AT&T Causes a Stressful Blunder

I have always been a fan of AT&T; I have had their wireless since they bought out Cingular years ago (something like 6 or 7 years ago). I have had a FEW problems with them.

•  The biggest one: goes all the way back to when they bought Cingular. Somehow they managed to put my name onto two different accounts, mine and someone else. It took me YEARS (and I am still not 100% sure it is resolved) to convince them that I have never had that account and in fact at that time I had another account, my account, which I paid and was never delinquent on. It got sold into a collection agency, so every 2 years or so I have to fax over the same paperwork to the new agency, who then realizes I don’t owe anything and sells it to a new one. It is getting really old and annoying.

But besides that issue, which really isn’t AT&T fault anymore, but the collection agencies who keep selling an account that they know is not accurate and can never be collected on, AT&T has always been helpful, quick to respond to an issue and just overall a reliable company (to me personally, I am sure others feel differently). 

So with all my positive experience with AT&T a few months back I decided to switch from Comcast to U-verse, since it was newly available in my area and I have had more than my share of issues with Comcast. You can read my past blogs: Comcast Cable installation Fiasco, Yet more issues with Comcast, Comcast Fiasco PART 3 and surprise... The Cable Provider from Hell – the COMCAST nightmare continues…. If I had another option besides cable (ie satellite or another provider sooner) I would have RUN from Comcast a long time ago. And if you have a choice of Comcast v/s something else. Check out my blogs, seriously, you wouldn't want to have an experience like that!

So I set up. My installation -I loved the fact that the guy who installed it, went out of his way to hook it up correctly (when Comcast had hooked up the house for the prior owners) they had done it wrong and run wires on the outside of the house because they were too lazy to find the correct wires inside (surprise). He put little blue boots over his shoes as to not track in dirt and mess up my new carpet and he dealt with my crazed dog barking at him. He stayed and explained everything to me and let me verify that everything was working before he left!

And I love u-verse so far. I see what the Comcast commercials are trying to say about it being slower, but really, it is hardly noticeable and for the money I am saving and the fact I don't have to give Comcast and their evil blood sucking screw up employees any more money! Yah. It seriously is not that big of a deal... especially not enough to found a whole marketing campaign on....more like reaching with some BS if you ask me. (as you can tell, I still hate Comcast with a passion and hope I NEVER have to go back, cuz I most likely wouldn't even bother )

My next goal with AT&T was to combine my wireless bill with my u-verse bill, because as we all know, getting one bill is better than two and it is easier to pay, remember to pay and makes life just easier. So I log on to my account. Can’t figure it out. I call, they can’t figure it out. I call again another day a few weeks later, they still can’t tell me how to do it. I try to figure it out again a week later. This goes on and on and on. I have now paid my 3 u-verse bill (which means I have been trying to do this for 3 months) and I still haven’t been able to figure it out OR have someone at AT&T walk me through the process to completion on the phone. This is extremely disappointing.

What does one do: Look at the AT&T help…and you get this:

What is a combined AT&T U-verse and wireless services bill?

A combined bill means you receive a single bill that includes the charges for both your AT&T U-verse and wireless services. If you already have Wireless from AT&T service, you can request to combine your AT&T U-verse and wireless services bills using your online U-verse account. Combining your bills can take up to two billing cycles; please continue to pay your separate bills as they are issued until you receive the combined bill.

1.       Log in to your online account. Note:  If you do not have an online account, simply register online.

2.       Scroll down and select Learn More under Combined Billing.

Note: To qualify for combined billing, the last name and full social security number of the person responsible for the U-verse and wireless bills must be the same.

The search works, you get directions, and you read them and think to yourself! SWEET this doesn’t sound hard. You click on the like to –online account- and you log in per direction number one. It then takes you to a page you scroll down…but low and behold, there is no LEARN MORE under Combined Billing. You think, am I going mad….and do a Ctrl+F typing in both the key words and when nothing pops up you realize the directions were crap!

Apparently I am not the only one who has been having problems with this. And to be honest, who wouldn’t want to combine all their AT&T bills into one, so you know you have paid it and not going to be late or miss one or anything when are getting 2 or 3 each month. If you go on to the AT&T discussion forum, as a way to find out how other people managed it. You just get people asking the same questions and no one really providing a true answer. Just telling someone to call 611 is not going to help. Trust me; I have tried doing it that way 3 times so far!

 Now I have not been overdue or late because of this, you still get the bills, and you can still pay them, that is not the problem. The problem is convenience.

I will figure it out eventually, but service and directions like this do not continue to put AT&T at the top of my scale. As one of the top providers for cell and beginning to really kick off in the TV & Internet world, maybe little minor issues like this should be corrected.

**Side note – I tried again over the weekend to combine my billing, got another error message – unable to process your request at this time – this is seriously getting old!**