AT&T Consumer Reviews - Page 5

AT&T does not prioritize or give the slightest importance to quality customer service. They are more concerned with making money even if it means cheating their customers and taking illegal and immoral means to achieve this goal. I had several issues with my billing and I would call to inquire about these issues and I always got the run around. No one wanted to help or explain extra charges on my account.

In one particular instance I noticed that AT&T was billing me twice for minutes and it wasn't a mistake because it was happening every month. For example let's say my bill cycle ended on the 10th of the month and new minutes started on the 11th. AT&T would bill me Until the 10th of the month but then in my next bill would charge me for minutes starting from the 7th of the month instead of the 11th.

So the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th days of the month I was charged twice for any minutes used during that time frame, which truly added up! AT&T gave me reason to believe they were doing this on purpose as a SCAM to make money off of people because of the next incident I am about to explain. I received a bill once with 30 dollar charges worth of celebrity updates and game apps. I called AT&T to assure them this had to be a mistake as my husband and I NEVER purchase these sort of things. They would not explain how the transaction occurred - they simply insisted that I pay them the full balance.

I spoke to 5 different customer service representatives in regards to this issue including one store manager and a supervisor. The store supervisor told me that third party companies sometimes randomly select phone numbers to charge fees transactions that the individual did not really make. I asked, "How can you allow these third party companies to target your customers like that?" I wasn't being billed by this "third party" - I was being billed by AT&T.

Which means that if this sort of scam IS indeed TRUE then AT&T is a participant of this scam. Why else would they allow another company to target their customers and willingly collect the money for them and give it to them? They must be making a profit this way!

After hours of arguing and being told it was not at all possible to remove the charges, when I showed them I knew what they were up to they quieted down and just said "look we will remove the charges OK" - it was the shadiest thing ever!

There are so many more instances where I realized A&T steals from their customers but it's just too much to write. Most people don't want to argue over a bill so they just pay whatever balance shows up on their accounts, but I would advise to take a closer look because AT&T steals from their customers!!! I strongly advise against joining this network, they are full of lies and deceit; they are truly a CORRUPT organization. Consider yourself warned.

SHERIDAN, WYOMING -- A few days ago, I dropped my cell phone in a very small puddle. I picked it up, dried it off and even took it apart and dried the inside (just to make sure no water got inside, it was a very shallow puddle). I put it back together, put the battery back in, turn it on, and nothing. So I go to my local AT&T (ALLTELL) Store to see what they can do for me, after all this is a very inexpensive cell phone. I paid $30 for it and I got a rebate card for $30 in the mail not just three weeks earlier. So I had this phone for like three weeks and here it is dead. This just happens to be during the transition from Alltell to AT&T.

Anyway I walk in and it looks like they are taking the old Alltell phones off the counter and stocking the new AT&T phones. Well a few seconds which turn into a few minutes go by and not even a hello. OK the two guys there were stocking counter tops but the very, well how do I say this Kindly, I don't want to say fat see I'm fat and she had a few on me. Let's just say very healthy very female sales lady woman just looks at me while I the customer await a friendly acknowledgment or just hi or something.

So I see it ain't happening so I smile say "I dropped my phone." She takes it, looks at it, tries the power button and tells me "There is 'nuttin' we can do for you," looks me up on her computer and tells me "Wow you have been with us for 15 years." I smile and say "That's right. Can you help a loyal customer of 15 yrs out." "Nope," she says and "You just got this a few weeks ago. Wow that really sucks," she tells me, like I don't know this.

"Well at least you get your new AT&T phone in about three weeks." "Yes but I need my phone now." "Sorry" she says and hands me back my broken phone. "Cannot you just sell me one of the old phones that you are putting into boxes." "NO. But you can buy my cheapest phone for $150 but it won't work in a few weeks when we change over to AT&T." (Thank God I have two other phones from different companies.)

