An Open Letter to AT&T

Dear AT&T Quality Assurance Personnel:

I'm writing this letter to inform denizens of the web, those who may search through Google and Yahoo and any other search engine, about how horrible your ability to perform basic phone services has become.

I'm not disgruntled. I'm furious. Your incompetence drove my wife to tears, inconvenienced our lives for over 6 weeks, and lost our business.

We chose to subscribe to AT&T land service via your website. We've done this before and all efforts have gone well multiple times in places other than Maryland. In Maryland, however, your company is too cheap to afford technicians that can count on things other than their fingers.

After being quoted 5-10 business days for installation, we were disappointed to learn the earliest installation date would be 12 business days later. On the day of the first scheduled installation, you cancelled. Your techs said they were too busy. They were too busy the next day. And the next. We called whatever number you gave us, and they gave us the same song and dance. Our phone was installed a week late.

We also requested that you install DSL on our phone line. Again, no problems with previous service in places other than Maryland. But in Maryland, your organization has difficulty not swallowing its tongue. Nowhere on your website does the DSL service installation say "you need to first have a phone line, THEN request DSL." So we were told that we couldn't have DSL because, duh, we had no phone. We were then told we needed to schedule the technician to install DSL... and that the installation date would be 5-10 business days later.

Not only was our phone installed a week late, but it was installed with the wrong phone number. We called whatever number you gave us, and they essentially said, "Huh. That's weird," and hung up on us. We called again, and they said "we'll figure it out and call you back."

I would have thought that working for the phone company, you may have the ability to press the number buttons on a phone. But your fingers were too busy probing orifices in your body to press the buttons, because we never received that call. Then again, you may have been trying to call us with the number we ordered but that your technicians were too incompetent to install.

TWO WEEKS later, we finally had a phone rep at a number that alledged to do service for you, try and solve the problem. After my wife spent FOUR HOURS on the phone, waiting for your crack bureaucracy to figure out how to tie their shoes, she was told that they would... call her back. I have never heard my wife scream in anger until that moment.

Eventually, one of your atypical representatives spun a resonable (if not accurate) sounding story about how your repair department said we had phone service but your main business said we did not, and that the technician just flipped a switch to give us phone service instead of giving us the phone number we requested. This person was helpful and friendly, very understanding, and I have no doubt that you have already fired her for being overqualified.

After she figured out what to tell us, she told us that yes, we would have to wait another 5-10 business days. Throw a few holidays into this mix. Then we could get DSL, once the phone was installed and would have to wait an additional 5-10 business days which would have pushed into December. Not only that, but a DSL modem- one that we already had from previous service with your bungling company- was going to be sent to us even though we asked one not be sent. The reason- because you have to send one. We were told to just refuse delivery. Normally I would ask how stupid a company would have to be to spend money on shipping for an item that the customer has declined in advance, but the track record is well established by now.

Your company, utterly incapable of making logical business decisions, scheduled to send us a DSL modem that we didn't need. We figured that since the technician's union likely has from Thanksgiving until Easter as a holiday, it made sense to forgo DSL installation as we were not going to actually receive it until May.

The unfortunate fact for you is that I was able, within the span of three days, to obtain a cable modem and have broadband internet installed. Three days. Not 6-12 business weeks.

You can consider this a "complaint." As a former ISO 9001 auditor, I might suggest you file this complaint under "total company failure." Optionally, you may file individual complaints with: your internet site for not reserving the requested phone number, the repair department for not communicating with other departments to determine why phone installation had not occurred, your customer service department for not knowing how to solve a customer problem at least four times, two complaints with your technicians for being three days late and installing the wrong number, and your top management for allowing this farce you call operations to continue in this manner.

You are not too big to fail. Might as well focus on the iPhone, it's the only business on which you haven't completely dropped the ball. I'm telling everyone I know not to get your phone service. Good luck watching your core business crash and burn.

Daniel Walter