AT&T
Reviews and Complaints

Last May my wife and I travel out of the country for four weeks. First I called Qwest to suspend my home phone and internet service. I was told I could do that for a monthly fee of $5 only. Encouraged by the savings I called AT&T to temporarily suspend my cellular service as well. I talked to customer service rep that sounded very helpful. I explained my reason and intention to save some money by temporarily suspending my service while I was away and the agent was happy to help. When I ask what would happen and what I need to do, I was told that upon my return I can call AT&T and service will be resumed.

Upon my returned, I called AT&T and my service was established. When I receive my next month bills, I noticed that a full monthly service fee was assessed for the entire time I was out of the country and while my service was suspended. In addition I was charged $35 reconnection fee for each of the two lines I have. In all the calls I made to AT&T, I was not informed at any time that there would be no savings by suspending my service and there was no mention of any extra reconnection charges.

When I called AT&T customer service, I was told that it is AT&T policy to charge for a full month service fee. Remember this is for a suspended service. After talking to a couple agents I talked to a supervisor. I explained to the supervisor that if I was told that there would be no savings by suspending my service, I would have simply shut down our phones and traveled abroad let alone agree to pay another $70 in reconnection fee for the two lines.

When I ask why I was not told about the charges, the supervisor said that it is AT&T’s internal policy not to tell. I found this to be very deceiving and unethical business practice. Since AT&T could not explain to me why I should pay for a service that was not provided to begin with, I was forced to disconnect my service.

I am a former AT&T employee, and I've carried the AT&T Universal Card since 1992. When I received the card, I was also guaranteed 'no annual fee for life'. Imagine my surprise when I recently received a notice telling me I would be charged a $30 annual fee beginning in September, 2010. When I called the card issuer, Citibank (South Dakota) to complain, they arrogantly told me the terms of use agreement states they have the right to amend or change any portion of the agreement at their discretion. When I said, "So, 'no annual fee for life' doesn't really mean no annual fee for life, it means 'no annual fee for life until we decide to change our minds', the indifferent rep and his supervisor both continued to refer me back to the terms of use agreement. I'll check with an attorney to see if I have any legal recourse, but in the meantime, I'll be cancelling my card. They recently cut my credit line in half, raised my APR to 20%, and now they want to charge me an annual fee. AT&T and Citibank have my permission to stick my card where the sun don't shine!

Tell me why AT&T never provides a Web-link on any support page to complain.
I want to complain about deceptive marketing practices. When I purchased my goPhone there was a bright orange $50 airtime sticker affixed to the package. Nothing readable on the exterior of the package indicated it only applied solely to the Pay-As-You-Go .
On the activation WEB page there was an alert indicating it might take up to an hour for the credit to appear on my account. As I was completing the activation process selecting Pick-Your-Plan, I was nagged for credit card payment and not allowed to finalize the steps to use the phone. I decided perhaps I needed to wait for my credit. After 3 hours I checked back nothing; so I called support.
After sharing events with a customer service person, I was told the $50 credit was only for the Pay-As-You-Go plan. I challenged her to direct me to where on the exterior packaging I could see the restriction. She replied it was on one of the pamphlets inside the package. Irate I asked to speak with a supervisor; instead of getting a supervisor, she disconnected me.
Rather than go through the whole thing on the phone again, I decided to go on record with an email.
Try clicking on the email option from my current limbo account status.
First you are taken to the myWirelessAccount Login.
Enter the wireless number and password.
Instead of an email screen, you’re back to the credit card nag loop.

Saturday Night Live has always had it right for AT&T:
"We don't care; we don't have to; we're the phone company!"

I switched to Uverse from Brighthouse two weeks ago. The technician installed the can where the cable wire runs to inside my neighbors lawn without asking permission. I have spoken with ten customer reps and have had to called three seperate times and still they have not done anything about my complaint. Five feet of grass is now dead and of course the neighbor is furious. They have sent three different techs out to my home and each time i receive a call stating they cant help because they are the wrong department. none of the reps havea clue what to do with my call even after they promise to move the can and replace the grass. This is the worst service i have ever had. i should have stuck with brighthouse. the features from uverse are not worth being on a call for an hour and half and still not having my issue resolved!

