Media Motions Consumer Corner

AT&T's 3G CALL FAILED Saga

hal@mediamotions.com — 2010-06-28T16:17:52-04:00

Ok, you try to do that on an iPhone) or better yet, tell me to sync the phone to my computer because that would resolve the reception issues (yes, I was told that several times). ... I was told multiple times over two years that they had specifically dispatched engineers to my home area and they had determined that there were no problems with their signal. ...Once you connect with one of these AT&T clowns, you also get daily messages about what time they have coffee, hot hot the day is, when they are on vacation and similar non-helpful verbiage spewed into the Twittersphere in an attempt to make you feel like they are a friend and 'responsive'. ...All I had to do was go to an AT&T store (they wouldn't send it), buy it (they couldn't waive the charge), set it up and then they would reimburse me for it on a future bill. ...I still have crappy 3G coverage, I have spent nearly $700 on new hardware because they kept telling me the network was fine, the Microcell is a complete failure and I feel like the fool.

An Open Letter to AT&T Wireless Services

hal@mediamotions.com — 2009-07-18T21:07:20-04:00

I must begin by saying that it seems somewhat counter-intuitive that I was told that the only way to lodge my complaint with a technologically advanced company such as AT&T is by sending snail mail to your address. ...Meanwhile, most of the time I call into reps, they tell me ”there are several towers down in your area“ or ”we are building new towers to address those dead spots” or (my personal favorite) “the hurricanes from last year have affected South Florida service”. ...I’ve been to Apple Stores to have the phones checked, swapped SIM cards (that makes no sense at all), and a few other steps to re-program my phone with new cell tower information. ...The fact that I’ve been told that I’ve exceeded all limits for AT&T to refund me for service outages proves that this is an extreme situation and not “normal”. ...Although the rep was careful not to provide language on any admission of network issues, he did say that his next calls would be to high level engineering to see what might rectify my issues.

AT&T (Billing and Wireless)

hal@mediamotions.com — 2009-04-05T08:50:56-04:00

As many have done over the past two years, we moved from a reliable service (Verizon) just to get our hands on the iPhone. ...As a former Apple employee, generally well-informed consumer and by the experiences of several iPhone owners in the area, I can assure you that the AT&T 3G network and the iPhone do not work well together. ... And don’t start down the path that maybe it’s my iPhone hardware, we have three iPhones and they all do the same thing. ...I call each month with new complaints about service and get placated with a service credit or some vague promise about how they are very close to fixing the issue(s) I bring up. ...If I see five bars on my phone and the cell tower is inside the stadium and visible from my seat I should get service, right?

7-11 (Gas Station Fill-Up)

hal@mediamotions.com — 2008-09-25T20:46:06-04:00

Fast forward a few weeks and I was back at the same 7-11 looking to fill up my four 5-gallon gas cans to prepare for the possible arrival of Hurricane Ike. ...This time I got a song-and-dance about how it might be a display issue and that I should wait to see my bill -or- perhaps I had overfilled the 5-gallon containers. ...One day on my way home from work, I stopped in again to see if the store manager had taken care of the issue yet. The attendant went in the back office and came back with a handwritten note showing that they should pump $7.44 worth of gas into my car. ...I explained to the attendant that the manager (a) couldn’t do simple arithmetic, (b) forgot that I had gotten *less than* 20 gallons and (c) hadn’t taken into consideration that the gas price was now $3.98/gal.

Nintendo (Nintendo DS Handheld)

hal@mediamotions.com — 2008-06-23T22:54:23-04:00

After a brief look at it, I knew it was nothing I could do and we were probably going to have to buy him a new one...post haste! ... If he wasn't able to play his Lego Star Wars again soon, I knew we as parents would soon be suffering. ...You can either pay us (forget the amount - but about $60) for a brand new unit and return the old one at our expense -or- we can cross-ship you a refurbished unit and you would simply play a $5 shipping charge (so long as you return the old one in the pre-piad box) -or- you can ship us your unit and we'll ship you a refurbished unit upon receipt. ...I pulled out the spotless replacement unit, plugged in my son's game and off he went...happy as could be. ...They treated me more than fairly, never asked for a date of purchase and empathized with the plight of a parent who's kid had lost his “best friend.“

