American Telephone and Telegraph - ATT
Complaint 24447 Details

First came an email from ATT offering free DSL for one year as it was new to South Florida. My husband called for the deal and instead was told what would be better is their faster DSL, 6x.He wanted the best, he skipped the offer and bought what the representative sold him.

For years this product produced problems, every time ATT reps would say someone was coming to check the line. During these five years ATT also sent 2 new routers, spent endless hours on the phone 'fixing' the problem; during that time Bell South was taken over by ATT and the troublesome DSL service was attributed to it haven been run by Bell South. Finally, my husband agreed to change to the service we pay for as part of our maintenance and so I called to cancel the 6x DSL.

The representative quickly wanted to know the reason, I told him how the night before DSL had been disconnected 12 times and I was going to use the service provided to the building which I was paying for as well. This representative again promised the problem would be cleared and two different actions took place. An installer came into the aptartment and cleared that the problem was not coming from inside and he called another technical person to investigate.

The rep who came to answer his call has 30 yrs. service, wore a different uniform, and talked first over the phone to say there were no problems with the wiring in this building. I said thank you. A few minutes later she was at the door and asked to come in. She watched the DSL signal appear and disappear and had noted in her report she found the signal had shut off 12 times the night before. She was perplexed and asked to see my bill. It was when she turned it over that it all became clear to her. There is no wiring in this 60 yr. old building to support 6x DSL. All had been a scam to bill at the higher rate. Will ATT spend the money to wire old buildings or is it simpler to charge and blame the non-service on the customer?

To appease my husband, ATT has given him 3 free months of service - they do not reimburse overcharges for any longer period of time. I will be going to court to see if a judge agrees with me that I bought a non-existing product and allows me a refund for at least 5 yrs. I am sure this scam is spread all over the country and therefore I am posting this experience on this site. Talk about what you've read here at work, with your grocer, the neighbors, at church. Spread the word. You might also be due a refund and a fair charge in future months - realize why ATT makes millions in profits.
BTW, I had poor cell service from Verizon once I left the east cost. It's an expensive product to beging with and then it working 20 days a month makes it even more expensive. They insisted on a charge of $200 to get rid of bad service. I later found out Verizon at Costco had given me the cheapest phone on the market, was changing towers and had the best service on the Washington, D.C. area. Where is the FCC's enforcement??? We keep getting scammed and large companies keep getting richer at our expense.