I called AT&T today at 4:19pm Eastern Standard Time to inquire about any discounts or promotions we may be eligible for as our monthly wireless bill is absurdly unaffordable. The representative who answered was pleasant on the phone however she was hard to understand as she was not speaking clearly. I told her what I was looking for and she explained that we would be eligible for unlimited data when we combine our DirectTV and AT&T bills. When I explained that they had been combined for several months now and that we have not been offered this promotion she told me she didn't know why and that her computer wasn't loading any information so she wasn't able to pull up our account. She did not offer any other way to help me out and said that it was too bad that I paid overage charges for data over the last several months when I should have been given an unlimited package. I had to ask to be transferred to someone else that could help me and she told me it would be a while so I asked for a call back at 6:30pm. She told me that if for some reason they couldn't call me at that time that I would be notified. By 7:09pm I still had not received a call back so I called again.
This time the rep who answered also did not speak clearly and the dialogue on his side consisted mostly of, "uhm hang on" only to come back on the line and have me repeat myself to tell me to hang on again and place me on yet another hold. After doing this about 4 times he transferred me. It was somewhat irritating to be transferred to another automated system asking me to put in the account information I had previously input. This time the woman who answered was part of the U-Verse department and told me she couldn't help me and didn't know why I was transferred to her since I don't have a U-Verse account. I asked her to please transfer me to a live representative so that I didn't have to go through the automated system again. She ended the call stating, "I hope I've provided you with excellent customer service today." Though none of this process thus far has been excellent at least she did transfer me to a live rep.
This rep had a great personality over the phone and was also the first one who spoke clearly enough for me to catch his name, Devin. I told Devin that I would like the data overage charges credited back to my account for all of the overages since we combined DirectTV and AT&T since we were never given/told about the Unlimited Data package given to customers who bundle these two services. He went through the costs with me and he determined that it would be $5 cheaper to have the combined bills and Unlimited Data package so he made the switch for me. He told me that he did not have the capacity to credit those overages to me but that he was going to get that department on the line and explain to them what happened and that they would be able to credit those charges back to me. He put me on a brief hold and came back on the line with a representative, Sophie I believe, who would be able to credit the data overages back to my account. I thanked him and he got off the line.
I started to tell Sophie what I had previously told the other reps. That we were never offered the Unlimited Data plan when we combined bills and that I would like the data overage charges credited back to my account. This is the part that I find truly unbelievable. Sophie also did not speak clearly and was very hard to understand but supposedly she couldn't hear me! She kept saying "hello?" and "I can't hear you". I found it incredibly hard to believe that I had been on the phone this long all from the same location in my home and no one had any trouble hearing me and I had not had a bad connection at all but suddenly now when I'm asking for my account to be credited she couldn't hear me. After running around my house trying to find a spot where she could hear me I explained what was going on and what I wanted. She proceeded to give me a break down in charges on my bill and tried to tell me that it was my minutes that we've been going over for the last several months. I let her know that we hardly actually talk on the phones besides the fact that AT&T sends me text messages every time we go over a gigabyte of data and that I'd be happy to forward her the texts if she's having a hard time locating where we ever went over on data. Suddenly, she could see the overages. Again she couldn't hear me. She than told me she was reviewing the previous bills to see the overages so I hung on the line. Suddenly the phone was ringing again. She transferred me without saying a word about it!
A rep named George answered the line after I was put through yet another automated system that wanted to verify me. When he came on the line he asked me for an account number and I told him that I didn't know it and none of the previous reps asked me for an account number, only a phone number. He told me he needed the account number in order to look me up. At this point I was pretty frustrated and told him he would need to find another way to look me up. He took my phone number, first and last name, and zip code and told me that none of that information was bringing up any accounts. He than asked what service I was calling about and determined that I was transferred to the wrong department.. the U-Verse Department. He tried to figure out who I was previously on the phone with but was only able to narrow it down to a department and not an individual. Since I don't have any accounts with U-Verse he was unable to help me but said he was going to transfer me back to the previous department.
After another go around with the automated system looking to verify me and recording promptly came on letting me know that their offices are now closed and that I should call back during business hours. Needless to say I spent 1 hour, 12 minutes, and 41 seconds on the phone for absolutely no reason. Of all the reps that I spoke with only one was truly helpful and the others were quick to pass the buck. In the end, I am still stuck with months worth of data overage charges that should never even have been incurred had AT&T trained their employees to care about customer service in the first place and trained them to offer the correct pricing and packages based on relationship. I am extremely disappointed and will look forward to a resolution sooner rather than later.
Giovanna