AT&T exemplifies screw-the-consumer corporate arrogance at its worst.
DO NOT PATRONIZE AT&T or YOU'LL REGRET IT!
I had an ISP service package with AT&T Worldnet that included email, DSL, a
personal website on their server, and Usenet access. Suddenly they dropped
the Usenet service, with no compensation to customers that were forced to
find another source. Another example of their screw-the-customer attitude is
the fact that reaching a tech support person by phone typically requires at
least a 20 minute wait on hold. AT&T once had a good tech support service on
Usenet, but dropped that too and became very hard to reach. I should have
seen the writing on the wall and dropped AT&T back then!
This March 2nd I get an email that AT&T Worldnet service, DSL service, and
website hosting will no longer be available effective March 31st - A KNIFE
IN THE BACK to all their small business and individual customers!
They arranged a deal with Covad to take over the DSL service, and a new
email/web service that allows you to keep your existing email address and
ID. You could elect to use AT&T for dialup only, or go to another ISP
entirely. In effect, if you wanted to keep your present email address, IDs,
settings, and DSL, you are FORCED to accept Covad and still be tied to AT&T
as your ISP. Before, if your DSL service went down you had free dialup
backup, but no longer. Dialup now costs extra. And since converting to Covad
DSL about a week ago, I have already had a service failure!
For a business, the website customer-screwing by AT&T is the worst of all. I
had my site for years and it had a high ranking with the search engines -
top10. Now I have been FORCED to move it to another host with a new URL
unknown to the search engines. My initial outlay for 3 years of webhosting
and a domain was over $150. Fortunately I was able to upload my site to the
new host without the typical professional fee of $250 to do so, but it took
alot of my time. In addition, I'll have to toss and replace about $50 worth
of business cards with my old URL web address on them, replace other printed
materials with the old URL, change many documents, and inform many contacts.
I will inevitably lose business because the old URL, now in many website
links and hard-copy publications, has become useless.
The forced "migration" process from AT&T was complex and time-consuming, not
helped by the unavailability for several days of the means to do so at their
website where AT&T stated it would be. Instructions were vague and
non-specific, and good luck reaching them by phone! As the service cutoff
date approached, nothing could be done due to this and to AT&Ts
inaccessibility. Then, one day after completing part of the migration
process, CUTOFF! I had NO SERVICE - no web, no email, no DSL, no dialup,
nothing! Finally after hours of effort,I was able to establish my DSL
service. My Outlook Express was unable to download email until I corrected
that too - with no help from these corporate cretins that couldn't care
less!
Now, for the same monthly price as before (under a 1 year contract with a
BIG termination fee if you want out), I have DSL, web, and email. But no
dialup backup, Usenet, or website as before. The website costs extra now.
And will AT&T tech support improve? I wouldn't hold my breath!
The substantial expenses and inconveniences inflicted by this AT&T
customer-screwing is something for which a CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT would be
appropriate, but no doubt the agreement you are forced into when buying
their service protects them from responsibility. Clearly AT&T, with typical
mega-corpseration greed and arrogance, cares little for their home and small
business customers. This sort of thing will continue as long as they can
perpetrate such actions without being held accountable, and consumers and
businesses will remain at their mercy.
When you vote, keep in mind it is the Republican-Conservatives that protect
these mega-corpserate bullies and allow them to run amok, unregulated, and
perpetrate such consumer-screwing actions as this.
Bear in mind that the Democrat-Liberals certainly have enough votes in
Congress to remedy this, if they really cared about anything besides being
re-elected (yes, along with the other R/C crooks).
Deregulation, like so many other developments, was a double-edged sword. I
wonder if you're of an age where you can remember when the phone company
owned every inch of the phone system. Everything was hard-wired, even
changing a handset required a visit from Ma Bell. Of course, complete system
maintenance was included in your bill, and repair calls were unlimited and
free. Long Distance calls cost 35-40c/minute (and this was in the 1960's
mind you), so only the well-off could afford to talk to Grandma for long.
There were no 800 numbers, and a long-distance call to a distant company's
Customer Service could get prohibitively expensive. Remember "Out of town?
Call collect"???
On the other hand, Ma Bell employed thousands of skilled union technicians.
Every neighborhood had a couple of "Phone Company guys" who would move a
phone line to another room in your house "on the side" for a few bucks.
"Ma Bell's kids" were everywhere, buying houses and cars and food at your
local supermarket.
All that's gone now. The guy who comes to your house probably barely speaks
English, makes $7 an hour with no bennies, puts staples through your wires
and wouldn't know an electrical short if he stuck both fingers into a light
socket.
But we can call anywhere for almost nothing now.
You pays your money and takes your choice. Just don't make it
political---none of these creeps cares about you. You're just a pocket they
can stick their greasy hands in.
"Whistleblower" <Justice@USA.con> wrote in message
news:holk28$5an$1@news.eternal-september.org...
> BEWARE OF and AVOID doing business with AT&T!
