I feel the urge the completely vent the whole story of what happened more openly, as I'm so overly frustrated with the situation.
Yesterday I tried to get one of my lines upgraded using the NEXT plan, as the line was not actually elligible for an upgrade. I also wanted to do an in store pickup.
This line is for my grandmother - 75, broke, and without a car. She lives in a different state than me. So prior to even processing the order online, I called AT&T Customer Care, AS WELL AS the store to make sure that her picking the device up was even possible. Everything was OK and confirmed as doable. She was made an authorized user on the account, and since the phone wasnt an "add a line" or new activation - she did not need to have the actual credit card I made the purchase with. Perfect. I placed the order, agreed to the terms and conditions during checkout, and within the hour got a confirmation email saying my order was ready for pickup.
Well, she ventured into the store today and left with nothing. How horrible. It took her two hours to get there, and left with no phone. I received a call from the rep at the store while she was there, and apparently they could not finalize the order. He claimed that the system would not allow him to process the order completely. So he suggested to me a solution:
"Sir, I'm going to cancel this order. What I want you to do is place the order again online, just like you did yesterday, and once we receive it, it should recitfy the situation." So, I agreed, and processed the second order.
I was called back, and they were still not able to process that second order. So, my grandmother left, and the second order was cancelled.
I called customer care to inform them of this situation, was was disappointed even further. I asked if they could just process the order for me at this point, and send me the phone. I would ship it to her once I received it. as I was told that with iPhone 5s orders, they must be shipped to the primary billing address of the account owner. Yet another annoying cog in the wheel of steps added to the situation, but alas, I gave in and was OK with that.
When he went to assist me with getting this ordered, he stated that he could not process the order because there were "Terms and conditions" still needing to be accepted for the prior orders that were cancelled. I told him that I never actually received an email asking me to verify terms and conditions - Only an order confirmation email followed by in-store pickup notification. He insisted I received this email, however upon reading the email to him verbatim - and assuring him there was no link to Terms and Conditions, he apologized and placed me on hold.
5 minutes later he returned and directed me that I must agree to said Terms and Conditions even though the order was cancelled, so that he could then process my new order. He directed me to wireless.att.com/tc - to pull up these Terms. When I got there, I placed in my order credentials, and the site immediately gave me an error that stated:
"The terms for this phone either already accepted or denied." I informed the customer care rep of these details and was placed back on hold again.
He came back online and told me that there was nothing he could do at this point. That I would have to place the order on the online store a third time - without in store pickup, having the device sent directly to me.
In disgust over the blatant waste of my time and my grandmothers, I tweeted my angers. And was immediately messaged from @ATTCutomerCare wanting to know if they could call me and further discuss with me the issue. I agreed.
I was then called by AT&T's social media department where I explained this exact same situation. Once I completed my story, there was no discussion about what the next step was... it was just questions like "What phone were you wanting to order." - long pause.- "White, black, or gold?" - long pause - "what capacity?" - almost as if he was placing the order through on his side a third time.
I should have been asked by this guy if I wanted to actually process the order - because he would have saved both of our time by asking me this simple question. At that point, I was so frustrated, that I don't want to process the order at all. I CAN'T! I've already processed the first two orders. When logging into my bank account, I have two charges pending for $52.xx - Yes, even though they have been cancelled and eventually will drop - that's still money being held up. I don't have enough money for a third pending charge to be placed on my account.
That phone call ended abruptly. I'm annoyed with AT&T at this point. All I wanted was to give my grandmother a new phone. Instead, I was given a headache.
At this point, AT&T can feel free to contact me. Ask me my opinion. Give me a survey. I'll gladly fill it all out and regurgitate this story to you in the event you feel something I say can be used to further the cause. But at this point, I will not be placing this order due to this uncalled for experience I received.
I'm sure I'll have an easier experience purchasing one off ebay or craigslist. or a pawn shop. And if I don't, well then it can't get much worse than this anyways.