Earlier today I got off the phone with AT&T Customer service and they were not helpful whatsoever. A phone on my account had been listed as currently being eligable for an iPhone Upgrade on December 6th 2009. So, we planned to upgrade the phone as close to Christmas as possible because we did not want to disrupt the current user's cell phone usage since the iPhone must be activated on site at an Apple or AT&T store upon purchasing. This gift was suppossed to be a suprise. So, today, Decmber 19th, 2009, we went online to set everything up for upgrading the phone in question and AT&T has now pushed back the eligiblity date back to July of 2010!?!?!

We called AT&T and they were no help. Customer service became argumentative when we were trying to resolve the issue and find out what happened to the eligiblity for the upgrade on the particular phone line in question. Not only did they raise their voices, they also refused to listen to the information we had regarding the eligibility for the iPhone upgrade (we had printouts stating that we were eligible).

As a result, we are now out of luck for getting the $199 price for the 16g 3GS iPhone. Nobody at AT&T could tells us why the date was pushed back and they didn't seem to care either. All we wanted to do was get the upgrade and extend the contract on our account.

Too bad for AT&T, they get an 'F' for customer service and support. Dealing with them reminded me of dealing with collection companies back when I worked as a Credit Analyst. They were pushy, argumentative, unwilling to listen, and did not even present logical reasoning behind the answers they provided. It seemed as if they were reading from a script.

Now why did AT&T push back the date 7 months back on us for this upgrade? I don't know. Maybe AT&T doesn't want to provide customer satisfaction? Maybe they want to lose our business?

All I can say is that I am very displeased with how I was treated and how this simple Christmas Gift turned into a 2 hour ordeal over the phone without any resolution. I personally am planning to take my current account and move over to TMoblie. I will also be unlocking the iPhones we currently have on our account since Apple and AT&T are in bed with each other and won't allow the phone to be used on other networks.

With that said, congratulations AT&T on losing a customer! Happy holidays!