ATT Online offer



  • I am attempting to replace my terrible Time Warner cable service with something (Anything!) else.  I stumbled upon ATT U-Verse service (anybody tried it?), which is appealing to my geek side, even if their website is somewhat of a WTF in firefox and seems to be woefully incomplete.

     Anyway, I want to replace my phone service as well, so I looked at the pricing plans:

    AT&T Unlimited Nationwide Calling Online Select(SM)   (Online offer only) ($15/mo)

     
    Okay, cool, I click the link.  It asks for a phone number.  I put mine in, but (I'm not a subscriber to any services):

     



    <script language="javascript"> f(isInternetExplorer4Up||isNavigator6Up) { document.write(""); } else if(isNavigator4Up) { document.write(""); } </script><script language="JavaScript">
    							var userAgent = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase();
    							var browserVersion = parseInt(navigator.appVersion);
    							var isNavigator = (userAgent.indexOf('mozilla')!=-1);  // mozilla or netsacpe
    							var isInternetExplorer = (userAgent.indexOf("msie") != -1);
    						
    							var isNavigator6Up = (isNavigator && (browserVersion >= 5));
    							var isNavigator4Up = (isNavigator && (browserVersion >= 4));
    							var isInternetExplorer4Up  = (isInternetExplorer && (browserVersion >= 4));
    												        
    							function hideErrorLayer()
    							{
    							
    								if(isInternetExplorer4Up||isNavigator6Up) 
    								{						    	
    							    	document.getElementById('errorLayer').style.visibility = "hidden";
    								}
    							  	else if(isNavigator4Up) 
    							  	{
    								  	document.errorLayer.visibility = "hide";
    							  	}
    							}
    						
    						</script><script language="javascript">
    						
    							if(isInternetExplorer4Up||isNavigator6Up)
    							{
    				 				document.write("<DIV id=\"errorLayer\">");	
    							}
    							else if(isNavigator4Up)
    							{
    								document.write("<LAYER id=errorLayer>");
    							}
    						
    						</script><div id="errorLayer"><script language="javascript">
    						
    							if(isInternetExplorer4Up||isNavigator6Up)
    							{
    								document.write("</DIV>");
    							}
    							else if(isNavigator4Up)
    							{
    								document.write("</LAYER>");
    							}
    						
    						</script></div><span class="" style="font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold;">We're
    

    Sorry. AT&T Unlimited Nationwide Calling Online Select(SM) can not
    be ordered online. Please call us at 1-866-999-6181."


     WTF?  It must be ordered online, but is only offered on the phone?  0, 1, FileNotFound?


    Another major WTF is that their contact form requires me to put in my phone number as well.  It tells me that my number doesn't match any subscriber and that I should check my bill.  Only subscribers can have questions?  What about people like me who want to give them money?
     



  • Bah, the editor spewed javascript everywhere.  The relevant part of the garbage in the post is the error message "We're
    Sorry. AT&T Unlimited Nationwide Calling Online Select(SM) can not
    be ordered online. Please call us at 1-866-999-6181.
    "



  • Call them up and tell them. They should still give you the offer. I had trouble signing up for DSL online because it couldn't recognize my address (fairly new apartments), so I had to call them. I let them know and they gave me the online rate.



  • Sure, that's my next step; I just couldn't resist sharing.  It would take them about six seconds to generate a proper error message (we don't recognize the phone number you entered, for more information...)  or disable the form if it really isn't working.



  • @iAmNotACantalope said:

    Another major WTF is that their
    contact form requires me to put in my phone number as well.  It
    tells me that my number doesn't match any subscriber and that I should
    check my bill.  Only subscribers can have questions?  What
    about people like me who want to give them money?

    Somewhat related story: the other day my wife went to surf the web and got an error page about "an issue with your account".  We have the Optimum Online (Cablevision) "Triple Play" package: Cable TV, VoiP phone, internet.  So I call up the support line.  The first thing the guy asks for is the phone number on the account, so I give him the home phone # (which I'm calling from).  No luck, can't find the account.  I then spend about twenty minutes, some of it on hold, giving him every other piece of identifying information I can think of -- including the actual account number from the bill -- with which he spectacularly fails to locate the account.  At this point I'm thinking, great, some idiot hit 'delete' by mistake and wiped us out of the system.

    Finally he's able to find it by looking up the MAC address on the modem label.  (Funny side note: I gave him tech points for asking me to read the "hexadecimal number", then took them away when I read an F and he asked "F like Frank or S like Sam?".)  He says he needs to reset the modem, asks me to confirm the number he can call back on, and proceeds to read off *my cell phone number*.  So the "account phone number" in their records is not the phone number provided *through their service*, but rather the number that was used when when we ordered it (because the other one obviously didn't exist yet).  Sheesh.
     



  • I once had great fun with calling Time Warner for support.  They use caller ID to read the number you are calling from and ask you if it is the number on the account.   I was calling from my cell, so I pressed '2' to enter the numbers they wanted.  No matter what I typed in, the system got it wrong.   I typed in (555) 555-5555, the system said, was that (551) 555-5593?   I typed it again, got "was that (555) 343-1155?"  WTF?

    I don't remember if it eventually got it or if it kicked me on to a person or what happened.  I might have called back from a different phone.   Never had any other problems like that before or since. 
     


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