AT&T August 11, 2010

To whom it may concern,

This letter is to express my frustration and disgust with AT&T and the service that I was provided while trying to set up my business phone line, fax and DSL service.

I have been a residential customer of AT&T for the past 22 years with 16 years at my current address and phone number. I have a home phone line. I had a home fax line. I am also a wireless customer with AT&T. On the home fax line I had my DSL service, for about 3 years, with very few problems.

On July 9, 2010 I placed an order for two new business phone lines. A tech was dispatched to my home to set up my two new lines on July 12. He did his job, but, another tech was sent out on July 21 to add lines to the inside of my house and get my service up and running. While he was here, he asked if I would be keeping my home fax. I said that I would not need that line, but, my DSL ran on that line. He had me cancel the phone number and my DSL service (he used the existing line for the new fax line) and told me that when he had completed his job I needed to call AT&T and have my DSL service moved to the new fax line (that he had just installed.)

I set up an appointment to have my new DSL connected on July 23, 2010. The tech said that there was a problem but that his boss (John Houston 312-307-7572) would make sure that my service was up and running by 8pm. It was not. I spoke to John on the phone and was told that my DSL service would be up and running by the time I woke up Saturday morning. It was not. I left on vacation for a week and came home to no internet service. On August 4th a tech was to be dispatched to “fix the problem” and get my line up and running. On August 4th, I called AT&T to check on the status of my order and to see where the tech was. I was told that I had received a phone message that there was a problem with getting the DSL service that I had ordered. (The message was left with 815-836-8655…that is not my phone number…I did not receive the message…how ironic that AT&T, my phone service provider, can’t get the number correct). AT&T said that they would send a tech out on August 5th. The tech came out. He noted that I did have DSL on my line, but, that it was running terribly slow. He checked my order and said that the order was for the lowest package that you offered. I know that I ordered the fastest DSL package that AT&T offered as it was important to my business. While the tech was working on my line, I called AT&T and upgraded to the “ELITE” package (I was told that the “ELITE” DSL would be up and running by close of business on August 9th.)

After more than 3 hours of working the tech came back to my house and said that AT&T could not provide me with the DSL that I had ordered. The tech said that he was told by his boss (Paul Zivat) that they are upgrading the DSL lines and that they are not setting up any new service in the area! Even though I had been an AT&T DSL customer I would not be able to have my level of service back.
Apparently, when I cancelled the DSL service on my home fax line I lost the ability to have a usable and dependable AT&T DSL line in my home. Although I had a usable and dependable DSL line for the past 3 or so years, provided by AT&T, cancelling my phone line left me out in the cold. NO ONE at AT&T informed me that I was grandfathered in and that had I not cancelled my line, I would still have my AT&T DSL service. Basically, AT&T has refused to service my family and business.

On August 6th, after many phone calls to AT&T, I was told that I could get AT&T DSL on my home phone line as the customer service rep felt the problem was with the fact that it was a business line…YEAH! I ordered the “ELITE” package. The customer service rep set everything up (and even said that she would provide me with an AT&T Visa Gift Card for all of my trouble.) She tried to expedite the installation, but couldn’t. I had an appointment for a tech to come out on August 9th. By mid afternoon on August 9th, I was having that familiar feeling…no tech had called…might there be a problem? I called AT&T. THE SERVICE WAS CANCELLED! Why, I asked? AT&T could not provide me with the “ELITE” package…might I like the “PRO” package? I would need to place another new order and wait another 3 days to have it installed. An order was placed.

Again, this order was cancelled. I called AT&T. I was told that the orders were written up incorrectly and that I would have to call back and have a new order written. When I called back, I was to tell the rep that I needed to have them place my order NOT with the central office but with the remote terminal. I did this! The tech is set to come out on August 13, 2010.

Because I have been stuck at home for days, waiting for the AT&T tech, I have done some investigating and formed some opinions.

First, although I do have an order to have a tech visit my home to provide me with DSL, I believe that the service will, again, not be usable and dependable. The DSL that is running on my fax line is supposed to be running at a rate of 3.0 to 6.1 Mbps but is instead running at a rate of 0.20 Mpbs. Will it be any different when the DSL is installed on my home phone line? No one at AT&T can answer this question for me. I feel that I now have enough knowledge to answer the question…NO! Clearly, this is not acceptable.

