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AT&T Wireless - Misc. Complaints

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Lai of San Jose CA writes (8/1/03): I was required to pay for security deposit ($200) when I subscribed for AT&T Wireless service on April 25th 2002. The security deposit was supposed to be refunded back to me after one year of service and within that year I maintain a good payment history. However, the security deposit still has not been refunded back to me since I began to request them 3 months ago. I have been calling and sending emails to them but they still have not refunded my security deposit.

When I called and emailed AT&T Wireless Receivable Management (1-800-544-3859) to request the refund of my security deposit, I was told (2 times) they will send me a check within 4 to 6 weeks time, which they didn't send. I was told they will credit it back to my discover card account (2 times) and should be reflect in my credit card account within a week, which they didn't do. I was told they will credit back to my check card on 7/15/03. I check with my bank and AT&T Wireless lied to me again. Different AT&T Wireless representatives told me different things. I was denied to speak with their supervisor. Some of them even argue with me as if they were right and I was wrong. I'm tired and getting more and more frustrated of reapeating the same thing over and over again whenever they didn't keep up to their promise.

Adib of River Edge NJ (7/28/03):
I have been a customer with AT&T Wireless for over 5 years and I have changed my cellular number 2 or 3 times. Every year I try to cancel, they offer me free minutes, free month, etc. Every time I call to complain about their service, they tell me that they are repairing something, a tower is down, or they have no service in a certain region. But when I update my service, they tell me it is national and they cover or the highlighted areas. Well, I live in NJ and work and travel in the NY State area and that is highlighted on their maps, yet when I travel on the NJ Parkway or Turnpike, I have almost no service. When I travel Upstate NY on 87 North or the NY Thruway, there is no service.

My wife had a car accident and she was stuck on the Parkway in NJ with no service. I called to inform them of what happened, and they said that they are sorry to hear that, but I am under contract until October 2004. If I want to cancel I must pay $170. They are crazy. The area I am in and the area my wife was in is highlighted yet no service was available. That is cheating the consumer and I want to end my service NOW!

Eugene of Loma Linda CA (7/28/03):
We purchased a 2-year contract with ATT wireless and 20 months has elapsed send intitiation of the contract. Our phone service had been good up until the month of May. Then we started having alot of disconnections, our phone doesn't ring when it is suppose to, we get RIV20 codes, and also when we are connected the connection is really poor. Now we are even getting no service and roaming at our home [not out of town]. We requested the service dealer to check it out, and nothing was found wrong but we were alerted by ATT customer care in 2 separate locales that our phone is outdated. This is the same phone we had at the start of our contract.

This problem represents a gross inconvenience since we depend on this service for our home-based business. Last week my daughter was in a car accident and she was unable to contact me, receiving an out-of-service message. This problem was addressed to many ATT representatives all whom try to resolve it by selling me a new phone or replacing my outdated phone if I commit to an additional one year contract with them. I noticed on 4 different occasions in ATT phone marts other customers with the same identical problem and complaints. One cellular phone dealer told me ATT had upgraded their wireless equipment, therefore the older model will not function properly. An ATT representative gave me 3 options; 1] buy a new phone, 2] sign up for one more year service with them 3] pay $300 to terminate the remaining four months of my contract with them.

I feel this is not fair, I have been timely with my payments and held up my end of the contract and feel they should hold up their end and provide a continuance of the same service I had at the initiation of the contract.

Barbara of Oviedo FL (7/25/03):
I was charged for a phone ($149.87) on my April invoice that I did not order, receive nor have. I have called every month from the first bill I received with the charge for this phone on it. Each time I call they tell me this has to be investigated first. It is now the end of July and another call was made to ATT regarding the charge still being on my bill. I was told the same thing. This has to be investigated. Four months I have been getting the same response. I was on hold this time for 38 minutes just trying to get someone to talk to.

George of San Diego (7/24/03):
Approximately 3 months ago I purchased 2 cell phones, which included a 1-yr. (parts & labor) from the OEM, from a local AT&T Wireless Store here in San Diego along with signing a 1-yr. wireless service contract on a family plan for myself and my son.

On 07-20-03 my Motorola model 720G cell-phone that I purchased less than 3 months ago from the AT&T Wireless store developed a software glitch on its main menu screen. Simply put, it died. When I contacted AT&T on 07-21, 22, 23 and again today the 24th they said there would be a $49.95 shipping and handling fee to forward my "in warranty" defective cell-phone to Motorola for repair with approximately a 2 to 3 week turn-around and/or I myself could forward the unit to Motorola for repair and spare the $49.95 shipping & handling charge with AT&T. When I inquired about a loaner cell-phone, while mine was in for repair, AT&T said they do not provide any rental or loaner cell-phones. I could purchase a new phone from them in the meantime while my phone is awaiting repair.

