AT&T Trying to Pull a Fast One with PocketNet?

If you didn't know, PocketNet is the free analog web service for AT&T Wireless phones. The FCC recently gave AT&T and other carriers the go-ahead to phase out analog services over the next four years. AT&T is apparently very eager to phase you out as soon as possible, including unceremoniously dumping your PocketNet access. Here's what I found out after noticing an innocuous line on the last page of my bill that said 'Other Data Charges and Credits Service Cancellation Charge .00.' After waiting on hold with customer service for 20 minutes while they researched the issue, they told me that: PocketNet was discontinued (wrong), my PocketNet was canceled because I didn't use it (very wrong) and once you canceled your free PocketNet you could not reactivate it (I had never canceled it in the first place). If you have PocketNet, you may want to want to see if your service is still working. I could tell by the vague and evasive answers from AT&T PocketNet customer service that the rep knew they were doing something 'bad.' He kept trying to tell me I would be receiving a letter where I could opt to continue the service and kept patently ignoring my question about why my service no longer worked now and why my bill said it was canceled. Finally, he said 'check your phone.' Voila, the service was back on.

Comments

I noticed this as well...

[zoloto]

... and sat on hold for a whole hour while the reps "checked in" to see if i was still there. After bouncing around to what seemed like a hundered different people, just before my customer rep said goodbye, i noticed the service working again. I had been playing with the phone for the whole hour...

Very odd don't you think?

AT&T has a policy of lying

[Wonko42]

Last year, when I was researching cellular service providers, I made the decision to go with AT&T. I ordered the service, they sent me a phone, and I spent the next few days calling customer support trying to figure out why I could *sometimes* call other people, but other people couldn't call me.

In the end, it turned out they had given me a phone number that was technically in the same area code, but was long distance from where I lived, and due to the funky nature of the ten-digit dialing here in the Portland area, it was pretty much impossible to call my phone from my house. They also claimed they couldn't give me another number because they'd run out.

Needless to say, I attempted to cancel my service. The representative I spoke to seemed happy to comply, but then asked me how I'd like to pay the cancellation fee. I laughed, thinking he was joking, and he asked again. I informed him that the contract I agreed to had clearly specified that I had a 30 day grace period. He claimed that didn't apply in this circumstance. I told him to go read the contract again, because it did. Finally, he agreed not to charge me a fee, but then he told me the accounts department had shut down their computers for routine maintenance and suggested I call back the next day.

The next day, I called again, waited through the phone queue, and reached another representative. Again I was told the 30 day grace period did not apply, and again I had to argue for a good fifteen minutes before he agreed to cancel my account. Surprise surprise, he proceeded to tell me that the accounts computers had gone down for maintenance. I said, "Gee, that's funny, because they were apparently down for maintenance all last night, too." He said "Um" a few times, stuttered a bit, and then told me it was my lucky day because the system had just come back up.

Suffice to say I won't be doing any business with AT&T again anytime soon.

Re:AT&T has a policy of lying

[gremlin_591002]

It's not just AT&T. I've got the dubious job of taking care of 'tech' things around the office. Like making sure the cell phones work, the internet connection works, etc.

Anyway, I had one phone account who's charges were way out of line, a couple of hundred dollars worth of charges for about 200 minutes of use on a 300 minute a month account.

The Provider (Verizon) bounced me around for a while then agreed that the charges were probably eronious but the account computers were down and did I mind calling back tomorrow? I stated that I did mind calling back tomorrow! Put a note on the account and fix it when the computers come back up! They stated that they couldn't do that. I had other stuff to do so I just said fine.

I wandered down to the local Verizon store where I discovered that an old friend worked. She was very helpful and got all the problems fixed post haste.

I suspect that these tactics are employed by CSRs that don't want the extra paperwork/hassle of giving refunds. These are only suspicions. I have no evidence.

Re:AT&T has a policy of lying

[orthogonal]

Finally, [the AT&T customer service representative] agreed not to charge me a fee, but then he told me the accounts department had shut down their computers for routine maintenance and suggested I call back the next day.

The next day, I called again, waited through the phone queue, and reached another representative. Again I was told the 30 day grace period did not apply, and again I had to argue for a good fifteen minutes before he agreed to cancel my account. Surprise surprise, he proceeded to tell me that the accounts computers had gone down for maintenance. I said, "Gee, that's funny, because they were apparently down for maintenance all last night, too." He said "Um" a few times, stuttered a bit, and then told me it was my lucky day because the system had just come back up.

It's merely supposition on my part, but this suggests the customer "service" reps are either docked some money, or lose a "bonus" (same difference) if they allow a customer to exercise his contractual rights to cancel during a grace period. After trying to prevent losing the bonus by lying to the customer, the technician attempts to make some other tech actually enter the cancellation and thus take the hit of losing the bonus. Of course, to protect his bonus, the the tech's already wasted your time by putting you on old and then and lying to you.

Should like an incetive structure that "incentivizes" cheating the customer: I wonder if there's a class action law suit here.

It also sounds a good reason not to do business with AT&T.

My sister went through this too

[arcadum]

She's living in Corvalis (OSU) and her cell phone provider gave her a number from Eugene making everyone pay long distance rates... She spent nearly half a day on the phone trying to get a local number.

