Dirkus Maximus

Thank you for your reply, Mary.

I do not currently have an account number, as I have been trying to actually *get* phones from your company for nearly 3 weeks now but have yet to receive them. I do, however, have an order number. The original order number was [REDACTED], but that has now been broken into several sub-orders with”-2″ and “-3″ at the end.

The wireless numbers I’m attempting to port over are [REDACTED] and [REDACTED].

My daytime number during the week is [REDACTED]. My evening and weekend contact number is [REDACTED].

Now, down to the meat and potatoes of the situation; I am GREATLY DISPLEASED with the way my order has been handled. While I *think* that the young lady I just spoke with this evening may have been able to resolve the issues currently preventing my phones from shipping after three weeks, I do have several major points that I would like for you to review in your ordering process. I described the customer service hurdles I’ve encountered in detail in the entries on my personal web site located at http://www.pwn3d.us but I will list the major points of contention here in brief to save you some time and reading:

* The failure of the online ordering system to account for porting multiple numbers from different carriers over to one account, resulting in porting disasters that hold up customer’s orders.
* The failure of your online live chat support to give me correct information about porting numbers from multiple carriers, also contributing to orders being held up.
* The failure of your agent to mention that “fixing” my order by canceling it and resubmitting it would result in my order being put “at the back of the line”, resulting in an order that was ready to be fulfilled becoming back ordered instead.
* The unauthorized change in pricing that occurred after I authorized the sale (increasing from $52.79 to $76.80) due to the cancellation and resubmission of my order.
* The severely unhelpful supervisor (Debbie Elliot) that tried her damnedest to weasel me out of the $24 difference after that unauthorized change happened by lying and mincing words with me for over half an hour.
* The rather sub-optimal ordering system that allows things to be ordered from the wrong warehouse, instead of automatically figuring out which warehouse has what product and shipping things as it should
* The apparent inability of your agents to look for viable solutions for upset customers (one of the things “Mike the Manager” did right was to look to see if the equivalent white iPhone was available when the black one I ordered was back ordered, one of the things an agent named Jennifer did wrong was offer me the privilege to pay over $100 more for virtually the same product and call that an “option”)
* The apparent inability of most of your agents to troubleshoot what’s wrong with an order (Of the 10 or so folks I’ve talked to over the past several days only ONE, “Carl”, noticed that there was some kind of “pre-paid status” glitch holding up part of my order that should have shipped days ago.)
* The ordering system that puts the brakes on a phone shipment because a $5 accessory is out of stock, depriving a customer of a phone because some minor accessory is sold out

Honestly, as a person who works in a technical support call center, I know for a fact that every customer contact is an opportunity to either gradually reinforce the customer’s confidence in your company, or rapidly tear it down. In my contacts with your call center my confidence in your company has been not only severely damaged, it’s been completely and utterly obliterated. At this point, my wife has asked me to cancel the order with your company and look into the pricing of other wireless carriers, even going so far as to say that AT&T is “all a bunch of f*cking liars and I detest having to give people like that the money I work hard for.” Based on my personal experience in actually dealing with your customer care department, I would tend to agree.

At this point I’m really just trying to get working phones for my wife and I, and get them at the price that I agreed to on your web site. I have been promised that as soon as I receive my phones and activate them that I will be credited the $24 difference in my order and that two months of my base rate plan will be waived as compensation for my time and frustration. This is almost acceptable. At this point, what I would like to have is two months of my entire service bill waived, not just the base rate plan, and have the “No ETF” grace period extended to the second month, instead of the normal 30 days. This will give my wife and I time to evaluate whether or not your company’s service is actually worth the time and aggravation we’ve endured in our attempts to purchase service from you.

If you want us to remain AT&T customers after that two month grace period, I would strongly suggest making sure that some remedial problem-solving and customer service training be put on the agenda for your customer care call center. They will need to be a shining example of courtesy and correct information in order to repair the damage they’ve already done to your company’s reputation in our eyes.

And honestly, it’s not just the two of us who have a poor impression of your company from this whole incident. All of my co-workers, even current AT&T customers, have been appalled at the disservice I have received. One co-worker who has been an AT&T customer for years stated that he had “heard some horror stories about their service, but yours is the worst I’ve ever heard!” I have been posting updates to my personal website as I stated before, and several of my family members have also commented that this is outrageous. My mother even went so far in a comment as to describe your service as a “bowl of S_ _ _ .” You’ve not only upset two customers who are trying to sign up for your services, you’ve upset several existing customers and several people who might have been potential customers.

I hope you will take this situation seriously, and I thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Dirk van den Brink, Jr.