AT&T - model of inefficiency and bad customer service

[Egidio]

Well, it's no surprise to me now that AT&T is at the bottom of customer satisfaction when it comes to mobile carriers. Can there be a more inefficient way to upgrade the Infuse to GB than this comedy of errors AT&T created? The whole upgrade process could have been easier if it had been made available OTA, as Sprint did with the same update. Now everyone is struggling to update in a process that is at best convoluted and disorganized. Here's my horror story... so far.

No Mini Kies for Mac.
Mini Kies only works on 32-bit Windows.
I went to an AT&T store and the rep there says they could not help. Really??!!??
Unregistered device error! My phone was registered on the Samsung site in May 2011.
Three live chats with Samsung and no solution.
Two phone calls to Samsung customer support.
Still waiting for phone to show as "registered" on Mini Kies.

What's next?

I'll tell you what. I'm tweeting to the world how bad AT&T is with this process.
I'll wait for my 2-year contract to finish and will move on. No more AT&T stupidity with an update that could have been OTA -- if they cared about their customers.

Thanks for letting me vent.

 

[robjob19]

agreed only I heard that the 32 bit vs 64 bit windows thing is bogus - as ppl on the sammy forums running 64 bit win 7 have been able to upgrade w/o issue.

also as far as I can tell the issue may be two things:
1 is that T is sending it out based on some strange update schedule based on S/N
2. the OTA Nov firmware update made this new update not work (and a fix is coming soon)

We shall see - agreed that this is a total you know what show :-\

 

[youngzayiles]

Yeah its terrible.. I tried to update my girls stupid infuse and I couldnt even get mini kies to recognize the phone. Only option I have is to maybe try on somebody's computer because we both own windows 64-bit computers.. This is dumb!

 

[Bl00dRunzC0ld]

It's the update from November or whenever it was that makes your Infuse show up as unregistered. Here's what I did
1) Registered on Samsung site
2) Plugged into Kies, showed unregistered device
3) Used GTG's Ultimate Unbrick to go back to ORIGINAL stock
4) Plugged into Kies
5) Ran the update and now am on Gingerbread

All that literally took 10 minutes or so. Yeah I lost everything on the device, but I didn't have much on there in the first place.

 

[JakeRoux]

Well, it's no surprise to me now that AT&T is at the bottom of customer satisfaction when it comes to mobile carriers. Can there be a more inefficient way to upgrade the Infuse to GB than this comedy of errors AT&T created?

Not to mention the absolutely bizarre way the "notified" thier customers - via their website "Community Manager" whose posts contain the following disclaimer:

"I am an AT&T employee and the postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent AT&T’s position, strategies or opinions."

So I take it from that, we really haven't even been notified by AT&T or Samsung that there is an update available. Makes sense I guess, since there isn't one available for most of us.

 

[fewfx]

doesn't your Mac have Duel boot?

 

[reefrunway]

Well, it's no surprise to me now that AT&T is at the bottom of customer satisfaction when it comes to mobile carriers. Can there be a more inefficient way to upgrade the Infuse to GB than this comedy of errors AT&T created? The whole upgrade process could have been easier if it had been made available OTA, as Sprint did with the same update. Now everyone is struggling to update in a process that is at best convoluted and disorganized. Here's my horror story... so far.

No Mini Kies for Mac.
Mini Kies only works on 32-bit Windows.
I went to an AT&T store and the rep there says they could not help. Really??!!??
Unregistered device error! My phone was registered on the Samsung site in May 2011.
Three live chats with Samsung and no solution.
Two phone calls to Samsung customer support.
Still waiting for phone to show as "registered" on Mini Kies.

What's next?

I'll tell you what. I'm tweeting to the world how bad AT&T is with this process.
I'll wait for my 2-year contract to finish and will move on. No more AT&T stupidity with an update that could have been OTA -- if they cared about their customers.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Egidio,

Man, sorry to hear how much of a hassle this is for you. You are (no joking around) usually one of the pillars of stability and reason (and lack of negative thinking) in this community. Hang in there, we can help you get it done somehow. My one piece of advice (which you may have already done) would be try to re-register your device with Samsung. I, too, had registered mine as soon as I got (back in May)... but it wasn't showing up as registered when I looked at "My Items" in my Sammie profile (only my Samsung TV that I bought and registered back in 2009). So, again, maybe try re-registering and see if you can get around this humdinger of an upgrade that way.

Otherwise, keep us posted. We have some amazing problem solvers on here --- much more adept than AT&T phone jockeys. We'll help you get it done.

Aloha,
Adam

 

[fewfx]

Yeah its terrible.. I tried to update my girls stupid infuse and I couldnt even get mini kies to recognize the phone. Only option I have is to maybe try on somebody's computer because we both own windows 64-bit computers.. This is dumb!

your 64 Bit can run as 32Bit Use the Compatibility mode.

