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

My bizarre email from AT&T...

T

The Ray

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 10, 2008
39
0
I emailed AT&T about whether my spot in line is set from the time I placed the order, or from the time they processed it. I received a very strange email, which seems as though a response was generated from a computer, which analyzed what I wrote.

I'm putting what I wrote at the top...the response is weird, to say the least.



A3:Hello. I placed a preorder for the iPhone 4 at about 5:30 AM EST on 6/15. It took a long time before the order was processed, and it is showing that it was placed on 6/16. I would like to ensure that my place in line is set from the time I originally placed the order, and that I should receive the new phone on 6/24. I do not want to be bumped back to a later date just because it took the system almost 24 hours to post the order.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for taking the time to e-mail AT& T regarding your iPhone 4 order. You placed your order for the iPhone 4 at 5:30 am EST on 06/15 but it took so long for the order to process it shows as placed on 06/16/10. You would like confirmation that your place in line is set from the original time you placed your order and that you will receive your phone on 06/24/10. You are worried that you may be bumped back because it took the system almost 24 hours to post your order. I apologize for any frustration this may have caused you. My name is Lisa Ross, and it will be my pleasure to assist you today.

I understand your concern about your order. We are focused on fulfilling all the orders placed on Tuesday June, 15, 2010. If your confirmation e-mail indicated you?ll receive your device on or after the 24th, we?ll absolutely do our best to ensure your shipment arrives on, or after June 24, 2010. We?ll send you an e-mail as soon as your order has shipped, complete with a tracking number so you can follow your shipment online. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you and rest assured that delivering your order as soon as possible is our top priority. We will keep you informed of the status of your order through e-mail and you will also be able to track your order once it ships.

I hope that the information provided has been helpful and has resolved all of your questions. Should you have additional concerns or questions about this issue please reply to this email. If you need to contact us again regarding a new issue please send us another email via the contact link through your online account. My name is Lisa Ross and I thank you for being a valued AT& T customer for many years. We will do our best to ensure that your wireless experience is a success, and AT&T hopes to serve you as your wireless provider for many more years to come.

I encourage you to visit our web site (www.att.com/wireless) often to view current and previous monthly statements, make payments and to shop for new product and service offerings.


Sincerely,

Lisa Ross
AT&T
Online Customer Care Professional
 
Except where they repeated your email back to you, it sounds like a canned response. What did your confirmation email say to you? Delivery "on or after 6/24"? Because that sounds like the best you're going to get...
 
The Ray said:
I emailed AT&T about whether my spot in line is set from the time I placed the order, or from the time they processed it. I received a very strange email, which seems as though a response was generated from a computer, which analyzed what I wrote.

I'm putting what I wrote at the top...the response is weird, to say the least.



A3:Hello. I placed a preorder for the iPhone 4 at about 5:30 AM EST on 6/15. It took a long time before the order was processed, and it is showing that it was placed on 6/16. I would like to ensure that my place in line is set from the time I originally placed the order, and that I should receive the new phone on 6/24. I do not want to be bumped back to a later date just because it took the system almost 24 hours to post the order.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for taking the time to e-mail AT& T regarding your iPhone 4 order. You placed your order for the iPhone 4 at 5:30 am EST on 06/15 but it took so long for the order to process it shows as placed on 06/16/10. You would like confirmation that your place in line is set from the original time you placed your order and that you will receive your phone on 06/24/10. You are worried that you may be bumped back because it took the system almost 24 hours to post your order. I apologize for any frustration this may have caused you. My name is Lisa Ross, and it will be my pleasure to assist you today.

I understand your concern about your order. We are focused on fulfilling all the orders placed on Tuesday June, 15, 2010. If your confirmation e-mail indicated you?ll receive your device on or after the 24th, we?ll absolutely do our best to ensure your shipment arrives on, or after June 24, 2010. We?ll send you an e-mail as soon as your order has shipped, complete with a tracking number so you can follow your shipment online. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you and rest assured that delivering your order as soon as possible is our top priority. We will keep you informed of the status of your order through e-mail and you will also be able to track your order once it ships.

