Complaint Review: Southwestern Bell Telephone Company - Austin Texas

I used to be a customer of SB for a longtime in this area. SB used to be a great company with great customer service. So I was glad when I again was in an area that was serviced by SB (in 2001-2002). I was totally shocked about how they have changed their business practices. Since coming to this website (RipoffReport.com)I have figured out what is going on in America. I will conduct MY BUSINESS accordingly! You will never learn this from the news! The news is bought BY big business. You also won't hear THAT from the news! Regarding SB, they are now charging late fees, you cannot get to a person to speak to, when you do get someone, they refuse to listen to you when asked not to be sold anything, and more! When I called to get service I asked for just a simple line with nothing added to it. I wanted to spend as little money on it as possible. I still had to listen to their sales pitches for everything they offer including DSL and when I said I don't need it they asked me why?!? I still got a bill for over 30 Dollars every month, eventhough the rep had told me that a simple line was around 15 Dollars a month plus tax. Once I called to get an explanation of the charges on the bill, well I was told some mumbo jumbo gobbledygook that even they couldn't figure out! I had LD with AT&T at the time but I learned my lesson about them as well. Well, when I took AT&T off and didn't have a LD provider lined up, SB charged me for not having LD to the tune of $6.50 a month. Then last year, when I cancelled my service, I had to go through some kind of drill as to why I was cancelling, if I was moving and if so, where I was moving to and this went on over and over. I finally had to get rude and tell her it was none of their business why I am cancelling my service. They have my billing address and send the last bill there, thank you very much! People get wise! Read these reports and draw your conclusion! When you catch them in the act, don't let them tell you 'who you gonna believe? your eyes or my words?' (thanks, Tom Joyner) You KNOW what they are doing. Take it as reality! Even if they say you are wrong, you know better. Don't be shocked! That's what they are counting on. They count on you thinking that they are ethical and wouldn't do something like that on purpose. They hide behind their policies, the ones that they created to cheat us with! Read these reports and learn the truth about business in America in the 21 century. I did! And the Editor is right, this website is just starting to become known. No one I know has ever heard of it. I want to thank you ripoffreport.com, and everyone I know will know about this website!

Anyone with marketing knows that few people complain and that one formal complaint is reflective of a larger number of customers. Do you complain about every grievance you have? Most don't. My business was using SWB but switched because of service similar to what I received. They were paying approximately $1,000 a month for DSL and multiple telephone numbers and lines. They dropped them for the same reasons I did but there is no complaint here. Besides, they obviously don't care what their customers think. I not only posted this complaint but have notified their customer service, and copied several levels of their management and ownership. They have not so much as sent one letter saying they are even sorry. Translation, they don't care so the number of complaints is irrelevant. This business does not care one iolta about any of their customers or former customers, they care about their profit margin and what their CEO puts into his pocket at the end of each pay period.

Anyone with marketing knows that few people complain and that one formal complaint is reflective of a larger number of customers. Do you complain about every grievance you have? Most don't. My business was using SWB but switched because of service similar to what I received. They were paying approximately $1,000 a month for DSL and multiple telephone numbers and lines. They dropped them for the same reasons I did but there is no complaint here. Besides, they obviously don't care what their customers think. I not only posted this complaint but have notified their customer service, and copied several levels of their management and ownership. They have not so much as sent one letter saying they are even sorry. Translation, they don't care so the number of complaints is irrelevant. This business does not care one iolta about any of their customers or former customers, they care about their profit margin and what their CEO puts into his pocket at the end of each pay period.

I can agree with your comment, but what can you say...they only have 11 complaints so far on here, so they must be doing something right.

It's nice to know that the same old customer service ploys never die away... it makes them easier to spot.

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I can understand that you were upset and not able to reach anyone at the current time. Were you able to call during normal business hours? That may have been the reason for the hang-ups or disconnects from our lines.

Other notes is that we are also working on lines for other phone carriers. For instance, we are the matience for all of Texas lines, even though you may go to another company. Unfortunately, we have to respond to other calls from other telephone companies with their customers problems, causing a strain on the consistency of our own customers.

We ask that our customers be patient with these problems and assure that we can get the problem fixed as soon as we can. This does not excuse us from our techs not being there, but emergencies sometimes comes up for a number of customers or areas, so we have to work as quickly as we can to resolve these issues. We hope that you can come back with SWB and hopefully serve you as we did before.