Dear AT&T,

This is a long winded note to express some of my feelings toward your company.

I have been with AT&T for some time now. I signed up with Cingular in late 2003. Our relationship has been a long and strained one.

Since I have been with you, I have gone through 4 major relationships, 7 apartments, 5 vehicles, 4 job sites, and 5 cell phones. It has been like a loveless marriage that I am afraid to leave. There have certainly been some good times, but there have been some bad times. Some of them make very little sense.

For as long as I can remember, AT&T has always been a symbol of technological breakthroughs. I went to school for a brief period of a time with a manager from AT&T and was in awe of some of the advances he would talk about concerning switching and routing centers.

There was a time that I was employed at Lucent Technologies. They took Bell Labs with them in the split. Every day I was amazed at the developments that were coming out of that organization.

What makes me sad is that one part of your company is developing amazing things that enrich the lives and businesses of others, while another part of your company (customer service) fails so harshly at using that technology.

I will try to explain what I mean through personal stories.

It was a few years ago, and I had lost my phone at a Go-Kart fun park here in Orlando. It was the first time my youngest son was able to drive the big cars. He was still too little to ride in a go kart by himself, but he had lots of fun anyway. He and I both agreed that it was much better to be free on the track instead of like the go karts they have at Disney’s Magic Kingdom that are on the rail.

My contract had just expired, so I figured I would resign a contract and get a new phone. I wanted to keep the same details of my previous contract which included 250 minutes and free nights and weekends. You see, I am socially retarded and do not really enjoy talking on the phone. This has nothing to do with a fear of brain cancer, I just get really uncomfortable talking to people. When I went to an AT&T store I was presented with three packages. That’s it. Nothing compared to what I had before. Nothing was even close. Column A, Column B, Column C. No customization. Nothing. When i asked to speak to the manager, he came out and told me there was nothing that could be done.

It seems weird that a “MANAGER” would be so impotent and powerless in his ability to try to please a customer. There was, in his words, nothing he could do because corporate mandated these choices.

I needed a phone. (Need is a strong word, but I had no home phone and needed at least a way for my children, work, and roommates to contact me in an emergency). I signed on for the inflated 450 minutes rate plan at double the monthly cost. I felt cheated and helpless.

I later moved to a new house. It was great. It was close to a college and the super market always had pretty women walking around. The house also had a pool. Sadly, I have low self esteem and hate being shirtless while outside, so I rarely swam unless it was dark.

The downside of the house was my phone had really bad reception. I could not sit at my desk and talk on the phone. I had to run outside to the end of the driveway in order to talk without dropping a call. It was very frustrating.

I called technical support. The lady on the phone said all the towers in my area were up and it should be fine. I called again. I was told that the coverage in the area was outstanding and there shouldn’t be a problem. I called again. And again. And again.

Finally, I spoke with a wonderful lady. She had been an employee of AT&T for a long while. I wish I could remember her name to give her proper credit. She actually saved you a customer that day. I was so frustrated that I was ready to pay the penalty and leave your company for good until I talked to this lady. (You can probably go back through the records and find out who it is. The problem is that no one in customer service seems to know how to use the history function on your tech support system.)

We had a short chat and she saw that I was a Cingular Customer when I purchased the phone. She had me reboot the phone, sent a text to the phone that upgraded something and forced it to switch to AT&T towers. From that day forward, my reception was wonderful. As you will notice, it took five calls to resolve a simple problem. The problem was resolved by the tech specialist reading the history of the customer and asking the customer detailed questions about his/her history, his or her expertise, and his or her usage.

Very few of the tech support people in your organization that I have talked to actually do this.

Time went on and my pay at work improved. I felt it was time to upgrade to a PDA style phone (not to mention my flip phone’s top screen was malfunctioning.)

