the service was excellent and I didn't feel like I was getting the runaround.

Since they purchased Centennial the local store closed up and all of the services were moved almost 10 miles from me. The customer service is now horrible at the 2 stores my bills were accepted at as there are a couple more AT&T stores but they don't service the Centennial customers.

I've had more than one problem just paying the bill. Mind you I've never been behind and my billing history was perfect. I always pay early. I never go over my limit and I've had this account for 2 and a half years. I've been denied change at both locations with them stating that their Centennial drawer doesn't have any change to give me but I'm welcome to apply the rest to my next month's bill.

My bill usually sitting around $75 I pay in cash so recently (last week) I tried with a $100 bill and they told me they didn't have that much change and couldn't break it but they did have cash in their AT&T drawer because there was an AT&T customer paying cash at the next desk over. So then I traded my brother 5 $20 bills for my $100 and attempted to pay with $80 and he didn't have $5 to give me and told me I could pay part of it and come back or apply it to my account for the next billing cycle.

My contract is up August 11, and that was my last contract payment. I have been looking around for the past 3 months scanning my choices and have found plenty that will do me fine. I was hoping that with that visit they'd show me a reason to stay. I didn't get that. I ended up leaving the store and going and breaking the money and going back to pay it all at once.

The payment before I tried a store which is south of town that I stood in line for over 10 minutes while 1 employee was with a customer and the remaining 4 stood over a desk giggling about something. I ended up using their automated billing center in the corner of the room and leaving and I'm sure it was unnoticed or I was being ignored. I came in Monday to try to renew my contract or at least to test out the waters and see what I had as options and turns out I have none.

My perfect record wasn't enough to get a new contract without paying a $500 fee but I was welcome to continue using my current service which is as much as some of the better services out there now in cost and I don't even get outgoing text messaging at all. Which means my money was good enough but my flawless track record wasn't.

Also as a kicker, I've been told that Centennial is no longer renewing service contracts so I couldn't get a discount on a new phone and a new plan but they did have new Centennial phones that I could purchase at full price and I had the option to add service extras.

Then today which is Tuesday, 1 day after I visited and decided never again, I got this text: "Learn about special offers & benefits of migrating your Centennial service to AT&T, visit an AT&T store today!" Yeah whatever dude. It must be nice for them to buy up everything and then stomp out the customers that built the companies they buy. They fail on all levels with me. Beware.

My husband was a loyal AT&T customer and, after we got married, we wanted a family plan together. I had Go Phone and he was on a family plan with his former roommate. We went into a corporate store and found that we both needed to pay deposits. However, we own a small business. The employee told us that we'd be totally fine by setting up the service under our business.

He ran our business Tax ID number and we were shocked when he told us that they wanted a $10,000 deposit. That number is correct. They wanted a $10K deposit on an account with one phone line. Yeah, that's just not going to happen. So, we decided to keep my phone the way it was and to transfer my husband's number to a Go Phone account. Well, they couldn't do that until the $10,000 deposit was paid, because the supervisor had already locked the number into that account and there was nothing they could do. At that point, we were fed up enough that we got all of the information that we needed to take the number elsewhere.

A few days later, we got a bill in the mail, with the deposit waived. AWESOME! We paid the bill on time, got the plan that we wanted and thought it was all good. Until we started getting the daily collection calls. Apparently, the deposit was waived and then somebody in finance decided that they didn't really want to waive the deposit. Okay. I was then told that the only way I could get this resolved was to go into the store that set up our service and have them put in another waiver, because there was nothing that the receivables department could do for us. Well, we'd moved in this period of time and the store was quite a drive for us.

I called the store and was somehow routed to corporate customer service, instead. The CSR was extremely rude and made me jump through all of these hoops to identify the account. I gave my name, my husband's name, the business name, the account number, the telephone number on the account and was then asked to give three numbers that were regularly called. Seriously? Before I was even able to do that, the CSR told me that there was nothing she could do for me anyway. I needed to talk to someone at the store. Which was EXACTLY what I was attempting to do.

