7 thoughts on “AT&T gets a tiny lift from iPhone”

  1. AT&T’s problem could have something to do with systems problems after the SBC merger.

    I have changed or ordered 5 home phone lines in the past 6 months, mostly to take advantage of new pricing bundles. In every case customer service has been polite and knowledgeable about services. But they have never gotten an order right in even 2 tries.

    • Custom calling services (caller ID, etc.) ordered as bundles have been billed individually, at twice the bundled rate.
    • Line configuration is always different from what I requested. Not just little-misunderstanding different – hugely different. For each of 3 home lines it has taken 4-5 calls to configure them correctly.
    • AT&T notified me that my DSL service request had been canceled (turns out they couldn’t deliver it for weeks), then they sent me a modem for the canceled line.
    • When I requested another DSL line to replace the canceled one (!), AT&T’s order department phoned later to tell me that the number they had assigned to it was now unavailable. I called CS, and asked the agent to check again. “Oh, wait, this is strange, sir. That number is being held for…. you.”

    AT&T has been good about all this, sending me over $150 in refund checks and promising another $200 of discounts and rebates. But it can’t be easy to add lots of new lines with an order system designed by the Keystone Kops.

  2. Their margins are ~10%? That is simply ridiculous. They will get eatin’ alive if this continues for a decade. New business model required.

  3. with reference to the iPhone debacle, i think they got more bad PR and news coverage out of the launch. my sister got the phone the first day and it didn’t work for the first 24 hours. she had to go to the AT&T store and wait forever to get it fixed and she is still having problems.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.