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June 4th, 2010
07:30 AM ET
AT&T apologizes for legal threat
(CNN) – A guy complains to AT&T and gets a legal threat in response. How's that for customer service? What is causing the latest disconnect with its customers? Our Christine Romans has the report.
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att is great all this is just bs honestly
I had an issue with AT&T in the past. They were supplying my long distance and my local service. At some point (when they picked up Cingluar) they started billing all my local calls as long distance at 14cents per minute. As I was still using dial up, this amounted to some hefty bills. They would reverse one bill at a time (which took a whole billing cycle), but never fixed the underlying problem of the billing error. I had to call and email 27 times to get them to finally see what the problem was and correct it. Needless to say my last few contacts with them was as a former customer. As far as customer service goes, AT&T will always be the worst customer service experience I have ever had. As a result, I will never do business with them directly or indirectly. They never threatened me, but they did suggest that I quit calling since they had it under control. That was well before I got someone to understand that it was not a biling problem, it was an account setup problem.
I have ditched AT&T about 7 years ago and have not been happier with my phone service. I now use VOIP service with a 3CX phone system and have had no bureacratic nightmares and saved a bundle.
When they call, I tell them I will never be interested and to remove me from their list. They still call...
Really, from what I'm reading ATT is no different from any other big company including verizon (land line service)..who charged us $300 for internet charges when don't even own a computer after an entire week and countless phone calls they refused to remove the charges so we canceled our service.
amazing – just got off the phone with AT&T because my phone bill went up 33% – guess what – they offered no help and certainly no relief – either by changing plans, etc. I guess I'll look elsewhere as my contract renews on each of the four (4) phones I currently have – but they didn't seem to care - oh well
After reading some of the comment posted, I am astounded that many do NOT understand what customer service is. Your business is like a restaurant. Whether a customer comes in for a cup of coffee or a 5 course meal, you treat them like a KING. The next time they come back they're bringing the family and friends. If they complain, it's ' we're very sorry sir/ma'am, let us give you dessert on the house', chances are that grumpy mean ole customer is going to say, 'Hey I'm sorry for being so harsh, and increase your tip, or turn into a regular customer. It's not rocket science.
Its only AT&T in name. Southwestern Bell bought the remaining pieces of AT&T and then took the name. Southwestern Bell grew thru acquisition and merger, its going to take them a while to get their arms around the evolving marketplace/technology. AT&T now has the challenge of turning the entire corporation (300,000 employees) towards new technology when they don't have the depth or experience required to compete with small firms that don't have the PSTN to support. I hope they find new revenue streams quickly
Grow up America – these blogs are not in the best interest to resolve the issue. Grow up, it could be worst, look at BP.
We were with AT&T for many many years, we started out with cingular, then it went to AT&T, back to singular, then back to AT&T. We were trying to stay witn AT&T, but their plans are outrageous, and their service from our experience kept getting bad. We are now with T-Moble have unlimited talk and text, no contract and best of all like their customer service. Glad I left, and really have no desire to go back.
AT&T = Theives!!!! This company is one of the most evil companies I have had to deal with. They are trying to steal 400.00 from me and I am not going to pay it. I requested a print out showing me exactly how they determained I owed them this money. They have not sent it and they turned me over to collections. It will be a very cold day in H _ _ _ before they get anymore money from me.
He was probably threatened because AT&T can't handle the amount of complaints they get and now they're trying to bite back instead of fixing what is wrong with their company.
I've had such awful customer service over the years, and their reps have been nothing but rude. That is the reason I canceled all services with them. Their reps have hung up on me when they couldn't answer my questions, given me false phone numbers for support, transferred me through 8 people in 5 minutes to answer a simple question about my bill, and sent customer support to my house after I told them I would be out of town. They also started sending me someone else's bill and told me they couldn't send it to the actual recipient because "we can't call her and find out what her real address is because we can't make outgoing phone calls." Can't make outgoing phone calls from a phone company?
I haven't had a single positive experience with them in the past 5 years, and unless they get their act together I will continue to tell everyone I know to cancel with them too. If it wasn't for their monopoly on the iPhone they would probably be dead in the water.
This story reminds me of why I left AT&T as my long-distance carrier decades ago (before cell phones were widely used). Same attitude of entitlement, same neglect of customers, same in-your-face "we act this way because we CAN" approach.
The response by Alan Taylor, that no customer has a right to complain more than once about a problem, and in any case must accept the phone company's "fix" without question makes me worry about the state of corporate "customer service" with any service.
