AT&T Customer No-Service

I am so angry and frustrated that I may not be coherent. If you find that to be the case, just move on to something more interesting and worthwhile.

On August 6th I ordered DSL service for Tink. It is absolutely necessary for college students these days to have internet access. Their assignments, discussions, and grades are all posted on the Web. Anyway, I ordered the service and was told that the service would be activated on that Saturday (August 8th) and the DSL modem kit would arrive on Monday, August 10th. Neither thing happened.

I called AT&T on Tuesday, August 11th and spent what seemed like hours on the phone giving all the details and on hold while the representative checked the veracity of my statements. I was told that he/she would "check into it and get back" to me. Never heard another word.

I called this AM at 8:35 and went through the whole thing again. I told the rep (Warren? His accent was so thick I wasn't absolutely sure of his name) that if he could not resolve my problem satisfactorily, I wanted to speak to a supervisor. Warren (or not) said that service was due to be activated September 4th. I told him emphatically that this simply was not acceptable and that I had been promised earlier service and shipment of the modem kit. Warren (or not) said he would "check into it and get back" to me with an answer. At 4:35 pm I still not heard from him. I called AT&T again at 4:35 pm and went through the entire saga again. This time I talked to Raymond who repeated that service would be activated September 4th. I also told him that this was not acceptable and that AT&T had not had a problem in billing me on Tuesday for this new service that I don't yet have. I also told him I was not at all happy about having been the subject of a credit check (and I had to unfreeze my credit for them to do it--at a charge to me of $3.00) since I had been a loyal customer with a great payment history. I spoke in very clipped words and spent what seemed a lifetime on hold. Finally Raymond figured that I was not going to go quietly and offered to transfer me to another department to see if my order could be expedited (this order that was supposed to have been placed on August 6th and shipped on August 7th). Nikki was the next rep to whom I spoke. When I finally managed to convince her that September 4th was in no way acceptable, she offered to try to expedite matters for me. I spent another lifetime on hold. Nikki came back on the line and told me that she was able to move up the date to August 19th. I said,"Absolutely not. I was promised blah, blah, blah...." Nikki put me on hold again, went away for another lifetime, and finally returned to the line to say that service would be activated on Monday, August 17th and the DSL modem kit would arrive on Tuesday, August 18th.

By the time I finished with these customer no-service reps, I had a pounding migraine and was practically foaming at the mouth. Do they go to some kind of school or training for incompetent customer service? Does AT&T just not care? If I have a stroke, we will know where to place the blame. Wonder if they can be held legally liable?