I Joe Karel am writing A formal complaint against AT&T.
Date Oct. 27, 2010

First I would like to say that I have learned a HUGE lesson from all of this. That lesson is Don't Sign Contracts.
My wife and I several months back went into AT&T looking for a new cell phone plan. I wanted an Iphone and they had
What appeared to be a decent price of only 100$ for the phone. After about 10 minutes of the lady asking us pointless
questions about our personal life, she then gave us a price. WOAH! thats way to much for phone service? Ok let me
See what I can do... she leaves and comes back with a manager who spends roughly 1 hour with us discussing all the
options. He finally comes up with an idea that if we bundle our service with Tv, this would bring down the cost.

I still am not sold because the monthly price is still way to high. He then leaves and comes back. "I talked to
My superior and got permission, so heres the new deal... if you buy the iphone and sign up for tv u-verse bundle, I
Will get you 2 100$ gift cards that you can spend anywhere and you can even use them to pay your first bill... and
if after the first month you dont want to keep the tv, you can cancel and still keep the gift cards just for trying
it out"... so i agree to this. he also gave us an in-store rebate on the iphone or my wifes phone or both, i cant
remember what it was.

after 30-35 days or so, we knew this was too much money as well as the quality being bad. we would lose programing
constantly and the huge price tag was just not worth it especially since we didnt want the tv in the first place.

weeks went by, still no gift card.. I pay the enormous first month bill, then the second bill is due and theres still
a charge for the tv on it so the manager just gives me an in store rebate to void the charge. 2 months no gift cards.
I go into the store to complain, they say just give it time blah blah blah and that i should call customer service.
I call customer service and they say oh were sorry that must have been stopped becuase you canceled the tv.
I explain to them that i was told even if i canceled i would still get the card. so she tells me to wait a couple
more weeks and the cards should come.

--- a couple weeks go by and nothing, I call and complain AGAIN, she tells me they are going to credit my account
for 200$ and that i need to call the store and have an employee put a note about it on my account. weeks go by
and NOTHING HAPPENDS! my bill is still rediculously overpriced and theres no credits on the account.

Fed up with all of this I cancel our phone with AT&T. This however was not the only reason I canceled. the Iphone
And my wifes phone DID NOT WORK! Not even more than a mile away from the store is where I live and i get NO SERVICE!
I cant use the phones im paying almost 200$ a month for!!!? wait was that 200$ a month? "woa you must get 1000 channels
of TV, email, unlimited texts, unlimited minutes, and at&t must come to your house and cook you dinner every day...
nope, actually I had LESS minutes that we did with verizon and were paying over 100$ more a month for it.

So the other day (about 4 days ago) I call because I get a bill for nearly 700$... are you joking!? nope AT&T is
dead serious when it comes to their phone service (or lack of). I complained with the lady after being transfered
over and over because the first 2 idiots in india didnt know how to handle my call. Finally I get an American and
she feeds me a bunch of crap about how they "Never give out gift cards" even though it was on a big sign in the
window promoting how you can get up to 300$ in gift cards just for trying it out.

I carefully and politely explain my situation and how the manager (Eric Was his name i believe) made me a deal
to get me to sign up. I asked her at one point "so your telling me everybody thus far lied to me? ... they just
straight up lied to me?" finally she in some words admitted that they must have lied to me. To which my reply is
"wow thats just awesome customer service... LYING TO PEOPLE!!?"

So now AT&T is threatening to turn me over to collections and ruin my credit.

My main arguments.
1. I will not pay for a service i cannot use in my own home (cell phones)
2. I was lied to from the begining
3. I did not recieve what was promised to me being...
- Quality uninterupted tv service
- Quality uninterupted phone service
- 2 100$ gift cards recieved by mail
- 200$ in credit on my account
AT&T provides service at a HUGE mark up in price. I have to this day yet to find any company that charges near
what AT&T charges for ANY service.

Thank you for your time.

Joe Karel.
email [email protected]

Store info

1829 Marketplace Dr Se
Caledonia, MI 49316
(616) 656-1080

I want to start by saying that I have never dealt with a more screwed up company than this and I certainly hope (groundlessly) that the service that I get, once established (if ever), is functional. I would take this up directly with AT&T except that, as far as I can determine, they have no means of registering a complaint other than with the same people that I want to complain about! Furthermore, if I want to contact them via email, I have to have AT&T Account Manager, for which a registration code is required. And although I don't have an AT&T phone (have VOIP via Comcast now), I do have the assigned account number which is supposed to suffice, but it errors out because "The Telephone Number you entered does not match an active account...". Duh!

