AT&T, I'm Begging You to Take My Money!

I try not to use this blog as a bully pulpit to vent personal frustrations, but over the past couple days I've experienced about the epitome of poor customer service - to the point that it has become a lesson.

It was very similar to the experience I had at a local Starbucks over four years ago (holy cow... I've been writing that long??).

Upon approaching the counter the clerk told me that her cash register wasn't working, therefore she couldn't serve me. 

You're kidding me, I thought.  I pointed out that her register was literally surrounded by a dozen or more Albertson's cash registers, but apparently the partnership between Albertson's and Starbucks doesn't allow each company to help the other out in a bind.  So I offered cash.  Almost exact change, but round up just to be safe, and keep the change.  Nope.  How about an extra buck or two just so I wouldn't have to go search for a coffee elsewhere.  Sorry.  She refused to take my money... while the fresh coffee brewed right behind her.

I wanted to give Starbucks cash business, even with some additional profit.  I wanted to take some of their excess, perishable inventory off their hands for significantly more than it was worth.  But they didn't want it.

I still think about that experience every time I go to that Starbucks.

Now I will think about a similar experience whenever I use my phone.  You see, I'm sort of roped into using AT&T for my cell phone since the tech geek early adopter in my insisted I get an iPhone.  Don't get me wrong- I wouldn't trade the iPhone for any other phone.  But having to deal with AT&T really pushes me to my limit.

All I wanted to do was add a second phone to my account, a basic cell phone for my wife.  I went to my online account at AT&T and there was a nice clear link for "add a line."  How simple!  I selected a phone that would be free with a typical contract, picked a nice cheap rate plan, hit checkout, and BOOM!  Something bombed and I got a "transaction cannot be completed" message.  Did it two or three more times.  Then I called the customer support number displayed in the message.

Customer service at that number is only available during business hours, and it was after 9pm.  You have got to be kidding me.  So I dug around and found another toll-free customer service number and got a human.  They walked through the same process I had just gone through online, and when it came time to checkout I was told the phone was only free if I used the online system.  Grrrr.... so I explained that the online system bombed, the customer service person got a supervisor, who refused to override the price to match what AT&T was offering online. 

I asked for another supervisor.  After another 15 minute wait that one did override the price, acted upset that I had been working on this problem online and on the phone for two hours at this point.  And then BOOM!  To add a phone I'd need a credit check.  You have got to be kidding.  I've had automatic bill pay for three years so every payment was on time, with the iPhone being one of their more expensive plans.  She could tell that I'd paid every bill on time.  But she couldn't authorize the credit for me to get a FREE phone.

And, you guessed it, the credit check people were only available during business hours.  Bam, hit the wall.  She did offer to call me back in the morning to handle it.  I said ok and went to bed.

No call the next day, so I called, and there was no record of any of the activity from the prior night.  I gave up, decided to cool it for a couple days, drink some wine, and chill out.  That's where I am now.  I just can't handle another mind-bending phone call for another day or so.  I've got better things to do.

AT&T, I want to give you money.  I want to enter into a two year contract that guarantees you money from a current customer that always pays his bill on time.  

Instead you're making a high value customer question the value received.  And you're making him vent on a blog with several thousand readers.  Pete Abilla over a schmula calculated that impact while telling his own story of Home Depot hell.

Never, ever make it difficult for a customer to do business with you.

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UPDATE:  I have been contacted by a regular reader who happens to work in the "Six Sigma Process" area at AT&T.  He has activated their internal escalation system, which resulted in several calls to me to help resolve the problem.  It took a while, but it now looks like it was resolved... the supposedly simple process of adding a new phone line... and giving AT&T some money!

Comments

[Dennis]

"but over the past couple days I've experienced about the epitome of poor customer service"
For you, this experience was the "epitime" of poor customer service? You don't get out much do you? Try dealing with some of the "dish" (satalite tv) providers. Actually, just one in particular. You will experience frustration at newer and higher lelels than ever before and your wallet will be a lot lighter.

[Kathleen]

How timely! I just went through the rigor and drama of adding my son to my AT&T plan which I only have because I LOVE my iphone (I detest, loathe, abhore cell phones). It took about three days -no, make that five considering I started on a weekend- to get it all worked out. Icing on the cake? I had to make special arrangements to have his name displayed on caller ID when he makes calls because being under my account, it was my name that displayed. That's a tip btw, make sure they transfer you the other department before you get off the phone because, of course, the customer service person can't do this for you. Nifty huh? I tell you, if AT&T didn't have the iphone contract, they'd be dead in the water.

[Dwane Lay]

I had a similar experience with Charter cable. They offered me a special rate for 12 months to sign up, and I did. Then they raised the rate 3 months later. I argued it back down, but it should have been a sign.

Then about a year later, I wanted to drop the internet speed down since the package had expired and the cost wasn't worth it. They offered to extent the special price. I said fine.

Two months later, the bills were not showing the new (old?) price. So I called. And called. And called. And three times I was told that price was only for "new" customers. I explained each time that I was offered the price, and expected them to honor it. Finally getting to deal with a supervisor (they were all "unavailable" or "in a meeting" on the first two calls), she told me they would honor the price with no problem, happy to do it, couldn't be simpler....except it was only valid for customers on direct bill. Sorry.

Of course, like you, I'd been on direct bill since day one.

