AT&T review: sales tactics 18

AT&T U-verse personnel make numerous repeated unsolicited sales visits door-to-door after being told in person and by e-mail to cease and desist. Personnel have used deceptive sales tactics to attempt to sell fiber optics TV service. Practice of unsolicited cold calls is denied by ATT Corporate yet continues to occur.

I live in San Antonio Texas and had an experience VERY similar to the complaint above. I have NEVER bought anything from a door-to-door salesperson. I have a large "NO SOLICITING" sign on my front gate. However, last Saturday, August 10, 2 men came to my door and knocked. I answered and they told me they were "upgrading the wiring" and were scheduling appointments to install this fiber optic wiring in my neighborhood next week. As salesman #1 was telling me what this was all about, Salesman #2 takes out a cell phone and starts to call AT&T. I just thought he was making a call about something else...next thing I know he's READING MY NAME AND ADDRESS (from the printout of leads he had) into the phone and telling them I want the $99/month U-Verse plan. Long story short, they set up the whole thing and made me an appt for the following Thursday. I won't go into the racist comments, the sleaze-factor, the condescending "you know, so you can watch Lifetime movies..." comments, or other uncomfortable moments here. AT&T, however, will know all about them in my letter. I tried to call the number at the bottom of the paperwork left with me to cancel the appointment. No one is available to help me until MONDAY! I only get a recorded message.

On Monday I call and ask to cancel the U-Verse appointment. After being REPEATEDLY badgered into buying other services with AT&T, and after getting comments like "So, you don't want to save money? Most people want to save money..." and other ridiculously rude statements, I was told by the customer NO-service rep that my regular land line service was scheduled to be turned off on Thursday. I said, well, turn it back on or don't shut it off in the first place! The rep said "We didn't place that order. Did you order phone service through another company?" I said, "Uh, no. I have only dealt with you so it was obviously AT&T who cancelled my land line!" He kept saying, no, we didn't do that and we can't turn it back on...and repeatedly insulted me by saying "Who do you think you're talking to?" when I asked "Can AT&T just cancel the order to turn it off?" Yes, I knew I was speaking with ATT, I just wanted to know if THE COMPANY can help me since they are the ones who got me in this position.

Luckily, the head idiot of the pair of sleazy door-to-door salesman gave me his card in a failed attempt to pick me up or something. Disgusting. However, I now have his card so AT&T will know EXACTLY who came to my door and exactly the way I was treated. I was basically SLAMMED in person and I don't appreciate it. If I didn't need my landline for my alarm system I would get rid of it and then AT&T would have ZERO of my business.

AT&T needs to be reported to the FCC, and the FTC, as well as the California Public Utilities Commmision.

They are definately using fraudulant, and decetive tacticts to sell their U-Verse product.

Yesterday answering the door at my apartment, I was told that this was NOT a sales call, that the woman just wanted to inform me that AT&T was upgrading the infrustructure in the neighboor with fiber optics to cary phone, internet, and television, and that they needed to install equipment in my apartment to use the new services, and that my neighbor just scheduled it for such and such a date and time, and could we do this on this day as well. Since they woke up me up from a nap, I wasn't thinking on all brain cells, until she started rattling off some prices and said I would get my first month of TV for free. Then the alarm bells finnaly registered, and I stopped her, and asked "WAIT.. What is this again?" Is this a new service I am ordering? Or is it just an upgrade to my current services, as I only have phone and DSL.

She then completely ignored my question and started rattling off how great the DSL was, and the TV and DVR.

Excuse me ma'm, but I don't own a TV, and I am not interested in pruchasing any more services (At this point Unless it is from a company OTHER then AT&T!).

She totally made it sound like this was just a infrustructure upgrade from AT&T, and not a new service that she was selling.. I wonder how many other people have been fooled by this approach?

AT&T most definitely needs to be reported. But, try finding a phone number or web address to do so.

Last night, 9/30/08 at 6:30PM in Fishers, Indiana, a man came to our door saying AT&T has been working in a neighborhood that is quite a distance from us. Tells us we "probably haven't seen their trucks because they're trying to be discreet". We're not in a neighborhood, this man is on foot, & walked down our extremely long driveway to say they're installing fiber optics. Thankfully, he was alone and was easy to throw off-guard. Not to mention our dogs never stopped barking or lowered the hair on their necks.

