AT&T says it has big problems. A T-Mobile salesman showed me how big

[1] https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/technology/342398-whe...

[2] https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/at-t-to-buy-mexican-carrier...

[3]https://ruralwireless.org/industrys-wholesale-roaming-rates-...

In short, fuck AT&T.

Disneyland has done this with food, and it's really really irritating. Here is an example of what it is like to get Blue Milk at Star Wars Land in Disneyland:

1) order it in the app and pay for it.

2) it tells you when to go there

3) wait for your phone to turn green, with a group of other people staring at their phone. A person is there to make sure people without green screens don't get in line.

4) you are now allowed to get into a line and wait.

5) you get to the front, and you repeat the order. Someone makes it for you.

I get the desire to replace cashier's with an app. But just let people place an order, give them a number, and let them know where they are in the line.

I kept my last phone well after I should've probably replaced it because I didn't want to go to the store. Maybe they should try some secret shopping, it might show the flaws. Impulse buying a phone (not that it's something you should do, but probably something they want to encourage since nobody buys new phones anymore) is absolutely impossible right now.

(What I'd really prefer is if they'd just allow me to give them money and just hand me the new phone, but inevitably there's some account crap that happens where the new phone won't activate properly and I have to get another phone to call 611 and figure it out.)

Edit: It might just be because of my families phones being on a business account. We've tried to upgrade (or just buy the darn phone without a contract/loan) through the Apple Store before but they won't do it because their POS system can't handle AT&T's business accounts, and even unlocked devices need to be notated there for some reason.

I’d love to give T-Mobile a try, but it seems like every year there’s a new massive security breach…. It does not inspire confidence.

Their website was functional but not super intuitive a few years ago, but it keeps getting better, and upgrading my iPhone 11 to a 13 last week, and also my plan at the same time, was seamless.

And now that I have 5G for the first time ever I'm shocked to be getting upwards of 400M down.

I don't think any other network can give me no bandwidth cap, tethering, and free international roaming data for $70/month.

I'm on a prepaid plan ($25/m all you can eat, but hi-speed internet taps out at 8GB... after that it's lo-speed internet).

I kept getting texts that my phone will stop working with AT&T's network in Feb next year for some reason (it won't). And that there was a free phone waiting for me at the local AT&T shop.

Cool. Why not get a free phone I thought. I went over to the store and showed the guy there the text. He said they were out of phones and gave me a number to call, and that they'd ship me a phone. (And the dude looked over my current phone and told me it would continue to work with the AT&T network after Feb).

I call that number, am put on hold. It takes 62 minutes to get through to a live human. Explain the situation to him. They send me a phone. It's a garbage phone that loses all charge in 2 days despite not being used. It's available for $40 on AT&T's website (with a prepaid plan). No biggie.

I still get those texts telling me there's a free phone waiting for me in my local AT&T shop.

----------

Another issue, on their website, when I was signing up for the prepaid plan (a year ago), I was forced to enter a "unit number" for my house... even though there is none. So I entered "Unit 0" and they accepted that.

They are completely clueless how to provision a fucking phone. Never mind the idiocy of issuing a non-convertible mini-SIM when she got it around 2013.

In early 2019, I added a new line to my plan in what was supposed to be a "free" phone (I was assured of this by the customer service rep on the phone), and wound up getting charged $499 + setup charges for it immediately on my next bill, in addition to what my bill normally is.

Since my bill was on auto-pay, $750+ came out of my account that month. I called immediately to reverse it and turned off auto-pay. It took 10+ calls over the next 2 months to get the whole situation undone. My next bill was $1,000+ along with late charges and cutoff notices (I was not paying until it got fixed). It was so aggravating that I started a spreadsheet to keep track of all my support calls, who I spoke with, and when.

I finally got the situation resolved and all the charges reversed after getting connected with a high-level tech support person in the US who actually had the power/authority to make the required changes to my account. Even though I stayed with AT&T for the next year or so after that (I was also moving houses and didn't want to change cell service at the time), the experience turned me off of AT&T forever.

