This is a story about my AT&T customer service nightmare. What you are about to read is real. Never have I had this much stress and headache with AT&T because I’ve been a happy customer with them for years. Until now.
My aggravating experience should serve as a lesson for companies in how not to do customer service. I documented as much as I could while the conversations I had with AT&T’s customer service reps were still fresh on my mind. I had to deal with over a dozen people over the course of a month but the reps and supervisors mentioned in my story are the ones that were the most memorable, and stressful.
Friday, October 7, 2011
I woke up bright and early at 6am to go online to preorder four iPhone 4S’s but according to AT&T’s website, I was unable to keep my unlimited data plan unless I spoke directly with a customer service representative. So I called AT&T and a woman by the name of Cherry took my call and worked with me for over an hour to get my preorder placed… or so I thought.
She was very nice and patient with me to get all four phone lines upgraded to iPhone 4S. She told me that my preorder would be charged to my next month’s bill and that I didn’t need to give her a credit card. While I had her on the phone, I asked her to make some changes to my phone plan to credit back for over-charging me every month for a “ring-back tone subscription” that was supposed to be canceled over a year ago. She promised me that she removed the ring-back subscription indefinitely. I checked my email a few minutes later and got confirmation that she credited me back $10, but that was the only email I received from her or AT&T…
I checked my emails over the next couple of days to see if there was any news regarding my iPhone preorders because my friend who also preordered (online) that same morning had received an acknowledgement for the upgrade. So Monday morning, I decided to call AT&T to do a follow up…
Monday, October 10, 2011
After about half an hour on hold, I finally got through to a customer service rep by the name of Phil. I asked him to check on my preorder because I haven’t received any email confirmation whatsoever. And to my surprise, he tells me that there was no such order placed after many unsuccessful attempts in trying to locate it on his system. I was shocked. He spends another hour researching and even consulted his supervisor until finally determining that I would have to re-place my preorder because the one I made on the 7th did not exist. As a last resort, he asked me to check my credit card history to see if I had gotten billed for this preorder. I told him the woman that took my preorder assured me that the phones would be charged to my next month’s bill and that she didn’t take my credit card information down. Phil tells me Apple requires all preorders to be charged to a credit card. Oh, and on top of that, the ring-back tone subscription was never removed from my account.
Oh. My. God. I was pissed. I had to get up extra early that morning to preorder and now to find out that my preorder was never processed. So what now? It’s not like I could go back and look up this Cherry person and ask her to fix my preorder!! So I had to move forward and put in my preorder again through this Phil person. He starts to process my preorder when he noticed that one of the lines I’m trying to upgrade to an iPhone 4S had been stalled. This is when he realized that there had been a preorder placed but because Cherry didn’t take down my credit card information, there was no form of payment so that preorder in now in limbo. Phil advised me not to cancel the preorder for that line but to move forward with placing the preorders for the other three lines I’m trying to upgrade. After about two hours on the phone with Phil, he processed three preorders for the iPhones and tells me he’ll be working with someone to get the fourth phone pushed through on his end. I requested that the phones get shipped to an address where I knew someone would be home to receive it, but according to Phil, he could only send the package to the billing address that appears on my account. Fine, I’ll just have to make sure that someone is home the day it gets delivered. For my inconvenience, he told me that he waived the priority shipping for my preorders to ensure that the phones get delivered to me on time. How nice, right?
I checked my email and an acknowledgement letter showed up saying my preorders are being processed. All except that last line which was in limbo.
After a few hours of constantly checking my email and looking up my order status on AT&T’s website, I found no news of the fourth iPhone order. Something about that conversation with Phil left me skeptical. Why couldn’t he just cancel that fourth line that was in limbo and push through that last preorder like the others? So I called back. There was, of course, no way to reach this Phil person ever again because all customer service reps have no direct line. So now I have to call the 1800 number and work with another customer service rep and explain my whole situation all over again.
It would be so much more convenient if there was one customer service rep that works with you so that the problem you’re calling about isn’t being reiterated over and over to somebody new every time you had to call back. I’m a patient person but at this point, I was seriously annoyed.
So this third rep, his name is Dan by the way, helped me cancel and re-place the preorder for the fourth line that was stuck in limbo. I asked for him to waive the priority shipping for the preorder like what Phil did for me earlier that day. Dan says, “um, yeah sure.” His tone of voice was a bit rude but I figured it was because I asked him to do something he wasn’t suppose to, until I later found out from a friend that ALL iPHONE PREORDERS SHIP THE SAME! There is no priority shipping. Oh my god I felt stupid. Of course Phil made up the priority shipping crap and Dan wouldn’t argue with me so he just went along with it to make me feel special for putting up with AT&T’s bullshit.