Long story short (or short story long) she tells me my other options are just wait a month or so until I receive my AT&T phone - you know the old "go without" but still pay. Or close my contract (the same contract I just renewed three weeks earlier). I ask her how much that would be and she tells me about $250. I start to walk out and she says "I have your contract pulled up so you can close it out - that's just $250 please" (really she's going to be nice to me now, I wonder if she makes commission on closing out contracts).

I said "I need to think about it." And I am. After 15 years of loyalty to that company never missing a payment, this just might be a very rewarding way to spend $250. I almost forgot later that day I look at my phone take apart one more time, All this time I had the battery in wrong.

I put it in the right way and BiNGO, it turns on. She didn't even check to see if my battery was in the right way much even check to see if I had a battery in the damn thing. Oh well thank god for TracFone and Verizon. Oh Sheridan Wyoming what you could be with a little competition.

DO NOT USE AT&T internet. I signed up with them on their website and very thoroughly read all of the service and price information. I decided to do the self installation and was told that I would receive the self install kit within days and that I would receive an email when it was shipped. I finally received it 5 days late after calling their customer service and asking about it. I got the email saying it had been shipped about a week after I received it. I then had to call technical support numerous times to get the static IP addresses that I had requested weeks ago finally set up.

According to the website, it would cost $110/month for their service. To my surprise, the next month, I get a bill for $237.95. Obviously, I call their customer service and they tell me that they had not applied my rebate of $100 for the modem. Problem is, that was still $25 more than what I was told when I subscribed. The representative refused to listen to what I was saying (that the amount was not what I was told when I signed up) and just repeated their list of changes over and over again to come up with their higher amount.

I told them that their charges were too expensive and if they could not charge me what we had agreed to, they could just cancel my service. Their response was just to say that I had signed a contract with them for a year and that my service could not be canceled. I guess they feel that they can charge you whatever they feel like regardless of what the contract says, so they are pretty cocky about it.

And the rebates they promise on their website - forget about it. You will never see them. The only one they have honored is the "free" modem. That $100 Visa gift card? When I called to ask about it, I was told to logon to their special rebate website after the first 30 days of service to have it sent to me - what a joke.

Probably even worse than all this is that I cannot even use the stupid phone line that I had to get and pay for just to get their lousy Internet service! They have sold my name and phone number to anyone and everyone. I can't have my phone plugged in for even 5 minutes without some telemarketer calling me and interrupting me when I am trying to work. Plus I am getting all kinds of junk mail now that I never got before.

I hope that AT&T is proud of themselves for this year of service that they are unfortunately getting from me - I will be dropping them as soon as possible and will be telling everyone I can not to do business with them. Not the smartest way to do business. Yep - signing up with AT&T was a BIG MISTAKE. I hope this review helps others to avoid them.

Dearest Asurion Insurance Company and Your Equally Aggravating Conspirator, AT&T: I've had the unique pleasure of spending the last several days on what seemed like a series of no less than two-hundred and fifty-thousand grueling phone conversations with your ace customer service team regarding my defective Blackberry 8700c. The experience was akin to the most excruciating torture imaginable.

In hindsight, I'd prefer the luxury of water-boarding, splintery bamboo shoots being shoved up under my fingernails or high-voltage electrodes attached to my reproductive organs by overzealous, mega-caffeinated CIA goons vying for promotion. Quite frankly, what I had to endure, dispensed by the script-sticking zombies at both of your fine and upstanding firms would make the most hardened member of The Third Reich cry out for his Mama.

On the bright side, I sure do know the drill, backwards, forwards and sideways now. "Thank you for calling the new AT&T about your wireless service." Then comes something in Spanish like, "Donde esta el shampoo? Estas ** en la casa? Primero numero dos." Then, of course you get a menu, to which you can respond by pressing the numbers 1 through 4 on the phone keypad, and then finally, you get a real live android on the other end of the line. They ask you, again, for your Cell number, address, last four of your social, name, rank and serial number.

But, before your grunts in the trenches could even utter the repetitive question log, after passing me around your system like a drunken crack ** dwarf at a gang-bang porn shoot, I would clearly, confidently and calmly, restate said data, much to their surprise. They thought I had ESP. That was fun. I was helpful. This, by the way was after three (count 'em, three) trips to the AT&T store.