Secondly, my family and my business have suffered greatly because of the fact that I have not had usable and dependable DSL service for over a month, even though I have been promised by EVERY ATT&T customer service rep that AT&T “knows that I have a choice in the product that I purchase and that they will solve my problem and provide me with excellent service.” That is, of course, unless they won’t.

Thirdly, AT&T employs very nice, polite people to man their phones. Unfortunately, they only “take orders”…once the “order leaves their desk” they have “no control over what happens to it or if it actually gets processed” and they are “very sorry for my troubles”… and that I should be aware that “orders can be cancelled at any time” … they are also, always willing to transfer me to someone who can better help me (but, they never stay on the line, leaving me to explain my story to 5 different people) and I have yet to really be helped…I still have no usable DSL service.

Lastly, thank you AT&T for the invaluable knowledge that I have gained into my computer, DSL service and the internet. I have used my newfound skills to come to the conclusion that I need to go elsewhere and seek out new internet service as AT&T refuses to provide my family and business this service.

Sheri Schwartzkopf

I WAS PROMISED A $100.00 PREPAID CREDIT CARD FOR ENROLLING AS A NEW AT&T DSL CUSTOMER. I CALLED AT&T TO ASK WHY I NEVER RECIEVED THE CREDIT CARD, & I WAS TRANSFERRED TO ANOTHER DEPT & GOT THE RUN-AROUND, WAS HUNG-UP ON. I CALLED BACK & WAS REFERRED TO CHECK ON THE WEB-SITE & CHECKED WITH THE REWARDS CTR WHICH ASKED FOR THE PH# WHICH I ENTERED 713-665-2933 & THE REWARDS CTR SITE INDICATED I HAVE NO REWARDS AVAILABLE!! THEY OWE ME A $100.00 PREPAID CREDIT CARD & AN APPOLIGY, I AM VERY DISSAPOINTED/ANGRY WITH AT&T!!! SINCERELY, CARMEN.

This company is the worst out there. They have horrible customer service, horrible supervisors, horrible, horrible and horrible cell phone company. Please people dont go with them cause they're going to screw you up as they did with me.

For the high prices business customers pay, you would think we would have at least minimal customer support. Our offices are being moved to another floor in the same large office buiding. A repairman came to the building at 4:09 pm, shut down the original office line, our voice mail was disconnected, and he/she did not reconnect the line to the office one floor above. The repair person did not notify us of the changes, or indicate when he/she would return. By the time we called customer service, it was after 5:00 pm and we are unable to reach a live person for help. All of our customers are being told our phone number is NO LONGER IN SERVICE.

I recieved several sales calls from AT&T about bundling telephone, Internet, digital TV services. When my contract with Direct TV was up, I took AT&T's telephone offer via telephone.

The installer arrived 07/31/2010 to do the installation. I discussed the techinical details with the installer prior to allowing the installation. To my chagrine, I learned that my digital TV service was set at a profile 19, which prevents the customer from recieving a strong enough signal to recieve HDTV in multiple rooms. Additionally, if you want to run HDTV in another room, you will have to turn off any HDTV signal playing in another room. The installer explained that the Profile 19 signal is not strong enough to service multple rooms with HDTV.

Even though I ordered the highest tier package, the AT&T sales person on the telephone failed to explain or advise me that my signal service could or would be downgraded and thus AT&T would be providing me a lesser quality of service. Was this deliberate deception or just a sales pitch that does not include all the facts that the buyer needs to make a reasonably informed decision? I do not know. Now, I do know that this is a significant problem experienced by other persons ordering from AT&T. They complained about this exact issue, after the installation. I was told that AT&T required them to keep the service anyway, even if the customer was not informed that HDTV would not play in every room simulteanously due to poor signal strength on Profile 19 installation. there are two higheer Profiles and they are Profiles 25 and 32, with 32 being the highest. The further you are away from the telephone junction box determine your Profile number. My home is the last house on the street and located about 8-9 blocks from the junction box.

These Profiles, to my knowledge are mapped out and may be easily made avialable to AT&T sales personnel. AT&T could easily make them include this pertinent information during their sales pitch.

Before allowing the installation, I contacted AT&T's Retention at 1-877-377-0071 and cancelled what would have been effectively a downgrade in my digital tv service.