Frustration

If anyone ever, ever, ever asks you if you want your AT&T services bundled.... run, don't walk, run away from the conversation!! Keith has just spent 2 whole days trying to find out why we have a late payment on our accounts that have been set up on autopay for somewhere around 5 years!

Back when we went on the road again.... In April, I called AT&T, that used to be Bellsouth, and asked them to disconnect our home phone number. The very nice man at the other end of the line convinced me that I didn't really want to do that - but instead - I wanted to have all of my oh-so-important calls forwarded to my cell phone. (2 months later 2 calls have been forwarded~~) So, for only about $20 per month, my whole billing system would not get all messed up and I wouldn't lose my number, and everything would transition on all smoothly, nicely, and I'd continue to have a wonderful, nice life.....

Fast forward to when Keith opens 2 AT&T bills - one for long distance and 1 with a late payment on it!!!!! So I go back to my email that said "Your AT&T bill is ready to review" and.... I click on the link.... and I use my login and password (as I have most every month for about 5 years) and I am greeted with the message that.... "changes have been made to this account and it is no longer accessible online".

So Keith calls customer service.... He gets the 'residential people' - because that is the number on the bill he has been sent... They can tell him that the bill is overdue - they can't see why - because the line has been put on remote call forwarding so no further information (or the billing breakdown) is available, so I get concerned that his cell phone and data card will be 'suspended' also. So I ask why it isn't on the bill.... no one can tell me - because it isn't residential. So I go look at the wireless website and I see where they have charged the credit card for June, the bundled mess for May, April, March but no information any further back. By this time Keith has been on the phone for a couple of hours being transferred here and there and he just wants to know what the billl is for and to pay it. So I try to pay it online.... again ... cannot access account online.... even tho' the continuous recording says... 'save time and go to att.com'!!! What a circle jerk!!!

So Keith calls back and presses the option to pay the bill that should have been an autopay and we never got a paper bill and couldn't access it online... and the woman says 'there will be a $5 charge to pay this bill via a live representative'!!! So I lose it and tell her that I am not giving AT&T an additional $5 for thier errors and messed up systems!! and Keith hangs up!!!

This morning at 5:30 am he gets up and starts calling again. He finally gets the bill paid - hopefully without the $5 additional charge and he was trying to find out why the bill was late and not autopaid so that it would not happen again (and he has the paper in front of him that says they have received wireless payments monthly forever!) and NO ONE COULD TELL HIM just what the $150+ broke down to nor could anyone guarantee that his cell and data card would not be interupted.!!!

So about 7:30 this morning - after being transferred around for 2 more hours... we will not have a landline in Florida any longer. Keith's cell and data card are safe, the bill is paid, we still do not know why we have been double billed, there is no call forwarding, and no one can tell us because no one (even the combined billing department) can access a combined bill once it has been un-combined and no one can see the individual portions of a bill that was combined.

AND, for taxes, I need the prior bills. The ones from January to May. The ones that I usually print only the pages I need for records. I cannot access them online as the service has been interrupted. They transfer Keith to the department to get copies of the bills that we didn't get because we did it all online and electronically (you know - save the trees! and the burn barrel) and I didn't print because it isn't the end of the year and I don't need them yet.... and she says ~ ~ all bright and cheerful ~~~"Of course we will gladly send you whatever copies you need. There will be a $3.50 fee for each previous bill added to your next bill. What address do you need for it to be sent to?" At that - he hung up. I was wishing all sorts of bad things on the system as a whole (not any singled out person!) and sorely wish that 'customer service' was again CUSTOMER SERVICE. In relating the same story over and over again for 2 days - and receiving totally irrevelent answers over and over again - I don't know if I wasn't explaining what happened in English and understandably - or if no one really cares as long as they get paid. I'd bet on the latter!!! And poor Keith.....

So, as the many, many reps at AT&T continually said..... ~~~~ "HAVE A NICE DAY!!"