I have Verizon, and I waited for the Droid to come out instead of buying an Iphone and switching to AT&T because the bad taste from my decades-old experience with AT&T is still so strong. With Verizon, so far so good, but please keep that customer service as good (or better) as it is, please!
Are you kidding Alan? We have the right to complain if we are PAYING for a service that has a problem or issue that needs to be resolved. WE are the ones PAYING AT&T. If it were a free service then yes I can understand that repeated complaints are not a right. But if you are a PAYING CUSTOMER, you have every right to complain until someone does something to fix your issue or stop paying and leave AT&T like this guy did. But as long as i'm paying your company so you can feed your mouth, you serve me, not the other way around.
Alan-
What do you mean he doesn't have the right to make multiple contacts? He absolutely DOES have that right, and should exercise it if he isn't getting anywhere!
Wow....
I have been in this industry for ten years, i have had phones thrown at me, i have been cursed at and threatened. For some reason, people lose all sense of decency when dealing with their cell phone provider. Of course its your right as a consumer to complain, but its not your right to be abusive, to harass or not even be willing to accept a solution. I am not saying that Randall Stephenson handled this well at all, quite the opposite. However, we are human beings and we deserve to be respected just much as the customers we are serving. The greatest thing about this country is freedom of choice, if you are unhappy, you are more than welcome to go somewhere else when your legal obligations are fulfilled. And for the record, ATT is a union company and one of the stipulations is that jobs stay in this country.
"maybe it should be asked if this customer made more then one attempt at contacting his provider in regards to this situation"...
"I think it's important for people to understand that because they have service with a company they don't have the "right" to make several contacts over the same issue"....
what planet are you from?...this is the United States. You have the "right" to be dumb, but you should not exercise it in public.
Does AT&T still spy on american citizens without court ordered wiretaps ?
Just asking
@ Alan Taylor...I beg to differ with you sir. As a consumer, I do have the right to complain as many times as I feel is necessary if I am not satisfied with the service I have received. And yes, you are right, if the situation continues to go unresolved, I have the choice to take my business elsewhere. But to say that I don't have the right to complain multiple times for the same issue? Come on man...if my complaints are falling upon deaf ears...I will continue to complain...IT IS MY RIGHT as a consumer!
My newest next door-neighbor and his wife work for AT&T. Soon after he moved in, he told me and my wife that he almost choked a juvenile to death at his last residence. ? Then he started harassing my wife and yelling obsenities and vulgarities at her. After a Personal Protection Order was issued to protect her, he set up lasers to point at eye level at us and our property, a violation of the PPO and state law. My wife's PPO had to be changed by the court to protect her from his threats and attacks. Law enforcement and lawyers were no help at all. These are the people that represent AT&T!
I live in Georgia and my neighbor works for the "new" AT&T which was formerly BellSouth in this region. He told me AT&T has gotten rid of most of the former BellSouth employees and cut so many positions that a lot of work gets ignored or falls through the cracks. From what I can tell the employess left have poor morale and just don't give a flying ****. I know my home phone service rates went up though I did not change my plan. I will be switching to a competitor as soon as my contract is up in about 2 months. AT&T is a bully.
Somehow, as with most newscasts and people who are posturing, we are getting ONE SIDE OF THE STORY. I think I would have to see the actual email and the emails that have gone before. While it is possible that this is one that fell through the crack, my communications with Executive Response Teams has been very productive and professional. They certainly would not have threatened a cease and desist order without cause, they are very sensitive to being politically correct.
As a former customer, our phone plan was grandfathered in when AT&T bought out Cell One. When I asked about purchasing new phones, I was advised that I would need to first transfer my existing contract to someone else and then transfer it back, and then they could offer me the advertised specials available to all regular AT&T customers. I cancelled my service that day and have refused to pay the cancellation fee. If they aren't legit in dealing with their customers, then what else are they not legit in???
Looks like they're only apologizing because their attempt to intimidate him failed and he put their hateful behavior out there for all to see! Good for him. Hopefully, many others will follow his example and ditch these clowns.
All i see here is a customer that FAILED to research the pricing plans correctly.
If you already had a unlimited data plan you can keep it, it is for new customers.
I also love how you guys cut out a good 3/4s of his letter. Learn to complain right people.
