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AT&T, scumbags for 150 years

Ever since T. Vail tried to buy Congress to make AT&T a monopoly, they have acted like scum. pdf version
Many years ago I became convinced that customer service departments are useless and the only real way to get any action is to write the legal consul of the company that wrongs you.

So when some sleazebag lady called and lied to me that I had to re-up my existing AT&T DSL plan, I jotted this little letter. True to AT&T scumbaggery, it came back as undeliverable. Now, whether it is a charity or those rip-off police "benefits" or anything else, I tell them I never do business on the phone.

Mr. D. Wayne Watts
Sr. VP and General Counsel
AT&T Incorporated
175 E. Houston St.
P.O. Box 2933
San Antonio, TX 78299-2933

Dear Sir:
I have been the victim of predatory and fraudulent business practices at the hands of AT&T. This letter is intended to give you notice of the facts, and allow you to redress my grievances. Further communications will be as discovery for civil and criminal charges.

Here are the facts. I have both AT&T landline telephone service as well as AT&T DSL service. The phone service and DSL were business services at my business location in Sunnyvale California. On March 21 2008 I closed my business and moved into a house.		 Because of the proximity of the house, I was allowed to keep the same phone number. At that time I asked for a residential phone service using the same number and was told that I had to keep the business service for a year before I could change over to residential service. I now believe this to be a lie. I also asked to change my DSL to a residential plan, but since I needed to have a static IP address I was told I needed to keep my business plan.

Two weeks ago I got a call from an AT&T representative that offered me a DSL plan. Sir, please do not insult my intelligence. Plans are designed by your actuaries to make AT&T money, not to save me money. Knowing that I would only be signing up for something that would have fine print that changed rates or obligated to me a long-term commitment during the collapse of the American economy, I made very clear that I wanted no change in my service. I said this over and over. The woman would not relent; she said I still needed to confirm my existing plan. I now believe this to be a lie as well. I told her to go ahead.

Today, Tuesday March 3rd, 2009 at or about 8:15 AM PST, I received a call from another AT&T representative. She wanted to change my phone service. I told her my business was closed, that I resented the high charges, and that I wanted no change whatsoever to my phone service. She, perhaps having been trained by your showing her the movie Boiler Room three hundred times, would not give up.
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She told me that I had to confirm my existing plan. I believe this to be a lie. I told her I wanted residential phone service. She agreed to check and promised to call me back. She called me back around 8:30 AM PST and said that although I could change to residential service, there would be no cost savings.

I find this hard to believe and assume it is a lie like every single other thing I have been told by employees, agents, and assignees of your company. She tried to get me to sign up for AT&T long distance. I told her I had Sprint and reminded her of the ten times that I told her that "I want absolutely no change in my phone or DSL service." She then said I could get my long distance on the same bill. I explained that I already do get Sprint on my AT&T bill. She then tried to get me to sign up for AT&T international service.

I kept reminding her this is not a business; I make absolutely no international calls and that I DID NOT WANT ANY CHANGE TO MY PHONE OR DSL SERVICE. Is that statement hard to understand? Apparently so, because then she asked about free local calling and told me I have to sign up to keep that. More lies. It is now obvious that she was not an AT&T service person trying to keep my service but an AT&T salesperson trying to get me to sign up for something new.

I told her I was quite exasperated, since I was called a couple of weeks earlier about my DSL line. She asked what happened then and I explained that, once again, I wanted absolutely no change in my service but they told me I had to reconfirm. She typed something into her computer and said that she saw no record of that.

I assume that was because what you were trying to do to me two weeks ago was also illegal and
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that salesperson did not get me to say the right things to slam me to some new plan. So then she once again said that I have to reconfirm to keep my service.

In other words, she implied that if I did not do what she wanted you would terminate my service. On reflection I now think this to be a lie and the primary method that you are using to sell new plans to unsuspecting customers. Since it has happened to me twice that establishes a pattern. I remind you that, in California, felony conspiracy only takes two parties.

So the lady today tells me that I have to reconfirm my existing plan, and after I say that is OK, she tells me that if I cancel I am obligated to pay 50% of the amount of the contract. Of course she never told me what that contract was, its term, or its cost. She then asked for my last name, and address. I was late to a meeting at my job so I gave her the information and hung up. I told her I was satisfied because I thought that I had just kept my services. She then noted that when I get my bill there may be some "little changes" but not to worry about that.

believe your company representatives are habitual perpetual liars and I think your management encourages this. Now, all I want is the exact same phone and DSL service I have now. I don't want any more obligations and I don't want any plans or changes. Is your whole company comprised of mental incompetents? I do not want any changes. I have said that twenty times and now I am told I will get a bill with changes.

I respectfully ask that you rescind whatever this woman sold me, and that I retain the exact same service I have now. That is all I want. I used to try and make the world a better place but now I just want you to leave me alone.
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If you want to give the woman a commendation for best Boiler Room performance to a customer against his will, great. I just want the same phone and DSL service I have now.

If you want to keep doing this to other people, fine. I just want the same phone and DSL service I have now. If you have forced me into a different plan or an obligation I did not need, I will then drop both my AT&T landline and my DSL line. If you then try to make me pay 50% of the cost of whatever contract that lying woman scammed me into, I will fly to San Antonio and appeal to every executive in the company.

On March 4th 2009, I will call an AT&T representative and see exactly what was done to me. If she does not reverse whatever you did to me today, I will send letters to the Attorneys General of Texas and California, and begin discovery for my criminal and civil cases. You do not have enough paper shredders or plausible deniability to prevail, so I sternly advise you to unwind whatever rapacious behavior you visited on me today.
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