Back in October of 2018 I made a huge mistake by going to AT&T. I was convinced to switch from Verizon to AT&T’s First Responder program. A long time ago I was a customer and left due to poor service and customer support, so it did take quite a bit of convincing to get me to make the change. The transition from Verizon seemed fairly seamless and with the supposed discounts and addition of Direct TV to the account, it looked great on paper. I would have four lines of service, Direct TV with top tier service and a lifetime of free internet, and all at substantial savings vs Verizon and Dish network. Within 6 days everything was switched over and installed.

Then the problems started. The internet was 768k vs the old 330 mbps line, Direct TV was having connection issues to the satellite, and the first series (of many) bills arrived. Installation charges, fees and multiple other issues began to surface. The numbers were all off and after totaling everything my bills were almost triple from Verizon and Dish. That was after all discounts were applied as well. Needless to say I cancelled all services, returned all equipment and made sure the account was closed, or so I thought. It was all done within 14 day grace period. Receipts of everything were kept and documented. Fast forward to today, I am still getting bills and past due notices (I kept everything). I have spent over 40+ hours on the phone since October about resolving all issues but I never get to talk to that hidden supervisor that can magically end this nightmare.

Verizon came through for me and actually did me a solid, they gave me multiple discounts to come back and upgraded me to unlimited data (6 gig prior) all lines. With the discounts, my bill only went up slightly from the old account. Dish even helped me out, upgraded all my equipment, HD on 4 TV’s and my old package at only a very small increase in the bill. In all, the upgrade was better than what I had before.
Unfortunately, I’m still dealing with AT&T in trying to get the issues taken care of. As I write this, I’ve been on the phone with customer support for 90 minutes and counting. If I can save another from making this mistake, I figure I’ll have gained some sort of peace throughout this process.

AT&T is a nightmare when they take over any service. We've had ONSTAR for years, serviced though VERIZON. Customer service was good and reception was excellent in our northern AZ area. We still have our VERIZON cell phones.

Then AT&T took over ONSTAR service. Reception is almost non existent. Apparently they don't have the cell tower infrastructure that VERIZON has. No connectivity in making calls to/from the vehicles. Disconnected calls in the middle of a conversation. That meant no response if an emergency occurred which is one of the primary reasons we subscribed to ONSTAR in the first place.

We spent hours on the phone with ONSTAR/AT&T technical support trying to figure it out. They suggested taking our 500 mile brand new 2018 Tahoe back to the dealer. The dealer also spent hours with technical support and couldn't fix the issue. The dealer suggested to leave the vehicle with them for a few weeks so they could replace parts one at a time. We figured we'd have problems stopping automatic payment with ONSTAR/AT&T when we dropped ONSTAR. Ten minutes and we were done with them.

We've been lucky with DirecTV so far. But the last time we had a tech to the house for an issue, he had nothing good to say about the AT&T take over.

Try connecting to them via social media. Ihave heard that companies put more competent reps on their FB and Twitter feeds.

In my case, I had an issue with Comcast and hung up on their rep who was rude in addition to being incompetent.

After I complained to Comcast on their Twitter feed, a rep contacted me directly, fixed the problem, and reduced my bill $20/month to apologize for the aggravation.

Send a politely worded letter detailing the issue and highlighting some of the more important facts (this would be how much was advertised vs how much the bills totaled, the dates of installation and returns, and the estimated number of hours you have personally spent dealing with it), add copies of records showing dates of return, and finally :

Add a statement indicating that henceforth you will charge them $50 for each incident plus a non-prorated $50 per hour for time required to handle each of the incidents.

Send to the corporate office attention to the VP of finance using a signature required, confirmed delivery, tracked envelope.

If you receive anything other than the "Thank you, your account is now closed" letter, follow through with the billing (send an initial bill with a 30 day due date). If they don't respond (add new charges as required) send them the obligatory late bill with a 10% late fee add. Then if/ when they ignore you - follow through and take them to small claims court.

I did this with the San Diego Union Tribune (newspaper). Received my $440 plus my time at court to file and appear (additional $500) and filing fees. I do not get hassled by them anymore.

Ask for customer retention, not customer service.

I had a phone in a hangar years ago; for seven years after I moved, I got monthly bills for that phone, and it wasn't connected. It had been in another state. I still got the bills, collection notices, threatening letters about credit reports, etc, and every month I verified with them that the phone had been disconnected. No matter, they kept billing anyway.

Of course, I was with Verizon for 17 years and after leaving them, continued to be billed monthly for service, too, despite them admitting with the bill that my service is disconnected...but here's your bill anyway. Unimpressed.

