The Official AT&T Sucks Thread

**WorknMan** · 07-12-2010, 08:58 PM

(Note: This was typed on Friday, 7/9, but not posted until now.)

I need to rant about the craptasticness of AT&T, and I feel this warrants its own thread, just in case anybody might be thinking of signing up for service with them. In this case, it's not the normal crappy cellular quality that I'm going to rant about, but rather their customer service (or lack thereof).

I'm going to preface this by telling you a short story about when I moved late last year, and needed to get my AT&T landline/DSL service moved to my new place. AT&T was supposed to turn off service in my old locale on a particular morning, and then turn it on at the new locale later that same day. They turned off the old service a day earlier than they were supposed to, making it a pain in the ass not having internet access the day before I was supposed to move. For reasons which I don't exactly remember, they didn't switch on service in my new place until about 10 days later. For that, I got half off my DSL service for the next 6 months (I'm amazed they didn't screw that up).

So fast forward to last week, and I wanted to shut down my landline service but keep DSL. Of course, nothing at AT&T is as straightfoward as it should be, and this was no exception. Instead of just turning off my landline phone and leaving the DSL on, I was told that they'd have to shut down both the landline and DSL (old account), then activate a new 'dry loop' DSL account. So already, I'm dreading having to do this, thinking of all the ways they'd end up f**king this up. And they did indeed f**k it up, but the way they did it was not anything I could've imagined.

I talked to a guy at AT&T support and told him my horror story from before, and I said I absolutely could not afford to have that happen this time, because I'm now working from home. He assured me that all would go well, and even arranged to have AT&T turn on the new account Tuesday (7/6/10), and turn off the old one on Thursday (yesterday), so that there would be no interruption in service. Since this thread is a rant, you can imagine how this is going to go down ...

They didn't turn on the dry loop on Tuesday as promised, so when I called them up, the tech support guy said, "I dunno why they told you we could do that, as we can't turn on the new until we switch off the old." I was told that the old would be turned off and the new turned on Thursday, and everything would go smoothly. When Thursday rolls around, I woke up to discover that my landline/DSL had been switched off, but no new dry loop account set up yet. This isn't a problem, because they said it might take til 8pm. So I try again at 8pm last night, and surprisingly, it worked! I was amazed, thinking that AT&T had actually done something right. When I got up this morning, it was still working. So, you think this story has a happy ending? WRONG!!!

I went to the gym today at about 1pm, and the DSL service was working fine when I left, but when I got back, it was off again. I called their tech support and they said that billing needed to talk to me about something. So I called billing and they said nothing was wrong, transferred me back to support. Support said that their system showed the account had been CANCELED, even though I just activated it last night. So the lady in support said she would conference me in with billing. We waited on hold for about 20 minutes trying to get through to billing, when she said she'd call me back when she was able to reach someone.

So billing calls me back about 30 minutes later, saying they have no idea why the account was cancelled, as there is no note left on the account to explain the cancellation. Ok then, sh*t happens. Can you get me hooked back up this afternoon? Nope, can't do it... earliest on Monday. So now I'm looking at going all weekend without internet, and they're probably going to take several more days getting their sh*t together, and now I have a lot to explain to my boss. So, what recourse do I have? I could call Time Warner, but those bastards are already on my sh*tlist. Whereas AT&T have been incompitent, Time Warner are out and out villans. Plus, the DSL service has been rock solid the whole time I've had it (about 10 years) and I'm loathed to give it up. If only I could just get the f**king dolts at AT&T to turn on the goddamn connection, and LEAVE IT ON.

In a pinch, I decide to call Verizon to see if they can get tethering turned on for my Droid Incredible, so at least I can get online at home for now. As this phone doesn't have a clean root method yet, I can't tether for free. I believe there's like a $40 android app that would let me tether, but figured I'd go legit this time, since one month of tethering would be cheaper than the app, and HOPEFULLY the phone will be fully rooted by the time I need to do this again. So I called Verizon, and was on hold less than 2 minutes. (Mind you, I've had cell phone service with them for about 3 months, and this is the first time I've spoken with anybody there, since I've never had any issues with the setup or the service.) The guy who answered my call had the tethering option turned on in a jiffy. He told me where to download the software (I made the call at work), and answered all the questions I had. I got home and now I'm rocking an internet connection via USB tethering from my Droid Incredible.

Story to be continued ...

**Womp** · 07-12-2010, 09:13 PM

Amazing story man!

Honestly, outside higher prices (You get what you pay for IMO), I never understood the hate Verizon gets from people. I've had a wireless phone with them for 11 years now and they've never been anything but fantastic with their service. Glad to hear you figured out a solution.

**WorknMan** · 07-13-2010, 07:36 PM

It appears that my primary DSL modem died sometime between Friday and today, but my DSL connection has been restored (currently using a backup modem). It took some doing to get back online; when they set up a new account, you have to register it online, and I guess I didn't fully complete the registration process because every time I'd go to a site, it would redirect me back to AT&T, saying there was some kind of problem with my member id, and wanting me to download some setup software that I didn't need.

Anyway, once I re-registered, I was back in business. I'm dreading getting my next bill though, after all these changes. I'm hoping they don't screw it up ...

I really toyed with the idea of giving Time Warner a call, but would you go through with such a thing after reading these reviews?
http://www.yelp.com/biz/time-warner-cable-austin

**Shane R. Monroe** · 07-13-2010, 09:48 PM

There is no such thing as a "good" provider. We have Cox and Qwest. Qwest screwed me 12 ways to sundown.

Now, I'm deep in bed with Cox. I have some grandfathered plan that doesn't exist - and if I even consider cancelling it to try something else - I'll never get it back. It's like a rent-controlled apartment.

**WorknMan** · 07-13-2010, 09:51 PM

Originally Posted by Shane R. Monroe

Now, I'm deep in bed with Cox..

Man, that just doesn't sound right

**Chewbacca** · 07-14-2010, 10:01 PM

I understand why this thread was put in Apple's section, despite the fact that WorknMan nor anyone else (except me) has mentioned Apple so far. But aren't there some Android phones that run on AT&T's service, or would that taint Android's God status?

**Womp** · 07-14-2010, 10:16 PM

Yes, hobbled, but yes there are.

**Shane R. Monroe** · 07-14-2010, 10:38 PM

I didn't go through every thread to make sure the content was perfect. This should probably get moved back to a general category. I figured it was Apple bitching.

**WorknMan** · 10-13-2010, 11:42 PM

Originally Posted by WorknMan

I'm dreading getting my next bill though, after all these changes. I'm hoping they don't screw it up ...

This just keeps getting better and better. They tried to charge me a $200 activation fee for the account that they disconnected for no apparent reason and the new account they had to create because of it. I was told twice on the phone that this $200 fee would be waived, and to just go ahead and pay my regular bill. So I paid my last bill by snail mail, and even included a letter explaining why I didn't pay the $200, and to have someone call me if there was a problem.

So today I get a letter from them, saying that I owe $200 and that my account is about to be disconnected. So now, I don't know what to do. I don't think there's any way I'm going to be able to fix this. I don't think there is anybody at that company I can call who honestly gives a shit, and I can't in good conscience pay $200 that I don't owe just to compensate them for their incompetence. At this point, I'm thinking I might just have to tether with Verizon and live with 5gb of bandwidth a month.

To everyone else, I say this... if you're even THINKING about doing business with AT&T, I can only urge you to reconsider. Even if the service is good and you don't have any problems, god help you if you ever have to call them about something, or change something about your service. Just having a phone line disconnected and going with dry-loop DSL shouldn't constitute two months of headaches.