AT&T Sucks (I guess I’m late to find out)
Saturday, June 26th, 2010
Let me preface this by saying I’m in no huge rush for a new iPhone. I can wait, no problem.
I pre-ordered an iPhone at our local, New Milford AT&T store the very first day it was possible. I was told I’d have a phone the day they went on sale. That day has come and gone and each day that store gets new phones in and they say my phone is not in yet. Each day at 7 am there are people lined up outside the store who did not pre-order a phone and AT&T is selling them phones.
Maybe I’m just dim but it would seem to me that they’d fill pre-orders first, then sell what’s left to walk-ins but in fact, they’re being greedy: they already have my money and they’re selling the new stock to walk-ins keeping me on hold.
I just called them and they said they have no idea when “my phone” will be in but I didn’t know ordering a phone meant Apple was custom building one for me (they are not) or that they were ordering a phone through Apple’s ordering system for me (they are not).
This is the worst possible way to build customer loyalty and while I’m not absolutely sure Apple wouldn’t do this too, I’m quite sure I’d have had a phone days ago had I simply ordered it direct from Apple the first day they were available.
AT&T sucks.
cancel your order.
Be sure that they do not start your two year contract.
Get it in writing/printout. Take names.
Then just drop into some other store on the 29th, and pick one up
Thanks for the good advice just someone. I already have an iPhone 3G and so, already have a contract although I’ve not started the family contract on the new phone.
I do have the names of the sales people at the store who both sold me the phone and talked with me the other day.
A piece of me feels like canceling the order, not that this store would feel the impact, but it might make me feel better. I’m in no rush for the new phone so that is an option. If the phone doesn’t arrive on Tuesday I think I’ll do just that.
Thanks again.
I knew their networked sucked, but this is ludicrous. Fail. Cancel. Order with Apple. No rush either, but at least AT&T won’t get your phone dollar. And write to them, explain it, and demand a response to your circumstances. Tell them you don’t want a form letter, but want an explanation why your phone is delayed and why walk-ins get theirs. Tell them you are mad and it threatens your entire iPhone desire.
Thanks for the feedback Andrew.
I’m glad people who are responding to this don’t think I’m nuts for being pissed. I thought maybe this was the way it worked in both ATT and Apple retail situations with pre-orders for popular products but I’ve ordered things from Apple for store pickup and was never treated like this.
The problem for me in canceling and going to another store is that the two Apple stores that are within striking distance are small enough so they won’t have retail stock until mid-July and I’ll be darned if I’m going to buy a thing from now on at an ATT store. I think I’m stuck with this if it comes in on Tuesday but when I pick it up I’ll certainly complain about it (some more).
In the future I’ll avoid buying from ATT directly and if/when there’s an opportunity to change networks to Verizon I’ll do it, even if there’s a penalty.
I’m having the same problem in the UK Richard, except with O2. I’m locked into a contract with them – my iPhone 4 will be an upgrade. Laura’s taking over my 3GS.
It appears they were sold out by mid-afternoon on day 1. I don’t understand how a company as big as O2 (one of the biggest network providers over here) could so drastically underestimate demand. Moreover, I was told it would be ‘at least two weeks’ until they got more in stock! I’d put it down to the culture of incompetence in British business but perhaps your experience suggests there’s a supply problem at Apple’s end? I know there were problems with under-supply in the case of the iPad.
I am accustomed to UK companies apparently not caring about my needs or interests, but when they shoot *themselves* in the foot so dramatically I despair, as well as find it unfathomable.
Anyway, commiseration from overeseas!
Commiseration back atcha Drew.
I’m delighted Apple is selling a lot of iPhones, my issue is less that they can’t keep up with demand, but what I was led to believe would be my place in line with a pre-order once ATT had phones in stock. I was told that the people who pre-ordered (put their money down before the phone went on sale) were at the head of the line and once those orders were filled then people who waited in line to buy one without a pre-order would get what was left. In fact, the non-pre-order people are at the head of the line and those of us who pre-ordered are at the back.
This is not a great way to build store loyalty; I might as well have mail ordered the phone from Apple or ATT and just brought it in there to set up (I’m swapping simms with my 3G).
We live in a very rural part of Connecticut and I try hard to do business with local stores as I can so they stay in business. I do a lot of business with Amazon and B&H photo but I try to buy things locally. This ATT store is the closest place to me to buy an iPhone so I bought my first one there (not a great experience but not a problem) and figured I’d get this one from them too. I won’t make that mistake again and will do business directly with Apple from now on. Apple is far from perfect but I’ve had good luck ordering from them in the past.
Good luck with your phone situation Drew and let me know how it sorts out.
Glad to hear the comments. My contract with Sprint ends in a couple of weeks and I’ve been compairing the others. AT&T was at the bottom of the list anyway. I dont’ like their plans and they didn’t have a free phone for Dan (who has a web phone for work). I like the droids I ‘ve seen anyway. Who needs an I-phone?
(for those of you don’t know me – I am Richard’s realitive on the PC side of the family! – HA)
Pam: the iPhone is great, it’s AT&T that sucks.