Where I am AT&T wants LESS state regulation. Now we see why. Too bad you cannot reach tem on the phone. I have tried. The line is either busy or NO Answer. Letters are ignored. Guess what! I am no longer a AT&T Customer.I would not insult innocent farm animals. The dead farm animals are better quality material than AT&T!
My suggestion is copy the Board of Directors on the next communication to the CEO along with the reply of the "Executive Relations" representative. Most of my life has been in customer care. I am mortified at the pitiful response. I cannot believe the response was company endorsed. If not the Executive Relations resource needs to go back the CSR 1 Training or if it is standard policy then the board should find new executive management.
I can relate to this story. I called AT&T Wireless about my phone service to see if we could cancel two of three lines to cut cost. This Customer Service Executive as he called himself, told me that I could cancel two lines, except that I woudl have to change the plan on the single line. The minimum plan would be $139.00 per month ( more than I pay for three lines), I would need a new phone, plus the Early Termination Fee would cost me $800.00. I told him that was foolish, he said ":so are you, so suck it pay and deal with it"
Amazingly, I emailed AT&T, never got a reply, just a bill for $750 when I cancelled all three lines.
I can see both sides of this. Company has the right to make pricing changes. My understanding was this is only for new customers, not existing but still the company has the right. Consumer has the right to be upset and file for redress of grievance. Myself working in Travel & Tourism have encountered far too many people who think they have the right to be verbally abusive towards non management personnel, knowing if we say something minutely off, they will whine, scream, piss and moan until they get what they want for free. Once they have succeeded doing this just once, they will continue to do it. For the AT&T situation, we don't know how many times this customer has done this. Too bad AT&T backed down. I'm with AT&T on this one.
These are contractors from India or somewhere else. They at times are rude because they don't speak correctly and are very hard to understand. Why can AT&T hire Americans to do their jobs ?
Is it just me or does this customer probably seem like he is an arrogant a-hole? His comment about the "12$ an hour college student" is just over the top and shows he feels he is above most working class people. Maybe he did have an issue with his service, and it seems like he is probably one of those customers who is impossible to please and has had numerous run ins with the 12$ an hour college students throughout his tenure with AT&T. I am sorry buddy, but by making the comment about what you feel someone else makes, you show that you are nothing more than a jerk yourself. Maybe he does make $100,000 a year, and thinks that makes him better than the working Joes out there, but in this case, we are all laughing at you buddy.
Welcome to Amerikkka.
Of course the guy asked for it. He had no business writing to the CEO of ATT with this sort of nonsense.
However it was quite stupid for them to call back and leave that voicemail. Why? Simple. Threats are threats. You either do or don't. But don't leave your head hanging out there to get chopped off. The guy sent one email, they should have either sent a C&D or let it go.
AT&T says only 2% of customers utilize more than 2GB of data. How many of their customers have iPhones? 2%? Then they make an amateurish decision to respond to customer feedback in a foolish and short sighted way. AT&T stock will go which way? Epic Fail AT&T. EPIC FAIL.
att are criminals. no longer can you buy the services you want, but only 80.00 per month packages. if you ask to minimalize all these unwanted services ( call waiting / conference, etc ) you are shifted to the same package with about 300.00 worth of fees for these new " installations " they are disgusting and are just a tax collecting arm of govt with att written on the door.. they will at first give you a sick web connection till you buy the " advanced " version. good luck getting connected without the hired aid of their " technicians" .
i got a new service at&t can't tell me what happen my bill want from 34.95 a month to 89.61 and they can not tell me what happen at all so i said by for good the tecs read from a book if you can hear you will hear they truing page as they tell you what to do and they mess you up more then what is wrong
What happened to the "customer service agent"? He should be fired ipso facto.
Folks....I worked for AT&T for several years in Texas.. If people only knew what really went on behind the scenes. AT&T is a penny-pinching poorly run corporation. In my whole group of about 48 people only 2 were black. Most were white males not older than 50ish. Many customer service positions were cut and the workload was pushed to those left....who already had more than they could handle. If anyone complained they ended up with the boss's ire. You could not order or request office supplies. Many people, including me, brought our own pens and legal pads from home since they were not available. At one point, they even collected all employee's Blackberry's. We were told they cost too much! Hello??????????? So don't be surprised when stuff like this happens. If everyone knew what goes on behind the big scene at AT&T.......most would be switching to a competitor. I know I did.
They can't test a modem (a piece of eqiupment they sell) but they can sell you a new one and hope it fixes a problem. Maybe. We're not sure.
I'm surprised the letter was in English though.
