Three days before Christmas I traveled to Chicago to do a little Christmas shopping and made the mistake of thinking that my AT&T cell phone would prove trustworthy. That was utterly silly of me: at one point the phone stopped working even when it was plugged into the wall.

When I spoke to their warranty department in India, I asked if I could simply trade the non-working phone in for a working phone at an AT&T store in Chicago. No, said my friend in the Third World, we will send a phone to you at your home address in seven working days! So I was left out of town without cell phone service thanks to AT&T's crappy product.

So today my warranty replacement comes, and needless to say this phone doesn't work either! I asked to be let out of my contract, and they say 'no, ' becuase they're doing all they can to keep me happy, ie sending me phones that don't work. Another phone is being sent overnight, and needless to say I'm looking for a new cell phone provider: AT&T can take their cancellation fee and stick it where the sun doesn't shine

This is a story of deceit, lies and shipwrecks: We switched to AT&T about 3 months ago because my husband wanted iphones. 8 days ago, he was preparing to leave on a 900 mile voyage at sea from our home port of San Diego to Cabo San Lucas onboard a friend's 35 foot sailboat. While they are both experienced sailors, he is also diabetic and we wanted to make sure he had phone service when stopping at different ports along the way, so I called AT&T to order Mexico service. I actually had to go to his office and pull him out of a business meeting to order the service because he is the “primary person” on the account (what is this, the dark ages?? Why can't the husband and wife both be primaries on the account?). Anyway, after placing the order, he asked the customer service rep to make sure I was ALSO authorized to make changes since he would be out the country. She assured him that we were all set. She was wrong on so many different levels.

The sailboat my husband was crewing on encountered major problems and began taking on water about a quarter of the way to their destination. They almost sunk twice but managed to make it to a remote fishing village that was more than 400 miles North of Cabo San Lucas, where I was meeting him. They were pretty battered in the storm and my husband ended up with a few minor injuries--being diabetic, minor injuries can turn nasty very quickly--8 years ago he nicked his leg while diving in Mexico and spent 9 days in the hospital with a staff infection that almost cost him his leg.

He found a little cafe in the village that had the internet, but no phone (at least they told him no phone), so he sent me an email explaining what had happened and that his AT&T international Mexico service was NOT WORKING. Sure enough, AT&T NEVER ACTIVATED it. When I called, they told me that I wasn't authorized to make a change to our account. I explained that my husband spoke to someone about this and gave me PERMISSION. I even told them the day and time of the phone call. They admitted that they had a record of our call, but said the notes did not say anything about adding an International plan. I asked them what the notes said and they refused to tell me, saying the notes were for AT&T's eyes only. What???? This is a conversation between us and them and they can't share it with us?? Then they repeated their babble: that because we were new customers (had our service for less than 90 days), only the main AUTHORIZED person on the account could order international service. I was getting extremely panicked. I explained that my husband was diabetic and had suffered an injury in a sailing accident and was stranded in a tiny village in Mexico. I told them that we had ALREADY ordered this service and through no fault of ours, they failed to turn it on!! THEY DID NOT CARE. I explained that my DIABETIC husband who was injured would be riding on a bus for over 400 miles on a dirt road and that he needed phone service. I explained THAT THIS COULD EASILY TURN INTO A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. They did not CARE. Rules are Rules they said. I escalated my call through 3 supervisors who REFUSED to help. Bottom line: AT&T DID NOT CARE THAT THEY SCREWED UP and they DID NOT CARE THAT IT COULD COST MY HUSBAND HIS HEALTH. It should be noted that this service costs $4.99 a month.

I had a new line added to my account, then noticed improper charges on my bill --- one
for a reconnection fee, one for an unlimited data plan, and one for per kilobit data use.
None of the charges were valid I called to complain. .

The AT&T phone representative sent me to AT&T store on Kapahulu Avenue in Honolulu Hawaii.
AT&T Hawaii store employees there told me not to bother them with billing issues, because "they
had sales quotas" to meet. The manager told me no one at AT&T Hawaii cared about my
problem, and to call or go online to cancel. They also called me a racial epithet (stupid
haole, which means white person in Hawaiian slang) within earshot.

I then went to another AT&T Wireless Hawaii store (Kaneohe), where they were able to verify that the charges we erroneous and were a bit nicer. I didn't want to complain to them, because I was afraid --- I was the only haole in
the store, and we military member are told to not make a scene. Plus, I thought I would get out of there while the charges were still reversed.

I called the customer service line to complain. The phone representative told me I had to pay early termination fee to cancel. I was very disturbed their attitude and treatment. When I started to cry, they laughed and hung up on me. I would just like to terminate my contract with this horrible company, but it just isn't fair that I have to pay an ETF fee when they have been so outrageously negligent in
their treatment of me. I'm scared to go in their stores and their customer service phone
personnel are rude, unhelpful and dishonest. They can keep their iphone. I just want out
of my contract, without having to pay an ETF.