I finally got connected to the actual store and the manager told me it was no problem, that he'd take care of it. The collection calls stopped. And that was nice, as these calls were coming at 8 am, and our office doesn't open until 10 am. Every time I spoke to their Receivables department, I explained this. Nobody seemed to really care and they continued the 8 am phone calls.

We received our second bill, which showed that the $10,000 deposit was waived. Two days later, we received a notice that our account was past due (our last payment was credited towards the deposit, rather than the bill itself), that we owed $10,145 and if we didn't pay it within 14 days, they'd shut off our service. I called the Receivables department again and, after being put on hold for 20 minutes, I was told to call the store. Again.

I called the store. Again. I spoke to an assistant manager who told me that it'd be taken care of and that he'd call me back when it was done. I waited for 3 days, hearing nothing and then called again. I stressed the fact that our service was due to be suspended and that this really needed to be dealt with like... now. "No problem, no problem." I received an e-mailed collection notice, which let me know that... well, it really was a problem, so I called the store. Again.

I spoke to the same assistant manager who told me that they actually can't waive the $10,000 deposit, they can't switch our service to any other kind of account until its paid and that, if they ran our business Tax ID number with a Social Security number, it'd go through. I told him that we'd tried to run our Social Security numbers before and that there was a deposit, but he told me that running both of them would take care of it. It didn't.

We ran my husband's number and it came back with a deposit, after 3 calls to get the number and my husband's name spelled correctly. So, we tried mine and, after we finally got my name and SS number correct, the assistant manager stopped calling. Since we were working on a very heavy deadline, I didn't bother calling to follow up that day, because I just didn't have the time, with running a business and all.

My husband's phone was shut off the following day. He called customer service who told him that they wanted a $1,000 deposit if he switched it to a personal account and that we couldn't port the number anywhere else until it was paid. When the CSR was informed that this was our business phone, that all of our business calls go to that number and that all of our promotional materials had that number on it, he just didn't care and that there was nothing they could do. At all. He said that he wasn't going to tell us how to run our business. That's good, because they barely understand how to run their own.

When I got home from work that day, I called the store, who told me that they needed a $500 deposit, no wait... $750... no, $500. Really. $500. He really couldn't quite decide on which amount we needed to pay. There was nothing else that he could do, which I said along with him, because I was so used to hearing it, after all of this time.

At that point, I was just so freaking sick of AT&T that we decided to go to another provider. We went to the mall, got our new account set up and found out that a cell phone provider can't refuse to port a number. Nice. We had to go into the AT&T store to get our account numbers and, when we told the employee why we were no longer doing business with them, she looked at our account. Apparently, AT&T had a lot of business fraud and wanted documentation on our business. Hey, we could have done that, if someone had actually asked us, prior to shutting off our service!

We have a State business license, contractors bond, insurance policy, and a ton of references. Heck, we'd have let them visit us at work, so they could see that we're two real people who really clean houses and apartments for a living. But... it was too late, at that point. When the store employee offered that we could bring in this documentation, I felt like I really wanted to lose my temper. I didn't, because this wasn't her fault, but at that point, I was so sick of the run around that AT&T gave us that I never wanted to deal with them again.

Our new service provider has been nothing but wonderful. They dealt with AT&T's resistance to let me port over my number very easily, set up our voice mail and data connections, all with a smile. We thought that this was the last we'd have to deal with AT&T.

My husband's phone was an AT&T phone that had been purchased when his contract had renewed over a year prior to this incident. He called to have it unlocked and was told that he'd have to wait a week. Then he was told that, for a fee, they'd get to it sooner. We were reluctant to pay AT&T anything, so... we'd wait. We got a call on Monday, stating that his phone wasn't eligible to be unlocked and to call receivables about our outstanding deposit.

We went to our new service provider, who was more than happy to give us an extremely deep discount on a new phone. Like, we got the "2 year contract" price, because the store manager sincerely sympathized that we'd been treated so badly by AT&T.

