As is obvious from the other posts on this board, customer SERVICE is not a priority, or even a consideration, for AT&T Wireless "Services."
I've been a SUBSCRIBER for 2 1/2 years, and REGRET that I ever got sucked into renewing my contract for one of their promotions after my initial service agreement expired. The phone I've had the entire time, a tri-mode/TDMA Nokia 8260- a phone I still LIKE after all this time, has worked well. That is, until the network was "upgraded" to GSM earlier this year. Now, whenever my phone reads as being in the AT&T area, I can't place or receive calls. Too bad my contract doesn't expire for another six months.
Is the phone broken now? Not at all it works fine in the other digital, non-AT&T areas I've been in, and great in analog areas, too. Unfortunately, whenever the phone is even remotely within range of an AT&T tower such as might be found in most places where people live, it locks on to that one, and you can forget about any more calls. No problem, one might think, just call customer service and get it straightened out, right? Wrong.
Numerous calls to customer service, and even contact with the "Dispute Resolution Department" (more about them in other posts on this site,) provide these options:
1) Buy a new minimal features phone for a somewhat reasonable price, with a contract extension,
2) Buy a new phone for an exhorbitant price, with no contract extension,
3) Cancel service, with a cancellation fee of $175.
4) Continue paying every month for a phone that they won't support.
Why should I be forced to pay to replace something that isn't broken with something probably not as nice as what I have, and then continue service with the company that made me do this?
Does it seem reasonable for a company to lock you into paying for service for a period of time for a piece of equipment that they sold you, and then, in that same period of time, no longer support that piece of equipment? The "service agreement" seems more to me to be a "you pay us and maybe we'll provide you the service" agreement.
At first the Customer "Service" representatives were apologetic that this happened as a consequence of this network "upgrade." They'd say things like, "your phone is still supposed to have worked with the upgrade, other people's do-" or "this wasn't foreseen as a possible result of the upgrade, " or things like that. But when why my contract might not simply end early as service is no longer supported for my phone, the inflexible response is "not without payment of the early termination fee."
Ironically, they even referred me to the "terms of service" which apparently state, in the fine print somewhere, that your payment of the monthly service fees don't necessarily guarantee you to cellular phone service. UNFORTUNATELY I mistakenly took that to apply to cases like when a wireless network might go down temporarily, or when one may wander into a geographical location without wireless service.instead, it would seem to mean any time they feel like taking your money and not giving you anything for it.
Following a solid MONTH of not having my phone work in an AT&T area was when I started calling the Customer "Service" Department. During my call, (as my phone won't work since I'm in their "area" most of the time anyway, and as I'm not about to extend service with them or pay more money for another phone with them,) I asked that my calling plan be lowered to the cheapest one. One shouldn't be charged for unconnected calls, right? Well, imagine my surprise / shock / dismay on seeing my bill a week or two later, where apparently every call I even ATTEMPTED during the prior month was now listed, (lots of 1 minute calls!) bringing my bill (usually ~$40 under the previous plan I was on,) to over $100.
Just when you think they've ripped you off completely, it turns out it's not over yet. Now I've hardly turned the phone on for the past month, except to retrieve a number. I wonder how much my bill will be this month?
So beware AT&T Wireless. They'll take you for everything they can, and their Customer Service is a sick joke. The company is a huge rip-off that apparently couldn't care less about those who are locked into writing them a check every month.
Jeffrey
Lakeland, Michigan
U.S.A.
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