1-5 · 6-10 · 11-15

Complaint #6

Great website - thanks for putting it up. I've had AT& T broadband for about a year and a half. Generally, it's Ok - not the best, but passable. I'm in Massachusetts so we're on Mediaone's old system so were not affected by the Excite@Home fiasco. Over the last three days, I haven't been able to get my email or contact my own website (it's not on AT&T's network, thank god). I finally did a traceroute and discovered that AT&T has a server down in their network and packets going from the northeast to the pacific northwest aren't going past AT&T's server in Herndon, VA.

Since AT&T doesn't mention any outages on their ficticious customer service website, I decided to call and talk to someone. I have never spoken to the biggest bunch of nincompoops in my life. These people have no idea how the internet works, let alone how to deal with customers. I was told by three people that there was no problem with their network. One guy suggested that I type "http" before the "www". Another told me that I should contact the company that makes my e-mail program. God forbid any of them knew what a traceroute or packet loss was. I'm surprised the last one I spoke to didn't ask me if I wanted fries with my burger.

On the fourth try I finally spoke to someone who was able to confirm that indeed there is a problem.

It shouldn't take 4 phone calls, nor should it take a customer to notify these idiots that their network is down. You'd think they would know how the damn thing works. It's been 24 hours since they admited there is a probelm and still the website says "No service outages".

My Christmas wish is that C. Michael Armstrong, the CEO of AT&T, continues destroying the company and it is sold off to a decent company who knows what they are doing.

Ps..as for phone service, I would use two orange juice cans and a piece of string before I used AT&T

Sent by: Anonymous AT&T Customer, December 22, 2001

Complaint #7

I just wanted to add that AT&T broadband is the pits since Excite stopped carrying them. Then the company expects you to pay an arm and a leg for their service. I am also very disgusted with their long distance. We had our long distance shut off for a short period of time. Now we would like to have it back but now it will cost us fifty bucks to turn it on. Well there's my two cents, thanks!

Sent by: would prefer to remain anonymous, December 22, 2001

Complaint #8

First off, great website! . . . Thanks for taking the time to set it up!

I'm completely fed up as an AT&T customer. I was one of the 850,000 stranded over the AT&T/Excite fiasco. With little advance notice (yes, I got one letter that was worded to make me feel as if they had it all under control), on the morning of 12-01-01 I woke up with no internet access . . . later in the day (after getting online through a dial-up access using AOL) I was able to determine that my website was also gone and my e-mail account closed.

Try and call customer service . . . forget it!! . . . the only people answering the phones were AT&T vendors (not AT&T employees) they were reading from an AT&T supplied script and could offer little assistance. Calls to most of the numbers provided were sent into voice mail loops were you could spend forever and not reach a real person.

The web address in the letter I received was of little help . . . in fact when my service was restored 6 days later, the instructions on the AT&T website screwed up my computer. When my cable modem came back on, I was instructed to go to their website and run a program called "configurator" which would make changes on my computer so that it would work with their new network . . . stupid me, that's what I did!!

Their website had instructions for both IE users and Netscape users . . . I printed out the instructions and followed them exactly . . . suddenly, I could no longer use Netscape . . . after a little over an hour on hold, I was told that AT&T no longer "supported" Netscape and I should switch to Explorer . . . boy, was I pissed!!! . . . I pointed out to the tech rep that the AT&T help site talks about Netscape users and doesn't warn that their "configurator" program will cause problems . . . . he then told me that the AT&T website info was outdated. Realizing that I was getting nowhere with him, I asked for his supervisor . . . after a very brief hold, I was connected. The supervisor was of very little help, he didn't seemed to care that the AT&T configurator program screwed up my computer . . . he also recommended switching to IE. I asked for his supervisor . . . and waited . . . and waited . . . and waited . . . OVER another hour and a half ( I lost track) . . .

The senior support people were knowledgeable, but not helpful. They clarified that while they did not "support" Netscape, I was free to use it. They acknowledged that the configurator program may have made changes that caused it not to work . . . they claimed ignorance as how to fix it. They suggested that I contact Netscape. The following day, I was able to find an online user group where others had the same problem . . . the fix was relatively simple.

Now let's talk about adding insult to injury . . . AT&T had offered to credit customers 2 days for every day of downtime . . . they had the gall to charge my credit card a full months service while this was happening! My billing period is from the 5th of the month through the 4th of the next month. My November bill (and my November payment) was for usage through 12-5-01. I had no service as of 12:01 AM on 12-01-01. My December bill (dated 12-11-01) had no credit for 12-01 through 12-4 AND charged me for a full month's service for December. When I called to complain (and cancel my automatic credit card payment) I was told that they would credit me next month. Hardly sounds legal to me . . . I really wish someone would start a class action suit!

I am completely feed up with AT&T and their lack of concern for their customers . . . they let problems with their vendor (Excite) and their corporate greed hurt me! They were bleeding Excite in order to buy them cheaply and I got screwed because of it.They can't complain that they couldn't foresee problems, they own 23% of Excite. I've talked to people who had @Home service through companies other than AT&T . . . they were warned weeks before me that there might be problems and encouraged to prepare.

I've decided to take action . . . I ordered DirecTV so that I can cancel my AT&T cable TV service. I've moved my website to a very reliable provider, yet I still gets calls from people who wonder if I'm still in business because they bookmarked my old AT&T URL . . . there's nothing that I can do about that! I also wonder if a new Excite user picks my old user name, will they get my e-mail??? I'll switch to DSL as soon as it reaches me.