I had arranged for DSL stand-alone service at my home by phone call and an appointment was arranged to establish that service. I was quite explicit from the get-go that I do not currently have a phone line to my house but that I do have phone jacks within the house. A wireless gateway device had been sent to me already. A 8AM-8PM time period was established to accomplish the hook up. By 4PM when nothing had happened, I called to find out what had happened. The first woman that I talked to told me that I didn't need any "phone" line to get DSL service. That was a short conversation. I called again later and was told by another person that "something" had happened or was reported to have happened by 12:30 PM, that the ticket was still open, but that they did not know what that meant. Still no show by 5:30 and I chatted online and was referred to the tech support department by direct link. I went through the whole mantra before getting any feedback from him and, incredibly, he asks me what my gateway model is and if the DSL light is solid green. Hello!!! That I had no line to connect my DSL service to was in tex right in front of him!

Now, it's the next day, and I call up to find out what is going on. They don't know, so they refer me directly to the installation department. Aha! Now I'll get to the bottom of it. The service guy says that, indeed, the ticket is open and that I'm 5th on the list today. I ask him how it is that they know anyone will be home after having to be at home for 12 hours on a work day the day before when access to the interior of the house is required to establish service. They know where to contact me. He doesn't know as all he does is to schedule the "service". (What that service may actually consist of in their mind remains to be determined).

I can certainly understand why they don't have a complaint process nor a way to contact them if this is they way they want to "run" their business. This is business school case study material about how not to run a company. Pathetic!

P.S. I was told initially that there would be no charge to run the service to my house in that they were obliged to do that in order to provide me service, after all. If you think I believe that, then I have some Gulf shore property (with mining rights) that you might be interested in.

I purchased a Palm Pixi Plus from AT&T in June of 2010. I have had to have it replaced from their warranty department 4 times for the same problems. Touch screen freezing up, won't end a call, alarm not functioning, will not connect to a secured wi-fi system, and e-mails taking between 72 and 96 hours to alert me on the phone.
AT&T is now in the process of sending me the fourth phone, and with their warranty policy, it is good for 12 months from original date of purchase. When I get a refurbished phone, the warranty still goes back from the original purchase date. At the pace I am at, I will be going through a phone a month.
AT&T told me that since I am a new customer, I would be charged FULL price if I would like to get a different phone. I feel that this in unfair because of all the trouble I have had with the 3 other phones. If I was close to my 24 month upgrade time, then sure, charge me full price...but its not like I changed my mind and want a different phone. Then by all means...charge me full price for a person that changes their mind and no longer wants that phone.
I don't fit into that scenario. My phone doesn't work right...my first 3 phones don't work right. I don't think I am out of line by thinking that I shouldn't have to go through so many phones to figure out there is a problem with that phone.
What ever happened to "make the customer happy?" I guess that doesn't hold anything to companies that are on the same level as a city utility company.
My point being...don't sign up with AT&T. They don't have their customers care and loyalty in mind when they write your air-time contracts.

I had a nightmarish experience with one of the Manila based call center of AT&T. All I wanted was a little assistance regarding the coverage issues in my area and I get hours of waiting, extremely difficult to understand Reps on phone and no resolution at the end of nearly an hour’s ordeal. Did someone have a similar experience like I did ?

Thanks,
Heather

WATCH YOUR BACK!!! I had a drop in my credit score which prompted me to check my credit report. On there I found an entry for $203.00 for CCOS (Collection Company of America - 700 Longwater Dr., Norwell, MA.) I called them to get information as to what this was... no response. I diputed it on my credit report to which Experian "checked" into it for me. I'm assuming they called the company and said, "do you have this listed" to which they replied, "YEP", and Experian said - "Cool - Case Closed" and sent me a letter informing me of their "investigation"... Ok, my 2 year old could've done a more thorough investigation. As I'm NOT a trusting person by nature, I called AT&T as they were the creditor listed... I did speak with a very nice lady, but she couldn't find anything without using... guess what... My social security number. DUH - Ya Think! I informed her Ive never had a cell phone with AT&T - nor do I have a contracted cell phone now because I may be the only person in America, but I don't NEED one. I have a pre-paid with 16 hours a month and use about 45 minutes a month! She gave me yet another number - to which again no one responded or answered for that matter. MORAL OF THE STORY - give AT&T a name and social security number and "you've got yerself a cell phone"! YEP, that easy. They don't verify, call or e-mail... Cool, so now I get to pay for someone else that is too fricken lazy to get a job and pay their own bills. Just what I want to do - and to think MY SON IS IN IRAQ right now fighting for the protection, security, and freedom of these SOB's. WOW! So, if I pay the $203.00 (which I could've 50 times over by now had I had any clue of this accounts existance), do you think it'll go away or will AT&T allow the next lazy, moron, to open another account in my name? I'm thinking I need to write the CFO and Senior Executive Vice president of AT&T a little note. I'm sure he'd love to hear about it as it's so beneath him and oh that's right... he's making money off of this, why would he give a shit? STAY AWAY FROM AT&T!!! Even if I'm dying on the side of the road, someone stops with an AT&T cell phone... keep going honey, I'll wait for T-Mobile!