I dislike AT&T Wireless.

If you asked me two weeks ago, I would have said I hate AT&T Wireless with a passion!

But I’ve calmed down since then. Now I just dislike them.

I dislike them enough that I will be leaving the ranks of their active customer base as soon as my current contract expires; and I told them as much. I didn’t always feel this way. I’ve been a customer of AT&T Wireless for quite some time now, years, in fact. I started out as a customer of Cingular Wireless and then they were bought up by AT&T Wireless. That’s how I entered into this relationship.

For years I was happy with my service. It wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t terrible either. Then, two weeks ago, I don’t know what possessed me to do it, but I made the dumb mistake of calling their customer service line to ask a question. Oh my God!! What was I thinking!? What a bonehead move that was because it caused me to have several days of torturous pain. As if that was not enough, my monthly bill was raised by an extra $15 a month without me asking for or obtaining any extra services. And they told me I couldn’t do anything about it!

Isn’t there another organization that operates in that same manner and don’t they call that one The Mob? Thankfully, with AT&T I do have the option of taking my business elsewhere . . . Or do I? I wonder if AT&T will send a couple of thugs to my home to break my legs when I tell them I no longer require their services. I know, it seems really far-fetched but I can tell you that, although I am dramatizing this a bit, to me it seems just a little less far-fetched than it did a few weeks ago. No, wait . . . That whole part about sending someone to my home to cause me bodily harm is really just my imagination running amok. So let’s get back to reality and I’ll tell you exactly what happened that caused me to have this extreme dislike for AT&T.

The Samsung Blackjack II

Let me start at the beginning: In May of 2008 I became aware of a deal that was being offered by AT&T. It was one of those deals that all wireless phone providers use to get people to sign up for a contract. In this case the deal was to sign up for a two year contract and I could choose a free phone or a phone at a reduced price from among the list of phones they had available. Well, at that time I had been eyeballing the Samsung Blackjack II and I was able to get it for a reduced price if I would commit to the two year contract. So I thought “why not?” I wasn’t having any problems with my service, and I had already been a customer for several years. I didn’t think I would find myself in a situation wishing I had never agreed to that contract, so I went ahead and ordered the phone and agreed to the two year commitment. When I called up to ask about the upgrade and to proceed with my decision, I was told I would not have to change service plans and that nothing in my current plan would change. I would just be upgrading from my Moto to the Blackjack and the plan would stay the same. So I went ahead and committed to the two year contract.

Everything was fine. The months rolled by and I continued to pay my bills on time just like I had done for all those years I have been with AT&T. I liked having the Blackjack and I enjoyed all of those smart-phone features that come with it.

The Apple iPhone

Fast forward to June of ’09. I have had the phone for 13 months and I’m still happy with it. But now I start eyeballing the new iPhone. A coworker shows me her iPhone, and I really like it. I decide to call the AT&T service line to ask if upgrading to the iPhone was an option that was available to me. The lady was very friendly and answered all my questions. (Aren’t they always super friendly right before they screw you?)

The lady that I spoke with told me I could upgrade to the iPhone if I wanted to but it would cost $199 for the cheapest model and I would have to commit to another two year extension on my contract. She also told me my service plan would have to change as well because I currently had the unlimited data plan feature for $15 per month (in addition to the other charges for the core plan and other features) and I would have to get the unlimited data plan for $30 per month if I wanted the iPhone. I asked her why would I want the unlimited data plan feature for $30 when I have the unlimited data plan feature now for $15 dollars? She told me it was a requirement if I wanted to get the iPhone. I then asked her why do I have to pay $199 if AT&T is offering the same phone to new customers for $99? She apologized and said that is something she cannot control. She also told me that if I waited until October, I would be able to get a much better price for the iPhone. At that point, I told her that I think I will wait until October and make my decision then. To myself I was thinking: Do I really want my service plan to go up another $15 just so that I could have the iPhone?

But I was leaning on doing it and in fact, after thinking it over for several days, I decided the extra $15 was really no big deal.