I used to work for AT&T. I've always had Macs since 1983. I don't own an iPhone or iPad and don't expect to buy one any time soon. Why. I refuse use AT&T's services.
They're expensive, they don't work and their customer service is second to ALL!
Why put myself through that aggravation? I'll just wait until Apple catches on and ditches them or I'll buy another companies product. Hate to do it, but it's worth not having to deal with AT&T.
(Shaking my head) AT&T just keeps on getting better! That's exactly why I left!
I'm no fan of AT&T, they tried to charge me 3 GRAND once for non-existant roaming on 2 phones my spouse and I weren't even using at the time. However, if this guy is emailing the CEO... come on, THE CEO? Does he think the CEO makes a habit of taking care of customer relation problems?
And that was no threat, that was clearly a tactical business move based off this guys clearly obnoxious emails (which they indicate were plural, not singular).
Seriously, customers need to use common sense too...
I quit Att. I had an average bill of 250 a month. I refuse to pay the ETF. I told them to stop paying executive bonuses and cut their costs. Fortunately I didn't get threatened.
Tens of thousands of iphones have been lost or stolen. Even though police reports are often filed and reported to Apple and AT&T both companies refuse to aid the victims in locating the iphones. Why? Who profits from lost and stolen iphones? The victim usually buys a full-price replacement iphone from Apple or AT&T. The thief can open a new account with AT&T in which Apple surely gets a kick-back. So, it’s pretty clear who profits and why Apple and AT&T do not help the victims.
Apple and AT&T say they will help victim’s only with a court order? Why? Is there a law requiring Apple and AT&T to not give a victim the location of the victim’s iphone? No. There is no such law.
AT&T clearly overreacted to this situtation. That said, the customer should have done his homework before flying off at the handle. According to the report he was irate because of AT&'s new pricing plans for iPhone users. Had he bothered to read any of the myriad of online articles that came out in response to the new pricing plan, he would have known that they only applied to new customers, not existing ones...which he apparently was.
CNN ended the report by saying the customer was switching to Sprint. Hope he didn't get the new HTC EVO 4G becasue Sprint announced it was going th charge its customers who get that phone a premium over the "Everything Plan" for data usage. More simply put, had he stayed with AT&T he wouldn't have been affected but by switching to Sprint he probably will pay more. Doing a little research before going off on someone always helps.
you don't pull that kind of kerappe with customers and expect to stay in business. period. the person who delivered that low-grade nuclear response needs to be put in credit collections and kept there until they violate the law. we're talking about high-buck technouser customers here who have high visibility and, as we can see, complain in channels that go viral and worldwide rapidly when we talk about smart phone users. AT&T has got to go back to the drawing board.
if you get complaints to the CEO or high officials, you need to have a high-level resolution office to take those people and work with them on their issues. the ten-year cost of that is less than the cost of this one blowup.
I side with AT&T. Some people are just idiots and they whine and complain about everything. And when they don't get their way (waaahhh ... I want unlimited data usage at a lower price .... waahhh ... I don't care if you make any money I just want, want, want ...) they throw off moronic letters to anyone they can think. They're hoping that if they cry and whine enough to bother enough people at higher levels that someone will cave in and give them their pacifier to shut them up.
You know what AT&T should do? Simple set-up an automated response, that sends a "Thank you for contacting AT&T message" to all such mails to executives. Then the executive response team weeds out the mails, passes on the business ones to the boss, and deletes everything else with no further action taken. Many businesses do exactly this these days. It is not worth the time, effort, and cost to respond to the whiners out there.
This is no secret to any employee of the company. ATT (by orders of Randall Stephenson) treats the employees like garbage and claims they cant afford them, yet all the while paying Stephenson MILLIONS in BONUSES. They make the employees shove new services down the customers throats and try to sell, sell, sell, when the customer called in to complain about a service they already have that isnt correct. Then they punish and even fire the employee for "poor customer service"!!! Stephenson is a posterchild for corporate greed, lies, and the destruction of the American way of life, because of his unquenchable thirst for money. Soon ATT will join the ranks of Enron, MCI, WaMu, and the original ATT.
Wow! I work in the wireless industry and deal with customer complaints on a daily basis. Although many of them are baseless, some of them such as the one this person has elated to require an immediate response. All of our customers deserve the utmost respect from us and in this case, the customer was completely pushed aside.
Typical of corporate attitudes.,.
