Friday, August 17, 2012

Customer Service?

August 17, 2012 3:48 pm


AT&T is my internet provider. Since I haven’t had cable service ever since Time Warner illegally accessed my checking account, AT&T is pretty much my only way to get the web connection I need. I got a notice from them recently that they had decided to “upgrade” our area. I was pretty much given two choices: “upgrade” and choose a new billing structure, or give up the internet. Uh, gee, let’s see. I need the internet for my work… I guess I’ll upgrade.

So it involves self-installing some new equipment and a disruption to our web service. AT&T chose today at precisely 8 pm to change us over. That’s what they said: 8 pm. Not a window of time. Not from 8 am to 5 pm on August 17. Nope, 8 pm precisely. Be at home to install the equipment then, their letter said. I promptly handed all of that over to my husband with a shrug and a disclaimer – this is too much for me – you deal with it, okay? Okay. So he’s planning to be here tonight to get my computer back online.

AT&T sent me two letters, three emails, a huge package and called me to remind me about this plan. Then, today, during an important meeting, I get a random call. When I check the voice mail, it’s Ramando. “Hi. I’m your AT&T service tech. I just wanted to tell you that I need you to plug in your router.” I actually thought maybe it was a scam. How can I plug in my router? I’m AT WORK!!! It’s hours before the scheduled time.

Fucking AT&T. I get home and sure enough, there’s another message on my answering machine, and I have NO INTERNET CONNECTION. Arrghhhhhhh… I had follow-up work to do; I had a deadline I was trying to meet. I call Ramando at the number on my cell, and he’s like, Oh, yeah, I switched it over already. Plug all your stuff in.

Like it’s not two pages of instructions and four pieces of equipment. Like I can stop the WRITING I am doing to fiddle with cords and connections. Really, AT&T???? Really?? Keep it up and I’ll ditch your whole service and only work in public!

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