Idiots. Morons. Greedy. Clueless. A “curse for Americans.”
I gathered these (family-friendly) pejoratives in just five minutes of monitoring a Twitter stream filtered on the string “AT&T.”
It seems that nobody likes AT&T. But just to be different, my friends, I come today to praise AT&T, not to bury them.
I’ve had U-verse in my home since January, and am generally very happy with it. When we set up the service, we had it installed for four televisions, choosing not to put it in my daughter’s room. With her away at college, we didn’t want to pay the monthly rental fee for the converter box when no one would be using it.
Once she returned home for the summer, I contacted AT&T to have U-verse installed in her bedroom.
The customer assistance agent pleasantly informed me that not only would I have to wait more than a week for my appointment, but that I was going to be charged a $55 installation fee for the privilege.
I politely pushed back both on the length of the wait and the charge. My concern was that if I were to add and remove the service from her bedroom each summer until she completed her college education – my original plan – I was going to be looking at an extra $110/year in fees.
Showing that you can catch more flies with honey, the customer service representative was able to schedule an install for the very next day. She also clarified that there would be no charge for removing the service each summer, but that installation charges would apply.
Doing some quick mental arithmetic, I calculated that paying for the service in my daughter’s room year-round would be only slightly more expensive than the cost of an annual installation fee. It would also have the added benefit of making television service available when she was home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the occasional weekend.
I sought to strike a deal. I told the AT&T agent that I would commit to leaving the service installed in the room full time in exchange for the $55 installation fee being waived. She agreed to do so.
A win-win, right?
So I thought.
When my latest monthly U-verse bill arrived earlier this week, I was surprised to find that it included the installation charge that I was told would be removed. Though the amount in question was small, money is money and one’s word is one’s word.
Back to the phone I went, prepared to battle it out with AT&T over the “bogus” installation charge.
The sympathetic CSR (a different one) listened to my story, noted that the prior agent had made no notes verifying the agreement to eliminate the charge, and went offline to speak with her supervisor to seek approval for the waiver. While waiting for the negative response I was sure was coming, I began to plan how I was going to take the issue to the Facebook, Twitter, and the blogs to get justice! I was going to join the public anti-AT&T chorus.
Not necessary. Because of my longstanding relationship with AT&T (primarily mobile), the CSR agreed to waive – this time only – what her supervisor termed the “justifiable” charge.
Mission accomplished. I thanked the agent for her time and for going to bat for me, and the whole experience ended pleasantly for both of us.
It’s easy to expect the worst in any sort of customer service interaction, and things don’t always get resolved to your satisfaction. But being nice can certainly improve your odds.
And if that doesn’t work, there’s always Twitter. 
David Swinney helps businesses implement social media strategies and plans in order to identify customers and their influencers, engage them in conversation, and leverage those connections to improve the bottom line.
As a technologist with a background in social media, corporate communications, technical and customer support, vendor relationship and project management, he is able to comfortably discuss various social media topics with managers, individual contributors, and just plain folks.
Contact David if you're looking for someone to create, build, and enhance your customer relationships using social media tools and technologies. 