Last Updated on February 13, 2022
It was the final straw in a long line of straws that often involved the phrase, “Well I don’t know why they told you that.” In fact, I’ve heard that so many times from one operator who was complaining about misinformation a previous operator had given me, that I think that should actually be AT&T’s slogan.
I actually recorded the call I made to terminate my service because I knew it would be a gem of an experience. And they didn’t disappoint.
It began as it always does, with an automated attendant that reads back the number its Caller ID detected and then asks if that’s the number you’re calling about. When you say no, you have to enter the number you do want to discuss. It then asks you, in a few words, to indicate the reason that you’re calling. I said, “Terminate my service,” which it didn’t seem to understand.
Finally, it routed me to another round of hold time before getting me to a human being. Time elapsed so far: 8:58.
Finally an operator answered. Because I know the conversation will sound so ridiculous if I describe it, I’m going to provide a transcript.
OPERATOR: Thank you for patiently waiting. You’ve reached AT&T. My name is [DELETED]. How can I help you today?
ME: Yes, I would like to terminate my internet service.
OP: I’m sorry?
ME: I would like to terminate my internet service.
OP: Okay, I completely understand that you would like to cancel your AT&T internet service. I would be more than happy to help you with concerns today. I would like to just check your account here. And, um, I want to let you know that I will be answering all of your questions here today and I will pull up your account. And that my goal is to make you very satisfied.
She then asked for my phone number — for some reason, no matter how many times you enter your number and other account information, it never transfers to the next person, so every time you get transferred, you have to go through this little process again.
Then she reads me a disclaimer about federal privacy law and requests my permission to call up my account so that she can discuss it with me. Naturally, because I want to get this call over with, I agree to her looking up my account.
OPERATOR: Just to check that I understand your concern today, you want to cancel your AT&T internet service, is that correct?
ME: That’s correct.
OP: Okay. Let me just check your account here. And what I will be doing, I will be connecting you to one of our senior specialists because one of our senior specialists will be assisting you today, okay?
ME: Okay.
OP: Okay, and Mr. Phillips, is there anything else I can help you with today?
ME: That’ll do it.
OP: Okay, and Mr. Phillips, my goal is to make you very satisfied. Did I do that?
ME: Yes.
OP: Okay, thank you. And Mr. Phillips, before connecting this call to one of our senior specialists, I will be asking you a few questions to make sure you’re getting the best value for your service.
ME: All right.
OP: And let me ask who provides your wireless service?
ME: I beg your pardon?
OP: All right, who provides your wireless service?
ME: My wireless internet?
OP: Uh-huh.
ME: AT&T. That’s what I’m canceling.
OP: Oh, your cell phone service.
ME: Verizon.
OP: All right, and do you mind if I ask how much you spend with Verizon?
ME: Um, yeah. I don’t wish to provide that.
OP: And if I may ask, how much do you spend with Verizon?
Is there a language barrier here?!?
ME: I just said I’m not going to provide that information. I switched to Verizon from AT&T because AT&T’s service was so bad that I couldn’t get…I couldn’t get calls to go through, and I would miss calls, and not receive notification of a voicemail…in some cases, six or seven hours after the call was made. So I now have a service that I can actually make calls and use. So that’s what’s important.
OP: Okay, thank you, I understand the situation. Now, Mr. Phillips, let me also inform you that for our wireless service, we have our nationwide (unintelligible) plan for only $39.95, you will be getting 450 minutes plus 5,000 night and weekend minutes (unintelligible) within the U.S., all right?
ME: Okay, I just said that I had AT&T service, and the service was so bad, that I switched to Verizon. I’m not interested in AT&T wireless int — uh — telephone service. I want to cancel my internet service. Could you forward me to someone who could do that?
OP: All right, no problem, Mr. Phillips. I will be connecting you with one of our senior specialists right now. And um, if you ever have questions about our products or services, please feel free to call us back, okay?
ME: Thank you.
Finally, I think, I’m going to get transferred.
But, no, not quite so fast.
OP: You’re very much welcome, Mr. Phillips. What I have accomplished for you today is that I will be connecting you to one of our senior specialists so they can talk to you about canceling your internet service. And my goal is to make you very satisfied with the level of service I have provided for you. Have I done that?
