ATT Charges extra $5 for human contact

[my2sense]

Today as I was running errands, I decided to drop into AT&T and pay my bill and ask questions about new phones. I walked into the store and found no other customers while four employees were standing around. I was greeted cheerfully by one of the young ladies and I responded and told her I was there to pay my wireless bill. She directed me to a kiosk. I responded by asking her if she could just take my payment (I have no interest in learning to use AT&T kiosk) - I just want to get in and out. She told me she could take my payment but it would cost me an extra $5.00 for human contact…..

Yeah you read it right, these greedy corporations are charging us extra money to pay our bills in their stores unless we are willing to learn how to use their equipment (kiosk). I don’t know about you, but I’ve grown tired of corporations increasing their bottom lines by requiring me act as my own customer service representative. I have no desire to bag groceries, scan products, etc. while I’m paying good money for products and services.

I can only imagine how hard it is for older Americans navigating in todays customer service environment. Many times I’ve walked into stores and asked a question and the employees act like I’m interrupting them……I guess they don’t have a clue what true customer service is - and I guess we’ve evolved past demanding it.

[Earth_First]

1. I've heard a similar situations at Verizon Wireless stores, too...

Not sure if there is an iota of truth to this, but from a friend whom I wouldn't believe to make this up, is that Verizon Wireless will charge you a convenience fee to pay your bill in person in cash.

[Xipe Totec]

2. Hi! This is AT&T. What are you wearing?... n/t

[lpbk2713]

3. So AT&T gets five bucks for five minutes of the employee's time ...

... while at the same time AT&T pays that employee maybe eight bucks an hour for a shitty P/T job?

That figures.

[L0oniX]

12. They get paid that much over in India?

[infidel dog]

20. AT&T. Jeezus, I hate those cocksuckers.

I hate AT&T with every fiber of my obsidian heart. Especially their fucking commercials. I resent being turned into a latent homicidal maniac by the chirpy little "your world, delivered" blurb hammering me from every supermarket, delicatessen, and pharmacy waiting-room speaker in this benighted republic. Fuck you, AT&T. What do you know about MY goddamned world?? In MY world, electronic communications would be a public service, available to all. In MY world, all the creative staff of your ad agency would be forced to eat cat shit. In MY world, the members of your executive board would be publicly emasculated with a blow-torch and tossed, trussed and gagged, into the hyena enclosure in the Bronx Zoo. That's my world. Deliver THAT, Pal.

[givemebackmycountry]

32. Hey Dog -

If no one has done it yet, WELCOME to DU!

I like your style.

And I think that the lines would form around the block for that hyena exhibition at the Bronx Zoo.

[infidel dog]

45. Thanks for the welcome. I'm very happy to discovered DU. Actually, I stumbled upon this site

while searching for links to the Flip Wilson Comedy Hour, but hey, I don't complain....

[jimlup]

38. More like 2 minutes of an employee's time

These greedy bastards should be called to account ...

[Peacetrain]

4. Verizon does the same thing.. what a crock

[Tempest]

5. Some changes to AT&T services can't be made without human contact

I wanted to make a change to my message center settings and the only way was to call and talk to a service rep.

I asked why I couldn't make the change from the web or from my phone and she didn't know why it wasn't set up like everything else.

[MADem]

6. Wow, time to dump those bastids! As soon as you can! And tell 'em why!

Funny how people get nicer when you tell them you don't need their crap anymore.

I called up to discuss dumping my cable, and got a zillion channels and a third off my bill for six months. At the end of the six months, I'll either dump the cable for FIOS or a dish, or keep it if they leave me with this swell deal.

It pays to gripe.

Most older Americans eschew the wireless. They have their landlines, and the jazzy ones have a TRACFONE or one of those easy JITTERBUGS!

[my2sense]

15. The older americans I know

use technology because I dragged them into it (kicking and screaming). Perhaps they knew what they were doing all along. I recently had my father to dump his virgin mobile (lol).

[MADem]

16. All the old baastids (myself included) in our house use TRAKFONES

We don't yack on the phone when we're out. We use 'em to call from the grocer, "What was it you wanted? Oranges, or orange juice?" or to call Triple A if the car craps out, or to call and say "I made it" after a long drive.

We all have landlines, and they work for our lives. Other people who are on the go need wireless with "plans" but that's not our lifestyle.

It's nice not to have a bill. You buy the stupid card for the year, and it's plenty of minutes--usually have some left over.

