Unacceptable Customer Support

[The Jokeman]

9 hours ago, Keukasmallies said:

 

I guess the nasty (but very effective at times) way to respond is to adopt the currently popular tactic of flaming them on social media.  Just think:  A pissing contest with a communications giant, and you're almost anonymous!

 

I feel your pain in that I have an AT&T cell phone account that is quite reasonable at $30/mo. plus fees and taxes.  However, Spectrum offers the very same plan for $14/mo., all in, no additional fees, taxes, etc.  So, I suffering the "Tarzan dilemma":  Do I let go of the AT&T vine and grab the Spectrum vine, or not?  I have two complete accounts with spectrum at present - cable tv, Internet, telephone times two; but I don't trust the longevity nor the coverage map of their $14. plan.  As you mentioned above, leave one major corporation's shenanigans for another's?  The unpleasant or despicable corporations [read "bastards"] gotcha coming and going.

 

 

 

What's even more unnerving is when you pour out your ire in the text of the complaint, hit Submit and nothing happens!!

Spectrum mobile runs off Verizon towers so unsure of why'd question their coverage. More info at

 

https://www.moneysavingpro.com/carriers/spectrum-mobile-coverage-map/

[T&C]

3 hours ago, Augie said:

 

My wife just complained that our ATT/DTV bill is north of $400/month. I’d like to cancel the phone, but that’s only about $20. I like a bit of redundancy, but not the price it comes with. 

Holy @#$%... you can get that to around $150 easily. You are bleeding money man... yow.

[ExiledInIllinois]

12 hours ago, Keukasmallies said:

What's even more unnerving is when you pour out your ire in the text of the complaint, hit Submit and nothing happens!!

When you type your ire... Always copy.  Or type it somewhere else and copy and paste it in.  Just like here on the board... You'll never get burned again losing your penned masterpiece & it's piece de resistance!

 

Then if nothing happens, keep on sending, hopefully they get dozens of the same message! 

[eanyills]

ATT is the worst. Once they chargebacked a payment that was on autopay from like three months prior. Eventually my service was disconnected and I noticed that my autopay was cancelled. Their customer support told me that the bank account linked to my autopay wasn’t a valid account and that it was blocked from their system. I couldn’t pay with it, no exceptions. I went round and round, explaining that this was the only checking that I had ever had and that I’d had it since I was sixteen. Furthermore, there had never been a problem with it in the two years I’d been a customer or in the months since. Nope, the customer service representative wasn’t having it. It wasn’t a valid checking account. They wouldn’t even acknowledge that the money never came back to my account or that I had a letter from my bank stating the issue wasn’t on my end. I would have to find an alternative method of payment or they would charge my account off and send it to collections...

 

So I spent about four hours arguing with different escalating supervisors until I asked for a number for their corporate complaints. That must have touched a nerve because I’ll never forget the next person I got. I asked who I was speaking to, and he simply said, “Mike from El Paso.” I stated that I wanted to make a corporate complaint, and he responded, “You’re not making any complaints. You’re not speaking to anyone else. There’s no one else to speak to.” I asked for the number to make a complaint and he responded, “It’s on the website” and hung up on me. Predictably, the only number on the website was the same basic customer service number I had started with four hours earlier.

 

That was the day I learned not to waste my time complaining about bad service from garbage companies. They don’t care. I let that account charge off. I’ll never subscribe to ATT for anything again.

Edited December 15, 2019 by eanyills

[4BillsintheBurgh]

4 hours ago, Your Brown Eye said:

I was the dumbass who paid $1500 for an extended 4 year car warranty 2 years ago. Low and behold last week, I needed to use the warranty and the dealership I took my car too, called and told me the warranty company has no record of my car so they're are not going to cover it and I had to pay nearly $400 out of my pocket because I needed my car that evening for work (it was at the dealership at 8am). It turns out it was a clerical input error on the part of the warranty company, and it got fixed about 10 minutes after I threatened to get a lawyer and sue (it would have been a landslide in my favor because I had all the legitimate documents and receipts of the purchase of the warranty). Now, they are giving me troubles because I fixed the car before the warranty issue was worked out, and I told them countless times I needed my car to go to work, so they are looking for any excuse not to pay it.

 

The customer support I received was terrible, they basically accused me of trying to cheat the system and calling me a liar, then when it got fixed, there was not a single apology given out.

I had a dealer warranty issue with pontiac once (early 2000's), kind of like you I thought I should be good, it's all under the same roof. I bought a car with about 4,000 dealer miles on it which when I bought it they agreed to add those miles to the warranty. When I took the car in for a checkup toward the end of the warranty, the dealership (different one) claimed they new nothing about it. So after going around with them for days I sent an email directly to Pontiac and it was taken care of in a day.

