Posted on 12/11/2010 1:59:43 PM PST by SeekAndFind
I’m fine with AT&T, for me Verizon is the devil. I was okay with them until one day my home phone stopped working. I called them up and it turned out that they had just bought MCI and they had discovered an old MCI bill that I hadn’t paid. Which led to an hour of tranfer hell where no one could find the alleged old bill (which I was perfectly willing to pay). It was easier to just give up my land line than deal with the nonsense.
Dropped calls, poor reception, poor cs, high bills
Going to Verizon
Many years ago, I had similar problems with my Cingular service (which became AT&T). My phone wouldn't work most of the time at my home! I went to Verizon and have never looked back.
Mark
I still drive people crazy with my VirginMobile pay as you go phone. And I have Verizon at home. As long as I’m paying for the house phone and DSL, I’m not paying for another one.
I only deal with them on broadband aircards.
On one occasion I called because the aircard had quit passing traffic. I suspected that there was an account issue and running substitute hardware tests had confirmed that (to me at least).
So I called to verify status of the account and they turned me over to a tech who worked directly off the script:
“So, is it turned on?”
“Do you have it plugged in?”
Questions like that. I tried to cut to the chase but he wouldn’t/couldn’t go off-script. When he got to the point where he was going to talk me through the process of uninstalling the Communication Manager software I refused to go any further.
“I don’t understand. Don’t you want to fix your aircard?” he asked.
“Yes, but this isn’t the way to get there. Please transfer me to someone who can check the status of my account”
“I can do that for you sir, but first...”
“No ‘but first’. Please escalate this call to your supervisor. You can refer to me as a hostile customer if it makes you feel better”
I went through the same maddeningly obtuse procedure with the next tier and ultimately they got frustrated and escalated me once again. This one had the sickly syrupy condescending voice, “Now SIR, what seems to be the matter (with you!)?”
I explained the issues for what seemed to be the ninth time. This time I had stumbled upon someone who, even though she the slightest bit interested in actual customer service, wanted me off the phone - and had no point of escalation that she could punt me to.
So she checked the account. Knock me over with a feather - someone had placed it in “inactive” status. Don’t know who, don’t know why. She agreed (reluctantly?!) to reactivate the number and within a couple of minutes the card was working again.
“Is there anything else I may do to assist you today?: she asked with dripping sarcasm.
“No thank you - you’ve been most helpful” I lied.
The AT&T that I knew was taken over by Southwestern Bell, and SBC took over the AT&T trademarks as part of the deal. They must have also implemented AT&T’s culture, which is a complete Charley Foxtrot. I abandoned AT&T when they deposited the check from a bill payment, yet failed to credit my account. Upon present proof of a copy of the check (front and back, showing AT&T’s endorsement, provided by my bank), they still said the account was deliquent. We parted company on hostile terms.
My father was upper management at AT&T (pre-SBC), and saw firsthand the fish rotting from the head. Spineless Robert Allen destroyed that company.
I’ve actually had great customer service from Att...been with them for years since they were formerly Cingular. Particularly in getting replacement phones for non working units.
Ditto that. Never had one problem with them and like you, have used them for years.
I have Sprint for wireless, and have had a good experience with them. I deal with them as a business account however. My nightmare was with MCI World of Incompetents. When I had my service initially set up when I was in Albuquerque, they gave me a phone number in Grants, NM. 100 miles away. They corrected it the same day, however still insisted on billing me for two phone numbers.
I ran into Bernie Ebbers into the airport one time, before he went to prison. I asked him if MCI stood for Maggots, Cluster****s and Idiots. I asked him which of the three was he, or if he was a combination of the three. I sounded a bit like R Lee Ermey in the exchange.
In my closing letter to MCI, I told them to do the marketplace a favor. DIE!
I had Cingular once, too. I was getting horrible reception. I went to their store. The guy pointed out the window and said, “There’s one of our towers. THAT should work. Let’s try it out.” It only gave about half the bars even there. It probably was the stupid Nokia phone, but they sold it to me. We had two of them. They didn’t work anywhere. I’d be surrounded by people all talking on their cells and I couldn’t. I’d just pull mine out and pretend sometimes.
Talk about crap... It takes two minutes to load the ATT.net page where Yahoo! takes over with 50 millions mindless ads, which you can opt out seeing for that session. The next sign on and they're back.
I really don't care about:
Dating
Finding my school mates from 1959
Night study to get a degree in Girl Watching
FICO Score
Netflix
Erection cremes
Vaginal cremes
Rectum cremes
Toe fungus cremes
Hair growth
Becoming a tow truck operator in Northern Maine
.
I called ATT and was infornmed that those ads are under Yahoos!'s control. I hate Yahoo! and I don't write checks to Yahoo!
I hope you wrote it in English using conventional English sentence structure and punctuation.
At some time or another I have had them all. I travel a lot and dropped carriers when they were lousy. I ended up with Verizon which I am completely happy with. They have been the only one I have found that that has the best coverage, the best customer service and the best reception. Never switching as long as the others stay so far behind them.
As you will recall, my SIL agrees with you ROR! Personally, I have found ATT customer service to be quite good.
Peggy!
1+
Anyone else out there had just about enough of the “connectedness” thing?
The internet, cell phones, smart phones, a million apps, Facebook, cable, iPads, GPS, Netflicks, voice mail, email, look-at-me sites, who’s-looking-for-me sites, I’m-looking-for-you sites, porn with chickens/fatties/grannies/vegetables/midget-trannies/etc, buy-this-to-withdraw-from-that sites, get-a-bigger-penis siytes, & on & on & on.
Is this an improvement on the life I had growing up in the Fifties? I think not.
I’m ready for the grid to go down, myself, and won’t miss it a bit!
AT&T cellular service and their customer service are so much better that what I had with Verizon that I can’t even start to describe it. If it wasn’t for FIOS I would abandon Verizon in a heart beat. I am hoping therapy will help me get over my experiences with Verizon.
it’s worse than Sprint?
I live in Texas. AT&T has been our cell phone provider for years. I’ve never experienced a blip in service. Never had a problem with them in any way. Lucky, apparently.
I still ROR at her password! And a preacher’s daughter!
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