I sent a message to Tammi Terrell, Vice president and General Manager of ATT Wireless Hawaii, but I expect that her customer service will also reflect the contempt for customers that AT&T Wireless Hawaii has shown me.
____
ATT Hawaii, AT&T Wireless, AT&T Hawaii, Tammi Terrell, Hawaii AT&T General Manager

I have an AT&T FamilyTalk plan, with two phones. August, my son's phone showed a $19.95 recurring charge for PayPhone Inc. for a mobile download he didn't ask for or receive. He contacted AT&T Wireless and was told he should text "stop" to the code showing on the bill, but they couldn't do anything about the charge. We reviewed the bill and noted to the AT&T rep that a download had not occurred and we didn't request or receive a product or service. After several frustrating minutes my son disconnected the call. Two months later our bill is "past due" and service was suspended due to this charge. I sent another email response yesterday (just before service was discontinued). No response. Today I paid the bill "in full" online. Within 10 minutes our service was restored.
No product. No service. We were charged without agreeing to anything. We have no recourse because we have a 2 year contract (automatic) when we upgraded to my iphone. We will be charge $149.99 regardless of whether we have service, unless we buy out our contract.

Wow.

After being a loyal 5 year customer of AT&T wireless, I think it's time for my wife and I to take our business elsewhere.
Long story short:

Sept 5 2010: Called to order a new Palm phone to replace my Blackberry that had just died. Spoke to a very polite, very hard to understand Indian woman. Everything I said, I had to say twice, everything she said, she had to say three times. I eventually asked for another sales rep. 5 minutes on hold later, I get another Indian woman. She was much clearer so I decided to stick with her.
Ordered my new phone, no problem. She asked for my delivery address, I gave it to her, she read it back to me twice, full address and apartment number. City, state and zipcode. Hung up feeling fine about the experience.

Sept 9 2010: Stayed home all day to wait for FedEx delivery of the phone. Website tracking number stated "Out for delivery"...3PM rolls around, no phone. I look at the tracking number again, site now states "Delivery Exception: Incorrect Address"...GREAT. I call FedEx. After 15 minutes on hold, the woman tells me the address is correct but that there is no apartment number. She can't add "4D" to the delivery, I have to call AT&T and request that they call in the correction.

35 minutes on the phone with AT&T. Rep after rep, hold after hold. The first woman told me, it would be no problem for her to call in the fix. She asked me to wait on hold while she called FedEx. I waited...and waited...and waited...someone else gets on and tells me "the address change has been made, FedEx says they will try to redeliver tomorrow, no problem"... I call FedEx, "No change has been made, no call from AT&T sorry". Already feeling like this is going badly, I call AT&T again...

Next woman states, "I can take care of that for you, just let me DO SOME RESEARCH...I need to put you on hold"...14 minutes later, she picks up and tells me "Ok, I found it, here's your tracking #"...getting sort of frustrated but trying to be nice, I said "I don't think you understand, I'm not looking for the tracking, I'm asking you to call FedEx and add the apartment # that you forgot to add originally to the shipment"..."Oh" she says..."Please hold"...click. I was hung up on.

This happens TWO more times (getting hung up on/put on hold) before I finally get a very nice southern lady. She listens to my plight, apologizes for the problems and promises "before I hang up, we will get this fixed"...GREAT. "Let me just put you on hold while I call FedEx"...I started feeling very relieved. She seemed like she knew what she was doing and was pretty confident. 20 minutes on hold...stomach aching from not eating breakfast yet...she finally gets back on the line "Sir, YOU have to call FEDEX and make the change, we aren't allowed to do that"...

Now at this point, I feel like I'm on some sort of cruel reality show, waiting for the cameras to come out of hiding and for a host to tell me it's all a joke. I call FedEx again, "No sir, AT&T HAS to call and have the address corrected"...

I call AT&T, we're now approaching hour 2 of this nightmare...after listening to their happy shit music for 10 minutes, a rep finally picks up...I demand to speak to a supervisor, he puts me on hold for another 15 minutes. "Natalie" finally picks up. I explain the situation to her as well as my complete unhappiness at how I've been treated. I asked her "Is it really THIS difficult to add TWO digits to an address?"...

Her answer?

"Sir, someone should have told you...we actually aren't allowed to change ANY part of the shipment once it's out the door. What you need to do is wait 3-5 business days for Fedex to send the package BACK to us, we have to check it in, then process a return and then send you out another one".

"And how long does that take in total?!" I ask...

"Anywhere from 10-20 business days usually..." she says.

I explain again that I've been charged in full for this phone, the invoice for the phone has my complete address on it (including apartment number) and that I'm now being punished because someone at ATT didn't create the shipping label correctly. I asked her if she thinks that's really an appropriate way to treat a 5 year customer...

"Again sir, that's the policy".

Zero compassion for the 3 hours I just wasted, zero compassion for the fact that they screwed up, zero apology for the error...and now I'm told to sit on my hands and wait a few weeks to get the replacement phone that I use FOR WORK. I was so disgusted with the way she was talking to me that I wanted to smash the phone. I told her that when my contract is up in 3 months we'll be leaving AT&T...

"Whatever you want to do sir...is there anything else I can "help" you with today...?"

Unbelievable.