The "New" AT&T
I’ve been hearing a lot of criticism of AT&T lately.
$10 DSL
I heard the host of a radio program last Friday, talking about a deal that AT&T made with the FCC in order to get the okay on it’s BellSouth merger. One of the concessions is they have offer $10 DSL service.
The caller on the radio program related his experiences of calling the AT&T customer service line to get signed up for the program, whose rather strict criteria he meets. Every time he calls, however, he gets the runaround. The customer service representatives don’t seem to know of any such deal. The radio host insisted that AT&T is screwing with him and gave him a number for a federal bureau that investigates complaints of poor customer service.
DSL Trial Period
Later that evening, without any mention of AT&T, my brother begins to tell me the story of his debacle with the company.
His home phone service was provided by AT&T, as was his cable television. AT&T was also the provider for high-volume commercial phone and internet service at his place of business. When they ran a promotion late last year for a low-cost trial period with their DSL service, he decided to try that too.
For the duration of the trial period, the DSL never worked. He called periodically asking to have it canceled, but his complaints and request to cancel were me with argument from the customer service, insisting that it they could do some troubleshooting on their end and get it going. Their stonewalling tactic held him all the way through the end of the trial period, after which the service still did not work, but now they would happily disconnect him with no argument, if he pays the early-termination fee for the contract he is now implicitly locked into.
Worse, the early-termination fee is greater than the total that would be paid by simply paying by the terms of the contract to its completion. With this knowledge, he offered to simply pre-pay the entire amount of the contract, to completion, in exchange for having the service immediately disconnected, but they refused this.
In response to this horrible customer service, he has canceled his home phone service, changed cable tv providers, and moved his company’s voice and data services to a different provider. And now, my brother calls AT&T customer service every two weeks, just making sure to get someone on the line to guarantee him that, upon completion of the contract period, he can cancel his service without paying an early-termination fee.
New Terms of Service
The following morning, I saw a story on Boing Boing about new changes AT&T made to their terms of service, giving the company the right to terminate your connection for conduct that “tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries.” I suppose it’s a good thing I’m not an AT&T internet customer, or else I might end up losing my service for writing this!
News of the TOS changes stirred up a lot of unhappy responses. Several web sites that complained about the change were contacted by AT&T, and informed that while the TOS allows them to do it, they won’t be cutting the users off for vocalizing complaints. AT&T explains that the new terms are for people who look at child porn or advocate race violence. Sure.
What It Means To Me
While I’m not an AT&T internet customer, I do have AT&T cellular service, thanks to their merger with Cingular. And to be frank about it, I hate my service. I used to like it, but since the merger, the service has been awful. Apparently former AT&T subscribers feel the same way.
This is, ironically, how I ended up with Cingular cell service. I was a Sprint customer, and while I loved Sprint’s service, they never had any of the new, cool phones. When they merged with Nextel, their service got worse, and I switched to Cingular. Now, I find myself in the same situation and once again ready to switch.
My contract ends in a few months, and the only thing AT&T has left to make me want to remain a customer is that they are the exclusive provider of service for Apple’s iPhone. However, considering the release of the new iPod Touch, which is essentially, an iPhone without the phone, I can get everything but the phone features and never have to lock into a deal with any provider to make it work. Or, alternatively, I could try to get a hold of the iPhone SIM unlock hack that allows your iPhone to work with any SIM-based wireless provider, sacrificing only the interactive voicemail provided by AT&T.
Based on the way AT&T is running things, I think I’ll be better served by just getting an iPod Touch, while moving my phone service to Verizon, which seems to be the favorite now for value as well as service.
Incidentally, if you want to get out of a cellular contract, take a look at Celltrade, a service that helps you transfer your contract responsibility to
someone else and walk away without the hefty penalty.
Tags: corporate evil, politics, rant
October 3rd, 2007 at 12:38 pm
I have AT&T for my home phone and for my DSL. Several months ago, I did have problems with my phone line and my DSL line, and after a week of having no service for either, they finally got it fixed. Of course, there was no credit on my bill as they promised me.
On another note, for my cell service I had Nextel for years, which I hated. I recently bought a new phone and switched my service from Nextel to Sprint (yes, I know they merged), and believe it or not, my service is fantastic now. I have absolutely no complaints with them anymore.