AT&T
Reviews and Complaints

August of 2009 purchased iphone 16 gb model# a1303 fcc id bcga1303a ic id 579c-a1303a @ apple store, northridge ca. The phone cost $290.00 plus tax.I dropped the phone in water and damaged the phone.A technician at glendale apple store glanced at the phone and said it was unrepairable.There were no tests performed on the phone and no attempt to look at the internal parts of the phone to see if they were damaged, but i was offered to purchase a new phone for $200.00 and lose my unlimited internet service that i have on my old phone.I chose not to go for that unreasonable choice.

My on line search i found a refurbished one for $19.00 and $47.00 in taxes.I sent two emails to at&t the service providers customer service for explanation of how they come up with this kind of tax percentage i still have not received a response.

We have different problems with AT&T just about every month. For over two weeks we had NO telephone service. When we called them for repairs, they offered only an automated system and set an appointment about 3 weeks away. Our AT&T Uverse has problems about every month or two. For many months in a row our Uverse boxes were unable to download system updates and we would lose the picture completely. We had to unplug the modem/hub and each cable box to reset them. The process took about 20-30 minutes each time, including the reboot. Now we cannot download movies from our NetFlix instant queue. It worked great for a few years, but now it cannot download any movies. Similarly, my kids PS3 cannot download updates. I can't help but think AT&T slows speeds for competing products. Tonight when I wanted to chat with their CS, they indicated they had "limited" ability to run checks. It took at 5 minute chat to discover limited means NONE. Why can't they just say they can't help rather than make you ask for several items and discover limited means no help? They really s***.

Our 93 year old elderly parents were signed on by doortodoor sales rep. of AT&T Uverse for a complete communication package whick requires computers, business phones, security systems etc. "Katherine" the sales rep. took advantage of elderly, hearing impared and frail elderly couple. Parents only have a TV in livingroom and a basic telephone service. Family cancelled services for them/pulled out and returned ALL Uverse equipment as required. After five (5) months of calls, letters and promises for refund to elderly parents NOTHING has been done. Finally put into the hands of TN. Attorney General, TN. Dept. of Consumer Affairs, Dept. Against Exploitation/Abuse of The Elderly, BBB of the all States involved and personal Attorney for collection of refund. Get plenty of lip service from very nice Executive Supervisors but no action. This has been very time consuming and extremely sad. AT&T is scamming the U.S. with heartless and cruel tactics to make a few bucks.

The AT & T U-Verse marketing personnel stated that the transition from DirecTV and AT & T home phone service and internet would be "seamless". While the television and home phone service transition has been nearly "seamless", the internet transition, specifically e mail has been a nightmare. We immediately experienced e mail problems, such as duplicate downloading of messages and persistent error messages when attempting to reply to e mail messages. When we called AT & T U-Verse customer service we were told that they do not provide technical support for user using the Microsoft Outlook e mail program. Of course, the marketing personnel never mentioned that the only way the customer can receive e mail technical assistance from AT & T U-Verse is to use the limited functionality AT & T internet web e mail portal. The AT & T internet web e mail portal is lousy, with little of the editing, copy and paste, graphics and other capabilities common to users of the widely accepted Microsoft Outlook e mail program. AT & T U-Verse technical support is more than happy to transfer the customer to a fee-based Advanced Technical Support Unit that will--for a fee--help the user sort out the Outlook compatabiliy issues. So, these creeps sell the customer a product that interferes with a perfectly functioning Outlook e mail program, and then want the customer to pay a fee to receive the help necessary to eliminate whatever compatibility issue they created. AT & T U-Verse should be prosecuted for fraud and deceptive business practices, for failing to make crystal clear to the potential customer that AT & T U-Verse will NOT support Microsoft Outlook or any other 3rd party e mail software. Had they done so in my case, I would never have purchased the service.