So, apparently, AT&T doesn't need their customers anymore, as we were pretty much blown off and treated like an unnecessary hassle. Which is fine, because other cell services are more than happy to do business with us. But, yeah. I wouldn't recommend AT&T to anyone, because there's nothing that anyone can do to resolve problems and nobody seems to care anyway. Save yourself the trouble and go elsewhere.

OK. I don't EVER do this but I have had such issues with AT&T recently that I thought I would be one of those people who stands on their soapbox for five minutes. Please Read. Originally I was with AT&T, as suggested by my father, and I recommended to my husband that he buy out of his Verizon contract so we could get a family plan through AT&T.

We then went to one of their satellite stores in in my hometown where my husband switched over to their service, but unknown to us we were signed up for two individual plans (not a family plan), under my name. For the past year I have been paying between $160-$300 phone bills per month thinking that I was on a family plan and that these charges were just overages.

In October we went to another satellite store where we thought our plan was being adjusted so that we could have free text messaging (and avoid these huge phone bills - because the representative there told us that the overages were in texting). However this adjustment was only made on my husband's plan (remember we're still on two separate plans and we are being told we're on a family plan) and the bill the following month was much higher than we were told it would be at the store.

On December 30th, 2009, I called customer service to find out what was going on because my bill was about $200 (again). I was told we were on two separate plans and that an adjustment would be made to fix the problem. I didn't have time to go over everything with the first person I spoke with - who told me to call back when I did - when I did finally call back later that day the next person gave me a different explanation and told me that there was no plan similar to the one described in the earlier conversation.

At which point I became so frustrated I asked how much it would be to buy out of my contracts. As it turns out, it would have been less expensive for me to buy out than to pay my bill! I spoke with my husband and we decided we would try one last time. I called customer service on New Year's Eve and spoke with someone who attempted to right all of these wrongs.

However because of the way this matter was handled we unknowingly lost our text messaging feature which is the major form of communication between my husband and I. A week later we went into a 'corporate run store' to see if it was something wrong with our phones; at which point the representative explained that the feature was shut off until Jan 21st when the new plan would take effect. The service we received at the store was excellent and the problem was fixed, or so we thought.

However due to the previous issues encountered with AT&T's customer service and the cost in overages which should have never occurred we are still deciding whether or not to continue our service with AT&T. It is very frustrating to not get the same story twice from a customer service department, be signed up for a plan that you did not want or agree to in the first place, and to hear that to be taken care of properly we must go into a corporate run store (as told to us by one of the reps. in the corporate run store). Throughout this whole ordeal we have spent an exorbitant amount of money.

Our picture messaging feature was not restored the day we went into the corporate store. I called the representative (who gave me her business card) and she had no idea who I was or anything about the hour we spent in the store two weeks ago. I told her that we were still unable to picture message and she told me to call customer service (who hasn't helped since the beginning).

Reluctantly I called and was told that there would be an additional fee to add picture messaging - which I had before this whole ordeal with the loss of service - which I was not about to pay for. Somehow the problem was fixed on my phone but my husband is still having problems with his phone. I made the mistake of calling to find out when our contract was up and lo-and-behold I come to find that my husband's plan is up in August and MINE is up in October of '11 - when we tried to have our bill problem fixed in the store back in October the salesperson extended my contract without telling me!

The service representative I spoke with was extremely rude (his name was Todd) and gave me a ton of unnecessary attitude. When I explained to him that I did not agree to an extension of my contract he said he did not believe I unknowingly extended my contract. When I asked who I could complain to about all of my issues he told me to write a letter to their complaint department.

I have to WRITE A LETTER to a company who boasts how fantastic they are at networking and communication. I know exactly where my letter will go too (confetti-maker/circular-filing bin). If you have read this far thank you and please pass this on. I know I am not the only one who has had issues with AT&T.

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA -- I first had an agreement from them to activate my internet during the third week of February. I realized a few days later that it wasn't on. I called their company and spent at least an hour on the phone with them. Then they said they would call me back. Several days and no call. I call them back again and spend at least another hour on the phone with them. I am now 1 week without service. I finally get a scheduled appointment for a technician but they can't get here for a week. 2 weeks without service now. The technician arrives but can't figure out what is wrong. Says he'll come back on Monday, tomorrow. Another week goes by. Nothing.

