First: To all the haters who don't want to read this - DON'T.

Okay, so from the threads that I've either posted in or started, we've had problems with my wife's AT&T BB phone for a while.

We used my upgrade for her phone and got a BB Torch (yeah, first mistake) in mid-September.

People she was calling were hearing static and words cutting out. Calling tech support, they suggested taking the battery out while powered on (a common "fix" on the internet). No help.

Then another guy said a new sim card may help. Nope.

Then another said to wipe the phone and reinstall the OS. Nope.

Then another guy finally opened a case and started troubleshooting the network. It took them five days to call my wife (which, when they tried to call, they couldn't connect to the phone). When they finally got in touch with her, their response was: GET A NEW SIM CARD..

Then I kind of lost it. I talked with a guy (Art) who didn't agree with the resolution and seemed genuinely interested in helping us. He had to hang up with me and told me he was going to call me back after he talked with one of his supervisors. While waiting, I got a call from a guy at work. In the middle of THAT call, Art called back. After the work call, I tried to call back Art and got the standard lower-level tech rep. The conversation went as follows:

"Yes. I need to speak with Art Thompson. I was on the phone with him about a problem we've been having for a month. He was going to call me back and I was on another call when he called, so I'm trying to get back in touch with him."

"Okay. I don't know who or where Art Thompson is, but if you want I can put you in touch with a Tier-2 Tech Rep and you can explain your problem to them and they can try and help."

"Yeah, I'm not doing that again. I've been doing that every time I called. I just need to get in touch with Art Thompson."

"I'm sorry sir, I don't know how to get in touch with him, other than to email him. But it may take a while for him to contact you. Or, I can put you in touch with a Tier-2 Tech Rep and you can explain your problem to them and they can try and help."

"Okay, listen. THE ONLY REASON I'M NOT CANCELING AT&T AND GOING WITH VERIZON RIGHT NOW IS BECAUSE I'M WAITING ON ART THOMPSON TO CALL ME BACK. UNDERSTAND?"

"Uh...yes, sir. I'll email him right now. In the meantime, I can put you in touch with a Tier-2 Tech Rep and you can...."

At this point, my other line started ringing in that Art was calling back. I cut the lady off and reconnected to Art.

He said he was going to put in an "ICU Service Call" and have someone call us back in a day.

Yesterday, they called my wife back and told her that they wanted her to take the phone to an AT&T retailer and try the sim card in a different phone. We tried that today (Samsung Captivate) and the service worked fine.

Okay. Now the real ugly part.

The guy at the store called customer service about what our options are regarding getting a phone that worked. He talked with some lady (my wife uses a different expression) and she told us that we could use our other upgrade to get a new phone.

UH...WHAT? You want us to use another upgrade to replace the phone we just upgraded a month ago because the phone doesn't work?

Yes. That's what she wanted.

My wife got a little irate and said that we were going to cancel AT&T and go with Verizon. The lady proceeded to tell her about the fee we were going to have to pay (we were preparing ourselves for this).

I wasn't there, so I couldn't demand to talk with some with more authority. So, I will be (either tonight or tomorrow) talking with someone about waiving the cancellation fees and canceling our service with AT&T.

Seeing as how we wouldn't have upgraded the phone if we knew it was going to have problems, I'd say I may have a good case to have the fees waived. I first used Cingular when I was at State in '01, cancelled the service in '06 when we weren't using the phones, and re-signed up in Hawaii in '08. I've been a pretty loyal customer with them for a while, in the military (can always play that card), and say I've been given the run around too many times to have a brand new phone we now use for business calls to have crappy service.

{/rant}

So, bye bye AT&T biznatches, hello Verizon!

[Edited on October 27, 2011 at 6:58 PM. Reason : caps]

10/27/2011 6:57:15 PM

FYI, Verizon isn't going to stop everything and put their entire company on your $150/mo account either. You act like ATT has one call center with 20 employees and you were expecting her to be like SEC! YO ARTDOG, IT'S YA BOY KDOGG ON LINE 1 SAYS SRRY FOR IGNORIN' UR CALL!

cue honey/vinegar cliche.