The only heroes in this nightmare by the way were two Indian expats ** at the AT&T bodega at Varick and Houston in NYC. They were the only people that went way out of their way to try to get to the bottom of my problem and actually help me. For the record, I wasn't even a customer of theirs. They were just being nice guys. And, I walked away with a fabulous chicken vindaloo recipe. All was not lost.

Back to the issue at hand: I have a defective Blackberry 8700c. Not defective as in I dropped it in the toilet while tripping my face off at the Phish concert in Central Park. Not defective from me flinging it out of my window on Exit 11 of the New Jersey Turnpike, doing 80 in a 55, and having it run over by a Smart Car with 18" rims. Not defective in that my chubby pal ** tried to salt, pepper and eat the damn thing, just defective, all by itself. Oh yes, and only one month after the warranty expired. Ain't that a kick in the head?

Thus far, all a relative cakewalk as I'm sure you'll agree. It is at this particular juncture of my story that the real tyranny begins. AT&T refers me to the insurance department. I naively believe this is actually a division of AT&T. That's just ignorance though. I slap myself on the back of the head, Italian-style for being such a stunod. Turns out, things are far worse, it's Asurion, a division of CNA Insurance. (Cue the silent movie villain piano music now.)

AT&T tells me that all I have to do is call, make a quick claim and voila, they'll send me a new replacement phone right away. Simple right? I mean, what could possibly go wrong? I was so relieved. Did I mention that my livelihood is high-pressure sales in the financial sector? Without my Blackberry, my sole connection to the universe, I'm little more than roadkill on the superhighway of life. A shell of a man. A mere shadow in the midst. Um, in other words, totally screwed.

So, I called Asurion. It was a real treat to speak to the folks that I've been paying $4.99 a month to. Made it seem a little less like my hard-earned cash was being sucked into some useless black hole in another dimension. The kind gent on the other end of the line said the same thing. His speech, pretty much verbatim is like this, "Sure. We'll be happy to send a replacement phone to you, Sir. You may want to grab a pen and jot these items down."

"All I'll need is a notarized sworn affidavit and proof loss, a copy of your most recent AT&T wireless bill, a copy of your current driver's license, a valid proof of purchase, a photocopy of your sales receipt (the documents start flying by the sides of my head in various colors like at the end of '2001 A Space Odyssey' when Dave Bowman is zooming through time and space in the Astro-Pod)."

"Te electronic register receipt, the purchase receipt listing the ESN or IMEI and make model, the packing slip, Are you getting all this, Sir? And or a photocopy of the numeric barcode from the side of the box which the phone came in." "Is that it?" I ask. "Oh, and a skin graft from the underside of your left testicle. That will do it, Sir."

At this point it's Tuesday which means I have to beg my wife to dig through her files to find the myriad holy grail of documents that Asurion demands, then find a Notary. (And a licensed Physician as the last time I tried the skin graft procedure on myself for the NJDMV, I made a real mess of things. Here's a tip from your friend **, a sharp, clean blade helps tremendously. Not my finest hour. Let's just leave it at that.)

It will take 2-4 days for Asurion to get my dossier of documents, process them and ship me a replacement phone. That's a week I'm stuck with my defective Blackberry. Or worse still, if it checks out completely, which it keeps threatening, no phone at all!

To make a long story short (Entirely too late for that, I realize) you turkeys are holding me captive and I don't like it! This is going to the Better Business Bureau, The NY State Attorney General, to RIM, the manufacturer of Blackberry and to everyone I know on Facebook and Twitter. Heck, I'm all for sticking it to The Man, as long as The Man is not frigging me!

