I own a small retail business, which we were in the process of moving, just seven doors down. We called AT&T several months before the move, and inquired about the possibility about having service at both locations for approximately two weeks. They said no problem, we can have dual service, and just call a couple of weeks in advance.

We did just that, and set up an appt., which was a little more than two weeks before our move. No one showed up, we called, wasted almost an hour on the phone, and finally was told our appt. had been cancelled for no apparent reason, though no one felt compelled to call and let us know. We set up another appt. for the next day.

Again a no show, this time telling us they couldn't do dual service, but would gladly set up new numbers at the new location, and the day of the move, simply cancel those new numbers and put the old numbers in their place.

The next day they again didn't show up, and after a dozen or so phone calls, they simply said the appt was made, but someone forgot to upload the appts. Finally someone did come, set up the new numbers, and we thought we were set.

Over the next few weeks, our nightmare began. For days at a time, our phones were disconnected for no apparent reason. Our old location would be turned off, leaving us with dozens of customers thinking we had gone out of business because the recording said we had our phones disconnected. Then they would fix that and our new lines would be turned off. They mixed up our rollover lines. Turned off our voice mail.

During this time, we called over 150 times, and spend probably 50 hours on the telephone. Almost no one knew what they were doing. We got disconnected frequently, and what is the most amazing and frustrating, is that you can't get their phone numbers as they are not allowed incoming phone calls, and they are not allowed to call you back. The phone company can't call you!!! It is incredible.

When you ask for a supervisor, they do everything they can not to allow you to speak with one. They are always all in a meeting, no matter when you call. I was told probably 3 dozen times one would call me back, and only 2 ever did.

So basically, every time you got disconnected, or got the wrong answers, you had to call back and start over with another new person.

Only once I got a woman who offered to email me. She did and said she would have everything fixed within the hour. When I found then that all my phones were turned off, I emailed her and her response was a form letter, trying to sell me a longer contract.

Finally, our phones were put back in order, but all told we lost weeks of phone service, thousands of dollars in business, and an enormous amount of time lost on telephone.

Now that I have a huge bill, and am calling for a reduction because of having no service for so long, I get the a supervisor will have to call you back, and after three calls, no one has. I'm sure next I'll get a delinquent notice.

I couldn't hate a company more.

I live on 216 st and 147 ave in Miami. There are 4 blocks here that have no DSL cable and therefore we have to use Dial up.

I have made endless calls and am promised for over two years now that we will soon get it.

It is available to the North South East and West of us so we do not understand why we cannot get access. We have spoken to technician from AT&T and have gotten no answers. We do not want to by Satellite high speed connection as it is expensive and we have a right as a resident to have access to utilities that are available to the public.

