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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