AT&T sux [EDIT: More moronage]

[feng_shui_house]

Am writing 1 handed while on hold.




Am trying to get wire moved to end of house away from pool. No customer service phone # on bill or webshite. Webshite had supposed cuss. help, but after 2 pages of fill in info got only choices to report broken service. Called 611 Repair service # on bill. After a couple minutes spoke to woman who asked for my name, phone number, last 4 digits of my social security and read a privacy statement giving them permission to tout AT&T services which she wanted me to agree to & I did, rather than argue with her (repeat all this for each additional call) said wrong dept & transferred me to Customer Service (she said). After a few minutes I got a man who told me A) you have the maintenance plan so it's free B) They'll come out today. C) This is the wrong dept. Then he wanted to sell me Internet despite me telling him they were awful. It took 10 minutes to get him to stop arguing that really they were great and I should go with them & save money. Finally he transferred me to Eguipment Maintenance -after a few minutes I got a woman who said a) This is the wrong dept. b) You'll be charged c) I'll transfer you to Customer care who will set up the appt. and tell you how much it'll be. After a few minutes I was transferred to another woman who said a) This is the wrong dept. b) I can't tell you what you'll be charged c) I'll transfer you to Customer Service. After quite a few minutes I wound up with a man who said oh, yes the customer service # is on the bill-- it's listed as Plans and Services! Which, considering the next column refers to my selected choices as 'services' I thought Plans and Services meant Plans and Services, not CUSTOMER SERVICE, silly Asperger, Literal Me. He said a) There will be a charge, but I won't know what it is until after the service guy arrives, looks at it, and decides how much they can soak me for (note to self, dress as shabby as usual) b) the earliest call I can get is Monday the 14th and c) Wouldn't I like to get my internet through them, too? Then he wanted an alternate contact number. I LIED (well, they'd been lying to me) and told him I didn't have a cell. He wanted to know any family or neighbor? There I was honest & said no. He really didn't believe me. Well, tough noogies. He kept at it for several minutes. I said 'Look, if they call before they come out, the phone is working. If they screw up the phone while they're here, they can fix it'. Didn't please him, he wanted another contact number. Well, you know what, I DON'T give a rat's patoot what YOU want. If you can't get me at this number, what, it's going to inconvenience YOU? TOO BAD.

This all took 45 minutes, what with the arguing and the sales pitches and the hold times and all the feeding of info and button pressing (not ONE of the transfers was direct to a human, had to convince the system to let me through each time). Thank heaven I woke up early.

EDIT: After I got through with my next chore (diagnosing my toilet leak)I noticed an Email from AT&T with a $4.95 service charge *monthly*. I called to find out were they going to charge me $4.95 a month because I dared to ask for service? No, no, that's your normal plan, they send you a confirmation of the service call date and put your plan on it so you'll know it's you. EH? My standard bill is $50 a month even if I make no calls at all! It was the cheapest service package I could get from them. So where does this make sense? *bash head on keyboard*

Comments

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

At least nobody tried selling me anything yesterday in all my odd service calls, except the person I'd called last week wanting a part for the caravan and she was ringing back with a price and delivery date.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

The last one was especially funny- she wanted to know what cable TV I had. I said, I don't have a TV. She then asked, How many TVs in your home. I said none. She said if I got a TV I should get their cable. *eyeroll*

[gair.livejournal.com]

Oh God, I feel your pain. The telecomms companies here are JUST like that - I can't remember if I posted about the time they cut our phone off because they screwed up the flat numbers (meant to cut off the phone downstairs because the tenant had moved out) and didn't sort it out for two weeks of daily, hour-long, phone calls...

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Lining them up against the wall and shooting them would do no good, because you'd run out of ammo.

I do remember when you went through that! I am Terrified of making any changes once things are working, because if they screw up, you have to go through HELL to get it fixed (and since I meant my cell phone only for calling taxis, I went with a plan that'd be awfully expensive for hour long complaint calls.)

But I have got to get that wire moved or the city inspector will be sure to fail the pool inspection. There are other things I need to do too, any one of which would be enough to fail it.

[ultrapsychobrat.livejournal.com]

I hate phone companies--Verizon kept me on the phone to someone in India for two hours trying to diagnose my DSL problem by doing the same tests over and over again, deciding finally that I needed to buy a new modem from them.

Hope their service is better than their customer service.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

After I went through hell getting them to put in new lines, the phone has been fine. They would never listen to me complaining that the 50 year old wires were bad, so I'd given up and paid them to put in new lines entirely. That was the time they charged me 5 times for the service and I couldn't get the charge off until I found the phone number for the corporate hq on-line and called them direct.

[kalinda001.livejournal.com]

*hugs* That's sadly all too believable.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

*huggles* I always do manage to find the longest way to do things. Hope this is right.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

This is an Ehouse Phone odyssey! Oh yes.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Telephone/cable/internet companies all seem to be not only staffed by idiots, but have all their systems set up by idiots. *sigh*

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

And this idiotic system is really worldwide!
*sigh with you*

[luinielle.livejournal.com]

Oh that's so frustrating! I hate dealing with the phone company, they're always always trying to sell you more things you don't need or want.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

It's absurd. It annoyed me so much that even if I WANTED cable, I'd look elsewhere.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

we're still getting invites to return to our old service. Can't block phone company spam

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

*nods* They think they have a right to nag you, and you should be grateful.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

can't block them, they control that service even tho we're with another company

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

*nods* And even if you send them a request in writing not to be solicited for business, they'll keep on doing it. About all you can do is have a phone that shows who's calling & never answer them. After a few months they'll get tired. Maybe.

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

Wow. Nothing's easy, is it? Are you sure your little corner of Florida is actually in the USA? Because I'm starting to think that "dealing with aliens" would explain a lot of the crap you encounter! *g*

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I do think Hellholeah seceded from the union years ago. :^) After the terrorist attack in NYC Hellholeah put up banners that said 'Now more than ever, Hellholeah supports the US'...