AT&T can bite my phone case~ long vent but informative

[Star*]

Nine years - Nine years I've been a loyal customer.

December I go in and buy THREE phones not cheap ones either, and I buy insurance on all of them.

Two months ago? MY phone starts acting whacky. Dropping calls, blocking texts, blocking pictures.

I call tech support, spend 2 hours (no exaggeration) on the phone, he's frustrated, I'm exhausted, they fix what they can, my neck is a ? I hang up, I'll call back later.

Next day I call back - 2 more hours (no exaggeration) on the phone the tech finally gives ME the reset codes for My OWN phone. tells me if it acts up again do a master reset. OMG.

Life goes on and FFWD to last week. Phone acts up again dropping calls, delaying calls, error messages, only allows me 20 texts then wants me to dump my cache, and memory, won't allow me to send picture. attachments, delays texts, error phone messages. VERY FRUSTRATING. So i take it to the ATT store.

Owner plays with it for an hour - gives me the warranty exchange # -

I call them. They ask me to try this, that, this that. (An hour later) I'm furious. I finally said "NOPE, not trying anything else this is bogus - give me a new phone. been there done that, I'm done. So they ask me if the phone has ANY scratches on it. I said one small one. GET THIS........Because THIS IS IMPORTANT.

They tell me - IF I want to have a "free" warranty phone sent to me I will have to get the severity of the scratch verified. I said - "well I take very good care of my things, AND I just had the OWNER of the store I bought this at look at it and HE said get the thing replaced, isn't his word good enough?" NO.

NO? Nope. No he's not a "real" ATT Store. What the H do you mean not a "real" store? - He's a retail store. (okay that went over me like a ton of lead). So the ATT guy puts me on hold and says "here's what I need you to do - I need you to take that phone to Fayetville, NC. today." Um..............."Um. NO. That's 250 miles plus one way. Are you kidding me?" man on the line says "If you want your phone replaced that's the only way I can do it."

so I cant' type what I said to him but it wasn't nice, and it involved a manager and the manager said I could take my phone to a store locally - OH REALLY? aND HOW MUCH ARE YOU PAYING ME TO DO THAT TODAY, because the closest one is like 30 MILES one way since the store I shopped at is NOT a "real" store and that manager is allowed to have YOUR logo, your ATT name, and you trust him with all that but NOT to get on the phone with YOU and tell you that my phone is not scratched, and since I've been a loyal customer of NINE years and not a liar ----I want compensated for my time and gas TODAY.

they said $5.00. I said (can't put that here) They said $10.00 I said (can't put that here either) I said TRY $50.00....2 hours and gas out of my day for a stupid scratch that you can hardly see???? You people are HIGH. So they came back and gave me $25.00. I took that.

I get to the store and the people there were in complete disbelief when I told them about driving to Fayetville, 250 miles from me (google it) one way - and I'm sure by the look on their face when I handed them the phone and showed them the "scratch" they thought "I" was "high". Until.........they.....called their own warranty department. Now my problem here is I pay for insurance every month on all my phones. I pay EXTRA for it. So what is the use? I didn't get the phone wet, I didn't drop it - it just quit working and I'm thinking a total of 8.5 hours of MY life standing around, sitting around and loosing calls? Give me a replacement.

So the ATT guy gets off the phone with the Warranty people - and the woman is DELIBERATELY S.L.O.W until she gets to the part about (and you pay shipping back) and she FLEW over that - so I had her repeat it, three times......until I finally said - SPELL IT OUT. She did. I said - YOU want ME to pay for SHIPPING BACK? After all this? ARE YOU SERIOUS? I don't agree to that and since I'm being recorded you can put me on hold, get a manger on the line and FIND one that will agree to PAY for the shipping lable to send the phone back. So she says "We will pay to send the DAMAGED phone" and I cut her off - I said THE PHONE is not DAMAGED. You are recording me and again - there is NO damage to this phone it is non-working, not DAMAGED. See----if I agree at any time in this conversation that it's damaged? It voids my warranty..........ohhhhhhhhhhhh. Tricky.

So then she says if they send it 2-3 days priority - they bill that to my account...WHAT???? NO NO NO NO NO. YOU SEND IT GROUND.........and YOU pay for it. O.M.G.

I'm going to do some checking around - because December will be my one year and I have a 2 year contract - but I swear loyalty got me NOTHIng.........

Oh and the phone? Not a new one. it's REFURBISHED. OMG. Are they serious?

This is the end of me and AT&T. And the sad thing is - They don't care.

drive to Fayetville - OMG.......yeah the gas money alone would buy me a new Iphone 4g....dude. DUH. If I could figure out how to get out of my contract free? I think i'd be gone and go with that walmart thing...

 

[susiestar]

There is very little more frustrating than that. Except dealing with this issue with Sprint!!!! My phone just stopped working about 2 months after I got it. It was still covered by warranty. I had to drive 80 miles to OKC to get a new one at their "repair facility" for this region. They would do it by mail but I wouldn't have a phone for at least a week because I had to send it to them - WITH sim card- before they would send me one!! We have been long time loyal customers too.