I contacted other (competition) cell-phone sales/service providers and they said if I had purchased and signed with one of them and that my cell-phone is still under the OEM warranty to bring it into one of their stores and it would be exchanged with a new unit from stock. I have learned after numerous calls that AT&T wireless does not share that same customer service philosophy as their competition. In conclusion I will be without the usage of my cell-phone for the duration of the repair and yet still mandated under the wireless service contract to pay the monthly minimum service charge without the benefit of a cell-phone.

Deborah of Long Beach CA (7/20/03):
I have had my wireless phone for exactly 40 days. Today I called At&t customer care number to try and upgrade to a better quality phone. The phone I have know is cutting in and out during my callers conversations. I was told I could only upgrade for the full price of a new phone. I then told Alisa that I would like to cancel my service because I am not happpy with the quality of my current phone model 3560. She told me I would have to pay a $170.00 cancellation fee due to the fact I have had the phone over 30 days. This is only 10 days past the time limit. I am a single parent of two children and feel I am being completely ripped off. If I choose to pay the cancellation fee, I then would have to pay a new company for the price of their plan and phone. I would think that At&t would be more willing to satisfy their customers who are not happy with the services they are being provided.

Paul of Taunton MA writes (1/15/02):
This isn't actually a complaint, but I am tempted to purchase a cell phone at www.usfreecellphone.com. The deal on the site seems wicked good.

AT&T rebates are of dubious value. We recommend against buying any AT&T service that gives the company the unilateral power to decide whether or not it will honor its commitment.

Paul of Honeyville UT writes (11/27/00):
I recently bought a new AT&T "Free 2 Go" prepaid wireless phone which was being promoted at my local 7-11 convenience store. The purchase has been nothing less than a disaster! To begin with, the advertising was deceptive. They had large posters all over the store with big numbers advertising the price of the phone to be $69.00, which includes a free card for $25.00 worth of service. It turns out that the $69.00 price is BEFORE a mail-in $30.00 rebate. A fact which is stated in small print on the ads, and is clearly designed to be misleading.

So I paid $100 for the $69 phone. And decided to buy $100 worth of air-time while I was at it. Then I discovered my mistake! After activating the phone, and signing up for the National calling plan, I discovered that my air-time was being billed at $0.65 per minute! Way more than I ever would have imagined! In addition to that, when roaming out of my home area, my phone is nearly useless! In one area, I could not place outgoing calls, because no matter what number I dialed, I would recieve a message stating, "You must first dial a 1 (one) when calling this number". This happened no matter what I dialed. I tried dialing the number with a 1, and the area code, but still got the same message. I tried it with just a 1. I tried everything! I couldn't dial an operator, or "Customer Care" because no matter what I dialed, I got the same message.

When I called "Customer Care" on a land-line phone, I spent over 3 1/2 hours holding, being forwarded, discontected, and ignored. On representative forwarded me to another cell-phone company who doesn't even provide service in the area that I was in. They were astonished to receive my call, and that AT&T wouldn't help me with my problem. Their customer service was great, but they were ultimately unable to help me, because I wasn't actually in their coverage area, or on their network.

Another AT&T rep. kept forwarding me back to the menu system that connected me to her, where I would have to enter my phone number, and personal information all over again, go through numerous prompts, and menus, only to be reconected back to the same person, repeatedly! I never did get my problem solved, and my phone is still totally useless when roaming. I have spent a total of 6 hours playing phone-tag with AT&T trying to get it fixed, but to no avail. I have found AT&T's customer support to positively horrible, and their product is totally sub-standard!

This is a pure lie to cover-up their poor service. This was ongoing from October 1999 when I got the service until now. I called, wrote a letter, sent various emails and the response I got was incredibly blunt. I was told "the service is not guaranteed to be reliable" and one person even referred me to the terms and conditions of the agreement stating that they were not liable.","This is my only phone.

I am currently seeking a post-MBA job and have been unemployed since September 1999. In spite of the fact that my family and friends have a difficult if not impossible ability to reach me on my cell phone using a few tricks I told them (hitting redial multiple times), I do not know what prospective employers did.

Laura of Bowie, TX:
I got a mailed solicitation for cell phones. We had been thinking of getting some anyway so I called. I talked to several different people there, not wanting to rush in to anything. Their trained professionals helped me select a plan for me from the places I would be calling. I agreed to it and they mailed the phones.

I went to the mall and talked to other AT&T people and was told I couldn't call the places they said for free. Only one small area. Also to cancel the contract would cost $200 per phone after 30 days instead of $10 per phone per month of the 12 month contract. I was suppose to have 500 more minutes and a big calling area.