It was at this time that I started to notice I was unable to access the web using my Blackjack. I never had a problem before then, but I gave it a few days to see if it was just a glitch that would work itself out. It didn’t get better. So now I call the AT&T service line to tell them I am unable to connect to the Internet with my phone. The lady I spoke with tried to help me out by going through several troubleshooting scenarios and she eventually had to give up and forward my call to a service tech. The service tech, another nice lady, was able to figure out that my web access had been turned off. Apparently the person I spoke with a few days earlier (the one who answered all my questions about the iPhone) had decided to turn off my web access. They wouldn’t admit that to me, but it was the only explanation because they said if I wanted to have web access I would have to have the unlimited data plan feature for $30 added to my service plan. I told them I wanted my plan back the way it was with the unlimited data feature at $15. I said this was the service plan I had agreed to when I committed to the two year contract and I have changed nothing so I wanted my plan to be the same as it was before.

They said they couldn’t do that because I was using a smart-phone and that phone requires the feature to be $30. It was at this time that my blood pressure started to go up and I could feel the pounding inside my head. But I kept my cool. I told the lady at the other end of the line that:

1. I purchased my Blackjack from AT&T, not from anyone else.

2. I was told that all I needed to do was commit to a two year contract.

3.  I was told nothing else would change and I would continue to have the same plan I had before I purchased the Blackjack.

I also explained that I was already half-way through my contract and everything was fine, until I called to ask a question about the iPhone.

She said there was nothing else she could do and that if I wanted her to add the web access back onto my service plan it would be $30 instead of $15.

I told her I wanted to be let out of my contract since AT&T did not live up to their end of the agreement they made with me when I purchased the Blackjack. Since I did nothing wrong and they were changing the terms of the agreement, I felt it was only fair to give me the option to walk away from the contract. She said there was nothing she could do and if I canceled my contract their would be an early termination fee of $175.

She then went on to offer me a credit for three months of the unlimited data plan($90). I asked her if I agreed to that credit, would it mean that I am agreeing to the satisfactory resolution of my problem. She said yes. I told her no, she can keep her credit. I told her to go ahead and put the unlimited data plan feature back onto my service plan at the $30 per month fee and that when my contract expired I would move on to another provider and never have anything else to do with AT&T. That was the end of my conversation on that day.

The following day I noticed my text messaging feature had stopped working. I called the service line and after a similar troubleshooting session, I was told the text messaging feature had been removed from my plan. I almost lost it! But I kept my cool. They didn’t try to charge me a higher fee to have text messaging put back onto my service plan and after 20 minutes or so, the phone was working again as it should be, except that now I’m paying an extra $15 per month to have something I already had.

Several days of stress and aggravation, an increase of $15 on my monthly bill, and all because I called AT&T to ask a question about an iPhone. If that isn’t the epitome of terrible customer service, I don’t know what is.

But before I begin to think things like this are rare, that this whole mess is just a run of bad luck, that perhaps I have done something to offend the Gods of wireless communications. . . I’ve come across others that feel it necessary to depreciate their relationship with this cellphone provider just as much, if not more, than I do. Charlie at dogwalkblog thinks AT&T is a rip-off and I couldn’t agree more [Edit: "rip-off" is not the term he would use to describe how he feels about AT&T. See his comment below]. At TheGoldenParachute.com I saw that AT&T has been pulling this kind of stunt for at least as far back as 2007. And they seem to be refining their technique at screwing over their customers, because they’re getting better at it. Do a search on Google for “I hate AT&T Wireless” and you can pick from more than 200,000 pages of stories on why so many people hate AT&T.

I’ve checked with ConsumerReports.org and in their surveys they found that AT&T was found lacking in all of the markets they polled. On the other hand, Verizon consistently rated the highest by far in customer satisfaction in all areas polled. I can’t speak personally for the quality of service one can get from Verizon, but I have 11 months left on my contract, perhaps by then Verizon will have phones available that rival the iPhone. I hope so, because no matter what, I am not staying with AT&T.

I dislike AT&T Wireless . . . I really do.