Last October, I signed up for a bundled service from AT and T and Dishnetwork for phone, DSL, and TV. I have been defrauded from day one. Here is what happened. October through November.
- Signed up for the service, and it never worked. Phone consistently dropped calls. DSL NEVER worked, period. NEVER WORKED.
- Made at least 15 phone calls, spent at least 15 hours on the phone with AT and T representatives to no avail.
- An AT and T field technical came to my house 3 times to troubleshoot the problems. On Visit #1, the technician said “you have ZERO problems” and left. I then asked for a different field tech to come to my house. On Visit #2, the second tech said the first tech DID NOT KNOW WHAT HE WAS DOING. HE SAID THAT THE PHONE WAS NOT AT ALL RIGHT, AND THERE WERE KNOWN ISSUES IN MY AREA THAT THEY were WORKING ON THAT ALSO AFFECTED THE DSL. HE FLAT OUT ADMITTED THIS. He left saying the phone was fixed, and only way to get DSL to work was to DISCONNECT THE PHONE!!! There had to be a Visit #3 as the phone still consistently crackled, dropped calls, and callers could not reach us. The tech came back and said "I can't fix it. I don't know what to do for you. I can do nothing."
- After this, I had many more phone calls with AT and T tech service to try and fix the problem. Especially with the DSL Business unit. The tech people could NEVER get the DSL work at all – ZERO CONNECTIONS.
- I am a software development professional, and after a month of no Internet and a home phone much more worse than the WORST cell phone something had to be done.
- I called AT and T and asked to end the relationship. My request was that I had signed up for Service Bundle, and 1 of the services (DSL) does NOT work at all, 1 of the services BARELY works (that is being generous with the PHONE situation). I asked to end the relationship and stay with DishNetwork for TV.
- On the phone AT and T agreed to end the relationship, we settled up the bill, and it was done. RELATIONSHIP ENDED, EVERYTHING PAID IN FULL. Part of settling up the bill was that I did not have to pay for DSL service because it NEVER WORKED. This is important. I thought the terrible experience was over. Unfortunately, it was only just started.
STARTING IN JANUARY TILL NOW IN JUNE
- In January of 2008, I got a call from the DSL business unit at AT and T. Here is what happened:
- They basically said that they didn’t care what had happened before. They said and I quote “AT and T DSL is its own business, and we don’t care what another unit in AT and T said to you. They are a different business. You must pay us.” Even if the DSL NEVER WORKED, I still had to pay for it.
- The most outrageous thing they said is that the AT and T field tech was not an “AT and T DSL employee” so his visits to my house DID NOT MATTER FOR NOTHING. His analysis meant nothing. Somehow, I magically had to know the different between business units, legal entities, and what techs to deploy to my house.
- In the end, I gave in and paid for a couple months of service because they were going to send me to collections. I was very upset, but then thought “okay, this horrible experience is now really, really over. I’ll just pay to make this go away.” Boy, was I completely wrong again. I should have never paid the bastards a cent.
- Yes, no joke. If you get Phone and DSL from AT and T it is like doing business with two completely separate companies. And, they give a crap about each other let alone give a crap about you. They sure as hell don’t care if you are caught in the middle of a bad situation with the AT and T the global company. THEY DON’T CARE.
- In March 2008, AT and T “transferred” me to DishNetwork. To this day, no one at DishNetwork can explain what this means. AT and T billed DishNetwork $370.00 since the services were no longer bundled, and DishNetwork has now billed me for that amount. NO ONE CAN TELL ME WHAT THIS IS FOR. I AM JUST EXPECTED TO PAY IT OR GET SENT TO COLLECTIONS AND HAVE MY TV SERVICE SHUT OFF.
In conclusion, I signed up for a bundle of three services of TV, DSL, and Phone. DSL NEVER WORKED. The phone never really worked. In no way was the land line phone working like a land line phone should. As a matter of fact, last fall during my phone troubles (and after this continuing well into the winter) AT and T was working on the infrastructure in my subdivision. I mean these guys were out in 20 below weather digging up the hell out of the ground and fixing stuff.

THERE WERE OBVIOUSLY UNACCEPTABLE SERVICE ISSUES THAT NO NORMAL PERSON IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD ACCEPT. Though AT and T was very difficult to work with, I thought the issue was resolved in November when the account was settled in November of 2007. But, they are basically are extorting and defrauding me out of about $430.00 and killing my credit report. I’m a reasonable person and very pro-business. But, this is a case of the big company really sticking it to the average citizen and it is not right. AT and T has ZERO accountability for anything. What else can I say. NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH AT AND T IN ANY WAY. If something goes wrong, you are COMPLETELY SCREWED.

After paying my bill with AT&T in FULL, the company decided not to restore my service unless I paid a 500.00 dep per line (I had 3 lines). When I refused, they sent my account to a collection company suing me for 583.12. These charges are termination fees plus 18% of my previous balance. How is it that these companies can do this to consumers? I did not want my account terminated, they made that decision and are suing me for early termination fees? How can that be fair to the consumer? How is it legal for companies to be able to do this?

