Thanks for this thread. There is some great info here, and without it, I would be totally lost.
I know I’m preaching to the choir, but I’d really just like to vent for a minute about AT&T.
I’m in a rural location, so wireless is my only real option for internet. I’ve been on the AT&T $35 iPad unlimited plan for a couple years, and it worked pretty well until now.
Last week, right after my credit card was charged for the next month, my internet stopped working. I spent several hours adjusting the antenna, location, took the modem to the next town over, swapped the sim card, etc, in an attempt to debug it. I received no notice from AT&T about what was happening.
I logged into my account at
https://att.com/ipadlanding and tried the contact link on that page, but it provided no help at all. All of the contact options are for other services – I was unable to find anything that applied to my service. I also tried the chat option, but it was about the most worthless thing ever.
The contact page suggested logging in, so I tried creating an account on that site, thinking it could get me some support, but when I put in my iPad’s number, it said I needed to go to the AT&T Premier site for that number. When I put in my number on the Premier site, it said I needed to go back to the main AT&T site. It’s maddening.
Fast forward to today. Today, I get an email saying:
Subject: AT&T data account canceled
Your iPad's Cellular Data Number: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Your data account above has been canceled either at your request or due to inactivity on the account. To re-subscribe, please visit SETTINGS > CELLULAR DATA on your iPad.
Thank you for choosing AT&T.
PLEASE DON'T HIT REPLY
Please go to att.com/contactus for questions or other options. This is an automated email so replies to the address will not be answered.
This is the only response I ever got from AT&T, and of course, it’s a total lie. I didn’t request my account was cancelled, and it certainly wasn’t due to inactivity either! Even the part about att.com/contactus is total BS. You can’t contact them about this plan there! That page is all about funneling you around through useless FAQs, and there is no entry for “AT&T cancelled my service and won’t say why”!
So I called AT&T to figure this out. I got their phone number off of my credit card statement, thinking someone at that number should be able to tell me something. The lady that answered was nice, but said she couldn’t help and she’d transfer me to someone who could. That person said the same, and anyway, I ended up getting transferred to 6 different people over the course of 2 hours (including hold times). No one was ever able to tell me anything about my account at all! I’d give them the cell number, then they’d say I needed to talk to someone else, I’d be put on hold, and the next person would say the same thing! It was beyond frustrating.
Anyway, I filed a dispute claim with my credit card company. It’s complete bull that AT&T had the gall to wait until my next billing cycle, charge me (it’s prepaid), and then cancel the service without even telling me for a week. And when they did tell me, it was a lie anyway, with no useful information. I tried really hard to contact AT&T and get an answer out of them. I really did try.
AT&T – why do you treat your customers like this? I get it if I’m using too much data and you don’t want my business, but in that case, why not just say so? Instead you cancel in the most offensive way. It wastes a ton of my time and your customer support persons’ time too.
Is it just me, or is this completely crazy? This experience will turn me off of AT&T for years. Lots of friends and family come to me for tech support, some of them have AT&T plans. I’m going to tell them about my experience.
I’ve never had such an abysmal customer service experience. I’m honestly just in disbelief here.