Wednesday, July 15, 2015

"AT&T, how can we fail you?"

After over a month of no plain old telephone service, Internet service followed it down the tubes yesterday morning.  Attempts to get the level of tech previous AT&T repairpeople have told us is necessary failed yet again; they sent out a data tech, who was kinda surly and quickly found -- yet again! -- that it needed a higher level tech to fix. This would be the same tech who dropped the ball Sunday, marking the issue resolved without actually doing anything. So.... That guy was right on the ball this afternoon: from the evidence, he "checked" the problem from his desk and marked it fixed again.

     AT&T called me to share the good news. I asked them to wait while I confirmed.

     I own two cellphones. Called Tam: nope, phone and Internet still dead. When I shared this news with AT&T, they offered only vague assurances.

     Tam has taken to Twitter. Please pile on.

     Posted from my non-AT&T smart phone.

14 comments:

Stuart the Viking said...

We've gotten much the same treatment from AT&T down here in Florida. Mom raised hell. It took them a week to get their crap together, but it eventually got fixed... then they wanted to know if we wanted to put ALL our eggs in the AT&T basket by switching to AT&T for Television and cell service also. An entire WEEK without DSL service, and hey, wouldn't it have been great to be without television that week also? My kids would have started burning things down!

VonLurk said...

Is there an AT&T account exec that the Starship works with? I had a similar problem with the Death Star in 2007, and it took my getting my AE involved just to get the word into "repair" that the line was out after two weeks of phone tree hell.

Amazing how getting a Major Accounts staff member involved can break the logic loops in the POTS world ...

(And if that fails, does the Starship team have a consumer advocate?)

skidmark said...

Just surrender and change your phone at home to a business account so AT&T can charge you more.

Either that or check the consumer protection laws. Have you played the "two vulnerable women home alone" card yet?

stay safe,

Ygolonac said...

Maybe just start CC'ing the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission in on your emails? Not sure from a quick look (sneaking around at work right now) if they'd really be of use, but since you're already piddling away tax dollars (and others) to employ 'em, why not? (Also, that kind of thing might actually attract the attention of higher-caste drones.)

(I'd've said "search the Consumerist site for helpful advice", but they've regrettably gone downhill from their levels of usefulness. Also, it's depressing as all hell, seeing what other people go through.)

Anonymous said...

I hate AT&T with a passion. Their internet is unreliable and they keep raising their rates, but the worst part is that they changed my account from paper billing to electronic billing WITHOUT my consent a couple of months ago. They did the same thing to my parents (who only have cell service through AT&T, no internet!), but Dad called and raised holy hell until they changed it back (half hour of his time wasted). I figured it wasn't worth the hassle and for the first two months I received my bills via email...until this month when I didn't get a bill at all! If I can find an internet provider here in Indy WITHOUT having to get cable, I'm switching! Anyone have any recommendations? I've been striking out so far.

Bruce said...

Hope your cell service is not with AT&T.

Tam said...

"Have you played the "two vulnerable women home alone" card yet?"

That could be a tough sell if they have Google. ;)

Anonymous said...

AT&T how do I hate thee?
Let me count the ways:
Hours upon countless hours on hold waiting to talk to a "representative."
Multiple and manyfold unplug, plug in, check cables and filter repetitions.
"Say again, please," after every sentence because I am not conversant in Urdu.
Acknowledging that my problem has nothing to do with the script being followed and then immediately returning to the script.
"You need a new modem," when the modem I am using is the brand new modem I just bought from you and am in the process of installing because you told me I need a new modem.
The AT&T CEO and the entire Board of Directors deserve a special place in the Seventh Circle of Hell eternally walking barefoot across a bed of Kingsford's Competition Briquets.

Armed Texan said...

As much as I am against .gov intervention, the PUCs (pronounce that however you like) are sometimes useful in situations like this. Sometimes, just invoking their name is enough.

JeffG said...

ATT has had some serious issues the last few days over and above their normally crappy service. Check this out and be sure to see the map.

https://downdetector.com/status/att

fillyjonk said...

And I bet once (if) they get it fixed, they'll be calling you regularly to try to upsell you more services. (I have them for POTS but they keep calling me wanting to sell me DSL - oh heck no, I have better & cheaper from my cable provider).

At one time they were so regular and so annoying with their calls I braved the phone tree and finally talked to someone and told them just how (with a few four letter words) unhappy I was with their telemarketing. It stopped, for a while.

Now I have caller ID (which, ironically, I pay them for) so I can just avoid their calls.

Roberta X said...

I get offers for Uverse TV in the mail all the time, which go right into the shredder next to DirecTV "please come back" flyers. Nope, nope and hell nope. I have a Roku and an antenna. I don't need to pay for 300 channels of crap when I can buy the programs and movies I want to watch whenever I want to watch them.

JC said...

Had catastrophic phone failure on land line some years ago. Massive ant nest in the gear on the pole. They had to call in anti-ant specialists which took another 2 weeks...

NotClauswitz said...

Had a land-line installed at the Ranch, partly in hopes it would be a pathway to DSL, no and no and no again. I paid the extra $10 to NOT have the number published (in the yellow-rags). The first day they turned it on I had twenty calls, ALL solicitations. The next day only fifteen, and then it started to taper-off. I did not get ANY non-solicitation calls and cancelled the service after a week.
AT&T is dead to me, forever.