I’ve just gone through another one of those psychological gauntlets which AT&T uses to make a simple phone call take longer that it once did to call from Frisco to Boston,—When their entire system was manual.
I’ve had “press one–or two -or whatever” up to here!
I didn’t like that time wasting practice when I was in my 50s----or 60s–or 70s–and now that I’m only a very few days from my 80s I wonder just who in the heck benefits by that communications rat-race.
Certainly it’s not the customer.
You remember “customer”–they’re the ones who used to be so important
Why do they think that OUR time is so valueless that they can play with it?
So here’s the question.
Is there anyone out there who can give me a direct line number into AT&T’s billing department?
My logic[?] tells me that somebody out there knows some number that will by-pass all of the press-press-press gobbledygook.
Do you need the number to the Long Distance billing, Wireless billing, Broadband billing, @Home billing, Media One billing, Local Service billing, Equipment Accounts Receivable, or another division?
Just a quick hint for you: when you reach all of those Octel prompts (press <1> for this, press <2> for that, etc.) you can usually keep pressing 0 until someone answers. But it’s different on every AT&T system.
I just call their TTY number. There is no que. Course you need a TTY for that.
AT&T was asked by me to send a copy of the monthly statement. They didn’t for four months, I called them back, they said, yes, its on their computer that I want that statement, yes, they would try to send it again. That was 8 months back & no statement yet. Creeps.
Just press <0> when they prompt you to enter information, and you’ll get to an operator in about 3 presses.
If you’d like to use the options so that the HLR (computer) can route you to the person that will best help you, press this sequence to get to a Long Distance operator:
<3> to choose Long Distance
<2> to choose Existing Customer
<enter your phone #>
<1> to confirm your number
If it’s a simple billing question or change, you can go to online customer service here:
You can even email your request, and get a reply back when it’s finished. Hope this helps. Post again if you run into any more problems. I hate to see frustrated customers (despite what people think of corporations, they still has (mostly) caring people working for them).
I agree with the att guy that the “just press zero” will work. But in my job, i call att about 3 times a day and say that you must attack the zero’s much more agressively than 3 times. now days the new trick is to not push anything and don’t say anything when they ask you to speak your number. this is the quickest way. they’ll think you don’t have touch tone and send you to a live operator
The old days of getting an operator by outwaiting the automated system may soon be over. Last time I called one of our local government offices (can’t remember which one exactly) a recorded voice suggested “for department X, please press or say ‘one’; for department Y, please press or say ‘two’; etc…” I decided to wait forever because I wanted to speak to a human being and eventually the phone line went dead.
I’ve had it with ATT and I’ve made up my mind to change to another carrier.
About 3 months ago ATT decided to send me a separate bill instead of billing me through my local phone company. I have a direct debit to my bank account so all the bills are paid while I am away but when I came back from Europe I found these unexpected ATT bills unpaid. I called them and had to go through the gauntlet of menus until I could speak to someone. I asked them if they could include those amounts in my local bill and they said “NO” for the past ones but “yes” for the future ones, so I sent them a check. Then I get a statement that they had overbilled me a couple bucks so I have credit but they won’t send it to me and they wont credit the new bills sent through the local phone company. To add insult to injury I find out they are billing me more than twice as much as their advertised rates which I got on their website. I called a third time and again had to suffer the menu gaunlet. They told me I have to ask for those rates (even though I have the plan).
These people are crooks that have no shame. I just saw on TV that they have the highest incidence of consumer complaints by far. You think they care? They don’t. The attitude of the guy I talked to was lousy. I told him I’d just change carriers and his attitude (although not his words) was “go ahead and see if I care”.
I think I’ll give Qwest a try. A couple years ago I swore I’d never do business with them because they slammed me but I guess I can’t hold it against them since ATT has also done it to me. I’m telling you, this kind of conduct would not be allowed in any other business. These guys are crooks tryung to steal business from each other.
Oh, and the reason that they have those systems in the first place is to cut down on the number of people they need to hire. This way, you (usually) don’t need someone to say “Hold on, let me connect you to that department”, and for some calls, you don’t need a person on the phone at all. Computers are cheaper than people. Personally, I actually find it convenient, being able to get my answers from a computer, but then, I’m a total technophilic nerd.
