Greetings O exalted ones!
at&t
AT&T Says They'll Charge $25 "Activation Fee" To Move SIM From A Broken Phone To A GoPhone
By 3.13.08
Does AT&T really charge a $25 “activation fee” when you move your SIM card to a GoPhone? A father had to replace his child’s broken cellphone over the weekend, and the rep at the AT&T store told him the only way to avoid an ETF or plan extension was to buy a GoPhone and pay an activation fee, even though the SIM card was the same. Online, you can buy a new GoPhone and have the activation fee waved. Way to treat your current customers, AT&T.
AT&T To Start Charging You For Paying Them Money
By 3.12.08
An AT&T insider tells us that starting March 11th AT&T has begun charging customers in the Southeast an extra $5 if they call in to make their payment over the phone by speaking to a customer service rep. He says this is set to be rolled out nationally starting in May. Please only speak to our robots, otherwise you will be punished, thanks.
AT&T Won't Sell You iPhone Because "You're Going To Unlock It"
By 3.10.08
Colin writes:
I went into my nearest ATT store and there were two CSR’s behind the counter- I asked for an 8gig Refurb iPhone thats being sold for $249 and the kid said sure and walked me over to the desk. The next words out of his mouth “What is your social security number?” No “How are you today?” “Thanks for coming in” No, apparently they just want my credit report to see if I am “worthy”
By 3.7.08
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In response to yesterday’s post, another AT&T employee writes, “Just to clear up some confusion, AT&T may charge an administrative fee when paying your wireless bill with a representative. There is no charge to use the automated payment systems. The source for this is the tagline on my bill.”
AT&T To Charge $5 For Payments Over The Phone In May
By 3.6.08
An anonymous AT&T employee who says to call him “Vernon” wrote in to tell us that starting next Tuesday, March 11th, some customers in the Southeast who call in to make a payment will be charged $5, with the fee going nationwide by May. He writes, “I feel this is taking advantage of our customers’ trust, because even when we put it on all of their bills, and let people know, there will be tons of reps that won’t let the customer know they’re being charged for taking their payment.”
AT&T Mobility Agrees To Refund Money To Florida Customers & Pay $2.5 Million To State's CyberFraud Task Force
By 3.4.08
Florida’s Attorney General scored a victory for consumers last week, when AT&T Mobility agreed to refund fees that third-party vendors snuck onto thousands of accounts under the guise of “free” ringtones, wallpapers, and text content. They also agreed to hand over $2.5 million to help fund the state’s recently-created CyberFraud Task Force, to spend $500,000 for “consumer education on safe Internet use,” and to start policing third-party vendors better and make sure all billed items are clearly described.
AT&T Reps Don't Know Own ETF Policy
By 2.8.08
8 out of 12 AT&T customer service reps don’t know their company’s own early Early Termination Fee (ETF) policy. Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports, called up AT&T to inquire about the policy and got several different answers. Some said that the ETF was halved after the first year of contract, while others said it went down each month. In fact, while AT&T has talked about switching to a pro-rated ETF, they haven’t yet. Whether you cancel service 1 month into or one month before the end of contract, it will cost you $175. Consumers Union called the other major cellphone providers too, and they gave out the right information. Couple this news and the story yesterday about reps giving out wrong information about upgrading to a new iPhone locking you into a new two-year contract, and it plum looks like AT&T has a serious front-line rep training problem.
New iPhone, New 2-Year AT&T Contract
By 2.7.08
Some iPhone users are being told that they have to sign up for a new 2-year contract if they upgrade from the 8gb iPhone to the 16gb iPhone. Even though Apple’s website and AT&T’s internal official policy says this is not the case, some AT&T reps are insisting that customers have to extend their contract. Fortunately, they are completely misinformed. You just get your new iPhone, update your account through iTunes, and boom, you’re good to go, no contract extension.
Verizon To Hollywood: We're Not The Piracy Police
By 2.6.08
AT&T and Comcast may be willing to help Hollywood control piracy on their networks, but Verizon wants none of it, says the New York Times.
AT&T Gives You The Runaround Over Your Military Discount
By 2.6.08
Now he’s launched an EECB on AT&T and has CC’d us so we can listen in.
Reach AT&T Executive Customer Service, Rebates, Retentions
By 2.5.08
Retentions 866-485-5238
(Photo: bryce_edwards)
By 2.3.08
../../../..//2008/02/03/wondering-how-undersea-cables-in/
Wondering how undersea cables in Asia recently interfered with AT&T’s network? Wired ran an excruciatingly detailed piece in 1996 by the hacker tourist that explains how the worldwide network of undersea cables—tubes, if you will—connects us to our friends halfway around the world. [Wired]
Tmobile Ranked Highest In Customer Care
By 2.1.08
Tmobile is yet again as number one in customer care., according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Wireless Customer Care Rating. Tmobile scored 105, Verizon comes just behind at 101, Alltell and AT&T tie at 99, and Sprint puts in a poor showing at 83. The survey measures quality of interaction with customer service reps, automated response systems, in-store visits, and online chats. Tmobile consistently ranks high on the survey due to a company culture dedicated to solving problems on the first call. As for the other providers? The subheading on the rating agency’s press release says it all, “When Customer Care Issues Are Handled by an Automated Response System Wireless Provider Performance Drops Dramatically”
AT&T MMS Pics Are Being Reduced Without Explanation, If They're Sent At All
By 2.1.08
What’s up, AT&T? Your MMS messages have been acting wonky since the beginning of the year, according to posters on HowardForums. When they do come through, they’ve been reduced to a tiny postage-stamp size, whereas in the past they were delivered unaltered. We’ve been testing the service all morning with our N95 and not a single photo MMS gets in or out.
By 2.1.08
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An AT&T spokesman says yesterday’s data network outages across the U.S. were the result of the cut undersea cable in the Mediterranean that’s caused Internet and phone disruptions across Northern Africa, India and the Middle East. The cable will take 12-15 days to fix, although AT&T’s U.S. network was back up by the end of the day yesterday. [The Seattle Times]
AT&T Data Outages Hit Midwest, AT&T Says Nothing
By 1.31.08
Rick in Chicago wrote to us this morning to let us know that he hasn’t been able to access AT&T’s 3G network all day. So far, AT&T has told him nothing, nor have they made an announcement: “text messaging still seems to work, so they could send out a text message to let people know ,” he IMs us. He got confirmation that it was the network and not his company-issued phone from his company’s tech department. This blog says it’s 3G and Edge, while this blog says its UMTS that’s down and disabling Treos and Blackberries.
Reader Escapes Verizon Contract Without ETF, Even Though He Has Text Message Plan
By 1.28.08
Until now, we’ve been telling people trying to escape their cellphone contract without early termination fees based on a raise in text message prices that it’s necessary that they don’t have a text message plan. However, reader Mtman says he used a novel argument to get out of his Verizon plan, even though he did have a text message plan!
