As you know, a large portion of us in the US were automatically part of AT&T (or what ever alias they go by) for our long distance services and just continued to use them for a decade if not longer, after the big phone monopoly breakup occurred. In 2000, coincident with my taking an out of town assignment, they sent me a killer deal on two cell phones. Well the cell phone did not work from inside the building where I worked, so I called home numerous times per day from my desk using the calling card they sent me along with the phones.
I noticed my phone bills were unusually high but just paid them because I did not have time to pay attention. After we moved, I received a 2-month bill for close to $700. That made me start paying attention. Fine print: Cell phone was 5 cents/min... calling card was $1.99 per call and 25 cents/min. I called and called 5 or 6 times talking to different "phone people", probably all under 22 years of age. I explained how I was paying more for 2 months of service than I did for the prior 10 years combined, and how AT&T was the only long distance company I had ever used. I offered to pay a reasonable amount but not be taken for a ride by trickery. I "should have asked to change to a less expensive plan" even though they did not inform me there was one. There was absolutely no recourse. I was not allowed to talk to a supervisor, a supervisor's supervisor, etc. I vowed then and there that I was never knowingly going to pay another dime to AT&T and I haven't. They are a greedy corporate boil on the *** of society and typify exactly what is wrong with corporate America. No, why? Does it seem like I'm bitter? I sympathize. I went through similar shenanigans with Symantec when installing a new version of Norton AV... Oh I'm supposed to MANUALLY UNINSTALL the prior version BEFORE loading the new one, or it crashes my computer and I have to spend a day or more recovering my hard drive and reinstalling the OS? Total BS. Didn't help that I had to spell each vord in ewery sentence so that the "English" speaker could understand. Outcome of both interactions... I'm screwed. Tom On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 11:32 PM, Bob Sullivan <[email protected]> wrote: > You can't imagine how PISSED OFF I am at AT&T right now. > What a sorry bunch of SOB's the phone guys are. > > The high speed internet line went out yesterday. > I spent 2+ hours running a phone gauntlet and talking to tech support. > (They aren't technical, just script readers somewhere offshore.) > I had to have them re-set my password, and then I needed the router password. > Of course, that was in a saved email, inaccessible when your internet is down! > > Now today, almost exactly 24 hours after I ended the 1st call, it went > down again. First spend time running the automated phone gauntlet, > then the long wait for 'tech support' > (sorry, unusually high call volume). Well, after 2 hours the guy > says, "Your modem is broken. you'll need a new one. I can connect you > with customer service and they could sell you one, but maybe you want > to buy one locally." Now it's 7PM and I'm off to the nearest AT&T > store. They sell me another modem (not the most recommended one, but > their only choice) and we stop for a sandwich. > > I get home about 8:30PM and install the modem - no joy! So I call > them again. Same automated phone gauntlet, same long wait for 'tech > support', now we can't seem to get this modem working. 'Let me push > this to level 2. (long wait) No, my supervisor says it may be part of > the outage we are experiencing in Elmhurst, Illinois (10 miles away)." > And that was that after another 2 hours on the phone. Me: So have > you got another number for me to call to see when the outage fixed? > Her: No, just call back this number. Me: And go thru the phone > gauntlet and wait again. Her: Well if you say tech support twice, it > will get you to the support desk directly. Me: And then I can wait > another 45 minutes to talk to a person? Her: (big silence) Me: And > who says the original modem is broken anyway, maybe it's just part of > the other problem seeing as how the same lights are blink on the new > one as the old one. I just spent $80 for nothing. Her: (big silence > again) > > So this is the venerable AT&T, formerly known as American Telephone > and Telegraph. This is their off shore customer service - not much of > an effort from my perspective. And these are the same people who are > soliciting me by mail every week to sign my household up for U-verse > digital TV offering. I would encourage all of you to boycott that > service! > > Bob S. (Surfing via a neighbor's unsecured wireless system) > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
