For 3 weeks, people I have been calling have been saying, hey
whats up with your phone, your caller ID says Thomas Lotter. This
could be very disturbing to a potential business client, or an existing client
who would be wondering what the heck is up….what didn’t you pay your phone
bill, now you have to borrow a phone?
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I called ATT, big run around as usual. 30 minutes invested.
After talking to a flunky, who said it’s the other carriers
problem and that she couldn’t do anything. She said you have
to talk to the “other carriers”. How many others “I don’t
know”. How can I get a hold of them and what do I say to
them? “I can’t help you with that, it’s the other carriers
problem”. No it’s my problem because potential clients could be
very turned off or not even answer the phone if they see an incorrect caller
ID. “There is nothing we can do Sir”
Since the flunky didn’t even have good lies, I asked if she
could detail my whole issue to the supervisor so the supervisor could not just
call me back, but call me back with an answer. She said her message
system only allowed about 50 characters, all she could say was “customer caller
ID not correct”
She had supervisor call me back 2 hours later (not bad for
a Saturday)
She said its not ATT fault, its those other “carriers” who
didn’t update their records.
In explaining to her that it is not an update problem, but that
is was correct ID and then became incorrect ID.
She said that their database department has sent a request to
Time Warner to update their database. I see….so there is
something that ATT can do…..
I asked how. She said that she had sent an
email to ATT database people.
I asked how did she know that ATT database people sent the
request to TW database?
She said, oh it probably didn’t happen yet.
I asked if I could get a record of her request to ATT database
people, she said no, that is internal correspondence.
I asked if I could get a phone number for ATT database people so
I could verify when they sent the request. She said the database
people don’t talk to customers on the phone.
I asked for an email to the ATT database people, she stated that
is proprietary protected information.
I asked her to confirm that the TW database people received the request,
she stated she couldn’t do that.
I asked her for a phone or email to the TW database
people. She said she didn’t have that
information.
I asked her to check up in 7 to 10 business days, and report
back to me if TW updated their records. She said they
don’t provide that service.
I said what if it get lost in the process, and I lose 2
customers who are put off by having a fake name show up on caller ID, then
what-- I call back after 10 days and go through the whole shenanigans
again>? “We can’t control their database Sir”
She continued, I just had another client who had the same type
of problem with TW caller ID. So they
are trained to use a deflection….don’t worry because lots of people are screwed
just like you.
She said I could call back to ATT in 7 to 10 days to check on
things if I liked.
And these companies make 40% profit margin, whilst most “real”
businesses that are not monopolies who capture their government regulators, are
happy to end up with 8% to 10%. They only have to pretend they have
any respect for their “captive audience”
Rant Out
Then, after never being able to remember an email from ATT, I receive this 2 minutes after I post up my blog rant. Wow!