I went to another AT&T Store and looked at what they had. I fell in love with the BlackBerry 8820. The cost was high, but I thought it was worth it. I told the sales guy that I was interested. I told him that I had been a customer for 4 years and wondering if there was a loyalty discount. Without batting an eye he said, “nope”. Again I spoke with the manager. Again the store manager was impotent to do anything toward improving the relations with a customer.

It seems as though the store managers are little more than bank drop off guys and schedule writers. Although I would suspect that the store assistant manager probably has the duty of making the nightly bank drops and writing the schedule. I don’t want that to sound demeaning or condescending, but every time I have spoken to a store manager, they are simply following policy of the corporate office and are powerless to do anything for the customer beyond hand them a pamphlet with the rate plans on it.

The next big stumble in our relationship was when my BlackBerry broke. I had it plugged in for charging. I was very tired, so when the alarm went off, I simply picked it up and and hit snooze. I instantly fell back to sleep and neglected to set the phone back on the night stand. I rolled over and yanked the phone. This caused the charging/data port on the BlackBerry to remove itself from the main board of the phone. This mean that I could no longer charge the battery. This was an unfortunate situation, because after a day or two, the phone became useless.

The breaking of the phone is my fault. I accept that. RIM also acknowledge that the design could be altered a little bit. However, the way AT&T’s end of things was handled was, on a scale of very poor to SUPER MEGA-AWESOME!, poor. I went to the AT&T store to see if they could repair the phone. When the company was called Cingular, they had a phone repair shop. The folks at the store said they couldn’t repair those.

The neat thing is that your company refused to sell insurance on any PDA’s at that time. You wouldn’t exchange it, you wouldn’t fix it, and you couldn’t help me out.

The store manager offered to sell me a new BlackBerry 8820 at full price. At the time, the BB8820 was selling for close to $600 off the shelf.

I asked the store manager if they knew of any repair shops, and they said they could not recommend any shops. They followed this up by talking too much and stating that they were not allowed to recommend any repair shops just in case something happened.

At this point, they offered to sell me a refurbished BlackBerry 8820 at the low low cost of $450. If you follow the logic, my choice was to spend $450 to continue to be your customer, or pay $150 to stop being your customer. At the Verizon store across the street, they offered to give me a BB8820 and start me on a new contract. For Free. They were going to give me a replacement phone and have me sign a 2 year contract (which is standard in the cell phone business, which, by the way, is stupid and belittling to your customers).

This was not a choice I wanted to make in the heat of the moment so I grabbed a candy bar phone and plugged in my sim card. I checked around town. Luckily, I came across a cell phone repair shop that worked on BlackBerries. For $50, they repaired the charging port and everything was good.

I am of the opinion that, if AT&T does not have a repair shop or the ability to keep phones running, the managers of the stores should find local repair shops, or even shops online that will do repairs, and create a relationship. Imagine how intensely happy I would have been if I walked into the AT&T store, presented my problem and had a solution presented back. If the manager had been allowed to scout out repair shops, and told me, “This place will repair your phone for $70 dollars, however we cannot guarantee their work”, I would have been gleeful. I really like my BlackBerry.

Instead, I was presented with a distasteful sales pitch for a $600 phone.

I’m a savvy enough shopper and know enough people that I could probably get a desktop, a laptop, and a cell phone for that amount of money.

Another small irritation comes with the start up splash screen. During the previous story, I illustrated that your company wanted to take no part in the health of my phone, however, every time I turn the phone on, I see the AT&T logo. It screams (figuratively) “I am an AT&T phone, I am here for all your communication needs. Welcome to the family.” So, when something goes wrong, I would expect AT&T to take some part in making things right. This isn’t some whack job philosophy. You put the logo in my face every time my phone starts for a reason. I’m guessing the reason is that you want me to permanently connect communication with AT&T. Dell does that to the computers they send out. It might not be a Dell Video card, but when something goes wrong, they take responsibility, or at the very least, take an active role in making things right again.