I'm now 3 weeks without service. I spend another hour on the phone and finally get set up for another tech but of course I have to wait another week. Even though it was their tech that forgot about us and never reported the problem. He arrives after no service now for four weeks. In the meantime I have to call AT&T and have them adjust my bill because I have yet had NO service!!! Finally 4 weeks later the tech said the last guy was in error and he quickly set up my internet. He apologized for AT&T's error.

Now this next part is where I feel that AT&T not only continued to violate their contract with us, but led to undo hardship and pain and suffering to a disabled person due to their neglect by not fulfilling their contract and service. On March 28th, 2009, my spouse was in a motorcyle accident. She was sent by ambulance to emergency. She spent nine days in ER, ICU, and Trauma. She and suffered 4 pelvic fractures, 5 broken ribs, a punctured lung partially collapsed, and a broken scapula.

Before she was released from the hospital, my spring vacation began and I was able to care for in the hospital and bring here home. She could not move even to turn her body or put pillows under her to relieve the pain. I had to be there 24/7. At the end of my break she could sit up and move to the porta potty by the bed but it took a long and painful time. She needed help to move and minimize the pain.

The day I was to go back to work, I had a friend lined up to come care for her at the house during the day. My friend works for Oracle and is able to work from home with her laptop. Great plan then the night before I was to go back to work... My internet goes out and I've lost my caregiver. I called AT&T back and explained the situation. I got the same exact printed lines on their paper. “I'm so sorry for your trouble but we will not be able to send a tech out for a week. I spent hours on the phone with them talking to sooooo many people begging and explaining the situation. They all repeated the same lines on their little papers in front of them.

I threatened to end service but they begged me to stay and finally I agreed. So my wife sat end bed and didn't eat all day for a week because it was too painful to get up. Thanks AT&T. A week later the tech comes to my house, fixes the problem, and says it was their error and they were terribly sorry. He also informed me that there was no excuse for the company making us wait. He said all they had to do was call him and he could have come right over. He said a week is their standard line but they could have fixed it the next day.

I believe AT&T would let someone die before they would lift a finger to provide real customer service. You would have to be human and they are NOT. Well, we got service again then it went out again after 3 weeks. In the meantime we are still negotiating the bill because of the lack of service and the bill was still not correct. In addition to the time spent on the phone trying to get a tech out here, we spent hours on the phone trying to get the bill fixed. We were not getting the bills we had agreed on. We would talk to AT&T and they said they would call us back and didn't.

Finally the last time we spoke I was done and irate. The women said she would call back and never did. The last bill I received said if I didn't pay this amount by this date they would cut off service. The funny thing was the service was already down again. I thought that was funny. I told them I would send back their modem and consider our business over. She never called back. The collection agency was the next thing heard. No return phone call AGAIN, no service, just drop dead and "I'll let collections deal with you". I will NEVER use AT&T. I will never have an iPhone because they are linked with AT&T.

I WILL send this letter to everyone that will listen: TV, radio, internet, friends and family. The amount of $ I owe is lunch at Benihana's. I don't care about the money, I am beyond angry for the horrible treatment of my spouse and I. I also heard you don't even treat your employees any better. Shame on you. I've sent back the modem and consider our business complete. I do not believe I owe you but that you owe me an apology. Let me know when this bill is cleared up. This is NOT OK. This is not how you treat people and I will not agree to this.

MCKINNEY, TEXAS -- I wish that I could get the documentation of the trouble I've had with AT&T Wireless into a reporters hands. They claim to have the best coverage and the least amount of dropped calls, and pride themselves on Customer Service being Priority number ONE. As an outside salesperson, I live and die by my phone. I also live and die by the way I treat my customers. So I know bad service from good service.

Be prepared for the worst customer support in your life. When you call in the reps will lie, answer things incorrectly, and basically try and get you off the phone as fast as possible. I wish I could add up the time I've spent on the phone with Customer Service, Tech Support, and email chat. They would owe me a big stack of money!

