
In annual ritual, AT&T declared worst wireless service - Quekster
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/11/in-annual-ritual-att-declared-worst-wireless-service/
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alecst
Anecdote time!

Last week I got a missed call. Called back, they guy asks me who I am, and
then he remembers -- "Oh! I remember why I called -- I work for AT&T and I
accidentally disabled a phone on your account. I'm really sorry." It was my
brother's phone and we'd have to get a new SIM card at an AT&T store because
the rep couldn't reactivate it remotely. He gave me his AT&T ID, something
like "kiloB" plus some numbers.

The AT&T store in our area doesn't carry SIM cards, so we had to order one
from them and it took about a week to arrive. Meanwhile my brother had no
phone and no voicemail.

What he didn't tell us was that he had also mistakenly _added_ a phone to our
account (used by a stranger) and which did not have a data or text plan - the
stranger didn't know this, and we were billed for his data and texts.

They refunded my account eighty dollars to cover the texts, data, and some
inconvenience, but what the fuck.

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Osiris
My question is that if it's so bad why aren't they still seeing new
subscribers? I understand they have a lot of churn, but obviously the poor
customer service and poor quality of service continues to be unimportant in
the buying decisions of their customers.

So what is it that they are doing right that continues to allow them to sign
up new customers?

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maxerickson
One thing they have done is bought up a significant portion of the available
cellular spectrum licenses in the U.S.

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btbuilder
AT&T loses points with the rest of the bunch for charging a "one time upgrade
fee" of $36. But they do gain points by refunding it to me without too much
hassle when I complained.

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wildranter
When this type of company gets too big they tend to behave like governments.
People go to work just to get paid, they just care about politics and the
bottom line. Then these companies become costumer traps.

Here's a great opportunity for Worldwide disruption. Anyone up to it?

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TheAmazingIdiot
Yes. And...?

The article only says what was said last year, the year before that..... And
there are no solutions other than

"Don't buy a phone on contract with AT&T. Or better yet, don't do business
with AT&T."

How many of us (in the US) didn't know that?

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sami36
It really depends on your location. I lived in Dallas, TX for 3 years & it
worked just fine for me. I use my smartphone more as a portable computer than
for voice, & to me data speeds matter more.

AT&T edged out VZ in data throughput. I also happen to be grandfathered in an
_unlimited_ * plan. I won't give that up for a marginal improvement in voice
quality.

~~~
endersshadow
As a fun anecdote: Try driving by the AT&T building in Farmers Branch while on
a call. As of about a year and a half ago (I've switched to Sprint), it would
drop my call right as I drove by the building. Always made me chuckle.

To your point, it's really dependent on where you are. AT&T in Dallas works
better than Verizon. Sprint is more reliable than AT&T, but the data
throughput isn't as good.