Manhattan, I’ll have something GQ’ey to say in the next post…
I agree completely with Ezstrete about this. I call to confirm every bill and I never use phone mail.
Of course phone mail is used to cut down on payroll, but I don’t like talking to machines. Furthermore, if a business makes it impossible for me to talk to a human being about something as simple as a billing inquiry, then I assume that they will be at least as hard to reach if I have a problem.
Actually, this would be a good idea for a personal home page…
Do I detect an inference that a lot of us can’t handle “technical” methods—or even Quasi technical?
The fact remains that ,no matter how modern,technical,esoteric.or even stupid a system might be,it is impossible for anyone,or any computer,to predetermine EVERY question that the human mind can create.
And to attempt to classify,sort and regulate them is equally as impossible.
However,you are right in one place.
It was/is a system concieved as a manpower reducer-----but it still requires the customer to wait, at their convenience, for what should be a chargeable length of time.
The presumption that our time is free,plentiful and theirs- to -abuse is ludicrous.
Geeez, you make me feel bad about working for AT&T…luckily I have nothing to do with the voice services. There are quite a few internal folks concerned about the state of our customer care complex, if that helps…
Well, I guess that we could have a special line for everyone who only wants to talk to people. We could staff it with 50,000 people, and you can wait in line to talk to an operator, and then wait on hold as you’re transferred from the operator to someone in the wireless department, and then again while you wait to talk to someone in the billing department, wait for a receivables representative that handles accounts in your area, and then again while they look up your information and process your request. That’ll save time. And your bills won’t go up at all so that we can pay all those people.
AT&T is a global company. People can’t call and ask for Maude the operator to patch them through any more, especially since people want one number that they can access from anywhere.
The department I work in is in Washington State, but the territory I cover is Texas, Louisiana and Kansas. The guy in the office to my left handles Denver, Utah and Wyoming. They guy in the office to my right works with Idaho, Montana and North Dakota. My buddy Steve handles all of Canada while working out of his house. But you can call just one number and talk to any of us, depending on where your problem is.
It’s the routing system that makes this possible.
Otherwise, we’d have to have 4 separate numbers, because it’s not effective to have an operator route the 20 or so calls we get a day. Imagine being the president of IBM and having to keep 50 or so numbers handy just so you can call in about issues in different areas.
People want universal access…they want to call one number and have whoever eventually answers be able to help them no matter where they are or what the issue. I’ll admit that some companys’ routing systems go a little overboard, but in the long run you save time over having to look up numbers every time you have an issue that involves different areas or different departments within the company. You can call THE NUMBER, and have access to the entire company and the entire US at the touch of a button (ok the touch of a few buttons…).
May I presume the privilege of referring to you as Friend?
Then let me say that back in the ancient times before the AT&T"break-up"[seems anything over 30yrs is today considered dinosaur stuff] one could call the same company and complete a Transaction— not necessarily monetary----in a much shorter time than it now takes to listen to the ,utimately,25 'press’options.
Then there’s the fact that by the time all of the options are made on can have forgotten what the previous 24 were.
And,if better service means placing a lot of people back on the payroll so be it.After all,they took them off the payroll to make the system"better"----So let them rehire them and give back the old system that didn’t need fixing in the first place.
And–I promise that this is my last word on this subject— this time I’m really leaving the building.
My thanks to one and all for help,laughs and some more insight into the 2k mentality.
You have really touched on a key way to maintain sanity with these systems. It's something I do every chance I get, and rarely regret it. I write down the numbers as I hit them, THAT way, I don't have to listen to a 15-60 second series of instructions, because as SOON as the person says, " Please listen to my life's story because this menu MAY have changed, therefore allowing me to fuck with your mind for the next 25 minutes"- I KNOW to hit 5, to proceed to the next parcel of skull-fuckery.
I cannot TELL you how much time this saves me, I do it every time I use the Auto Send feature of FedEx to arrange a pick-up. Of course, it requires a scrap of paper and a pencil. But, is well worth the time, because the menus almost NEVER change.
