Well, this is a first for me... A blog post about a customer service experience. Perhaps even MORE shocking? It was a POSITIVE customer service experience! Here's how it all went down...We've had DSL at our house for many years from AT&T. It's really been great during that time -- hardly went down at all. But during the recent uncharacteristic rains in SoCal, our DSL went on the fritz, as did our landline. The DSL was completely down for about a day and a half, then it was working only intermittently in the days after the rain stopped. The same was true for our landline.
This was EXTREMELY distressing to us, a family that relies greatly on the internet for most things -- communication, bill paying, photo storage, Christmas-card creation and ordering, Christmas shopping, etc. Complicating things was the fact that we were scheduled to get AT&T U-verse the following week. An AT&T guy came to look at our phone lines on the Sunday before the U-verse install, found nothing wrong, and left. (Thanks, Pal.) After he left, my husband checked our connection and found that it was STILL messed up. So, it was no surprise when the U-verse installer came and said we had too poor a connection, and he would have to have the phone line guys come out and see what they could do before U-verse could be installed. (Meanwhile, my husband had taken time off work for this; he went back to work to await word about the phone lines.)
I happened to be in and out that day, as it was one of my furlough days from work. I saw the 2 AT&T trucks out front working on the telephone lines. Around 3 pm (the install was scheduled for 11), the U-verse guy returned and said he could now do the install. (Why the guy on Sunday thought our connection was fine, we dunno.) I called my husband at work and had him return to the house.
The U-verse install was complete shortly after 6 pm. Everything seemed great. Then, around 10 pm, EVERYTHING WENT DOWN AGAIN. Only this time, not only did the computer and the land line go down, the TV went down too. AAAACK! We were about ready to PLOTZ. We went to bed very unhappy people that night. We got up in the morning, checked the connection, found it was still absent, and the husband put in a call with AT&T to send a guy out to look at it. Only since the husband could not miss any more work over this, the service call would have to wait until 4 pm, THE NEXT DAY. A very upsetting situation, indeed.
So off to work I go. I hop on my social networking sites, Facebook & Twitter, and start KVETCHING. I'm telling everyone my story (as I had been during our entire stretch of up & down time, only now there's the added wrinkle of U-verse).
Almost immediately on Twitter, I get tweeted at by a gal called @ATTSusan. She tweets that she's sorry we're having trouble, and asks if there's anything she can do. HUH?! You mean to tell me this gal's job is to scan Twitter for people complaining about AT&T, and contact them?! Wow! Pretty impressive. But dealing with the problem was not really MY bailywick, it was my husband's. So I told her this, and said thanks, but the husband was handling it. She said, "Okay, just let me know if I can help." Wow! I was really impressed.
Then, I remembered that I WAS having an ongoing problem with my CELLphone, which is thru AT&T Wireless. So, I asked @ATTSusan, do you happen to know anyone who can help me with my cellphone? Sure, she says. I can do that, too. Again, WOW! So now I'm REALLY beside myself, cuz this cellphone thing for me has been worse than the DSL/U-verse problem. For MONTHS, I KNOW I've been overpaying for our cellphones. Often over $150/month for my phone and Bri's phone. But Bri doesn't use his and I barely use mine, except for sending text messages and e-mailing pictures to myself. I had contacted AT&T customer service over this several months ago, but the person I got that time said that he saw nothing wrong with our billing. (Thanks, Pal.) I knew then that I would have to find time to CALL THEM -- and MAN, do I HATE calling people/places. As evidenced by how long I put it off...
So, @ATTSusan looks into my problem, finds that I have indeed been overcharged for many months, and promptly CREDITS OUR ACCOUNT FOR $650 FREAKING DOLLARS. WHAT?!?! Are you freaking KIDDING ME?!
Just like that, bada-bing bada-boom, @ATTSusan solves one of the biggest problems hanging over my head. Plus, she frees up enough money for this furloughed state-of-CA employee to get a new iPhone. w00t!!!
Oh yeah -- and the computer/TV connection fixed itself, so all is well there, too.
Thanks again, Susan! YOU RULE!!! People in customer service should aspire to be HALF as good as you are. I can't thank you enough.
