'A Horror Story; AT&T'

A Horror Story; AT&T

05/29/09 05:31

We all have our stories of hellish conversations with customer service agents, but don't ever think that, in the telecommunications industry, Comcast is the only bad performer. The writer of the following article learned it the hard way, as he transferred to AT&T and encountered issues that are already familiar with him.

Who can you trust then?

[404 Check: was link to http:/ / blog. newsystemsthinking. com/ blog/ bryce -harrison/ 0/ 0/ att -what -end -to -end -customer -service -is, anchor: Link: Bryce Harrison - AT&T: What End-to-End Customer Servic]

Did Bryce Harrison live my life? I actually feel comcast has improved over the past months, while ATT... First, lets talk WAIT TIME... Then lets talk, "pass the buck"... Then, lets talk about how the "validated" ATT Kiosks tend to frustrated and angry customers... Upon purchasing a new bb, and royally messing with setting it up, NO ONE in ATT could retrieve/find my very old password... So, they send me to an approved ATT center. 3 service members at the mall kiosk on a thursday. A line from hell, and a kiosk technician chatting merrily with what seemed to be a friend. By now, I had been on and off the phone with at least 5 different ATT customer reps (hold, upon hold, upon hold and wait...). Horror! Since the Solomon Pond ATT kiosk opened in the mall, I have loathed going there... the CS is HORRID. To my chagrin, I HAD to go there (the closest and 8+ day with no messages coming in, but paying for the service, something has got to give...). Some of the customers ahead of me left because they couldnt stand the "chit chat". My turn. A very FRUSTRATED customer, and from the blog reading, NOT alone... I started my conversation by telling the attendant HOW FRUSTRATED I was. And yes, he did tell me to: 1. Calm down; 2. He stated the problem was Blackberry and not ATT, but he called ATT technical support and gave me the phone (YES WE WAITED ANOTHER ETERNAL 5 MINUTES!!!, not to mention the 45 minute WAIT to get to the kiosk. I started my conversation with "please do not ask me for my password. This is why Im at the kiosk. They cant figure it out, could you please talk with them. Its spelled in my account". I gave the phone back to the technician who immediately stated "With THAT ATTITUDE NO ONE WILL WANT TO HELP YOU". I stared at him in shock. Which part of "Im very frustrated with your customer attention, your attitude and the wait time-to dead ends, have you not understood and failed to address". He then proceeded (phone in hand) to tell me how nice and patient he has been, how good he is and that he has been with the company for 9 years and had never had a customer like me (of course he was fine when he was chatting it up with his friend for over 45 minutes!). My child with me, the technician also told me he would have SECURITY REMOVE ME FROM THE MALL, and I "COULD TAKE MY BUSINESS ELSEWHERE). I believe the CS rep on the phone asked him to calm down, because he continued to tend to my problem, while the security guard DID show up at the kiosk. ATT called a security guard because they cant handle a customer who is clearly not happy with their product?! ATT CALLED SECURITY TO REMOVE AN UNSATISFIED CUSTOMER! Of course they ask me for the last 4 of my social while the kiosk is FULL OF PEOPLE, because there is no other way of validating my account without that information! What is wrong with this company? He had my license and could have any form of ID he needed, but he still needed to blurt out the last 4 of my social on the phone!!!! Security officer at kiosk told me he would issue a complaint "but he needed both sides of the story". Michael a second CS rep, told me "They tell us the client is always right, but in cases such as yours we dont have to take this". Take What? Their service is terrible? That the last time my neighbor tried to buy a phone there, the staff was bored and uninterested? I spoke to the security officer and proceeded to call my local police dept to find out what are my rights in the mall, and if I am an unsatisfied customer, DOES ATT HAVE THE RIGHT TO THREATEN ME WITH SECURITY because they dont like the fact that Im unhappy with their product? The technician proceeded to make faces and blatantly state "this is unbelievable, she is now calling an attorney and she is clearly a b-". I told him to just focus on the problem, and threatening me with mall security, and mouthing off to a client was uncalled for, leave alone having my child also removed by security. To which he put the phone down again and said "You shouldnt be behaving like this in front of your child". Im sorry, my jaw is still on the floor. IF this wouldve been ATT corporate trainer, "pretending" to be a difficult client, I wouldnt be surprised theyd graciously accept the security staff be called upon. What is wrong with ATT? They get into customers faces, mouth off, pass the buck. They eventually fixed the problems and "apologized": "I regret my behavior, but you have to admit we were both at fault". I cant understand how they have been there for 9 years and still not learned to understand, that ATT DOES frustrate customers, not to take it personal and try to turn this company's CS image around. And I have a new 2 year contract thanks to a privately owned (not att validated locale) att vendor, who sold me a new bb and contract and even filled out and made copies of the rebate paperwork for me!!!!!!

my experience as well...hell would be more pleasant than dealing with ATT. I would say that this experience is 100% accurate.

Name:     (required)
Email:    (required, not published)
Comment: