Brad Ideas - Boy SBC/ATT online ordering, do you ever suck - Comments

AT&T messed up badly! Worst company I ever dealt with! Att suck

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:58:13 -0800

Today I got a call from a california collection agency regarding an ATT bill for 14.14, it's very funny that I got the refund check today in my mail box from ATT for 14.14. Here I will repeat the same question as last 10 times to ATT: What the hell is going on? This is a joke, right? U guys send me to a collection agency while send me a refund check for 14.14? This is freaking unbeliable. This is the reason why I cancelled all my ATT services, including iphone cellphone plan and DSL internet. You guys are messed up! I got to put that on my blog and put it on the web to let other people hear about this joke.
The reason I cancelled all my services with At&T is that they messed up my bill many times, they were sending my charge of my cellphone to the DSL and send the DSL charge to my iphone cellphone bill, and when i called back, they just transfer me from one dept to another dept, took hours to figure out it was their mistake. After I cancelled all the services and paid all my final bills, now they send me this! At&T really messed up and it is the worst company I ever dealt with!

AT&T Cutting Internet

Andrew — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 05:52:00 -0800

I called AT&T a while back because my internet connection was not as fast as I’d contracted for. It turns out that even though I contracted for the highest speed they advertised, someone at AT&T had bumped me down to a lower, cheaper speed! If you have AT&T, check your bill!!!

Has AT&T done this to you?

AT&T nighmares

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 14:21:31 -0800

I recently had a client in Chicago complaining of the internet dropping, knowing that AT&T would try to push this off as a internal issue, I ran virus & spyware scans. I updated all MS progs and updated the firmware on my firewall. After 2 weeeks of contacting AT&T support they finnaly admited to a problem w/ the line or their router. Their support suggested I change their router to a bridge and authenticate w/ my firewall. I acomplished this which did not resolve. They told me they would send a tech out before 5:00. At 4:30 I got a call from the tech saying he may not make it and he needed a user name and password for AT&T. I told him to call my client to arange his arrival time and he did not need a password as he would be seting up the router as a bridge. He became irate that I was telling him how to do his job. At 6:15 I recived a call from my client that he never recieved a call. After calling back AT&T and waiting on hold for 1 hr, I spoke w/ a rep who assured me he would call the client and would add notes to not change any passwords and to set bridge mode. 9:30 the next day, still no call or show from AT&T. At 10:30 the tech arrived on site telling me he had installed the router and needed me to change the password on my firewall!!!! I walked my client through this and then had to reexplain to the AT&T tech that the reason the internet was down was that he had not set the router into bridge mode. After explaining again to him how to make these changes my internet came back up. however 2 hours later the internet drops began again! I called AT&T to vent and setup another visit. Here we go again. I service over 50 businnesses in the Chicago and NW IL area and am going to switch every one of my clients off of this horrible service.

ATT SUCKS!!!

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:23:33 -0800

I have spent a month trying to setup my ATT land line for DSL internet. The only reason I got a land line is because they could not get my pre-existing tether internet hooked back up on my new computer. After wasting hours and days on tech support, ATT said its my computer,(the typical response when they cant fix, its your fault). Only solution to get me internet was the land line. This has now taken almost 2 weeks and still does not work. As well they attached my new att.yahoo.dsl to my existing yahoo email account, and totally screwed that up! Now att and my yahoo dont recognized pw and login I have used for the last 8 years. I had to have them cancel my never working dsl line to fix my yahoo address. This is still my on going problem as of this morning Fed. 8, 2008. I have told att if is is not fixed tonight by 6pm I will cancel all services and expect full refund of charges and a credit for my loss of money because of their obvious inefficiency's. Why do they offer services that dont work! and cant seem to fix. We all pay way to much for this huge corporate company not to have its shit together. As well I did not choose ATT, I was a Cingular customer, I never had problems with them. As soon as it became ATT went to shit! So anyway I agree with FUCK YOU ATT! All million of the 800 numbers are no help at all complete waste of everyones time.

ATT/Yahoo email help (via

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 09:10:26 -0800

ATT/Yahoo email help (via email) originates from servers in East Timor. There are no people involved whatsoever, and the replies are all autoresponds generated by keyword recognition software developed in China. In fact, the upper management of ATT/Yahoo is composed of actual clones who trace their origins to a basement laboratory at the University of Chicago which was previously used for fission radiation experiments which ultimately resulted in the development the atomic bomb. Their present plans include selling the entire ATT/Yahoo infrastructure to the Chinese who intend to use it to destroy western society as we know it.

wow. this blogger (for one

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 14:23:43 -0800

wow. this blogger (for one of the telecom trade mags) just sent AT&T to the dog house. "Why I'm Finished Doing Business w/ AT&T"

http://www.multichannel.com/blog/1300000330/post/400020840.html

Cancelled after 2 days

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 19:03:13 -0800

Hands down the worst customer service. The call center is a joke, just a nightmare.

Life-long hater of AT&T

Good luck, and Godspeed

There is help if you are looking for it.

james — Thu, 03 May 2007 17:33:50 -0700

These guys over in the what appears to be an "AT&T direct" forum appear to be able to help people. Might give them a shot, they seem to help many over there. The one I worked with was a "beach boy" but is now known as david is who fixed my problems with a rather weird problem with a dsl line.

Maybe he can help you guys and gals out too.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/sbcdirect

ATT SBC whatever they are called they SUCK!!

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 23:21:49 -0800

Past year of hell. Order online, yeah right, takes 4-5 phone calls for all their depts to finally talk to each other. then yes I am in a marginal area, and I knew that going into DSL. BUT it goes down every day! Sometimes more than once. Many calls to their indian techs yield same S... and line checks are always ok.

They want to come out and then concerned they will blames it on inside wiring and charge me up the yin yang. I have the date circled on my calendar for when I am done with the 1 year and can CAN these low life son of a bitches.

Our collective loyalty over the years as customers, employees (I worked for Pac Bell for 15 years), and this is what we get from these M... F....ers.

Oh and I am being very polite here.

SBC stands for SOME BASTARD COMPANY.

With the old SBC I had basic

Willie — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 13:07:34 -0800

With the old SBC I had basic & unlimited long distance service. I decided later that I would subscribe to their DSL service as my cable modem provider would constantly drop my connection or disconnect my service because they thought I was stealing cable (when they kept turning it back on every time they reconnected my service!). Right after I got the dsl, SBC & ATT merged. A little bit after that I get a letter saying that I had violated the terms of the long distance agreement by faxing long distance. The only problem is I don't have a fax! The only thing other than the phone on that on the line was the dsl modem. So they automatically switch me to another plan. Calling the number only gets you repeated messages to use the website for cheaper plans. So i order a similar long distance plan from the website only to find out later, after they've billed me 10 cents per minute for each long distance call, that the order was invalidated. In between the long distance billing fun I get a higher than normal internet bill, turns out they forgot to charge me for it for one month and as the customer service stated "it's just out system catching up with you"

ATT sucks big time

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 10:58:20 -0800

I knew living in a rural area, the dsl was goig to be slow, but if I had a nickel for everytime it goes down almost daily, well I could afford their early cancellation fee.

I also do not want to have a tech out and then make a false determination that the problem was inside wiring, which is it not.

I have the date cicled on the calendar and will arrange for another provider when my year is up. While my experience has not been AS bad as some I see on this forum, they do not know their ass from a dart board.

Att sucks ass

Jacob Caldwell — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 15:20:27 -0800

Yea I feel the same, I just about threw myself out of my 2nd story window. I spend all day with them, they hang up on me and repair has no idea what they are doing. Even the supervisers have no clue and they transfer me to people who cant do anything about anything, then they refer me to the old att which gives me very limited options such as billing or dial up which I want neither.

At&T randomly disconnected the phone that we have our new dsl modem hooked up to, now they tell me they fixed it and its still disconnected. I tell them to call it themselves to see and they tell me they are getting the disconnection recording and they throw me everywhere except for those who can help. When I found someone who can do somthing they keep me on hold for about 40-60 minutes then hang up on me. When you call them from california you get Texas.

SBC/ATT RIPOFF CONTINUES

Noe — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 12:11:51 -0800

Yes, it sucks bad! I agreed over the phone for dsl express service for 14.99 per month for a term of one year. Well, I moved about five months later and transferred service of both phone and dsl knowing there would be a fee of about $40 to do so. So I move and surprise, surprise,.... no dsl. Customer service says that there was no order placed to transfer dsl. I ask how that was possible because I had a contract needing both of those services on it. CS said that phone and dsl are two different depts. and therefore two orders need to be placed. "By me?", I ask. "No, the CS rep should have done it so I will go ahead and do that for you sir. O.K. you should have your dsl service operational in 5 days." Now keep in mind that I have had no dsl service for at least 1 1/2 weeks now. "Five more days! That is to long of an inconvenience for me to pay for someone else's mistake." So he gives me a month of dsl free. O.K. fine. I fell for it. My statement comes in and I notice that my express service is downgraded to basic and it costs the same as the faster express I signed for. I call and ask WTF! they said it is because I moved and the prices changed after i agreeded to the original contract. But I was told I could still get express for just five dollars more! WTF! Telling them that it was unfair to the consumer and they are the ones not keeping to the contract was a wast of time. I kept getting the same reply,"What I am explaning to you sir is exactly what it states on the terms and conditions on the contract." I tell them that the contract is one sided and can be changed at the convenience of ATT or SBC or whatever they are now, and the consumer has no choice but to accept it. He says that I do have a choice and I am not bound to the contract,.....but I would have to pay them $99 plus tax to end it. "Like I said, it is one sided. You initially get charged for the modem that gives you a rebate check three months later for 1/3 the price you paid, you cannot make changes to the account without it renewing unless the changes benefit Att/SBC, you cannot move without it renewing and getting charged a transfer fee, if you move you can go to a month to month basis but you will be charged $99, if you move and dsl prices differ from that of the original quote you will get charged the difference, if you move and ATT/SBC does not service that area you get charged $99, if you move and they only provide phone and no dsl you get charged $99, customer service is poor, agents dont know your situations if transferred, false promises" But he did say they wanted to keep me as a customer. "Yeah, judging by the contract terms, you do!" I replied. I am going to cancel both my phone and dsl service and I am debating about paying them the $99 fee. Does anyone know of any class action lawsuites against them or if there are any loopholes in the contract that ATT/SBC presumes everyone reads?