I now use Ting Wireless ( https://ting.com ) and am a very happy customer. They are an MVNO that uses AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile so they are not always 100% as reliable as the big providers directly, but the price is WAY cheaper ($25/mo per line with all taxes/fees included!), and the support is top notch. I can basically just call and connect directly with a customer service rep that can fix any issue I have at any time without hassle or transferring through 4 layers of call centers. Ting is worth a look if you are considering a switch.

I haven't bought anything in an att store in years - every iPhone I get comes straight from apple.

Twice a year an AT&T business sales guy would come through and he'd always have three trainees with him. The boss would never have the time to meet with him. So I interacted with him and trying to be helpful I told him when our contract was up. I said if you come by within 30 days of the contracts expiration you might have a chance at the business.

He never even wrote the date down. He came through every six months on a set schedule and always with the three different trainees. I wondered if he even wanted the business? Or maybe felt they wouldn't let him be competitive. Either way he wasn't the guy AT&T wanted training other sales guys cause he set a poor example.

I've been on both networks at various points and my recommendation is to check Google Map Reviews before heading to either one's stores as some are consistently dreadful and others are fine/good.

Both get licked by Apple's stores though, but the staffing difference is very apparent upon entry (I'd guesstimate 100% more floor staff in Apple).

At least they aren't as bad/predatory/unpleasant as car dealerships though. When I'd pick dental appointments over car shopping/buying, you know it is egregious. They turn what could be a "fun" experience into a stressful annoyance.

The only hiccup I've found is international calls on roaming are insanely expensive. I had a $100 phone call to South America roaming when it would have cost ~$10 in network.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_wireless...

But what’s the moral of the story? That customer service and other things don’t matter if you can’t deliver the product (cell signal)?

Organisations such as T-Mobile, AT&T and even the Telco I used to work for in Australia are fortunately/unfortunately made up of people just like you and I. This means that your experience of dealing with a telco or a brand is highly dependant on the person you speak with in store. These people aren't all incredibly motivated people, nor are they all at their very best everyday like they need to be as people in front of customers. It's no excuse, but it is a factor.

I was around before and at the point the digital waiting line came into play and it is overall better than not having one. In this story, the problem is that clearly the store didn't have enough staff serving customers to visually justify that the store was busy enough to put someone in a queue. I worked in a shopping mall so customers who walked into a our visibly very busy store were happy that they could get some food or continue shopping while waiting.

With regards to availability of staff, where I worked we followed a "My customer my responsibility model" where it was your responsibility to follow and resolve a customers problem. As stores provided not just sales but also customer service across consumer and business mobility products and internet services. The tricky part is that a customer might come into the store with a complex billing problem and it require almost an hour to resolve. In a store of perhaps 4 active consultants, on a busy day if 2-3 people are working on complex customer support queries, you wont have enough people available to advise people on what mobile to buy.

I don't understand what he means by this?

My reception at home isn't great but I use Wi-Fi calling on my Android (I don't know if iPhone supports this too). It works really well.

We got the 13 pros in the mail on friday and neither me nor my wife liked the phone and we decided to return them.

The return with Apple was easy and smooth. At the verizon store the manager immediately challenged me on why I was returning it. I said it was too big for my wife, he then asked what phone she had and then pulled up a chart showing how the two devices were effectively the same size. He claimed my wife was lying and that she would be fine with the 13 pro. I replied with thanks but my wife didn't want the phone so I'd like to return it. He then put me in a queue and told me the return would have a $50 restocking fee.

The entire return experience was so terrible and hostile I almost walked to another carrier's store and moved all my lines. I may still do that.

The overall experience did renew my desire to NEVER buy a device with verizon again.

I can imagine that ATT and Verizon are largely in the same place, they're the behemoths in the market and no longer have to innovate for market share. So the way they increase margins is by fleecing their customers with "activation fees" and "restocking fees".

Its great to hear that TMobile is stepping up the customer service game. This may be enough for me to switch.

Heh, for me it would be a reason to ditch something like that immediately. Lock-in irritates me.