Terrible customer service
Written: Dec 03 '00 (Updated May 26 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fast
Cons: Unreliable & poor customer service
The Bottom Line: Fast but unreliable. Can't recommend it unless you really want the speed and can put up with the price and the poor customer service.
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| Howard_U's Full Review: AT&T@home |
TCI seemed to be getting its customer service act together before AT&T bought it out. Both system reliability and customer service have gone straight downhill ever since.
Here is my latest horror story. As with most @home users, my e-mail has been going up and down like a yo-yo for several weeks. They say they are having trouble installing new servers. Anyway, today I got a new error message, that my password (that I've been using for two years) was suddenly not recognized as valid.
Since I got the message last night and still had it this morning, I called the customer service hot line. It took me half an hour to get a live person. When I did, the fellow sounded totally bored and couldn't help. He had no idea what the problem was, though he suggested it might be related to the server replacements, and could only suggest I try back in 30-45 minutes.
But that's only half the story. The service line recording kept saying I should try their on-line service facility where I could "immediately" talk with a service representative. Some "immediately"! I started out at 181 in the queue. After 15 minutes I had moved up to about 50 in the queue. At that point, the countdown stopped and was replaced by another message that the system was connecting me. After another 15 minutes I gave up. 30 minutes and I never did get through to my "immediate" contact.
If there is a silver lining it is that I did try back after 45 minutes and I did make connection this time (although it said I had no messages, which strikes me as unlikely, as long as it was down).
This system is great when it works, but it fails way too often and customer service is spotty to poor. The worst part is that when you have a real, unique problem (as when my modem failed and needed to be replaced about a year ago) it will take a week or more to get somebody out to your house to fix the problem. In these days of 24-hour in-home service, waiting a week without any Internet access is not acceptable.
So why do I keep the service? Darned if I know. It is a great service most of the time and I keep telling myself that it will work fine when they get the bugs out of the system. I'm beginning to wonder seriously whether that day will ever come.
To make this sort of a review, and not just a rant I should add some other comments:
- The system is not as fast as advertised, but it is still lightning compared to a 56K modem. It's best on large downloads, as the speed seems to increase the larger the download. Don't know why that is, but it is.
- Reliability is very suspect. All I can think is that they are growing faster than they can get hardware to support the users.
- With the fellow I talked with above as a notable exception, when you do get through to the customer service people, they tend to be very kind and pleasant to talk with. Usually not helpful, but pleasant, anyway. You also often have two waits, one for the first line person who, after a few minutes decides he/she can't help you and passes you on to an expert (after another long delay) who, it turns out, usually can't help you either.
- E-mail reliability is far worse that the system generally. The last couple weeks have been especially bad, but the system has a long history of problems. Perhaps the weirdest is the tendency of the system to send repeat of old messages, weeks after they are sent. Strange.
- I've also tried out their telephone service, through the cable line. It's cheap, reliable and high quality. My only complaint is that they have had a billing problem (billing for local calls as if they were long distance) that they simply cannot resolve. Every month for the last 6 months at least I've had to call and have them adjust the bill. They have done so without further problems, but it does get tedious to have to call month after month.
- I got a notice in the mail today that they are raising my rates by $6.00 a month. No improvements in service, though.
- I got word earlier this week (5/26/01) that AT&T has agreed to meet with users to discuss problems. At 10:00 on a Wednesday morning, when most of their customers, me included, are working. And I'm told they won't consider scheduling another meeting at a more reasonable hour. Sad.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Howard_U
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Member: Howard Underwood
Location: Fremont, CA
Reviews written: 35
Trusted by: 29 members
About Me:
World's most happily married man.
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