AT&T

On May 24, 2019 at 5:44pm I put in an online order for two new lines of service along with two new IPhones. The deal was buy one IPhone get one free with a $300 Visa gift card. The online website stated that I would be able to pickup my devices within two hours from the Winter Garden, FL location. An hour and a half later I attempted to call the store because I had not heard from them to see if the order was ready. The phone rang and someone picked it up and hung up on me 4 times. The 5th time I called the sales guy told me that he could see the order in the computer but it had not been released for them to fulfill yet and that there was nothing he could do. I called costumer care at that point to find out what was holding up the order. The women told me that I had been approved with no deposit and everything was fine but the system was running slow. She confirmed that we would be able to pick up our phones the next day at the Winter Garden, FL location as the store was going to be closing for the night. Therefore, AT&T did not make the promised pickup within two hours promise that was made as stated on the website.

The next morning May 25th we arranged our long weekend plans to go to the beach to wait on the phones that AT&T promised we would have. I received an email stating that AT&T needed more info to complete the order. I called customer care where I was told they could not access my credit and they needed to verify my identity in order to open it. I was patched through to their credit department where a women asked me 4 questions. Upon the answer of the 4th question she was able to get into my credit report and confirm that I was approved. The credit women go off the phone and I asked the customer care gentleman to confirm what was said. He stated that I was approved with no deposit and could pick up the phones at the Winter Garden location shortly. He requested that we give them some time as the system still needed to process. We waited two hours and heard nothing again. At this point we figured we would go to the store to find out what was holding everything up. As we were walking out the door I received an email stating that they entire order had been canceled. I called customer care again. The women told me that order was canceled by the store due to the fact that they did not have the phones in stock. She tried to call two other stores to see if they had the phones in and attempt to help me and received no answer and we made the decision to drive over to the Ocoee, FL location to see if the devices were available since she was not able to get an answer. The sales guy at the Ocoee, Fl location originally told us that he would not give me the buy one get one free iPhone deal but he could give me ½ off one iPhone with the purchase of cable or internet and there would be no $300 gift card at all. After conversation he finally agreed to buy one get one free but still no gift card. So we left seeing how I was approved for something now that AT&T would not actually give me. We headed down to the Winter Garden location where we were supposed to originally pick up the canceled online order. When we walked in my other half asked if they have two iPhone XRs in stock and specifically stated we wanted a white one and a black one. Low and behold the sales man told my other half that they did in fact have the phones available and in stock as he did inventory yesterday. This was the same store that canceled our order online just hours earlier stating that they did not have the devices. Not only did they have the devices in stock but they had them available and in stock hours before we put in the online order. Meaning that the Winter Garden location falsely canceled our online order. They also would not honor the offer I was approved for online and only offered half of what I was promised and approved for. So we left. I called customer care after that and asked to speak to a manager and was left on hold for 30 minutes. I hung up and called back and asked for a manager who finally got on the phone only to hang up on me. I spoke to two other reps after that who told me the only want to fix the issue was to put the order in online again. Plus I was also told by the sales man at the Ocoee, FL location that AT&T would not pull my credit again because they retained the information for 30 days as active. So I caved and put in another online order. We set the pickup location for the Winter Garden store seeing how they had confirmed they had the phones in stock just hours earlier. The website told me that I could pick up my order online within two hours and as soon as I submitted the request I called customer care to make sure that there would be no issues. The lady on the phone confirmed that everything was okay and that the order was ready to ship. Meaning we would be able to pickup the devices from Winter Garden shortly. So we waited again and again we heard nothing. Two and a half hours later my second online order was canceled again. I called customer care again who managed to do absolutely nothing other than to circle me back around to the phone sales department. When I spoke to phone sales about everything that had transpired they began to tell me how terrible their online sales team was. They also began telling me a different story of why the orders were canceled than I had been getting all day from the ECOM team. So overwhelmed I ended the call with AT&T after 11pm on Saturday night. We still had no phones and my head was spinning from all of it seeing how absolutely no one wanted to help us and I couldn't understand how I was approved for an offer that AT&T now had no intention of giving me.

On Sunday May 26th we went to back to the Ocoee location and purchased the devices with two new lines in store. When we went in I specifically explained to the sales guy that I did not want my credit pulled again. Not to mention that there was no need to pull my credit again seeing how I was approved the first time 36 hour prior when the order was canceled falsely. He assured me that my credit would not be pulled again and that the credit report they had from Friday was still valid because they keep it on file for 30 days. He even went to his manager to check and make sure than came back and stated that my credit would not be pulled again. THAT IS THE ONLY REASON I AGREED TO PROCEED. We left with only half of what was promised to me by AT&T (Buy one get one free iPhone but no visa gift card). Later that day after we had left I opened my email to my credit tracking notifications. Turns out that not only did AT&T pull my credit on Friday but they pulled it again on Saturday with the second online order and they pulled it again on Sunday in store after I had been told that they wouldn't pull it again multiple times by multiple different people.

Not only did AT&T not stand by the offer I was approved for with a $300 gift card but they also lied to me repeatedly about pulling credit AFTER I WAS APPROVED THE FIRST TIME they pulled it on Friday. Since then I have been on and off the phone with AT&T trying to find out how they are going to resolve all of the issues they have cause and it has gone unresolved. One person after the next just continues to tell me there is nothing they can do while they transfer in circles from one person to the next. At this point as a consumer all I can say is that no only does AT&T falsely advertise their offers as they are unable to back the offer made and provide what was promised but they also entertain the concept of credit fraud just to complete a sale. To this day not one of the AT&T reps can explain to me how I was approved for something that AT&T would not give me and why the company feels like it is okay to operate through lies to the consumer just to make a sale. I also attempted to post the issue with the credit pulls to the Ocoee, FL AT&T review site just so new customers would be aware that they will lie about repulling credit and the post was rejected by the management. My family is about to begin the process of buying a house and the last thing the bank needs to see if multiple hard pulls on my credit report like I had some kind of issue with my credit which are there now for no reason seeing how I was approved after the first one. Yet, AT&T doesn't seem to care. If you are considering the switch to AT&T my advice would be look into going with another carrier as AT&T promises offers they do not honor, they will ruin your weekends and make you run around wasting your time all because one of their employees failed to do their job updating inventory, they will do damage to your credit because their staff is either untrained in how to complete their job or they directly lie just to complete the sale to meet quotas and they do not care about the lack of customer service from all of it having zero intentions of resolving their faults.