AT&T: Employer of Aliens?

[pocketdrummer]

ATT has the WORST customer service I've ever dealt with in the world.

You know what's funny. I CAN'T pay my internet bill... why? Because they didn't give be information about my account. Not the account name, how to get connected, etc. AND, I was transferred 9 times. On top of that, none of their services are handled internally. Each ATT services is pretty much handled by a completely different entity that calls themselves ATT as well.

OMG, it's ridiculous.

 

[graviongr]

Forgive this response for being a little off topic, but I like how Zorg was able to join this site before the internet existed... in 1970.

Zorg... are you from the future of the past?

On topic, she doesn't seem like an alien. Seems like a customer service rep who just wanted to copy and paste so much information you wouldn't feel the need to reply back and that she could call it "case closed".

Phone companies are some of the worst in the world to deal with. I've been through it all before, now I use TracFone prepaid... so simple it hurts... I mean doesn't hurt.

 

[Braingeyser]

b)

 

[phone_trouble]

after working in AT&T for 30 years, and the last 10 in tech support. I can assure you that this is all from a script. They tired of us answering the questions asked, and forced us to use the script, even if we knew the answer and could provide it in a few simple sentences. I refused to play their games, and was forced to retire.

 

[Tomsguiderachel]

[citation][nom]michaelahess[/nom]RiotSniperX, it's called boiler plates.I think the answer was perfectly tailored for the inquiry. Sure it took a bit to get to the info you needed, but like previously mentioned, your question was rather vague. She simply provided all the details that could pertain to your question.So as not to mislead you, a simple "it's 18 bucks per line" would not suffice as her interpretation of your question is not relevant. You could become an (even more) aggravated customer if what you wanted done would actually incur higher charges than she may have responded with.Granted this reeks of CYA, but service providers these days unfortunately need to do this. Take Verizon for example, all the stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid people that ran up their data costs because of the $1.99 a MB billing they implemented caused such a mess that I'm now stuck with a $30 data plan on my Omnia; that I never use as it has WiFi. While my work cell, an i760 doesn't need the data plan because you couldn't get data on it unless you EXPRESSLY put that option on your plan.If they don't cover themselves, they open the flood gates to stupid people, or people who simply don't pay attention, read contracts and rules, obey said contracts and rules, etc.Sorry that was so long but I had to vent about Verizon after talking to about 5 of their managers.....simple data block, that's all they need to add.....[/citation]
Don't get me wrong--I wouldn't have preferred LESS info. I simply think the most pertinent info should go at the top, so the company won't be perceived as wasting 99% of people's time. All the rules and exceptions that they provided to me are important--but the $18 per phone line is the MOST IMPORTANT bit and as we all learn in English class, the topic sentence goes at the top of the essay. This is basic logic, which is why it somehow seemed inhuman to me.

 

[lexspecialis]

Sadly, customer service in lots of America's retail & services corporations seems to be a joke these days..

 

[michaelahess]

I do agree with you Rachel, but I also understand why the lady did what she did. Gotta love the lawyers!

 

[sumofugu]

As someone who works as a customer service manager for AT&T I can honestly say the average wait time for reaching a person is less than a minute.

By the by.. if you go from an individual to a family plan it does not cost you anything. The only time if would cost extra is when one of the lines attempting to join the family was not part of the original account, that would require a transfer for service. For example: If you, the daughter, had your own account that bills seperate from your parents and you wanted to join a family plan with your parents then you would have to first perform a transfer of service to get the account onto your parents bill, and then the lines could be merged to become a family plan. When members join a family plan they all still maintain their own independent contracts and upgrade eligibility. In the example outlined the only charge would be the $18 for the transfer of service. Hope that answers your question.

 

[Shadow703793]

[citation][nom]Andy_Newton[/nom]The reason and the only main reason why we jailbreak our iPhones is AT&T, not Apple, not App store, not the price, not the fees, and not anything else.[/citation]
True that.

