Tag: AT&T

Confessions

Just One More Reason to Hate AT&T

I know it has been done before.  In fact, I believe it has been written about and actually published and then endorsed by Clark Howard.  But today it is my turn to complain on a strictly personal (and mostly economically, professionally, or otherwise academically uninformed) level.  As if being the biggest asshole in the name of customer service wasn’t enough, today I have discovered yet another reason to add to my growing list of reasons to hate AT&T.

Reasons I Hate You, AT&T

  1. You seem to hire predominantly incompetent and, generally speaking, rude people.  I can actually handle rude.  I can often handle incompetent.  It is the two-for-one that gets me.  You cannot be both stupid and mean at the same time.  Pick one.  Hell, be both, just consider rotating days.
    Example: MWF = idiot days.  TRS = asshole days.
  2. When we signed up for $14.99/month Internet but no cable you charged us something like $52 for what was loosely labeled “start-up fees.”  What this covered was the sending of a representative out to the house to check out our “DSL hookup capabilities.”  I’m fairly certain the only thing he checked out that day was noting the fact that an actual house existed at the address provided.  You then charged us the start-up fee for the first three months.  (See complaint #1 for how those phone calls went.)
  3. Dropped call percentage rate.  No details necessary.  Your entire wireless customer base would back me on this one.
  4. Coverage area.  I cannot understand how my phone seems to work with full bars in the gravel parking lot at church, but round the corner and hit some pavement and blammo, down to a half a bar if I’m lucky.  There are no trees.  The building is only one story tall.  It’s like you’ve purposefully planted little AT&T black holes around the globe to secretly suck the soul from my cell phone at the exact moment I was considering complimenting you.
  5. The fact that I have to locate and click “View Bill” on three different pages for a total of three times before I’m actually able to view my bill online, and then, I have to expand each individual charge area to read exactly why I have a new $0.86 charge this month that wasn’t there last month.  Which leads me to today’s addition of…
  6. Random charges which fluctuate monthly without warning nor explanation.  Today I discovered the $3.74 Federal Universal Service Charge.  *Aside: A little Google search taught me that this is a government mandated tax, basically, for the subsidizing of telecommunication fees to schools and libraries, and provision of affordable telecommunication for low income customers.  In short, I have come to believe that you are a socialist, AT&T.  (It could be noted here that the likelihood of your coverage area actually extending to within the walls of any public school on the planet is wishful thinking, at best.  I’m also wondering why I’m not on the receiving end of such provisions.)  You are also the only company actually charging customers a separate fee for this tax rather than simply building it in to the monthly service fee.  This is like offering a salad as part of a meal then arbitrarily charging for croutons.  And then changing the price of each crouton and varying the amount on the salad every month.  Meanwhile, brother next to me is eating all the free croutons he can stomach and I’m apparently paying for it.  All I’m saying is, not only will I pass on the croutons today, but I’d also prefer that I’m not hosting free-premium-salad-fixins-fest for a bunch of people who would be just as happy with saltines.  Am I clear?

Rant for the day, over.  Unfortunately, I can’t even speak personally to the upwards of three hours a week, four months in a row, wasted on the phone with AT&T over problems with our Internet bills.  I automatically sic my professional bully on that job and once again thank my lucky stars that I married a man with the intestinal fortitude to handle it and the sadistic-sixth-bully sense to actually enjoy it once in a while.

Tomorrow, back to our regularly scheduled lighthearted posts, this time including reindeer.

Confessions

iPhone Anxiety

Typically, I am not a fickle decision maker.

This is especially true when someone else is paying for the thing on which I’m deciding.

When it comes to spending my own money, however, I tend to be a bit obsessive about making changes to my routine, adding a new expense to the budget, or deciding on a major purchase.  It kills me, because, the longer I spend thinking about a decision, the less I trust myself.

But I think I may have discovered a solution to this problem:  Make the decision.  React.  Undo decision if reaction is more negative than positive.

Thank God we live in a 30-day money-back-guarantee world.

On Tuesday, John and I mutually ended a 6 year relationship with Verizon and committed to AT&T.  The decision was not made instantly, and most of it was out of my control.  John’s been flirting with AT&T for several months now as he’s building a business with nothing but Apple technology.  This is one expensive relationship which I fully support and plan to join at home as soon as possible.  The cell phone break up, however, has not been so stress free.

On principle, I hate AT&T.  I hate their customer service.  I hate their coverage.  I hate their website and its inability to be forthcoming about what is the best plan to fit my family’s needs.  I hate that their customer service representatives range from Johnny-On-The-Money-Saving-Spot to High School Dropout and that inevitably, whatever Johnny told you yesterday, is no longer available today and suddenly neither is Johnny.

However.

It turns out, for what we need right now, AT&T is cheaper than Verizon.  And, in all fairness, I hate Verizon, as a company, for all of the same above reasons.  The only difference is that I haven’t made any changes to my cheapest cell phone plan on Earth in 6 years, so I never have to deal with them.  And, because of the iPhone 4, the previous generation iPhone is currently $50 with an AT&T contract.  To John (and his business mind), this is a steal that he snatched up immediately.  My first (and entirely wrong) reaction was: “Why do you get all the fun toys?  That is not fair.”

What a stupid thought.  What a stupid thing to say.

Unfortunately, my husband agreed with me.

So I bought an iPhone and we signed a 2 year contract that will cost us $140 a month.  *GULP*

I called it a “business expense” and blinked exactly twice before signing the paper.

Then I went home.

I have been having mild to moderate to severe anxiety ever since.

My brain:

Can you really justify an extra $15 a month right now for a data-plan you may or may not need?  (Yes, probably.  That’s only $0.50 a day.  I’ll potty train Carter this summer and it will come out of our diaper budget.)  You have an iPod Touch that you rarely use.  What makes you think you’ll use the iPhone features if you don’t even use them on your iPod Touch?  (Good point.)  How often are you in an area that does not have Wi-Fi access where you could not live without the Internet?  (The park?)  Wait a minute.  What do you do all day?  Do you really need Internet access all the time no matter where you go?  What are you going to do, check your email?  How many emails did you receive in total last week?  (Not counting Groupon nor grocery store deals?  Four.)  Do you really want to be that available?  Do you really want to be that woman, checking her phone every 5 minutes like she’s so important?  (Oh God.  I hate that woman.  Is that what I would be?  Yes.  Yes it is.  And I hate her.  I’m not that important.  I don’t even have a desk job.  When I did have a desk job, my favorite thing about it was leaving everything on my desk when I left for the day and boasting of my ability not to do any work at home.  The most important things in my day haven’t even fully grasped fine motor skills, let alone the use of their fingers for things like typing.  In fact, any and all emergency situations would likely result from my lack of attention to them, the chances of which rise with the idea of portable Facebook.  Do I really want my children to associate me with a hand-held idiot box?  What kind of message am I sending?!)

And with that, my decision has been made.

I’ll be returning to AT&T tomorrow.