One last, icing on the cake of AT&T failure . . . when I called today to cancel my cable TV I had to navigate the voice mail system and make several choices and then be put on hold before I got to a live person . . . she then very politely told me that HER terminal was down and that I needed to hang up and call back again!!! When I asked her why she was answering the phones if all she could do was to tell me to hang up and try again, she apologized! When I asked her if she realized how stupid that was, she said that she was sorry and asked if I wanted to speak to her supervisor . . . I accepted her offer and waited. After a few minutes, Deborah, badge #279 came on the line (she refused to give me her last name, I wonder why??) . . . she also instructed me to hang up and call back again! I tried to explain to her how ridiculous that was . . . I told her that it was a waste of my time . . . her reply was that now I was wasting both her time and mine. I was pissed! I asked for her supervisor . . . she replied that SHE was the supervisor!!! When I again asked for her boss' name and number she said that he didn't take calls. I tried once again to appeal to her logically . . . why was she letting someone answer calls when all they could do was tell you to hang up and call back . . . and that made customers renegotiate the voice mail "push this" system and start at the bottom of the queue again??? She then replied that she couldn't get that operator's terminal running and that she had to give her some work to do, she had already give her all the other "busy" work and now she had to go back to answering phones . . . I told her that letting her answer phones was not "work" when it was just hurting customers . . . she said that "Omaha" said that it had to be done that way!! Ahhhahh!!! Omaha???? . . . she did have a boss!!! I asked for their number . . . she wouldn't give it to me!!

So Deborah-279, you won the battle! . . . I called back to cancel!

Sent by: Ken C., January 4, 2001

Complaint #9

I have had many problems with AT&T broadband since I moved into my home. These have occured in all areas of service.

## 1 ##

Their service was years behind other cable providers I had elsewhere. Most annoying was a very slow cable box and advertising taking up 40% of their program guide page. The minimum price here is over $15 higher than a similar sized city fifty miles away. We are being ripped OFF!!!

## 2 ##

When I had sprinkler's installed, the utility locate service did not locate the extension through my back yard. (twice!) Thus the line was cut and killed service to 2 of my three outlets. Since I had equipment and know-how I re-wired it internally instead of making an issue of it.

## 3 ##

Cable modem service. You may have heard of the problems when AT&T managed @Home into bankruptcy and was cut off after their failed bid to buy its assets. The local newspaper stopped reporting on problems a couple days after the interruption. At the same time ATT started running full page ADS giving new customers super deals. (WAS THAT A PAYOFF??)

ATT refused to give me dial-up access as promised in their press releases to customers not re-connected in 6 days. They said my area should have service soon enough. Liars!

Nearly a month after my 11 day service outage, they failed to fix my email after four emails and two calls. The service routinely can't connect to many sites for 10-20 minutes at a time. All support emails are auto-reponded to. In a nutshell, it is highly un-reliable. Every time I have called, there has been a message that some part of the country is down and they are working at it.

I switched my cable TV service to DirectTV and went to the ATT office to turn in my equipment. I asked three times to confirm that, my cable modem would not be affected by turning off the TV cable. They promised me it would not be affected.

Well, it was affected! They cut off my cable modem when they turned off my cable TV. I called them up and they offered to have a truck come by in a few days to try and reconnect it. They wanted me to be at home away from work for two hours. I asked them if they would credit me or do something for their mistake. They said they could only credit me the days I was without service. I waited 1/2 an hour to talk to a supervisor who would do no better. I still can't believe that ATT would rather point fingers at its local offices than do anything to compensate me for another huge inconvenience.

I have done everything possible to find another high-speed internet provider, which are not available in my neighborhood. I decided to drop my Cable modem as my only alternative and go back to the stone age.

I will actively try to use our city government to revoke ATT's franchise. You can forward this to ATT, but I would bet a lot of money that you would only get an auto response reply explaining some unrelated pat answer.

Sent by: James R., January 4, 2001

Complaint #10

I have been a victim of "Bate and Switch" by ATT. Previously I had been paying 8 cents per minute on Touch America. I wanted a lower rate. On Oct 27, 2001 I signed up for a 6.5 cents per minute rate with ATT. Order #M1466191. I have the Order Confirmation. Instead of 6.5 cents per minute I have been switched without my permission to 30 cents per minute. I would never sign-up for 30 cents per minute, none of ATT’S competitors charge that much!!

ACTION I HAVE TAKEN

I tried six times to contact someone who would credit my account and return my rate to 6.5 cents per minute. Nothing good has happened.

I was either told that ATT can change rates at any time (by a very sassy customer service rep); or, that this must be a mistake and then I get forwarded to someone else and forwarded to someone else until I get forwarded to dial tone and a message "If you want to place a call . . ."

On January 12th Melissa Wendel of ATT asked me to fax her all the papers (Order Confirmation at 6.5 cents per minute and bill at 30 cents per minute) and that she would immediately call me back and take care of it. I never heard from her, again. Today I talked with someone who passed me on to Karen, who passed me one to a man who passed me on to dial tone.

I suppose they could tell me "If I don't like 30 cents per minute why don't I go back to Touch America?" Well, I may have to, but I think Bate and Switch is such an unethical practice that they should get called on it. Maybe you can prevent this from happening to someone else.

Now, I can't get anyone at ATT to tell me the mailing address for Customer Care so I can send them a document from the Attorney General. Do you know what it is?

Sent by: Don M., January 18, 2001