I upgraded my phone 1 1/2 years ago when my older phone had died. I was upgrade eligible and looked at all the options. There were nicer phones that required 2 years contract extension. I did not select any of those phones. I selected a refurbished and cheaper phone. Now as I was trying to get out of contract, I am told that I automatically got signed into contract because I upgraded. It was not shown to me at any stage unless I had to click in some hidden corner of screen. Their product lineup and prices were completely misleading. Now my phone is completely unusable and they are telling me that I can get an early no-contract upgrade if I pay 200$ extra. I do not trust them. For everyone who is as naive as me in thinking that you can upgrade phone by selecting phones that do not require contract, it is a sham and lie that AT&T has put on their website just to fool you. If you want to sign a 2yrs contract, then fair game. So, do not let the * 2yr contract required under any phone stop you, since regardless of what you select, they are going to slap a 2 yrs contract on you anyway.

I called to switch my internet out of my husband's name and into my name, because they said I had to in order to combine our internet and wireless service into one bill. They made me start my contract over and charged me for the first month and half (which is standard of a new contract in most places). We had been paying $30 per month prior to this and they claimed that they had a promo price where I would get my first year for $20. This sounded great to me. After receiving my first couple bills of $40 I called to complain. They claimed that this was only for the first few months and that my $20 payments should start now. Two more $40 payments came due. I called back to complain again. The lady was very nice and claimed I was entered under the wrong promo code and that she would fix it, and I would get credits on my bill. She offered me a new deal of double the internet speed for the same $20 rate. I told her that was offered last time, but after I gave all the required info, the lady told me it wasn't offered in my area. She said I was too far from the tower. This new lady said that she was not sure if that was the case or not, but she could see that it is now available if I would like to receive it. I said sure. She asked if I had any other problems to address. I said I was promised a $75 prepaid card the last time I called to complain. I received a form in the mail 2 days after it had expired. I called anyways and never received it. She claimed that she would fix that problem and that it, too, would be credited to my bill. She said she hoped that I would end up with free service for the remainder of the year for all of these credits. I said that would be nice and asked what I do about the current charge of $40 (instead of $20). She said, unfortunately I would need to pay the $40 but insured me that I would be credited $20 of it, along with all these other promised credits. I felt like I was being fed a load of crap, but needed my internet for online schooling. I paid by debit card. That was last month. This month I called to check about my current bill due. Guess what is due? You guessed it...$40. Guess how my internet speed is? That's right...still not double. I know this for a fact, because I had just checked the internet speed of my pc prior to talking to them on the phone. It is still the same speed now as it was then.

AT&T are liars, thieves, and incompetent ###s. They apparently hire pretty much anyone off of the street, regardless of their intelligence level. Either that, or they do not adequately train the poor fools or fall victim to their company, and just want to have a job like the rest of us. I wonder if fool their employees with empty promises too. Anyways, I am switching. If I am going to pay $40 instead of $30 for average internet speed, then I might as well pay an extra $10 for fast speed. I also should have never switched to their wireless coverage just to get a small employee discount from work. I had US Cellular. Biggest mistake I ever made. Their service sucks! Dropped calls, crappy phones, and poor customer service to boot. (I never did try again to combine our internet and wireless because I was so disgusted by being screwed over). I am switching to Virgin Mobile. At least I won't be under any damn contracts and forced to deal with poor service.

If you are considering ATT, don't. Run while you still can. I truly believe they only have the customers they do because they lie and because they took over Cingular (who sucked also). If you are gonna pay out the butt, at least pay out the butt for good service and good customer service.

AT&T offered me a promotional price of $14.99 for internet service, but the keep billing me $45 every month. I have called and talked to them about it, they said that the problem would be corrected, and my account would be credited. No such luck they continue to over charge me. They did the same with my landline service. It was basic service, and supposed to be about $10 a month. I never got a bill even close to that. After cancelling my service they finally refunded me about $80. They should treat their customers right before they lose most of them.

I have AT&T DSL Elite. Almost every evening the download speed drops to rediculously low levels. Elite is supposed to provide up to 6MBps but it regularly drops to around 1.5MBps and frequently to below 1MBps. I have had AT&T out twice and they claimed they corrected the problem somewhere in their system; but it just keeps coming back. Before I had AT&T DSL Elite I had AT&T DSL Pro and when I changed over and paid the extra money I learned several months later that they never changed the connection, even though they showed it on my phone bill. Never offered me a refund either when they finally changed it over. Maybe before AT&T adds any new "fastest in the USA wireless service" they can pay some attention to their existing DSL customers and fix their system so that it does not drop to such unacceptable levels.

