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AT&T Broadband - Repair Issues

Melanie of Lauderhill FL (8/6/01):
I have been without cable modem service for 11 days. I have wasted many, many hours contacting AT&T Broadband via the internet six times and more times than that by phone over the past week. Their average hold time for phone contact is more than 20 minutes.

• 7/26 Contacted AT&T Broadband by e-mail and phone. Went through their standard troubleshooting procedures to agree that the problem was outside (we had a bad electrical storm on Wednesday night). They scheduled a repairman for Saturday between 8 and 11.
• 7/28 Called and also went onto the internet with AT&T when no one had shown up by 11:00am. I missed an appointment to stick around, and a service man finally arrived. He replaced the modem with a newer model. He confirmed that the problem was outside, but he couldn't fix it. He made a call and told me someone would be here on Sunday to fix the problem.
• 7/29 No one showed up. Spent 45 minutes on the Internet and more time on the phone and was told that someone would show up on Monday.
• 7/30 An AT&T serviceman showed up at around 9 am. He asked about my cable modem, and I told him it had been replaced and the problem was outside. He said he did not handle outside problems, but replaced the "faceplate" anyway and said it should work. He was gone before I could tell him it still didn't work.
  
  

  Opened a chat on the Internet. After 20 minutes on-line, "Bradley" said "Unfortunately the tool to schedule a truck roll isn't operating correctly. Can you please chat back with another agent or call us. I apologize for the inconvenience." I opened another chat session and made a phone call at the same time. The person on the phone said someone would be here on Tuesday between 8 and 5.

• 7/31 No one showed up. I called around 3:50 PM and was told the service order was still open, and to call back after 5 if no one showed by then. Called back around 5:50 pm. The service order was still open, but dispatch was closed. Stayed on the phone for more than an hour. Asked for an escalation. Spoke to Brian (a manager?). He called me back around 9 pm to say the case was escalated and a truck would be here the next day to escalate signal levels and do serious outside work between 8 and 5.
• 8/1 No one showed up. After 40 minutes on the internet chat line, and having asked for an escalation, I was told "the kind of work order that is on the account here won't show up on our database for the work they will do on it, you actually need to call into the local office to get information on that" "My manager says he's still willing to talk to you about the issue, though he won't be able to get information on it." So I made a phone call at 5:50. Was escalated to someone named Jeff B. in customer relations. He PROMISED to get back to me that same evening, and said he would take care of it.

Deborah of Los Angeles (7/22/01):
On 3 occasions I have had to call them since AT&T took over MediaOne. Each time I have had to wait on hold for long periods of time. The times I was calling was on the weekends during the day or at 11:30 at night. Two of the times were because of problems with my internet service and the other time was because we couldn't get some of the channels on one of our cable boxes.

The frustration of having to wait on hold so long. I had other things that I needed to be doing while waiting. Late at night I was tired and just wanted to go to bed. I do not want to be have to wait on hold for long periods of time every time I have to contact them.

Eric of Livermore CA writes (6/11/00):
We began experiencing speed and connectivity problems with our At&T @Home as early as late February/early March, 2000. On more than one occasion, the service simply was not operating. During one of those outages, I was told by their Customer Service department that a car had crashed "into one of the telephone poles that has the server on it... you know, those round brown boxes?"

The issue was finally (somewhat) resolved in mid-May, 2000, when @Home had to cancel our accounts, and rebuild them as "new" accounts. They had to rebuild the accounts FIVE times prior to getting them correct. Yet, when they rebuilt our accounts, our email was non functional. In addition, we were promised two months credit from @Home for the verified "down" and "connectivity problem" times. When I re-called AT&T @Home, I was told the only credit we were due was a "installation fee waiver" for the "new accounts," although the accounts were NOT new.

Five days later, rather than credit my account, they charged my account for the regular monthly fees. This credit card is used ONLY for AT&T @Home. Within days of service, the card was fraudulently used, via the internet, for $50 in purchases. After speaking, today, with "Spencer #57420" in the @Home, offices in Murray, Utah, I have been promised credit for the months of service problems, and that credit is to be issued directly to my credit card. I guess will just have to wait and see.

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