So I pointed it out, she seemed surprised, and eventually it was taken care of. I stayed a customer for years, going through a similar dance every 6 months or so, especially when they started changing the rates without notice or, my favorite, changing the packages so it's hard to tell what the prices were for each component, but you could see the total price going up each month. (Another favorite was when they gave us premium channels, neither asked us nor informed us of them, them seemed surprised that we didn't feel we should pay for them.)

Eventually, we had a competitor move into the area to service TV and net connection. We jumped at the chance to switch....to AT&T. Go figure.

(Side note: The only issue we have had to far has been the rebate for new service. Rather than send a check, they send a note with a website for you to visit to request a check be sent. And it's a very easy to miss note. And the rebate expires in 60 days. And they FAQ says once the date has passed, sorry, no love. Which we didn't see until after the date passed. But they were happy to send us the check after a 2 minute phone call. A bit underhanded, but the service from the call was solid.)

[James]

Wait until you get hit with their "Upgrade Fee". That showed up on my wife’s plan and mine about two weeks ago. We just got some "free" phones with no activation fee and this "Upgrade Fee" showed up on our bill.

I too found their customer service wasn't available when I needed to call. So, when I called back, I asked what the fee was. The customer service person was well versed in what the fee was (something about administration fees ... like they are not making enough money and by the way all the administration is a couple computer keystrokes) and why I should just pay it even though I was getting no value out of it.

Long story short, I actually had to remind them how long I was a customer and I would cancel my upgrade (and service extension) if they wouldn't remove the fee.

Definitely a company that doesn't get the concept that you have to add or at least maintain value for the customer or the customer goes away.

[Phil Christopher]

"Never, ever make it difficult for a customer to do business with you."

I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've responded to a merchants marketing or advertising campaign, only to have a really crappy experience when I got there.

I wonder how much they spent to get me there, only to pee on my leg and assure I won't return.

[Brian Buck]

Is bad customer service even more painful for those of us who teach and practice lean?

I just blogged the first part of my nightmare getting custom windows where the quality and customer service were awful!

Your Starbucks story is crazy also. :)

[Frank East]

That is why I don't have an iphone...

[david foster]

Some of these issues are discussed at my post "Mindless Verbal Taylorism"..

http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/8034.html

[Jul]

I just got a call from my wife and she told me almost the same story. In this case, however, the company was Verizon.

Same thing, she tried to order new service online, the website gave her an error message. When she called customer service (and she had to call 3 times), the first customer service representative had no idea the plan she was talking about. She called a second time and she was able order the new service but the representative wanted to charge her because the free promotion was a only available online. After several minutes on the phone, she was told that they were going to honor the online offer.

She called back a couple of hours later to inquire about activation costs. At that call she found out that they had no record of her previous conversion, the one in which she was told that she was not going to pay. Furthermore, the representative was rude!

It is amazing how us, the customers, have to be begging for their service. It should be the other way around!

[BestISPoffers]

Reminds me of dealing with Sprint. A company refusing to take your money is just plain out crazy.

[Jan Jochmann]

I think Brian is right with his question:
"Is bad customer service even more painful for those of us who teach and practice lean?"

I believe it is because we are continuosly developing our ability to SEE waste and do not accept things just because "it has been always done this way".

I had a similar experience with TV services provider in my country (Slovakia, Europe). To make the long story short:
- it took 13 weeks to get the service instead of the promised 8 weeks
- it took more than 25 calls to the customer service, mostly with no effect
- it took 2 written complains
- during using the service I got a bad invoice so far 3 times (due to the same problem they had in their system)

These are just the "cherries" from this adventure.
Thanks God the service itself so far works just fine for me.

[Allen Coffman]

I think you should provide an email address at AT&T for everyone who reads this to send their comments to AT&T about the level of service... however, I unfortunately just spent 20 min. looking for a stupid email address on their website and was unable to come up with one.... go figure.

[Just Some Guy]

A Wendy's restaurant in Annapolis. About nine a.m. Restaurant is OPEN. We walk in and manager makes a point of informing us immediately that they do not serve ANY food at that time of day, only juice and coffee.

What the...?

And my wife doesn't understand why I get grumpy with these businesses.

[Martin B]

At least you could complain to someone.

Google Groups was down for a week where it was not possible to post to moderated newsgroups.

Nowhere to complain. No news of the outage. No statement that Google was aware of the problem and working on it.

A week later Google Groups just started working again.

But during that week you can be sure there were frantic searches for alternatives to GG, and much thinking on the best way to replace it.

[alan]

hello Kevin,

i am a regular reader and this message made me smile tonight.

I live in france and i have been going through a few issues with "customer service" here in France..

Recently in a restaurent, I ordered 2 glasses of Wine (16€), the wine, surprizing enough, was of poor quality, and as this was an important dinner for me, I decided to change the glasses for a bottle (36€) (+20 or so euros for the restaurant).. they waiter refused to take back the 2 glasses to replace them by a bottle.. insisting that I pay both the glasses and the bottle. They were sort of missing the bigger picture..

Another recent incident was with my phone company, they have a very simple online capacity when you move, except that without going into the boring details, they some how are "unable to cable" the new house due to the "old phone company") - the phone company is no longer a public company.. and told me to "subscribe" to the "old company", then once the line was in to call them and they would be able to transfer back the line to them again.. sorry? did I understand wrong here? send me to the competitor, so that I can then come back to do business with them? again.. i guess don't understand the bigger picture..

best regards
alan

[Marc M]

I can't complain about AT&T's customer service...there isn't any.
They never answer their phones.