1-5 · 6-10 · 11-15

Complaint #1

Two reasons AT&T sucks. My broadband provider was bought out by them. It took 8 phone calls and 3 days including an attempt to ask their on- line tech assistance just to find out if they could still provide a static IP. (they couldn't). I canceled the account and was billed for 3 months after that. It again took multiple calls and days before that was fixed. I moved in October to Atlanta and I have AT&T digital cable only because my apartment does not have a line of sigh available. My cable has been out an entire day and I can't get a hold of anyone to find out if it's me or a wide outage. The repair line only tells me the office hours and then hangs up. Another example of the poor customer service that seems to be an AT&T trademark.

Sent by: Dawn K., December 12, 2001

Complaint #2

Hello,

I just caught wind of your web site. Seems like it will have many more posts than the one it has now very very soon !

My issue with ATT is a really large one. I have a multi-thousand dollar account with ATT and they are not the best by far. I have never experienced as many outages, and when I call to report them, I deal with a non-technical person who will humor me and my technical explanation of my problem and then at the end of the conversation, they will say "OK, I'll foreword your name, number, and the mere fact that something is wrong to a tech, and will have them call you when they call you. Nothing 5 minutes earlier like "Sir, I don't understand let alone am not recording this" & "First come first serve, sir, everybody is loosing money here, not just you. ( WHAT !?!? ) <-- actual AT&T tech said this to me on 12-10-2001

Now, this most recent time and the 200 or so other times in 2001 that AT&T dropped the ball, the techs start calling back, working on the ticket that they finally started working on. Sometimes 2 or 3 different techs will begin working on the problem, in 3 different locations, not knowing of each other. One will loop the line, the other will call me and say "your line looks looped" Others will call me asking for the other techs, as I have some sort of mysterious AT&T satellite office at my facility.. etc etc etc

I, on many different occasions, have been so thoroughly disgusted with AT&T's technical staff as well as the poor customer service, have felt sick to my stomach after speaking to them. If you are a smoker, no one will send you to flic your bic faster than them !(Want to know what caused my last severe business impacting outage? AT&T was trying to FIX the thousands of dollars they are wrong about on my BILL .... this is making real DOWNTIME..... omg! this speaks for itself )

Also, on many many different occasions, I have been transferred back and fourth so many times that my head spins, I know everyone on a first-name basis, and the problem is usually growing by this time because AT&T is confusing themselves with there severe dis-organization.

What I usually wind up doing is getting 2 or 3 regional managers or similar powerful people on 3 or 4 way phone calls, AND THEY ARGUE WITH EACH OTHER about the specifications and configuration of my setup. Only after at least 10 hours of this type of disheartening litigation PER INCIDENT ( which aren't occasional ) will I ever be restored to even a similar level of service than I originally ordered and signed for.

I do not recommend them to a soul.
Not even someone I hate !
Not even Mister Bin Laden !

Sent by: would prefer to remain anonymous, December 13, 2001

Complaint #3

I live in Cobb County Georgia, a heavily populated suburb northwest of Atlanta.

After waiting years for cable modem service to my residence I attended a Town Hall meeting hosted by AT&T early in 2001. At the meeting I was informed that cable modems would be available for my home in July/August of 2001. Finally my days of connecting at 24k would come to an end.

In early July 2001 we received a notice in the mail form at&t broadband informing us of the availability of digital tv in our area. As a side note, the flyer listed the available packages but no pricing. Two phone calls and an hour and a half of my time on the phone with at&t to get pricing yielded nothing. During my phone time I was informed that cable modems were also available. Great! I ordered both services. I won't go into the detail of dealing with the incompetent order taker, but after a couple calls I had the order straightened out.

On the scheduled install date came, the installer arrived early. He was very polite and seemed knowledgable, no problems with this part. He finished the installation and made a call to test the equipment. They couldn't see our digital cable boxes or cable modem. After consulting with another technician our tech discovered that two-way communication was not working in my area. That evening I received a call from Jimmy Carter (no kidding) of at&t broadband. He said he was the duty manager and he would follow up on the problem and be back in touch with me within two days.

After two weeks passed and no call from Jimmy Carter we received our next at&t bill. We were billed for digital tv and cable modem. We called billing to complain, they said "what are you calling us for, call servcie". We called service and of course they said "call billing".

Further discussions with at&t broadband revealed they had no record of our problem. After explaining the Jimmy Carter situation, they said they'd contact him and have him get back with us. Of course we never heard from him. Another phone call to service, same result, we'll have him get back with you. I asked for an immediate conversation with a manager, there were non available.

I contacted the government cable person for our county and he arranged a conversation between a customer service agent and me. I wanted our bill straightened out and I wanted to know when they would resolve my non-working cable modem and digital tv situation.

I received word back from the county cable rep that a higher up within at&t said he'd give us a couple credits for our hassle. They didn't show on the bill so I contacted the customer servcie rep that I spoke with earlier. She said "you've already had a couple credits, we took away the charges for cable modem and digital tv that were on your bill". That was the last straw, I told her I was going dish shopping. Within two minutes of hanging up, she called me back and said she'd split the difference with me and give me a one month credit.

In the mean time I passed this on to the county cable contact. I also asked him to get an answer on when cable modems would become a reality. I recieved word back that it wouldn't be until the end of 2002.

I then called Dish Network, order my dish system. I now get more channels of all digital tv than the cable system offered.

AT&T used to be a symbol of greatness. I will not do business with any part of AT&T. They can say that at&t broadband is its own company, I don't care. Someone at the top of the heap better wake up.

As far as the Cobb county government, they made it clear to me that there is nothing they can do about this until September of 2002 when the cable contract expires. Wanna bet they re-sign at&t as the cable provider?