Their only competition in this area is the cable TV company. Too bad nobody else provides DSL here in the Central California Coastal area.

I am at the point where I am about to monitor the speed continuously and start paying my bill proportional to the speeds AT&T provide.

Watch out! AT&T will steal your toll free and local phone number if your not careful. And they will advertise your competition in the process on your dime.
This really happen to me and still is happening.
Times being tough, I was not able to pay my monthly at&t bill on time. The company issued a temp disconnect on the line. So, callers received "The number you've reached is temporally disconnected." for about two weeks. Then when I called in to forward my toll free number to a new number, the next day AT&T disconnected the line and ran an advertisement you'd hear when you called my toll free number that directed callers to my competition by announcing: "At no additional charge AT&T can help you find a similar business in the same area since the number you called is not in service. Please stay on the line for alternative businesses. I have three similar businesses. Your call will be automatically completed after your selection. Press or say "one" for " insert name here" located at 1234 anystreet, in St. Louis MO press or say two for "insert name here" company and press or say three for " insert name here" company. press or say nine to repeat this list. I no longer have control of my 800 or local phone that I've had for twenty some odd years. Needless to say, I've filed my complaint with the FCC by filling out the 2000B form. As far as I know AT&T is the only company doing this, but then, what dd you expect?

AT&T cellular representative offered a bundled package which would include cell phone bundled Uverse (HDTV, land telephone and internet)
for $60/month less than we were currently paying for the services. We could have a 30 day trial with no contract and a money back guarantee.
We signed up and had Uverse installed, Then we found out the cell phone was not part of the deal. The Uverse HDTV picture was not as good as Cox cable which we had prior to trying Uverse. The day after Uverse installed, wireless didn't work, e-mail didn't work and our fax machine would not send or receive faxes. Countless hours on the telephone with ATT and lot of empty promises of when things would be fixed or would not be fixed. Finally after a week of haggling ATT got some things working. E-mail I finally figured out how to fix.
After that we decided to go back to Cox Cable and back to ATT land line and DSL (Internet). We needed to get back to exactly where we were before joining the class action suit against ATT/Uverse.
Then we experience two more weeks of hell trying to get back to where we were. Again countless hours on the telephone, listining to recorded messages, repeating names, pin numbers, address, problem. Again empty promises of when services would be re-instated, when technitions would be schedule. Finally got back ATT land telephone and DSL.
Cox cable for no charge came out and straightened out the re-arranged co-axial cable mess ATT had left behine and got me back on Cox cable.
Be carefull when you decide to change from services you are basically satisfied with in order to save a buck. Get the price of every nut and bolt and all fees and taxes if possible. Also, consider companies that have local customer support office. ATT's installers may be local, but all customer help is long distance with 800 numbers and lots of hassle, lots of sweet "I'm so sorry talk" and very slow action.

was feed all the right lines by the salesmen from ATT, twice on the phone and twice metting face to face, the service i'm paying for to drive people to my website & gnerate phone calls has been a disater for the price i'm paying.when i call or e mail i get the same run around time after time, we have to try this and then we'll try that.bottom line its the worst money iv'e ever ever spent in my life.have 5 more months with these crooks.must br nice to have a licence to STEAL !

In the month of May 2008, I entered into a service agreement with AT&T wireless to receive internet service by means of an air card. This agreement was for unlimited access. No overage charges would apply for use that exceeded 5 gigs per month. For the past 10 months, I have not had an occasion to use the air card at all. In the month of January 2011, my work has placed me in an area where it has been necessary to use the air card extensively. On January 15, 2011, I attempted to utilize the air card and was prompted by a pop-up information box to call my provider. The information box stated "to avoid excessive data usage fees, the service has been suspended. Contact AT&T at #611". The number 611 is the AT&T wireless customer service number. I spoke with several persons including someone who identified himself as the mobile PC manager. I think he stated that his name is David. He advised me that AT&T no longer offers the service plan that I entered into in May of '08. He stated that I have exceeded the 5 gig per month limit. He stated that under my current plan, there are no overage charges applicable. He added that the suspension of my service will remain in effect indefinitely unless I exercised one of two options. First, I can discontinue my service with AT&T. Secondly, I can switch to the new data plan wherein I agree to pay overages in excess of 5 gigs per month. I asked the representative if my service would be restored at the end of the current month billing cycle if I did not switch to the new Data plan. He stated that it would not. He reinforced the fact that the service would continue to be blocked indefinitely unless I switched to the new plan. Due to my present work demands and the need for internet service to be restored immediately, I agreed to the new data plan. This feels like extortion to me. I think that AT&T is not honoring the original service agreement and is forcing customers who have older and better valued plans to switch by suspending service.

