Adventures with AT&T

I have ATT U-Verse, which bundles my phone, cable TV, and Internet DSL services into one bill, which comes automatically out of my checking account every month...except this one, apparently.

Last month, my bank shut down my debit card for some reason and issued me a new one.  Since every automatic bill cleared last month, I (erroneously) assumed that they all came out via automatic check rather than my debit card....but apparently, ATT is one that used the card number.  Thus, my October ATT payment was denied by the bank...and my latest bill shows me a month in arrears, plus next month's bill....over $400, due on Nov. 10th...date changed due to internal problems of some sort.  Whaaaat?  All of my ATT bills used to come out after the 15th, which I budgeted for when my Social Security came through (second Wednesday of each month).  A little quick research showed that ATT had changed billing dates, starting in November, but that the date could be changed by the customer if inconvenient.  Thus, I decided that I needed to talk to ATT to resolve the probs: arrange to make the overdue payment, change the info for future automated payments, AND  change the new billing date back to what it used to be.

Next order of events was to find a phone number to call ATT.  The letter that I had about the payment not going through had no phone number on it, so I reverted to using the phone book (and a magnifying glass!) to find a number.  The one I picked was for "Residential Services."  I armed myself with all of the information I thought I needed and hunkered down on the patio expecting a lot of whoop-de-doo hoops to jump through just to get a real person to talk to.

I called the number.  I got a recording that said, "Just for calling today, you are entitled to a $100 gift.  Press 1 for more information, or you may just hang up."  I didn't particularly want to hang up because that would leave me without another number to call, figuring that whoever I DID talk to could at least put me in touch with another number....so I pressed 1.  After quite a few rings, a very heavily Indian-accented man named "Michael" (yeah, right!) answered.  He asked how he could help me, and when I told him, he told me to "rest assured" that he would put me in touch with someone who could do that, but first...about my $100 "gift"...  He obviously had access to something about my account because he knew my name and address, asking only for the zip code.  Then he asked what stores I shop at (for issuing the "gift card"), and I began to smell a rat.  I told him that I wasn't interested but to please transfer me to someone who could help with my account.  "Rest assured that I will do that.  But why don't you want a free gift?"  I told him because I felt he was going to ask me to do something I didn't want to do...so just transfer me.  "I haven't asked you to do anything." "No...but you will.  Please give me the number of someone who can help with my account."  He was hard to understand, so I didn't catch the  first part of what he said about the "free gift", but the last part had to do with a $4 activation fee for the gift card.  I'm sorry, but I wasn't about to give him my financial information for an activation fee--which, I'm sure is what would come next.   We did this verbal dance probably four times before he got the hint, so he gave me a number to call for my account:  1-800-555-1212.  I knew instantly that it was bogus.  Recognize it?  It's the number for Toll Free Directory Assistance.
 

I called my daughter.  In short order, she gave me another number to call.  (How does she do that????  Not even the stupid letter that I got from ATT had a number on it!) 

Called the number, and that started me on the automated phone call loop.  It was voice activated.  I was asked to say what I wanted...so I started out by wanting to change the automatic payment information.  That seemed to work...but when it asked what else I wanted, I said "Change billing date", but that took me back to changing the automatic payment information, which I did AGAIN...and so it went.  I knew I needed to talk to a real person.  You know about real people??  Like, the folks who can take care of things with understanding in short order????  Did you also know that you can just press 0 in these automated calls in order to be transferred to a real person?  I didn't either, but it worked before, so I tried it again.  Worked!  I got a gal named "Arlie".  When I told her that was my grandfather's name, we got a chuckle...and then, she quickly got things taken care of for me as my phone beeped "low battery".  Of course, in the process, she also tried to sell me faster Internet....but also thought that she could lower my cable bill.  She is the first person I've talked to at ATT for awhile that actually listened to me and took NO for an answer.  I liked that and will write an email commendation for her.  (Sometimes that works better than a big tip!) 

So...another crisis averted after an hour's frustrations with technology at its finest.  When I was on the phone with Arlie, I also told her about my conversations with "Michael".  It seems that she also works on that part of the ATT experience and so has registered my complaint and even started researching it while I was on the phone with her.  Nice job!