>
> AT&T exemplifies screw-the-consumer corporate arrogance at its worst.
> DO NOT PATRONIZE AT&T or YOU'LL REGRET IT!
>
> I had an ISP service package with AT&T Worldnet that included email, DSL,
> a personal website on their server, and Usenet access. Suddenly they
> dropped the Usenet service, with no compensation to customers that were
> forced to find another source. Another example of their screw-the-customer
> attitude is the fact that reaching a tech support person by phone
> typically requires at least a 20 minute wait on hold. AT&T once had a good
> tech support service on Usenet, but dropped that too and became very hard
> to reach. I should have seen the writing on the wall and dropped AT&T back
> then!
>
> This March 2nd I get an email that AT&T Worldnet service, DSL service, and
> website hosting will no longer be available effective March 31st - A KNIFE
> IN THE BACK to all their small business and individual customers!
>
> They arranged a deal with Covad to take over the DSL service, and a new
> email/web service that allows you to keep your existing email address and
> ID. You could elect to use AT&T for dialup only, or go to another ISP
> entirely. In effect, if you wanted to keep your present email address,
> IDs, settings, and DSL, you are FORCED to accept Covad and still be tied
> to AT&T as your ISP. Before, if your DSL service went down you had free
> dialup backup, but no longer. Dialup now costs extra. And since converting
> to Covad DSL about a week ago, I have already had a service failure!
>
> For a business, the website customer-screwing by AT&T is the worst of all.
> I had my site for years and it had a high ranking with the search
> engines - top10. Now I have been FORCED to move it to another host with a
> new URL unknown to the search engines. My initial outlay for 3 years of
> webhosting and a domain was over $150. Fortunately I was able to upload my
> site to the new host without the typical professional fee of $250 to do
> so, but it took alot of my time. In addition, I'll have to toss and
> replace about $50 worth of business cards with my old URL web address on
> them, replace other printed materials with the old URL, change many
> documents, and inform many contacts. I will inevitably lose business
> because the old URL, now in many website links and hard-copy publications,
> has become useless.
>
> The forced "migration" process from AT&T was complex and time-consuming,
> not helped by the unavailability for several days of the means to do so at
> their website where AT&T stated it would be. Instructions were vague and
> non-specific, and good luck reaching them by phone! As the service cutoff
> date approached, nothing could be done due to this and to AT&Ts
> inaccessibility. Then, one day after completing part of the migration
> process, CUTOFF! I had NO SERVICE - no web, no email, no DSL, no dialup,
> nothing! Finally after hours of effort,I was able to establish my DSL
> service. My Outlook Express was unable to download email until I corrected
> that too - with no help from these corporate cretins that couldn't care
> less!
>
> Now, for the same monthly price as before (under a 1 year contract with a
> BIG termination fee if you want out), I have DSL, web, and email. But no
> dialup backup, Usenet, or website as before. The website costs extra now.
> And will AT&T tech support improve? I wouldn't hold my breath!
>
> The substantial expenses and inconveniences inflicted by this AT&T
> customer-screwing is something for which a CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT would be
> appropriate, but no doubt the agreement you are forced into when buying
> their service protects them from responsibility. Clearly AT&T, with
> typical mega-corpseration greed and arrogance, cares little for their home
> and small business customers. This sort of thing will continue as long as
> they can perpetrate such actions without being held accountable, and
> consumers and businesses will remain at their mercy.
>
> When you vote, keep in mind it is the Republican-Conservatives that
> protect these mega-corpserate bullies and allow them to run amok,
> unregulated, and perpetrate such consumer-screwing actions as this.
>
> BOYCOTT AT&T!
>
>
On 3/27/2010 2:50 PM, Whistleblower wrote:
> BEWARE OF and AVOID doing business with AT&T!
>
> AT&T exemplifies screw-the-consumer corporate arrogance at its worst.
> DO NOT PATRONIZE AT&T or YOU'LL REGRET IT!
>
> For a business, the website customer-screwing by AT&T is the worst of all. I
> had my site for years and it had a high ranking with the search engines -
> top10. Now I have been FORCED to move it to another host with a new URL
> unknown to the search engines. My initial outlay for 3 years of webhosting
> and a domain was over $150. Fortunately I was able to upload my site to the
> new host without the typical professional fee of $250 to do so, but it took
> alot of my time. In addition, I'll have to toss and replace about $50 worth
> of business cards with my old URL web address on them, replace other printed
> materials with the old URL, change many documents, and inform many contacts.
> I will inevitably lose business because the old URL, now in many website
> links and hard-copy publications, has become useless.
>
I have no use for AT&T. That said there is a reason why ISPs call the
webspace you get from them "personal web sites". If your business is www.someisp.com/~users/flowerpots and your email is flowerpots@someisp.com it is just a matter of time before you will need
to do you what you described.