I have an AT&T cell phone which is currently with a family member who is traveling in Mexico.Once they left the country, their caller ID stopped working though the Viva Mexico plan claims to offer caller ID.When they call out their number always shows as "unknown caller" and anyone who calls in, no matter where they are calling from, shows up as the number of my family member's own phone!They have also had a hard time accessing voicemail, and when I emailed AT&T for the gazillionth time, they had the nerve to disable voicemail...I have no idea how they did this---and told me that I'd never set it up in the first place, which is an outright lie!

I just spent an hour online with ATT "customer service" and wanted to warn ATT customers that they could be subject to fraudulent data charges through their texting plans. It's pretty scary stuff; sorry for the windy posting, but here's the cautionary tale of what happened:

I was looking at my phone bill and noticed higher than usual charges. I called ATT. They said that some text messager named "MBLOVE2" sent a text to my wife's phone line. Now, bear in mind that we don't use text messaging for anything, in general. The message that they had sent to my wife said "respond to this message with 'STOP' to discontinue receiving messages like this." This my wife did. However, we were charged $9.99 twice on our bill for this "subscription" service that neither of us had ever heard of before.

Back to ATT help desk. They said we must have subscribed to the service somehow. We didn't. They said that there's nothing they can do to prevent people from sending texts that charge us unless we use something called "Purchase Blocker." What is purchase blocker? I'd never heard of it. Turns out that it's an ATT service that prevents unauthorized purchases from occurring, such as the one I'd been charged for by MBLOVE2. Why didn't ATT make this the "default" when one starts service, and enable people to decide what should or should not be charged to their accounts? The help desk person (and her two supervisors) had no explanation about why ATT didn't make this the default for service, but I digress.

I then asked the help desk person to look into my account over the past year, and it turns out that there were $60 in additional charges from a company called "Motricity" (www.motricity.com) that I was unaware of to my wife's account over the past several months. I insisted that they all be rescinded/credited, which they will be. A number of thoughts:

1) ATT is taking no responsibility for this. They say there's nothing they can do about it, and that it's basically up the customer to determine if fraudulent charges have been made to the account. The first manager I spoke with even acknowledged that he'd heard of MBLOVE2 before and that it was a problem for others! I asked why they haven't done anything about it; he had no answer other than it was up to me to deal with it, basically, even though ATT is the one billing us. They're the ones charging us on behalf of a 3rd party that we never heard of, but are putting the onus of preventing fraudulent charges on the customers. They say that these charges can "happen" only if one approves them via text. That's not true. They "happen" if you simply get the text. One of the companies that fraudulently billed us is known as "motricity" (www.motricity.com). They sent text messages to my wife with "no subject" --completely blank. She thought it was strange, but ignored it and did nothing. Still, we were billed $19.99 for them. I called them; no answer, but sent an email through their website explaining what happened, and that I'm going to report their practices to the authorities. We'll see what happens (apparently they're a publicly traded company: MOTR)

2) What frightens me the most? The fact that I (as a fairly tech savvy sort) got bilked on my bill, but if it's happening to me, it's happening to tens or hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting folks, like my parents, grandparents, and others who aren't so tech savvy. Telecom bills are notoriously complicated and confusing. This leads to point #3.

3) What these bad guys are counting on is that the phone/data/service bills are sooooo incredibly dense and convoluted. I just did a word count on my last month's bill. Total number of words: 34, 189! People get "glaze over" when they read their bills, and don't understand all the components. It's hard to understand what's in them. For example, I just did a word search for "motricity" in the bill, and nothing. It's not in there. Why? Because it's buried in the data charges and will only show up on my credit card statement. --And that's what the criminals are hoping for (with somewhat witting compliance by AT&T).