I hope that the information provided has been helpful and has resolved all of your questions. Should you have additional concerns or questions about this issue please reply to this email. If you need to contact us again regarding a new issue please send us another email via the contact link through your online account. My name is Lisa Ross and I thank you for being a valued AT& T customer for many years. We will do our best to ensure that your wireless experience is a success, and AT&T hopes to serve you as your wireless provider for many more years to come.

I encourage you to visit our web site (www.att.com/wireless) often to view current and previous monthly statements, make payments and to shop for new product and service offerings.


Sincerely,

Lisa Ross
AT&T
Online Customer Care Professional
Click to expand...



This is exactly why I avoid AT$T at all cost.

Why didn't you pre-order through Apple? They guarantee delivery on June 24.

I hope you do get your iPhone 4 on June 24, but I don't think you will.

Sorry as Lisa Ross said, "we'll absolutely do our best to ensure your shipment arrives on, or after June 24, 2010."

Keyword being: AFTER
 
rack2.jpg
<-- Lisa Ross
 
dhjapple89 said:
This is exactly why I avoid AT$T at all cost.

Why didn't you pre-order through Apple? They guarantee delivery on June 24.

I hope you do get your iPhone 4 on June 24, but I don't think you will.

Sorry as Lisa Ross said, "we'll absolutely do our best to ensure your shipment arrives on, or after June 24, 2010."

Keyword being: AFTER
Click to expand...

I think he, and probably everyone else on here tried - but couldn't get through on Apple's site that day.

I had to unfortunately use ATT as well - it was that or nothing.
 
That's normal from them.

I asked them about my upgrade pricing options, and the response was full of inaccuracies about my account info, typos, and it was just written very weirdly. Here's part of one of the emails.

"After careful review of your account I show that your account was activated on July 18, 2010 with an iPhone 3g. *August 15, 2010 an early upgrade was process for the iPhone 3GS. *Unfortunately one iPhone early upgrade is allowed every 18 months"

Yeah, tell me if that - especially the dates - makes any sense to you.
 
Try replying back to the e-mail. Depending on the place, people will usually take over from here.

You do not necessarily have to be nice either since they never answered your question.
 
That's wierd because I received an extremely similar email except it had nothing to do with the iPhone. A couple of weeks ago, I accidentally downloaded the same song twice on iTunes, so I emailed Apple for help to see if they can reverse one of the charges, and that was the same format email that I received. Obviously the content was different, but in terms of the format and their response, it was nearly identical which makes me wonder if that's the division of Apple that is working on behalf of AT&T for the iPhone4 orders?
 
dhjapple89 said:
This is exactly why I avoid AT$T at all cost.

Why didn't you pre-order through Apple? They guarantee delivery on June 24.

I hope you do get your iPhone 4 on June 24, but I don't think you will.

Sorry as Lisa Ross said, "we'll absolutely do our best to ensure your shipment arrives on, or after June 24, 2010."

Keyword being: AFTER
Click to expand...

This is exactly how I feel. That is why I ordered through Apple, even though it was much more of a hassle having to wait, it turns out better in the long run. I was very tempted at one point to go place my order through ATT website, especially when so many people were saying how quick it was. I am glad that I didn't.
 
I'm pretty sure this was a human...it just looks like outsourced support where they're trained specifically to rephrase your inquiry. It's probably someone in India or elsewhere where English is not the native language, and that's why it sounds so strange.

However, the second half is likely just a "prefab" response pasted in.
 
I did respond to this email. I got back a very similar response, then he basically tells me to f off, they're not going to help me via email anymore. I fail to see, from their end, what the difference is between email and phone, but there you go. He does say that orders are processed in the order they were received, but I'm not sure what that means.

