I should really know better. I have not and should not expect that contact with customer service at any company will go well. Like most people, I’ve been burned far too many times and expect poor service to be the norm at this point. My contact with AT&T seemed to start out well, then dove into the eighth circle of hell, though it ended on a relatively good note much to my surprise.
I first called AT&T customer service last night after getting home from work, using the number I normally dial from my cell phone. I talked to a polite young man who, after hearing my description of what happened, said that I needed to talk to the warranty department and gave me their number. I called this number and spoke to Crystal, who sounded all of 15 years old, and she started the process to authorize a return and get me a new modem. After 15 minutes on the phone with her, she realized that I’m a Premier customer and that I was still within the 30-day return period and said, without much in the way of an apology, that she couldn’t handle this exchange because of my Premier status and because she’d thought that I was past the 30-day return period (despite the fact that I’d mentioned the dates of my order numerous times). She then gave me the number for the Premier warranty department. I called this number to find out that they were closed. Of course.
I called the Premier warranty department first thing this morning and was pleasantly surprised by the results. Davalyn issued a return label via email, which I received while I was still on the phone, placed an order for a replacement modem and realized that it should have been free for me to begin with, not the $29.99 I paid when I ordered it, and arranged a service credit for the 8 days I was unable to use the modem (they start charging you for service the moment you place an order regardless of when you actually receive the device). So, I have a new (refurbished) modem on the way to me for $0, a credit on my account for the past 8 days, and a return label in hand to ship back the non-functional modem I have now, after which I’ll receive a credit back to my credit card. Not bad in the end, eh? All of this took 1 hour to achieve on the phone with the long initial hold time, however, and I do own up to the fact that I didn’t think to call Premier customer service first last night instead of the “regular” customer service number, which could have avoided some of the run-around I got. Oh well. Now I just hope I receive the replacement before my trip to CES (I love my job!) next week.
