AT&T still sucks.

I can't believe this. We have phone serve (AT&T) through DH's business....which includes our cell phones and computer from a personal WiFi device. Our extra, back-up phone for emergencies only is with Consumer Cellular and is only about $10/mo. I live near a small town. Except for a couple stores, and a fabulous dentist, everything else pretty much is inferior to a larger town's businesses. One day, I couldn't get my iPhone to work. While in this small town a couple weeks ago, I decided to take a chance at the AT&T store there. MUCH to my surprise, the guy actually figured out what was wrong and I left the store with my phone working! I told DH how happy I was to find a competent person/business in this town. He decided to try it out when he was having a problem with his iPhone. While there, they offered him a new, improved plan........tons of data, better reception, and we could plug our home phone into the new base for free service. It sounded great. All we needed to do was wait a few weeks for the base to come in, transfer our old phone number to this new device, and it would be great.

Well.......they somehow accidentally D/C'd my Consumer Cellular account the next day. That was okay, because it's just a back-up phone, and I could wait a couple weeks without it.

3 weeks later the base came in and DH couldn't get it to work. Found out, since we wanted to transfer our old telephone number to it, we had to call AT&T to give permission to transfer it. That evening, DH spent 2 hours continuously on the phone with about 5 different people.....being transferred to someone who knew what the hell he was talking about. Finally got a tech dept person who said that the plan that the local store sold us didn't exist. She even talked to their sales people. He had to also call the next day and talk to more people.....just trying to free up our old number from AT&T to go to this new plan and continue to find out if the plan really didn't exist.

Okay........long story a little shorter.........We gave up on this new plan. I also spent time talking with Consumer Cellular, who are much more organized.....trying to get reinstated with them.
DH took the base back to the local store, and to ask them why the heck the service they had offered us doesn't exist. They got very upset with him and told him that they've been offering this plan for a long time to lots of people......and he would have to send the base back himself, and they would charge him a restocking fee.

We couldn't believe how the left hand had no idea what the right hand was doing/saying/offering. It was a total mess that could have been avoided. DH was tempted to try again, just not involving the online people, but I told him to forget it. They would screw it up again and we'd be even more frustrated. So we're back on our old plan.

I have always hated AT&T and wondered how they can even stay afloat with such incompetence. How could a local store offer such a great deal, while the online people have no idea of it? They've caused us so much hassle.
I never hear much good being said about them.

In today's world, (especially in politics), it bugs us even more when you can't seem to trust what anyone says as the truth.

Who are we supposed to believe..........the AT&T "experts" online, or the local store? Seems like very little is making much sense anymore. Why wouldn't the online people know this store is selling these plans?

Anyhow.........it was so very frustrating, especially since we HAVE to have phones and a computer. I would like to change companies completely, but I'm sure most of the others are frustrating too.

What a frustrating couple of days......And it's not completely resolved yet. I still have to get our number transferred back to Consumer Cellular, but can't do that until they send a new sim card. Until it gets here, I guess I'll just pretend it might all go smoothly............

We were told by phone people that we could get 12 MG on our line. Well, we already knew from years of experience and talking to technicians many times that the only amount we can get at our street is 5MG. You are right, they do not have a straight story. We are still with them because husband can deal with the issues and we have AT&T wire all the way into our house due to multiple problems. Note: We live downtown (right downtown) Indianapolis and there is no reason for the issues. We are surrounded by business and now apartments and everyone is using computers/internet.

And you are right that they all have issues. It is the problems with changing too that makes us stay with the problems we know.

We learned the hard way that most if not all of those little ATT stores are franchises. We dumped ATT as fast as we could when we moved as there really is no end to their incompetence.

All these big companies with limited competition suck. A sales rep had my mother signed up for Verizon internet. The installer got to her house and told her Verizon doesn't go to her town!

Back in the day, our marketeers were notorious for selling services we didn't have and expecting us to (as Tim Gunn would say) "make it work."

Also, is the AT&T store owned by AT&T or is it a franchise or authorized dealer, or whatever? That could make a difference in their level of accuracy regarding plans either through mistake or dishonesty.