I was on the phone 43 minutes to report a low hanging fiber optic cable.
I Called AT&T because of low hanging fiber cable, in my yard. They said I could report it online. Great…that should be faster. I tried but couldn’t signon, because of userid/password problem. I use a password manager so I don’t type it in by memory. I use a password manager to generate long cryptic passwords. There’s no way I can remember them. I pay my Uverse bill every month, signing in successfully this way. So there’s no way I typed it in wrong…because I don’t, type it in. After a few tries it locks me out, because of too many unsuccessful attempts. This happened a few months ago and I had to wait several weeks for them to snail mail me instructions to reset it. At least this time they texted me a code to reset it, so a little progress there. Anyway I call and get a person to help me. During this lengthy process, she has me hold several times because it’s obvious there system is responding slowly or not at all. Near the end of this process she tells my I have to download some stupid “Smart Home Manager” app to complete the process. Why do I have to download an app? It could have been done in a browser. Or…here’s a novel idea…why don’t I just confirm my appointment with you…right now! They later texted me a Confirm or Cancel option anyway. So what was the point? Of course I couldn’t sign on because this was before the password reset I described above. When I finally did, I couldn’t properly use my password manager, the way I use it everyday on other apps. I copy my userid form my password manager into the field, then I go back to the password manager to copy the password, but when I return to the AT&T app…it’s blanked out where I previously copied in my userid. 99.99% of the apps I use don’t do this… I think the Pizza Hut app did and maybe still does this. Fortunately I can remember my userid because it’s not cryptic, still it’s long and tedious. And, any time you type in something long there’s a chance you might mistype something, then will have to retype it. So annoying!
I’m editing this the next day so I can add to the story. They told me the tech would text me about his arrival, as they’ve done in the past. But nooo… he calls. I don’t usually answer a random number that’s not in my contact’s. I did for this number because it was close to the scheduled appointment, and I suspected it might be him… it was. I don’t want to bash the tech, because he was extremely nice and efficient, he also removed old wires left after the fiber install from the past, including one from the pole to the house. He also removed one of their unused boxes on the house. He was the one good thing in dealing with AT&T.
All this computer automation to make the process easier… Give me a break!
After all this they want me to rate Lyn. Who the hell is Lyn? The girl I spoke with to report the problem? She sounded Indian. I wouldn’t assume her name was Lyn. I replied… Who’s Lyn. They responded… Invalid response. Obviously… I knew they would.
Is AT&T trying to appear high tech by adding a bunch of useless steps? In the past this was probably a 10 minute phone conversation. They need a leader like Elon Musk to come in and trim the fat. Like he did with twitter. Eliminating 80% of the staff, right in the beginning.