[Augie]

3 hours ago, T&C said:

Holy @#$%... you can get that to around $150 easily. You are bleeding money man... yow.

 

Yeah, that’s extravagant even to me. But DTV is there for Sunday Ticket, and of course the rare occasion that cable goes out. DTV alone sucks because it goes out at the very worst times. 

 

Someone could make a living helping people find and negotiate the best deals for phone/cable/DTV/Sunday Ticket. If they start to put a dent in revenue.....they may want to start looking over their shoulder. Thou shalt not mess with the Golden Goose. 

 

My son and his fiancé pay a fraction of what we do, I’m sure. I may ask him for advise.....when mom’s not around. 

[davefan66]

Have the same problem with DTV and my phone bill.  Called to inquire how to access both and found zero help.  Rep I had was from overseas and she couldn’t understand my issue.  Kept calling me Mr. David and using that BS script they use.  No help fixing the issue or direction on how to.

 

Since ATT bought them out their customer service has hit rock bottom.  Used to be fantastic, especially resolving technical issues.  My issue is I have only spectrum or them.  Have spectrum for internet, will not get tv service from them.

 

BTW, when prompted for what I wanted I hit whatever number it is for billing, than asks for operator.  Took me right to one.

[IslandBillsFan]

21 hours ago, Patrick_Duffy said:

Don't say bill, say "agent". Everytime the robo system tells you something or ask you something no matter what it is, you just continue to say "agent" and it will "should" get you an actual person to talk to.

Yeah, I've done this before.  It works but it is frustrating as you have to keep going through the prompts and sticking to your guns.

 

Me- "Agent"

Robot- "Ok Agent.  What would you like to speak with an agent about?"

Me- "Agent."

Robot- "Ok.  Before I get an agent on the line, please tell me what your call is about?"

Me- Agent

[IslandBillsFan]

17 hours ago, BringBackFergy said:

I hate the term “unacceptable”. It’s obviously acceptable at this point until you tell them you’re done. 
 

(but I sympathize with your plight)

 

Yeah.  There is not a good word here.  The problem is that you are screwed because you are limited in choices.  So every choice leads to the same bs.  I guess I have accepted if I want to use cell, tv, internet (basically live in present day) I have to deal with these mega corporations who treat their customers like crap.  

 

This will spiral things in a different direction, but many people use the large social media platforms despite their ethical concerns and privacy issues.  You really only have about 3 choices if you want to communicate with large audiences.  Due to this lack of choice you have to tolerate their abuse.

 

With businesses and services locally you have several options.  If I don't like a mechanic, restaurant, or grocery store I can choose to go elsewhere and hopefully get improvement.  

[row_33]

7 hours ago, Augie said:

 

Yeah, that’s extravagant even to me. But DTV is there for Sunday Ticket, and of course the rare occasion that cable goes out. DTV alone sucks because it goes out at the very worst times. 

 

Someone could make a living helping people find and negotiate the best deals for phone/cable/DTV/Sunday Ticket. If they start to put a dent in revenue.....they may want to start looking over their shoulder. Thou shalt not mess with the Golden Goose. 

 

My son and his fiancé pay a fraction of what we do, I’m sure. I may ask him for advise.....when mom’s not around. 

don’t listen to people who tell you every transaction you make is a total ripoff

 

for a few kooks like that in my life I wrote down every empty bragging of how they are cutting corners on every purchase 

 

each time they boast, NEVER asked for, the story keeps getting better and better

 

 

Edited December 15, 2019 by row_33

[IslandBillsFan]

22 hours ago, Foxx said:

you do have rights. it's called canceling.

Correct but you are missing the point.  Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile.  It's virtually the same beast.  

 

Limited choices = abuse by large companies.  

 

Modern Day-  Cable/Internet/Cell Phones/Social Media

Past Days- Oil/Steel

17 hours ago, Marv's Neighbor said:

Try pressing 2 for Spanish.

I should.  Mi espanol es perfecto desde mis dias in Puerto Rico.

[Patrick Duffy]

1 hour ago, IslandBillsFan said:

Yeah, I've done this before.  It works but it is frustrating as you have to keep going through the prompts and sticking to your guns.

 

Me- "Agent"

Robot- "Ok Agent.  What would you like to speak with an agent about?"

Me- "Agent."

Robot- "Ok.  Before I get an agent on the line, please tell me what your call is about?"