This month I am finally saying good bye to AT&T and their little friend Direct TV. We are a military family and get moved around quite a bit. When we first moved to the Tampa area, we were told that Bell South was the only telephone provider in the area, and we were trying to get our utilities set up at our new residence. As all of you probably know by now, Bell South is none other than AT&T, and like many of the banners and ads on the net, we were suckered into the plan that they advertise for $99.99 for your phone, high-speed internet and Direct TV...

Let me say this... last month I paid out $114.14 for just my phone and my internet ( and I only made three outgoing calls on my house telephone), AND another $84.49 for Direct TV... that is $198.63, almost TWICE the rates that AT&T are advertising! I didn't have anything fancy... No premium stations (Just the basic type programming with more informed channels than anything else), no HD, nothing like that at all, except the extra $4.99 for an additional receiver. My internet which was supposed to be $19.95 a month was costing me $49.95 a month. All of this and wait till you hear the loveliness of the rest of the story. AT&T charged me an installation fee to have the service turned on ( which everyone does for the most part) and gave me my phone number. OK I asked if I can have it arranged for the bill to be due on or shortly after the first of the month or on or after the 15th of the month because that way we can focus it around my husbands pay periods. They say no problem... We get a bill due on the 27th of the month. I call and ask them if they can change the bill date... they tell me that they can...IF I want to change my phone number AND pay them $65! I tell them that they will get their money on the first of the month... their representative then proceeds to tell me that since it is my husband's name only on the phone bill that she cannot talk to me, and hangs up. We then decide to buy a house here... we need to have the phone turned off at the old house and on at the new house...we are keeping the same #. Well they charge us another 'establish service fee' and are now paying two at the same time for a period of a few months!

Ever since then I have been dealing with these outrageous always changing phone rates and other charges (last month I paid Direct TV online and their computer system was apparently down... I went through the steps of making the payment online got an e-mail and a confirmation number of my payment) and got called several times by Direct TV asking me where my payment was... I gave them the information that they sent to my e-mail... and they said that they didn't get paid. I checked my bank, and apparently they never debited my account, so I told the rep to re-submit the payment when I was on the phone (for which they charged me $5 that they didn't tell me about I found that on the next month's bill, with a late payment fee of $2.99 due to their screw up.)

I also have the lovely representatives who place a 'courtesy' call to me every month, on the 28th letting me know that my phone bill needs to be paid. They always ask for my husband who is almost never here, but in some other country on the other side of the world someplace... and they say things to me like 'Did you know that your bill was due yesterday?' I am always like I sure did know that my bill was due yesterday, and I have asked you to change the billing date a hundred times. You won't change it for me unless I pay you $65. You will get paid on the first ( and they always get paid in full). Since when did the phone company become loan sharks?

I did a little research and found out that our small local cable company offers HD TV with many more channels than Direct TV, telephone service with unlimited long distance and internet service for $125.64 a month ( including all taxes)... a $70 savings for us... with no strings attached. Guess what... we switched... Direct TV were such scumbags to tell us that we are obligated to keep their rip-off service for 18 months and they can charge us an early termination fee and that they have our bank account numbers and can take our money... blah, blah, blah. In another place we were with SBC who provided excellent service with satellite service and we were under no such obligation... they (Direct TV) told me about the expense of their equipment and how expensive it is, which is what warrants them making you contract for 18 months [which their rep who comes to hook you up never tells you about]. My husband does VOIP and satellite communications currently with the military... he was telling me expensive? Yeah right, it is why they tell you to pull the transmitter off the dish when you discontinue service and the boxes don't work without active cards. They just want you to think that to condone WHY they are going to TRY to charge you for 18 months of service.

In my opinion I think all of us who have been taken advantage of by this company needs to open their mouths and just say NO to this money grubbing company who doesn't care one bit about its customers and only about their profit margins! These people make Verizon look like saints!