ME: Well, let me put it this way: I have been on the phone now for 11 minutes, and I’m still not speaking to the person. So…
OP: Don’t worry, Mr. Phillips. Rest assured that one of our senior specialists will be assisting you after this call, okay?
ME: Thank you.
OP: You’re very much welcome. And Mr. Phillips, you may receive a call from AT&T regarding the level of service I have provided. If you receive that call, could you please tell them that you are very satisfied?
ME: Okay.
OP: Thank you so much. And before we end this call, could you provide me so I can also send you a copy of (unintelligible) with AT&T as well as (unintelligible) [I think she was talking about some kind of survey here.]
ME: You mean my email address?
OP: Uh huh.
ME: Do you not have that already?
OP: Okay if I can, are you receiving your bills through paper?
ME: No. I’m receiving my bills through email.
OP: Oh, that’s great to hear. Paperless billing, AT&T’s paperless billing is easy and you can access online 24 hours per day, seven days per week, saving time and the environment.
She’s selling me on saving the environment with paperless billing for an account I’ve told her numerous times that I wish to close?!?
Finally, at this point, she transfers me to the senior specialist. I’ve now been on the phone with this woman for 15 minutes.
She then routes me back to the automated attendant that requires me to explain the purpose of my call. After telling it that I want to cancel my service, it tells me that they have record of a recent payment and asks if I want to hear details. When I say no, it routes me to another queue to wait for another person. Another nine and a half minutes go by before I actually get to a person.
After asking me for my identification — again! — he puts in a cancellation order. This part of the call literally takes two or three minutes.
That’s two to three minutes out of a call that lasts a total of 26 minutes.
The most curious part of the entire call is that this “senior specialist” never asks why I’m canceling my service. He never asks if I’ve experienced a problem that let me dissatisfied. He never makes any effort to keep me as a customer.
He couldn’t have kept me; Comcast’s Xfinity is already up and running. There was no way I was going to stay with AT&T after all of this. But this guy didn’t know that because he never asked. There was no attempt at customer retention here, and that just seems strange.
But one thing is certain to me: if AT&T’s executives would ever bother to pick up the phone and call their own customer service lines, heads would roll. Clearly, it hasn’t happened, yet.
So what’s your worst customer service call experience? Have you had one that tops this?
I’m going to start implementing a litmus test for anyone I talk to in “customer dis-service” on the phone…. If you can’t tell me what “grits” are and how they are made, you need to transfer me immediately and without further ado.
I ordered a computer and some peripherals online from Dell last summer for my son as he went off to college. The peripherals all arrived within a week, but about the time they arrived the account information from Dell showed that the laptop was cancelled. Approximately 7 calls over the next few days (totaling about 5 hours) later, after speaking to (and emailing with) multiple (non-American) operators, I was finally transferred to an American (supervisor?) who got things sorted within about 20 minutes. BUT I ended up having to re-detail what we wanted on the laptop, and resubmit my credit card info (which was rejected–that’s when we found out that that card had been hijacked earlier that week, unrelated to this whole business). Why? Because the computer I’d ordered had gone out of stock and when they brought in the next shipment it had a different ordering code, so my order, and those of others, was just cancelled rather than rerouting to the new code.
Dumb? Yeah. Fortunately, everything is working because I would hate to have to call Dell and deal with warranty and/or technical problems based on that series of interactions!
As for TV, we gave up on cable 10 years ago. We have had DirecTV since then. Not one interaction with them, and there haven’t been that many problems, has been problematic. The installers have been helpful and worth talking to–unlike our cable installers who always made me feel like I was asking the stupidest questions ever–and the customer service people are not robotic. They just answer the questions we ask, solve the problem, and thank us.
I can’t help but feel like you jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire by going with Comcast. I don’t have time to detail our Comcast experiences but I will! It makes a good story, too!
@Cathryn (aka Strange) Can’t wait to hear them! I’ve actually had Comcast internet before, when I lived in Virginia. I have never had the issues with any other company that I had with AT&T. When I canceled my landline service a couple of years back, AT&T continued billing me $30 a month for long distance service for 6 MONTHS afterwards…I’d have to call them every time to make them remove that from my bill. And like I said, nearly every time I deal with AT&T, I’m told that the previous person I spoke to was mistaken in something they’d told me.
If Comcast is somehow worse, that’s a side of Comcast I am fortunate not to have seen. Yet. 🙂