Old ATT..New ATT

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 08:22:43 -0800

I Moved about 100 feet (across the street) from where I lived before, and attempted to move my phone service. 8 weeks later, I'm still waiting. Call ATT and they have no idea what I'm talking about.
I give them the order number and they say "Oh! that must be the NEW ATT". So I ask... "Who the heck are you?" "We're the OLD ATT". So I asked them if they had access to the NEW ATT system. "No Sir". I asked them if they had a phone number for the NEW ATT? I get.. "Let me connect you to a customer service agent". Before I know it I'm tranfered to an endless loop of blather about how great ATT is...
At this point my prepaid cell beeps to let me know I've got 10 min left before I need to dump more money into it.... Finally a human (and I use that term VERY loosely) picks up, and is more confused (READ: Clueless) than the other one. I eventually get a promise of a phone call back from a supervisor... I'm not sure from Old or New....
To be continued....

SBC-ATT Rip-off #2

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 21:49:07 -0700

I recently renewed my contract less than one month ago and was told that I would be charged $99.00 because they could not provide service in the area I was moving to. How is this my problem that I am charged for their lack of customer service/availability?

Boy SBC/ATT online ordering, do you ever suck

brad — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 14:29:44 -0800

Can giant companies, especially monopolies, ever get it right? Listen to this litany of the efforts to move my phone service, and get DSL.

SBC offers rebate of the $35 install fee if you order your service transfer online. Great.
First attempts to do it fail. When it says I can’t do this, it gives me an 800 number to dial to make the trasnfer. Number asks me which state I am in, and offers a choice of Texas, Oklahoma and a few other Southern states. Press 0, eventually get to agent who says, “You’re in California, I can’t help you.”
Try to call California customer service. Long IVR and long wait. Have no idea who to ask to fix web problem.
Email online customer service. A few days later I get a canned meaningles response, as is so common with online customer service these days.
Notice there is a $100 gift card offer if you sign up for DSL online. That’s great, since at the 6 month promo price, you can effectively get DSL free for 6 months if you want it.
Promo notice says terms of $100 gift card can be found at www.sbc.com/polarexpress. This URL just redirects to the AT&T home page. Mucked up in the merge. Nobody knows who to tell to ask to fix it. Did email customer service, never heard back. Nobody at the live agent desk knows the terms of the online promotion of course.
Phone customer service says they can take my order, but will charge me $35. I should have accepted that then and there!
Instead I try online transfer again. Now it lets me in. But it can’t find “23rd avenue” in their database. I try many permutations
Eventually call agent again. Long, long wait again. Agent says, “Oh, we spell it ‘23D avenue’” — gee, that’s obvious.
Yes, I order the transfer to address on 23D avenue. That works. It asks if I want DSL too.
Note that while I am moving the phone, I am not changing the billing address which was always a different location. I have to re-enter my billing address.
I order DSL. It asks for new phone number and account code. It says order is taken, but account code was incorrect. I’m presuming that’s because there’s a new phone number. Says somebody will contact me in 48 hours to verify account code.
No sign of DSL order. I phone. They say no sign of order, and can’t place order on phone number yet to be installed. I phone again, they confirm account code is the same for me with the new number as with the old.
Still no sign of DSL order. Promoted to smarter agent. Smarter agent says DSL order was “dropped” due to some problem, possibly not being able to find new target address. (Though it says 23D on the order.) Can’t place order. Old number at the location does not match the address. Some other disconnected number is also ringing the phone at the new location!
Transfer to yet smarter agent. 10 minute wait. I explain I want the gift card, but deadline for ordering is the 15th. Other agents have now said I can’t order until I get dial tone, which is the 18th.
Smarter agent says she can place the order for me even though there is no dial tone. However, won’t get $100 gift card. Puts note in file about how order was dropped due to their error so if I am crazy enough, I can call to try and get it.
In theory order is now in place, but for another week after I get dial tone. So no DSL for a while.

Who knows how many hours of time wasted in all this? I would not have SBC at all if not for the fact you must get SBC voice to get DSL at a good price, and it is a good backup if you do have a VoIP failure in any event.