If you know what I do, you know that means lost business & money. I then moved to Twitter for support, which initially saved me hours of phone time with them, but again ended up in radio silence. My journey with AT&T internet ended with the below letter, to which they never responded. They instead sent me on to collections. I resent the letter to both. Again, no response, but a new notice from yet another collection agency. They clearly have the money to offload a problem, how about using that money to provide actual service?
So now I share it with the world, what do you think- should I pay them?
I say no on principal. No small business owner would get away with the lack of service, both human and technical, that AT&T provides. But because of their size, they get away with it, and we lose extraordinary amounts of time and money.
Ding my credit, I'm keeping my $150. Read on, and please, do share...
Date: June 5, 2011
AT&T
RE: Account 10840397
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing concerning the most recent bill sent to me from AT&T for the amount of $147.12. Initially, I presumed my internet was being combined with my cell phone bill, as it has for the many, many, years I’ve been a customer. Then out of the blue, I get a bill saying I’m past due, and my connection will be cut off (as if I had one to begin with).
Great, now I can go with an internet provider that actually provides, which Comcast now does.
Frankly, I should be billing AT&T for lost time, frustration, lost clients, and complete lack of service. I have been a loyal customer of AT&T for over 10 years. I have had nothing but frustration with customer service and technology. Yet for some reason, I still honor you with my patronage. Following is a very brief overview of my ordeal with attempting to get internet service from you from the period of time covering November 2010 through March 2011.
1. November 2010: I move and relocate service. I was given a date for activation when my equipment was sent to me. Not shockingly, it did not work. Support told me I would have to wait 2 more days; no reason was given. I explained that my business is that of a social media consultant who works online from home, and this would inhibit my ability to run my business. Alas, there was “nothing AT&T could do”.
2. My delayed activation date: I try all night to no avail. I call again & spend over 2 hours with a customer service rep. I beg for her to skip over the script I could have spoke along with her; all the things a technology expert already does BEFORE calling support. She finally transfers me to upper level support. He simply tells me I don’t need a filter with this modem, I remove it, done. Your company wasted 2 hours of pay on this person’s time. Not her fault, she should be trained better. I lost 2 hours of my time yet again, which runs $85 =$125 per hour.
3. Nightly: at 10:00pm, I lose service. I post a Tweet asking why AT&T turns the internet off every night before they go to bed. To my pleasure & disbelief, @ATTMIKET responds to me promptly and coordinates a technician to come out. I wait at home during said arrival time. No show. Again, lost business due to sitting home without internet.
4. They try again, they show, cannot figure out what is going on. Again, this is in my thread of Tweets, which should be tracked in your customer support system.
5. Yet again, Twitter based interaction with your support team. They concur that no one can figure out why I constantly lose connection on a nightly basis. Then it starts to occur during the day. During a Skype based training with a client I lose connection. Lost business, and reputation, again.
6. Apparently your team finally gave up on me, because everything went completely silent. At that point, I finally received notice that my account had not been paid. As I said, I presumed it had been combined with my cell phone bill, as I never received any other billing. I took this wonderful opportunity to simply move service and go with Comcast. With whom I have 100% connectivity at all times. Novel concept.
7. I get a phone call from AT&T telling me they are going to send me boxes to ship my equipment back. Great! I wait, per usual, nothing. Now I get notice that I will be charged if I do not return it. Perhaps the boxes are with those bills you never sent me. Provide me the promised boxes and I will return said equipment.
8. The amount of money I spent on lost clients, lost time, business reputation, relocating to cafés to buy food so I could use internet all night and day is well beyond $1000. You are billing me $147.12.
Let’s just call it even and put this thing to rest.
Sincerely,
Susanne Koch
