[SML] Since we've been talking about cell networks ...

[John McAfee]

Jon’s affiliation recommendation is a good one, but I have been with AT&T for 9 years and hate their customer service, it has been as bad or worse than Comcast (which I cancelled about 9 months ago).  The problem is that they always make me the angriest right in the middle of a contract.

About a year back they added a small “administrative fee" to everyone’s bill described as defraying the cost of certain expenses that they incur.  This incensed me because it felt like a breach of contract (if their cost of business goes up, they should raise rates when my contract renews).  The customer service representatives were downright rude (I think they called me an idiot).  Then I got an infuriating “How’d we do?” survey.

My wife needed a new phone before going back to London and I asked at an AT&T Store if I could sign her up for a new line and then have the phone unlocked since I have a contract with two lines and I have almost a decade of paying on time.  I was told that I could but I would have to wait two weeks.  When I called to get unlocked two weeks later I was told that we would have to buy out our phone and that I couldn’t return the phone and cancel the line because two weeks passed.  Then I got an infuriating “How’d we do?” survey.  They tried to follow up on my poor ratings in the survey by calling me and telling me to call them back, but I was in London and they refused to call the Google Voice number I gave them multiple times.  (N.B.:  swiftunlocks.com works to get your phone unlocked when AT&T is awful)

I’ve emailed AT&T and told them that I never want to be contacted by their customer service team again for any reason, and, to their credit, I don’t get any emails or phone calls from them anymore.

Before I was on AT&T I was on T-Mobile and I was impressed (circa 2005) with their customer service, but had to switch because of coverage.  AT&T coverage is fine except in my Main Theater and half of the lobby.

Take with a grain of salt, because I have a tendency towards righteously indignant and stubborn.

John


> On Jun 24, 2015, at 1:28 AM, Pat Kight via Stagecraft <stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
> 
> ... does anyone have anything good, bad or indifferent to say about AT&T?
> 
> I'm about to break down and upgrade from my voice-and-text-only TracFone* to an iPhone, and the local Mac Store sells them only with AT&T accounts. The pricing is pretty good for the minimal servicesI require, except for the fact that you're essentially renting the phone (they assume you'll want to upgrade within the 2-year-life of the contract.) however, I can pay off the phone at any point and it will be mine.
> 
> I've been reading up and it seems as if GSM networks such as AT&T's have some real advantages over the CDMA networks used by Sprint and Verizon. 
> 
> *What can I say? I'm a selective technophile, and to date all I've needed from a phone was voice and texting capability. However, I just bought a SmartFor2 electric car, and I really need to be able to (a) talk to the car and (b) locate charging stations - of which there are many in Oregon - and find out if they're free, out of service, etc. AT&T appears to have good coverage in the region where I expect to be driving in the foreseeable future. For long trips, I can take the train or rent a car.
> 
> I don't need a big-assed data plan. I'm not gonna watch movies, listen to music or store a ton of photos on my phone - I have better-for-my-aging eyesight options for those things.
> 
> -- 
> Pat Kight
> kightp at peak.org
> ____________________________________________________________
> For list information see <http://stagecraft.theprices.net/>
> Stagecraft mailing list
> Stagecraft at theatrical.net
> http://theatrical.net/mailman/listinfo/stagecraft_theatrical.net

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://theatrical.net/pipermail/stagecraft_theatrical.net/attachments/20150624/21621b04/attachment.html>