Douchenozzle of the Month: The Idiocy of AT&T

Look, it's easy to rail against large corporations, but AT&T is just making it way too easy.

As noted, we moved about a month ago, and a few weeks prior, I called AT&T (who provides us with phone and DSL) and arranged for the switch to our new address, which included a change to a new phone number.

Oh, if only things were this easy. Read more to learn about why the monolith that probably provides YOUR phone service appears to be run by drunken toddlers.

The day before our move, I came out to the new house to let the AT&T technician in to install our phone jacks (oddly, the prior owner had just one jack, in (of all places) the garage). The install went well, and we had phone service when we ordered it.

Unfortunately, the internet didn't work right away, and I called AT&T to find out why. They'd cancelled the internet order, though they couldn't say why. Five days after we moved in, we finally got a connection (though admittedly, I did sneak onto some neighbors who apparently don't believe in firewalls).

I thought that was that...until we got our bill and realized we were still being billed for our old phone number. And after calling, the response was shocking:

AT&T knew we had moved to a new house and requested a new number, but said unless we specifically asked to cancel the original number, they'd leave it open.

Got that? I told the person on the phone I was moving, but because I didn't specifically ask for a cancel of my old phone, he assumed I wanted to keep both phone and DSL service in a house I no longer lived in.

I mean, that's not just dumb, that's dumb with purpose. It's the kind of thing the mob would do - because they told me unless I had a cancel order number (I didn't, just the confirmation number for my new order...which I thought was the only number I needed), I was out of luck.

So...that's pretty bad. But resolved after negotiation to a point within reason, thanks mainly to my patient wife.

But...then this week, I went on a business trip and Abby found that our internet service was out for two days. When I got home, I couldn't resolve it and our modem suggested that our broadband connection was down. I called this morning, and...guess what?

AT&T had suspended our service because they didn't have a registered email address for our account.


Got THAT? This is for an account I already had -- I was forced to create an sbcglobal.net email with them when I first opened my account in my prior house...and apparently they didn't know about it.

I mean, that makes sense, right? I create an email account WITH THEM, and then they can't find it...so they suspend my DSL service.

I swear to all that is holy, this people are morons. I do feel sorry for Kyra, the client service associate I unleashed a diatribe on this morning, and she did help me fix the situation so that, frankly, now I can write about what a shit company she works for.

All I know is...at some point in the not too distant future, I'm exploring other options for both phone and internet service. I'd think that going with a dominant company like AT&T would, at the least, give you some professional, seasoned treatment. Instead, they run the firm as if they'd just gotten started.