Dear AT&T
Oct 7, 1999 | 9:02 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 1999
Location: New York City
Programs: UA MM-1P, Hilton Life Diamond, Marriot Life Gold, ICH Spire
Posts: 4,080
Dear AT&T
Dear AT&T:
As I write this, it is 10:30 at night here in New York City. It's a cool, clear, fall evening, and a quiet one as well, because the firefighters, ambulance drivers, assorted peripatetic criminals, and, hence, the police, are all watching the Yankee game on television, as I am.
Television, in fact, is a technology that usually works, which can also be said about my conventional telephone service, which has been provided flawlessly for the past 22 years by Bell Atlantic and its predecessors.
Alas, "flawless" is not an adjective I can honestly use in connection with my AT&T wireless service. At this moment, as I'm sure you're aware, your cellular system in the NYC metro area is in the midst of another "total system outage". I say "another", because we've been blessed with this phenomenon before: in May of this year, if my memory serves me correctly. There was also the time in July when I travelled to Florida and nobody could call me, or anyone else roaming in South Florida with a "917" number, for two days. Not to mention days, if not weeks, of an inoperative cell in my neighborhood, and innumerable calls not completed due to your having sold cellular service far beyond your ability to provide it.
You HAVE to do better than this. People from New York City are assertive, outspoken, and influential. Can you really afford to have your NYC customers telling everyone how bad your service is in this area? I've been very loyal to AT&T: My Bell Atlantic account is locked to prevent slamming; I hang up on MCI and Sprint every time they call me. (I hate having to hang up, but they just continue talking after I've said that I'm not interested in changing long distance carriers.) I really like the unified billing I get from your Personal Network plan, and I appreciate the rate concessions I receive as a Digital One Rate customer. But, as James Earl Jones used to say in those Bell Atlantic commercials, none of it matters if my calls don't go through. And, far too often, my cellular calls don't go through.
I know you can do better. Fifty years ago, your scientists invented the transistor, for heaven's sake. You even used to hold the patent on feedback! (Note to non-engineers: this is good, not bad.) AT&T should not be known as the provider of sub-standard cellular service. How do you think you're going to fare around here when you start trying to get people to switch their local phone service from Bell Atlantic? Not very well, if they have an AT&T cell phone. (And if you're planning to provide that service over their cable TV wiring, don't tell anyone. Nobody I know has any interest in seeing their telephone service become as unreliable as their cable TV service.)
There is still time to repair the damage, both marketing and electronic. But you're going to have to divert some of the billions of dollars you were planning to use for that next big acquisition and use them to fix up your cellular infrastructure. Cell service is too important a part of your brand identity for you to go on like this much longer.
And, by the way, although I didn't want to bring this up, I think it is time you made an economic goodwill gesture to your NYC metro area customers. You'll know what to do.
Your faithful customer (now, but maybe not forever),
RichG
[This message has been edited by RichG (edited 10-07-1999).]
As I write this, it is 10:30 at night here in New York City. It's a cool, clear, fall evening, and a quiet one as well, because the firefighters, ambulance drivers, assorted peripatetic criminals, and, hence, the police, are all watching the Yankee game on television, as I am.
Television, in fact, is a technology that usually works, which can also be said about my conventional telephone service, which has been provided flawlessly for the past 22 years by Bell Atlantic and its predecessors.
Alas, "flawless" is not an adjective I can honestly use in connection with my AT&T wireless service. At this moment, as I'm sure you're aware, your cellular system in the NYC metro area is in the midst of another "total system outage". I say "another", because we've been blessed with this phenomenon before: in May of this year, if my memory serves me correctly. There was also the time in July when I travelled to Florida and nobody could call me, or anyone else roaming in South Florida with a "917" number, for two days. Not to mention days, if not weeks, of an inoperative cell in my neighborhood, and innumerable calls not completed due to your having sold cellular service far beyond your ability to provide it.
You HAVE to do better than this. People from New York City are assertive, outspoken, and influential. Can you really afford to have your NYC customers telling everyone how bad your service is in this area? I've been very loyal to AT&T: My Bell Atlantic account is locked to prevent slamming; I hang up on MCI and Sprint every time they call me. (I hate having to hang up, but they just continue talking after I've said that I'm not interested in changing long distance carriers.) I really like the unified billing I get from your Personal Network plan, and I appreciate the rate concessions I receive as a Digital One Rate customer. But, as James Earl Jones used to say in those Bell Atlantic commercials, none of it matters if my calls don't go through. And, far too often, my cellular calls don't go through.
I know you can do better. Fifty years ago, your scientists invented the transistor, for heaven's sake. You even used to hold the patent on feedback! (Note to non-engineers: this is good, not bad.) AT&T should not be known as the provider of sub-standard cellular service. How do you think you're going to fare around here when you start trying to get people to switch their local phone service from Bell Atlantic? Not very well, if they have an AT&T cell phone. (And if you're planning to provide that service over their cable TV wiring, don't tell anyone. Nobody I know has any interest in seeing their telephone service become as unreliable as their cable TV service.)
There is still time to repair the damage, both marketing and electronic. But you're going to have to divert some of the billions of dollars you were planning to use for that next big acquisition and use them to fix up your cellular infrastructure. Cell service is too important a part of your brand identity for you to go on like this much longer.
And, by the way, although I didn't want to bring this up, I think it is time you made an economic goodwill gesture to your NYC metro area customers. You'll know what to do.
Your faithful customer (now, but maybe not forever),
RichG
[This message has been edited by RichG (edited 10-07-1999).]
