Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

ATT Customer Service very poor might return iPhone

I

iMetalG5

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 13, 2005
786
0
I am having an issue with my new iPhone. First I am having problems with billing and FAN and now I am being told I am not able to PORT my Verizon number over to my account because I have already singed a contract with the "temp" number. This CSR explains there is no such thing as a temp number and I have already agreed to the number on the account and if I wanted to port my Verizon number I can but this means I will have TWO PHONE NUMBERS. The guy was basically playing with me and trying to be "smarter" than me and not give me STRAIGHT TALK but rather run-a-round talk.

I asked to have the consumer affairs address and phone number and he explained there is no such thing. I then explained I need to write a formal complaint letter and I will address it to the CEO of ATT, he said go ahead, he has much more important things to do... wow...

I think I am going to return the iPhones and just cancel ATT. This type of customer service is soooooooo poor I'm willing to just forget the iPhone and take up Verizon's deal. Thoughts?
 
Sky Blue said:
Take it back.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I'm not one to recommend taking advantage of the system usually...but this is a good example of when you should. Don't let a jerk stop you from using the phone you want.

Take the phone back...cancel the service...then start it all over w/ a better understanding of what you need to do to get your old number.
 
well i walked over to the ATT store behind my house (fast) and talked to the store manager. he said he has no idea what this CSR is talking about. He told me the Porting Dept. is closed today. Said to either call them directly tomorrow morn or just come back to the store and they will call and get it done. They have no idea why this CSR would tell me these things.

I am still going to write ATT a letter of complaint in regards to the poor CS I received today. May fall on deaf ears...
 
AT&T is a ****ing joke compared to Verizon in both customer service and service in general.

Not even counting the 3G problems, and how it's useless in NYC, my account was inaccessible for 10 days due to "maintenance," and I couldn't track my minutes or text usage, even via *MIN# AND *DATA#.

Then, halfway through the month, it said I had 200 texts left (my starting balance) sol I assumed they got reset due to the "maintenance." As I continued to text through the remainder of the month, they were deducting properly, and then I ended up 30 texts over because they didn't actually reset, but the count was wrong.

Now it's been a week and my bill hasn't even generated yet for me to call and complain about the $3.00.

Complete morons at this company.

The second I can get an iPhone with Verizon, I'm gone. AT&T is garbage.
 
i've had my issue with Verizon in the 12 years being a customer with them but they always made it right and gave me credits and discounts...

5 day customer with ATT? Wow, the level of customer service is pretty bad. Its almost like no one knows what they are doing. You ask one CSR a question you get an answer then another CSR tells you something different and another CSR has a chip on their shoulder! yikes. 5 days! Not lookin' good.

I love the iPhone and will tolerate this low level of customer service as long as management makes things right. If not I will definitely cancel within 30 days and return the iPhone and go back to Verizon and take them up on their deal with the Storm...
 
It just goes to show that the "your mileage may vary" adage is as true as it ever was...

I've never had anything but impeccable customer service from AT&T on the phone and in the store. Especially on the phone.
 
I think the confusion comes in with my FAN. Not a single CSR could explain how the discount is applied. Even the business center had no clue and got defensive with me when I said, "How can I sign a contract when I don't know the conditions?" Their answer was I should have gone through the Preimere site and ordered my iPhone/service.

Now this whole thing with the porting of my Verizon #. Why a CSR would tell me it can be done BUT I will have to have 2 lines 2 phone #s. does this make any sense? Saying there is no such thing as a "temp" # and the one I got is my ph# and that's that. There is a lot more to the situation but I don't want to bore u. But this guy was playing with words (semantics) and I could tell he was in a bad mood.

That's bad customer service. Why is FAN so complicated? And porting my #, its all messed up and no one can explain. I hope to have things back in order tomorrow! A letter still needs to go out though.
 
I think what they mean by there is no way to port your number is that they can't just go to another company and "port it." What has to happen is you have to tell Verizon to release your number into the pool, then tell ATT to grab that released number from the pool. It's not a port, in that Verizon doesn't send the number to ATT, but you just have to coordinate the two networks and ATT should be able to grab the freed up Verizon number. This is at least what the jest of it was when my friend "ported" his Sasktel number to Rogers. He kept getting mixed responses - Rogers said it's up to Sasktel, Sasktel said it's up to Rogers. Basically, it's the job of your current provider (Verizon) to release the number, and then up to the prospective provider (ATT) to grab the number after it's been released. That's how I understand it anyway. Oh and as for saying you have to have two numbers - that's BS. What happens if for security reasons you need a new phone number? You get two numbers? No. In that respect they're just plain wrong - no twisted words about it.
 
