Customer Service Advice

AT&T Yahoo Sucks...And It Doesn't Matter

AT&T Yahoo sucks. They did me wrong today. When you get "SBC Yahoo! services suspended" on all your business email accounts, you know it will be a bad day.

I often wonder if there are others out there like me.

When I get really bad customer service, I abandon a vendor for life.

I make a personal vow never to do business with them again.

I don't do it easily. The poor service has to truly be egregiously bad.

To date, there are only three vendors on my never-again list: Citibank, Sony and HP. HP even annoyed me to the point where I wrote an HP Sucks article that you can find on my site.

But today finds me adding a fourth: AT&T Yahoo. Actually, I think I have to ban them both --- so I'm really adding a fourth and a fifth.

AT&T, you are officially banned for life.

Yahoo, you are officially banned for life.

(OK, it may take me a month or two to transition to somebody else but you both are on notice --- soon you will be banned from my life once and for all!)

I don't enjoy this process. Sometimes, it's like getting a divorce. You love the person but you can't live with them. In a matter of minutes, these vendors' poor service converted me from being a vendor-lover to being a vendor-hater.

On this most recent banning, I do have a few regrets. Previously Ameritech Yahoo, then SBC Yahoo, and now AT&T Yahoo - the name seems to change all the time, but this is a vendor that was good to me for quite a while.

Using my SBC DSL lines and my Yahoo email accounts, I started and grew a number of businesses.

I won't go into the details on how badly I was screwed by AT&T Yahoo just recently. It was one of those classic things where it was partly my fault but their processes and systems were stupid beyond belief, and the end result was that I lost an entire day and a few clients as a result of their idiocy.

What annoys me most about it is that their poor customer service will barely slow them down. The heads of customer service at these companies no doubt continue to collect their large paychecks, and shareholders keep throwing money at these companies, driving up the market valuation.

As a startup entrepreneur, if I screw up, my customers walk and it hurts me. But AT&T and Yahoo will never notice that I am gone.

Lord knows, my boycott of Citibank and HP certainly hasn't yet sent them down the toilet.

I think these big companies realize they can screw us little guys and live to tell the tale.

Their motto must be something like this: "We can happily screw some of the people some of the time, but just make sure we are never screwing all of the people all of the time."

Most of the articles on my site have a point to them. This one is more of a ramble.

I guess the moral of the story is: It's good to be a big company because you can screw up and you can screw people, and life goes on.

Small companies don't have that luxury, do they?

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Conversation Board

Have you had a similar poor customer service experience with AT&T or Yahoo? Please contribute so others can benefit -- or just to vent your frustrations. You are definitely not alone.

  • Jennifer posted on 3/22/2007
    Jennifer
    I'm sorry but I just wanted to say that AT&T is one of the worst companies I have ever known of, and no I would never buy stock in them! Their customer service is a sham and nothing but headaches because each employee is trained to follow unethical policies. If you're a consumer that has not yet had service with AT&T - do yourself a big favor and avoid them. Whether you're a past, current, or future consumer of theirs - you will need the help of Consumer Protection, and may find your local or state office simply by looking it up online.
  • Cat posted on 3/28/2007
    Cat
    OMG...AT&T does SUCK!!!!! I just had the worst experience on the phone with what they consider "Customer Service." I am losing AT&T. I am sure someone else would gladly take my business and not be so rude. 3/28/07
  • Reta Higginbotham posted on 4/8/2007
    Reta Higginbotham
    I have had problems with AT&T for the longest time - when they purchased SBC I about died. I had an AT&T cell phone years ago and their customer service sucked then and I vowed never to use them again. They discontinued my service with SBC, because they said I had a business and I used my fax machine. True I did use my fax to send something for my husband to the company he works for in Michigan. I substitute teach and I don't run a business out of my home. It almost took an act of congress to get my service back. I'm in a situation where At&t is the only provider for web service where I live. So, they had me over a barrel. I really can't believe they can get away with treating people like that.
  • Amir- yahoo hater posted on 4/16/2007
    Amir- yahoo hater
    Those bastards at yahoo banned me for calling an idiot an idiot on yahoo answers. First they got my answers account (who cares). Then 2 MONTHS LATER, my email. Yahoo can go suck a nut, I'm done with those clowns.
  • Chris G. posted on 4/16/2007
    Chris G.
    I recently switched to AT&T Yahoo DSL from Time Warner. Oh my God, what a stupid thing to do. I tried to save a few bucks and got screwed. I can barely keep my connection up long enough to check email. I have had the service for a month and have had more problems than in the 5 years with Time Warner. On top of this, I find that the service desk is in India. As a technical support professional myself this is so painful. I either can't understand them, they can't understand me, or they want me to reset the modem 300 times. If you gripe enough they will send you to tier 2 support which is in the U.S. but they will inform you that you'll be charged if they deem it's your fault. I will be banning them myself and advising everyone on the planet to steer clear of them.
  • noleak posted on 4/30/2007
    noleak
    AT&T sucks. They suspended my email without notice. By the time I called to reactivate my account, I lost seven days of email. AT&T won't mess with me again. I'm out for good soon. I started with SBC, when AT&T took over they divided the bandwidth to four speeds, and my seviced slowed. I called and asked what happened to my high speed internet,they said I didn't have high speed and offered a higher priced package. I declined. I wish I was mad enough to dissconect service then. Suckered me with discounts on my service.
  • larry dale conatser posted on 1/5/2010
    larry dale conatser
    I thought I was the only one. I am still with AT&T. Each company you wrote about I have had troble. Yahoo is the worse company I have every dealed with. I believe that they have stolen or misused my idenity. I do use them to know what companies not to do business with. If it shows up on Yahoo or AT&T I will not do any business with that company if possible.
  • Becky posted on 5/12/2010
    Becky
    Yahoo has terrible customer service. They can't do anything.
  • jeff minnich posted on 5/20/2010
    jeff minnich
    I had my Yahoo account cancelled because I had a picture of a motorcycle helmet with a cartoon mooning in my profile. As a result of Yahoo cancelling my account, I lost all my address and phone numbers that I can't replace. It's crazy. I don't even have the address or phone # to my landlord so I don't know where to send my rent!
  • Joe posted on 6/9/2010
    Joe
    Yahoo is simply a state endorsed illegal operation designed to steal your money. Customer Sevices sits in sub-continent Asia, and the don't care, don't hassel me, rake in your money owners ait in USA. SAD WORLD
  • Al posted on 6/17/2010
    Al
    Yahoo sucks. They want to control your life.
  • Matt posted on 7/5/2010
    Matt
    They did it to me and I have no idea what for. All I can think of is one off-color remark about Catholic priests in a chat room full of much, much worse stuff. I can't get a hold of a real person, they won't tell me what happened, just an automated message message saying Yahoo! can delete anyone at anytime for any reason. Yahoo sucks!
  • Georgia posted on 7/20/2010
    Georgia
    ATT screwed me over big time on my attyahoo email. I never deleted anything and check my email constantly sometimes 4 or 5 times a day. When losing power in our neighborhood for 4 hours the 27th of June, I immediately got online once power became available only to find out ABSOLUTELY ALL my read email had disappeared. This was over 2 yrs of email and I'm furious. I called ATT and talked with the internet people only to hear them telling me they can't retrieve anything..what a rip off !!!!!

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