by "Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
Published 09/26/2017 at 20:11
by "Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
Published 09/26/2017 at 20:11
Tags: You can’t make this stuff up or maybe you can but why would you?
STARS: 2
Last winter, we called AT&T to review our U-verse package and make changes. That was when the customer service guy noticed that we had two accounts open, and both of them drawing monthly bill payments through auto- pay. His words were, “this shouldn’t be possible.” It turns out we had over paid without knowing to the time of $1,300 over several months. He said solving this was above his pay grade, and he would kick it upstairs. We would get a call th next Monday.
Well of course no one called. This is AT&T after all. So we called after we documented the extra payments in our CC records. This began a five month odyssey to straighten this out. Every time we would call, we had to start at the beginning level 1 rep and get bumped up as far as possible until we would reach a ceiling where we would be told someone higher up would have to call us. See, the customer service chain is set up so that you can never know the name of or contact a specific person. They are shielded from irate customers, I guess.
Finally, we got some one who credited our account to refund the extra money and close out the superfluous one. Except then a funny thing happened. We started getting automated messages from billing saying we were in arrears $1,300 and to pay up immediately or be cut off.
Many more phone calls and promises to call back and fix this came. Then, this morning, Our service was cut off. Internet and tv screens gave a message to pay our bill. Well my wife still spent another hour on the phone on hold muttering, “I’m going to kill them.” My wife, the kindest, most patient person I know, was turned into a murderous lunatic. Finally, our service was turned back on.
Thing is, with a couple of exceptions, most of the customer service people she talked to were kind and wanted to help. They just couldn’t, and the people who could help were mostly inaccessible. It’s the way the system is set up. I hope this is resolved now, but I doubt it.
We will see.
"themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles" (themanwithsauce)
09/26/2017 at 20:17, STARS: 3
I hated U-verse. On multiple occasions we had people come by who told.me.to.my face that they were “upgrading the network”. And every time my speeds either went down or got more unstable and when I would call, their answer was to upgrade the service.
I’m pretty sure AT&T is a racket.
"WilliamsSW" (williamssw)
09/26/2017 at 20:32, STARS: 2
It’s amazing, but a lot of big consumer companies have designed their customer service system to PREVENT customer service from happening.
For anything outside of the standard box that you can get from an automated system, going nuclear early (akin to MK Bruins suggestion) may be the right answer. Sad but true.
"Highlander-Datsuns are Forever" (jamesbowland)
09/26/2017 at 21:13, STARS: 1
I.FUCKING.HATE.ATT.
Here’s my story. I had AT&T long distance at my apartment in SoCal. Then I moved to NorCal. When I moved I closed my account and then opened a new account at my house with AT&T in NorCal. After 3 months in NorCal I got a call from a collections agency stating they were turning off my phone if I didn’t pay them $45 in 48 hours for an outstanding bill at my old address and phone number. Apparently when I moved they didn’t forward my mail so I never got the last bill. Then they were smart enough to find me at my new address and phone number to collect the outstanding balance. They were never smart enough to send my bill to my new address. So that day I canceled my AT&T service and went with a different carrier and have never ever considered AT&T again.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
09/26/2017 at 21:33, STARS: 1
They are. They all are.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
09/26/2017 at 21:34, STARS: 0
Sounds about right.
"Flynorcal: pilot, offshore sailor, car racer and panty thief" (flynorcal)
09/26/2017 at 21:37, STARS: 4
I had to deal with AT&T on a professional level. My company needed a VPN connection between us and them for payment processing for an app AT&T was preloading on their phones for us.
This one hour job required hours and hours of conference calls with upwards of 20 people from AT&T and... Just me.
The conference calls continued to be scheduled well after the VPN was up and in service. I’d dial in and explain the meeting had no purpose which offended a few folks asking how I proposed to get the VPN set up. I explained it was up already. Then I was asked how I knew it was working.
“It’s passing traffic? We are actively billing accounts through it?”
This was met with skepticism followed by annoyance at me for scheduling a meeting with no purpose. This is after declining several invites explaining there was no purpose for the meeting the AT&T project manager insisted happen.
AT&T are a bunch of morons.
I must have received 100 security emails from them trying to remedy one security issue (POODLE) after the rest of earth had long fixed the bug in their own networks. I’d not be the least bit surprised if it’s still an ongoing project being mismanaged in every possible way.
While it might seem that they are being malicious, consider for a moment that they are more than stupid enough that you’re looking at their best effort.
I’ve been dealing with stuff like this for 20 years and they’re even worse than VISA, which, engineering wise, couldn’t fight its way out of a wet paper bag.
I feel your pain.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
09/26/2017 at 21:37, STARS: 1
It is true. Look at American Airlines. They charge you an extra $10 to book your ticket with a person rather than online. If you call customer service, you get a maze of voice menu options. Still, if you say “agent” whenever the system tries to redirect you, it will short cut you to a person.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
09/26/2017 at 21:40, STARS: 0
Thanks. I completely believe you. My experience is consistent with an organization that keeps its own people in the dark about what each is doing.
"WilliamsSW" (williamssw)
09/26/2017 at 21:45, STARS: 1
At least AA has an out built into the system. Some of the real hardcore companies have cut that off, and pressing zero doesn’t work either.
"Flynorcal: pilot, offshore sailor, car racer and panty thief" (flynorcal)
09/26/2017 at 21:48, STARS: 1
I think they treat information in such a way as to keep it from others as some kind of zero sum game. If others know what’s going on, rather than just you, you might get replaced! Or something to that effect anyway.
