How not to talk to your customers

OK I've finally had it up to here with ATT and now I am going to vent my spleen.  How a firm that is in the communications and information industry can be so terrible at communicating with its customers and interacting with its customers is simply beyond me.

Simple things first. I finally broke down and purchased an iPhone, which obviously makes me an ATT customer for Wireless service.  I have, for many years, had an ATT email account.  On my previous cellphone I had no problem receiving my corporate email and my ATT email.  Guess which email doesn't seem to work well on the iPhone?  I've called both Apple and ATT and neither can make the ATT email work on the iPhone.  No biggie, but who thought this through?

Bigger issue.  My home phone line was struck by lightning and I lost my DSL and my home phone line, as well as having my phones fried.  ATT took a tremendously long time to restore the basic phone service, and even longer to restore a modem for our DSL.  Then, they told us we'd have to pay for the DSL modem, then we wouldn't, and so on.  My patient spouse was on the phone to a call center in the Philippines for 2 hours, talking to people who could not make decisions and who were obviously reading from prompts.  More than once my wife was offered a chance to upgrade to a package that allows connections and networking for more than 10 PCs. Since ATT had been informed we only have 3, they are either ignoring what we tell them or they are oblivious to our needs.

I finally received a wireless gateway in the mail, with no instructions on installing it or using it.  I checked out the ATT site and found that they encouraged the use of live chat.  After five minutes on live chat, the agent suggested I consult an ATT support page, which had no mention of setting up or configuring the gateway.  He eventually ended the chat by suggesting that I contact the customer support line.  I called the line and was connected to a call service agent who told me that I needed to speak to someone in another team and offered to transfer me.  Before I allowed him to transfer me I asked if there were people actually available in the other team, as this was Sunday evening.  After researching their availability, his answer was "no".  Why would he transfer an obviously upset customers to a team that was not available?

I hung up and called back and found another person who offered to walk me through the installation of the gateway.  We finally got it working, and I asked her to help me find an email address where I could send a complaint.  On the ATT site, especially for internet issues you are directed to use either the call centers or live chat.  On ATT's site they specifically tell you they won't accept emails about these topics.  In fact it is almost impossible to find an email to use to complain, and most of the customer forums have little or no activity and it's not clear they are read or watched by ATT personnel.  On the Contact Us page, where it asks if you are an existing customer and would like to send an email, the site redirects you to the home page.

Here's the link to the routers and modems community forum.  As far as I can tell there are no posts associated with this community.

OK, for a firm that is in the communications and information business, I can tell you so far that it has failed on both counts.  The telephone support is spotty and offers wildly different advice in several calls on the same day and is often staffed by people who either don't understand our needs or don't seem to relate or care.  There is limited interaction available and no clear follow up.  I did manage to get an email address from one of the people I spoke to, and will wait to see if ATT responds to the email, in which I documented my dissatisfaction with the events as described above, and many other failures of customer service and customer interaction.

In an age where social media is ever present, and interacting with customers is ever more important, you'd think a COMMUNICATIONS company would understand the importance of interacting with customers in a way that's respectful, courteous and engaging, and offer a means to interact in a way that the customer chooses, not the company.  ATT seems to be walling itself off from its customers and unable to recognize good, valuable, loyal customers who have many of its products.

I have ATT email, ATT Wireless service, ATT Broadband and ATT home phone service.  I think very quickly unless things change I won't have anything over than ATT cellular.

Comments

[Lenny Newsome]

If there is an AT&T Store in your area step in there and you can purchase a modem on site! Service in person always better than on the phone! The AT&T Retail stores are really working on becoming one of America's Premeir retailers...

[medieval costumes]

That was some frustrating experience you had there. :) Good thing all is fine now.