 

[Tomsguiderachel]

[citation][nom]sumofugu[/nom]As someone who works as a customer service manager for AT&T I can honestly say the average wait time for reaching a person is less than a minute. By the by.. if you go from an individual to a family plan it does not cost you anything. The only time if would cost extra is when one of the lines attempting to join the family was not part of the original account, that would require a transfer for service. For example: If you, the daughter, had your own account that bills seperate from your parents and you wanted to join a family plan with your parents then you would have to first perform a transfer of service to get the account onto your parents bill, and then the lines could be merged to become a family plan. When members join a family plan they all still maintain their own independent contracts and upgrade eligibility. In the example outlined the only charge would be the $18 for the transfer of service. Hope that answers your question.[/citation]
Perfect! Exactly! Now, why couldn't that concise explanation have appeared at the top of my email response? *You* are definitely human.

 

[sumofugu]

LOL.. Damn scripts.

 

[Guest]

This was worth an article?
Doesn't seem like an alien language. Just a very detailed explanation, that was pretty good. Any information you need it there and well written.
A short question was asked that could have different outcomes pending the exact details of how they wanted to do it.
For me this answer was a lot better then 15 emails back and forth and still not having the information you need.

This wasn't worth an article, and didn't need to be trashed for providing all the information to any other questions that could have came out of this.

 

[anny]

I don't know how to say !anyway I have read it !

 

[butcher]

i work as a CSR and i can say that i am to lazy to write or even copy and paste that much info into an email

all you do is write the email that answers the question and put the standard company disclaimer at the bottom

 

[lordfisch]

[citation][nom]phone_trouble[/nom]after working in AT&T for 30 years, and the last 10 in tech support. I can assure you that this is all from a script.[/citation]
I have to agree. From paragraph 1 it's clear the email wasn't actually written by a person. We've come a long way in natural language processing in the last few years, but this email is a good example of how far we have to go before verbally asking an omnipresent computer a general question and getting a general response.

 

[kentlowt]

I found the answer very informative but, definitely over kill. The best way to deal with phone issues with AT&T is to walk into one of their wireless stores and talk to the manager on duty. They have recently made changes where the people in the stores can handle any changes you want and they are fairly quick about it...compared to calling them which is frustrating to say the least. Email I have never tried.

 

[Tomsguiderachel]

[citation][nom]kentlowt[/nom]I found the answer very informative but, definitely over kill. The best way to deal with phone issues with AT&T is to walk into one of their wireless stores and talk to the manager on duty. They have recently made changes where the people in the stores can handle any changes you want and they are fairly quick about it...compared to calling them which is frustrating to say the least. Email I have never tried.[/citation]
The best way is always the lowest-tech way, huh? That's too bad.

 

[Tomsguiderachel]

[citation][nom]nutty21[/nom]This was worth an article?Doesn't seem like an alien language. Just a very detailed explanation, that was pretty good. Any information you need it there and well written.A short question was asked that could have different outcomes pending the exact details of how they wanted to do it.For me this answer was a lot better then 15 emails back and forth and still not having the information you need.This wasn't worth an article, and didn't need to be trashed for providing all the information to any other questions that could have came out of this.[/citation]
You are entitled to your opinion, but I suppose you have a higher threshhold for pain than most people!

 

[danimal_the_animal]

what did you expect...these guys are from India using fictitious American names!!!!

 

[o0 zeno 0o]

Well, she's obviously trying to be helpful... I think the reason for the long answer was partially due to the question, specifically the "Hi, I am interested in moving onto a family plan with other members of my family."

This leaves room for confusion, as it implies that you want to move your account onto another family members account. At the same time, you have two separate lines on your account, making her think you might only want to merge those two accounts. Unfortunately, the answer for each of these two scenarios is very different.

The short translation would be "If your moving separate lines within an existing account, there is no charge. If you want to move onto someone else's family plan account, there is a service contract fee for cancellation."

Then she went a step further and tried to tell you how you could bypass that cancellation fee by transferring the entire account to another family member, who could then add you to a family plan.

All in all, I thought she gave a very good response. While wordy and laden with some cooperate fluff, she covered all the bases and even tried to help with an alternative solution in the event your scenario was the "costs me lots of money" one. So I'd have to answer a. :0)