A little trick that AT&T taught me

Hey there! This post was written in 2007, so it may contain information that is no longer accurate or thoughts that no longer reflect how I feel. As human beings, we're constantly learning and bettering ourselves through experiences and interactions with the world and each other.

I keep posts like this around for historical purposes and to prevent link rot, so please keep this in mind as you're reading.

— Cory

I recently called "The New AT&T" to merge my BellSouth and Cingular services into one bill in an attempt to save money. When I agreed to let them enable long distance service on my account they told me that after the call they would transfer me to a third party company. This company would, effectively, confirm my long distance changes and life would be great from thereon after.

Well, I ended up staying on the line only to be disconnected moments later. The next day I got a voicemail stating that the confirmation failed and I'd have to call and have them transfer me again. So I called…and waited…and waited…and waited. Finally, the rep picked up the phone and (after another 10 minutes of researching my account) stated she was going to transfer me to the third party service again.

I quickly asked her if she had an extension that I could call her back on in case I got disconnected again, which she said she didn't. She did tell me, however, that if I got disconnected again I should just call the same number and dial the option for New Customers, and that this would get me to a representative almost immediately (she also mentioned that she wasn't supposed to tell me this).

I know this isn't really anything profound, but it's kind of funny hearing it straight from the horse's mouth: once you're a customer, you're pretty much on the back burner. So now you know the trick and you shouldn't feel bad using it. I know I don't.