AT&T: The Reason I will never have an iPhone

(Warning: Long-winded rant ahead)

When I finally broke down and got my first cell phone six years ago, I signed up with AT&T. Almost the entire time I was with them, there was problem after problem - billing issues, dropped calls, horrible customer service, etc. As soon as I thought my contract was up, I canceled and switched to Verizon. Apparently, I was wrong about when my contract ended, and when I canceled (less than a week too early), I was hit with a cancellation fee of over $150  - even though I wasn't told that my contact was still in force when I cancelled my account. That just served to solidify my dislike of AT&T.

Fast forward four or five years. I've moved from DC to Utah, gotten married, and completed a graduate degree. AT&T became Cingular and then became AT&T again. Enough time and distance had passed by the time they became the exclusive distributor of the iPhone that I had almost forgotten the bad taste my last experience with AT&T had left.

My most recent contract with Verizon has been up for months, and I have not renewed the contact because Deidra is on AT&T and we keep thinking that eventually we'll get onto the same plan. Over Christmas break, we figured out that if I got onto a family plan with Deidra on AT&T, we could get an iPhone and, even with the added cost of the data plan, we would be paying roughly the same as we are for our two phone plans now. We have both been fascinated with the iPhone and had researched so many different ways that we could use it that it seemed a logical investment.

We went to AT&T a little over a week ago and switched Deidra's phone plan to a family plan and used the internet set-up at the store to purchase a refurbished iPhone online (still trying to save as much money as possible on the deal). The salesman was less than helpful and not at all accommodating, and the internet access they had set up was slow and, at times, unresponsive. We started to think that maybe this wasn't the best idea. My previous experience with AT&T came freshly to mind, adding to our doubts. But we continued on and finally left the store after completing the online purchase.

On the drive home, we both felt like maybe we had been pressured into a deal that wasn't as good as we had initially thought, and we were already thinking of way that we could back out. We couldn't really explain why, but it just didn't feel right. However, after that initial "buyer's remorse," we resigned ourselves to our new fate and awaited our iPhone in the mail.

This was on a Saturday - and Deidra had received an email that day from AT&T confirming the order. It gave us a confirmation number and told us that we should receive the phone in 3-5 business days. Figuring that Saturdays may not count as business days, we surmised that we should receive the phone between Wednesday and Friday of the following week (which was last week). Wednesday came - no phone. Thursday came - no phone. Friday came - no phone. We tried accessing their online order tracking system, but it did not recognize the order number that was given to us in the email. When we didn't receive the phone on Saturday, we determined to call AT&T first thing Monday to assess the situation.

When I called AT&T Monday morning, I first tried going through the automated system using our order number, to no avail. So I attempted talking to customer service, who could not seem to locate our order number either. The operator put me on hold while she got in touch with their electronic ordering department. When she came back on the line, she indicated that the e-order department had been able to find our order number and she transferred me to them. Finally, we were getting somewhere . . . or so I thought.

The representative for the e-order department explained to me that our order had be cancelled "according to routine procedure." When I asked him why the order had been cancelled, he could not give me a definite answer. I was told it was because either A) we had exceeded our allotment for the number of phones available to purchase online, or B) they were unable to verify some of the information we entered when making our order.

Since this was the first phone we had ordered online, I threw out option A immediately and asked the representative if he could tell me what information they were unable to verify. He said that they did not keep that information, so he couldn't tell me but that "I should be more careful to enter correct information in the future." That really got me riled up. I explained to the gentleman that I was certain that all of the information was entered correctly, and that I had double-checked it when making the order (what else was I supposed to do when the in-store online system was so slow?). He was unable to offer any more information.

I pressed him as to why we received a confirmation email after placing the order, but did not receive any sort of communication saying that our order had been cancelled. He responded that the confirmation email was simply an automated response sent out when an order came in, and should not be taken as confirmation that the order is complete. He was unsure if sending out communication when an order is canceled is standard practice or not.

I tried to summarize to him as best as my confused mind could. "You mean that the confirmation email we received with a confirmation number for our order, and instructions to allow 3-5 business days for the item to be shipped should not be construed as a confirmation that the order is complete? And if that is the case, that the email is automatically generated when the order is placed, AT&T does not have a system in place to automatically generate an email to inform customers when their order is cancelled? They just have to wait until they forget they even made the order or until they contact AT&T?"

He stammered through some sort of response.

Thoroughly frustrated at this point, I explained that I would not be reordering the phone and that I would like him to switch Deidra's plan back to an individual plan and not charge us the additional rate for the 10 or so days where we were on the higher rate plan while waiting for a phone that had never actually been shipped. When he responded that he did not have the information or permissions necessary to make any changes, and that he could not transfer me to someone who could, I simply lost patience and hung up.

Deidra and I walked into the AT&T store here in town and explained the situation. They changed Deidra's plan back and filled out a form to cancel the extra charges. We'll see if it actually worked once we get Deidra's next bill. I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't.

So, in summary, I hate AT&T even more than I did before and will never be an AT&T customer in the foreseeable future. Deidra is even planning on jumping ship as soon as her contract is up. So most likely, we will never own an iPhone, at least not while they are sold exclusively through AT&T. But at least the order was cancelled so that I am not stuck in a 2-year contract with AT&T - that's the silver lining. The new Blackberry available on Verizon is starting to look pretty good.

(Image from Abrilon)