Koji would like to sign up for AT&T DSL. However, some evil force at AT&T doesn’t want him as a customer, and keeps sneaking into the computer system to cancel his account activation and otherwise destroy any hope that he might have of DSL. Why is this happening? No one at AT&T knows.

I don’t know if I’ve had the worst experience with AT&T of any consumer, but I think this must rank up there. I am writing this on September 2. I ordered high speed internet service from AT&T on Friday the 13th of all days. I’ve yet to have my service activated.

At the time, I was elated. 3.0 mbps speeds for 15 dollars a month, and they were even going to give me a free modem and have it all setup by the 17th. Since the only other competitor in my area had speeds about 1/30th of that, I eagerly went for it. That same day I received a confirmation order from AT&T confirming my good fortune.

Tuesday came and went. I recieved no modem, nor anything in the mail, or any further emails from AT&T. I’m a patient man though. I waited until the next Friday to try again. I ended up talking to customer service, with people who 1.) could not pronounce or even spell my name and 2.) could not stop offering me other great services from AT&T and 3.) were not really sure that I even had an account, even though I had an account number, order number, and confirmation email that said to the contrary. After about 3 hours mostly spent holding as I was transferred nilly willy, I was assured that everything was in order. It would be activated the following Thursday, on the 26th. Also, they knew nothing of the free modem that was offered to me and demanded I buy one from them for 75$, though I finally got them to admit that I could buy a modem from someone else. So, I order a modem online and wait patiently for my highspeed internet.

Thursday rolls around. I plug in my new modem from Newegg. Nothing happens. I received no further emails, nothing in the mail, etc. And most importantly, the service was still not activated. That same day, now pretty much seething with rage, I decided to give it one more try. I went through the same rigmarole and was told after about 2 hours on the phone that, once again, my order had been canceled. When I asked why, I was informed that “the computer” had canceled my order, but that “it was totally fine and working now”. When I asked what had changed, that it would work perfectly now, when twice I had been assured that same thing to no avail, I was told nothing. They informed me that I would get my internet service activated tonight–7 days from that phone call–no later than 8 pm central. It’s past ten now. So, I borrowed my neighbors internet, logged on and checked my email. Apparently, last Thursday, AT&T sent me this email a few hours after I had hung up.

“Dear KOJI [last name],

Thank you for choosing AT&T High Speed Internet!
Your order for AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet has been cancelled. If you need further assistance
please contact our Help Desk at 1-877-722-3755.

AT&T High Speed Internet is provided by AT&T Internet Services with customized
content, services, and applications from Yahoo! Inc. Yahoo!, the Yahoo! logos
and other product and service names are the trademarks and/or registered
trademarks of Yahoo! Inc. (c) 2008 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights
reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other AT&T marks contained herein are
trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies.

Please do not respond to this email as it will go to an unmonitored email box.
All responses are automatically deleted.”

I froth with rage.

It’s enough to make a person wish there were actually a valid competitor to AT&T in Koji’s area, isn’t it?

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