I never thought I would be one to publicly criticize customer service, but I really had an awful experience with AT&T over the past two days.
Having worked in customer service before, I know that it can be hard dealing with tense people. However, I feel that the way I was misinformed and spoken to over the past two days was ridiculous.
I was part of an AT&T family plan for almost 5 years. Now that I live on my own, I broke from it to start my own account. I am paid twice a month. Once in the beginning of the month and once in the middle of the month.
I called AT&T support yesterday in hopes of splitting my payment between the first and middle of October. After waiting on hold, I was connected with a representative. He assured me and confirmed that after submitting part of my payment, I would not be responsible for the remaining balance until 10/13.
I was happy and thought that was the end of the story.
Cut to this morning when I received an email alerting me that I should call AT&T customer support immediately. I called, explained my situation to a representative who was nice, but informed me that she would be of no help. I was then transferred to a different department. Again, I explained my situation and was told that because I have a new account, the payment arragnement was never finalized. After telling the representative that I was promised something completely different yesterday, she still claimed there was nothing she could do. I politely asked to be connected with her supervisor. After awhile, Larry Sperzel came on the line. Immediately, his tone came off as short, superior and sarcastic. I explained my situation to him again. I explained that I was promised something else the day before. He claimed that the system could not be overridden. As a Computer Science major, database programmer and overall tech nerd, I have a lot of experiential knowledge about how large scale databases like these work. There is always a way to override the system. He still claimed there was nothing he could do. Furthermore, he threatened that if I don't pay, I would face an additional $40 fee. I asked to speak to his manager and he claimed no one was available. He arranged for a callback in 24-72 hours. Now, I'm here.
Fearful of being disconnected and facing a $40 fee, I managed to borrow some money from a friend to pay for the bill. Regardless, here a quick summary of why I'm frustrated:
- I was promised that a payment arrangment could be and had been made for my account
- I was then met with a completely different outcome and threatened with being disconnected
- I wasted 2 hours of my day speaking with three representatives, waiting on hold and being told that I was misinformed and that there was no solution
I am both an old and new customer. Being treated like this is completely bogus to me. I'm tired of robots, poorly-structed departments, waiting on hold and being spoken to like a child.
Thank you for your time,
Alex