He's got some AT&T badge around his neck, wearing an untucked polo shirt with AT&T on it and carrying his handy, dandy clipboard. They definitely must be trying to be discreet because there's not a vehicle in site that he or anyone else could have been driving. Proceeds to try to "get us in on the ground floor" and upgrade to fiber optics for only $30 a month. $30 a month on top of what we don't know because he didn't say. When we asked for a card or some literature, he conveniently didn't have any. He got extremely shook up when we asked him to provide a phone number, a website, or to email us some information.

Needless to say, he left without an "order". Hard telling how many he's scammed, though. Looks like this is a nationwide campaign they're on to slam people. Please don't become a victim!

I just had a door-to-door seller pester me (about the fourth time a U-Verse hustler has come by), then call me "a very rude person" when I told him I wasn't interested.

I'm sick of these pests coming by; does anyone have a number or email address where I can submit a formal complaint to AT&T? Better yet, anyone know of a class-action lawsuit that's forming to stop this practice?

Thanks.

I actually joined the U-Verse selling team in my area 4 days ago. I've only shadowed other sales reps, following them around on foot and studying them so far, but I start doing it myself tomorrow. I toooootally understand all of your complaints about these people. The reason I joined is because the money seems good even though I haven't tasted it myself yet, and I believe that this is a crucial part of your problems. People join the team to make a decent dollar, so since money is based soley on sales, some reps really just start making you feel like "I'm here and this IS happening" right when you open your door. And on top of that, some often say a bunch of incorrect information when they stumble into a technical babble about our fiber optics. I know they go there and say something like "Fiber is replacing the old copper in the area and I'm just here to fill out a work order bla bla..." Personally I'm thinking like WHOAA... slow down there buddy that's real curt and pushy. A major reason I actually got this job was because I read about AT&T and fiber-optics before hand, and concluded that fiber-optics is actually a great thing compared to cable (even though it still needs a lot of work, it'll smoke cable in a few years), and AT&T IS better priced most of the time. Plus they give you great promo deals. So with all that info, I concluded that I could make a living actually HELPING people save money and/or just present them to a great service. So as I watch my co-workers trying to make a buck talking to these people at their doors, I notice every single imperfection in what they say and how they say it (I'm really meticulous, and believe me there are a LOT of imperfections), I've been gradually constructing a great door presentation of my own, no pushiness/ dishonesty/ neglectfully incorrect info included. I think my friends could do a lot better if they just stop pushing right off the bat and really just let the person at their door know that we are simply just here to tell you about our service and personally help you pick out a plan and call it in for you and only if you like it, because it IS a great deal for your money (and that you do have options, you don't HAVE to listen!). I hope I make a bajazillion bucks tomorrow, wish me luck!

They come daily they are rude and try to push their way in your house. They act like criminals fresh out of the joint to be honest probably most of them are. Anyway when they tag your neighborhood you feel like you pissed someone off to deserve this crap.

ATT Hires Third Party Contractors To Do all their Dirty Work, but rest assured all reps supposedely have passed a background and drugtest.

The largest of their partners in Crime are Cyd Corp, 2020 Companies, and a host of unruly sorts. Feel free to contact [protected] to cancel your none binding contractual aggrement with uverse, or you can simply do this to get a discount on your services.

Uverse is a good product, if you are lucky enough to have a great sales experience, be close to the orginally node so your installation goes well and get the proper speed that fiber to the node, then copper to your home can deliver.

? - If ATT [censored]s out its employees and its contractors, do you really think they care about you, ha. Money plays.

Wow all this is true on both side but if people tried being so darn cheap and asking for discounts on free ### maybe some of these sales people wouldn't have to cheat.