Kindly resolve this now and reexamine your procedures and methods. Ugh. You have wasted my most precious resource - time. Hours that I'™ll never be able to retrieve. They flew out the window of my 12th floor office and at this pace quite frankly, I'™m ready to join them. I'm sure you behemoth conglomerates couldn't care less about my plight. You might want to keep in mind though that there is safety in numbers and with the technology at hand, mountains can be moved. Harsh letter to follow. An Extremely Unsatisfied Customer.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA -- You would think that a company would want to make it easy for one of its customers to easily upgrade, but AT&T Wireless seems to believe otherwise. Two years ago, once my phone contract ended, I switched to pay-as-you-go (PAYG) from monthly. For me, it was great b/c my bill went to $100 per/year (it had been $580; I'm not a heavy cell phone user).

Today, I tried to upgrade to a newer PAYG phone but here's the problem: I just wanted to buy a new phone and switch my current number and account info over to the new phone. But the AT&T store tells me that I have to purchase my new phone on-line; the on-line AT&T folks tell me that I have to purchase that particular phone in the store. Not only that, but if you purchase the phone on line you can only get a new telephone number (can't keep your old one) and new SIM card and new account information. I'm scratching my head because it seems that they don't want to make it easy for you to upgrade.

Now, maybe this is due to some kind of second-class treatment for PAYG users. I have read studies that say that MOST consumers would save money by going to PAYG. There are still lots of people like me who want a mobile phone but we don't use it every day; heck, when I was on contract, I probably used my phone an average of 5-10 minutes per month. So, for all those years I was a great customer b/c I paid and didn't consume AT&T's resources. Now that I'm PAYG, it seems that basic services and conveniences aren't available.

One other point: cell phone plans and rules are, I guess, too complicated for a company's employees to accurately understand and convey. Sometimes, it seems that you can get a different answer for each person you ask a question... but I digress.

SAN LEANDRO, CALIFORNIA -- After 45 minutes on the phone with four different service reps from three different locations, I finally gave up. And that's exactly what they're hoping you will do too. Unfortunately it's not just AT&T, but also Comcast and many other mega large “service only” businesses. But today's frustration is all AT&T. You see, last month I called AT&T to try to lower the cost of my home phone service. A service that is basically obsolete when compared to my cell phone. Why pay $50-70 per month for a home phone with long distance when my cell phone does all that and more.

So after ten minutes of on-hold navigation, I finally was able to talk to a pleasant woman that informed I could lower my monthly cost if I switched my long distance carrier from AT&T Corp to AT&T. A little confused I asked her to repeat that. “Yes, you see, we are AT&T a division of AT&T Corp. We are the same company but we are a different company. And we can lower your bill by switching you to AT&T. Would you like to do that now?” “Oh, I see, it's perfectly clear now” I said, just wanting to move in the direction of a lower bill. So I went through the 3rd party verification and I switched from AT&T to AT&T.

You can imagine my surprise when my new bill came and it was $36.00 more than my previous bill. Once again, I navigated the phone system and talked with a customer rep. He informed me that the charges where from AT&T Corp and not AT&T and that I would have to call the other number on my bill to straighten it out. So I did. And wouldn't you know, I got the same exact service rep. Well I think this caught him a little by surprise, so he quickly switched me over to his supervisor. After explaining the situation again, the supervisor explained that the switch from last month did not happen.

That I didn't switch from AT&T to AT&T. And he gladly offered to do that again, but if I wanted to dispute the $36.00 charge, I would have to call another number to talk to the other AT&T. Once again I did the 3rd party verification and was promptly disconnected. I called the other number, full of patience I might add, and got right through to AT&T Legacy. The woman informed me that AT&T had made an error and not charged me for ALL the services I used and that this charge was to correct their error. These charges were from February and March, 2-3 months ago.

But when I looked on the bill it clearly stated that the charges were for March to April and April to May. So I disputed her statement. She quickly informed that, even though the statement said March to April, it was really for February to March. I said “Oh, I get it now. When your bill says March, it really means February and when you say AT&T, you don't mean AT&T, you mean AT&T.” She said “Yes, that's correct.” With nothing left to say, I hung up and paid the bill. Which brings me to the new era business plan that so many dying/obsolete service companies are adopting.