 

[fewfx]

Well, it's no surprise to me now that AT&T is at the bottom of customer satisfaction when it comes to mobile carriers. Can there be a more inefficient way to upgrade the Infuse to GB than this comedy of errors AT&T created? The whole upgrade process could have been easier if it had been made available OTA, as Sprint did with the same update. Now everyone is struggling to update in a process that is at best convoluted and disorganized. Here's my horror story... so far.

No Mini Kies for Mac.
Mini Kies only works on 32-bit Windows.
I went to an AT&T store and the rep there says they could not help. Really??!!??
Unregistered device error! My phone was registered on the Samsung site in May 2011.
Three live chats with Samsung and no solution.
Two phone calls to Samsung customer support.
Still waiting for phone to show as "registered" on Mini Kies.

What's next?

I'll tell you what. I'm tweeting to the world how bad AT&T is with this process.
I'll wait for my 2-year contract to finish and will move on. No more AT&T stupidity with an update that could have been OTA -- if they cared about their customers.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Macs can Dual boot. and your 64 Bit can run as 32Bit Use the Compatibility mode if you have a PC with 64 bit.

 

[Egidio]

Guys,

You're missing the point here. Yes, Macs have dual boot, but why do we have to go through such troubles? Other carriers do updates OTA. Besides, even if a user needs to run Windows on a Mac, it means having Windows installed. So, to get this frigging update, a user would have to buy Windows! Not every Mac user thinks about running Windows on a Mac.

Anyway, thanks for the words of encouragement.

Adam, you said your Infuse was not showing on "My Items." Well, mine was. Go figure! Anyway, while on the phone with Samsung last night, the rep re-registered my Infuse.

On through the AT&T fog... )

 

[sphinx23]

I know exactly what you mean about At&t customer service,which I've been threw three other service providers and didn't get the same lousy service as At&t.I'm just waiting till At&t tries to take away my grand fathered unlimited service which I'll give the my two cents and leave them for an better carrier.Hopefully At&t will turn things around before they lose their valued customers.

 

[cwmont13]

+1 on the fact that AT&T's customer service has gone way downhill over the last few years.

I've been with ATT since the old Cingular days. I used to be able to go in to a store and the reps could take care of anything and if not they would call support and get you taken care of. The reps in the stores knew the facts on every phone they sold and any question you had would be answered. You left with the best device for you based on your needs.

Then it got to where maybe only 1 person in a store actually knew their stuff. You got to know who that was and only dealt with them. None of the other "drones" working there could answer even the most simple of questions. If it was anything major you had to call customer service. At least they could get it done for you.

Now it's digressed to the point where it doesn't matter if it's at the store level or calling customer service. You're lucky if you can talk to someone who can actually get you taken care of. In the store they always try to sell you the iPhone, or any problem with your current "non apple" device can be fixed if you just get the new iPhone. When I call customer service their first level support can only read from the script they're provided and chances are excellent that you will know way more than whoever is on the other end. I ask for a supervisor first thing as I don't feel like wasting 30 minutes while first level support tells me I have to "wipe" my phone because that's what their script says and I know I don't need to wipe the device. The last two calls I made where I talked to a supervisor regarding issues with my former BB Torch ended in frustration for me because it now appears that nobody at AT&T from store employees to supervisors knows squat about BB's anymore.

AT&T doesn't care if you leave them because another fish is walking in the door while you are walking out. Sadly most if not all the other providers are just as bad or worse now so what do you do?

I have 4 lines with them and mine still has unlimited data (at least till they figure out a way to screw me out of that) so I'm stuck with them for now. One line is OK for upgrade this month, the contracts on the other 3 won't be done till late 2012. I'm undecided about upgrading the one line but with LTE rolling out in my area I'm tempted to get the Skyrocket. The unlimited data is the main reason I'm still with AT&T, if they pull that I'm looking elsewhere. Another reason I'm staying (for now at least) is that I still have one person who works for AT&T at the store level whom I've dealt with for years and he's the exception as he knows his stuff. Only problem is he now works at a store that's a 60 mile round trip away from me.

As far as the Infuse GB update goes, it's finally here at last but the majority of users can't even do the upgrade. Another case of the 4 P's "Piss Poor Prior Planning". My Infuse isn't even a year old yet but to AT&T it's an old device and is being "EOL'd" so why should they care.

Besides all my problems can be solved if I just upgrade to the new iPhone. That's what they told me!

This whole upgrade issue makes me so glad that I'm running Infused 2.2.3 and don't have to worry about the hassle of doing the upgrade. YMMV

 

[SCjRqrQCnBQ19QoYCtdl]

I used Odin back to stock, and it did work for me. I was no longer getting "unregistered device" and the button to upgrade was available. However, instead of upgrading, I decided just to go ahead with a custom ROM because I don't wont to go without Root and I don't like some of the changes the upgrade makes - such as losing sound/silent toggle on notification drop down.

So I installed ZEUS from XDA site. After some initial problems caused by me, it is working great. The notification shade is super - it has like 18 toggles and you can chose which to include and in what order.

Otherwise very smooth. I am happy.

But good luck to all that are still struggling with the Samsung update.