What To Do When The AT&T Rep Won't Help You
Last week we wrote that AT&T charged Spoco's Amex card twice for the same payment, but their CSRs refused to investigate the issue for him. After we posted his story, AT&T took notice and reversed the charge. That raises the question these stories always raise, which is, "How do I get the same result if my problem isn't published on Consumerist?"
We've covered executive email carpet bombs (EECBs) plenty of times before, and we try to publish unlisted numbers to helpful offices when we get them. We've also talked a lot about how the chargeback is your friend. But EECBs and chargebacks are both pretty severe actions, and we figured there had to be some middle-ground you could try first, so we asked an AT&T representative what you should try if the CSR keeps refusing to help you.
We'll admit, this isn't some silver bullet that will solve your problems. However, it does provide you with a couple of "official" routes to try when the front line of customer service fails.
Our reps are trained that escalation is part of the process, and they are explicitly instructed to escalate every time it's requested.
Each time you call, make note of the rep's name and the time and date you call. If you ask to be connected to a supervisor and you are not connected, hang up and call back in, THEN IMMEDIATELY ask to speak to a supervisor. We want to know when our protocol isn't followed, and we want to resolve your issue.
Alternately, customers can log into their AT&T On-line Wireless Account and click on "Contact Us." Then there is a box titled "Customer Service" where you can select "Click Here to Email Us." After answering some questions via the drop-down box, you can then describe the issue and request contact from a manager. [emphasis ours]
(Photo: ? Zach Hoeken ?)
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Since we can't get the same results, why not fire all the customer service people (including all those levels of managers/supervisors), reduce the cost of the product and keep a single person around who monitors Consumerist and other customer advocacy sites and fixes those problems.
Same amount of work for me the customer, same amount of work for the guys at Consumerist, less cost for the product.
And what to do when an AT&T rep WILL help you?
Lock the doors...head to the cellar...gather your loved ones...
@JeffMC
Um - Same amount of work for Consumerist? I think you're forgetting about the thousands of calls a day that companies like AT&T receive that don't have problems. I promise you that ATT fields more than 1000 calls a day and I wouldn't be at all surprised if that number was over 5000 - how exactly are the six or so employees of consumerist supposed to tackle that again?
Or, you were joking?
@DreamTheEndless: 5000 is very low, too. AT&T has over a dozen call centers that handle calls for the west region of the US. Just for wireless.
I'll spare everyone the tedious details, but a few months ago, I had a hair-pulling experience with AT&T's phone tree, recordings instead of live reps, and then a contracted call center in Canada. I looked up contact information on Consumerist.com, and while that number didn't turn out to be the one I needed, that person gave me the number I DID need -- and that AT&T CSR was polite, helpful, answered my question, and even helped me with additional information that I didn't know about. After that, she voluntarily transferred me to her supervisor, who asked me about my experience with the call center in Canada.
The number I called was (800) 288-2020, which is the number for something like "Customer Resolution Department." If I understood correctly, it's in Tulsa or San Antonio and is for people in that region. If you're in another part of the country, though, no doubt they could direct you to someone in your region.
@DreamTheEndless: LOL@1000 calls a day! I happen to know just the call center in Tennessee alone, was handling HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of calls a month. And this was back when it was just Cingular....There are reps that take over 100 calls a day, by their-selves. 1000 calls a day. I'm still lol'ing.
@Snarkysnake: Only problem with a chargeback with ATT is you'll be calling about your suspended phone before they will call you about your chargeback. I know. I've seen it.
@kaycee: For some reason this strikes me as hilarious, the way you refer to Canada as though it were an overseas call centre in Bangladesh or something.
OMG they transferred me to Canada! I couldn't understand a word they were saying, it was all "eh" and "toque" and "double-double"!!!
@Englishee Teacher:
It wasn't that I couldn't understand them. What gave you that idea? I didn't even know they were in Canada until the service was so bad/nonexistent that after 20 minutes, I asked to speak to someone who could answer my simple question since the CSR couldn't. He simply refused to answer my question -- said he didn't know the answer, and wouldn't find someone who did. He left me on hold for 10 minutes, then came back and told me the supervisor said he was too busy to speak with me, and the supervisor told him to put me back in the queue to speak with a different CSR. At that point I asked for his name and his supervisor's name, and that was when he told me he was in Canada. When I reported them to the supervisor I described in my original post, he said they had received a lot of complaints about that call center.