4) In that regard, ATT puts the onus of "security of their customer's credit card accounts" into the hands of companies like Motricity. Instead of preventing fraud by empowering their customers (with knowledge of these things or blocking them altogether, or informing customers about "Purchase Blocker" at the beginning of data service), they put the onus of finding fraud and "addressing" it with the customers.

5) This is essentially "text spam, " but ATT is ignoring it as a customer nuisance. They don't see it as a serious case of fraud perpetrated on their customers. As to why they don't explain/warn customers about this up front? I'm guessing it's because they're concerned that customers would choose "purchase blocker" up front, and not buy a lot of the legitimate purchases of ringtones, songs, and other things that people buy (to ATT's profit) through their phones. But their clearly ignoring spam as fraud by enabling companies to access your data text account, regardless of your approval, then "dealing with it" after customers discover the problem and call to complain.

Bottom line: ATT has probably done the math: the money they make through purchases (fraudulent and legitimate) must far outweigh the risks/problems of dealing with customers who call to complain about companies and individuals who steal from their customers just because they have access to a) our phone numbers and b) a text application that automatically submits an invoice to ATT's billings systems for said phone number.

If you're an ATT data customer, I'd check your bill immediately and/or call their help desk and ask them to see if any "subscription" services have been added. They can easily go back a year to review your bills. At the end of my conversation with a top customer service manager at ATT, he finally acknowledged that yes, this is a problem, and that they should probably warn people about this, at a minimum.

Finally, please let others know about this (members of congress, family, friends, etc.). If this happened to me, it's happening a LOT more people out there. Personally, I'm contacting all of the above.

Sorry for the lengthy message, but I wanted to warn others. This shouldn't be legal...

PS. I tried to look up MBLOVE2, but they don't seem to "exist" as any real company.

After contacting ATT Wireless on January 19th 2011 regarding an open ticket/complaint dating back in November I was subjected to offensive religious commentary by Kimberly Smith at their Paris Texas location. In escalating the issue I was basically told that ATT would talk to the employee but that beyond that they really don't care about losing another customer. The people in the "Office of the President" for the the wireless group all the way up to the senior manager Charles Villerale simply do not care about customers and have only one objective and that is to enforce the terms and conditions of contract and to make certain that when the contract ends make certain that the customer never ever ever returns. So why is ATT spending so much time and shareholders money with their campaign to retain customers when they actually have no problems sending customers away in a bitter fashion and making certain that the customer (like myself) will not only never return but will also cancel ATT residential services losing revenue for that group? I am impressed that ATT Wireless prefers to have employee's instead of customers since customers are the ones that generate revenue and profits. Are the shareholders aware of ATT Wireless's poor business model, bad behavior and their masterful ability to lose a customer permanently. Current customers with expiring contracts and potentially new customers should seriously consider other providers for these services or you will also learn the hard way as I have that ATT never has and never will have any respect for the customer.

I cancelled my att phone service in June. I was to get a refund check, just $15.14. I have been calling for 7 months. I get my call sent to f*cking India & they dont have a clue! Im told it was cashed and they will send me a replacement. I have been hearing the checks in the mail, it was mailed in in Sept, Oct, Nov etc I call back repeately and they are still investigating it! Its only a $15 refund!

I have been put on hold for 30 or more mins. I have never had such a run around from such a major company. I called back just recently and they told me they were actually sending me out a copy of the cashed check and they wont be issuing one to me since it was cashed! So my fellow AT&T people if you are to get a refund and its stolen my someone and cashed you are SCREWED! They will not reissue it even though you didnt cash it!

So all these past few months I was told in essence that I was gettig a copy of the June 2010 check and not a reissue for a new cut check! Then they have the nerve to send me in the mail to "come back to AT&T". Do you think I have "***" on my head? Do you think a consumer will go back to a company that should have stayed in the USA and who has been treated with no respect and who gets terrible customer service?

We will not stay with AT&T. Its not about the $15.14 but its about the principle. We all want AT&T to make things right and they have screwed us! I guess they need that $15.14 more than I do. They can take it and shove it up there (you know whats!