This is the first and last time an AT&T Uverse salesperson will come to my door. We clearly do not want solicitors at our home and yet he rang the door bell anyway. I told my wife not to answer it, but being the nicer of the two of us, she did. She said hello and asked if he needed help or something before realizing he was a door to door sales person. Our well trained dog immediately stood by my wife and barked twice to make her presence known (she is a large dog and we have spent a lot of time and money on her training; plus she is just an amazing dog), prompting the sales person to step back from the door. I was nearby in earshot, but out of sight inside the house. My wife calmly told our dog to sit and she did as commanded. The sales person said his name then began his pitch and my wife interrupted him to let him know we were not interested and do not want solicitation. He then pouted like a child and told my wife that, "she had better watch her damn dog next time he came, ". I first went to my wife to make sure she was okay as she was visibly shaken and extremely upset, then flew out the front door to confront the sales person. He told me my dog was trying to jump thru the door and that he didn't say anything to my wife. I told him to pack his things and get the f@#k out of my nieghbourhood as he was not going to disrespect me in my own home, talk to my wife in that manner, or tell me how to handle my dog. He proceeded to act like I was in the wrong, so I told him AT&T would be trespassing on my property if any further sales attempts would be made and I that I would deal with it appropriately. I've been trying to get a hold of a corporate person, but keep getting bounced to customer service. AT&T never has been and never will be my service provider. If another sales person comes to my door I will exercise every constitutional right I have to defend my family and property.

As a technician with at&t all I can say is you are all correct. I install/repair land lines, DSL, and T1 circuits. I also do repair on Uverse service while I am not a Uverse prem tech. I have always found the company's sales practices to be deceptive. This isn't always due to at&t sales reps you speak to on the phone. It's usually due to third party sales contractors who go door to door in residential and business locations. They carry an at&t ID card but are actually employed by a third party, not at&t. They're very deceptive and will do anything to get a sale, even lie quite a bit. Many times I've gone to locations where nobody claims to have authorized any new service yet I'm there to install it. Or the service is in another name but, with the correct address. I've noticed more deception and poor work practices since the inception of Uverse. At&t has petitioned the government to allow them to discontinue land line service. At&t would like everyone to only have one choice with them and that's Uverse. I hear all the complaints and angry customers want to yell at me quite a bit. I completely understand them and agree with them, just remember as a technician I'm just there to do what my work ticket says, I just work here, I do not make policy. Quite frankly, I hate the way at&t treats customers, and employees alike. Like most large companies, they are greedy. If you speak with a sales rep or anybody else for that matter, ask for their name and at&t user ID which should be 2 letters and 4 numbers, such as AB1234. Do not authorize anything unless you can get it in writing. Verify you have a number where you can reach somebody. The toll free #s will only get you somebody overseas after a 30 minute wait. I hope I can help somebody beat the bureaucracy which at&t is.

I am an existing U-Verse customer and have experienced this firsthand. A salesman came to my door yesterday to let me know the great news that U-Verse has just become available in my neighborhood. After I informed him that I am already a U-Verse customer and that this isn't new to my neighborhood, he proceeded to tell me in an extremely condescending manner that I must be mistaken and to explain to me what U-Verse is. I told him again that I am already a U-Verse subscriber, I told him to leave my property and I closed and locked the door. Today, the same salesman came back to my house as though it was the first time, asked if I was "the lady of the house, " and started in on his spiel again, this time telling me that he had just spoken with the woman across the street, as though that was some huge selling point. I reminded him that he was here yesterday, and that I told him then that I was already a U-Verse customer and that I have asked him once and was asking him again to leave my property and not come back. When I called AT&T to complain, they were absolutely no help, so I let them know if their employee continues to harass me, I will be letting my local police department handle it. Or maybe my Pit Bull.

fwiw, Friday the 13th (May, 2011) afternoon, I had the following encounter with an AT&T representative soliciting door to door.

He, and the "team" of other AT&T solicitors had elected to ignore a sign posted by the neighborhood association stating "No Solicitors" at the entrance to the neighborhood.

He ignored "No Trespassing" markers posted on our driveways.

He passed and ignored two signs asking that our privacy be respected and that no solicitors for any cause would be welcome.

He rang the doorbell and when I saw that he was from AT&T, I immediately stated that I had asked previous AT&T solicitors multiple times to not enter our property again and had been assured by each that it would not happen again. (I contacted and notified AT&T multiple times by phone to not send solicitors to this address and was again assured by them that our address would be permanently removed from their solicitation lists. Note, we DO NOT HAVE AT&T SERVICE AT THIS ADDRESS.)

When I indicated to the solicitor that I had asked that AT&T never solicit this address and that he should respect our privacy, he refused to leave. He did so by repeatedly ignoring requests to leave by continuing to engage in dialog. It took between five and ten minutes of increasing anger on my part before he finally elected to leave.

When I was finally able to return to my work, I found that his distraction had resulted in the loss of over an hours work when a windows update had rebooted my computer during the time wasted arguing with him to leave the property.

