As a consumer, sometimes you have difficulties with a certain company leaving you with an experience that colors your opinion about this particular firm. Take Redditor BudgetPea9967 who
posted about the difficulties he had canceling a single line on AT&T. The person using the line had graduated, left the U.S., and wasn’t expected to return to the States anytime soon. The AT&T rep continued to extend what should have been a minutes-long chat into an hour-long visit through hell for the AT&T customer who shared screenshots covering the whole conversation.
AT&T rep fought tooth and nails to prevent a subscriber from canceling a line”
The rep threw everything at the subscriber including the kitchen sink. One option was to suspend the line and pay $10 per month for six months so the account would be ready to go if the person who left the country decided to return within six months. The rep then pivots, asking the subscriber if anyone else wanted to use the number and pointed out that the line is eligible for an upgrade that would allow the customer to get $500 in bill credits toward the purchase of an iPhone 15 series model.
Part of a chat that went on for longer than an hour between an AT&T customer and a rep
Every time the customer made it clear that he did not want to do anything but cancel the line, the rep came back with something to offer. At one point, the customer informs the rep, “Can you please go ahead and help me cancel that line? My lunch break is almost over.” Other times the subscriber had to type, “Plz god cancel it,” and “I didn’t know I need to repeat cancel the line for 17 mins.”
“The rep might not have fully recognized what a hassle he was turning this into, but he did write, “I am so sorry for the inconvenience, however I want to make you aware of the best options and the best offers.” The rep also suggested, even after the customer implored him to cancel the line, that the subscriber’s best bet was to suspend the account. The customer had to continue the text conversation during a work meeting. Soon, the live chat had hit the 30-minute mark.
“Can you think of any friends or family that could benefit from using this line for their phone, smart watch, or another device,” asked the AT&T rep. Now at this stage, you have to give the customer some credit for having some patience and not demanding to speak to a supervisor. He said that he would no longer answer any questions unless it had to do with the cancellation of the line.
AT&T ended up losing more than just the one line that the customer requested by cancelled
“Yes I want to cancel the line. That’s the best option I choose. Plz respect my choice as a customer.” The AT&T rep continued by typing about deals that can be used with the line to score a discount on the iPhone 14 series. The customer even started to wonder whether he was having a conversation with a chatbot. After about an hour, the rep once again brings up the idea of suspending the line.
Finally, after over an hour, the rep cancels the line. The customer ended up filing a complaint with AT&T and switched to T-Mobile. Let that be a lesson for AT&T. Had the rep listened and followed the directions given him by the customer right away, AT&T would have lost one line. But by trying everything and anything, and repeating some options multiple times to keep that one line from getting closed, AT&T lost the whole account.
AT&T, and all of the other majors, need to tell their customer service reps that the customer is always right and that a rep should not stand in the way of allowing a customer to cancel service.
