On hold for AT&T for a really stupid reason - but they are offering jobs!

[csziggy]

I don't actually get long distance from AT&T - I get a bundled local and long distance from CenturyLink (formerly Embarq formerly Sprint). But for one semi-local town fifty miles away, CenturyLink goes through AT&T and I get separate billing from them. I call that town about once every other month and don't talk long, so my bills are usually a buck or less.

My husband a while back fell for an AT&T Universal Master Card and we've ended up with a balance on it that we are paying off as fast as possible. I set up for automatic payments with my online banking but with the holidays when I got a call I just authorized another payment. The shoe dropped last night when I got a bill from AT&T long distance.

My charge for the one call I made in December was 28 cents. I had paid AT&T long distance $300, leaving a credit of $299.72! I went to my online banking. Sure enough - I set up the automated payments to the wrong damn account. Worse - I have a pending payment for $500 RIGHT NOW that I can not stop. For a 28 cent charge.

So I jump into the AT&T customer service automated telephone nightmare. While on hold, every forty five seconds or so they put in a pitch for customer service jobs - yeah, they DEFINITELY need customer service people. Hopefully someone who can design a phone system that will get the customer to actual service.

Thirty minutes in, on my THIRD attempt to reach a person, I get told they have no account for my phone number. I am going WTF is this bill sitting in front of me and who has my money, then? Eventually she decides I am a "legacy" account and gives me another number to call. Amazingly, a real person actually answers the phone, has my account in her system, AND can help me get my refund. She even is attempting to immediately refund the pending $500 as soon as it is posted to my account.

Sadly, this more efficient system is not offering jobs - I guess they already have enough competent people!