"Dean" <dean173@yahoo.com> wrote in
news:4bb19e98$0$5007$607ed4bc@cv.net:
> You pays your money and takes your choice. Just don't make it
> political---none of these creeps cares about you. You're just a pocket
> they can stick their greasy hands in.
>
VERY well said. I had a Bell South "carphone" at $4.50/min...(c;]
IMTS actually worked if you could afford to press that button!
--
"iPad is to computing what Etch-A-Sketch is to art!"
I skipped the bagphone era. My first mobile was an Audiovox about the size
and weight of half a brick. I loved having it, but couldn't really afford to
talk on it. My second one was just a little bit smaller and
lighter....Ironically, it was branded (who else)...AT&T!!!! Then what was
the new one called----"MicroTAC"??? The first flip phone, would just about
fit in a pants pocket, but not comfortably.
They were all analog, and all power. Sounded great and worked well in most
areas. Battery was good for just about my shift of 8 hours, with no usage.
Wonder what those full-power jobs were doing to the gray matter??
I was always jealous of the guys with the genuine Moto bricks, you looked
like an astronaut talking on those.
"Larry" <noone@home.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9D4B864C7A897noonehomecom@74.209.131.13...
> "Dean" <dean173@yahoo.com> wrote in
> news:4bb19e98$0$5007$607ed4bc@cv.net:
>
>> You pays your money and takes your choice. Just don't make it
>> political---none of these creeps cares about you. You're just a pocket
>> they can stick their greasy hands in.
>>
>
> VERY well said. I had a Bell South "carphone" at $4.50/min...(c;]
>
> IMTS actually worked if you could afford to press that button!
>
> --
> "iPad is to computing what Etch-A-Sketch is to art!"
>
> Larry
>
"Dean" <dean173@yahoo.com> wrote in news:4bb2e4f3$0$5015
$607ed4bc@cv.net:
> Wonder what those full-power jobs were doing to the gray matter??
>
Nothing. That's all a scare tactic to keep the users from *****ing at
them every time they make the phone transmitters less and less powerful
so they don't occupy too many closer-spaced new towers in the
cities....while, of course, making country calls impossible as the
towers are all too far apart out there.
I've worked on megawatt radars, TV transmitters, 100KW FM transmitters,
50KW AM transmitters, all of them FAR, FAR more powerful than anything
from a sellphone company....If RF cooked us, there wouldn't be all us
old broadcast engineers sucking away at the Socialist Security Systems
across the planet. I'm 64 and don't glow in the dark. I'm not as good
as I once was, but, I'm as good once as I ever was....(c;]
Most broadcast and high powered radar technicians live well past 80,
sometimes into their 90s.....the ones who don't smoke or drink
themselves to death, that is. The "RF is bad for you" is all ********.
The only RF that's dangerous is when it sets fire to your fingers.....
--
"iPad is to computing what Etch-A-Sketch is to art!"
"Larry" <noone@home.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9D4C82AFCF452noonehomecom@74.209.131.13...
> "Dean" <dean173@yahoo.com> wrote in news:4bb2e4f3$0$5015
> $607ed4bc@cv.net:
>
>> Wonder what those full-power jobs were doing to the gray matter??
>>
>
> Nothing. That's all a scare tactic to keep the users from *****ing at
> them every time they make the phone transmitters less and less powerful
> so they don't occupy too many closer-spaced new towers in the
> cities....while, of course, making country calls impossible as the
> towers are all too far apart out there.
>
> I've worked on megawatt radars, TV transmitters, 100KW FM transmitters,
> 50KW AM transmitters, all of them FAR, FAR more powerful than anything
> from a sellphone company....If RF cooked us, there wouldn't be all us
> old broadcast engineers sucking away at the Socialist Security Systems
> across the planet. I'm 64 and don't glow in the dark. I'm not as good
> as I once was, but, I'm as good once as I ever was....(c;]
>
> Most broadcast and high powered radar technicians live well past 80,
> sometimes into their 90s.....the ones who don't smoke or drink
> themselves to death, that is. The "RF is bad for you" is all ********.
>
> The only RF that's dangerous is when it sets fire to your fingers.....
>
>
> --
> "iPad is to computing what Etch-A-Sketch is to art!"
>
> Larry
Larry, Michelle is going to be all over this. I am already cringing.
"Whistleblower" <Justice@USA.con> wrote in message
news:holk28$5an$1@news.eternal-september.org...
>
> I had an ISP service package with AT&T Worldnet that included email, DSL,
a
> personal website on their server, and Usenet access.
Yes, I lost a lot too like my dial up service, my personal web space but it
is what I could keep that I'm happy with. I could keep all six of my e-mail
addresses and I could keep my AT&T Business DSL.
The neat thing is, since I don't have to pay to keep my att.net e-mail
addresses I can switch to another ISP if I want to.
In other words as bad as it was it could have been worse if I'd lost e-mail
addresses I've had for over 10 years.
BEWARE OF AT&T! 
Linear Mode