[yy4me]

40. Must be our old Yankee wisdom that you are showing. After

being pestered by my kids to get a cell phone(really not wanted!), I also picked up a TracPhone at CVS on sale. Does the job but I rarely even have it on. It is for emergencies. I don't want to pay for rogue calls on my minutes and anyone who knows me can call the house. I had to buy minutes recently because the original time I bought was almost up. Of the original 60 minutes, I had 45 left. Now I have 3 more months to use up 105. 60 minutes /90 days was the shortest I could find.

I have Verizon land line for local. Use PowerNetGlobal for long distance. That is the best deal going. No need for a long distance carrier who will charge all kinds of fees and taxes. I rarely call anyone outside of local area and have a long distance bill of 4 to 6 dollars a month with PNG.

This old timer has tried to find any way possible to save a dollar. Not many left-ways or dollars.

http://www.powernetglobal.com/residential/index.php

Take a look.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

7. Comcast, those fuckers,

charges you TWO BUCKS EXTRA if you pay your bill over the phone - all automated, understand - instead of using their website. Since they never sent me the PIN I need to access my account online, I get hit for the extra TWO BUCKS, which is so petty, but it really pisses me off.

[yy4me]

11. Comcast: For many and varied reasons, that word is the most

vile and hateful word in my vocabulary.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

14. Oh, I can imagine..........

But I just spent some time with their online assistant and got my PIN, so now I can pay my bill online and not pay that damn two bucks.

I've been lucky with Comcast, I have to admit, but I've heard stories, so you really do have my deepest sympathies for your misadventures with them.................

[MADem]

17. They are bastids. Call 'em up and tell 'em you're gonna switch.

They'll maybe give you a deal, like they did me.

I pay my bill via debit.

I'd gripe about the two bucks and the PIN--maybe they'll refund it. Hey, money is money. You could give the two bucks to Habitat for Humanity if you don't wanna keep it. Two bucks is two bucks!

[Tangerine LaBamba]

28. I've heard of people doing that

You call them and tell them that Verizon is offering you a whole lot more for a whole lot less, right?

How did it work for you?

I'm gonna do it. A buck is a buck these days, and I'm not particularly interested in Comcast having any more of mine than absolutely necessary.

Worth a shot, no?

[MADem]

37. I saved twenty some odd bucks a month, and went from

expanded basic to the preferred select lineup...in other words, very few channels to a shitload--everything except premiums, basically. I wasn't getting the upper tier Science and National Geographic channels, the sports tier, CSPAN Three (bastids), BBC, or a host of others...now I get everything except Showtime, HBO, etc.

I told them (all true) that my one neighbor has FIOS, and gets WAY MORE for WAY LESS. And my other friend has DISH, and gets way more AND the Arab language tier for less than I'm paying! And when they tried to sell me Broadband, I told them how SLOW their service is, and how much my other neighbors complain about it. I also told them that I'd never get their crappy phone service because when the cable goes out, the phone goes out--as I learned when my other neighbor came over to borrow my phone!

I was fully prepared to make the switch, too--I got pissed off when I looked at the bill and couldn't even watch a fucking hearing on CSPAN Three. They freaked out when I asked for the address to turn in my box because I was a disgruntled customer and ready to make the move. And we've had continuous cable service at this multi-generational family home for, oh, thirty seven or eight years now! We've spent a frigging fortune on tee vee!

The discount they gave me only lasts for six months, but I'll move house then, anyway, for the summer--and take the service down to cheap-o basic anyway! Screw 'em! And come fall, I will switch to FIOS if I can't get a good deal from these guys. And if they don't play ball, I'll go to DISH. My attitude is this--a buck is a buck. Times are tough. We've got several family members out of work in this shitty economy. A buck may not be worth much, but prices are going up everywhere, and my income sure as hell isn't, so if I can save a buck I will use it to help out my unemployed family members, or compensate for rising prices elsewhere.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

42. Thank you!

And good for you. I have a pal who's been bugging me to switch to FIOS, so I'll use that as a cudgel on Comcast. If I can get extra service and save some bucks, it'll be worth however long the phone call takes.

You have it all figured out, and I applaud you. I have Comcast's Triple Play, and, yeah, the phone goes out when the cable fails, but that's only happened once, and I live in a place where we're all close, so that's not as big a deal as it could be.

I still hate them, though. I really do.

Again, thanks a lot.

:toast:

[lostnfound]

41. Comcast never gets pin numbers mailed out!!

It's so bad I've wondered who was stealing them from my mail.

That's 30 cents for the labor on the phone and $1.70 to pay for the executive jet.