I went through three phones of same make and model, sim cards, upgrades that were bogus, batteries, and timeless minutes trying to get my dropped calls issue resolved. Eventually and only after a extremely long conversation with a very knowledgeable tech rep, did I get a refurbished Blackberry. The excuses for dropped calls ranged from they were in my head to everything else you can imagine. My 4 years ends in May and you'd think they would be doing everything in their power to keep a customer like myself who has paid on average, over $100+ WITH THEM for 4 years!

This week was the week I determined that I've had it with this company. Time is too valuable, and frustration ruins your quality of life. Get ready for terrible customer service, a lot of dropped calls and a bad experience somewhere down the line with them. I would love for 60 minutes to pull my personal file from them that would include their internal documentation of my calls, emails, etc. and then compare that to the CEO's Commitment to the customer comes first and how our cell phones have become a part of our everyday lives.

He, meaning the CEO would be shocked, if 60 minutes investigated myself and others who have been long term customers, and saw first hand how we've been treated. Not as one customer crying foul, but from the inside out. The last straw was when I asked for a supervisor and when transferred, he picked up the phone like the guy answering the phone for a cab company.

I requested his name. He hesitated and told me his first name. Then I asked for his last. I knew he lied so I asked for an employee number, and it didn't sound truthful either so I said "thank you and GOODBYE". Please note that it's very common for them to give their first and last names. I have plenty of them, so that's not an issue with this company. But, it was with me. Good luck with them. All my coworkers and friends are on Verizon and have none of the type of problems I've had. So guess where I'm taking my business tomorrow?

After reading some of the reviews on AT&T's customer service I have a few comments and a few bits of advice. We've dealt with 3 different cell phone carriers, T-Mobile, AT&T, & Verizon. The bottom line with all three (and probably most any customer service department you call) is that their billing departments make mistakes and not all customer service reps know how to correct them to your satisfaction. So... When you call take notes and call again if you don't get a solution that you feel is fair. When I call back, I tell them I've already spoken with someone and what I was told didn't make sense to me so I wanted to check again.

Both AT&T and T-Mobile screwed up our billing on various occasions. And both have given incorrect or inconsistent information depending on who I talked to. I didn't have to deal with too many issues with Verizon because my husband's company started paying that bill not too long after we started with them.

One problem that I had with AT&T occurred when I was receiving spam text messages that I had to pay for. The first representative I talked to said the only way to solve the problem was to disable all texting ability on my phone or to pay $5/month for their text service. While I don't send or receive many text messages often there are occasionally times where I need to send or receive. I'm not paying $5/month for, at most, 4 text messages.

I called Customer Service again. After explaining the problem and what I was told the first time around, the second person said - "No problem. I can take care of that." She then removed the charges for the unwanted texts and did something (I don't know what) to make sure I didn't get another unwanted text. She did not, however, completely turn off the ability for me to send or receive texts from valid numbers. There was a pattern to the numbers the spam texts were coming from so maybe she had some way to block texts from something following the pattern. All I know is she fixed the problem and removed the charges for the 17 texts unwanted texts.

When I switched from a family plan to an individual plan AT&T made a $75 mistake in my favor. I called because I didn't feel comfortable not saying anything. The representative on that call said not to worry about it and didn't remove the credit... Basically I got 2 months of free service as a result.

As I said before, the bottom line (even though it can be a big old pain in the back side) is take notes on what you are told, and call more than once if you don't get the response you want. If they've charged you for something you didn't subscribe to or have led you to believe something that isn't true, you can usually find someone who knows how to fix the problem to your satisfaction.

I am furious with AT&T wireless. I signed on for cellphone service quite a few years ago with Cingular wireless, then later changed my service to a family plan. Cingular bought AT&T wireless, and then things really went downhill. The first "problem" was that AT&T was under billing me. I was honest about it and called the company to let them know. Some good that did, because now the company is over billing in relation to a text message plan I signed up for on the AT&T wireless website.

I signed up for what I thought was a text messaging plan for the entire family, because my daughter had significantly increased her usage of the text message feature. At least AT&T's website led me to believe I was purchasing the plan for the entire family -- the site was actually very confusing.

