Mar 02, 2009

Its official.  I hate AT&T.

I received an email from AT&T Premier services today (the branch of AT&T that handles corporate accounts) with an advertisement pimping a new sale on the Blackberry Bold.

“Great!” I thought, as I’ve been wanting one of them for quite some time, but have been put off by the $399 price tag they slapped down on us corporate types.  The new price?  $199 – exactly what I expected it to be when it launched back in October.

So, I figured that going in to the Premier website to do the upgrade would be easy.  I logged in, saw the upgrade offer – it showed my price at $199 and I was good to go.  Well, adding it to my cart gave a $399 price tag.  WTF?

Well, no big problem – I’ll just call them and talk to someone on the phone about it.  Finding the number to call was pretty easy, but I then sat on hold with them for 59 minutes before I gave up.  The horrible 3 minute muzak loop was boring into my poor abused brain.  The stupid voice over platitudes about how important I am to them was really wearing thin.  It was official, I was pissed of at being kept on hold for just under an hour with no option to leave my name and number, no option to be told how LONG I would be oh hold, etc.

Well, I hung up, and that’s when the real fun began.  On the contact page (that I used to find the phone number) – there was a link for providing feedback on “How they can make Premier better”.  Hmm.  That’s about what I need right now, a little venting on how they can 1) make their website work properly in the first place and 2) not keep me on hold for an hour with 3 minutes of brain numbing acoustic diarrhea.  Here’s my letter to them:

Subject: Phone Support
Comments: Your site asked for feedback on how to make premier better. Well, NOT keeping me on hold for 56 minutes (and counting) listening to the same horrible muzak the entire time would be a good start. Your phone queue also doesn’t say how long I might have to wait until someone can take my call. Knowing that would be very helpful. This treatment from a phone company? Very ironic and quite annoying. Well, 59 minutes into it, I’ve hung up. You’ve lost my $400 upgrade business. I’d much rather keep my old phone that put up with this. Sorry, but you asked. -A

Well, I felt better. For about 5 seconds.

UNTIL, I received the email in my inbox stating that my message to AT&T was bounced back.  WTF?  My Site Experience Feedback is Undeliverable!??

Your message did not reach some or all of
the intended recipients.

Subject: Site Experience Feedback
Sent: 3/2/2009 5:46 PM

The following recipient(s) cannot be reached:
icare@cingular.comon 3/2/2009 5:46 PM

The e-mail account does not exist at the
organization this message was sent to.
Check the e-mail address, or contact
the recipient directly to find out the
correct address.

< bspmx01.cingular.com #5.1.1 SMTP;
550 Invalid recipient <icare@cingular.com> (#5.1.1)>

Does anyone else find it the least bit funny that the email address icare doesn’t exist at AT&T?  I must admit that did make me laugh.  But, my jokularity was soon replaced by a seething anger and a fueled hatred.

• Treat me wrong once (mess up your website).  OK.
• Treat me wrong twice (not answer the darn phone).  SIGH. OK.
• Treat me wrong THREE TIMES IN RAPID SUCCESSION (ignore my feedback!)?  Well, you can just go #$#@ yourself.

Yup.  AT&T is officially on my crap list until further notice.