A few days ago, my cellular phone completely dies on me . I use my cell phone alot ofr business and am not the type of person who looks for all the bells and whistles on my phone. i hold onto my phones far longer than mot people do. Well I finally decided to get an i phone. I figured that since I am over the obligation on my contract, it would be very easy to walk into a MAC store and sign up for a phone. Well as it turns out, I was told that I would not be eligible for an upgrade. The apple store attendant, who was extremely helpful and courteous, reffed me to AT&T's customer service department. The gentleman on the other line informed me that I already had an iphone. Shocked, I reiterated to him that I had the same Nokia model that I started my contract with. He insisted that I had taken out an I phone for my son in July. At first, I chuckled considering that I have no children, am single and according to him, had a son with a completely different last name than mine. Finally taking me serious, customer service investigated further. In the mean time, I was left with no working phone, and the inability to make calls from my phone while an investigation took place. I did my own research and it turns out, I was billed in excess of 200 dollars during a 3 month period. As I travel alot out of the country, I simply assumed that these were roaming charges and only glanced over my bill. In reality, my roaming fees were minimal compared to the activation, taxes and media fees I incurred during this time. I am set up for paperless statement and was a perfect victim. For those of you who have not picked up on the scam yet, let me warn you that this has to be an internal issue. Someone gave a discount to their friends/relatives using my account information. Obviously the other person is an At&T user as they have to be to use the I phone. They obviously used their own sim card and I was left with the phone expense, the activation and media usage fee. I guess someone at AT&T figured that since my plan was up and I was still using the same phone, I probably was going to switch to another provider. I researched all he calls on my bill and they are all mine. Only the data usage charges are not mine. They used my info to "hook" someone else up. I worked in fraud investigations for 7 years and even though I am speculating at this time, its evident that what happened here was identity theft from within AT&T. Even the Customer Service person mentioned that this was done at one of their company stores. I will be pressing charges and am wondering if anyone else was affected in a similar manner. Word if advise to all, CHECK your statements carefully. To their credit, Customer Service was helpful. I like AT&T but fear that this incident will forever sour me against them.

If you live on Westgate, or Gilmore Court in Iowa City forget using ATT as a phone service carrier. The bars vary from zero to three during the course of a single call. I see neighbors walking outside in the cold trying to get a signal. I know because I am out there, also. This inside a major university city only a mile from University Hospital. They told me I would get 3G a year ago. I would be happy to get functioning voice phone service. The iPhone is nice, but it isn't worth giving up a working telephone. I end up using Skype to place calls.

I do not understand the concept of scheduling an appointment and having backlogs. Why set an appointment when you know your technicians are backed up? I've read a number of posts here about people having the same experience as I did: taking the day off for nothing... and then they bombard you with alibis ranging from the distance of my home from the VRAD all the way to the technician's manager not knowing what to do at a certain point. Really? A manager not knowing what to do? How did he/she become a manager? Then again this may be due to the economy. Everything seem to be about the economy these days. Maybe they can't hire quality people so they hire the first person who sends them a resume.

My appointment was set for today, 10/21 between 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM. The technician called me at 10:00 AM to tell me that he was running late (obviously!) and that he will be at my location between 10:30 and 11:00 AM. Well, 11:00 AM came and went and no technician, no call. He finally showed up around noon and did a walkaround the place to see where my current connections are. After all that, he told me that he will go to the VRAD and make the connections there... might take anywhere between 30 and 45 minutes. After a while (around 1:00 PM), I was informed that the signals were not acceptable and that another technician will check the connections and do necessary improvements. I was also informed that instead of 2 HD signals, I would only be able to get 1. I was fine with that as I do all my TV viewing from the one HDTV I have anyway. 4 hours (yes, 4 hours!) went by and the first technician called and said they're still having problems with the quality of the signal because I am about 2, 600 feet from the VRAD and at that point, signals start to deteriorate.