When I received my first bill after that (in November), I was still billed for all the text messages my daughter sent and received -- and she's the reason I got the text messaging plan in the first place. I figured maybe it was too soon for the plan to be applied, so I paid the bill and said nothing. But the next month (December), I also was billed for all of her text messages -- more than $80 worth.

I called AT&T in December and spent a half hour with an AT&T customer service rep, who explained I had signed up for my number only on the text messaging plan I had ordered. I explained to him that I do not send text messages, and the website did not make it clear that the text message plan fee was number-specific. He agreed to change the text message plan to my daughter's phone number within our family plan and to refund that month's text message charges. In fact, he instructed me to make a new payment that reflected the credit.

But when I got the next bill (in January), I not only was billed for a new month of my daughter's text message charges, but also showed a past due balance for the messages she sent and received in the previous month -- the amount I was told would be credited to my account.

The customer service person I called yesterday (1/9) said the text message credit for last month was "denied" by AT&T, but no one at the company had contacted me to tell me that or to give me an explanation. Even worse, the plan still had not been applied to my daughter's number, as was promised to me, and I am continuing to pay for a text message plan tied to my number. I do not even know how to send text messages and do not want or need the plan to be tied to my number. I need it to be tied to my daughter's number!

At last check today on my website account, the problem still has not been addressed. I am furious! This is not the way to do business! I would like AT&T to adjust this mess -- I've also wasted a good hour on the phone between today's phone call and last month's phone call. This is nuts.

AUSTIN, TEXAS -- In July 2008 last summer, I had some personal effects stolen from my house. I reported the loss to the police, and kept the police report to cover any identity related issues that arose from the incident. On August someone using my name and social, in another state, went into an AT&T wireless store and proceeded to purchase a new phone, SIM card and phone number under my name and turned my number off. This left me stranded in Arizona so I immediately called the AT&T service via pay phone and after almost 3 hrs of back and forth agent to supervisor talk, I was able to prove who I was and have my phone number restored.

I was assured that all my features would remain the same because at that time I had no contract or upgrade, I was on month to month. And the people who tried to open the new phone account fraudulently were able to start up a new number with no contract. This information was read to me over the phone. After my number was restored I had to go and purchase a new SIM card for 26.03 dollars. By this time it was like ten pm. I was assured everything was fine, I place a security code known only to me to access my account to prevent anything like this from occurring in the future.

My problems escalated when I decided to close my account and go with a provider with better coverage in my area. That was when I found out that I was placed in a contract when they restored my number, even though I was SPECIFICALLY told that it would be restored to what it was before the people fraudulently tried to close my service. I was also told that I didn't specify anything and that because I didn't, that I was put in a contract and thus I would be charged an early termination fee of 175.00 dollars. Am I the only one here who sees a problem? I had month to month contract free service for over a year.

I had the same old phone I started the contract with over 3 yrs ago, never upgraded it because I knew I would be locked in another contract and I wanted to KEEP my freedom to move or change providers whenever I wanted. I never even got reimbursed for the SIM card that I had to purchase though no fault of my own. I offered to prove my case with the police report and written testimony from the manager of the Walmart who stood there for an hour while I had my card activated and my phone service restored.

I want to warn all of you that AT&T is crooked and will get you if you are not careful. I refuse to be taken advantage of while I am in a vulnerable state such I was. I will also encourage all of my AT&T friends not to do any business with them and I will also make a BBB report.

There are two issues both relating to our service with AT&T wireless and their customer service. The first is the deplorable way in which they dealt with the 15 or more times that our five family members had to return the 5 free V3 RAZR. The first phone had the back cover break off. So I called and they said that it would cost me $50 to replace it since it was physical damage and the insurance I purchased for all 5 phones, $5 per phone per month would only cover any internal damage. Then the returns started. First it was one phone at a time, then two phones at a time. By then one family member had enough of this a bought a replacement.