I then went down our street and found him engaged with another neighbor (who was as frustrated as I was with him) I attempted to get his name, the name of his supervisor and AT&T contact information and he again responded with attempts at unrelated dialog to deflect my goal.

I asked him why he ignored the neighborhood "No Solicitation" sign, our "No Trespassing" markers and our signs stating "No Solicitors" and he responded he and others on his team had the "right" to ignore them and go onto any property.

It quickly became apparent that he did not even know what legal jurisdiction he was in. He began quoting City of Austin laws to justify his actions, and when he was told that he was not in the City of Austin, he began quoting Westlake ordinances until told that he was not in Westlake.

When asked for a card or contact information, he responded by writing an 800 number on a piece of paper... which I called a few minutes later and found was not being answered until the following Monday.

When we asked him why he felt it was acceptable for him and his team to openly ignore both neighborhood and individual requests to not be solicited, he simply restated his "right" to ignore those requests.

He then told us the only way he and his team would leave the neighborhood, is if the "police" were called.

When I responded that I would do so, and attempted to leave, he blocked my path in another attempt at dialog and told me "not to call the police" because they would now leave and he would tell his supervisor that the police had been called... apparently a common occurrence in their work.

I proceeded to my residence, called and filed a report of "CT" or criminal trespass which was taken by a _very sympathic_ deputy who was more than familiar with the problem and dangers associated with door to door solicitors.

Beverly Howard

Sorry to hear that happened. We have aggressive and obnoxious ATT D2D salesmen in the Kansas City area and my experience is similar to yours. When ATT gets fiber optic installed, here come the salesmen ! May 2011

I just got in a shouting match w AT&T door to door sales reps. They stopped by this morning & I didn't answer. Here they are again, cornering me as I'm getting out my car & asking me if I just got home. I told the guy I'm not interested & he told me I didn't even know what he was going to say. I then told him, I don't want uverse, I'm not buying your service, you false advertise on the rate anyway to which I was told I could just call & tell them I don't want the bill to go up after introductory period. This is the 6th AT&T uverse representative coming to my door in a short period of time. I also got badgered on the phone w the smart alec, "you don't want to save money bit". I'm so sick of AT&T, I'm seriously considering even pulling my cell phone service with them. I was cornered in the rain in a lightening storm by the last AT&T stalker! She kept me for over an hour. I swore that would never happen to me again. Who's idea was this selling technique - absolutely deplorable! Sleezy & downright intrusive. I contacted the police today. Apparently, if they have badges, they cannot do anything. I will contact my councilman on Monday. I should not have to worry there are salespeople waiting in cars to ambush me when I get home. AT&T you suck!

Same story about the knock and the silent one. You left out the scare tactics they used proclaiming I share broadband and it didn't matter what or if any security system I used such as Norton, Macafee out even Comcast system. I asked if they would sign a statement repeating what he just stated about several companies, he quickly declined. They also stated that in two weeks they are doing construction in two weeks to lay fiber obtic. Lies.

I work full-time from home with heavy internet usage and require high-speed internet. Service was noticeably slow and when I tested the line - was getting only 1.9 mbs for a 6.0 service. Called them and after being on hold and passed between no fewer than ten people (between sales and tech support) was FINALLY told that they are eliminating DSL service and had reduced my service from 6.0 to 3.0. Nice. Then told me that UVerse is now available in my area and that is why. Fine. Ordered it. Waiting on day of installation and then I receive a call from the installer - who is at an address we had THREE years ago. Seriously? I already have AT&T service and am paying a bill sent to the correct address and they send the installer to an incorrect address?!? And surprise! Uverse is NOT available at my actual address. Called Comcast that day but forgot to call forward my phone number before they installed my new phone line. I've been waiting a week now for AT&T to send me the number to call to activate remote call forwarding before Comcast ports my number over. So many expletives I want to use. AT&T will NEVER get my business again. NEVER. EVER. EVER. Bad customer service, bad business decisions.

