AT&T Long Distance Customer Service Hell
As a consumer bankruptcy lawyer, I hear stories all the time from clients about harassing bill collectors and unresponsive customer service representatives. After a while, most of these stories lose their impact because I hear them so often. Recently, however, I was treated to my own experience in customer service hell courtesy of the good folks at AT&T long distance.
I wish I had recorded my half hour plus conversations with the eight customer service representatives I spoke to. At least two were in India or Pakistan and each time one of the reps realized that he or she could not help me, I was transferred to an automated attendant where I had to enter my account number.
What was the problem? I have two phone lines coming into my house – one is my residential line and the second is a DSL line. Each one apparently has AT&T as the long distance carrier. Last month, I paid the bill for line 2 and AT&T applied the payment to the account for line 1. Line 1 now has a credit balance and line 2 has a balance due of $32.40.
I started getting collection calls from AT&T last week, even though my online access showed that $32.40 had been cashed. The collection rep insisted that I mail (not fax or email) a copy of my canceled check to some special address that I would have to call yet another number to get. Since my bank no longer returns my calcelled checks I had to order a copy.
When I called this morning to find out where to mail the check, I discovered what had happened and I asked if AT&T could transfer $32.40 from account 1 to account 2.
30 minutes and 8 representatives later, I have come to the conclusion that AT&T does not have the technical wherewithal to transfer $32.40 from one account to another.
My solution – I mailed AT&T $32.40 (to clear account 2) and I am going to cancel my service with AT&T. Will any other vendor be any better? Probably not. But given the incompetence I experienced this morning, I am going to have to try.
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Comments on AT&T Long Distance Customer Service Hell
I did a google search for at&t customer service number and came across your post. I sent at&t long distance a pmt. of $150. by mistake online. The pmt was intended for my cellular bill (not at&t). At the time, I no longer had an at&t acct but they cashed the ck. anyway. This was in January of 2008 and I still have’nt been reimbursed. I won’t even begin to explain what I’ve had to do with no luck. These people are idiots.