Then after the third time my daughter decided it was time for her to buy a replacement. At one time I had 3 phones within a week having to be returned. At one point I lost track of the time period for a return which was 90 days. So I figured I could use my insurance since none of the damage was physical. To my surprise it would cost me $50. I was told since the acquisition Cingular (we had the original contract with Cingular) the original contract was replaced by the AT&T contract which stated a $50 dollar deductible applied now. So I was out the 14 months of insurance payments (5x5x14=$350) and had to pay $50 to replace a piece of junk phone.

Needless to say I cancelled the insurance the next day. My wife took my daughter's phone, a Samsung, she a bought Blackberry Pearl. By the way I got the hand me down V3 RAZR. This left a spare RAZR. Eventually the Samsung went and I called for a replacement for the bad spare RAZR. By the way all these phones sent to us for replacements were refurbished of which some were worse than one it was replacing. I was told by a customer representative that after the third time you could request a new one of the same model.

I tried this and was told by the people at the replacement department that was valid with the Cingular contract but no longer was in effect with the new AT&T contract. I pretty much hung up on them after some choice words and decided to call back in few days after I cooled down and discuss with my wife what other possible solutions I could suggest to AT&T so I didn't have to keep replacing phones every month or two. We decided to ask if they would offer a replacement of a different model.

After talking with AT&T for 3 days they finally let us pick from 6 different models, my wife decided on a Sony Ericcson, of which has been good so far I don't know if it is a refurbished one. My son's phone in mean time had to be sent back, the one he has now a RAZR but a newer version is working so far, maybe they got the message with the refurbished ones. It only took a 1 ½ years and a lot of aggravation. So out of the 15 plus phones and $400 only one of the original V3 RAZR's was good. Also the connectivity of AT&T as opposed to our original Cingular is horrible. I only have about 4 more months to end the 2 year contract.

Now for the second issue. My wife has been asking me for four months to see if I could hook her cell phone up to her laptop so she could have an internet connection where she works. When she got her Sony Ericson it came with software so you set your cell phone up to do this. Unknown to me she installed it, brought it all to work. The second day she was using it she called me because she was having problems getting it to work after she had to use her cell phone. I told her not to use it and I would check and see how much it was costing her to use it this way, she agreed. I had not been able get any cost that day since it was the last day of the billing period.

The next day I checked online and was shocked to find out the first day cost me $119. That was nearly 12 megabytes of data downloaded. I checked the amount of data for the following day and to my shock it was 54 megabytes or $540. Here I was expecting $5 or at worst case $20. It was too late to call so I called the next day and talked with customer representative who said that is a ridiculous amount to pay two days of internet usage, but informed me the rate is $.10 per kilobyte. I explained to him even though my knows how to use technology, she has no concept of how it works and you can get into a lot of trouble if you don't check things out first.

He said the amount was to much for him to reimburse me for, his max is $200. So he put in a request to a manager (aka dictator) for a reimbursement. After waiting 6 days I got a voicemail at work on my cell phone informing me that they were very sorry, but they are valid usage amounts and I would have to pay the entire amount. Believe me I was not a nice person to work with for the rest of the day. I am going to do battle with them again and call back and come up with some alternative way we can work this out, even if they convert the usage to their data plans.

I wouldn't even mind paying for the first day and convert the other days usage to a data plan. It's just that we all make mistakes and would a little help to ease the pain. Even drunk drivers get more sympathy from a judge for their first offense. It's not like I used for a whole month and expected to get out of it, goodness it was only for two days. Is this any way to keep happy satisfied customers? They know they have you locked in on a contract so you are at their mercy and their word is final and the average consumer who wants something good in their life has to suffer the consequences of their dictatorship.

Just a word to sum things up, every customer representative was very understanding and offered to work with me, it was when I had to deal with someone with authority that I got the rudeness and dictator like response. By the way before AT&T took over I had no problems and everyone was very pleasant even if they couldn't help they at least made you feel like human with feelings and not just a paying customer. A lot of anxiety and wasted money, not to mention the countless hours of being put on hold and talking with AT&T trying to explain a situation, only to find they wouldn't work with you to find a solution.