Have been fighting with AT&T for months now will be canceling our service end of this week. They keep sending us refurbished phones that do not work and claiming that they are new phones. However looking at the call data when we receive the phones it shows excessive usage. If they are doing it to us they may be doing it to you. Today I registered a complaint with the FTC other complaints to other agencies will follow. I find these practices to be deceptive and fraudulent. No success in getting in touch with corporate, however they will be getting a registered letter via snail mail.
Laurie: I’ve not had that kind of problem with AT&T and truthfully, they treated me very well when I went in to pick up my iPhone 4 at our local store. This is no excuse for the way I was treated earlier, but at least this particular store knows they did wrong by me and worked pretty hard to make it up. I got a new phone as far as I know, seems to work just fine.
I’m sorry this happened to you and if they say they’re giving you new phones they should never be giving you a refurb. It might be that the issue is there are few new phones and they only ones available are returns. That’s no excuse, but it might be the reason.
I work for Big Blue. Upper management is so screwed up that it is almost unbearable to show up everyday.
The I Phone is pretty cool. Don’t blame the reps, they don’t have a chance with the morons in Atlanta and Texas. Retail managers and all of the other people who actually do the work are treated like crap.
I agree “Man.” Policies like the one I bumped into are not devised by the sales reps in the stores, they’re devised by upper managements.
And yes, the iPhone generally is quite cool and the iPhone 4 is a wonderful improvement on an already great phone.
I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for an iPhone :( But until Apple’s exclusive contract ends with AT&T from HELL – I will have to continue to wait. It’s not easy to see their cool commercials for the iPhone 4 and just cringe and flick your middle knowing that it’s exclusive to AT&T. I am just happy to hear that a Judge has ok the civil lawsuit against AT&T and hopefully this will finally prompt Apple to work out a deal to get out from the exclusive contract. What urks me is that greed is the major priority that continues to push the abuse from AT&T and having the iPhone is ammo for the “I do not give a crap attitude about customer service and pay up” because they know you are hooked with the prize “iPhone”. What hurts me is that Apple for SURE knows this and I am SURE they have heard and see the complaints from AT&T customers yet they do nothing, as they are also blinded by greed. Why would any honest or presumed amazing company would want to be tied to such a wonderful product and yet the company who provides the functionality for it to work is rated as the WORST in the US? If I were CEO of Apple I would want my customers to enjoy my product and have the option to choose their service and what would keep them happy! I hear it all the time love the iphone and concept BUT HATE ATT and will never get one because of them. Richard I am jealous of you having the device as I am of many of my friends, but like you they have had HORRIBLE service, reception with ATT and many times I have service with my provider even at a local cafe where they do not! So you are not alone bud…. ATT does truly SUCK and I am talking from past experience with them. I gladly PAID out of my Contract when their abusive and vulgur tactics where imposed on my COMPANY’s account!
slclove: Well, unlike many, now that I have and am using the iPhone4 I love it, my iPhone use has gone way up. This version of the iPhone, even with it’s supposed reception issues, is miles beyond any of the other models.
I can’t blame AT&T for our bad reception issues here where I live in rural Connecticut. They’d love to put up a tower that would cover this area but few townspeople want one. Eventually there will be one but until then we’ll have two or three bars here at home and full service a mile down the road. No problem, two bars is just enough to initiate a facetime call.
You’re right, it’s a shame that such a great product gets mixed up with AT&T’s retail operation which feels akin to buying a car at a slimy car dealership. The reason Apple did this is obvious: AT&T gave them a bigger slice of the service contract pie than other providers and this way Apple can make money on the phone and the service. These types of deals are what has pushed them ahead of other companies in terms of their market capitalization. But you’re right, being mixed up with AT&T hurts the success of this great product.
I have to say I’ve not had problems with my iPhone4, I’ve now used it here in rural Connecticut, in New York, and in LA. Only one dropped call and facetime is the coolest thing I’ve seen in years: I’ve had at least ten facetime conversations.
I know it’s hip to hate AT&T and I’m no fan but the iPhone with AT&T is working well for both my wife and me so aside from my retail experience with them consider us both happy campers.
Also been waiting on Iphone4. Sales rep say 1 thing. Actuality is another. Been w/ Verizon 10 years….no problems at all. Kids want Iphone (I do too so I got one for wife). Starting a new relationship with AT&T. Haven’t even received phones yet and I hate, hate, hate, x 25 hate them already. Apple is fu*king AT&T so bad that AT&T can’t even give us an answer when we will get them. If you call 10 times….you will wait 300 minutes on the phone for them to tell you that they know nothing. F*cking brilliant.
Mark: What I’ve learned from all of this is to do business with Apple, not AT&T. You can’t avoid using them as a carrier but you can avoid buying phones from them.
hahahahah yes Richard you are right you should avoid dealing with them when ever is possible.
You DO have a right to be upset about how AT&T is treating you. I’ve been with AT&T now for a few years, and I don’t think I can think of anything good to say about them. I can’t wait until my contract expires so I can switch to another company. Why does AT&T suck? Let me count the ways:
1. I bought a Palm Pilot on eBay so I wouldn’t get stuck with a 2-year contract. I didn’t have the data plan at the time. When AT&T found out I had a smart phone, they told me I was REQUIRED to spend the $30 for a data plan, whether I wanted it or not. Customer service? Nope.
