@ATT Redemption -- NOT!

Post originally written on 6/26

A few weeks ago, I voiced my displeasure with AT&T and their services here. Since this post, I have to admit that they've made me do a 180 degree spin on them...

First, a friend from Twitter, who is employed with AT&T, saw my blog post. He passed the message on to a protege of his in Baton Rouge. She reached out to me via Twitter and gave me a call. I spoke to her and explained what was wrong. She sent someone out (I think it was the same day) to investigate my problem. That guy ran tests and determined that part of my problem was the fact that I was slightly out of range of the premium service that I requested. He called a fourth guy (who happened to be married to a high school classmate of mine) and he shows up and runs tests (that same day).

After everything was done, it was concluded that I wasn't going to be able to get the internet speeds I requested. However, instead of me being disappointed over that being the case, I was actually impressed with the promptness and level of service AT&T put forth in an attempt to fix the problem. A few days later, a manager called and said that although it was unlikely that I would get the 12 mbps speeds that I wanted, that he would exhaust every option before calling it quits. So, he's still working on the problem.

Although I'm still at 6.0 mbps, I'm actually satisfied. Great service goes a long way and when you receive it, you no longer look at yourself as a victim. Things always seem like a scam when you're paying your hard-earned money for something only to be met with "meh" and shoulder shrugs when you have a problem.

So, I want to take my hat off to the people who put forth an effort to fix my problem (Corey, Natasha, Chris, Roy and Scott). I try to be as fair as I possibly can and if I can take the time to bash a company for doing something wrong, then I will definitely take the time to applaud them when they provide a great level of service.

Thank you, AT&T. You now have your redemption.

*** UPDATE: 6/29 *** I guess that I spoke too soon. I spent 40+ minutes on the phone, over the course of two days, to resolve a problem for my father. We were trying to remove call forwarding from a landline voicemail to a cell phone. I went in and made changes in the voicemail menu to turn off forwarding, but that didn't work. I called AT&T and held 7 minutes for an agent on the Wireless side.

He told me that I needed to speak with the landline people to resolve. I said, "fine, but while I have you, I do have a question on this account: can you let me know how many minutes phone # XXX-XXX-XXXX used last month?"

"Sir, I'm unable to see that, but I can send you an additional bill for $5 or you can view it online," he replied. 

That's what he said, but here's what I heard: "I have better things to do than research this account."

Now, I'm not sure exactly what type of applications AT&T's customer service agents use, but I can't say that I believe that someone couldn't tell me how many minutes a phone used the previous month.

So, I get transferred to the landline side and I hold for 14 more minutes (21 total). I finally get someone and of course, they have no information on me despite the transfer. I have to verify who I am again and why I am calling. After explaining it, she tells me that she's going to reset something and the calls will no longer forward to the cell phone some time before midnight.

"Midnight? Is the phone a vampire or something? Why isn't it immediate?" I asked.

"It just isn't, sir."

"So, I'm going to have to wait until midnight to find out that what you did probably didn't work and go through all of this tomorrow?"

"It will work, sir."

After close to 30 minutes of phone time, I realize that I'm powerless in the situation and I say my good-byes. Of course, the next day, the landline is still forwarding calls.  I call in again and this time, I only had to hold for 8 minutes.  This agent tells me that the previous person that I'd spoken to the day before forgot to do something when she reset the phone.  He says that he will take care of it and that i should see the results after midnight.

Well, this time it works after two days and speaking to three people to get it resolved. Luckily for them, I have patience because my father told me to just disconnect everything after the first day. I probably would have if I thought that he wouldn't need his lines of communication.

Foiled by AT&T again. For every great employee there are five bad ones. Just five warm bodies doing just enough to get a paycheck each week and not get fired. Too bad that no one with the ability to do something about it cares.