from the welcome-to-the-soviet-ministries dept
While the FCC and certain broadband companies like to insist that there’s real competition in the broadband market, right here in the heart of Silicon Valley, there’s little evidence that this is true. If there were real competition, they might take customer service seriously. In the past few days I’ve had two separate issues with AT&T that suggests that the company treats customer service as not just an after thought, but something to effectively be shunned. Given my long history in killing off broadband providers who give me service, perhaps it’s only fair that they do their best not to serve me, but these two experiences seemed worth shining some light on.
First, a quick history. That link above goes through all the broadband providers I went through (and killed off) in the 2001 time frame. After that, I ended up with Comcast cable modem service until 2004. In October of 2004, Comcast turned the cable modem service to my house off every day at 10am for no clear reason. Every day I would call, and the response would be: “Oh, this is scheduled maintenance. Service will be back by 4pm.” I would ask if I should expect the service to go down the next day as well, and be told that they had no idea. Apparently, the “schedule” for scheduled maintenance was a tightly held secret — but it went on, every single day, for at least the month of October. I moved in November of that year, and swore off Comcast after that experience. My only other option was AT&T. I ordered AT&T DSL and was promised it would be installed within a week. A week came and went, and I called AT&T. They told me the order had been canceled because (despite what the first person told me) DSL wasn’t actually available at my location (right in the middle of Silicon Valley). Why they didn’t call to let me know of the cancellation was not explained.
I asked why the first person had told me service was available, and the woman told me to hold one while she checked her other computer. That computer told her that DSL was available at my location, despite what the first computer said. Apparently, AT&T does not have a single map of DSL availability, preferring to load a series of different local availability maps on every computer.
A year ago I moved again, and DSL has been working more or less okay at the new location. However, last Thursday it died in the afternoon and was down until around midnight. When it came back it was super slow — maxing out around 64 kbps. I waited until Friday afternoon and decided I should call to ask what’s up. That’s when I discovered that AT&T makes it damn near impossible to find a phone number. The AT&T website has no phone numbers listed at all. When I clicked on the “contact” link, I was given a one-line form to discuss what my problem was. When I hit submit, I received a blank page. No matter how many times I tried, I always got the blank page. Eventually, and I don’t remember how, I got to an error page that listed a bunch of phone numbers. I called the one listed with “Residential: 1-877-737-2478” since this is a residential account.
Thus began a rather insane process. After waiting on hold, the call proceeded as follows:
- Automated system demands I enter in my account number and asks me to describe my problem. It doesn’t recognize “slow internet” service, so I just say “can I speak to an operator?” It asks me more questions instead. Eventually (after a long hold) it sends me to a live human being.
- AT&T Rep asks me for my account number (despite having punched it in already). She tells me she cannot find my account. Then she asks where I’m located (which, I would think would be obvious from the area code of the account number). She tells me she needs to put me on hold.
- Rather than putting me on hold, she actually transfers me. I get an automated system that demands I enter in my account number and asks me to describe my problem. It doesn’t recognize “slow internet” service, so I just say “can I speak to an operator?” It asks me more questions instead. Eventually (after a long hold) it sends me to a live human being.
- The woman asks me (again!) for my account number. Then she asks why I’ve called her. She works in sales. Tells me she needs to transfer me, but tells me in the future to call 888.321.2375 for tech support. She transfers me.
- I get an automated system that demands I enter in my account number and asks me to describe my problem. It doesn’t recognize “slow internet” service, so I just say “can I speak to an operator?” It asks me more questions instead. Eventually (after a long hold) it sends me to a live human being.
- The next woman asks me (again!) for my account number. She tells me she cannot find my account. Then she asks where I’m located (which, I would think would be obvious from the area code of the account number). I say California, and she says she doesn’t serve California, only a region of 9 southern states (hasn’t it been more than a year since AT&T & BellSouth merged?). She transfers me — after personally promising me the next person I speak to will be the correct person. She also tells me that, contrary to the earlier person (and the AT&T website) the real number to call is: 800.310.2355.
- I get an automated system that demands I enter in my account number and asks me to describe my problem. It doesn’t recognize “slow internet” service, so I just say “can I speak to an operator?” It asks me more questions instead. Eventually (after a long hold) it sends me to a live human being.
- By the way, at this point, I’ve had the “hold voice” repeatedly pitch me on upgrading my service, mentioning that if I do, I can get access to “AT&T’s award-winning customer service.” I am getting curious as to exactly what “award” this is.
- Before the next woman can say much beyond hello, I explain the saga, and mention that she is the 4th person I’m speaking to and ask her please, if she is the right person to help me fix my slow DSL in California. She says she will try, and (again!) asks for my account number. She does some searches and then admits: she really wants to help, but she’s in billing, not tech support. She promises to transfer me (and kindly gives me a small credit on my account). She also tells me that the proper phone number to call in the future is none of the above, but 877.722.3755.
- Unlike the last few people, she actually says on the line and answers the same exact questions in the automated system for me. This is something of a consolation, though I’ve gotten good at entering the info.
- Finally, tech support! I give the guy my account info (again!) and he logs into my modem and he diagnoses: your connection is slow. I could have told him that. Wait, actually, I did tell him that. He doesn’t know what to do, but says that tech support will call me back later. I thought he was tech support, but whatever.
- An hour later, I get an automated call from AT&T tech support, telling me to call them back at (yes, a different number): 888.312.2450.
- I call back, and amazingly am put in contact with a competent tech, who doesn’t treat me like an idiot, who even gets me logged into the DSL modem myself, explains the different system readings, and notes that my modem seems to have capped itself at 64kbps. He says it could be a few different things, but the most likely is a broken phone cable from the jack to the modem. I switch the cables, and voila, it’s working again.
Total elapsed time since the first phone call, about 3 hours, but only about 1.5 hours total on the phone. It was definitely a bit of a hassle, but eventually I found someone smart and competent, and I figured that maybe I just had a bad experience with AT&T. Little did I know. By Monday evening, my Friday experience would seem fast and simple.
I have some travel coming up, and was realizing that I may not be in EVDO coverage for some of it. So I thought it might be good to make use of the AT&T WiFi that’s included as a part of my account. It’s supposed to work at McDonalds, Starbucks, Barnes & Noble and some other places as well. While I had signed up and used the WiFi service a few years ago, it’s probably been at least two years since I last tried. On Monday, I figured I’d hit up a McDonalds at lunch and test it out, to work out any “kinks” if there were any. I honestly figured it would be fine.
I got my chicken sandwich (sans mayo) and sat down to login. Yippee. I even was sitting next to an outlet, but quickly discovered that the outlet had been turned off (boo). Okay, so I get the (extremely slow) proxy server that asks me to login. I type in my login info, and it gives me a message: “We’re Sorry – Your Login Has Been Rejected.” Then it tells me to call: 888.888.7520 “for further assistance.” So here’s how that call went:
This is AT&T customer and tech support at work. I am left wondering if anyone who works at AT&T has ever called its “award winning” customer service line to get actual support. If there were actual competition in the broadband market here in the heart of Silicon Valley, I would switch providers. But my choice now is to go back to Comcast, who might kill service every day for a month for unscheduled scheduled maintenance or deal with AT&T’s roulette wheel of customer and tech support.
Filed Under: customer support, tech support, telcos, wifi
Companies: at&t