AT&T Won't Let Me Drop Old Landline After A Move

When Deanna moved from one unit to another in the same building, she figured it would be simple enough to move her AT&T landline account from the old apartment to the new one. Despite numerous dealings with AT&T’s bumbling customer service, she can’t seem to shake the old account.

She writes:

The day of my service move, October 11, I took the day off from work because AT&T could not give me a timeframe for their visit. But, I was supposed to get a call in the morning to share if they would be around before or after lunch. No call came. At 1:00 I called AT&T with my service move conformation code. I was told that the move was not scheduled for the 11th and there was nothing they could do. They explained that my new apartment was not in their files and that the unit would need to be rewired for AT&T. Just plain not true. The building I live in was built in 1955 and converted to apartments four years ago. My address exists and has been wired for AT&T since the conversion because it is the only carrier downtown.

After an hour and a half on the phone, because my AT&T wireless service kept dropping my call when on hold, I was told the soonest someone could come was October 13. I could not afford another day away from the office, especially since I had already taken this one off, and asked them to cancel my service all together. They offered no additional consolation. Well, I had to be transferred to another department to cancel and the call dropped again. It was the end of the day, so I gave up.

The next day I walked over to a corporate office down the street and the cell phone store at this location let me sit with one of their landlines. Supposedly I canceled my service and was given a conformation code.

On November 5th I got a bill for service through November 28th from AT&T. What? No customer service was available until Monday. When I called, with my cancellation code, they verified the code and said the service was never turned off because the move order was never fulfilled. I said, “This is your problem, not mine, right,” and they agreed. Supposedly they proceeded to remove the charge for service that I could not use if I wanted since I moved out of that apartment and finally canceled my service. I am skeptical. I asked for conformation codes and emails to verify. My cancellation code was not changed from the original request and no email has arrived.

A simple move within one building turned into a nightmare. I asked to speak to a manager or director to share my story in hopes it might help others from a similar fate. I was transferred to voice mail where I said I had experienced terrible customer service and if the person did not return my call, or have someone else return my call, it would be one more indication of the terrible AT&T customer service. So far, no one has called.

What’s the most difficult experience you’ve had transferring phone service?

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