Wednesday, March 25, 2009

I'll never get an iPhone

Why?

Because Apple only lets you use an iPhone on the AT&T Wireless network. And I will soon be leaving AT&T for another wireless network. Okay, it'll be 3 months still, but I'm leaving. I had a BellSouth Mobility phone. Then it became Cingular. Then I went to seminary, and couldn't afford a cell phone. Then Mom and Dad very graciously paid for one, and back on Cingular we went, and stayed while Cingular became AT&T again. All told, I think we've been with this company since 2000, with about a 1 year break when we had no cell phones.

So why do I want to leave? When we moved to Monticello last year, we had our numbers changed to local numbers. We specifically asked if this would affect our ability to upgrade this spring, and were told no, no problem.

Well, guess what? We went online to try and upgrade. The system claims we can't upgrade until next year, because they restarted our contract period, adding an extra year. I went to the AT&T store to get it corrected, they can override it in the store, if I pick out new phones there. Problem being: I want a phone that is free after rebate if purchased online. It's $70 after rebate in the store. And they will not match online pricing in the store. I asked.

So, I call their 1-800 number. I'm told to call the order in. Problem? Well, there's hold times. And the fact that the online store and the call-in store have different availabilities, and different prices, and again, I'll be out an extra $100 to order from the call-in than online. And, personally, I do not want to do business with a company that expects me to pay for their mistakes. So, when I am done with this service agreement, I'm gone.

They may think I'll just go quietly and come back as soon as possible, but it's not likely. I still don't buy anything from Office Depot after they called Ann a liar, and that's been 6 years. And when I taught UPS employees about service and customer needs, I used the whole Office Depot story to illustrate, using the bad experience from that company to point out how reputations get destroyed.

So, AT&T, you may not care if I go. But I will be happy to tell people how you treated me. How many 1 angry customers will it take to move you from #1? How long before iPhone users make switches, however they can? I would happily have stayed with AT&T, even though the upgraded data plan with them would have been $10 more a month than with the competitor. Not now.

So, no iPhone. Maybe I'll get a Palm Pre this summer. Probably just get an ordinary Blackberry. Which will rock! EMAIL on my phone!!!

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the blog entry. I totally agree AT &t needs to learn how to take care of it's customers. They just think people won't leave them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know if this will help, if you went to the AT&T store on hwy 425, you may want to try Custom Wireless (located on hwy 278 west). The customer service there is totally different than at the AT&T store, much more customer friendly.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thought about it, but I'm getting more stonewalling from the corporate/national customer service level. So, I'd still be enriching AT&T.

    But, they emailed me this morning, and are possibly coming around to the right point of view.

    ReplyDelete

To deal with SPAM comments, all comments are moderated. I'm typically willing to post contrary views...but I also only check the list once a day, so if you posted within the last 24 hours, I may not be to it yet.

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