You can get screwed by Verizon, or you can get screwed by AT&T. Take your pick.

quote:

Originally posted by maximus_flavius:
You can get screwed by Verizon, or you can get screwed by AT&T. Take your pick.

If you REALLY want to get screwed, try Sprint!

I'm not holding out for a speedy resolution, but I'm really tired of the run around. It does reaffirm that AT&T service has not changed. At least with Verizon I have had good luck when dealing with customer service. It was rather nice to get $1300 in discounts to come back, but if I had a choice and it was available in Chicago again, I'd choose US Cellular. I was with them for about 7 years and only had one issue and that was immediately taken care of and they even paid my monthly bill as a gesture. Seems that companies get so big that they often forget what got them to grow in the first place.

What got ATT to fix my issues was a fact-filled complaint sent as an Executive E-Mail Carpet Bomb (EECB). Read up on this tactic here:

https://www.nbcnews.com/busine...t-results-6C10867946

I was an AT&T customer for many years. When we moved here from another state, I had to keep my old AT&T cell service for business purposes for a few months. AT&T insisted our new cell service here go into my wife's name because they wouldn't open a second service under my name in two different states.

Every time I wanted to do something, I had to bring my wife in with me to make any changes. My wife uses her flip phone to make maybe one or two calls a year. I use a smart phone with a ton of apps on it. We added my name to the account. I still had to bring my wife in to make any changes.

We had AT&T swap our names on the account. They treated it as closing an account and opening another. They charged my wife's account for the full month and charged my new account for the same full month.

I tried to call the support line and got a female with a very heavy accent. After about a half hour on the phone, she told me she couldn't help me. She told me I had to go to a local store to get the issue fixed.

I went to the local store and got a pimple-faced kid just out of high school. I explained that we were billed twice for the same service. He told me that AT&T bills one month in arrears. I told him that I understood that, but we got two bills for the same month on two different accounts. He told me that AT&T bills one month in arrears.

I asked to talk to a supervisor. A very young female told me that AT&T bills one month in arrears. I told her that I understand that, but we were billed twice for the same service. She told me that AT&T bills one month in arrears. I told her that I had been a loyal customer for many years. She shrugged. I told her I was on the verge of changing service. She shrugged. We changed to Verizon service this week.

AT&T is the Debil.

I had a question about possibly getting calls blocked on our land line. I kept getting put on hold and they hung up on me three times while transferring me and putting me on hold.
They really didn't seem to give a shit.

The local AT&T cabinet here is capped at 768K. They did run a fiber optic cable in front of it last year. It goes to the Verizon tower.

quote:

Originally posted by Klusk2:
...speedy... ... AT&T...

quote:

Originally posted by maximus_flavius:
You can get screwed by Verizon, or you can get screwed by AT&T. Take your pick.

No need.

I got screwed by both.

The problem with all of them when they get so big they can't control it.
Comcast, ATT, whoever ... the grass is always greener somewhere else.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by maximus_flavius:
You can get screwed by Verizon, or you can get screwed by AT&T. Take your pick.

If you REALLY want to get screwed, try Sprint!

I left Sprint after 18 years with them. No "What can we do to keep you", or "Sorry to see you go", or "Good Bye" or "Don't let the door hit you in the ass" from them.

I only stay w the debil / ATT because the have the most consistent wireless service across the USA in the places I go for work.

We use their home internet service because it is also better in our area, however cutting the cord with their DirectTV and phone service was like a trip to hell.

“I got your home phone bill to $15/mo, why wont you stay?”

“Why should I pay you $15 for something I NEVER use”

<<<crickets crickets>>>

“I’m sorry we couldnt ‘save’ you...”

Improvement is on the way



AT&T is preparing for yet another

significant round of layoffs according to internal documents

obtained by Motherboard. The staff reductions come despite

billions in tax breaks and regulatory favors AT&T

promised would dramatically boost both investment and job

creation.

A source at AT&T who asked to remain anonymous because

they were not authorized to speak publicly told Motherboard

that company leadership is planning what it’s calling a

“geographic rationalization” and employment

“surplus” reduction that will consolidate some aspects

of AT&T operations in 10 major operational hubs in New

York, California, Texas, New Jersey, Washington State,

Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, and Washington, DC. A

spokesperson for AT&T confirmed to Motherboard that it

is planning to “adjust” its workforce.

While AT&T has yet to come up with a final, formal

internal tally for this new round of looming layoffs,

AT&T employees worry the staff reductions could prove to

be significant, especially outside of these core areas.