Luckily I had a doctor appointment in that city and needed to drop the kids' glasses off to be fixed (they have managed to break both pairs of their glasses at leasst 4 times in the last year - and we bought them expensive glasses at the eyeglass place. My cheapie online glasses have never even had a problem, much less come apart and have the earpieces fall off the way theirs do all the time!!) AND needed stuff from Sam's and Aldi's. The doctor appointment was in another part of town but the glasses place, phone fixer place and Aldis are in the same giant strip mall and Sam's AND Walmart are right across the street from them!

Next time I get into a phone hassle I am calling husband's nephew. He manages about 4-6 AT&T stores right around where the fixer place is.

Guess what? The people who work in the fixer places are generally NOT AT&T employees!!!!! You heard it - they have some company that sends them employees to work there but the employees are NOT employees of AT&T!!! We actually ended up making 2 trips for my phone because husband wanted to drop something off at his dad's the day before my appointment. That was on a Sunday and we got there 1 hour after opening. Every chair was full (at least 20) and only ONE person was working. When I mentioned it to the person doing my phone (who was the mgr or so her nametag said), she said that according to time sheets 3 people were there. I said nope and showed her a picture I took on husband's phone. The other computers the missing people should have been using had dust covers on them, so it was clear that people just didn't show up and the one guy working signed them in. She was upset and somehow downloaded the picture from husband's phone. That is how I learned that they are not AT&T employees. She had to call the company they work for and register a complaint rather than being able to deal with it herself!

Don't let me go into the messes Sprint makes. At least the Sprint places here in our town. No one wants to hear that collection of disassters and bad service.

 

[AnnieO]

I had very similar problems with Verizon which is why I am no longer with them. We have Verizon STORES all over the place here (plus the retail outlets that sell Verizon stuff) - but they wanted me to go to Columbus. OK, not that far - 70 miles - but NO. I have T-Mobile now. Never had a single issue. Called for help once (only once in a year) and not only did they apologize but they fixed the issue IMMEDIATELY. And then backdated billing so I wouldn't be charged after I made the mistake.

 

[Shari]

Unfortunately, I think they all work about the same way.

 

[muttmeister]

I have Verizon and am not happy with them but it sounds like they are better than what you have. I live in a rural area and Verizon is the only company that provides service here. They used to be Alltel but Verizon bought them out in Nebraska. In any case, the "Verizon Store" is also not an official store but when we call customer service they don't send us anyplace. Because we also have insurance they ship us a refurbished phone for free and we send the old phone back in the same box with a prepaid shipping label. I don't like that it is a refurbished phone instead of a new one - what other insurance plan could get away with that?

I think cell phone companies must have been invented by Satan himself. They all stink.

 

[Star*]

See? That's the thing....I paid $200 + for my phone BRAND NEW in December and now I'm getting a refurbished one. I don't want someones cast off-------I want a NEW on or MINE fixed, and sent back to me. I'd know it was MINE too because of the GINORMOUS scratch. lol. I'm not done with this by any means. (trust me) hehe ha ha. ho ho ..........

 

[donna723]

Some day remind me to tell you all the story of the three pay-for-view movies that DirecTV is claiming that I watched but was never billed for ... back in 2002!

 

[DammitJanet]

I think someone was really lying to you because you are in a major city...MUCH bigger than Fayetteville! So I know they have ATT corporate stores there. If you want to change? Drive to Laurenburg and have Billy set you up with Sprint...lol.

 

[Star*]

wELL FIRST IT WAS fAYETVILLE - then IT WAS CHARLOTTE........WHAT A (SLAP HIM IN THE HEAD) MORON. i KEPT SAYING .....i LIVE IN columbia!!!! heLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOO.

 

[Mom2oddson]

I'm wondering why, since your phone is under a year old, and most phones have a one year warranty for mechanical failures (their problem, not caused by you) that they didn't just give you a new phone. Why is the insurance even being used. That should be for issued caused by you...(or like in my case, I dropped my new phone into my cup of coffee by accident... or the trip thru the washing machine of 1/2 a dozen phones because my kids left them in pockets...that is what the insurance is for). Mechanical (hardware/software) failures of the phone should be their problems and should be replaced.

It's a shame that customer care has gone out the window.

But, I do have to laugh at the thought of AT&T taking on our Star! They don't have a clue about the can of kick-donkey they just opened.

 

[KTMom91]

We have T-Mobile, and any problems have been resolved quickly. Hubby had Sprint before we got married, and the reception was so bad he had to leave the house and stand in the middle of the street to hear clearly. After he canceled service, he checked the phone a week later to see if they'd really turned it off. Nope. He called the (from the middle of the street) and hollered at them, and they charged him another month's fee because he'd used the phone. After I filed with the BBB, it all went away.

 

[DammitJanet]

I had T-mobile (formerly Suncom) for years! They rotated me forwards and backwards last year over something trivial and refused to budge so I refused to pay and I dumped them. I got on with Sprint last November. Overall I have been ok with them. Had a few problems but they seem to handle it as well as I can expect out of cell phone companies these days. I know that once I get high speed internet I think I am going to pay out my contract and go with no contract phones from walmart. Much cheaper.