Their system has been on the fritz throughout the greater Jerkwater region again today. This seems to be a monthly deal. No internet, cell service, or landlines. Businesses unable to process credit card transactions. Some that can't even process a check. I don't know how these jokers at AT&T stay in business. They obviously don't have any redundancy to handle problems when they occur and they don't seem to give a shit.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
Their system has been on the fritz throughout the greater Jerkwater region again today. This seems to be a monthly deal. No internet, cell service, or landlines. Businesses unable to process credit card transactions. Some that can't even process a check. I don't know how these jokers at AT&T stay in business. They obviously don't have any redundancy to handle problems when they occur and they don't seem to give a shit.

That's not the AT&T that I used to work for.

In the old days, electromechanical Central Office systems had a design spec of total cumulative downtime not to exceed two hours in a forty year useful life. It took first class equipment with a lot of redundancy to achieve that.

It all went to crap after the consent decree in 1984.

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Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
Their system has been on the fritz throughout the greater Jerkwater region again today. This seems to be a monthly deal. No internet, cell service, or landlines. Businesses unable to process credit card transactions. Some that can't even process a check. I don't know how these jokers at AT&T stay in business. They obviously don't have any redundancy to handle problems when they occur and they don't seem to give a shit.

That's not the AT&T that I used to work for.

In the old days, electromechanical Central Office systems had a design spec of total cumulative downtime not to exceed two hours in a forty year useful life. It took first class equipment with a lot of redundancy to achieve that.

It all went to crap after the consent decree in 1984.

It wasn’t just the gear that went to crap.

Since about the mid-90’s, I’ve come to regard AT&T as what passes for organized crime in America now that the Italian mafia has been largely gelded.

On one occasion, I became so mad arguing with one of their crooks, I hollered, “you people are worse than the phone company!!” The little voice on the other end said sheepishly, “but we are the phone company.”

My employees laughed at me for a long time. I of course meant the post office!

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Originally posted by V-Tail:
That's not the AT&T that I used to work for.

It's not really AT&T at all.

What remained of AT&T was acquired by SBC back in 2005. AT&T's TelCom operations were actually still among the best in the world up until then. After acquiring AT&T, SBC simply renamed itself.

But a rose by any other name... The thing that calls itself "at&t" these days is really just SBC under a once respectable name.

The stories I could tell about dealing with "at&t" after it's acquisition by SBC... *shudder*. To this day my ex-employer will have nothing to do with them.

AT&T certainly has no shortage of money to send me advertisements by mail every week, actually more than once a week, and to send people to my door several times once a year.

Why? To try to sell me U-Verse. If the system was any good, people would be telling their friends how great it is and word of mouth would do the selling. Put the marketing dollars in the quality of service instead, and stop bothering me...

My Uverse went down overnight for a short period. But I'll take AT&T any day over the complete assholes at comcrap.

I remember when they were professional and seemed to care. It appears that they don't even maintain their land line infrastructure anymore. Heck, I believe Southwestern Bell was substantially better than AT&T is now.

The grass is always greener with the other Internet Provider.

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Originally posted by arfmel:
Heck, I believe Southwestern Bell was substantially better than AT&T is now.

Southwestern Bell = SBC = "at&t" now.

They can all piss off as far as I’m concerned, but I agree...AT&T is the worst. I dropped them after months of screwed up billing.

I thought AT&T was purchased by South Western Bell for the name. Then AT&T (South Western Bell) purchased Bell South.

It was 1989 when they pissed me off for the last time. Haven't been a customer since and won't willingly ever give them another penny.

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Originally posted by 225fan:
I thought AT&T was purchased by South Western Bell for the name. Then AT&T (South Western Bell) purchased Bell South.

There's much more to it than that, but those are the high points.

Nationwide outages today:
Customers report thousands of AT&T outages across the United States

Same thing happened one day last week as well.

I'm forced to deal with AT&T at work and it is a major pain - every time.

I was using the MyAT&T app today, chatting with their support about my inability to make or receive calls. I explained how I was talking to other AT&T customers in my city that were experiencing the same issue. They claimed there were no known issues near me. Total waste of my time.

Fortunately I have AT&T Cell and Home phone and have not had any issues.

Which carrier does everyone like? Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile or something else?

I went with AT&T cell service a few years ago.

Man, what a mistake!!!

It started with "we will pay off your existing provider. When payment came it was 200 bucks shy of the total. They said "the phone you traded in was worth too much so this is what you get." WTF?

This was on he "buy one get one offer". Fine

I went in one day and asked "if I pay off the balance of these phones do I own them outright?"
"Yes sir you will own them both" So I went ahead and paid the balance.
Lo and behold, the bill comes in and I am still paying for the phones.????
Their answer was "the payment you made goes towards the free phone, you still owe for the original one !!!

So, all in all I got screwed for about 750. bucks.
The customer service trip was something to behold as well.

I should say "customer NO service"

Screw them, they will never get another dime from me,
Bob

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Originally posted by JALLEN:

Since about the mid-90’s, I’ve come to regard AT&T as what passes for organized crime in America

That is what our business is experiencing.

We have a young buck in our Finance Dept who has been trying to drill into our AT&T bills because he believes were are being over-charged. However, AT&T at first refused to provide any detail to support their charges.

At first, AT&T refused to provide any detail to support their charges. But, this young man is smart and persistent and keeps asking and digging. Now AT&T shares some information, but selectively so that he can't get the full picture.

The tactics they use sure are reminiscent of a certain fictional olive oil importing firm featured in one of the best movies ever produced.

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Originally posted by festus haggen:
Which carrier does everyone like? Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile or something else?

For me personally, I've had awesome service and customer support from Verizon Wireless. I understand folks in other parts of the country have not been so lucky, so maybe it's a regional thing.

I've been with VZW since AT&T consumed Cingular Wireless 10+ years ago and my Cingular service went to hell, and I've never looked back because it's been excellent!