I signed on to AT&T Wireless the second day after they launched their digital service in Philadelphia in good faith. I left T-Mobile, with whom I had been completely satisfied with their GSM service.
I was lured by a good introductory offer and phone.
It started off "okay", but the service was inconsistent, and many times, I couldn't even make calls out to save my life. This occurred from my home and from my work — places where I had been able to do so in the past.
Some days, I couldn't place calls out no matter where I was.
I complained repeatedly to AT&T about their network, but they would just assure me that in 6 months time it would be better. They also blamed GSM for being notoriously spotty. I refused to accept that, since T-Mobile's GSM service had always been good for me.
This angered me. How dare they accept my money if their network wasn't ready.
I used the phone, an Ericsson T68i in Europe, and found it to be a good phone on THEIR networks, but on AT&T's at home, it was horrible. It had a terrible time holding a signal, and I live right in the middle of a large city! Clearly, AT&T's network was to blame and/or their choice of a phone was not suitable for such a weak network as they had at the time. I found that AT&T Wireless was very fond of blaming everything and everyone else except admitting that their network was bad.
Finally, after about 3 months, I couldn't take it anymore. It was just getting worse and worse, and I insisted that the contract was null and void, as they had not lived up to their end of the bargain; namely, to provide a reliable network and equipment that functioned well on it. I cited my record with them of calls of complaint every few weeks as evidence of their unsatisfactory service and lack of improvement.
Naturally, they didn't see it that way. They refused to take any responsibility for the poor service and charged me a $175 early-termination fee.
They claimed I had a 2-week "buyer's remorse" period, but it was too short, and the serviced seemed reasonable to start with, but got progressively worse after the "buyer's remorse" period had ended.
I went back to T-Mobile, with whom I'd never complained about their network, and with whom I'm still to this day a happy customer. I had no choice but to leave AT&T Wireless despite the penalties, because the service simply DID NOT WORK, and I NEEDED a phone that I could use and rely on, both for work and personal matters.
Since I could scarely use my phone, I was forced to call-forward to my new T-Mobile phone number (this was before porting) for 2 weeks, so as not to miss calls.
AT&T Wireless apparently charges a high per-minute rate for fowarded calls, even though they aren't actually carrying the calls! No other company does that! This amounted to $100's.
The way I see it, AT&T reneged on their end of the contract, and not only that, had the nerve to sell their service before it was ready for prime-time. Worse still, they had the nerve to keep my money despite my record of a half-dozen calls to complain about the lack of reasonsable service. So, not only would they not let me out of the contract, they charged me an early termination fee, which they still claim that I owe, but that I refuse to pay, plus exorbitant rates for 2 weeks of call-forwarding.
I feel that 4 months of paid bills is better than they deserved for their crappy service and I will not pay them one more cent.
I await the class-action suit and will happily face them in court any day. I know of serveral others in other cities with the same sad story, who all had to leave early due to the futility of trying to use AT&T Wireless' "network". The AT&T's own internet forums are filled with page after page of stories like mine.
I warn ALL people who ask me to stay far away from AT&T Wireless.
Even by their own admission, the service was horrible before. Notice how in their current promitions [ever since the acquisition by Cingular] they're bragging about how their signal is so much stronger than before? That's just another way of admitting that before it was completely awful — WHICH IT WAS.
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