ten11.org/blog: one moment

I thought I left this blog behind me. Alas, I will have to post this.

We use AT&T (ATT) Wireless Premier service bc we qualify as a small business. I wanted to upgrade one of our lines and so I thought it might be faster to do it on chat. Instead, it just gave more headache and wasted even more of my time to get no resolution.

Here is the conversation that ensued:

Please wait for a chat agent to respond.

All chat agents are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. A chat agent will be with you shortly.

All chat agents are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. A chat agent will be with you shortly.

You are now chatting with ‘Alisha D’

Alex: hello

Alex: Hello?

Alisha D: Welcome to AT&T Premier Support. I am reading your question and will be right with you.

Alisha D: To clarify, you want to upgrade to an iphone. Am I correct?

Alex: yes

Alisha D: I’d be more than happy to assist you with this.

Alex: How much would it cost for line: xxx-xxx-xxxx to upgrade to 3GS?

Alex: 32GB

Alisha D: For security purposes, can you please provide your Full Name, Account number, and Company address?

Alex: Alex Hsu

Alex: Foundation Account: xxxxx

Alex: 3xxxx My Address

Alisha D: Thank you for the information.

Alisha D: I am currently working to research your concern.  Please hold and I will be right back with you within 2 to 3 minutes.

Alex: OK

Alisha D: Thank you.

Alex: Are you still there?/

Alisha D: Yes.

Alisha D: Thank you for your time and patience.

Alisha D: The $18 Upgrade Fee is the standard charge for equipment order processing. To view the discounts available to you through your company, click the “Current Offers” link at the top of the Premier website. If the upgrade fee is waived via your discount program, it would be stated on your Current Offers page; otherwise, it would be charged.

Alisha D: Please ignore the previous message.

Alisha D: To upgrade or replace your current wireless device with your applicable company discount, go to the Premier Home page.  In the “Step One” box asking if you’d like to create a new account, select “No”.  Then select “Upgrade phone/device” at which point you will be prompted to enter your account information and then click Continue to begin the order process.

Alex: I went through that and the iPhone was not listed in the store

Alisha D: Unfortunately, we have not received a timeframe for that device to be back in stock. If you continue to check our website, once it is listed as in stock, it will be available for you to purchase.

Alex: It’s not even listed in the store. But, in the regular online store it shows up

Alex: Can you help look into that?

Alisha D: I researched on your issue and found that this issue needs to be forwarded to our Premier Support Center owing to the reason that my system would not support it. So in order to get  further assistance, I request you to contact our Premier Support Center. You could reach our support center at 1-866-499-8008, Monday – Friday 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM EST, for assistance with this. They are experts and would be glad to assist you and provide you with a satisfactory resolution. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Alisha D: Do you have any questions regarding the information we discussed today?

Alex: I thought this was Premier Support.

Alex: Alisha D: Welcome to AT&T Premier Support. I am reading your question and will be right with you.

Alisha D: Please ignore the previous message.

Alex: which one?

Alex: Hello?

Alisha D: My apology for the message as that was not from our side.

Alex: I sent that because you said you were Premier Support

There’s no time stamp, but the entire “conversation”–if you call it that–took 30+ mins with absolutely no resolution nor willingness to pursue it. When the conversation started, note that she said she was “Premier Support”. Every message that came back (which took 30seconds to one minute) was a canned message and even then she pasted the incorrect one that was not applicable to me. Her “research” was likely not done and she merely wanted to pass the buck to someone else.

My question is that where is the Premier aspect to this service? We give them multiple lines of business at the same time and yet no one seems to care about the outcome of the conversation. In the end she just asked, “Do you have any questions regarding the information we discussed today?” How does one answer that when the problem was not resolved nor was there any willingness to even try?

I just want to upgrade my phone and give them more service. I guess the measly Tier 1 (I would put zero if it existed. hah.) has no incentive to do what is beyond their 2-line job description requires them to do.

Does it require an escalation to cancel all the lines in order to be heard? I feel like that is what has become of customer service at a beast like ATT Wireless.

[Update 12.10.2009] I had another contact with AT&T Premier online and I was even worse than the first time. Quite possibly AT&T’s online customer service is the training ground for new CSR’s or something. I was getting 2-3 minute delays when I gave “Brittany” information when he said, “It’ll just take a moment while I look up that information”. I swear she was chatting it up with her friends on Facebook or MySpace in between entries or something. At the end, of course, she didn’t help me and said I needed to talk to my AT&T Rep. I asked her whether she was a rep or not; she tersely replied, “No. I am an agent.” It seems that nowadays to ever get anything done with massive corporates you have to request to be escalated to Tier 2 immediately. It’s sad and lame.