AT&T Delivers Blogging, Has No Idea What A Blog Is

att_blogging_delivered.jpg

This at&t billboard from their new campaign has been floating around Flickr for some time now. It, of course, alludes to the SBC acquisition of at&t (guess their doing the lower case thing now) and how that somehow delivers blogging. We suppose it just means they own more of the world's bandwidth so they have the right to say they deliver whatever they want.

Humorously, as is usually the case with large corporation sticking their feet into niche spaces, a Flickr user points out at&t, apparently, has no idea what a blog is according to a screen shot of a search on their website. One would assume these not so trivial oversights would be handled prior to the launch of a multi-million dollar campaign. Oh sorry. We forgot that thing they say about assuming things.

by Steve Hall    Jan-18-06   Click to Comment   
Topic: Bad, Brands, Outdoor, Strange   

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Comments



Comments

Corporations like hot words but sometimes they forget to make their ads relevant and truthful.

Posted by: Dhaval M. on January 18, 2006 2:08 PM

a site specific search on google tends to be more reliable than search tools integrated on websites.

there are results for "blog" on att.com but they aren't really good ones. hilarious.

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=blog+site%3Aatt.com&meta=

Posted by: Paul G on January 18, 2006 4:16 PM

they are also on a bunch of buses in the bay area. I saw one but didnt get a chance to get a picture.

Posted by: Rob Poitras on January 18, 2006 4:18 PM

http://www.projectdu.com/ is "...presented by SBC"

I found the website from an SBC news statement dated November 15, 2004.

Search for "SBC Blogging" on Google. The first link no longer exists, but it's still cached. The sublink is active though.

Posted by: Andrew B. on January 19, 2006 10:41 AM

"their"? you mean "they're". groan. talk about a rant.

Posted by: TT on January 19, 2006 10:58 AM

Oh yea. I was actually involved with the launch of ProjectDU. It was all SBC. Nothing to do with att.

Posted by: Steve Hall on January 19, 2006 11:31 AM

1. AT&T, typed out, is alwis ALL CAPS. Only lowecase in the logo.

2. Learn the difference between there, their, and they're.

3. What's your problem with AT&T? They operate DSL ISP service (Digital Subscriber Line, Internet Service Provider), therefore you use their broadband internet service to access blogs!

Posted by: gerard on January 26, 2007 3:22 PM

AT&T never learns value of customer service:

My broadband internet connectivity speed dropped to

• “Your SSID name is not valid. I will change it to a valid format”. Tech proceeded by adding the word “home” at end of my SSID name.
• “The reason for loss of speed could be a new piece of furniture in your house.”
• Not all computer brands are as fast
• You might have to change your wireless card
• Etc.

Posted by: Rob on April 18, 2008 10:34 PM

Well....now ATT wants to charge customers 500 dollars to PAY the billyou owe. You can pay your bill at the ATT store or you can pay it onlione...BUT ATT is going to charge you % bucks. WHAT A RIP OFF

Posted by: ran on May 2, 2008 6:09 AM

at&t, has moved to india, as a result when they double bill you you for 6 months they will only reimburse you for 3 months. they call this a "service" for good customer relations. i will now provide customer response on every website i can alerting all at&t customers, watch those bills. if you are injured and someone else is taking care of your bills, tell them to watch out for at&t. 16.95 seems like no big deal until you take that times 1000 customers. small customer base affected, 16950 dollars per month into at&t's pocket. and getting any money back is not easy, it took more than 10 phone calls and over a week for the superviser to return a phone call.

Posted by: jenny on August 5, 2008 4:40 PM

at&t, has moved to india, as a result when they double bill you you for 6 months they will only reimburse you for 3 months. they call this a "service" for good customer relations. i will now provide customer response on every website i can alerting all at&t customers, watch those bills. if you are injured and someone else is taking care of your bills, tell them to watch out for at&t. 16.95 seems like no big deal until you take that times 1000 customers. small customer base affected, 16950 dollars per month into at&t's pocket. and getting any money back is not easy, it took more than 10 phone calls and over a week for the superviser to return a phone call.