It was almost 5:00 PM and I had lost all hope that anything would be done at all today. He proceeded to tell me that I have the option to reschedule the install. I told him that I can not do this as my weekends are full and taking another work day off was not an option. But truthfully, I was thinking... if the signal quality is an issue, then why bother trying to install it at all? Wouldn't this open a can of worms about the quality of service I will be getting? Wouldn't this lead to my calling tech support all the time to try and resolve problems stemming from said weak signal? Wouldn't this mean that I will still be paying full price for half a service? And get this: when I essentially asked (hinted is more like it) if there is any possibility at all to finish the install today, the technician said he actually gets off at 4:30 PM. So basically, he made it sound like he was doing me a favor by waiting for other technicians and managers to finish their jobs (being 5:00 PM and all, he was clearly off the clock!).

I understand the whole they-won't-find-out-until-they-come-to-your-location alibi -- I understand that it is some rehearsed line that people from sales and tech support use if anything like this happens. They obviously have a system in place to check if your home is serviceable by their product... why not go an extra mile and make sure that this is true before making theatrics out of telling you of service availability when you check on-line (Congratulations! U-verse is available blah-blah!)? They know that at 2, 600 feet, signal gets questionable so why even say my home is serviceable and get my hopes up? From the looks of things, I am not the only one who have had this experience so its not like I was the first case.

In an ideal world, AT&T would reimburse me for my lost day of work but who in this giant, money-sucking corporation would be in their right minds to do that? Something has to change.

I signed up with att uverse and 2 months later I can't get them to pay for the damages done to my TV. Something happened when the tech installed the box and left powered off the tv and then powered on a few hours later and tv screen was messed up. Called them and they said NOTHING they did caused that and they were not going to pay. After many hours with customer service, tech's not showing up and no one returning my phone call. I had a TV repair company come and look at the TV which then told me that some component board was messed up and seemed to think it happened once the TV powered back on. sounds to me this is AT&T 's problem however I can not get them to hold themselves responsible. This has to be the worst customer service I have ever seen. I believe uverse will put them under and I hope it happens. I hope people read this and reconsider AT&T's uverse junk!
one satisfied dish network customer

I called att to cancel my long distance services and one of the workers told me if I would purchase a home cordless phone for five payments of 13.99 that my long distance would go down to 9.00 a month. Oct got my bill I was charged 36.20 for longdistance service, and when I called att they told me that purchasing that phone nothing to do with my plan that was just a way to sell that phone to me. Call back to talk to a supervisor and they would not refund me for that phone and it was false information on there company behalf.

ATT sales persons from San Deigo came to my door steps at fremont, CA for a ATT package of TV/Net/Phone for $109.00 a month with a $50.00 refund and I agreed for the installation and service. I signed a contract package and have recipts for $109.00. Days later a Technician came and stalled the equipment with service. Not even a month later we received a bill of $274.00. To our surprise we contacted the ATT Bills department and their explanaltion was the amount on the bills was retrofit with advance payment. It was 19th of the month and they cahrged a full month bill. This was not explained by either sales perosn or the installation technician who had modified my contract without my consent. Upon calling the ATT numerious times, which takes approxmatly 2 hours to reach the right people of ATT U-Verse, they finally adjust my bill by $54.00 but still have not send our $50.00 rebate ATT Card. It is 3 month now and if I don't hear from this "false ad rip off company", I may switch to Comcast or to a Disc Network company.I 'm also planning to file their unbusiuness like conduct and charges with Better Business Bureau, TV channels and with the City of Fremont. I have had Comcast service before but never have to go to and fro like I' doing with ATT.

For the last 15 years I have run Yellow Pages ads and each year the renewal process involved their calling me in April of May to set up a meeting, a meeting to make any changes I wanted for the next year's ads; their sending me an agreement to review and make any corrections, my signing and dating the agreement and mailing it back to them. They would then send me a letter thanking me for advertising with them.

I discovered today that they supposedly mailed me a notice in July and my not sending it back set up an automatic renewal. I never got such a notice in July. Furthermore, if I had and had renewed, don't you think they would have sent me a "thank you" letter?

I have not gotten 'any' correspondence at all from ATT Real Yellow Pages. NONE. They say they mailed the notice. I say they did not and I think the fact that they did not thank me for renewing is evidence they wanted the keep me in the dark as to what they were doing. This is preditory and I have never heard that not responding to a renewal notice constituted renewing.

I have signed anything authorizing any Yellow Pages ads for 2010 and will not be paying for ads in 2010.