I recently moved (again). Things didn’t work out with the chick I was dating and I found a sweet apartment close to downtown. This is America, and we, as a nation, have come to create a list of things that are needed when moving into a new place. Among those are electrical power, trash service, water service, cable television and internet. The more spoiled portion of the populous feels high speed internet is a right and a necessity. In the Orlando area, there is usually one choice of cable. I, being the lazy American that I am, went with the easy choice and had Brighthouse install both cable and high speed internet.

I had problems right away and quickly went from slightly unhappy to severely angry with the service that was being provide. Now, I am not a very picky person. I am shy and do not enjoy talking to people on the phone. I do not complain often. It takes a catastrophic failure for me to be compelled to call and complain about something. The point is, Brighthouse failed on all aspects of the services I had ordered. I began researching and discovered my only other choice was AT&T DSL service for internet.

I opted to drop cable altogether. This is a matter of money. I found that the only thing I was watching on television was on-demand movies. In order to keep the on-demand movies, I would have had to order a very expensive package from the cable company. I replaced this with an Xbox and Netflix, a much cheaper solution. However, i still needed internet.

I called up and ordered the DSL service from your company. I was told that the “fastest available service in my area” was the 3mbps package. I was at the point that I would accept a lower speed rather than deal with Brighthouse anymore. I was then told that I had to order and pay for a piece of equipment from your company. I was not given an option. I am a fan of LinkSys products. I know they make a DSL router and would have loved to have had the option to purchase one from them. I have used LinkSys products at home, work, and at various locations and I have had 100% success rate in setting them up and having them work reliably for a very long time.

I was taken aback when I was also told that I was being locked into a 2 year contract. This was sight unseen, no trial period, no questions asked 2 year lock down. I think this is a poor way to do business. I can understand providing that stipulation when giving huge discounts on cell phones, but for just regular services like phone or internet, this is a little heavy handed. You should consider changing this policy.

The kind lady on the phone told me that the router should arrive by Thursday. I called Brighthouse and scheduled them to turn off my internet on Saturday. I gave myself a little bit of a grace period in case the set up with DSL went horribly wrong. Friday afternoon, my router had still not arrived. I called Brighthouse and told them to cancel the cancellation.

A week and a half later, the router finally arrived.

Now, I am fairly technologically-inclined. I can give you references if needed. I have set up many routers, networks, modems, computers, gaming systems, etc. I figured the DSL router sent from the leading technology company in the world should be a piece of cake. It should have been. Set up was in fact very easy. The results, however, did not match the pamphlet that was sent.

The modem was not getting a signal. Here is where frustration begins to mount.

I called the tech 1-800 number that I was given. I waited for a short period of time (about 10 minutes which is short compared to other calls that come later in the story). I talked to the technician and she walks me through the steps that I have already taken trying to troubleshoot while on hold. Cycle the power. Done. Unplug this, unplug that, spray voodoo Gypsy magic dust. Done, done, and done.

At this point, the technician is stumped and transfers me to a Specialist. The Specialists walks me through the steps that I have already gone through on my own and again with the technician. The Specialist is stumped. She puts me on hold.

I wait.

A lot.

She comes back and pings the modem and then asks if I am sure that the modem is plugged in. I assure her that everything is set up correctly on my end. She is stumped. She puts me on hold.

I wait.

A lot.

She comes back and says she is waiting for an engineer. I speak with the engineer and he walks me through the steps that I have already been through, on my own, with the technician and with the specialist. The engineer is stumped. The engineer puts me on hold.

I wait.

A lot.

They finally decided to sent an engineering specialist technician to the house to see if I have indeed plugged the modem in to the wall. The schedule of the techs and my work schedule doesn’t mesh well, so I have to wait four days for the tech to arrive. He looks at the modem and goes through the steps that I have already gone through, by myself, with the technician, with the specialist, and with the engineer. I felt like calling up the sales staff just to give them a pop quiz to see if they knew the procedure. You know, just to keep them on their toes.

