Feb. 8: Good news! We now have an installation date. Bad news. It’s six months after we signed a contract with AT&T. I really can’t make this stuff up.
So, if you are planning to move your business in the next six months you need to call AT&T and start the process of moving your Internet service TODAY. If six months lead time sounds ridiculous to you don’t worry. You are normal. Six months lead time is bat crazy.
We don’t have another option at our current location. If you have options you should seriously consider someone other than AT&T as your Internet service provider.
Shane, our CTO, is doing his best to work with AT&T and resolve the issue. He’s a saint and remarkable restrained and level headed.
The rest of us have run out of patience and know the impact of AT&T’s poor service is costing us business. It’s literally ruining our business, while AT&T pays us lip service. Here we are two weeks after being told by @ATTCustomerCare they could resolve our issue and all we have to show for it is a installation date over 60 days in the future. They don’t care about America’s small business owners.
Feb. 6: We tried to cut AT&T some slack, but no more. They make promises they can’t keep–even seemingly small promises. “We’ll have an installation date for you on Friday.” That was Friday, February 3rd. There seems to be no end in sight. Sourcing Verizon hotspots. It’d be faster than the service we’re getting from AT&T.
Feb. 1: This was heard at the office today. “Oh, we saw your blog post about AT&T.” It was a comment made by a VLG prospect currently selling software that helps companies with reputation management and protection online. Irony.
January 31: It will be one week tomorrow since @ATTCustomerCare told us they could resolve our issue. We expected to (been promised) receive an install date from AT&T “on or before Friday,” which is excellent news. This would solve half our problem. Not knowing has caused us to remain in a sort of Internet no-man’s-land.
Week end Update: Okay, I have an update. Let me just say that my decision to shun big companies after getting my MBA was a good call. It’s really not fair to the people trying to resolve this issue if what they are telling us is true–assume it is. Think about this: orders generate tokens; tokens are needed for provisioning; get site visit; provisioning tells the network thingamabob how much bandwidth (10MB) we get at the office; change something technical over there; change something technical over here, flip the switch; log into Facebook. That’s pretty straight forward.
Here’s the problem. Our order was not placed when “we” thought the order was placed, which means a token wasn’t created. Because a token wasn’t created, provisioning never started. Because provisioning never started we need to find a way to generate a token. Problem identified and solved, right? Not really. See, AT&T is having trouble creating a token now that the order’s placed that will “flow through”.
“This was not an error on anyone’s part,” she said. “There is something in our system that is rejecting the token.” (I don’t know or care what that means or why it is my problem, but I appreciate the honesty and openness. I do. No sarcasm.) “Tokens are attached to orders that the provisioning group uses and for some reason this token isn’t flowing through,” she said.
Okay, valid. However, for the first time today–the first time ever–we were told the process could take up to 120 days. Not just in this particular case, but should any prospective AT&T customer want Ethernet service they would wait a minimum of 85 days and a purported maximum of 120 days for installation. Whoa, what? We also found out we’re actually in Verizon’s coverage area, [insert legal stuff that makes this possible] but AT&T is able to sell to us. It does add a layer of bureaucracy to the process. By small business standards 85, 100, 120 days is an eternity.
There are now no fewer than six AT&T people directly–and probably more indirectly–engaged to help us get back on track. Their efforts on our behalf have not gone unnoticed. The ticket has been escalated to a level 5 [maybe 6] person at AT&T. For those of us that don’t work at AT&T that is their director level.
We suggested a quick fix that AT&T should be able to do next week. We’ve asked them to increase our landlord’s bandwidth by 10MB until they are able to get ours installed. [Reminder: we have a very giving landlord that has helped us, but can't help us anymore.] Hope the folks at AT&T have the flexibility to implement a creative solution.
Check back in next week for another update. Please feel free to comment below. Johnathan, Robert, Tammy, Sandy, and Geri thanks for your help. Fingers crossed for a resolution next week.
Update #2: We’ve exchanged several calls with several folks at AT&T. It’s clear we are now getting the attention we expected to receive way back in November 2011. Although the issue is as yet unresolved we seem to be moving in the right direction. Now if we could just get that service turned on life would be golden. Expect an update by EoD Friday.
Update: Just off the phone with AT&T. Must say that after many, many calls and emails over the past two months this was by far the best customer service experience to date. Optimistic…
Twitter feed: AT&T replied to our tweets. Let you know how this process goes. Fingers crossed.
Our original blog post:
It safe to say that AT&T is our number one obstacle to greater success and growth at VLG. Will online customer service trump the offline variety. Only time will tell. Check here for updates.
Our story
We just moved. We request service before the move. AT&T has a monopoly in our area and we have no other option. We are completely handcuffed until AT&T installs our service. Our neighbors have been kind enough to let us mooch off of them, but they have to throttle us to protect their own business operations–completely understandable.
AT&T doesn’t respect our business or take us seriously. If they did we would not be passed around as much as a, well, let me stop there. Safe to say we’ve talked to at least nine people at AT&T that are powerless and incapable of action. Seriously, no exaggeration. How bad does their life suck? How do you get up in the morning?
So here is where we sit, waiting for our Internet service. We’ve now been told that our service order placed in Nov. 2011 was not submitted. They now proudly take credit for creating the service request Friday, but we’re told the 85 day window for installation started this week. The 60 days between the day we place the order (Nov. 2011) and this past Monday apparently don’t count. We are at the back of the queue. What a disappointment.
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