AT&T has been screwing up my phone service for the past 3 years now. It all started with an office move. We were moving our office to a different suite in the same building. I was told the only thing that needed to be done was to switch our lines from one phone closet to another. A week before the move date, our phones and DSL line were shut off in the middle of a work day. We are a heavily phone and internet reliant business. We make and receive 400-500 calls a day. Our clients were getting disconnect messages and we couldn't email them to warn them of the problem because our DSL was down too. After a pleading call from my cell, the phones were brought back up within an hour but all of our features were lost. No forwarding, caller ID, etc.. The DSL, we were told, could not be fixed so easily. After about 20 calls to ATT and the same answer from multiple people I gave up and tethered my cell to the server and made it a gateway so everybody could at least get client orders via email. I decided to get the new DSL line up and running in our new office so we wouldn't have issues when we moved in 14 days. They made me pay for a new line, telling me that it wasn't possible to get a dry-loop dsl line at our location. I needed to be sure we had internet, so I paid. 4 days before the move while talking to a tech about the upcoming move, I told him our DSL had been down. He asked me for the number associated with our DSL account, asked me to restart the router, within 20 minutes our DSL was restored! Everybody else told me it was deleted and impossible to restore. This dude fixed it in 20 minutes! 10 days without internet for nothing!

Fast forward to move day. They were supposed to come on the move day and switch our service, move the lines to a new phone closet. Easy, right? Wrong. We were worried that we might have a repeat experience with the phones just going down with no notice so I forwarded the calls to another location and I had everybody work from there. Then we lost our forwarding again...then the phones started shutting down again. All of our clients were getting fast-busy or disconnect messages. But still no tech on site! I called AT&T to have them emergency forward the calls to our second location. They said they would have to "hard program a forward, I would have to call back to get it reversed". Fine, go for it. The person I talked to told me it would take a few minutes to propagate to the switch and to just call back if I needed anything more. Against my better judgment, I hung up. After a few minutes of repeated frantic testing, the calls were finally transferred. But the phone support person neglected to program in the area code (are there still places that don't require you to dial the area code?) so everybody who called was getting an irritating tone blasted in their ear telling them they needed to dial the area code to be connected. When I called to try to get it fixed I couldn't find a single person who understood what was done to set up the forward. Some even told me it couldn't be done. After another 15 phone calls (at this point I just started hanging up on CSRs who sounded like they might not know and redialing) I finally found someone who was able to forward. During that time, our employees called all 75+ clients and gave them a cell number to call.
At about 6pm the day of the move, I finally found someone who arranged for a tech to come out and move the lines. By 8pm everything was working as it should. Finally. Except we still didn't have forwarding or caller ID. Normally at night we forward our calls to different "on call" people. We had to stay in the office overnight to answer calls. We couldn't risk losing service again. We got the "features" working the following business day. For some reason every week on Thursday at 3am for the next 3 months our "features" were deleted. Every damn week I would get a call from the "on-call" person telling me the forwarding stopped working. I would call and try to get it fixed but the folks working at night are the worst. If you ask them something they can't answer, they just hang up on you. It took many many calls to finally get the call forwarding to "stick".
I'm just going to lump the rest of the crap that happened, and continues to happen, together:
1) Lost our 800 number after the move - Just disappeared, poof. I called to find out why and was told it got cancelled and another company has it now. We can't get it back for you. It was 800-###-Our company name. Need to change some marketing materials...
2) All of our high volume calling plan rates tripled. I sent copies of our contract 4 times before they got it straightened out for local calling. They had to cancel and reinitialize our LD to get it straightened out and we still receive double-billing and collection calls for an account that no longer exists. I am worried about what will happen when the contract is up and we haven't met our quota on this ghost account...
3) Our account manager disappeared. When I called to reinstate my HVCP for local service, I was told I would have to speak with a third-party to arrange for a new contract. Was told completelink no longer exists. Turns out that was lie as they are billing my DSL line on completelink. More about that later...
4) There is so much more. I've spent at least one full day a month on the phone trying to get some crap straightened out.
5) Now, out of the f**king blue, the line I had put in for the DSL has a charge of $8.25 for the past 2 months for "DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE MONTHLY CHARGE" Enhanced Telecommunications? And all of a sudden every freaking online directory service has our DSL line listed as our main phone number! I hooked a phone up to it and it started ringing 10 minutes later. How in the hell do I undo this freaking mess?!? I never authorized a Directory Assistance charge. Especially on a line I installed just to make sure they didn't f**k up my DSL installation during my office move. I am so sick of this. I TRULY HATE AT&T! I need to just switch providers. Why in the hell did I sign a contract?!

We had a high volume calling plan but when the