Seven Dollars Could’ve Saved At&t a Customer
When I bought my iPhone I’d read of other people’s woes attempting to activate it with their current GoPhone account. After some research I concluded it would be best to activate the phone, create a new account, and then call to have my old account closed with the balance transferred to my iPhone. It seemed simple enough. After 10 minutes on hold I was put through to a call center in India. Communication was difficult, I was put on hold frequently, and had to reexplain my situation many times. Finally it appeared the man assisting me understood what I needed and spoke with his supervisor. He said they don’t usually do this, but he could have the balance transferred. This should’ve raised a flag with me, as I know they regularly transfer balances, I had it done with my previous phone when I wanted a new number.
Then today I noticed something strange on my bank statement, I was charged my old bill. When you have GoPhone your account is automatically debited on the same day each month. This usually works out fine for me, because it’s one less bill I have to remember to pay. I knew getting the problem rectified wouldn’t be easy even though the problem itself is fairly straightforward. I thought I’d avoid the ordeal of the language barrier, and call a local At&t store directly.
No dice. All the local At&t numbers answer with a menu tree. If you choose any of the options related to billing you are taken to the main At&t tree. I thought, well I’m already on the phone, I may as well try and deal with it this way. After two more menu trees (each requiring I input my wireless number again) I am finally given the option to talk with a customer service representative. Unfortunately, this option also has its own tree. If you choose to speak with someone about billing it routes you to an automated payment prompt which you then can’t get out of. Great, just what I want to do, give you more of my money!
We have a lot going on at work this week so I got out too late to attempt driving to a store. I sat down at my computer (figuring I’d need something to do during the long wait) and called again. Two trees and twenty minutes on hold later I am given the customer service prompt, but this time I say it’s not about billing so I can get a real live person. Success! I’m greeted with someone in the states who I can understand clearly, and understands me. I explain my problem only to be informed the billing center will have to assist me and they’re currently without power. I’m put on hold while he checks to see if they’re still down, which they sure enough are. He tells me it should be a simple problem to get fixed, I should just call back tomorrow. I ask if all the billing centers are in India. As it turns out the calls are randomly routed to a variety of centers, so if I end up on the phone with India I can just keep calling back and trying again, meanwhile going through all the phone trees each time.
Why is this so hard? They’ve taken my money after they told me they closed my account. Why can’t anyone who works there close out my old account (like I was told was already done) and refund my money? Normally I wouldn’t care if they credited it to my account but I already have a huge credit from my old phone, so that old bill could easily instead be turned into a new Apple keyboard.
What’s most bizarre about the situation, is whenever I called Cingular customer service I always got someone who spoke English as their first language. When Cingular acquired At&t Wireless (of whom I’d just become a customer) they had one of the best customer satisfaction ratings among wireless carriers while At&t had the absolute worst. Things only went uphill. When At&t decided to buy out Cingular I thought perhaps they’d just rebrand everything and that would be that, the service would remain the same. After all, how obtuse would a company have to be to not attempt improving service after getting the lowest satisfaction rating in their industry? Incredibly obtuse apparently.
The saddest part is, the actual customer service representatives are very polite and usually quite helpful. But having a problem only to find out the only person who can help you can’t understand you and you can’t understand them only exponentially compounds customer frustration levels. Isn’t my business worth that $7 you’ll have to pay someone in America to take my call?
I swear as soon as the iPhone is compatible with another carrier (without voiding my warranty) I will switch. I will never again voluntarily do any business with At&t. This is precisely why I chose the GoPhone plan over a two year service agreement. Apple choosing to pair with such an awful, consumer-hating partner makes me question my loyalty as an Apple customer.
