Today has been THE WORST experience I've ever had with a company. My wife and I have been with at&t for nearly 9 years as wireless customers. We have 5 Iphone lines as my wife and I have iphones and our 3 oldest children do as well. Our bill is over $320 per month and we faithfully pay it. I lost my job at the end of June after some budget cuts in my office. I called At&t on July 9th to explain that I needed to split my past due ($292 at that time) into 2 payments once I started getting unemployment on July 15th and then again on July 25th. The rep said that would be fine and then placed me on hold while they spoke to their manager. They came back and said that they usually dont allow a bill to go past the next due date which was the 24th but they'd allow it due to me losing my job. They said after I paid my 2nd installment of that arrangment I would need to setup a new arrangment for the $320 bill that would become past due on the 24th of July. I made my payment as promised on the 15th and then again this morning on the 25th, only to have my service disconnected 2-3 hours after I made the payment. I called and spoke to customer service who then transferred me to collections. Collections said that they showed the agreement as being the 16th and 23rd in their system and that the now past due $320 had to be resolved before they'd restore my service. I explained to them the agreement I had setup and how upsetting this all was. They did not want to hear nothing of it. The lady even hung up on me while discussing my payments. She told me that they sent me a text message confirming the dates and that I was lying and needed to try it with someone else because she wasnt buying it. After saying that is when she hung up on me. I would post her name but I am not sure if that is allowed.
After she hung up on me, I decided to try to chat with a representative and see if I can get my service restored. I spoke with a couple really nice reps on chat who tried to help as best as they could but their abilities were limited and they were further passed me along to a new department. I was passed from a financial services department, to billing, to collections to retention and then back to fiancial services. No one could help me. I explained to them that my wife was 38 1/2 weeks pregnanct was on bed rest as she was high risk and 40 years old, and how important it was that we have our phones so she could contact me if needed. The response was the same, pay your "New" past due and we can restore your service. I stated that I had just paid att nearly $300 in a span of 10 days to keep my services from being disconnected and now they were demanding another $320 to restore them. The rep was sympathetic and placed me on hold and spoke with their manager. I got the same answer that I now had to pay the $320 to get my service back on. I stated that I had received a solicitation from Sprint about porting our 5 lines to their carrier and they'd pay our early termination fees and provide my wife, my oldest son, our oldest daughter and myself with Iphone 5S's and our younger son with a replacement Iphone 5. They said they could not do anything and that they did really value our business and were sorry. I was told a Retention manager would call me back and no one has. I was also told retention couldnt issue a credit to cover the past due and get our service restored, as retention is no longer allowed to give credits. I explained there are websites with posts as recent as yesterday where people have posted and bragged about getting hundreds of dollars in at&t credits. I'm sure the girl that hung up on me knew that I was going to report her, so she probably put some really bad notes in there so no one would help me. I'm just amazed that they can treat a $4,000 per year customer that way.....