The house technician is stumped. He mumbles something about an engineer and drives away. I called the tech line again and asked where we were at with the setup. The person on the phone was kind, polite, helpful (as much as she could be) and I could easily talk to her. The problem was, there was nothing in the notes for the account. She took my number and said she would call back when she had information.

Now, let me take a moment and discuss the call back service. This is absolutely brilliant. The person that thought this up should contact me so I can send them a gift certificate to a restaurant or coffee place or something. I love this service. Every time I have used this service, the person calling me back was able to pick up right where we left off. Do not ever consider dropping this part of your customer support.

So, the woman I was talking to called back. It took a while for the new information to update. She said that the technician found that there was no signal inside my house, so the local engineers had to turn something on and that she had already set up a work order for that. Again, she would call back when she had more information.

When she called back again, I was still without DSL service.

Eventually, someone showed up at my house and found a loose wire, bad connection, and bad terminal. He did a quick repair. I was being called into work and was heading outside when I saw him. A few minutes of checking a few things and my modem and DSL was up and running. I thought things would be happy happy fun times from here on out.

Oh, the lady that kept calling me back, called me back one more time to see if things were working. I told her they were, and she sounded genuinely happy for me. It was as if I had just given birth and was sharing the news with an old friend. Let me reemphasize, do not ever get rid of the call back service. During this whole DSL debacle, this was the one saving grace. This actually stopped me from putting the modem in a box, sending it back, and canceling my order.

During the next couple of weeks, my frustration began to really grow. I do a podcast. You can find it at http://somacow.com. We record the show in front of a semi-live audience on Friday nights. I then take the three hours of audio and break it into three episodes. The episodes are released on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday every week. The files size breaks down to about 26 to 28 megs on average. It took forever to upload these files. Previously, it was taking about 5 to ten minutes at the most. I realize that “forever” is a harsh exaggeration, and I do not have exact numbers and times. I can tell you that I would leave my office, put in a DVD and watch about a half an hour of the movie. At that time I would go check on the upload and it was usually in the 95 to 98% finished range. In internet time, that is close to forever.

I also kept running into the problem where the modem would tell me that my computer was disconnected and I had to resolve a connection issue. Then it would say that the issue was resolved, but the next time I went to the site I was trying to go to, it would say I had a connection issue again. I usually had to shut down the browser and cycle power on the modem before this issue went away. The issue would come back later on. The process repeats itself many, many times.

There were also many times when the “red lights” on the modem would come on. This is a 2 Wire DSL wireless router DSL modem. The red lights indicate that the signal from the wall is gone. I continued to get disconnected from the internet. This happened a lot. Again, I know “a lot” isn’t a helpful term in troubleshooting, but it was often enough to cause great frustration.

One night I came home from work and was ready to relax. I turned on the Xbox and noticed that Crank 2 was now available in the On Demand category. I absolutely loved the first film. It’s quirky and strange, but the director did an incredible job in producing an emotional reaction from the audience. It was hilarious and gripping and overall, just a fun film. I thought it was kind of silly to have a sequel (SPOILER ALERT) since the main character fell to his death at the end of the first film. But, as I said, I liked the first film a lot and was willing to let go and let the director take me on a trip again.

I began downloading. Normally, it takes about five minutes for a full HD movie to buffer enough on the Xbox to start playing. While the movie plays, it will download the rest of the film unnoticed. The movie in HD was a file that listed at around 4 gigabytes. This is roughly 4096 megabytes. At the speed of 3 megabytes per second, this comes to about 23 minutes of downloading.

When I started the download, I left the room and went to cook dinner. I’m pretty simple when it comes to cooking. I like easy meals. I have tried to enjoy cooking, but nothing ever turns out the way I want it. I don’t like that. But, this meal took about 15 minutes to set up. By this time, my frustration was pretty high. I decided to call tech support once again. While on hold, I ran a speed test, and it was very low.

