I have had cell phone service with AT&T for 6 years and internet for the past 1+. Recently I also decided to add a home phone since I am now working from home . This was “supposed” to be more convenient. Unfortunately the number that was assigned to us for our DSL line was also listed online for a staffing company. Obviously this is not AT&T’s fault. When we turned on the phone line and finally plugged in a land line phone to it, we realized we were getting about 20 calls a day for this staffing company.
When I called AT&T to explain what was going on the customer service rep said the all they could do to fix the problem was give me a new phone number. Well duh, that’s why I was calling. So they gave me a new phone number and everything should have been fixed. The next day I was still getting the phone calls for the staffing company. You can imagine my confusion. I decided to call my old number from my cell phone and see if it called my home phone. Well the good news was that it didn’t, the bad news was that I got a message when I called my old number saying that the phone number I was trying to reach had been disconnected, but then it gave my new phone number. So people were hanging up and then calling my new number. I called AT&T back, albeit a little frustrated at this point, and they had to forward me to “traffic” where the representative said that all they could do was change the message to say the number has been disconnected. Once again, duh, that’s why I was calling.
Now here’s where I really started to get frustrated. I had to call three seperate days to tell them that the message on the old phone number had yet to be changed. Each time they told me that the change would take place at midnight and each morning I was still getting phone calls for the staffing company. I finally was fed up, the only way I could fix this was to cancel my phone service. Amazingly when I called customer service and explained why I wanted to cancel my service they said ok and transferred me to the cancellation people, who canceled my service with no questions. Wow!!! That is some amazing customer retention.
I am now trying to find a new DSL provider and will be changing my cell phone provider when my contract expires. Good Job AT&T!!! So instead of trying to retain my $30/month home phone service you will now lose $40/month in DSL and $200/month for my families cell phone contract.
Who wants to give me ideas for new DSL/Home Phone /Cell Phone providers that they love!!!
-Tracy
PS. I can’t believe Noah is 4 months old today!