To Whom Ever Will Listen:
I just spent 89 minutes on the line with the ironically named 'Business Care' department of AT&T Wireless because the phone I purchased about 6 months ago, the LG Incite, has died. I figured, ok well for the most part I've been happy w/ my AT&T Service, so I'll deal with the fact that I have to buy a new phone because I decided to not buy the insurance when it was offered to me... No Big Deal. In the past, when I had a major issue with my account, I simply called in and a supervisor was able to credit my account and I was quite happy with the outcome. But with this situation I opted for the cheap free phone before and I won’t make that mistake again so I was looking into getting the new 3GS iPhone... It’s quoted @ $499 online but I figured, since I’m willing to sign a new contract for an additional 2 years, I would see if there was any way I could possibly get the same phone for the cost a new customer would get, $299. That is a pretty steep difference in cost and I have been with the company for a while and was just coming off a bad experience with another phone, so perhaps someone would be able to help me out... The answer to that question was a resounding, “NO!” Now, I understand policy is policy and if that cost is for new customers only and that’s fine but here is where I started having issues with how I was treated today.

The customer service agent implied that I could add a 2nd line to my acct--I would be able to get the phone for the price of $299 minus the 40% new equipment discount I might receive as part of a sponsorship I get from my employer—and that I could cancel the 2nd line a month later and would be able to keep the iPhone, simply moving it over to the other line on the account minus the early termination fee. She was pretty careful to not say it directly but she made sure to say that, “if I ‘had to cancel the 2nd line for any reason, I could always move the iPhone back over to my original line.” If I had opted to do such a thing, I would have not only incurred the early termination fee along with the hit it would cause on my credit. It didn’t occur to me until after I spoke to her supervisor and she stated that I could add the 2nd line what the first rep had inferred as an option. My initial call was just to inquire whether or not I would be able to extend my contract and get the iPhone I wanted at the cost new customers could get it at... I very easily could have listened to this person and that could have screwed up my credit...

To round out my completely ridiculous conversation with the supervisor, I was informed that under no circumstances would I be able to upgrade my acct with an iPhone at this time by calling customer service without having to pay the full $699 for the phone I wanted—despite being quoted earlier by the first rep and online for the price of $499...

At this point, if I could cancel my AT&T contract without it hurting my credit, I probably would. Honestly, I was willing to pay the $499 initially for the iPhone 32gb 3Gs but just wanted to know if there was any situation where I would be entitled to a discount because I was a faithful customer willing to extend his contract who was coming off a very negative experience with a poor phone... I’ve dissatisfied and angry, to say the least.
I do not know who else to turn to and since I got no response from the ‘Contact Us’ page email, I’m sending this to whatever email contacts I can find with this company’s site... I am not happy and, frankly, I hope this is not a common occurance... I’m not looking for any handouts and as long as I’m able to still get the phone I want at the price I was quoted, I will probably be purchasing it-- if I even decide not to disconnect my services altogether... Simply put, I want anyone who is willing to listen to know how I was just treated.. It was entirely unprofessional, uncalled for, and upsetting..

Daniel Mrozinski
Essexville, MI

1) I have NEVER been informed that cell phone coverage in the HOME is not covered.

2) I upgraded to add a "family" member - for the sole use of being able to simultaneously work on our computers (specifically for instructin purposes playing Bridge; looking at hands on Internet, watching World Bridge tourneys broadcast, etc.) (family member has dial-up internet & cannot be on computer & phone at same time) Purchased 2d phone & plan in December & have been paying monthly extra $20/mo.

3) 3 mos. ago I moved to Bay Point, in 2-story house, on top of hill. I CANNOT get phone service in this home, neither calls in nor can I make calls out.

I have to walk outside & sit in the car or walk around the block - weather permitting.

I have called ATT. 1st time they checked to see how close a tower is - one is around the corner w/in 1/2 mile.

I asked if there were a "better" phone or battery that I could buy to override this problem. NO, I have the best "type" of phone (not a 3G).

After missing some very important calls (re job interviews, notice of appt. times -- (add'l note: not that many (any ? jobs) available, especially to senior female needing to supplement social security restricted income ($1200/mo))

I called back yesterday saying I wanted to cancel 2d phone service (family member phone); that I signed 2 year contract IN GOOD FAITH however, have NOT been able to use service AT ALL! I want to cancel service & NOT pay "cancellation" fee. They said I would have to pay $165 cancellation fee AND that AT&T does not guarantee phone service inside home.

