AT&T - "Reach Out and Touch Someone"
About 8 months ago I opened a small shop. I initially relied on my cell phone for all business contacts, but after a few customers mentioned trouble locating my business phone number I arranged for local phone service from AT&T.
Although I installed all my own internal wiring, the install cost was still $170. Then a second bill that also reflected some adjustment and overlap expenses (not in my favor), and finally two months of stable billing where I could finally get an sense of what my regular monthly phone service bills would be.
$100. Per month. For one phone.
One hundred dollars per month, for only one phone, and the use of AT&T's call-forwarding service. And as a one-man shop, I always had the phone set to call forward, to my cell phone.
One hundred dollars per month also for a phone number that was rarely being used, with the exception of the daily calls from Visa companies testing to hustle a new customer:
"Hi, do you accept Visa?"
"Yes, I do."
"Okay, thanks". click
No other calls, as the phone service was set up after the phone directories had been printed, so no listing until next year.
I decided $100 was just too much, and also just not worth what little it was providing the business. So I contacted AT&T, and after surviving the phalanx of machine-generated questions, account number key-in requirements and redirects, I was able to reach someone to discuss the situation.
Nice person, who agreed that $100 to just have a telephone was pretty expensive, but that this was what my bill added up to.
When I told them to go ahead and close out the account, they came up with an alternative - just use AT&T for call forwarding, and not have a physical phone line at all. For $18 per month this would maintain my assigned number, as if the phone line to the business existed, and all calls to that number would instead be forwarded by AT&T to a number I chose. I would not be able to have fax services with this plan, but was not using those anyway, so I agreed to this novel idea, and had them set the service to forward all calls to my cell phone (which is what I was doing anyway).
A few days later a local person came to my shop. They had been trying to call my AT&T number, but kept getting the requirement to dial 1, and after doing that got looped back to that same requirement again.
I contacted AT&T, survived the phalanx again, got bounced by one support person once, then again got a nice person to discuss the new issues with. Apparently my AT&T "number" is assigned to a specific phone tower, and now all calls from that tower to the one my cell phone is assigned to happens to be long distance. Although it hadn't been when I had the actual physical phone line.
When I told them to go ahead and close out the account, they came up with an alternative - I could pay $28 per month for 500 minutes of long distance service, and then all calls from AT&T to my cell phone would be automatically forwarded, of course now as an extra charge for me.
I could not think of any alternative other than shutting off the service, so again I agreed to this novel plan. And yes, almost immediately I began to receive forwarded (now long distance) calls:
"Hi, do you accept Visa?"
"Yes, I do."
"Okay, thanks". click
Soon to be followed by daily calls from AT&T "Customer Support" (Sales) personnel, telling me they called to review my plan with me, to ensure that I was getting all the benefits I was due. I admit wanting to tell each of them that I could barely walk after having received all the AT&T benefits I had so far, but instead took the time to explain to them I only have a call forwarding service, and them calling me costs me a long distance charge.
And today I received three letters from AT&T. One is a close-out bill for my former phone service. The second was a $85 check, as payment for the amount AT&T owed me for funds I had overpaid on that closed service. And the third is my new call forwarding/long distance bill, amounting to $87. It is more confusing than the earlier AT&T bills, including such items as a $14 credit for a remote call-forwarding prorated period between last month and now, and a $27 charge for a remote call-forwarding prorated period between last month and now (again, the math obviously not in my favor).
I guess I could again contact AT&T, survive the phalanx again, and ask a nice person what these many charges are (the $28 long distance charge actually became $33). I will have to think on it a while.
From what I can tell though, I am now paying AT&T about $30/month to not have a telephone, and an additional $30/month for long distance service for that. And now receiving regular calls from AT&T, and being charged long distance for that.
A plus is that I am not being charged extra for not having a fax service.
"Reach Out and Touch Someone".
I feel touched.
Although I installed all my own internal wiring, the install cost was still $170. Then a second bill that also reflected some adjustment and overlap expenses (not in my favor), and finally two months of stable billing where I could finally get an sense of what my regular monthly phone service bills would be.
$100. Per month. For one phone.
One hundred dollars per month, for only one phone, and the use of AT&T's call-forwarding service. And as a one-man shop, I always had the phone set to call forward, to my cell phone.
