its been a while since i had to interact with a utility company in the united states, so i was unprepared when i went shopping for internet service for our apartment in san francisco. after checking out the two most common options, i decided to roll the dice with at&t since they are working out for me back at home and the “liveperson” support rep said he could hook me up with the twelve-month promotional pricing even though i only was going to keep the service three months (i said unprepared but not naive – here is a portion of my the transcript i saved).
Roderick: You can get the fastest DSL for just $24.95, rebate on modem or wireless gateway and I can also offer you $100 reward card for ordering the service with Home Phone. You can order the basic Home phone and the fastest speed internet for just around $33 without any term commitments.
Roderick: How does that sound to you ?
You: perfect
so, when friday rolled around and the confirmation email they told me to expect on thursday hadn’t arrived i gave at&t a call.
i got the usual (see this and this):
due to extremely high call volume you may experience longer than normal wait times.
the friendly voice response system suggested i’d get more immediate service from their web site, so i tried.
oh, guess that must be “unusual” too…
so, after enjoying 65 minutes of “unusual” wait time i finally got to a human. i was told my application for internet service had been denied because i wouldn’t share my social security number with at&t. they didn’t call me on the phone number they required, they didn’t write me at the email address they required.
if i wanted service i would have to give them my credit card and pre-pay for my service. after noting this was a bit ridiculous given that i was already a customer of theirs in another state i agreed to prepay for the service. but next, they wouldn’t honor the promotional pricing i had been guaranteed from the “liveperson” rep i had talked with earlier, transcript or not.
the call center actually recommended the best way to resolve the pricing issue was to visit the website that was defunct at the time.
obviously i canceled my order and will be reviewing alternative service providers when i get back home.
i have anxiously awaited an iphone i could enjoy without the penalty of at&t’s horrible data network, but version four not only didn’t introduce new carriers, at&t is now capping bandwidth usage.
bad data service, exorbitant pricing and customer service only a monopoly could get away are the perfect storm to keep even this apple fan boy away from the latest version of the iphone.
