Hi, AT&T's website doesn't have a blank "email us", so I'm posting here. I've got three gripes - not so angry I want to yell at someone - I work in customer service, they don't need it, it doesn't really help me, but they're legit gripes, so I want you to know about them.
I've been on att for x years, on a family plan. Recently, my boss came and offered to buy me a phone and pay for it on the company dime. Great, I said, let me just check with att how much the fee will be. So I visit a corporate att store. Wait 20 min to be helped. "My boss is buying me a new phone, I'm not going to be on the family account any more, I need to know if there will be any fees?" At this point, they asked if it would be with att, I said no, they still told me, "no, you're due for an upgrade, you're all set." I go back about a month later, haven't switched yet, dealing with another issue, give up after waiting 40 min. Go back the following week, wait 45 min, "oh, one more question, my boss is buying me a new phone, it's not going to be on att, are there going to be any fees?" no questions, "no, you're fine." Two weeks later, visit one last time, I have everything set up, have switched the phone, I'm in transferring my old iPhone to my dad, and prepping to give my most recent phone to my nephew. "So I just left att because my boss bought me a new phone, are there going to be any surprises on my bill?" no questions, "no".
Then the bill came with a charge for $263 for disconnecting me.
Tonight, I went in to ask about it, ok, it was late on a Friday, still, didn't try to help, dismissed me, and told me it's because I wasn't clear that I was switching carriers. Tonight I dealt with the same guy as visit 3 above.
So, gripe 1. Train your staff please. Ask questions. I'm the customer, I don't know how all your billing policies work. Yes, I had a new phone, yes I signed that if I switched there would be a fee, I'm not arguing the fee. I don't know how all your billing procedures work. Ask questions, know how to find answers. Ask me questions, make me aware of -everything-.
Gripe 2, I don't care if it's late on a Friday, I was coming off a 12 hour shift, and I was tired too; help me. Ok, I'm not on the account anymore, get a manager to look at the account, ask me to call someone for verification, at least TRY. And then, the real kicker, blame the customer? Seriously? Ok, fine, I should know better - if I'm honest I was surprised when I kept being told "no problem", I expected a fee, the question was how much, not if (thus why I asked 3 times). They kept telling me no fee. At the bottom end, can't verify, not allowed to look, etc. etc. fine - say you're sorry. You don't even have to make me believe it, not everyone is actually good at customer service, but two words... here, try this, "you know what, I'm sorry there was a misunderstanding." I still go home angry, and I still cough up the better part of a week's pay because I made a decision based on bad information, but at the very least, I'm less likely to spread my story around.
Gripe 3, in 4 visits I spent two hours waiting for what amounted to less than 20 min of help. Mom was with me (she's the primary on the account (yeah, I should've been, but she's mom and she wanted it, alas)) for over an hour of that. So we spent 3+ hours to get 20 min of bad help, and an insult at the end. Pretty please, do something about your staffing. Yeah yeah iPhone, it's not like it was a suprise, get some extra hands to handle some of the stuff, figure it out, have a special line or two specific for the iPhone - a new phone release should not drastically change your ability to serve your customers days/weeks after the release day.
So you'll forgive me when I tell you if/when my time is done with my current job, I'm not currently planning to be back. Still, you could improve things for the next guy. Or at least you could stop telling my mom she can save money by switching plans, she uses less than 50Meg (yes meg) of data a month. Dad's not much more. A 10 gig plan is cheaper? Go back and read gripe #1 again, quickly, she's been using language grandmothers aren't supposed to use whenever she thinks about att. Help people figure out what their real bill will be - including taxes. It CAN'T be that hard.
Thanks for reading,
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