Today I got a phone call from AT&T.  Well, it was from a computer at AT&T.  Or at least I think it was.  It could be the nation wire tapping program just doing a routine monitoring of my line pretending to be AT&T.  But assuming its AT&T a recording, yes a recording, told me to call AT&T to ask them about my account.  It gave me the phone number to call, told me that I should call them about my account, and then gave me the number to call again.  Only I had no paper to write things down with so I hung up, tried to dial the number from memory and then got a wrong number message.

A recording!  Why is it that they can afford to do any number of things that are called advertising but they fail to offer the customer service experience that would make customers want to do business with them?  Can you believe that in a customer service scenario they chose to use an electronic device to 1) irritate me like nothing else and 2) cause me to have to scramble to remember a number and 3) use a recording to communicate ‘an important message’?  So I called AT&T’s customer service line that is published on their website and after a little pinball-like action through their automated system I arrived at a customer service rep named Leslie.  Leslie was nice and helped me the best she could, she helped me determine that something had shut off my auto-pay plan (which has worked for some time now without a problem).  Something had shut it off three months ago.  And after accumulating three months worth of bills they were kindly letting me know that, finally, I should pay my bill.  Three months!  A recording!  Agggghhhhhhh!!!!!

I don’t know who is responsible for the numbskullery that is their procedure and policy in dealing with billing snafus but this was a really irritating way to interrupt a Friday.  So I’m going to pay my bill and attempt to reset my auto-pay program, but this is just irritating.  Thanks for nothing AT&T.  A recording!