Is it too much to ask to expect a company to know how to operate their own computer systems?
I am a user of the Iphone 3G, and of course that means I must use AT&T. Others have talked about the various service disruptions, undependable voice mail, and generally being a bottleneck to an otherwise awesome phone. Here in the Tampa Bay area, I haven’t had many problems with the service. Sure, a few dropped calls. Times where my voice mail is delayed. Overall, however, it has been fine…
Unless you need to change something.
Recently, I decided to add flat rate text messaging to my plan. A simple $5.00/month addition to the plan. Instructions were to leave everything else in place.
The lady tells me it has been added, thank you and have a nice day.
One little problem, though. She never added it. When I got my next bill, I was being charged on a per-text basis still. So, I call the company about it and my account showed no record AT ALL of my prior call to add this $5.00 text messaging plan.
What the hell was that lady looking at when she told me it was done?
Oh, but it gets better.
So, the second lady apologizes for the inconvenience and proceeds to add the text messaging plan. She tells me it has been added, she reduces my bill to take off the prior charges for text messaging. Thank you and have a nice day.
One little problem. My Iphone no longer had ANY text messaging capability. At the same time, NO INTERNET. No 3G or Edge coverage at all.
So, I call for the THIRD time. Get this…
No record of me adding text messaging. I told her to add it – AGAIN – and to tell me why I have no Internet. She said my plan had no data plan. I proceeded to tell her it DOES have a data plan and I’ve been paying for it since day one. Then, she said “Oh wait, yes it does.”. Which is it? She said there might be something wrong with my Iphone, so she “adds” the text message plan then forwards me to support.
The guy in support looks and tells me I have no data plan and no text messaging. WHAT THE HELL? He says he has no idea what the other people were doing (I believe him). He said the Iphone doesn’t even come without a data plan and has no idea how one of those ladies managed to remove it from my plan.
This tech support guy fixed my problems.
It took 4 attempts and the loss of my Internet service to get a simple $5.00 text messaging plan added to my account. Hell, when I get my next bill, I wouldn’t be surprised now to find they never added it. Time will tell.
AT&T, do a damn IQ test before you hire people. Your first-level customer service is run by people who apparently are surprised when they manage to tie their own shoes in the morning.
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How many of your Help Desk calls do you think were connected to outsourced third world call centers? None? All but the last?
Wow, sorry about that Dave. I hate calling support they always f-up something. I think the reason is because they outsource and the people they outsource to are never trained. They are giving them a small website help desk app and thats it. It sucks, the only good support I get on the phone is Paypal, and Dell
I agree, I would rather use a web site and do things myself than depend on a customer service person for anything; but I think the point is that AT&T is a telecommunications company and the “messages” keep getting screwed up. That’s my problem with ANY company these days – you can’t make just ONE phone call and get anything taken care of. It turns into 3 and 4 calls, all the while you’re having to navigate automated menus and being on hold. I think companies should pay their customer service people better so they can hire people with a brain larger than the size of a pea.
You think this is specific to AT&T? There’s a serious deficiency in customer service anymore, brought in large part by outsourcing, as has been suggested. Try calling Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Dell. I could list more, but I won’t…
Verizon drove me nuts when I upgraded my account. Just google Verizon customer service if you don’t believe me.
Up here in Canada, it’s not much better with Rogers and Alliant as the only two main providers. As a customer of Rogers, I’ve been put on plans I didn’t ask for, told I’d have to pay for things the company is supposed to and given the run around trying to pay in store with cash. The funnies t thing is that , in store, they can add whatever you want to you bill but you have to call their phone Techs to get things removed….how dumb is that?!?
You really choose the hard way to do this. You obviously have web access, so why are you not managing your own account online? You can add or remove literaly dozens of features at the click of a but and they are applied immediatly.
http://www.wireless.att.com/
We love AT&T for this very reason. As our circumstances change we have had huge swings in our need for texting, web browsing and it only took a couple of minutes to do it. You can even set up your account for oversees travel, it is amazing!
That is a seriously crappy recommendation and you sound like a plant. Phone support should easily be able to accommodate simple plan changes as this one and they completely borked it. Several times. “Just go to the web and do it” is not a substitute for crappy phone customer support FROM A TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANY.
I doubt Lee M. is a plant. I have bought my last 4 phones from the AT&T site, use it to check billing, my children’s usage, etc. While not the best, I’ve generally found the web site functional. For some time now however, I have been unable to turn internet offf and on online-I have to call. It has always happened (I think 4 times now, perhaps more) as I requested without trouble. We will be taking another trip next week, so will be turning on internet again. Will let you know if their service seems to have slipped.
BTW, I usually ask the service person “how’s the weather?”. I’ve always gotten a U.S. type response. I certainly cannot say the same for Dish Network.
Certainly AT&T screwed up royally with you. But as they say, stuff happens. Have you heard the Ron White routine about Sears? How could such a thing possibly happen?
The world is FULL of screw ups.
Sage
I would much rather go to a website and take care of things myself, but I think the point is that AT&T is a telecommunications company and the messages keep getting screwed up. That’s my problem with ANY company today – you can’t make just ONE telephone call to take care of things. It takes 3 or 4 calls, all the while you have to navigate menus and are placed on hold. You also have to keep notes with dates and people’s names for a couple of billing cycles because you never know when you’ll need to refer to them. Companies should pay their customer service people better so they can hire people with a brain larger than the size of a pea and then give them the proper training!
Hah. Let me tell you a story.
I applied for a position at an AT&T call center pretty close to my hometown. My qualifications were excellent; I had worked as an IT manager/everything admin the year before, owned my own business for the past year, even had previous call center experience. I was also in gifted classes all through school, and consistently test 126 on iq tests, which isn’t high, but higher than normal.
I have pretty decent communication skills, especially over the phone. So I shouldve been a shoe-in, right?
So how come I don’t get hired, and in my place they hire three guys who have literally never worked at a call center or touched a computer before, and have no it experience whatsoever?
All I’m saying is AT&T’s hiring decisions are suspect.