+1 ^^^ VZ must release the number as stated. AT&T's not even close to perfect; they have poorly trained CSRs just like any other wireless service, they just aren't outsourced to other countries like Verizon and Sprint...:eek:
 
Seriously returning a phone just for bad customer service is childish, it's your fault for not educating yourself on port in and port out. There is so many self-help option out there including online AT&T csr.

Yes, the rep was rude to you but how did you treat him? Giving him attitude or demanding clearly doesn't help, if you need help have courtesy and respect.

This comes from a current t-mobile csr/tsr/ddc
 
its not childish. i acted professionally because I am a professional. i let the CSR talk. and after he would finish I would "try" to explain to him what was told to me at the store. He would talk OVER me everytime. Almost like he did not want me to talk. I NEVER raised my voice. I simply asked him for the consumer affairs info for ATT where he said there is no such dept. And to give me a female name when this CSR is clearly a male...is that childish???? And to start laughing at me? Childish? Again AT NO TIME did I EVER raise my voice or become confrontational. It was the other way around.

I have written up a letter and addressed it to the CEO. Hey why not. I am hoping a team leader of that call center will pull the recording for quality assurance.

And according to the store they said I DO NOT HAVE TO go to Verizon to release my number. It will be done through them. I called Verizon last night and they said the port was already done so they have no idea what to do but for me but to go back to ATT. Something got messed up here.

I am calling their porting dept. in few to see what happens...
 
I switched to AT&T from Verizon two weeks before my VZW contract was up so AT&T gave me and my wife temp numbers and told me that I should call to get my VZW numbers ported once my contract expired. I did so and had no problems. If they are giving you problems then call and ask to be transferred to the people who do the porting. They acted like it was totally normal and didn't say anything at all indicating that it might be difficult or impossible to do.
 
Just wanted to update everyone...

I called Porting Dept and I had this completed in 5 mins flat. It was so easy. The woman was as nice as can be. My verizon # has been ported to my iPhone and I am happy :p

NOW, after porting was completed and verified, i asked to be transfered to customer care to speak to a manager. The porting rep was very kind and asked me what the issue was... after explaining said issue and her looking at the notes on my account she understood and put me on hold for about 10mins. Finally a guy answered and id'ed himself as a manager. He looked at the notes on my account and then I explained my side of the issue. I asked if it was possible to re-play the call for quality assurance. He put me on hold for another 10mins :rolleyes: and came back and explained to me the call was not recorded. But according to the notes in the system he understands the rep I spoke to (who will remain nameless for some reason) gave me mis-information in regards to porting. He chalked it up to a training issue and that he (YES HE this CSR gave me a name of Jessica Albon) is somewhat new and will be talked to so that this will not happen again. The manager apologized and reassured me of the port and my FAN (finally) and will send a text to my iPhone as confirmation that we spoke and will note my account. He did mention that anything with the "Apple iPhone" gets a little weird. And its an ongoing training issue for the reps because its sorta a different than the norm. He supplied his name and extention and asked if there was anything else he could do? Thanked me for switching over to ATT and appreciates my business. I thanked him and that was that.

So things did turn around. That was good customer service for sure!
 
iMetalG5 said:
Just wanted to update everyone...

I called Porting Dept and I had this completed in 5 mins flat. It was so easy. The woman was as nice as can be. My verizon # has been ported to my iPhone and I am happy :p

NOW, after porting was completed and verified, i asked to be transfered to customer care to speak to a manager. The porting rep was very kind and asked me what the issue was... after explaining said issue and her looking at the notes on my account she understood and put me on hold for about 10mins. Finally a guy answered and id'ed himself as a manager. He looked at the notes on my account and then I explained my side of the issue. I asked if it was possible to re-play the call for quality assurance. He put me on hold for another 10mins :rolleyes: and came back and explained to me the call was not recorded. But according to the notes in the system he understands the rep I spoke to (who will remain nameless for some reason) gave me mis-information in regards to porting. He chalked it up to a training issue and that he (YES HE this CSR gave me a name of Jessica Albon) is somewhat new and will be talked to so that this will not happen again. The manager apologized and reassured me of the port and my FAN (finally) and will send a text to my iPhone as confirmation that we spoke and will note my account. He did mention that anything with the "Apple iPhone" gets a little weird. And its an ongoing training issue for the reps because its sorta a different than the norm. He supplied his name and extention and asked if there was anything else he could do? Thanked me for switching over to ATT and appreciates my business. I thanked him and that was that.

