Andi has an inspiring tale of how she Jedi Mind Tricked AT&T into cutting through the poppyock CSRs fed her about a mandatory delay to restore her disconnected DSL service.

Gather ’round and bask in the glow of an example of getting one’s way through calm, resolute persistence:

I don’t know if you’re the right person for this, but I thought I should let someone know about AT&T’s internet department.

I got disconnected today, mind you, for a problem that was my own fault. But still, I corrected my billing issue and expected my DSL to be promptly turned back on. I work from home and NEED my DSL.

Boy, was I wrong!

Tech support sent me to billing. Billing confirmed my payment and sent me back to tech support. Tech support said there was a “process” for turning on my service and that it would be 24 to 48 hours.

This was unacceptable. Period. I know they can turn it on as quickly as they turn it on. Tech support sent me back to billing. Billing said there were no longer any flags on my account and they saw the turn-on order as of 12:40pm EST.

Good. Now, send me to someone to turn it on.

They said they couldn’t. I asked for a supervisor. After a 10 minute wait, a supervisor joined me on the line. She, although polite, also said she could not help me. She said they were working on it and it should be on in 24 hours. Would I like escalation? Yes, I would, thank you.

Escalation joins me on the line after, once again, a 5 minute wait. And this lady was not nice. At all. She told me it would be 72 hours at minimum for my internet to be restored. And if I didn’t like it, tough. I did manage to get out of her that tech support was the department that actually turned back on my services.

I get transferred back to tech support. And the gentleman on the line was obviously new. So, I convinced him, after jumping a few hoops, to transfer me to provisioning. Finally…a person who will help!!

Provisioning was very prompt, technical and kind. He immediately opened my file and said, “I see your request posted in our system at 2pm. They are saying June 1 for a turn on date. That’s crazy. Hold on, let me expedite this”.

My Internet was back up in 10 Minutes.

The moral of the story, when dealing with AT&T, BE PERSISTENT. There are people there who will help….getting to them can be a fight. Keep at it. You’ll find someone eventually and they will turn your internet back on.

And for reference, if your internet is off and needs to be switched back on, you want Provisioning within Tech support. Ask for it. Keep at it. When you get to them, be aware, that as long as it is a SOFTWARE problem (your log on is disconnected or such), they can do it fast. If the physical wire to your house is bad or off, it’s going to take time for a tech to come out and fix it.

What do you do to convince CSRs over the phone that those weren’t the droids they were looking for?

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