I really don’t like AT&T or Direct TV. I’ve had the absolute worst customer service experiences with them. In recent months alone, the following has happened:
- They offered me faster business internet and said it would be cheaper too. All they had to do was send out a technician. They did, but in doing so, that morning someone remotely disabled my internet at work. I’m a mostly web based business and with Covid of course, you need an internet connection. I was without one for half the day because for some reason they couldn’t cancel my upgrade and make things work as normal. The very nice customer service rep promised a call back to check and make sure everything was completed. That never happened. That fake call back must be one of their customer service script cons because it’s been told to me on two occasions and it’s never happened.
- I have four business phone lines. One day, my main one stopped working. I called and was told the error was likely on my end. I was then told they’d send someone out the next day. I told the rep I’d be gone by 3 p.m. that day and they said someone would be there earlier than that. The next day nobody had showed by 2 p.m. So I called and was told that someone internally had cancelled the appointment because according to their check, the line was running fine. It wasn’t. They also had in their system that I’d be there until 6 p.m. They apologized and set something up for the next day. Long story short is that they had disconnected my phone line while setting up service for a new customer in a different suite.
- My kids are obsessed with football so we ordered The Sunday Ticket and Red Zone. Worked fine in week two, week three it was gone. Once more we had to call in and deal with them which if you’ve ever called, you know you can’t get someone on the line right away.
- One day my work internet was out so I called the business support line. It somehow got routed to the customer service department for people who have issues with their home internet. Not sure how I got there but after 20+ minutes I was told I need to call a different number and no, I couldn’t be transferred.
It’s partly my fault, at least at home, because I should just cut the cord and get rid of Direct TV. But in all of these customer service situations I think to myself, “I know others are going through the same b.s. and I would love to start a class action lawsuit against them.”
I can’t.
That’s because their contract and almost every other big business contract forces you to waive your right to a lawsuit or a class action and resolve any disputes via arbitration. This means you have to go it alone and almost any lawsuit against them would be out of principle. You’d likely never recover as much as you’d have to spend.
This move by the George W. Bush administration to allow this has screwed consumers time and time again and allowed big business to step all over the little guy. Hopefully the Dems will sweep in to office and change things, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
So I and most people have to eat the shit sandwich that is their terrible customer service and the only way to get back at them is to wait until phone service is available on a wide basis via satellite or some other platform.
I do take solace in the fact that I’ve helped AT&T employees go after the company for wage claims and work injuries. Every check I get from participating in those cases feels extra sweet. But it doesn’t change the fact that whether it’s them or Apple or Amazon or any other big company, a class action lawsuit will probably go nowhere for you.