I switched to Uverse, It did take them 7 days longer to install than I was promised. The service itself is ok, Time Warner has some pluses and Uverse has some pluses.
The Install tech zip-tied the Uverse outside box to a pole, instead of mounting it to my outside wall. It looked like hell, and yes the zip-ties broke and now my box is hanging upside down next to my house. I called customer service, they will be happy to come out and fix it, of course they will charge me $55 for the service call.
I believe I will be switching back to TIME-WARNER soon.
My advice is to steer clear of Uverse, they will promise the world, but will charge you when they are the cause of you problems.

I called att. For internet service on sept.10th. They told me to expect to have service in three days. It was sept.21st before I had internet access! I was also told that I would be getting a reward check, in the mail for $150. Right away I smelled a scam! I asked out right; when-where-how, would I be getting this "mystery" check. I was told two weeks from my order date to expect this check. I even made this rep. Repeat, that I would be getting a $150 check in the mail within two weeks. Because I knew we were being recorded. Of course, I never got that check. When I called to ask why, (ha-ha) the new story was, I had to wait 30 days from my order date, then go on line and apply for my reward. When I go on line, the only thing I get is a message saying that I dont qualify for any rewards! All atnt says is "sorry for the inconvenience". Since when is lying an inconvenience? I find it utterly insulting. Soooo... When my internet bill arrives, all atnt will get from me is a envelope full of "sorry for the inconvenience".

###S GO TO https://rewardcenter.att.com/default.aspx TO GET YOUR REWARD AND STOP COMPLAINING. All these complaints from people that don't have the common sense to Google "myrewards.att.com" to find the home web site. Go to the link I posted above and get your stupid reward stupid people!

Please help me I have been a victim of fraud & manipulation by cingular wireless. I purchased a phone from cingular wireless and received the phone (a palm treo for $340) the first week of January. I returned the phone on January 15 a week later. I overnighted the phone to cingular's phone return center. 2 weeks later Cingular said they were going to shut my current phone off if I did not pay them for this phone that I had returned two weeks prior. I called Cingular & explained the situation. Cingular told me it takes them two billing cycles--60 days to credit the account. This is a clear case of fraud. How in this day of technology can a comany claim it takes them two months to process a return but during that time they will charge you a late fee for not paying them, threaten to shut off your phone and hold on to your money while they collect interest on thousands of people. I was shocked and called back to make sure what i heard was true. yes after another 10 minutes on hold another person told me it did indeed take two billing cycles. This kind of fraud has to be stopped. consumers have to be protected from this kind of manipulation. They have no problem billing you instantly but when it comes to you receiving your money back they feel they can wait two months.

I joined Cingular Wireless following an online advertisement by their authorized agent, Inphonic (1010 Wisconsin Avenue NW Suite 600 Washington, DC 20007) The advertisement promised free phones, a $600 rebate on two Motorola MPX-220 phones. Although I have met all conditions to receive my rebates, both Cingular and Inphonic refuse to honor the rebate.

The rebate instructions indicated 'entries must be postmarked no earlier than 180 days and no later than 210 days after activation.' I interpreted the instructions as business days. There were no further details neither in the advertisement text, nor in the rebate instructions as to how exactly these 30 days will be counted (i.e., including the day of the activation and the day of postmarking or not, whether business days or calendar days, etc). Moreover, the rebates required 'a wireless bill dated between 150 days and 210 days after activation.' The Cingular bills I am receiving are actually not dated (only dates that appear are billing cycle interval and due date, not the 'billing date'). In my opinion the whole offer was clearly set up to make it nearly impossible for customers to get their rebates (why a company like Cingular would think this a good marketing strategy is beyond me).

My records indicate I postmarked the applications October 6, well within the 180-210 business days window from the activation date (March 7). Inphonic responded after 4 (four!) months (January 30) to inform me that the rebate was denied due to being postmarked too late! According to their reps the application was postmarked 214 days after activation. This is not possible.

Since there were no phone numbers listed on Inphonic's communications, I tried to resolve the issue using Cingular's customer service. After all, I am their customer, not Inphonic's, the ad mentioned prominently their name, not Inphonic's, and they are the ones making the profits from my patronage, not Inphonic.