I don't understand why you feel that your time is so much more valuable than his? You ignored his call back and then demanded some rep track him down for you? If waiting for his call again or for him to read his email wasn't speedy enough you should have cut your work buddy off instead.

[Edited on October 27, 2011 at 7:35 PM. Reason : ITT people learn to talk to customer service reps.]

10/27/2011 7:32:14 PM

cool story bro

10/27/2011 8:08:50 PM

Quote :

"First: To all the haters who don't want to read this - DON'T."

10/27/2011 8:09:32 PM

10/28/2011 12:40:50 PM

If I missed it, I'll apologize upfront...

...did you ever once consider that it might be the phone? I know this was mid-September that you upgraded and now it's almost November, but AT&T has a 30-days 'No Questions Asked' policy on devices. Sounds to me like it's your device that's actually busted. If you're hearing static, that is a function of either the signal or the receiving mechanism. If your previous phones didn't have static that means that you may just have a unit with a dude antenna. That's BB's fault. The high-school graduate on the phone reading their tech-support script can't do anything to increase the coverage over your head to test the antenna in your phone.

Anyway, any time I've had a hardware issue with AT&T, (usually because I'm too rough with my electronics) they are pretty good about working with me to replace the device, at least with a refurb unit. Sucks that you had a bad experience, but sounds like you were trying to argue that you were having some service problem and the people in customer service didn't know any better than to believe you that it was a SERVICE issue.

You're a college graduate. Use your head.

10/28/2011 3:53:07 PM

Quote :

"If your previous phones didn't have static that means that you may just have a unit with a dude antenna."

Previous phone did have static on the other end. And dropped calls. We thought it was the phone, so we upgraded.

When we got the new phone, the wife didn't let me know about her friends/business calls letting her know until after the 30 day period.

So I upgrade to a phone hoping to fix the problems with the other phone, aren't informed about the issues until after 30 days, talk with five different tech support people (not the people you talk with as soon as you get onto the AT&T service...the higher tiered people), and each of those five people completely disagree with the previous person who tried to troubleshoot, and each of those five people give me completely different suggestions for how to solve the problem.

I apologize for not stating the reason we upgraded in the OP. I had in another thread and forgot to here.

Both phones were Blackberries. I tried to convince my wife to get a non-BB, but she had one before, and the only ones that had the keyboard (was a must for her) were new BBs.

Turns out, when we put her sim card into a non-BB, it worked just fine.

So, there were two tiers to the problem. One, it took forever for them to figure out what the problem was (guess its BB). Two, they aren't willing to let us swap her phone (which she upgraded to get rid of the problem) as if it was a one-time upgrade (that is, they want me to use my upgrade for her phone, thus using both upgrades to solve one line's problems in a 39-day period).

So...that's my college brain saying "POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE. POOR CALL QUALITY. TIME FOR A NEW PROVIDER."

But, I went to NC State.

10/28/2011 9:59:15 PM

http://brentroad.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=618071

10/31/2011 7:42:31 AM

^^You might be onto something there. I recall having an old conversation with a high school friend that attended UNC. Said he was "working a temporary job at a call center... you know... just until I can find something more permanent."

RE: Excluded info from your OP, you got a point; it sounds like they really screwed you over. FWIW, I will say that I have Verizon for my home phone/internet and any time you call their customer service, it takes 1-2 hours if its anything above the normal "why internet's out so can you tell me if there is a service outtage in my area" type questions. Their call center is this terrible network of half-functioning lines so whenever they transfer you to another department, there is a 50% chance the line will either hang up on you or send you back to the main menu. Last time I called them, I kept a log of when I called and when their system hung up/sent me to the main menu just to prove I wasn't crazy.

10/31/2011 8:38:33 AM