Sign your customer up for a monthly service, something that's intangible and easy to use. Construct the bill with as many line items as possible in order to confuse your victim…err I mean customer. Use the same company name for all your companies, but use a different customer service department and phone number for every line item on the bill. Always, and this is really important, always answer your billing questions with double talk. You must confuse the victim…dang it…I mean customer. That way, they can never cancel and they'll eventually get fed up and just pay whatever you bill them.

SIMI VALLEY -- Quite some time ago I change to AT&T for my local phone service because AT&T had a reputation for providing good service and their rates were good. I asked, before I switched, if the service would be the same as with SBC and was told that it would be. This, as it turns out, is the first of many lies, deception and what I consider to be part of the fraud by committed by AT&T.

Time passed and there was no problem until one day my phone stopped working, there was no dial tone. I disconnected the incoming phone line to ensure that the problem was not the inside wiring. When I called, AT&T said that there was a short in the line. They said that they would have to send someone out, but since it was Friday afternoon and people already had their calls and the rest would be going home, no one would come that day and they said that someone would come before Monday at 9 pm. Part of the problem with AT&T came into play at this time.

While AT&T is advertised as a phone company, this is not true since they do not service the phone lines and instead had to pay SBC for service and as it turns out their service contract is quite limited. I told them such slow service was not acceptable service and all they had to say in response was that someone might come out before that. I asked to talk to a supervisor and was told that none were available. When I pushed, I was told that I could talk to a call escalation person who had the same sorry answers.

When I asked to talk to a supervisor I was transferred to one. This surprised me a bit since it was a very short time before that I was told that no supervisors were available. I mentioned this to the supervisor and was told that the person was wrong for telling me that and that the procedure was to transfer the person to a call escalation person first. The problem is that a representative from AT&T lied, flat out lied, and once a company lies, how are you supposed to believe anything that they say? In the case of AT&T if you can not verify it, then most likely it is either false or completely deceptive.

For example, AT&T said that there was extra staff working on Saturday and Sunday, due to the rainy weather in order to repair problems. Unfortunately there was a problem with that and the problem was that while their statements, in part might be true, it was deceptive, to say the least. AT&T's statement that someone might come out sooner was misrepresentation at a minimum and seems more like fraud to me. The reason for this, which has been confirmed with several AT&T employees, is that AT&T does NOT pay SBC to respond to service requests for residential service during nights and weekends.

This means that there was no way anyone would ever show up before Monday. What might have been true is that SBC had additional employees working, but meant nothing since under the terms of the service agreement with AT&T they would not have to go out to repair reported problems.

Later, when I called AT&T's phone number for service and requested the status, the response was that AT&T was actively working on the problem. This is fraudulent since AT&T was not working on the problem and in fact at this point in time no one is working on the problem, which means that I have been without phone service for four days without anyone even looking into the problem.

AT&T does not intend to work on the problem either since the problem is with the phone line which is owned by SBC and which SBC is responsible for repairing. While AT&T claims that SBC is supposed to treat each call the same, regardless of who the service provider is, this seems to be yet another false statement by AT&T. At one point AT&T said that no dial tone is a priority call, yet when I called back to complain that no one had come out I was told that there were other, higher priorities which were far more important than no phone service.

Under California law utilities are required to give a four-hour window for service, yet AT&T refuses to give anything than a false 4-day window. Even when you call to ask for a four-hour window and tell them about the CA law, they don't care and still refuse to give anything other than before 6pm, which at the time was over 8 hours away. Since AT&T needs access to my property as there is a locked gate, they meet the requirements of giving the timeframe. AT&T wants me to leave the gate unlocked, yet they do not want to take responsibility for leaving access unlocked.

At one point I called AT&T and asked to talk to a supervisor, but was refused. I was told that a supervisor would call me back, which turned out to be false. I asked for the name of a supervisor and the employee refused to tell me the name. The employee claims that under the limits set by AT&T, they can only tell their first name and nothing else. Based on the way the person responded, hesitating when he was speaking, it was quite obvious that he was lying, so it is hard to say what, if anything, was true. There is an old line about how to tell when some certain person is lying, to which the answer is when their lips are moving. This is certainly the case with AT&T.