The first Cingular rep I spoke with was totally unable to help. These people receive training, I believe, in being useless. Her manager, however, promised she will solve the issue within 24h and call me back. Three days later, when nobody called back, I spoke to another helpless Cingular rep, then his manager, etc. After many hours spent with Cingular reps of different degrees of unhelpfulness (which need to be 'educated' separately about the issue, as they do not take notes on their computers), one of them actually seemed to understand the issue and called Inphonic to intervene. The Inphonic rep said he will refer the issue to their Finance Dept which needs to approve it and they will call back in 5 business days. After 7 business days I called Inphonic and was told they had no idea of this request, they don't even have a Finance department and they will not honor the rebate anyway.

At the end of my patience I filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau against both Inphonic and Cingular. Inphonic did not even bother to respond (the company has more than 1, 800 complaints and its membership in the BBB has been revoked). Cingular responded, only to offer an insulting $150, and then to deny any relationship with Inphonic' s rebate (see, they only make the profits, otherwise Inphonic provides them with customers on a charitable basis).

I feel cheated and abused by these two companies, but in particular, the much advertised 'high bars' Cingular. To add insult to injury, they claim I have a 2-year contract with them, although the online offer mentioned no such thing (only a six-month period to get the rebates that they never honored). As I have found out, I am not the only one in this situation, a simple Internet browse identified many others treated similarly. Unfortunately, this pattern of abuse is only likely to grow with the recent acquisition of Cingular by SBC/New AT&T.

My experience with AT&T is one of the worst encounters I've had when dealing with a service provider.
I have their 1.5mbps dsl service at work which is something that I use for light browsing for making online orders and for entertainment. For a few months I noticed that my bill was around $40 higher, but I just thought it was from long distance and didn't pay much attention. Then I started to get calls from AT&T.

ATT: "Hello, would you like to upgrade your service to 6.0mbps free for charge for the next 3 months?"
ME: "No thank you"
ATT: "6.0mbps can do wonders for your business"
ME: "No thank you, I'm sorry but I'm busy right now, have a nice day!"
ATT: "Sir could you verify one more time that you do want the upgrad..."
*CLICK* (I hang up)

They called my business literally twice a day for 2 weeks and the calls got more and more annoying and aggressive to the point where I stopped being polite.

Then I got an email...

ATT: This is your confirmation email stating that you have upgraded to the 6.0mbps service. Blah blah blah...
(Then in fine print: "regular charges do apply when the promotional 3 months have passed please call customer service if you wish to opt out of our promotion)

I look at my old bills to make sure they didn't pull other ### tricks out of their ###, and I notice why my bill was higher the past few months. They had upgraded me to 3.0 from 1.5 without my consent nor any notifications. I called them to confront this and the first representative was very polite.

REP1: "I'm seeing that the upgrade to the 3.0 happened back in August, I apologize about that sir, let me transfer you to our dsl department and they'll adjust your account and refund the overcharges"

ME: "Thank you very much, I appreciate it."

REP2: "Hello, blah blah blah, how can I help you? Oh, I need to transfer you to *inaudible*

REP3: "Hello, how can I assist you?"

ME: "My internet service was upgraded without my consent, and I've been billed for it"

REP3: "Sir you are not being billed for the 6.0"

ME: "Yes, but my service was upgraded from 1.5 to 3.0"

REP3: "No, you have always been on the 3.0"

ME: "No, I've been on 1.5 since forever"

REP3: "I'm not seeing it"

ME: "Can I talk to your supervisor?"

*CLICK* I get hung up on...

Their customer service is abysmal and they will do sneaky things to steal money from you.
You should stay away from signing a contract with them if possible.

By the way, I've done speed tests multiple times after I got my 6.0 "free upgrade" and my download speed has never exceeded 2.0mbps... which is the same as when I was using my 1.5...

Yeah AT&T is a sham

AT&T is pulling a bait and switch scam by quoting one price on the phone to get you to switch providers and sell you a bundled service with internet/TV/Phone. Beware. When the installation is complete and the bill comes, it is at a higher price. Now, try and get them to correct this. Biling dept says they can't do anything and you call back the sales number, get a recording and they never return your call.