One major annoyance in dealing with the AT&T customer service, and the customer service of many companies, is the lack of data recollection that is built into the system. After I dialed the AT&T technical support line, a computer generated voice asked me the number associated with the account that I was calling to discuss. It then asked a few other question to verify my identity. Finally a human voice came through the ear phone portion of my phone.

Remember, I am already 15 minutes into the phone call. The voice on the other side of the phone asks me what the phone number is that is associated with the account that I am calling to discuss. Then they ask some verification questions. They should already know my number, my name, my address, my account number, and the last four of my Social Security number. I do believe that one verification question should be asked to make sure the right account popped up on their screen, but for me to have to repeat all of it is kind of a waste. If you want me to tell the human, then don’t make me jump through hoops for the computer voice.

Before we even get started the human voice asked me if the number on the account was a good call back number. This is a point of irritation with me. First, when I signed up for DSL, they told me I would be getting a number, but that number could not be used for phones unless I altered my account. Second, I have called for tech support in the past (see earlier stories about setting up DSL) and they had my call back number. Why is this information not on the screen in front of the technician?

Keep in mind, I love the call back system. However, repeatedly answering the same question becomes annoying, as you will see. Please read on.

The lady to whom I am talking suggests running a speed test. I already had the results, but I followed her instruction to go to the AT&T speed test. The results were very similar to the speed test that I ran. She transferred me to someone who she said would be able to help me. I was put on hold.

I waited. A lot.

After a long wait, I had another human on the line. It was if I had started from scratch. I had to give the number I was calling about, the number for a call back, my address, my name, the last four of my social security and I had to explain the problem all over. This person said they would transfer me to some one who could help me. I was put on hold.

I waited, a lot.

I talked to a third person. It was if I had started from scratch. I had to give the number I was calling about, the number for a call back, my address, my name, the last four of my social security and I had to explain the problem all over. This person said they would direct me to some one who could help me. They gave me another 1-800 number that would take me directly to someone who could solve my problem.

At this point I disconnected from AT&T. The call timer on my Blackberry read 59 minutes and 48 seconds. So far, I was on the phone for one hour and was no closer to finding a solution than when I started. The movie that I was downloading was still at about 48% completed.

Before I begin again, let me be so bold as to request that you take a good look at your “On Hold” music solution. First, the music is watery with inconsistent volumes, and it is not soothing in any way shape or form. In fact, I believe the music that you deliver to your on hold customers does more to anger them than it does in helping them to keep calm. This is just an added bonus observation.

I called the new 1-800 number that I was given. I was greeted by a computer voice that recognized the telephone number I was calling from and asked if this was the account in question. I felt dumb but answered “no”. It then asked for the number I was calling about. Then it asked for verification of my identity. Then it put me on hold.

The wait was a little shorter than last time. I’ll condense this down a little and say I spent another hour on the phone. I was with the same person the whole time, but she had to put me on hold while she contacted engineering. During the wait, I asked her if there was any other package in my area that was faster. She stated that I could double my speed for only five dollars more. This person (again, I wish I could remember her name to give her proper credit… but, it should be in the records of my phone calls and account actions) did a lot to keep me calm. We had a pleasant customer – customer service conversation. She started a work order to have my account upgraded and said she would schedule billing to call me to verify.

By the end of this conversation, I was much calmer and much less likely to slam the DSL modem in a box and walk away from your company. The person I was talking asked if she could call me back in a few days to check on how things were running. She did, however, need to get my call back number because it was not in the notes.

She did call back and I informed her that I was still having slow service, I was still experiencing drop outs, and I never heard from the billing department.

Eventually (a week or so later) the billing department did call and set up the upgrade. Then it took a few days to take effect. I felt I was more of an inconvenience than a customer. On top of that, they were unable to combine my bills. I have a cell phone and a DSL line through your company but I have to call a special billing department number to have the bills merged. This is just bad form.