They all know they’re useless and unlikely to be hired elsewhere so it’s like some corporate version of Survivor.
Kind of hard to get service from folks that hate each other and the company they work at — you aren’t even a blip on their radar.
Speaking of, Comcast hasn’t called me lately about returning the equipment I returned back in May when I cancelled my service. Either the first 25-30 calls about it finally worked or I’m going to get a credit alert about a lien I’m which case I’ll lose my f’ing mind.
Solidarity, brother.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
09/26/2017 at 21:57, STARS: 1
Amen. I’m sure this is what drives people to become hackers.
“Come to the dark side. We use cookies.”
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
09/26/2017 at 22:01, STARS: 0
It’s a very old escape. I’ve often wondered how long until they take it out.
"Highlander-Datsuns are Forever" (jamesbowland)
09/26/2017 at 22:08, STARS: 0
This is classic Dilbert right here. I love it.
"WilliamsSW" (williamssw)
09/26/2017 at 22:14, STARS: 1
Right after United does probably.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
09/26/2017 at 22:22, STARS: 1
Oh, snap!
"FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com" (alphaass)
09/26/2017 at 22:24, STARS: 0
U-Verse is the worst, but it’s my only available wireline where I live. I don’t have any stories as bad as yours, but yours doesn’t surprise me at all. The closest I have is that they re-did their plans at some point making the Mbps that I had like $15 a month cheaper but never advertised it to me while “grandfathering” me into the more expensive plan for months until I chatted with them to fix something else altogether and the agent was like, you know you can get 4x the speed for $5/mo. more? No I don’t want a promotional rate that will go away, sorry. No that’s just the rate now it has been for months. Oh.
Stories like yours and the others here are why I will never put AT&T or Verizon Wireless or any telecom provider on auto draft ever. I sit down and pay each month, because I fully expect some huge billing fuckup inbound at some point.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
09/26/2017 at 22:28, STARS: 1
We got the same plan switch you describe.
And yeah, they are off auto draft now. They are our best option for fast internet. So we will stick with them. But we no longer trust them to know what they’re doing with our money.
"t0ast" (t0ast217)
09/26/2017 at 23:46, STARS: 0
It’s very much a game of which is the lesser evil here since it’s just AT&T and Comcast in my area. I went with the former on the basis of their larger corporate practices being marginally less shitty (though they sure as hell are trying to keep up).
That said, I have been frustrated recently by their repeatedly awful YouTube speeds in spite of having a 24 Mbps plan. Everything else online works fine and runs at the advertised speed, but the moment I head off to watch some videos, it’s potato time. I was already on the verge of trying out a VPN service for other various reasons, so I figured what the hell and tried one (PIA). I flip the switch, and boom, steady 4K video. Funny, that.
Also the last tech they sent over didn’t know how to set their own router up as a bridge...
"themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles" (themanwithsauce)
09/27/2017 at 01:14, STARS: 1
For me, Xfinity has been a dream. My prices went DOWN while my speeds went UP. No pressure to upgrade/bundle/switch/etc.
"pip bip - choose Corrour" (hhgttg69)
09/27/2017 at 06:26, STARS: 1
consider yourself lucky you have nothing to do with Telstra then.
"LimitedTimeOnly @ opposite-lock.com" (limitedtimeonly)
09/27/2017 at 08:21, STARS: 1
AT&T for DSL internet included many billing issues that I would have to call every month about for a while, until I gave up and just decided that my time was more valuable than the principal of the $20 they overcharged me.
AT&T providing fiber internet and cable has been fine for the past year, except for the crew burying my neighbor’s new line cutting through mine. If I hadn’t been home to see it happen, AT&T would have charged me $99 for a new service connection. As it was, when they asked who damaged the line, I was able to say, “YOUR employees.” Who failed to locate other utilities prior to burial.
"davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com" (davesaddiction)
09/27/2017 at 09:12, STARS: 2
Ugh... that suuucks... Just another example of why you should never trust businesses to not screw stuff up and always check through your monthly charges on all accounts. Pain in the ass, but saves future pain. Thankfully for me, Mrs. addiction is the accounting type, and takes care of most of that for us.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
09/27/2017 at 11:02, STARS: 0
I should see if something like that is available here.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
09/27/2017 at 11:03, STARS: 0
I don’t know them, but I take your word for it.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
09/27/2017 at 11:05, STARS: 0
We had a similar issue here this year. Upgrades to the U-verse left half the neighborhood down for a couple days. Ugh.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
09/27/2017 at 11:06, STARS: 1
Same here. I can do all that stuff, but it’s my wife’s passion. She loves detail oriented stuff like that. So I leave her to it.
"davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com" (davesaddiction)
09/27/2017 at 11:10, STARS: 1
My wife’s job is basically engineering accounting. She loves her spreadsheets (and I love that she loves them). I think she actually enjoys doing taxes...
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
09/27/2017 at 11:20, STARS: 0
My wife was a pediatric oncologist. Good to have someone anal who checks your kid’s chemo order six times, eh?
Now she works for her brother’s engineering company doing spreadsheets and database stuff from home. And yes, I think she enjoys doing taxes too. Maybe these two were separated at birth?
"davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com" (davesaddiction)
09/27/2017 at 11:31, STARS: 1
Haha - nice! Sounds like it...
Good gig to be able to work from home. My wife is in oil & gas reserves, and works 30 hrs/week, which has been fantastic for our family for the past 5 years or so. Hope she can keep doing it for many more years (at least until our oldest can shuttle the others)!