It's funny, because the other day, I had exceptional service from someone on the phone. She didn't know why my order wasn't posted, so she called the online sales department, waited in their queue, then called me back with an answer. Oh, and she spoke native English as well.

And for those who asked, the confirmation email made no mention of when to expect the phone.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------


Thank you for taking the time to e-mail AT&T. We regret any problems you've encountered with your pre-order confirmation reflecting June 16th instead of June 15th. My name is Michael Hamm and I am happy to address your concerns.

I have verified that orders are processed in the order that they were received. We will do our very best to ship devices as quickly as possible. Our focus is on fulfilling all orders placed on June 15 to accommodate this unprecedented demand.

iPhone 4 pre-order sales on 06/15/10 were 10-times higher than the first day of pre-ordering for the iPhone 3GS last year. Consumers are clearly excited about iPhone 4, AT&T's more affordable data plans, and our early upgrade pricing.

Given this unprecedented demand and our current expectations for our iPhone 4 inventory levels when the device is available June 24, we?ve suspended pre-ordering (effective June 16th) in order to fulfill the orders we?ve already received.

Again, my name is Michael Hamm and I apologize for any misunderstanding or confusion that this may have caused.

I hope that the information provided has been helpful and has resolved all of your questions. At this time we have assisted you to the fullest possible extent via e-mail. Any further questions you may have regarding this matter must be directed to our Orders Management Center at 866-391-0749.

My name is Michael Hamm, and here at AT&T we appreciate your business and value you as a customer. Thank you for allowing AT&T to serve as your wireless company all this time. We will do our best to ensure that your wireless experience is a success.

Sincerely,

Michael Hamm Jr.
AT&T
Online Customer Care Professional
 
The Ray said:
I did respond to this email. I got back a very similar response, then he basically tells me to f off, they're not going to help me via email anymore. I fail to see, from their end, what the difference is between email and phone, but there you go. He does say that orders are processed in the order they were received, but I'm not sure what that means.

It's funny, because the other day, I had exceptional service from someone on the phone. She didn't know why my order wasn't posted, so she called the online sales department, waited in their queue, then called me back with an answer. Oh, and she spoke native English as well.

And for those who asked, the confirmation email made no mention of when to expect the phone.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------


Thank you for taking the time to e-mail AT&T. We regret any problems you've encountered with your pre-order confirmation reflecting June 16th instead of June 15th. My name is Michael Hamm and I am happy to address your concerns.

I have verified that orders are processed in the order that they were received. We will do our very best to ship devices as quickly as possible. Our focus is on fulfilling all orders placed on June 15 to accommodate this unprecedented demand.

iPhone 4 pre-order sales on 06/15/10 were 10-times higher than the first day of pre-ordering for the iPhone 3GS last year. Consumers are clearly excited about iPhone 4, AT&T's more affordable data plans, and our early upgrade pricing.

Given this unprecedented demand and our current expectations for our iPhone 4 inventory levels when the device is available June 24, we?ve suspended pre-ordering (effective June 16th) in order to fulfill the orders we?ve already received.

Again, my name is Michael Hamm and I apologize for any misunderstanding or confusion that this may have caused.

I hope that the information provided has been helpful and has resolved all of your questions. At this time we have assisted you to the fullest possible extent via e-mail. Any further questions you may have regarding this matter must be directed to our Orders Management Center at 866-391-0749.

My name is Michael Hamm, and here at AT&T we appreciate your business and value you as a customer. Thank you for allowing AT&T to serve as your wireless company all this time. We will do our best to ensure that your wireless experience is a success.

Sincerely,

Michael Hamm Jr.
AT&T
Online Customer Care Professional
Click to expand...

I just wish we knew the guy's name that helped you... ;)
 
The Ray said:
I did respond to this email. I got back a very similar response, then he basically tells me to f off, they're not going to help me via email anymore. I fail to see, from their end, what the difference is between email and phone, but there you go. He does say that orders are processed in the order they were received, but I'm not sure what that means.