Now, I would like to take a moment to say that I was angry and sent a few messages out on twitter. You had a customer service rep on twitter that did contact me. Unfortunately he offered to call and talk it through while I was at work.

What I would like from you, is a dissolution of my DSL contract and allow me to leave whenever I want to leave. This way I can ensure that you will actually work to keep my business instead of bank on the fact that I have to pay to get out of a contract. I would like for you to send me a new DSL wireless router/modem. I will test it out for a few days, and if this improves the situation, I will package up the original one and send it back. I would like for you to merge my DSL and cell phone bills.

I would also like a better offer for renewing my cell phone contract. There are websites that offer better deals on phones for new customers than I was offered for being a loyal cell phone customer. On the surface this isn’t horrific, I understand cutting deals to attract new customers, except I was sent a high gloss full color print mailing that said how much AT&T appreciated me being a loyal customer. In this offer was a phone that is much less advanced than the cell phone I bought 2 years ago with a higher costing package.

My cell phone contract ended a month ago, and I am seriously weighing my options.

I would like to request that the people that run and work for AT&T put forth the effort to become the shining beacon on the hill that all other companies look up at and wish that they could satisfy customers like you do. I don’t want you to be the company that everyone complains about or feels stuck with. You can be so much better than that.

I want you to strive to become the dominate force that pushes the competition out of the game, not through strong arm tactics, but by being such a magnet of hope that customers flock to you. I want anyone who isn’t using AT&T to be looked down upon because they obviously make poor choices. This is an easier goal than you might think. It simply takes your company living up to its potential instead of resting on laurels.

I want you to change the “script” that you hand to the customer service representatives. Instead of having them “act” like they care, reward those customer service representatives that actually do care.

I want you to use your legacy as the offspring of Alexander Graham Bell and the brain trust that was once called Bell Labs to create technology that your company can use to make your company great again.

I want you to realize that “heavier than normal call volume” is a sign that something has seriously gone wrong with the system and the system needs some serious fixin’. And, I should not hear “heavier than normal call volume” every time I call. At that point it just becomes a heavy call volume that you are ill equipped, under staffed, and unprepared for, adn that’s just bad customer service.

AT&T stands for AMERICAN Telephone and Telegraph. At one point AMERICAN stood for something. It meant the highest quality of product. It meant that there was a job to do, and come hell or high water, the job was getting done. Today it seems that AMERICAN stands for “if there is a job, someone will do it, think we can pay someone else to do it?” America is sliding off the pedestal. I want your company to lead the charge of making this country great again.

I don’t want to be ashamed to tell people that I am an AT&T customer and justify it as “well, my mom and work have it so it works out ok”. I want to say, “I have AT&T because they are the best damn telecommunications company in the country, nay, THE WORLD.” And I would like to say that with a straight face and not have people laugh at me.

Thank you for your time.

Your customer for now,

Mickey

A man a plan a canal – Panama!

You are intelligent, so it can be assumed that the plan is a good solid plan. It can be assumed that you thought out the next several steps. It can be assumed the goal you are moving your boat towards is an important part of the big picture.

It is understandable why you would be upset that one of the crew members is rowing against the team. Trying to go off on his or her own direction.

Your boat will eventually get to where you are going, but to maximize efficiency, you need all the crew members rowing in the same direction.

When one member consistently questions the method of getting to a goal, and suggests several alternative routes, that crew member is becoming counterproductive.

It could be that this person is actually working against you. it could be that they are afraid of success. It could be as simple as they feel that every avenue should be explored before taking a step forward.

The trouble is, if you scan the entire ocean to find the safest path, you will still be sitting at the docks decades from now. Safe is fine, but safe is stagnant.

You should consider your ship to be a shark. If it is not moving forward, it will die. Anything that gets in the way of forward progress becomes a threat to the life of your ship and is therefore something that needs to be eliminated.