One hundred dollars per month also for a phone number that was rarely being used, with the exception of the daily calls from Visa companies testing to hustle a new customer:
"Hi, do you accept Visa?"
"Yes, I do."
"Okay, thanks". click
No other calls, as the phone service was set up after the phone directories had been printed, so no listing until next year.
I decided $100 was just too much, and also just not worth what little it was providing the business. So I contacted AT&T, and after surviving the phalanx of machine-generated questions, account number key-in requirements and redirects, I was able to reach someone to discuss the situation.
Nice person, who agreed that $100 to just have a telephone was pretty expensive, but that this was what my bill added up to.
When I told them to go ahead and close out the account, they came up with an alternative - just use AT&T for call forwarding, and not have a physical phone line at all. For $18 per month this would maintain my assigned number, as if the phone line to the business existed, and all calls to that number would instead be forwarded by AT&T to a number I chose. I would not be able to have fax services with this plan, but was not using those anyway, so I agreed to this novel idea, and had them set the service to forward all calls to my cell phone (which is what I was doing anyway).
A few days later a local person came to my shop. They had been trying to call my AT&T number, but kept getting the requirement to dial 1, and after doing that got looped back to that same requirement again.
I contacted AT&T, survived the phalanx again, got bounced by one support person once, then again got a nice person to discuss the new issues with. Apparently my AT&T "number" is assigned to a specific phone tower, and now all calls from that tower to the one my cell phone is assigned to happens to be long distance. Although it hadn't been when I had the actual physical phone line.
When I told them to go ahead and close out the account, they came up with an alternative - I could pay $28 per month for 500 minutes of long distance service, and then all calls from AT&T to my cell phone would be automatically forwarded, of course now as an extra charge for me.
I could not think of any alternative other than shutting off the service, so again I agreed to this novel plan. And yes, almost immediately I began to receive forwarded (now long distance) calls:
"Hi, do you accept Visa?"
"Yes, I do."
"Okay, thanks". click
Soon to be followed by daily calls from AT&T "Customer Support" (Sales) personnel, telling me they called to review my plan with me, to ensure that I was getting all the benefits I was due. I admit wanting to tell each of them that I could barely walk after having received all the AT&T benefits I had so far, but instead took the time to explain to them I only have a call forwarding service, and them calling me costs me a long distance charge.
And today I received three letters from AT&T. One is a close-out bill for my former phone service. The second was a $85 check, as payment for the amount AT&T owed me for funds I had overpaid on that closed service. And the third is my new call forwarding/long distance bill, amounting to $87. It is more confusing than the earlier AT&T bills, including such items as a $14 credit for a remote call-forwarding prorated period between last month and now, and a $27 charge for a remote call-forwarding prorated period between last month and now (again, the math obviously not in my favor).
I guess I could again contact AT&T, survive the phalanx again, and ask a nice person what these many charges are (the $28 long distance charge actually became $33). I will have to think on it a while.
From what I can tell though, I am now paying AT&T about $30/month to not have a telephone, and an additional $30/month for long distance service for that. And now receiving regular calls from AT&T, and being charged long distance for that.
A plus is that I am not being charged extra for not having a fax service.
"Reach Out and Touch Someone".
I feel touched.
Total Comments 18
Comments
-
VoIP
Posted August 29th, 2009 at 06:00 AM by AnnMarie 
-
Jintan, are you complaining? You do realise AT and T have to make a living too. ;
Posted August 29th, 2009 at 11:15 PM by lufbra
-
No comment >> the author of this no comment works for a telco.Posted August 31st, 2009 at 04:08 AM by smurfy
-
ah yes, you're touched
Posted September 4th, 2009 at 04:00 PM by sho-dan
-
the only thing at&t is reaching out and touching on me is my wallet. Forcing me to pay 30 bucks a month for unlimited data service when a good 90 - 95 percent of my data usage is via wifi. This is all because I gotta have the iphone :-)
As far as your case, several small businesses in my area has been using skype for a couple of years for their buisness phones and never really had a problem, usually only when the cable is down. Maybe that is something you need to look into. Not talking about skype specifically but maybe look inot voip in general.Posted September 5th, 2009 at 01:29 AM by renegade600
-
Show me on this doll where AT&T touched you...