2. I also have AT&T internet (different division). My internet stopped working. I called them. They walked me through some procedures and told me it wasn’t the modem, it’s the router. In order to get it fixed, they connected me with their service “Plus” department. Took 20 minutes before they finally picked up. They told me the one-time fee to troubleshoot the problem was $129! $129? “You have to be kidding! It’s not enough that you charge me nearly $200 per month for 3 phones, 2 with data plans, another $45 a month for internet, but now you want me to pay a 1-time fee of $129 to spend 10 minutes to troubleshoot my internet problem? No thank you.” So, I called the router manufacturer. Their charge (it was out of warranty) was $29 for 6 months. They answered the phone within 3 rings and had everything up and running in less than 10 minutes! AT&T could learn what customer service is from them!
3. If you have AT&T internet combined with a land line account with them, you can pay your internet bill over the internet. If you only have internet (even though we have 3 wireless phones with AT&T), you can’t pay your bill over the internet. You have to write a hard check and mail it to them. Why the hassle? Just another way to convince you to spend MORE money for something you don’t need so they can make more money.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from AT&T, it’s that they are only concerned with bilking people out of as much money as they possibly can. They’ve completely forgotten what it’s like to provide real customer service.
As soon as my contract with AT&T is up, I’m going somewhere else! I don’t just dislike the company, I actually despise them! As soon as another company starts providing internet in our area, we’ll be switching from that too. It’s a shame that companies like AT&T get so big that they forget who and what got them there.
AT&T SUCKS!
Kevin: I appreciate your sentiment but I’ll take mild and gentle exception to a bit of it.
1. At this point all wireless carries are making users have data plans. Any smartphone that can use a web browser needs a data plan, otherwise why have the smart phone? But, to your point, if you wanted a smart phone for the phone and not the data piece you should be able to have the phone without the data. I agree. But, I guess ATT has no such plan for smart phones. Do other carriers?
2. When your internet connection stops working it can either be inside the house or outside. Figuring this out is meaningful. Anything inside the house you should be able to fix yourself as it’s simply a modem and a router and you can isolate the problem and either fix it (software) or replace the part. Using them for that (inside the house) is gonna cost you as there are many things that can go wrong, not all of them their hardware.
Outside the house its all them.
3. I agree their billing is messed up for a variety of reasons. We use direct payment off a bank account but we do have a land line. I wasn’t aware that payment option would go away if we dumped our landline. We don’t use them for internet access, preferring our cable company (cable beats DSL around here).
Good luck and no doubt if there is ever a Verizon iPhone you’ll be first in line to get one.
Hi, I found your blog and thought I was the only one who didn’t like AT&T.
I don’t have an i-phone but I am waiting until 2011 to end my contract and decide if I will keep them or not (probably not). The replacement phones they send me are refurbished garbage. I would be careful with any “pre-order” that that is not what they are sending you.
We have a landline and cell service with them, both paid for online, it would cost more to do cable with them so we don’t. Every time they offer materials or freebies we never qualify for some reason.
So stupid, and the people they have making the calls are horrible at customer service. I just got off the phone with one and I hope to never have to deal with another one again. I think the next time I will make my husband call, I just don’t even want to talk to these loosers.
Phew- that felt good.
Thanks
Laura: While I agree that ATT has a long way to go to do well at customer service, I’ve had a few decent support people deal with me, both on the phone and in our local store. I’m locked into the iPhone, I love the thing and as long as ATT is the provider, I’m with them.
Good luck with whatever you do next.
Just went huge rounds with AT&T cancellation process. Moved to area where there is absolutely no coverage. Haven’t used phone but honoring contract. But, can’t cancel with contract. Did you know….
AT&T commits fraud w/ every wireless agreement they sign. A 24 mo. contract really means 25 months due to the variance b/w contract date & bill cycle. This confirmed via Sara Alt, “head of customer service” in Mesa, AZ call center. Given the average monthly bill is $70 and AT&T reported 2.6 million new customers in 3Q2010, that’s $182 MILLION in fraudulent fees. Unbelievable. So the question becomes, what do we do about it?
Holly: Verizon and Sprint aren’t much better. They all suck.
ATT& sucks for so many reasons, one reason can not be singled out. Liars, cheats, theives…customer service is staffed by complete liars, they obviously have been trained in that aspect of their jobs. We spend HOURS on the phone with them EVERY month. I hate them so much.
JW: I don’t have your kind of problems with AT&T and while I wish their 3G coverage was better for me, their land line service has been fine and I’m such a huge fan of the iPhone that I’m willing to put up with the some dead spots in their cellular network to stick with it.
Outside of a local store having an odd way to take pre-orders for iPhones over a year ago I’ve not really had much to do with them except to pay extremely high bills for our services. However, I pay my mother’s Verizon bill as well and it’s not much better.
Maybe Apple has enough money now so they can buy a phone company or build their own network. That would suite me just fine.