Six days ago, it was all supposed to work.
As of today, I still cannot make long-distance calls on the fax line. In spite of another visit to the AT&T origin store and numerous calls to at least seven different AT&T support numbers that various people at AT&T have told me to call.
It is quite possible that I have spent more time on hold or talking to AT&T "customer service" people than I have spent on any other matter. And that includes a case where I had to go visit a client who is currently in stir.
I thought the whole idea behind the breakup of Ma Bell was to improve customer service and pricing. It certainly did improve the pricing, but as far as customer service goes- meh. I'm old enough to have had phone service provided by Ma Bell and I can tell you for a fact that they were never this fucked up.
AND NOW, AFTER BOTH TALKING TO TWO CUSTOMER (DIS)SERVICE REPS AND BEING ON HOLD FOR A TOTAL OF 26 MINUTES AND 32 SECONDS, THE FUCKERS DISCONNECTED ME!!!
I've criticized the overseas call centers, but these clowns have all apparently been U.S. based and they have all been as helpful as having a glass shard in one's foot.
GODDAMMIT TO HELL, I HATE AT&T!! MAY ALL OF ITS CUSTOMER SERVICE REPS DIE SOON, SLOWLY, PAINFULLY, AND !!
Send me an email at LRod@pobox.com and I'll give you information that may lead to some help. It worked for me.
ReplyDeleteLRod
I have nothing to do with this and I feel your pain.
ReplyDeleteIt's the 21rst century for crying out loud and this seems to be like reading smoke signals in the night. Doesn't anyone in a "Global Company" give a G/D about actual service as opposed to "offered" service anymore.
You might forward your 'series' to At and Turds inc. to see if they respond.
Good 'luck' Comrade, we all feel your pain.
w3ski
It ought to be a consumer protection law that ISPs and phone companies can only get their payments from you THROUGH THEIR SERVICE. If they can't get it working for a week, THEY DON'T GET PAID THAT WEEK.
ReplyDeleteNan, that wouldn't help. Customer service reps don't care because they get paid the same whether they care or not, regardless of whether it costs the company money or not.
ReplyDeleteEBM, you have my sympathy. I was going to try out their uVerse service. After an experience similar to yours, I told them, "y'know, this sucks. Just cancel my order" and went back to Comcast. If I need fax service I'll use something like fax.com and my scanner (which is also my fax machine, it's an all-in-one), POTS fax is just too much trouble.
I do at home as you do. But for work, I need the two lines.
DeleteI wish Comcast was an option. Their business-services side of the house has excellent service.
fax.com gives you a real phone number and will email you pdfs of the documents "faxed" to that phone number, and will fax scans as being "from" that phone number. The problem is that you need Internet service to use it, and your Internet service is provided by... uhm... AT&T. Oops :).
DeleteIf it's any consolation to you, Time Warner Cable in New York (they also supply phone service) is just as no-good. And I'm using them for phone, cable and Internet because I heard that Verizon is worse.
ReplyDeleteSo much for Ryan and Romney's belief in the free marketplace and competition to solve all problems, from what to do about healthcare once they destroy Obamacare and Medicare and Medicaid, to stopping the drought in the west and midwest. (In that case, it's free market competition between your god and my god, since nature is an act of God and has nothing to do with carbon footprints and other scientific concepts.)
I'm waiting for some fool in California to try to place a call to the almighty to request rain and discover he's been placed on heavenly hold.
Crankily thine,
The New York Crank
My experiences with AT&T have been positive, but I've never ordered a land line from them...
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing that as technology gets more sophisticated, we seem to be getting less good at manufacturing and installing it reliably.
The local technician, you know, the only guy at AT&T who comes out in a truck and has to deal with people face-to-face? He's been first-rate. He's the only person from AT&T in this whole sorry saga who has both given me a straight answer and fixed what he could fix. If activating long-distance service was his job, it'd be working.
DeleteHere in Vietnam where I live I call the telecom company with my problem and someone shows up within two hours. Unless I call the telecom guy who freelances - he's here even sooner. Sometimes I pay him in beer. I am not making this up.
ReplyDeleteAirlines, telephone companies, oil companies, it does seem bass-ackwards that deregulating screwed up certain aspects of efficiency and customer-service, I think it points out that left to themselves corporations always race to the bottom in pursuit of the quarterly and yearly numbers.
ReplyDeleteAlso read up on what the writer of dilbert calls 'Confusopolies', a truly brilliant revelation.