So things did turn around. That was good customer service for sure!
Click to expand...

Good things happen when you have patience:eek:
 
Glad you had a slightly better experience in the end!

One tip: Make sure you're speaking to the premier dept when you call. I have noticed since i started using my premier discount that when I enter my cell number and speak to a CSR that the recording changes to "Thanks for calling AT&T Premier Customer Service". I think they go a bit more out of their way to be nice there, and to make sure everything is working well.

I've been with AT&T for 10+ years (well, Cellular One-->Cingular-->AT&T) and the customer service has thankfully improved tremendously over the years. For some odd reason whenever I had problems in college with my phone, and I called for assistance, they'd manage to reset my voicemail and I'd have to re-record my greeting. "Hello, my signal keeps dropping." "No problem, we've fixed that but now you have to re-do your voicemail." "Hello, I have a question about when I can get an upgrade." "No problem, here it is, and you have to reset your voicemail now." I was CONVINCED there was a giant "reset voicemail" button that popped up whenever I called them.
 
i work at a very large corporation and i had emailed our mobile comm dept last night about this, they called me just now and explained that if I ever have a problem again to just contact them because they can cut to the chase and have issues resolved in a short period of time by contacting the ATT corporate sales division. That's good to know.

I asked them do they have many issues and they told me unfourtuantely there is billing issues all the time and ever since the 3G was released its been a total mess so...

they also told me to call the Premier line vs standard customer service.

so we'll see how it goes, I'm confident i shouldn't have any major issues but we'll see how it goes when that bill comes in...
 
question fear said:
Glad you had a slightly better experience in the end!

One tip: Make sure you're speaking to the premier dept when you call. I have noticed since i started using my premier discount that when I enter my cell number and speak to a CSR that the recording changes to "Thanks for calling AT&T Premier Customer Service". I think they go a bit more out of their way to be nice there, and to make sure everything is working well.
Click to expand...

The difference between the standard support and the premier department is night and day. If you call and don't hear premier, immediately ask to be transfered. I have never had a good experience with the basic support reps, and I've never had a bad experience with the premier crew.
 
Agree with the rest. Premier service is definitely better. They have better CSR, better knowledge(well compare to reg CSR). I had AT&T 8525, then TILT and now iPhone, I have nothing but good experience with them. Sure there are couple of CSR totally jerks but you just can't really avoid 100%. Before AT&T I used TMobile and I love them more than AT&T but AT&T ain't bad either.
 
I've learned when dealing with customer service, whether it's AT&T or any other company, if you don't get the answer or service you're looking for, say "Thank you for your time" and hang up the phone. Then, call the same number again and get a new CSR rep. 9 times out of 10, you'll get a completely different answer.

CSR people are just like any other people: there's good ones and bad ones, and it's not worth your time to try to argue with them. Just thank them for their time, hang up, and call again.
 
Ding.Dong said:
I've learned when dealing with customer service, whether it's AT&T or any other company, if you don't get the answer or service you're looking for, say "Thank you for your time" and hang up the phone. Then, call the same number again and get a new CSR rep. 9 times out of 10, you'll get a completely different answer.

CSR people are just like any other people: there's good ones and bad ones, and it's not worth your time to try to argue with them. Just thank them for their time, hang up, and call again.
Click to expand...

Only problem is that it can take so long just to get a rep on the phone to begin with! From my couple of experiences so far I'd say that hold times are outrageous compared to what I experienced on Verizon.
 
yes wait times for me were quoted at 12mins. that is not very good if you ask me. AND TO TOP IT OFF i got disconnected after maybe 10mins for some reason. i hear the music and then for a split second i thought i heard "crowd" and then silence. disconnected.

the other thing is every time you call a note is put on the account on their Logging and Tracking tool. The manager told me he saw the time I called and the CSR who talked to me. Then noted I've been a customer for 5 days and called 8 times already :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back