Each time you talk to AT&T it seems that you get more lies than the truth. They fall under the same old line that they don't have to care because they are the phone company. It is clear that AT&T is not the same company it used to be. The concept of customer service is completely lacking and they think that it is in their best interest to lie to the customer, setting false expectation, than to admit the truth. Because of the lies of AT&T and because I did not find out the truth until Monday, I had to stay home all weekend waiting for service.

I have had to cancel appointment due to this and also due to having no phone service. I have had to stay home all day Monday and not be able to do things because AT&T refuses to give ANY idea of when someone is going to show up to repair the problem. All of this is because AT&T chooses to be cheap and not pay for weekend repair services and also because all the problems that they create does not cost them a thing. AT&T says that the most they will refund is just the money for service not provided, nothing more. The problem is that there is additional expenses due to the fraud on the part of AT&T.

I used to respect AT&T, but now I see that AT&T is a company which should be avoided since it will cost you far more than you expect when you use them. On the good news side, I have heard that most, if not all, of AT&T will be sold off to other companies so perhaps AT&T will cease to exist and that will be a positive thing since I don't think that any company could provide worse customer service.

It might be possible if a company really tried to provide bad service, but excluding intentional bad service, I just don't think a company could be worse. So if you use AT&T consider yourself warned and if you want to protect yourself I would suggest using other companies which provide customer service, rather than just lip service. Don't wait until it is too late in order find out that you have been had by AT&T.

AT&T does not care if you have no phone service, no access to emergency phone services such as the police, fire, ambulance, 911, etc. It is obvious that they do not care if you can not get assistance, all they care about is getting their money from you. If they have to lie in order to get you to use their services, it does not matter to them. Lies seems to be their normal business practice. Finally my line has been repaired. According the SBC repair person the line should have been repaired on Saturday. It took about 2 minutes to repair the problem, but I guess a timely fix is too much to ask of AT&T.

Unfortunately the stupidity of AT&T continues. On Tuesday I got an automated called from AT&T regarding my phone problem. There are a couple of funny things about it. In CA a human is supposed to come on the line first due to problems with automated messages and disconnecting, but why should AT&T care about the law, they are the phone company.

The message said that the problem with my dial tone which was reported on 14-Feb was repaired on 11-Feb. So, the information was not accurate, but that is to be expected from AT&T. I suspect in part that AT&T wants to think that it is better than it is, so good that they are able to fix a problem before you report it, instead of not being able to fix it for several days.

Due to the fraud and lies, I have been asking for a refund. Unfortunately AT&T just spews it company lines. Just like when I was told that the service call was scheduled for Monday and could not be changed, I am told that since I already got a credit, they could not do anything. It does not matter that I did not approve nor accept such low amount of a credit, nor that they refuse to explain how they came to that amount. At the customer service number they say that there is no one else I can talk to about the matter, that it is done. Unfortunately one of their employees told me about the complaint department. The phone number is 888-858-9042 and the address: AT&T Complaints, PO Box 1399, Jacksonville, NC 28546.

I guess that most employees of AT&T either does not know about this department or actively choose to lie about its existence in order to avoid complaints. Based on the number of lies I have been told by AT&T (ATT for search engines), you can guess which I think is the true answer.

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA -- I called on 7-9-19 to cancel my landline service, after informing them I wanted to cancel, I was put on hold for 24 minutes and 20 seconds. When someone finally came on the line and I said I wanted to cancel they hung up. AT&T needs to be forced to provide an online cancellation option so they can't fraudulently keep someone from canceling plus NO ONE should have to call and wait to cancel their service!

STERLING, MASSACHUSETTS -- Signed on with a wireless phone contract. Has increased monthly. No explanation from customer service that make any sense. Many calls to them with no help. This company is a complete ripoff. The contract is not binding on their part but I am locked in until the contract is over.

GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN -- Terrible customer service, rude and repeats what I just said as if I said nothing. I did every step I was told and still got charged as if it was my fault. Everyone says something different, different costs than quoted, higher bill than quoted. Monopolies can do what they want.