Posted October 3rd, 2009 at 04:01 PM by Pixelmancer
-
I was touched in a similar manner by Cingular (now AT&T)
Posted October 7th, 2009 at 04:28 AM by Jaytee
-
Quote:Show me on this doll where AT&T touched you...
Posted October 12th, 2009 at 01:31 AM by Jintan
-
What a horror story! But I'm not the least bit surprised! I went through my own such with them and was so disgusted I promptly switched to cable telephone, and I've been extremely happy I did ever since! And I really despise AT&T. I don't expect that to ever change. They sure can reach out and touch you, arrrgh!Posted November 7th, 2009 at 07:12 PM by Harrie
-
The bill finally stabilized at $50/month, for long distance calls from a non-existent phone.
Today a young lady from AT&T visited my business, to make sure, again, that I was getting all that I should. I did tell her a bit about my AT&T recent adventures. When I said the phone cost $100 per month she said, "Oh no, the price is much less than that. It has dropped to $48.99".
She started to say something else, but I quickly stuck my fingers in both ears, and started to loudly sing The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Each time I stopped, and she again would start to speak, back went the fingers, and the singing became louder.
Nah, but I only gave her reduced price info a brief think, then just told her no thanks, I just have no desire to go through all that with AT&T again.Posted November 12th, 2009 at 04:13 AM by Jintan
-
More new AT&T expenses for even better non-services. I started my (now non phone service) with them after the local phone books had been printed, which really was my main purpose of using AT&T locally.
The new phone books were to go to print at the end of February, and an AT&T representative called me a few times, encouraging me to upgrade my new, upcoming listing with added features, such as placed in a box, colors, bold lettering etc. Each addition meant an added monthly expense, so after a bit of discussion I decided to just pay an additional $31 per month for a bold, red-lettered listing. And the new phone books arrived. They forgot to put in my address. Just the bold, red lettered name and the number.
To recap:
I now pay AT&T to not have a phone, and pay extra since all calls to it are now long distance.
And I pay an additional $31 per month for AT&T to hide where I am located.Posted April 7th, 2010 at 12:43 PM by Jintan
-
Apparently having a communications issue with this blog. Non-members can't see it any more than anyone can locate me in the new phone books. So this comment is only a test, with the traditional 1, 2, 3.
Posted April 13th, 2010 at 02:13 AM by Jintan
-
That was a fantastic thread it just gave me my first laugh of the day. Fortunately I get paid tomorrow so I will at least have another laugh then.
Posted October 16th, 2010 at 05:14 PM by masternige
-
Who can give me some blog resources
Posted January 17th, 2011 at 02:24 AM by a5322321
-
Time to bring closure to this (it's attracting bots anyway).
1 - ATT Ads called, reviewed my current contract, suggested more, I said no. OK, let's certify that. Why? For your new contract. Caught me totally off guard. Oh no, says I, I am dropping the contract. Why? Well, it sucks.
2 - In chatting with my cell phone provider's staff (Verizon - real, helpful and knowledgeable, every time I have dealt with them), one asked about the ATT local number. Be darned - it was port-able to the cell phone. Hope, where none dare trod before.
3 - Completed business arrangments about the letting go of the cell phone (cheap/frugal), then called Verizon to cut my last ATT ties, and port the number. The person double-checked the cell phone calls, to make sure my 900 minute plan (cheap/frugal) would cover the combination. Then realized all the dang ATT long distance calls to my cell phone, all along, were (drumroll) also Verizon cell phone minutes. Hard to weed it out; went with unlimited.
4 - Ties cut. Two additional calls from ATT Ads making sure I wanted to end the contract. The second one was straight out with things, and just asked if I could think of anything that would change my mind.
"Friend, it's been a disaster."Posted February 27th, 2011 at 04:20 AM by Jintan
-
Today, after nearly a month of phone calls the lead to some of the strangest or nonsensical reasons for not acting, ATT entered the order to change the phone at their end. Every time someone local would call my number, the ATT message would tell them the number is disconnected. ATT is Jason.
Posted March 26th, 2011 at 02:54 AM by Jintan
-
I now attend regular ATT meetings, where I proudly state, "My name is Tom, and I have been ATT free for over a year now."
Posted April 6th, 2012 at 12:34 AM by Jintan
-
You are complaining or making others alert abt aby service they might b using
learn frm his post
Posted December 26th, 2012 at 06:24 AM by win11
Total Trackbacks 0