By the way, my original issue that I was talking to AT&T about was a man who repeatedly makes extremely vile, obscene calls to me only when my husband is not home -- and therefore he can obviously see where I live. Perhaps you can understand why it's alarming to me that a man willing to say those kinds of things repeatedly and persistently can see my house and know when my husband is not home. I had some questions for AT&T on what steps to take, and my dissatisfaction with the Canadian CSR's inability to answer my question had nothing to do with nationality or an accent. As a matter of fact, he had no discernable accent at all. The reason I originally said "contracted call center in Canada" was that I was dealing with someone not only out of my region, but out of my country and not an AT&T employee, but at a contract call center.
@kaycee: I"ll bet your husband is not home between he hours of approximately 9 and 6. Just guessing.
And how about this for a step? Change your number and/or call the local police
"Escalation" often doesn't help much with AT&T. I've been hung up on by the front line rep several times after I asked to speak to a manager.
Your best bet for the Death Star is an Exectutive Email Carpet Bomb. The direct email address of Grand Moff Randall Stephenson, ATT's CEO, is rs2982@att.com.
@Englishee Teacher:
Too late, I noticed your screen name. If I had paid attention, I would have constructed my sentences more carefully.
@macinjosh:
No -- this lowlife calls not only during the typical daytime working hours when my husband would be gone, but also evenings, weekends, and holidays when my husband would normally be home but happens to be gone. The lowlife has actually called twice when my husband was home -- on both occasions, my husband had parked his truck in back of our house to unload something and left it there overnight -- where it was not visible from our street.
I have taken all the steps to have the man's number traced and reported it to my local law enforcement. However, our local law enforcement (sheriff's office) are unresponsive. Apparently, they don't consider this a real problem unless the man actually does something to me. They say they can't do anything since the company that the number belongs to (it's a cell phone number) won't respond to the deputy's calls. The deputy says they're not allowed to travel outside the county to pursue anything. Obviously, I know that if they considered it serious enough, they could pursue it through law enforcement in that county, but they don't care about this. Both my husband and I have talked to them numerous times, but they just don't care.
It appears that the only thing I can do is to have a privacy manager on my phone, so that if anyone with an unknown number calls me, before the call even comes to my phone the caller is required to record their phone number and let me listen to it before I decide whether or not to approve it. Since then, this man has not called me that I know of. But when I'm outside working in my yard, or if my husband is out of town, I can't help but wonder if this lowlife is watching me. I'm not living in fear -- in fact, more than anything, it makes me angry that he can get away with this. I wish someone would hold him accountable. This has been occurring off and on for seven or eight years and I'm a little bit creeped out by it, too.
Funny story, I use the online case submission process for when my wife's iphone stopped getting voice mail.
I got three ATT mail responses from 3 different people (um red flag for case hand offs). The first one was exactly what I expected. sorry but you have to call in I'm useless blah blah. Ok no I shelved it not having time to play ATT call center roulette.
The next two email's I got (different people) where from the business group (who I think my account was originally setup through). Both said no problem they would send a file to the phone and I should reset it at my earliest convince in case the remote reset doesn't take yada yada.
You know what, it worked, I reset the thing all the missed call notices and vm rolled in within thirty seconds.
I then got two separate vm on my phone telling me the that the work was done and I can reset the other phone and such. that was great, even excessive but hey that was ok with me.
Sadly I suspect that the first mail is the normal stop for most folks
Just a second here... For all of the parent company's flaws ,Amex does a great job of handling chargebacks for members . If BigHugeCo gives you frostbite when trying to resolve an issue , just go the chargeback route. That will get their attention faster than anything. I have had Amex since '94 ,and have yet to have a lingering issue after charging back. That's why their service is different than other cards- there is a transparent charge that you know that you pay for a certain level of service without all of the bullshit games and gotchas.Not saying that they are perfect here (God help you if you are sent to their collections department) , but at least you know what side of the table they are sitting on when things go sour.
So I mildly disagree with Chris that a chargeback is a sever action. If you can't get their attention any other way ,bring out the whoopin stick and use it.