Complaint Review: AT&T - Dallas Texas

I am writing this not to complain but to inform you of a large company who demonstrates poor professionalism, communication, and poor service. My story will hopefully help you make the correct decision for your future TV, Internet, and phone needs. In 2015 DirecTV and AT&T merged. AT&T became the largest satellite TV provider, but in over 3 years they have not changed their customer service.

They also still provide an unorganized service that requires you to pay 2 different companies and talk to 2 different customer service providers. My story will prove to you why they are not worth your money. My family purchased a bundle (AT&T U-verse internet/DirecTV) and I will be honest it was a great deal. Too good of a deal.

We paid under a hundred dollars to get a packaged high speed internet and DirecTV which came with a 1 year promotion that provided the NFL package for free. By the way, I would never recommend AT&T internet either. The high speed internet wasn’t high speed at all, and all I ever used it for was a laptop and maybe 1-2 phones at the same time in no more than 800 sq. ft.

Shortly after purchasing the bundled deal, which gave you 10 dollars off for automatic withdrawal and the ability to only pay 1 bill, we sold our home (Last week in November). I had to give you a story line but the next part is what is important. I called to have both of my services suspended (this is an allowed time to disconnect service but stay a customer of DirecTV/AT&T) and the gentlemen I spoke to didn’t tell me there was a maximum time that I could be on suspension (recently been told this happens a lot).

I explained that we sold our home and were looking for another but it might take a while. Simply put, I couldn’t give him a time frame so he said, “You can call to let us know when to reconnect your service.” The house hunt took much longer but I didn’t think to check my bill because I was on suspension and the guy said I was good so of course I’ll trust him. But no more than 3 months later they reconnected my service without my approval.

So now I am being charged for services I am not using. My old satellite equipment is literally packed in a suit case at this time. How can they do this you might say? I really don’t know but this is the kind of business they run. So after occurring charges I felt I didn’t owe I called DirecTV and AT&T, oh yea I had to call both because apparently after you don’t pay a bill your bundle deal is off and you get SEPARATE charges.

So after being transferred 4 times, and no one knowing what is going on, 45 minutes later I have a gentleman who says he will personally do an investigation and call me back when he receives results. I didn’t get that call and 1 month later I received an email that said my services were cancelled.

So I called AT&T since DirecTV was not helping and I explained the situation to 4 different people and 50 minutes later a lady told me she would personally do an investigation and call me back. Shortly after this conversation I receive a soon to be collections notice from AT&T. Let’s just say it was in the hundreds of dollars. I pay it to keep our credit in check.

Now I am furious and not willing to make another separate payment to DirecTV so I call them days in a row. Nothing happens until again I receive an email saying I will be sent to collections if payment isn’t made or, now get this great line, “You can come back to us and we will reconnect your service.” So ultimately that is the only 2 solutions they gave me.

Pay your bill, that they caused when I didn’t give approval, and then added to when they cancelled my service without my approval. Or I could start a new contract. I will leave you with this. I spent multiple minutes on multiple calls pleading and even telling them that I have a wife, young child, and a second child due soon and they had absolutely no sympathy.

I have recently gone with Spectrum for cable and Internet and love both of their services. Internet is very fast with no issues. I have also had good luck with Dish Network for TV and I would recommend either of these companies. But my reason for this message is to inform EVER PERSON that you should not ever give AT&T a single dollar until you know all the facts about their customer service.