Posted by: jenny on August 5, 2008 4:41 PM

at&t, has moved to india, as a result when they double bill you you for 6 months they will only reimburse you for 3 months. they call this a "service" for good customer relations. i will now provide customer response on every website i can alerting all at&t customers, watch those bills. if you are injured and someone else is taking care of your bills, tell them to watch out for at&t. 16.95 seems like no big deal until you take that times 1000 customers. small customer base affected, 16950 dollars per month into at&t's pocket. and getting any money back is not easy, it took more than 10 phone calls and over a week for the superviser to return a phone call.

Posted by: jenny on August 5, 2008 4:41 PM

at&t, has moved to india, as a result when they double bill you you for 6 months they will only reimburse you for 3 months. they call this a "service" for good customer relations. i will now provide customer response on every website i can alerting all at&t customers, watch those bills. if you are injured and someone else is taking care of your bills, tell them to watch out for at&t. 16.95 seems like no big deal until you take that times 1000 customers. small customer base affected, 16950 dollars per month into at&t's pocket. and getting any money back is not easy, it took more than 10 phone calls and over a week for the superviser to return a phone call.

Posted by: jenny on August 5, 2008 4:44 PM

at&t, has moved to india, as a result when they double bill you you for 6 months they will only reimburse you for 3 months. they call this a "service" for good customer relations. i will now provide customer response on every website i can alerting all at&t customers, watch those bills. if you are injured and someone else is taking care of your bills, tell them to watch out for at&t. 16.95 seems like no big deal until you take that times 1000 customers. small customer base affected, 16950 dollars per month into at&t's pocket. and getting any money back is not easy, it took more than 10 phone calls and over a week for the superviser to return a phone call.

Posted by: jenny on August 5, 2008 4:46 PM

Starting 4 months ago - my normal $150 phone bill jumped to $400. When I called 4 different times to customer service, there was no explanation other than going over minutes. I could not understand because I knew that I was not talking more. I am sure customer service for AT&T runs into this a lot. I have paid over a thousand dollars in overage minutes in past 4 months.

I finally figured out yesterday, no thanks to Cingular/AT&T that every time I call my voicemail, Cingular charges me. I am a busy Realtor. I check voicemail 5x a day. This accounts for $250 to $450 a month on my phone bill. Charges for checking voicemail were not part of my agreement.

Does anyone know about a class action lawsuit for deceptive trades and practices against AT & T? Would anyone recommend a different provider that does not charge for checking voicemail?

If AT&T does not stop this new program of charging for checking voicemail, would anyone like to submit something with me to better business bureau? I am really upset. If I can not resolve my $900 bill this month - I might just start a new blog for AT & T unhappy customers.

Oh by the way, everytime you call customer service and wait on hold - you are racking up more overage charges. It happeded to me all 4 times that I called.

Posted by: John on August 20, 2008 3:51 PM

Run for your life! AT&T’s Customer Service has been taken-over by Zombies! I was an AT&T customer for 30+ years but not anymore. I am convinced that AT&T is SCAMMING their clients for millions of dollars, just by forcing them to use 'Operator Assisted' calls caused by their own faulty phone service lines.


When I recently called AT&T customer service about a like incident all of the reps that I spoke to, eerily in an almost spooky-way, responded in the same scripted, accented, mono-tone, word-for-word dialogue about some quirky rule that they “can not reimburse for an Operator Assisted call” and that it was basically my own fault for being forced to use an operator.


I tried, in vain to explain to their customer service folks what happened, as it was so obvious from looking at the phone bill, the terms of events leading up to the forced ‘Operator Assistance’. Looking back, it would have been easier not to have called and just spoken to a brick wall. Never mind that a number I was able to dial prior, using the same exact phone just minutes before was no longer considered valid according to AT&T’s system. I can even, remember at the time thinking how nice it was for AT&T to send an operator to assist with connecting my call. Wow! I was thinking such great customer service, until I got slapped with a huge AT&T bill!


AT&T charged me $50+ for a call that lasted less than 10 minutes because it was an ‘Operator Assisted’ call. This call would have normally been less than $1 according to my calling plan. I was basically being forced into a situation to pay an exorbitant amount for using an operator, because of AT&T’s own faulty service lines. How odd that a valid number all of a sudden became invalid and that I could not make a connection without their own operator to assist! This smacks of extortion.