It's funny, because the other day, I had exceptional service from someone on the phone. She didn't know why my order wasn't posted, so she called the online sales department, waited in their queue, then called me back with an answer. Oh, and she spoke native English as well.

And for those who asked, the confirmation email made no mention of when to expect the phone.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------


Thank you for taking the time to e-mail AT&T. We regret any problems you've encountered with your pre-order confirmation reflecting June 16th instead of June 15th. My name is Michael Hamm and I am happy to address your concerns.

I have verified that orders are processed in the order that they were received. We will do our very best to ship devices as quickly as possible. Our focus is on fulfilling all orders placed on June 15 to accommodate this unprecedented demand.

iPhone 4 pre-order sales on 06/15/10 were 10-times higher than the first day of pre-ordering for the iPhone 3GS last year. Consumers are clearly excited about iPhone 4, AT&T's more affordable data plans, and our early upgrade pricing.

Given this unprecedented demand and our current expectations for our iPhone 4 inventory levels when the device is available June 24, we?ve suspended pre-ordering (effective June 16th) in order to fulfill the orders we?ve already received.

Again, my name is Michael Hamm and I apologize for any misunderstanding or confusion that this may have caused.

I hope that the information provided has been helpful and has resolved all of your questions. At this time we have assisted you to the fullest possible extent via e-mail. Any further questions you may have regarding this matter must be directed to our Orders Management Center at 866-391-0749.

My name is Michael Hamm, and here at AT&T we appreciate your business and value you as a customer. Thank you for allowing AT&T to serve as your wireless company all this time. We will do our best to ensure that your wireless experience is a success.

Sincerely,

Michael Hamm Jr.
AT&T
Online Customer Care Professional
Click to expand...


109801_std.jpg
<--Michael Hamm
 
The Ray said:
I did respond to this email. I got back a very similar response, then he basically tells me to f off, they're not going to help me via email anymore. I fail to see, from their end, what the difference is between email and phone, but there you go. He does say that orders are processed in the order they were received, but I'm not sure what that means.

It's funny, because the other day, I had exceptional service from someone on the phone. She didn't know why my order wasn't posted, so she called the online sales department, waited in their queue, then called me back with an answer. Oh, and she spoke native English as well.

And for those who asked, the confirmation email made no mention of when to expect the phone.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------


Thank you for taking the time to e-mail AT&T. We regret any problems you've encountered with your pre-order confirmation reflecting June 16th instead of June 15th. My name is Michael Hamm and I am happy to address your concerns.

I have verified that orders are processed in the order that they were received. We will do our very best to ship devices as quickly as possible. Our focus is on fulfilling all orders placed on June 15 to accommodate this unprecedented demand.

iPhone 4 pre-order sales on 06/15/10 were 10-times higher than the first day of pre-ordering for the iPhone 3GS last year. Consumers are clearly excited about iPhone 4, AT&T's more affordable data plans, and our early upgrade pricing.

Given this unprecedented demand and our current expectations for our iPhone 4 inventory levels when the device is available June 24, we?ve suspended pre-ordering (effective June 16th) in order to fulfill the orders we?ve already received.

Again, my name is Michael Hamm and I apologize for any misunderstanding or confusion that this may have caused.

I hope that the information provided has been helpful and has resolved all of your questions. At this time we have assisted you to the fullest possible extent via e-mail. Any further questions you may have regarding this matter must be directed to our Orders Management Center at 866-391-0749.

My name is Michael Hamm, and here at AT&T we appreciate your business and value you as a customer. Thank you for allowing AT&T to serve as your wireless company all this time. We will do our best to ensure that your wireless experience is a success.

Sincerely,

Michael Hamm Jr.
AT&T
Online Customer Care Professional
Click to expand...

I wish he said what his name was...

;)
 
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