---
Never stop dreaming.

Re:My sister went through this too

[Havokmon]

She's living in Corvalis (OSU) and her cell phone provider gave her a number from Eugene making everyone pay long distance rates...

That's nothing. About a year after starting my new job, I decided to take a look at the phone bill (AT&T). Sure enough, we were paying too much, .25 a minute! So I called AT&T, and told them to give me their current rates.

"It should be updated next month. We'll have to delete all your accounts (800 #'s), and recreate them under the new account." Umm ok.

So, the next month's phone bill had us at .63/minute. Obviously wrong. Another call to AT&T. "Hmm you seem to have a lot of accounts here, can we trim these down." Sure. No problem, I go through 3 pages of 3270 print screens they faxed, and removed 800 #'s, we weren't using. The next week I was at work until 6 with the AT&T rep who was frantically recreating 800 #'s.

I'm tired of typing ;) The long and the short of it is, I started this whole thing in October, and didn't get it all flushed through until March. Avoid AT&T at all costs.

Re:My sister went through this too

[Rick the Red]

AT&T has broken/is breaking up. Don't confuse AT&T with AT&T Wireless Services (AWS) -- they're two different companies now. And soon, AT&T Broadband will be sold to Comcast, so there will be three AT&T's to hate. They all suck, but please don't blame AT&T Wireless for your problems with the Grey Lady. (i know you mean AT&T not AWS because AWS don't do 800 services).

Re:My sister went through this too

[Havokmon]

And soon, AT&T Broadband will be sold to Comcast, so there will be three AT&T's to hate. They all suck, but please don't blame AT&T Wireless for your problems with the Grey Lady.

I don't want to argue, but I wouldn't make the assumption that a 'seperate corporate entity' == New personnel/New ideals.

They only split from AT&T Corp last July. Companies don't split off with the intention of recreating infrastructure.

Wow

[Chacham]

I know this is silly, but the story had mor tha one paragraph in the main story. How often does that happen?

TURN ON COMMENTS IN YOUR JOURNAL

[mekkab]

I'm not kidding man...

P.S.-regarding Poetic Judge: This is not the first time for this guy... I remember my wife showing me some of his stuff a few years ago.

Pocketnet death date.

[Anonymous Coward]

I recently had to reactivate my PocketNet (my phone was sent it for repairs). I've had quite good experiences with it. The one time I had a problem it was pretty nasty: it turned out that the only solution was to give me a new IP address but it took a LONG time to figure this out. It was really great when tethering was free, but now they've figure out how to charge for it and it's pricey (5c/kB).

Anyways, I asked the rep how much longer PocketNet was going to be around. He said that there are three possible termination dates: July 2003, Dec 2003, or at the latest (and unlikely) July 2004. Sounds like they're shooting for this summer. I complained about the data rates being high for GPRS (especially compared with free for PocketNet) and he suggested that the rates were likely to go down "after Christmas."

Re:Pocketnet death date.

[inteller]

yeah, they better get cheaper REALLY QUICK. Now that Sprint is offering unlimited PCS Vision for a mere $10, ATT can be prepared to loose their butt if they don't do something similar.

Re:Pocketnet death date.

[zulux]

There is a $24.95 all you can use level for AT&T GPRS service. I was set to get the $19.95 service, and the nice lady at the counter mentioned that they could offer me an unlimited plan. She called AWS customer care, and they diden't know about it, so you probably have to ask around.

Deliberate Bad Service, or Just a Bad System?

[msaulters]

I have used AT&T WS for years, and made SO many calls to customer service. My experience has been that they are friendly, helpful, and competent, but sometimes plagued by a terribly poor accounting & computer system. (It actually DOES go down frequently)

I used pocketnet up until October, when I switched to the GSM system. It was in August when I noticed they'd started charging me per-K charges for the 'free' pocketnet. I called & complained, and they refunded the charges, but then the same thing happened in September.

The GSM switch was an even worse story, which is as yet unresolved. They made me pay off the charges on my previous account (because they have to close out the actual account). Then, they set up a new account with the same phone number for the GSM phone. After this was up & working, I found I could no longer reach the online customer service, because I didn't know the account number. I couldn't get phone support, because they had set my employer's address as the billing address for the account. I finally got someone to listen to me & convinced them I was the owner of the phone, and they said they'd change it, but it required closing the account again and creating ANOTHER account. Later that day, I got a call from somebody else at ATTWS saying they'd screwed up & I was now making calls on an account that was closed, because the SIM card in the GSM phone only works on a single account & I'd need to go to the ATTWS store to get a new SIM card, free of charge. He assured me everything would be straightened out.

Two months later, I still cannot get online cust service, every time I all for customer support, I'm told I'm not in charge of the account, and two weeks ago, I received another bill for the original non-gsm account that was supposed to be paid off.

There are two things keeping me from telling AT&T to go fsck themselves: 1) The $150 cancellation fee + cost of buying a phone for someone else's service and 2) Wanting to keep my phone number. These are EXACTLY the anticompetitive behaviors that have come under fire recently in court proceedings in the northeast. Will any of those class-action suits ever come to Texas? God, I hope so. I want to give back to AT&T a little of what they've given me over the years.