I would not have ordered these phones if I had been given the correct information. Now I just want my money back but instead of just taking the phones back to where they came from, I must wait for a certain mailing label from the company and they estimate the time for my refund of $207 at about 30 days. I was misled and even though they had me pay for Fed Ex, they are only paying for regular mail and holding my money up. I wanted to go in person to make sure they don't say there was damage etc. I end up paying about $30 for four days of cell phone use.

Libbie of Compton, CA:
My problem started with AT&T with my first billing statement. I ordered service on November 19,1999. The monthly service was from 11-19-99 through 12-17-2000. The service plan included 20-minutes a month for $19.99. I received my first bill on December 22, 1999. The bill showed, "Home Airtime Charges" in the amount of $304.29

Charges and Credits .38
Taxes, Surcharges & Regulatory Fees 26.16
Due Upon Receipt 330.07

This is what AT&T sent to me as a bill. I did not receive anydetail billing. I called customer service and spoke to Christopher on December 22, 1999 at 4:30p.m. I was told by this represenative that there was a computer glich and he would order me a detail billing statement. As of today April 25, 1999 I have never received that billing statment.

I have called several time and spoke different represenatives. No one at this office can produce my detail billing for the month November through December. I continue to receive a bill for the month stated above with late charges added every month. I have had service with this company up until March 24, 2000. I cancelled service with the company for continued billing errors, deceptive practices, and extremly poor customer service.

I have paid every bill in its entirety with complete billing information since I've had service. The company informed me over the phone that I would have to pay a cancellation fee for cancelling service.

All I continue to receive from this company is a bill with late charges incurred. This has taken an emotional and physical drain on me mentally. Even after writing to this company, you would think they could at least respond.

Mike of Stafford, VA, writes:

I have had service with AT&T wireless for 14 mos. About 4 mos ago I started receiving billing stating that I was roaming in Fredericksburg VA, (if you go to www.attws.com you will see Fredericksburg is clearly in the Home Rate Area)

I called to have the situation resolved and was told that Fredericksburg was not covered, and I would have to FAX documentation to them showing them why I thought Fredericksburg should be. (It didn't matter that I have had service for 8 mos or so at that time and my previous bills had calls in that area that were not billed at roaming rates, or the fact that it was on their web site.)

I talked to 3 alleged supervisors that would resolve the situation, but in fact did nothing. I placed appx 50 calls to customer service trying to resolve the problem. Finally I was able to get AT&T to credit the account for the overcharges, at which time I was told that I would probably get billed incorectly again because Cincinatti Bell did the billing for them. I don't know if the threat of class action lawsuit meant anything, but at least this month I was not billed for roaming in my Home Rate area.

Unfortunately the poor service did not end there. Starting July 3rd, AT&T voice mail system has been unreliable. I called to complain and was read a prepared statement that "We are working on it" It is now July 27 and they are "still working on it". All I want to do at this point is cancel this service and be done with it. At this point I have spent over 2 hrs trying to accomplish this task. It appears that once they have you, they make it IMPOSSIBLE to get rid of them,

I have spent at least 20 hrs on the phone trying to resolve these matters. I have been stressed out from dealing with the representatives of AT&T that are totally clueless of the services that they offer. I work for a large Net company and I am on 24 hr call by phone, the phone service has proven to be unreliable (Often the phone would not even ring and with the voice mail problems I would not know that I had been called) all of this causing co-workers to be agitated when they finally reached me through other means.

Every time the voice mail indicator goes off erroneously I worry that I missed a call and that it was escalated beyond me. I was told today by a representative that regardless of all of the features that they offer, that I should not be basing business on this phone.

We suggested to Mike that if he really wanted action, he should sue AT&T in Small Claims Court.  His response was:

What it really sounds like is AT&T has you in their back pocket. Obviously you condone overcharging, and incredibly poor customer service. Thanks for the lip service.

W.S. of Jackson Heights writes:

In July 1998, I called AT&T Wireless about ordering a new digital PCS cellular phone.  I asked for a Nokia but they were out of stock.   I was already an AT&T  customer since 1996 whose contract had expired approximately two months prior to this transaction.

I was on a month to month service.  I called and agreed to a new one year contract. I ordered a Motorola MD-75 phone.  They sent me an Ericsson 318 instead, for the same $150 price, because they were out of stock.  I was not able to sign for the phone so I had a friend go to Federal Express to pick it up.   When I got home and realized a mistake had been made, I called AT&T. 

They told me my contract for one year was valid, that the phone I ordered was out of stock so they substituted the  Ericsson.  They would not refund my credit  They only do exchanges.

Miraculously the Motorola was found and shipped to me a week later.  My problem with them is their business approach.  I feel being a good customer they should have called me to inform me the phone was not in stock so
I could have chosen another company.

This is how a billion dollar corporation treats good paying customers who in four plus years was never late with a payment nor missed a payment.

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