I know this ran long, and I left a lot out, including the hours of my life wasted on at&t hold.

Sent by: Duane S., December 12, 2001

Complaint #4

Short story: AT&T messed up my account, and refused to correct obvious errors after numerous calls. Stay away from AT&T!

Long story (if you have time and patience):

On Apr. 28 (we were told that exact date later by AT&T.), an AT&T representative called us and invited us to join its international calling plan, $0.32/min to China any time and $100 credit paid through 4 month period. We agreed. (We had a similar $0.32/min plan from GTE at that time.)

There were no charges from AT&T on our May and June phone bills (monthly statement ends on 16th day of each month). On our July bill, which covers calls we made from June 11 through July 3, AT&T charged us about $3.82/min for calls to China during standard time. We called AT&T on around July 28 to report the error and was told that the order was made on Apr. 28, but their system did not process it for some reason. So we were added back into the calling plan around July 28, and were assured that all the calls between Apr. 28 and July 28 would be adjusted for the rate plan. However, the representative told us she could not confirm the credit immediately because of the large amount. And we were advised to fax AT&T's investigation dept. (877-650-1439) a letter for the credit. AT&T gave us a credit in the amount of $859.65 in Aug. statement. Thanks AT&T.

However, on our Aug. bill AT&T again charged us about $3.82 for calls to China. This bill covers calls dated from May 26 to June 5, and from July 15 to July 20. Obviously AT&T forgot to charge us those calls on our June bill. So we called AT&T and explained that the rate should be $.32/min again. The representative told us she would issue us a credit in the amount of $566.96, but she could not confirm it for the same reason as before. We were again advised to contact AT&Tamp;'s investigation dept. So we sent AT&T another fax. We used the copy of the first fax but changed the date and crossed the previous representative's name).

Several days later AT&T denied our request for the credit for the reason that we had Pic-Freeze on our local phone provider GTE (now Verizon. Pic-Freeze is that any other company is not allowed to provide long distance service). We certainly did not believe so. We called GTE immediately to verify that and were told we absolutely did not have any Pic-Freeze on our account at any time. Well, so we called back and told AT&T there was no Pic-Freeze by GTE, and asked if they had any record and evidence about Pic-Freeze. This time AT&T representative told us she would not try to find the evidence and we had to find it by ourselves if we wanted to!!!

Well, I called GTE again and this time recorded the conversation with GTE representative's permission. (We were told we had no Pic-Freeze whatsoever. We phoned AT&T back, and told them my recorded conversation with GTE showed there was no Pic-Freeze. Now AT&T agreed to reinvestigate the incident. However, we did not hear from them for about a month even though we had to call AT&T several times during that period because GTE asked us to pay the bill.

Finally on Oct. 12, AT&T left a message at my home informing us that they could not give us any credit. This time the reason is they could not find any records for the plan.

We gave up, paid the bill, and left AT&T forever.

I understand that errors do occur sometimes. But I do not understand

• why AT&T had so many reasons (computer system error, Pic-Freeze, no records) to cover up their errors.

• why AT&T took such a long time to investigate the incident.

• why my call would go to AT&T if I indeed had a Pic-Freeze.

• why AT&T could give me credit at one time while refused to do it at another time.

• why my calls made in May were billed in Aug. while calls made in June were billed in July.

• why it was so difficult to find a live person when I called AT&T during the Aug. to Sept. period. (You probably have noticed if you contacted AT&T during that time).

• Only AT&T knows.

If you have any legal advice, please send me an email feedback@noATT.com.

Recently, we received many calls (3 or 4 times every week) from AT&T. Unfortunately, none of them was about the error or credit. They all asked me to join AT&T again, maybe because I had been such a good customer. My answer, and I suggest yours too, is "No AT&T, Never, Ever".

Sent by: Jay F., December 15, 2001

Complaint #5

My wife is a recent Russian immigrant. She calls Russia a lot. We've been using Primus, which charges us about 22 cents per minute to Russia, with no monthly fee. A friend of ours received a call from AT&T offering 13 cents per minute to Russia, no monthly fee. She signed up, and gave them our number. My wife gave me the phone. I asked if the rate was good 24 hours per day, yes it was. I asked if there was any monthly fee, I was told no. I asked if the rate was 13 cents per minute to anywhere in Russia, that's 13, 3 cents more than 10, one three, the unlucky number, 13. I asked all these questions 3 times. We signed up.

It was all lies, there was a monthly fee, the rate was over 30 cents per minute. I called to cancel. I asked the guy on the phone if he was aware that AT&T lies to customers, he said: "Yes, I talk to people like you all day".

They sent me a bill for about $130 for about a month, they quickly adjusted it down to $32. From that point, it got tough. I called about 20 or 30 times. I started e-mailing. I told them I would spend an hour per day working on the problem. Well, when I filed a complaint with the FCC, that did it. The FCC sent the complaint to AT&T, and AT&T HAS TO RESPOND! Their objective at this point is to get me to say I'm satisfied with their action. I got a call from someont saying she was an AT&T executive, and she wanted to jsut write the bill off, in effect giving me free service for the month I was with them. I accepted.

I believe AT&T should be requited to call everyone that has signed up with them, then cancelled after receiving their first bill. The Russian that gave them my number just paid their bill and cancelled service.

AT&T is a criminal organization, and needs to be brought down! Until someone from AT&T calls me and agrees to stop their criminal marketing practices, and agrees to reimburse the customers they ripped off, I won't stop.

I love your web site. I'd encourage everyone to file a complaint with the FCC. That's the only thing that got me any action. Feel free to post my e-mail.

Sent by: Bruce S., December 17, 2001