Managers are being briefed on the plans now, though AT&T

isn’t expected to formally announce the specifics until

they’re finalized later this month.

The staff reductions were first announced in an internal

memo sent to managers last Friday by Jeff McElfresh,

President, Technology & Operations at

AT&T.“To win in this new world, we must continue

to lower costs and keep getting faster, leaner, and more

agile,” McElfresh told employees. “This includes

reductions in our organization, and others across the

company, which will begin later this month and take place

over several months.”The ongoing consolidation isn’t surprising

for a company that’s attempting to pivot from

curmudgeonly-old phone company to sexy new media brand via

its acquisition

of Time Warner. AT&T’s desperate to shed old DSL

customers it doesn’t

want to upgrade, and instead want to utilize

those resources for its pivot into streaming video over

wireless.



This news comes in the wake of AT&T receiving a $20

billion windfall last quarter courtesy of the Trump

administration tax breaks. That’s in addition to the

friendlier environment AT&T finds itself in as a result

of the Trump administration’s assault on consumer

protections ranging from net

neutrality to broadband

privacy guidelines.



In a memo of talking points advising managers on how to

address employee concerns obtained by Motherboard, AT&T

attempts to explain away the disconnect between the

company’s words and its actions.

“What we’ve said was that AT&T planned to invest an

additional $1 billion in the United States this year as a

result of tax reform, and that research shows that every $1

billion in capital invested in the telecom industry creates

about 7,000 good-paying jobs for American workers, across

the broader economy,” the memo

states.AdvertisementBut wireless sector investment actually declined

last year, with most of the savings from regulatory

favors and tax breaks going instead toward stock buybacks,

executive compensation, or to pay off the mammoth

debt accumulated by a series of AT&T megamergers

many consumers and employees didn’t want in the first

place, critics charge.When contacted for comment, AT&T confirmed

that the company was planning another round of staff

reductions, but insisted that any layoffs would only impact

a very small portion of the company’s overall

workforce.“We are hiring to meet the needs of the

growth areas of our business,” the company told

Motherboard. “In fact, we hired more than 20,000 new

employees last year and more than 17,000 the year before. In

cases where we do have to adjust our workforce, we take

steps to lessen the effect on

employees.”But outside analysis and union officials

contest these numbers. AT&T’s offshoring efforts have resulted

in 44

closed call centers and 16,000 lost US jobs since 2011.

And despite AT&T CEO Randall Stephen promising 7,000

high-paying jobs thanks to the Trump tax cuts, a new

report released this week by the Communications Workers

of America claims 10,700 US-based union jobs have been

eliminated in the last year alone.



Thanks to a reduction of future AT&T tax liabilities in

the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, AT&T saw profits of $29.5

billion in 2017, up from $13 billion in 2016. The

permanently-lower tax rate should net AT&T an additional

$3 billion annually in perpetuity, the CWA report states.

Similar windfalls have been enjoyed by Verizon, which has

also responded

not with raises or hiring, but staff reductions.



AT&T initially insisted it had doled out $1,000 bonuses

to 200,000 employees as a direct result of the Trump tax

cuts. It was later

revealed that these bonuses had already been negotiated

as part of unrelated union negotiations. Even then, the $200

million expenditure from the bonuses amounted to just 7

percent of AT&T’s expected annual benefit from the

cuts, the report found.

Advertisement"Despite its strong financial position and

promises to invest in its American workforce, AT&T has

shifted much of its employment away from good,

family-supporting jobs and towards a low-wage model that

undermines the quality of its customer service and its

standing as a good corporate citizen," the CWA said in

this week’s report.

Granted none of this is really new. Both AT&T and

Verizon were

widely criticized back in 2014 when it was similarly

found that telecom tax breaks didn’t result in increased

investment or job creation. AT&T’s promises of

“synergies” in the wake of its $85 billion acquisition

of Time Warner have proven to be similarly

hollow. And the industry’s false claims regarding the

benefits of killing net neutrality are well

documented. Someday, younger generations may want to

seriously reconsider America’s historical obsession with

blindly throwing tax breaks, subsidies, and deregulatory

favors at companies in exchange for benefits that seem to

never actually materialize. Until then, we seem intent on

repeating the same mistakes, having learned little to

nothing from experience. ·

I've had DirecTV for about 21 years. When ATT took over - customer service went to shit.

That's all I know about it.

Still have Verizon for cell - it's expensive but it always works and no hassles.

Still no resolution, but I'm not going to worry about it. I have everything documented and have all receipts showing everything was cancelled during the allotted time.