So I finally got my four phones preordered, again, and couldn’t wait until October 14 when Apple promised that all iPhones would start shipping out. Days go by and it’s now October 17… no sign of iPhones, no new status update on AT&T’s website, nothing.
Monday, October 17, 2011
I decided to call AT&T to speak to someone regarding my iPhone preorders. Again, I had to wait around for about half an hour until a guy by the name of Christopher receives my call. I ask him to check on the status of my preorders because they were supposed to have gone out on the 14th since I went through all the trouble of preordering (twice) and I haven’t received anything. He didn’t even hesitate and tells me that all iPhones are backordered. What. The. Eff. That means that even through all that trouble of preordering (twice!) I won’t be getting the iPhones for 2-3 weeks out. There was nothing he could do. He gave me a $25 credit for my inconvenience and sent me on my way.
I called everywhere to see if I could get my hands on the new iPhones but it was all sold out. Now it was just a matter of waiting until the phones are off back order. I decided to let the process run its course and not to stress over it any longer.
A week later I received an email that my preorders are now off back order and is finally getting processed and shipped.
Another week after that, I received tracking notification from FedEx saying my preorders will be shipped on October 24 and I should receive the phones by October 31. It was a great day.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Aside from me being sick all weekend, I had something to look forward to that day. My phones were getting delivered! I was on FedEx’s website constantly checking the status of the phones and it showed that the package would be delivered by 4pm that afternoon. I made my morning coffee, took a shot of cough syrup, and plopped back on my computer to check back on the status. Now it says “Delivery Exception. Order placed on HOLD.” Ok, now what?
I called AT&T for the umptheenth time to follow up on the status noted on FedEx’s website. FedEx’s website said that my order was placed on hold because they were “unable to receive payment”, which made no sense to me. I knew for a fact that I gave AT&T my credit card info and that Phil guy even emphasized that Apple won’t accept payment in any form besides a credit card. So what could this be? It sure as hell wasn’t a COD order!
I got shuffled around and around while I was on the phone for 3 hours waiting for someone from AT&T to help me. It was the most frustrating day of my life. Not to mention how drowsy I was from the medication! My call got connected to a lady by the name of Erica. She called FedEx on my behalf to try and resolve the issue but came back to me with a whole new set of problems. She told me that FedEx told her that they were unable to deliver the package to my house because the address that appears on the order was an unoccupied address. What??? That was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. I told her I wanted to speak to her supervisor and I want her supervisor to call FedEx while I was on the line with them to sort it out. She complied and her supervisor Michael is now helping me with my situation.
At first when Michael got on the phone with me, he still insisted that FedEx wouldn’t deliver the package to an unoccupied address. I told him over and over again that it was ridiculous because I know for a fact that address is good.
So here we go with a three-way conversation between me, Michael from AT&T, and Ricardo from FedEx. Ricardo tells me that the reason why there is a note saying the order is placed on hold is because AT&T instructed FedEx to do so. For whatever reason, AT&T thought that I didn’t pay for the phones (which I did) and placed it on hold. There was nothing FedEx could do to release that hold, their only responsibility is to ship the order and nothing else. Only AT&T could remove that hold on my order. I asked Ricardo why Michael from AT&T is telling me the address on the order is undeliverable, and Ricardo says there is no notation saying that. So where did Michael and Erica (who was helping me before she transferred me over to her supervisor) get that information? Did they just invent that out of the blue? RIDICULOUS!!!!
Now I’m back to yelling my guts out at Michael for deceiving me and telling me that my order was undeliverable because my house was UNOCCUPIED. And asked for him to authorize FedEx to deliver my package because I had already paid for the order! Michael kept saying there was nothing he could do and that he couldn’t make any authorization. So I told him to direct me to someone who could do something for me because my package was literally sitting in a FedEx facility 20 minutes from where I lived. It was aggravating.
After Ricardo from FedEx hangs up, Michael decides to tell me that the package will be shipped back to AT&T and that I had to put my order in again (for the third time, mind you) so that it could go through the proper processes to ensure delivery. He’s still convinced that the address is undeliverable and says I can ask that it be shipped to a working address. Then tell me why I remember distinctly that Phil (who placed the preorder for me weeks ago) said that it was required that the package be sent to the billing address on my account?? Why am I being lied to over and over again?
Michael now says my preorder is considered canceled and that if I wanted the iPhones I’d have to order all over again. At this point, I wasn’t sure if I was experiencing side effects from my cold medication or if I was about to faint from the stress. He credited me $75 for my inconvenience and said he will follow up on my order on November 10 if I was still interested in ordering again. I was so frustrated I was in tears.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Two days later, I checked FedEx’s website to track my package for the last time and it indeed is being routed back to AT&T in Texas. I looked online to check the status of my order on AT&T’s website but it still said, “shipped.” I called AT&T to double check that my order was canceled and an automated recording asked me to activate my new iPhone. At this point, nothing made sense anymore.
