AT&T
Ripoff Lied to me about DSL/Phone service and tried to charge me for a problem on their end

I just started having problems with both my land line and my DSL recently. I thought it was odd because I live in a newly purchased home, where the wiring is custom, and new.

Now, I understand that things happen, but I just started having problems with my DSL dropping, and with SBC, I never had any problems (I know many people did, but I guess I got lucky).

Anyway, I logged on to AT&T's site, into my account, and proceeded to submit a problem report to have someone investigagte. What I came to suprised me. I had the option of either having a technician come out, and IF the problem IS on my end, being charged $55, or not having anyone come out at all.

When I got hold of the manager, I was told the same story, and when I asked why I couldn't have AT&T just check their side, and help me determine if the problem was isolated to my house, I was told that there was no way to do that, and if I wanted to determine the problem EVEN IF the problem was related to the side of AT&T's responsibility, I would have to roll the dice and risk paying $55. The manager also told me that he has to pay someone to come out, and he said that they have to pay the drivers $125 for each trip. When he said this, I about fell on the floor, as he said this as if he were the consumer, and had no budget with which to work from. Granted, I know they have to operate within certain financial means, but that's not even a billionth of a percent for AT&T, and the problem DID end up being on AT&T's end.

I talked to a friend of mine who's name I will protect because he still works for AT&T, he told me that this is just a front they put up so they don't eat the cost. This is not only illegal, but it's not a good way to start a new relationship with a paying consumer who has had flawless service (on the hardware end, anyway) with SBC, prior to the merger.

Well, I told the manager I wasn't going to pay the $55, so he cancelled the call, or so I thought. A phone tech just showed up just a bit earlier this AM, and he asked about my phone. I told him that I cancelled the call because of the absurd reasoning behind the trouble ticket, and not so much the charge, but the way they explained how I was going to be responsible for whether they came out to check the problem. He was very polite, and said he'd check the line anyway, because there was something wrong in my area.

As it turns out, it was a wiring issue on the telco side, and it's an issue that is going to take them two days to fix.

What really ticks me off, is that the manager was trying to hold this in house service plan over my head, as that's all he mentioned during our telephone conversation (my cell phone, as my land line was down). I'm willing to bet he gets a percentage of commission of some sort for this sort of thing, as his wording of explaining to my why they could not check the problem on their end in my area was basically a fleecing.

I'm already checking with my cable company to compare the pricing on digital telephone and cable internet, as I smell a rat with AT&T, and I'm sure that's not going to be the last of it.

Just a note for those of you who get caught up in the same web of lies with AT&T. If you live in a neighborhood where the equipment outside of your home is known to be old, there's a lot of money in repairing that equipment, and money that AT&T is not going to spend to keep service up and running without a fight, and with dirty methods at that.

This reminds me of the de-regulation of AT&T in the 80s. Maybe it's happening all over again, or destined to be.

Company: AT&T
Country: USA
Site: att.com

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