Proof that although we've entered the electronic age, it has done nothing for basic communication. And, a reminder to business everywhere that you can't distance yourself from the customer unless you also want to distance yourself from his $$$.
It appears that AT&Ts initial response was, indeed, assigned for handling by some low-level employee because anyone with a lick of
business sense would have avoided this mess. I mean, come on folks, this is the decade of the VIRAL video, remember?
I sent the AT&T president a nice note on the installers that connected my new internet /TV systems. Went out of my way to get names, facts, etc.
Never heard a thing back.
Same for UPS. My UPS guy busts his butt, and so, sent UPS president a nice note. Never heard a thing back.
Seems these $20+M types do have staffs, yet care little about good or bad news. Too busy investing perhaps
ATT Deserves it and more! They placed a Huge 6X5X4 Box on my side yard 5 feet from a busy road. They could care less about people, just profits. I for one will never buy an Iphone because of their costly rates and lousy coverage.
I have cable TV, Phone and Internet, much better speed, quality and less price. When is ATT going to get it? They step on anyone they want, place misleading ads on TV about their coverage in hopes some sucker will buy their plans. Well, Wake UP AMERICA, Ditch ATT, service is lousy, cost too much and find out what happens when you try to break their contract because their coverage is poor.
If you live in Deltona, Florida, drive by and see the eye sores that they have placed in our community. Fight now to save your community!
I live in Central New York, people should see what happened here because of an AT&T problem, a man got upset with service in one of the stores so he started making threats and one day came with a list of people to kill in the store. Luckily there was an off duty police officer there who was armed, the guy only shot and injured one person when the officer responded and shot the man. Saving at least 6 lives in that store. He was definetly a hero.
Go ahead and laugh you rubes,....what is so funny about goons pushing people around on the Gulf beaches, or customers getting threatening voice mails from corporate hacks? Oh,...sorry,...I forgot,..this isn't journalism. That's right,...you clowns are all about what brings in the eyeballs.
How can corporate entities "serve us"? Hell, we serve them so that they keep our cell phones and game consoles working! They treat us like herd animals.
Frankly, with the world economy wobbling, and the planet in deep peril, we'd better all pay more attention to shelter, food, and a safe environment.
Time to throw out everyone who keeps us in chains – corporate and political.
American Thugs and Thieves, just wanted to drop you a line telling you I just canceled my cell service. Randall Stephenson bite my shorts you sorry So B.
Wow! I was seriously considering switching when the new IPhone comes out but will have to re-evaluate that. I love my Verizon Wireless but really wanted the IPhone. I may just have to research the smartphones on their service. AT&T made a bad "call" and I would like to thank the gentlemen who posted this for giving some clarity on what may have been before me!
Lauren
Baltimore
sell news, do not worry what your headline reads, that customer was in no way irate, i can't beleive CNN wrote that for a headline. That was baseless and tasteless. Use good judgement CNN, you are held to an industry standard, what ever happen to responsible journalism?hmmmmmm
AT&T is a criminal enterprise; run by pure criminals. Customers should cancel their accounts and let the company go belly up.
Exactly why I am with T Mobile. ATT has always thought of its customers as a necessary evil that is to be delt with instead of pleased.
... I have noticed some themes with recent "incidents" : "...too big to fail.." ; ".... too deep to fix.." ".... and apparently a lot of people at the top..... too rich to care..."
I have had my own difficulties with AT&T...it is still trying to be resolved
a year later.....................I am giggling a little here...because AT&T
obviously needs to take some courses in customer service..........
I'm also very disappiontsd with AT&T service and can get no help from them on my problems
As a customer service representative, not for AT&T, but for another company, I think before saying nationally that AT&T did something dreadfully wrong, maybe it should be asked if this customer made more then one attempt at contacting his provider in regards to this situation. Unfortunately, there are people out there that will call their service provider, whether it be cell phone, cable, telephone, etc, that make repeated contacts over the same issue time and time again because they simply do not like the resolution they received. Maybe they attempted before and were rude and disrespectful to the others they spoke to. Maybe not as well, but I think it's important for people to understand that because they have service with a company they don't have the "right" to make several contacts over the same issue. We are not always going to be happy with changes our service providers make. Sometimes, we as consumers have to just "let go, move on" and take our next step whichever direction that is that will make us feel the most satisfied. It seems obvious he has spoken with multiple people already if he has gone beyond speaking with CSR's if he knows about Executive Customer Relations. As the old saying goes, "We can't have our cake and eat it too"