AT&T Local, Long Distance and DSL - Thursday, September 30, 2004 My phone service is interrupted for the 3rd time in 30 days. I have had the same phone line for 8 years and have never experienced any trouble, until I got AT&T DSL.

AT&T Local, Long Distance and DSL - Thursday, September 30, 2004 My phone service is interrupted for the 3rd time in 30 days. I have had the same phone line for 8 years and have never experienced any trouble, until I got AT&T DSL.

AT&T Local, Long Distance and DSL

Weblog Located at: http://home.att.net/~robandchantal/index.html

MY TROUBLE WITH ATT

This BLOG is dedicated to the terrible trouble I've been experiencing with AT&T's local, long distance and DSL service. If you are thinking about becoming an AT&T customer I recommend that you read this BLOG before choosing AT&T. Thursday, September 30, 2004 My phone service is interrupted for the 3rd time in 30 days. I have had the same phone line for 8 years and have never experienced any trouble, until I got AT&T DSL.

The problem is that my phone, unexpectedly, stops working (this has happened 1 to 2 times per months since I got AT&T's DSL service). I cannot hear people on the other end, there is just a buzzing and whirring. I can make calls, but that doesn't do much good if you cannot hear the person you are speaking with. Needless to say, as my phone line is out so is the DSL. I contact AT&T, which is becoming routine, to try to have them fix the problem. Of course, their prompt, idiotic as it is suggests that I might try finding the answer to my DSL problems on line? (This is, obviously, if your DSL is not working and you some how magically get on line while your calling them from home).

I speak with their phone reps and they tell me that the problem will be fixed by Saturday. Apparently, the technicians are very busy. I ask what I am supposed to do until then, as I, like more and more people, need the internet to work? They have no solutions for me, but at least they are sorry (strangely this neither helps nor comforts me, although just about every employee at AT&T has apologized to me). Saturday, Oct. 2, 2004 Service still not up. I consider how fun it would be to send AT&T an invoice for the work I've lost due to their lack of service. After all, I pay them for a service which they are not providing. I call while eating lunch, as this is part of my daily diet.

Someone, answers the phone and I immediately understand that the work of the AT&T customer service agent has been outsourced to some place other than the United States. What a comfort, to know that they are saving on labor and the executives of AT&T, who I will later find are a near impossibility to reach, are getting richer. At any rate, I ask if there is a problem with my DSL. I am at my wits end. I ask if I can cancel my contract without the $200.00 penalty as the service keeps failing. They explain that I would have to talk to technical service about it. They transfer me to technical service. Technical service is, of course, sorry.

I am run through a battery of tests until finally through a wild assortment of plug swapping, I get connected. EUREKA! As the technical support agent is letting me know how happy she is, and she sounds sincerely happy, for me the service dies again. She says that it's because I plugged my phone in. I explain that I have not plugged it in (the next day the reports will show that the service dropped again because I plugged my phone in, but wouldn't I have just removed it again to test it if that were the case?). And, the entire purpose of a DSL line is to be able to talk on the phone while on line. So, this was not even a bandaid of a fix. I demand to be taken out of my contract.

The technical agent is sorry, and transfers me back to the billing department. Once at billing, they are sorry again, they explain that I would have to get a voucher from technical support saying that the service doesn't work. Back to tech support. I need a voucher. We're sorry the line appears to be working. Monitor it for 24 hours and then let us know. I've had a long day battling AT&T, I will report more tomorrow. Until then, please enjoy the following illogical quotes. Other quotes from my experiences in the last 5 day with AT&T, these are paraphrased, I apologize that I couldn't tape these conversations. For a transcript we might have to contact AT&T, good luck?:

1. "I want to speak to your supervisor." "We don't have a supervisor." "Then who pays you?" "The manager." (if you don't know, that is a supervisor.)

2. "I like to discuss my contract, can you send me a copy via e-mail or fax?" Billing Dept. "No we cannot send you a copy of the contract. You would have to talk with Tech Support." Tech Support. "No we cannot send you a copy of the contract. You would have to talk with Billing." "I like to discuss my contract, can you send me a copy via e-mail or fax?" Billing Dept. "No we cannot send you a copy of the contract. You would have to talk with Tech Support." "But if you're saying you can't send me a copy that implies that you have one." Long Pause.."Sir, we cannot send you a copy of the contract." "So, then you lied to me and you do have copies of the contract, but you will not send it to me?"

3. "I'd like to speak with your corporate office." "We do not have the phone number for them." "Then how do you contact them?" "We can give you the mailing address." "So, you do have the corporate phone number, unless you just wait for them to call if there is a problem?" "I cannot give you the number."

4. After digging up a number for AT&T corporate. "I'd like to speak with someone regarding the trouble I've been having with your phone and internet service." "I'm sorry sir, the person that handles that is unavailable right now, but someone will call you back in 24 to 48 business hours. (in terms of days, 8 hours per business day, 3 to 6 days)" "Please I just want to speak with someone now" the woman had no idea of my desparation. "Can't you just help me?" "No, if it was a problem with just local service I could, but this is a problem for local, long distance and DSL and that person is unavailable right now."

IF ALL THIS SOUNDS LIKE FUN AND SERVICE YOU'RE WILLING TO PAY FOR, YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY INSANE. MORE TO COME. IF THIS IS AT&T READING, SCREW YOU, I WANT OUT OF MY CONTRACT!

chantal & rob

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Comment On This

Oh my gosh, we are in an att nightmare right now! please somebody help! I have contacted the bbb and now I am calling the fed communication comm. tomorrow. we are going to file as many complaints as we can until att deals with us. they are billing us even after we left them and cancelled! my husband was actually on a three way call with att and qwest, qwest gave them a cancellation date and they argued with qwest and said we still have long distance and internet! att is doing the same to me 80year old parents.

why isn't there a phone number to corperate? I am hoping there will be a law suit soon, maybe then someone will listen.