I’m placed on hold for about 10 minutes when my call finally gets picked up by a customer service rep named Paul. I felt terrible for putting this guy through my crazy venting ordeal for the next half hour but someone had to feel my wrath. After I was done venting and catching this guy up to speed, I asked him to make sure that the orders I placed for the iPhones are confirmed as canceled (according to that supervisor Michael) because the information on AT&T’s website doesn’t reflect that. He looks on his system and tells me the orders were already shipped and that if I was unsatisfied with the iPhones, I could receive a full refund within 30 days upon returning the iPhones. Um, ok, I don’t have the iPhones, so I have nothing to return, so what now? I can’t get my money back?? So I told him to look at my order, look for the tracking number supplied by FedEx, go to FedEx.com and tell me what the status says there because I don’t have any iPhones even though his system says they’re shipped. He placed me on a brief 2 minute hold and comes back to say, “According to my system, your order has been shipped.” Oh. My. God. I’m dealing with another moron.
The next 10 minutes wasn’t pretty. I chewed him out and told him to let me speak to his supervisor. He placed me on hold for 5 minutes and comes back to tell me his supervisor is unavailable at the moment. Bullshit. So I said I will hold until his supervisor is available to talk because someone needs to be able to sort this mess out. I could hear the panic in his voice when he tells me, “I’m truly sorry ma’am. I understand you’re frustrated. I can credit you $25 for your inconvenience.”
There lies AT&T’s flaw. When nothing could be done to satisfy the customer, they credit you for your inconvenience. I’ve been credited enough through this nightmare ordeal to pay for half of my next month’s bill but I still have no iPhones in hand, and I can’t get back that time I spent trying to sort out the mess that AT&T’s caused for me.
The only reason why I decided to preorder the new iPhone 4S’s through AT&T was to keep my unlimited data plan and to avoid any issues by going directly through my service provider. What a damn nightmare!
Friday, November 4, 2011
I went to the Apple store to pick up my iPhones I had reserved from the night before. I wish I could have done this from the very beginning before placing that stupid (and regretful) preorder a month ago. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.
I stood in line for about 25 minutes before an Apple sales rep by the name of Josh helped me with my reservation. He quickly processes the activation for my line and it was done in a matter of minutes. Then came the trouble of the other three lines. He tells me my other lines are ineligible for an upgrade. I nearly choked when he said that. So here we go again, for the millionth time, I’m calling AT&T.
I get through to a customer service rep named Karen and she quickly reviews the notes on my account and tries to verify that the preorders for the four iPhones were shipped back. She tells me the reason why the three other lines are not eligible is because I had already signed a 2-year contract when I did the preorder and so they were not due for an upgrade until June 2013. The damn preorder screwed up my upgrade eligibility and AT&T’s system was never updated to show that I never received any phones to actually be upgraded! I was so upset! I thought by calling on November 2nd I had already resolved this issue but that stupid, incompetent rep Paul never fixed a thing! I was fed up.
I end up staying on the phone with her for over an hour before she tells me there’s nothing she could do to reverse the changes. I told her to get her supervisor on the line because I didn’t go all this way to reserve my iPhones from the Apple store and walk away with nothing. No way in hell. Her supervisor Denise finally takes my call (after waiting for her for half an hour) and she’s now reviewing the notes on my account. So she spends another half an hour looking over everything before she reverses the upgrade for the three phone lines in order for me to purchase the iPhones from the store.
An hour later, Denise clears up all the mess on my account and I was able to upgrade the other three phones for my family without any other problems. I was at the Apple store at 10am and I didn’t leave until 1:30pm.
I will never forget this crazy nightmare with AT&T for as long as I shall live. After my contract ends in 2013, I’m seriously considering moving to a different carrier. Its just not worth it.
The untethered jailbreak for iPhone 4S and iPad 2 running iOS 5.0.1 has arrived! The process is really simple and it took me a little over 15 minutes to backup my device and successfully run the Absinthe jailbreak. Apple is still signing off on 5.0.1 firmware so I recommend you bring your devices up to date as soon as possible in order to jailbreak. This is not recommended if you plan to unlock your phone.
I spent over six hours yesterday glued to my desk without so much as a cup of coffee as a “meal” all day because I was completely absorbed with installing Mac OS X Lion for my iMac and Macbook, and upgrading my iPad firmware to iOS5. I haven’t gone all day without a meal since college when I was cramming for finals! Was it worth it? Hell yes!