Scotts (Bonus S Feed & Feed)

hal@mediamotions.com — 2008-05-06T07:47:50-04:00

Scotts Bonus S is designed specifically for Southern grass like mine and I was very happy with it for the past three seasons since living in Miami. ...To my surprise, a supervisor got on the line and spent nearly 40 minutes with me trying to help determine what went wrong and how to avoid the issue going forward. Although we didn't end up with a solution, I was amazed that Scotts would spend such time and become invested in my success with my lawn. ...Unfortunately, that has yet to arrive, but I have high hopes because of how well the rest of this issue has been handled to date. ...They go into great detail about temperature, moisture and potential reasons why the Scotts Bonus S did not work on my weed issue.

Home Depot (Hampton Bay)

hal@mediamotions.com — 2008-03-24T17:20:26-04:00

When we moved into our house about four years ago, we went to Home Depot and purchased Hampton Bay "Romano" ceiling fans for each bedroom in our house. ...A few months ago, we started to see that the threads inside our light sockets (part of the fan inside the glass dome) were wearing out and the bulbs would pop out or not make contact with the power pins and produce light. ...I started at Home Depot who told me that the Romano fan was several years discontinued and that all new fans come with different size light bulb sockets; thus, they had no replacement parts in stock. They suggested that I call a special number (it had even changed from the number printed in the manual) for warranty service and see if they could find me replacement parts. To my surprise, when I called the number, I was connected to Ceiling Fans USA, Inc. in Glendale, Arizona where a nice person listened to the issue and said they'd be glad to find the parts and ship them for free!

Hoover Vacuum Cleaner

hal@mediamotions.com — 2008-03-06T15:53:17-05:00

Both times they told me to clean it myself or take it to a service center, but that this was considered normal operation and they weren’t going to replace it or allow me to return it. ...When I told them this was a design issue, not a broken individual vacuum, they pretty much read from their employee manual and said again to take it in for servicing. ... When I next reached Hoover’s customer support phone line and mentioned they could see the problems I was having with their vacuum on YouTube, they transferred my call to corporate headquarters. Once with HQ, the Hoover employee said they hadn’t heard other complaints about the HEPA system failing and suggested that I take it specifically to a Hoover-owned service center and discuss the matter with them directly because “they are just as authorized to replace the unit as we are..but in either case Hoover needed to see the old vacuum anyway.”

Netgear (ReadyNAS NV+)

hal@mediamotions.com — 2008-03-12T15:25:55-04:00

I encountered my first issue when the phone number on the rebate form was for a 3rd party call center which wasn’t even handling this promotion! After speaking with a manager at that call center, she told me that Netgear had made a mistake when producing the promotional form. After some more prying, she were kind enough to give me a direct contact name and phone number for the person at Netgear who was responsible for the promotion. On January 28, 2008 I made first contact with Netgear and was told the drives were late to arrive at their offices, but they’d be going out early next week and since I had called, they’d send mine in the first batch as an overnight shipment. Three weeks later, after many unreturned emails and phone calls in the interim, I pushed enough to get another contact name of a Netgear manager in Los Angeles.

1-800-MATTRESS (Sealy)

hal@mediamotions.com — 2008-03-16T15:13:42-04:00

I made a single call to 1-800-MATTRESS and was pleasantly transferred to their customer relations department where Mark gave me my options... ...There were some forms to fill out, specific measurements to perform and pictures to take, which I completed, and then a 1-4 day period while Sealy reviewed the case. Once I submitted the materials, Mark called back the same day and said that because my mattress did have measurements outside the "normal tolerances" to be approved for a replacement, I should use a strong cover letter so that he could forward that to Sealy as to why the mattress was not acceptable to us. The following day, I got another call from Mark at 1-800-MATTRESS saying that Sealy had approved the replacement. Further, both Sealy and 1-800-MATTRESS suggested a different type of mattress construction that would better suit us (no pillow top feature, which apparently has a tendency to crush down like ours did).