I hate AT&T and I hope they all die.
Feb. 2nd, 2007 03:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elbalesJUST KIDDING MR. LAW ENFORCMENT OFFICER, REALLY AT&T PEOPLE ARE ALL VERY WARM AND FUZZY.
I used to have SBC local, AT&T long distance. Then they merged. Hooray for dismantling antitrust reforms. So all my online services are the same and are easy to use and stuff, right?
HAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAoh I'm funny.
I've got access to my local bill online. But right now I want to pay my long-distance bill because it is about to be late. So I type in the URL that appears on my AT&T paper bill. That would be, you know, not the local bill. I reach an AT&T page (No! you say) and I look around to see a pop-down menu or a link or somerthing I can use to pay my long-distance account. I choose the one that says "Make payments," figuring that there I will find what I need.
Well, no, but I see over on the left a link that says "Log in to view and pay your AT&T long distance bill at the AT&T Customer Center."
Yay! I think, and I click it. It pops up a new window that asks for phone number. I have no sooner entered my area code than a little message in red pops up above the field. It reads, "Former SBC customers: Click here to log in." So I click.
My, this looks familiar.
Okay, that didn't work. I now have two identical windows open, because I'm already signed in at SBC (I'm going to keep calling it that for clarity's sake) and therefore do not need to sign in again. I click "Make payments" to get back where I was. Now one is open at SBC's payments page and one at the SBC bill summary page.
I go to log in at AT&T. I must need a separate account, says I, because they're still merging their databases or somethingstupid like that. So I click the link to set up an account. Guess what pops up when I type the area code?
If I try to continue the signup anyway, I am informed that I already have an account under this number.
Why yes, I say. I do. IN FACT I HAVE TWO OF THEM, YOU IDIOTS.
By this time I am flustered and confused. Because they keep popping up new windows, I've got multiple iterations of AT&T/SBC in multiple windows and it is like Harry Mudd and his fortyleven identical robot wives and why it doesn't occur to me to just try logging in I don't know, except Harry Mudd, goddammit.
I'm on hold now. Wait time was estimated at half an hour. Why am I doing this? Maybe I'll go make a good old reliable phone payment. At least with those I'm not subjected to endless repetitions of the same stupid music and the same stupid promotions.
...Okay, back.
The problem, the customer service guys tells me, is that the merger was so recent ( . . . ) that they haven't had time to put the correct link on the paper bills yet. ( . . . ) He got me to the right page, where, I discovered, I would have to get AT&T and my bank account acquainted, which I'm not sure happens quickly but whatever. Fuck this. They can get my paper check late and like it.
And then, I kid you not, the guy tried to sell me a different service plan. No, I'm serious, he really did.
The best part of this whole experience has to be this one ad for their site that keeps popping up, exhorting me to do this all online... so I don't have to make phone calls any more. It says:
"This may be the last time you call about your AT&T account."
Yes, I say. Yes, it may.
I used to have SBC local, AT&T long distance. Then they merged. Hooray for dismantling antitrust reforms. So all my online services are the same and are easy to use and stuff, right?
HAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAoh I'm funny.
I've got access to my local bill online. But right now I want to pay my long-distance bill because it is about to be late. So I type in the URL that appears on my AT&T paper bill. That would be, you know, not the local bill. I reach an AT&T page (No! you say) and I look around to see a pop-down menu or a link or somerthing I can use to pay my long-distance account. I choose the one that says "Make payments," figuring that there I will find what I need.
Well, no, but I see over on the left a link that says "Log in to view and pay your AT&T long distance bill at the AT&T Customer Center."
Yay! I think, and I click it. It pops up a new window that asks for phone number. I have no sooner entered my area code than a little message in red pops up above the field. It reads, "Former SBC customers: Click here to log in." So I click.
My, this looks familiar.
Okay, that didn't work. I now have two identical windows open, because I'm already signed in at SBC (I'm going to keep calling it that for clarity's sake) and therefore do not need to sign in again. I click "Make payments" to get back where I was. Now one is open at SBC's payments page and one at the SBC bill summary page.
I go to log in at AT&T. I must need a separate account, says I, because they're still merging their databases or something
If I try to continue the signup anyway, I am informed that I already have an account under this number.
Why yes, I say. I do. IN FACT I HAVE TWO OF THEM, YOU IDIOTS.
By this time I am flustered and confused. Because they keep popping up new windows, I've got multiple iterations of AT&T/SBC in multiple windows and it is like Harry Mudd and his fortyleven identical robot wives and why it doesn't occur to me to just try logging in I don't know, except Harry Mudd, goddammit.
I'm on hold now. Wait time was estimated at half an hour. Why am I doing this? Maybe I'll go make a good old reliable phone payment. At least with those I'm not subjected to endless repetitions of the same stupid music and the same stupid promotions.
...Okay, back.
The problem, the customer service guys tells me, is that the merger was so recent ( . . . ) that they haven't had time to put the correct link on the paper bills yet. ( . . . ) He got me to the right page, where, I discovered, I would have to get AT&T and my bank account acquainted, which I'm not sure happens quickly but whatever. Fuck this. They can get my paper check late and like it.
And then, I kid you not, the guy tried to sell me a different service plan. No, I'm serious, he really did.
The best part of this whole experience has to be this one ad for their site that keeps popping up, exhorting me to do this all online... so I don't have to make phone calls any more. It says:
"This may be the last time you call about your AT&T account."
Yes, I say. Yes, it may.