I signed up for ATT Uverse 6 months ago, moving my TV, internet & phone service to their Uverse platform. I was told there would be unlimited long distance calling (like Comcast's "triple play"). I was told I would get 1 HD/DVR box. I was told there was NO contract.

When the tech came to install my service, he told me that I was not signed up for an HD box. The lady who took my order had lied to me. Additionally, after my first bill I realized I was NOT getting free unlimited calls. Two lies to get my business!

When I called to complain, they "gave" me some free services (more movie channels, more bandwidth) and adjusted my phone plan to the unlimited call plan. I still had to pay additional charges, but it was competitive with the Comcast Triple Play so I decided to go with it.

About a month ago Comcast gave me a "come back to Comcast" promo so I decided to change back to Comcast. After mailing all my equipment back, I still got an additional bill? I paid it! DUMB mistake since all services are paid for on "pre-pay" terms. Today, I get another bill in the mail from ATT claiming there is an "early termination" fee. WHAT? That lady who I originally spoke with told me there was NO contract.

When I called customer service/billing, they tell me that the charge ($135) is billable because they sent me (3) e-mails stating my account was now under a 1 year contract!?

What? Another ATT rip-off and more lousy customer service. By the way, my HD picture always had fuzzy/digitized blocks at the bottom of my screen. Those are GONE with Comcast and even over-the-air HD signals. ATT Uverse SUCKS.

Brian Flanary

We switched from comcast internet to at&t dsl internet to save money and are seriously regretting it now. After starting the new service last week, we found that it was too slow to use with our xbox and ps3 or netflix, and called to upgrade to the "elite" dsl service. The salesperson promised the upgrade would be seamless with no downtime. This is crucial, as I telecommute and rely on the internet to be available all day. She convinced me to add phone service, since bundling would save even more money. What she failed to tell me was that this would create a disconnect order and then a new service order instead of a simple upgrade. Our internet service was down from 8:00 am yesterday (Friday), and after several calls to at&t, I was assured that service would be up by 8:00 pm last night. It was not. I was then told that I would have to wait until monday for service and that no one could help me. After several more calls to at&t this morning, a tech came out to install the service we were supposed to have yesterday. He left without checking that it worked properly, and now our speed is half of what is was before the "upgrade," at a whopping.97 mbps. I can get my email, but images won't load in my browser half the time, and forget about xbox or netflix. We really needed to cut our budget, but I sure wish we could have afforded to stay with comcast. Their techs would never have left without ensuring that we were operating at the speed we are paying for, and they are open 24/7. No, "provisioning has gone home without finishing your order. Call back monday." geez, at&t. You've had, what...60 years longer than comcast to get your act together? This is no way to treat customers, and it's for sure we'll leave for greener pastures as soon as we can afford better service.

I have only been with ATT for less than 4 months and know that I will NEVER use their services ever again. I would have already dropped them but I have to stay for a year. To start with when we got out internet connected, within one week it stopped working. They told me it was a bad modum so they would send me a new one. After another 2 weeks of trying to figure it out, they send a guy over from the company to help. He find out the "new" modum they sent actually didn't work and the original did but the lines were what was wrong. Finally a week later they were finally able to fix that, still keeping me paying for a month of internet that I didn't recieve. Next the problem was my bill. I signed up when they had a special going. However every month they seem to forget this so I am continually overpaying and then being creditied the amount. I feel that if it was their mistake, I shouldn't have to pay the extra amount each month. I end up having to call and deal with their customer service over the phone. That brings me to their customer service. First off, you have to enter or tell someone your phone number on average 7 times for a single problem because nobody can help you so they continually transfer you to another person. And most of the time when they are transferring you, it asks for a 3 digit code. Nobody ever gives you the 3 digit code unless you ask specifically for it before they transfer you but how are you supposed to know to ask? The last complaint is their online bill pay. Good luck! I have tried the last three months. Because I only have internet through them, they have to send me some code in the mail. When I mean mail, I mean snail mail. Isn't it 2011? Nobody can give you the number online, over the phone, or even e-mail it to you. I found this out after spending another 45 minutes on the phone with their aweful customer service. So heads up, run the other way from this company. You are better off spending more money than constantly dealing with these incompetent people.

They ripped off my 80 year old mother by scarring her into an anti virus contract. She has been trying to get her money back for 4 months.