Media in the New Millennium

Dear Mr. Stephenson:

I’ve been pretty vocal with my displeasure about your company in some pretty public forums of late. I thought I’d take a moment to tell you why, as well as offer a suggestion for fixing your problem.

Here’s the issue: I hire you to provide me with one product — the voice/data service on my iPhone. Your company is doing a terrible job with that. Nearly 50 percent of my calls drop. Some days, it’s more than 50 percent. My 3G connectivity for voice and data is spotty at best. In short, I’m not happy with your service, but because I signed a contract with you that seems to say you can do whatever you like and I just have to take it and continue to pay you, there’s really nothing I can do.

That said, I also realize the massive technological issues you face in running a nationwide wireless network. Boulder is probably tough — lots of hills, and it seems we’ve got a high penetration of iPhone users that take up lots of bandwidth. I get all that, and I’m willing to cut you a little slack. But you know what I expect from anyone I do business with?

The truth, Mr. Stephenson. I expect the truth.

I’ve personally been told a number of different stories by several of your customer service people. Three of them — sethbloom, ATTSusan and ATTJohnathon — have reached out to me on Twitter. The problem? They don’t have the information they need to help me. I want to know three things:

• Why has my voice service gotten so bad?
• What are you doing to fix it?
• When may I expect improvement?

Many of my friends and colleagues also have iPhones and are experiencing the same issues. We’ve been comparing notes. Here’s a sampling of what we’ve been told over the last few weeks by various members of your Customer Service group:

• The 850 overlay should fix everything, and I’m told it will be complete on Friday (that would be Friday, Sept. 4. If it happened, nothing got fixed).
• The service has been bad because we’re working on the system, but that will be done within a few days (that was early September).
• We understand there are problems, and we’re investigating them and hope to have things corrected within the next few weeks
  (so, you’ve not started?).
• Six towers are down in the Boulder area, and the rest are overloaded. We’re working on it. (Did they just tip over? All at once?)
• We don’t guarantee service in buildings (OK, but this person had no coverage in their front yard. For 911. Ouch).
• You might need a new SIM chip (Done. No difference).
• Are you turning your phone on and off at least once each day? That will make a difference (my phone usually goes off when I throw it against the wall after three or four drops in a row. And, no, that’s not the problem. I’m kidding about the wall — but not by much).
• We’re putting in a number of new towers and should be done within a couple of weeks (that was August. Again, if it happened…).
• And, my personal favorite: “You must not be having too much trouble, you talked for 18,000 minutes last month. ” “Do you mean 1,800?” I asked. “No, it says 18,000!” (I’ll let you do that math, Mr. Stephenson.)

I don’t think these are bad people. I simply think they’ve not been given the information they need to do their job. Think how different things might be for you if you’d have sent your Colorado Front Range customers a letter with our bill (credit where credit is due, you’re very good at sending those out) that said something like this (I made up the details, but you’ll get the idea):

Valued Customers:

The Boulder/Denver area needs more capacity to provide you with the kind of service we expect. We know this, and we’re working on it. Over the next three months, we will be adding five new cell towers in Boulder County and 10 in the Denver Metro area and we will be changing over to the new 850 spectrum. We’re completing these upgrades in stages, but we expect to have them all complete by Oct. 31. At that time, we’re confident the service quality will increase dramatically on both voice and data.

We know service issues are frustrating. To thank you for your patience as we upgrade, we’ve enclosed a $25 gift certificate good for any purchase at any AT&T Store or online. Again, thank you for being an AT&T customer.

It’s simple, really, Mr. Stephenson. I’m an adult, I know that cellular networks are big, complicated things, and sometimes they don’t work like they’re supposed to. That said, I do expect people that I pay to be honest with me. The iPhone voice/data plan is one of the most expensive available, but you’re treating me like I’m an annoyance instead of a customer. That’s why I’m angry.

If I worked for you, I’d be angry as well, Mr. Stephenson. Sue, Johnathan and Seth seem like good folks that really want to help, but someone in your organization isn’t giving them the information they need to get that done. It’s not doing your customers any good, and I have to believe it’s frustrating your employees. You’ll lose good people that way, Mr. Stephenson.

Until someone gives me some information, or until the problems improve dramatically, I plan to be an online thorn in your side. Maybe if enough of us let you know we’re not happy — publicly and often — we’ll be presented with more options than counting the days to the end of our contracts.

Sincerely,

Doyle Albee
President
Metzger Associates
Boulder, Colorado

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