Customer Service Issues

I bought a Nokia Lumia 520 and they were very helpful in activating it and transferring my old number from verizon.  I love the coverage I get with this phone on ATT network.  I was so tired of the cheap garbage verizon was putting out just to say that they offer prepaid plans and phones.  Their feature phones are good on the prepaid, however the androids were horrendous.  On average I was having to purchase a new phone every 6-12months due to technical issues that verizon was not willing to resolve.  Hang in there with ATT, the nations biggest carrier, doesn't have the best service in the world unless you're willing to pay over $100/ month per line on a 2 year contract.  Then their customer service gets marginally better at best.

Did you have insurance for your cell phone, and what type of phone do you have? Where did you first get phone, AT&T Corperate Store or autherized dealer?

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@jkwan92 wrote:

I am FURIOUS with AT&T's customer service. I lost my phone yesterday and am trying to figure what options I had to replace it. I spoke with online reps and either they don't have any answers (what use is a representative if they don't even know anything???) OR they close the chat before even trying to answer my questions. I am switching to another service. If you're a new customer, seriously consider another carrier. The customer service is horrendous. I've been having issues with them since day 1 (couldn't even activate my phone without having to call about 5 people - NO ONE EVEN KNEW HOW TO ACTIVATE MY PHONE).

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@Trucker4Life wrote:

I bought a Nokia Lumia 520 and they were very helpful in activating it and transferring my old number from verizon.  I love the coverage I get with this phone on ATT network.  I was so tired of the cheap garbage verizon was putting out just to say that they offer prepaid plans and phones.  Their feature phones are good on the prepaid, however the androids were horrendous.  On average I was having to purchase a new phone every 6-12months due to technical issues that verizon was not willing to resolve.  Hang in there with ATT, the nations biggest carrier, doesn't have the best service in the world unless you're willing to pay over $100/ month per line on a 2 year contract.  Then their customer service gets marginally better at best.

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If you are talking about prepaid AT&T phones, I don't know. But with Mobile Share Plans, there is some savings.

Hello @jkwan92 , we're sorry to hear you lost your phone and have had a hard time replacing it. We would like to help. Send us a private message by clicking here and one of our awesome specialists will contact you within two business days to review your options. Please include your name, account number, contact information and the best time you can be reached. We'll do what we can to get you back in service!

The elephant in the room problem here (which is an elephant size EARmark of the worst customer service in the known universe) is that it took too much time, too much effort and too much aggravation for this person to get a response from the AT&T specialist. As usual, the worst customer service in the known universe response starts with the apology, as though an insincere 'I'm sorry" makes up for the lack of responsiveness up to that point. The assertion that one of their 'awesome specialists will contact you within two business days to review your options' holds several worst customer service in the known universe enigmas... first, why does one have to go through this process to get to the 'awesome specialists'... why aren't those awesome specialists available without wasting hours on the phone and days in the process? Second, if they are so awesome, why is it going to take two days for them to respond? That's awfully slow to be classified as awesome... in fact, it really is the worst customer service in the known universe. And finally, the trust under it all is that there is no spoon... that is to say there really are no 'awesome specialists', because it is the worst customer service in the known universe, the reality is that the 'awesome specialists' this 'community specialist' is referring to are from the same pool of flipchart toting, worst customer service in the known universe representatives, that everyone is exposed to every time they call the worst customer service in the known universe at AT&T.

While it is true that every wireless carrier and most large companies in general do provide a less than satisfactory customer service experience now and then, the sad reality about AT&T's customer service is that it is consistently bad. By consistently bad I mean that issues are rarely if ever resolved on the first contact (or even in the first several contacts) and while the people one deals with are, (with some notable exceptions who stand out as attitude challenged), very nice people, they are so constrained by AT&T's policies, procedures and an underlying corporate attitude of 'do the minimum necessary' that it is impossible for the customer care representatives to do an effective job. It is a culture issue that starts at the top... a rotting fish stinks from the head... that creates the problem with AT&T's customer service and which makes it the worst customer service in the known universe. One can debate the quality of core services from one carrier to another, there seem to be as many opinions as there are customers; and frankly, the quality of service that AT&T provides... by that I mean the mobile phone service and the data service are normally as good as any you'll find, but when it comes to customer service, AT&T does stand out, they do (in my opinion) provide the worst customer service in the known universe

As I have no expeience with Verizon's customer service, I can't comment on the quality of their call handling, in my experience and opinion AT&T still provides the worst customer service in the known universe, but if you say Verizon is just as bad, then fair enough, we can agree that they're both terrible, and yes, it is interesting that the two biggies are the worst.

I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to post your comments and opinions related to this subject. The topic has been thoroughly discussed and will now be closed.

Thank you,

Dmitriy