[blue_onyx]

8. We have ATT cable and internet

The service is good and pretty reliable but their customer service is awful. Probably the worst I've ever experienced. We had a problem with the service freezing and it took them sending 4 technicians out before they sent someone who could fix the problem. We needed someone who could climb the pole and look at the wires coming to house. For some reason, they kept sending people who could only look at the box on the back of the house. So even when there is "human contact", ATT's customer service is awful.

[BuelahWitch]

19. I had the same problem with their cable in Salt Lake

About four months of not getting all the digital channels I was paying for. Then I asked for a credit for those four months. I think it was fixed within the week...

[yy4me]

9. There all doing it, one way or another. Our local bank has a new

drive-up teller and ATM. If you use your ATM card at this drive-up window, there is a $2.00 charge. Walk into the lobby and its free. Can't figure that one at all, this old yankee parked and walked inside. I asked a teller why this was happening, her answer? "I don't know, I don't have an ATM card".

With about 10 other things to do, I shook my head and left the bank. My time is more valuable, I really don't have time to delve into this bit of nonsense with either the teller or anyone else at the bank. I think they ought to check her IQ before allowing her to work with money. It was a most stupid answer to a very reasonable question.

[VP505]

13. Seems like the answer

to why they do it is: they can and it's profitable.

[Harry Monroe]

27. Same reason why a dog licks his balls...

Because he can!!

[Lyric]

10. And they won't stop until people stop doing business with them. n/t

[oldnslo]

18. For $5, I would expect INTIMATE human contact......

[my2sense]

24. bwahahaha

[democracy1st]

21. thats why i use sprint

[givemebackmycountry]

33. Thank You

My job kind of depends on that.

[givemebackmycountry]

34. delete - dupe - DU hiccup

[recoveringrepublican]

22. Metro PCS does this any more, but they have the cheapest rates

My husband pays $45 for unlimited minutes, unlimited long distance, no roaming charges, and unlimited texting. Metro PCS will send him a text message with how much he owes and then he can pay online, that is the only free way to do it. They charge something like $2 for an online statement, $5 to pay in a store, etc. Still beats anything else we have seen.

[eppur_se_muova]

23. Several years ago, PNC in Pittsburgh added a $2 teller fee.

So if you tried to avoid ATM fees by visiting the bank, you got charged a fee for it.

My local bank was bought up by PNC recently, and I have no fees on my account at all. Not sure what brought about the change.

[my2sense]

25. Something is really twisted

when the companies demand money to process a payment owed them by a human being....that's just jacked up. I had no idea this was becoming a common practice.

[.... callchet ....]

26. AT&T is friend to nobody.

In 1998 AT&T changed their internet access service from unlimited to measured time. Well a lot of computers come on and did come on by themselves during the wee hours of the morning. That resulted in some really large internet bills until users got their computers straightened out. And I am willing to bet that AT&T new this would happen and that they made millions of dollars from it.

[tavalon]

29. At least the spying is still free

Last I heard.:evilgrin:

[Jamastiene]

30. I got tired of paying $5 (they double charged me half the time)

just to pay the phone bill on the phone. I'm so glad I switched to cable. They don't charge you to pay the bill like AT&T does. :eyes:

[BrightKnight]

31. They still charge for pulse dialing too. - n/t

[CRF450]

35. I thought maybe its because they HARDLY have any customers walk in

Literally, every cellphone dealer in my town is dead except for Alltel and Verizon. I love alltel but the crowded store is too much for me to deal with and Verizon is gonna get busier now that they've bought out Alltel.

[nichomachus]

36. I recently tried to book travel on an airline site

The site told me that I couldn't book that type of travel there and needed to talk to a reservation agent. So, I called the reservation agent. They charged me $15 bucks for not doing it online.

[busybl]

39. comcast is cheaper-they only charge 4.99

[sarcasmo]

43. Banks started this nonsense now the others follow the leader. Tired of giving

money to these Corporations.

[tblue37]

44. I am severely hearing-impaired. I hate those self-scanners at the

supermarket, because they talk at me, in an incomprehensible mechanical voice. I can't use them because I can't understand them. When I use the automatic car wash, I have to get out of my car and put my ear to the speaker of the machine that takes my money, because it mumbles something at me that I can't understand. Soemtiems it says my credit information didn't scan. Sometimes it says that it did and I need to select what I want done. But unless I ge out of my damned car and literally put my ear to the machien, I cannot udnerstand it.

Phone menus are also almost always incomprehensible. Usually some weak-voiced person mumbles the menu, and I can't understand them. At least with a real person, you can ask them to speak up or speak more clearly.