Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Jay's Rant of the Week ATT Hell


So I am so mad at my phone right know I tried to break it in half today. It has horrible sound quality, it constantly drops calls and the text messages almost never work. So I got on the ATT web page and tried to figure out what to do about it. I am eligible for an upgrade and discounted prices on a new phone. So after spending a couple evenings on the web page trying to figure it out I think well lets ask the experts. ATT live chat. We currently have 6000 rollover minutes and about 500 minutes a month expiring. So my thought was reduce the monthly minutes, add some data and get a smart phone. So I posed that question guess how that went? Here is the transcript.



Please wait for a chat agent to respond.
You are now chatting with 'Margaret R'
Margaret R: Welcome to AT&T Premier Support. I am reading your question and will be right with you.
Margaret R: To clarify you would like to upgrade your phone and reduce your rate plan, is that correct?
Norman Pennington: Yes my current phone the Nokia has horrible sound quality. My wife loves her iPhone. What we would like to do is replace my phone with one that has email/data capability and reduce our rate plan to try to offset the difference.
Margaret R: I'd be more than happy to assist you with this.
Margaret R: You can log on to your premier site and start your order there.
Norman Pennington: I am logged on to premier
Margaret R: Does it state that you are eligible for an upgrade?
Norman Pennington: yes
Margaret R: Then you can start your order and the prices are listed so you can kind or match it up to what you already have.
Norman Pennington: Are you talking about rate plans or phones
Margaret R: Both.
Norman Pennington: That is the problem I have no idea what phone or plan to chose
Margaret R: Then you should take your time and review the information.
Norman Pennington: The information is not clear there is no simple way to look at the plans, compare prices or features. You have to pick a phone first then muddle through and try to decide which plan. There is no clear listing of the prices and data plans
Margaret R: I can understand your frustrations but that is the only suggestion that I can give you.
Norman Pennington: Thanks for no help as usual after ten years I should know better
Margaret R: Do you have any questions regarding the information we discussed today?
Norman Pennington: Just the questions that I had a half hour ago when we started this what is the best phone and plan for the money based on our current usage
Margaret R: Thank you for using AT&T Premier Support. We appreciate your business.
Chat session has been terminated by the chat agent


I can't blame this on the island time ting. Because we still have stateside phones and this is stateside support.


Jay

4 comments:

Rick Garvin said...

Jay, if this is the typical Bangalore tech rep than you need to speak their language. Just say: "
मेरा फोन मेरे कान पर नहीं है और मैं मस्तिष्क कैंसर फैलता से पहले एक नया एक खरीद करने की इच्छा"

translated "My phone on my ear and I do not have brain cancer spread before the desire to buy a new one"

Good luck.

I've done a similar exercise and the biggest problem was the new SIM cards they sent me. The old ones worked fine and I did not need to keep that phone operational. You could always buy a phone cheap on ebay that is ATT locked and swap SIMs.

Cheers, RickG

Laura said...

Be careful counting on your rollover minutes to get you through if you change the minutes on your plan. My boyfriend lowered his minutes on his plan, and they took away the difference in the rollover minutes, so he went from 6,000 to about 1,200.

But, yes, from helping him with his phone, I have learned they are big idiots there.

Kristin said...

I think it must be a standard response from online sales people. I was chatting with the bank, and also got " I understand your frustrated". You have no idea. At&t is trying to say I owe $51 from 2005, yet their records dont go that far back.

Deb and Jay said...

Jay went to the AT&T store and they put a new SIM card in the phone and that has seemed to help, at least temporarily. Still can't get any help deciding what to do as far as phone upgrade or change in plan. So I guess he'll hang on to the cheapy phone for now.
Deb

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