Me- Agent

 

Yeah it's definitely aggravating, however it's the only way to speak to an actual person. But even then when you finally do, the service is crap. Definitely not like it used to be, which is why I canceled mine long, long ago.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

2 hours ago, IslandBillsFan said:

I should.  Mi espanol es perfecto desde mis dias in Puerto Rico.

Oh yeah?  Where’s your ‘tilde’?

?

[Keukasmallies]

18 hours ago, The Jokeman said:

Spectrum mobile runs off Verizon towers so unsure of why'd question their coverage. More info at

 

https://www.moneysavingpro.com/carriers/spectrum-mobile-coverage-map/

 

Verizon is exactly the problem for me.  No coverage in the mid-Finger Lakes areas.

[The Jokeman]

25 minutes ago, Keukasmallies said:

 

Verizon is exactly the problem for me.  No coverage in the mid-Finger Lakes areas.

Oh odd I thought Verizon was everywhere.

[/dev/null]

12 minutes ago, The Jokeman said:

Oh odd I thought Verizon was everywhere.

You've got Verizon confused with Savoir Faire

 

 

[Koko78]

On 12/14/2019 at 8:21 AM, IslandBillsFan said:

I'm gonna vent a little here.  What is a customer supposed to do with large companies that have horrible customer support?  I know there have been other threads that touched on this but couldn't find a dedicated one.  

 

My case in point today is: ATT/DIRECTV.  First let it be known that they can't merge my ATT cell account with my DirectTv account for some reason so I have two separate bills.  Thats a different issue than today.

 

For the last two months I haven't been able to pay my directv bill online.  My only options are to call the robosystem and pay or enroll in autopay (which I think is there goal.)  I do not want to have to call every month or do autopay.  I know they want customers to use autopay so when they inevitably charge me more I may miss it.  To resolve the issue of not being able to pay online, first I try the chat feature.  This is only online certain hours a day.  After using it, they said I would need to call in.  I call the automatic system but I can't get a person because every time I say the word "bill" it takes me to the pay your bill prompts.  

 

So this is a little frustrating.  What is crazy to me though is there is they have no email address.  You can not email them no matter what.  It will always point you back to their forums, chat feature, or to call.  How can I even express how crummy there system is?

 

I guess my only real options here are to flame away on them on social media or cancel my service.  The problem is if a customer wants to cancel their service and then switches from ATT to another large corporation they have the same crappy automatic services.  

 

As modern day consumers shouldn't there be some sort of rights?  Thoughts?

 

Feel free to share your crappy customer service issues.

 

 

 

About 16 years ago, I had DirecWay (DirecTV's satellite internet - now Hughes Net or something). Full disclosure: I live in the styx. They buried a provision in the fine print that if you downloaded more than 400 MB in an hour, they could throttle you to almost no bandwidth for the next 24. Not knowing this, I downloaded too much one night, and was throttled. Had no clue what was going on, so I called customer service. The guy politely informed me of that provision. I told him to let his superiors know that once I could drop them, I would, and I would never do business with them again. No reason to yell at him, wasn't his fault.

 

Before long, I dropped them and will never considered their service again. Do they miss my money? Nope. Do I miss their crappy service? Nope.

 

*****'em.

[IslandBillsFan]

8 hours ago, Koko78 said:

 

About 16 years ago, I had DirecWay (DirecTV's satellite internet - now Hughes Net or something). Full disclosure: I live in the styx. They buried a provision in the fine print that if you downloaded more than 400 MB in an hour, they could throttle you to almost no bandwidth for the next 24. Not knowing this, I downloaded too much one night, and was throttled. Had no clue what was going on, so I called customer service. The guy politely informed me of that provision. I told him to let his superiors know that once I could drop them, I would, and I would never do business with them again. No reason to yell at him, wasn't his fault.

 

Before long, I dropped them and will never considered their service again. Do they miss my money? Nope. Do I miss their crappy service? Nope.

 

*****'em.

Good stuff KoKo.

 

[row_33]

for the 14th straight year over the holidays.... i'll get to hear a certain relative's boasting on how he shook down cable or the phone company or who the ***** cares, and the price he pays keeps decreasing every year, and he goes on (unasked) for 15 minutes, like he's Einstein.....

 

 

[Steve O]

On 12/14/2019 at 5:59 PM, ALF said:

Always get a extended warranty from where you buy your car.

I beg to differ. My theory is that warranty companies, regardless of what they are for, are in business to make money. Therefore, they are going to take in more money than they give out. There may be a few times a warranty proves to be a wise investment, but, over the course of a lifetime, you'll be better off financially if you never purchase one.