At one point, when I called AT&T’s customer service, and asked to speak to a manager, I got a ‘fake-supervisor du jour’, who read off the same scripted response as the initial, non-supervisory representative, when I then asked him for his manager, I was told that he has "an OFF-line Manager" and that “I could not escalate this issue any further” and was than giving a PO Box to write my complaint to.


I believe that AT&T is scamming people for millions using forced ‘Operator Assisted’ calls and in general, a shut-out client service tactic, with little recourse for the consumer.

Posted by: shaz on September 20, 2008 9:45 PM

I bundled all of my services with att in order to get the convenience of combined billing and a slightly lower price. I signed a 2 year agreement and they installed equipment. It took three months and several lengthy phone calls to get my bill "combined". Once it was combined the price was still higher than was agreed to when I signed up. After 5 months everyone agrees that the customer service rep kept good notes on what services I was to receive and the price for them. For three months I also got credits when I was overbilled. Now they say I can't get the price originally offered because they aren't offering it now. How can they get away with that? Who do I complain to?

Posted by: Beth on October 8, 2008 11:42 AM

I bundled all of my services with att in order to get the convenience of combined billing and a slightly lower price. I signed a 2 year agreement and they installed equipment. It took three months and several lengthy phone calls to get my bill "combined". Once it was combined the price was still higher than was agreed to when I signed up. After 5 months everyone agrees that the customer service rep kept good notes on what services I was to receive and the price for them. For three months I also got credits when I was overbilled. Now they say I can't get the price originally offered because they aren't offering it now. How can they get away with that? Who do I complain to?

Posted by: Beth on October 8, 2008 11:42 AM

I bundled all of my services with att in order to get the convenience of group billing an a slightly lower price. I signed a 2 year agreement and they installed equipment but it three months and several lengthy phone calls to get my bill "combined". Once it was the price was still higher than was agreed to. After 5 months everyone agrees that the customer service rep kept good notes on what services I was to receive and the price for them. For three months I also got credits when I was overbilled. Now they say I can't get the price originally offered because they aren't offering it now. How can they get away with that? Who do I complain to?

Posted by: Beth on October 8, 2008 11:45 AM

I bundled all of my services with att in order to get the convenience of group billing an a slightly lower price. I signed a 2 year agreement and they installed equipment but it three months and several lengthy phone calls to get my bill "combined". Once it was the price was still higher than was agreed to. After 5 months everyone agrees that the customer service rep kept good notes on what services I was to receive and the price for them. For three months I also got credits when I was overbilled. Now they say I can't get the price originally offered because they aren't offering it now. How can they get away with that? Who do I complain to?

Posted by: Beth on October 8, 2008 11:45 AM

Beth,

Cut and paste your comment onto other blogs. Type in "At & T new service blogs" on google and blog your same comment onto the top 10 search results. If enough people come forward with complaints about abuses and overcharges, I guarantee that AT&T will have to change their disceptive trades and practices i.e. charge for checking voice mail, charge for calling customer service

This will be a lot more effective than waiting on hold for customer service at AT and T ( yes, they actually charge you for these minutes). I switched to Verizon and was able to get more minutes for less money. They have been great so far...

Posted by: John Pohly on October 8, 2008 11:23 PM

Try working for the company! I can't even get paid. I have been trying to track my check down for 5 days. Our own customer service (HR Payroll) cant help for 5 days and then when you email them you get a no reply email that you will receive something by email within 2 business days. You might think there are perks working for the company? Forget it. I was told 25 for internet and 11 for wireline phone service. My bill hasn't been under 75 dollars with all other taxes and service charges. They are not the company they once use to be. Looks elsewhere if you are smart for services. Inside or out the company is broken and getting worse!

Posted by: ArtR on December 31, 2008 3:28 PM

You have a dumb guy running a big stupid company, what do you expect. They are trying to get rid of their permanent and replacing them with contractors, the CEO is trying to bust the union, Because the CEO said he is not making enough money. Unfortunately he is one of the highest paid CEO in the world. Greed and stupidity is the order of the day.

Posted by: Mighty on March 23, 2009 7:33 PM