I know it sounds crazy, but it is true! It actually happened…
I called customer service about losing my phone. After kiosks saying I was out of luck until my renewal date, my wife got a hold of Savannah through the call center, who was able to put a small credit in the system to help us out, but we needed more time to find a phone.
Once I found the phone I wanted (the Samsung Mythic), my wife found one person who said the credit wouldn’t work how we wanted and we’d still need to pay $120 – she ended that call and had to rethink the offer. Then we called again, and got someone that put her on hold for 10 minutes and eventually the call disconnected. On the third call, I got in touch with one of the best AT&T agents I have dealt with in a long time. They know her as: Vanesa 7094
She was bright and thorough, and very respectful of my time. What ensued was a bit of a roller-coaster ride, caused by what I think is some logical error in AT&T’s fulfillment software. Vanesa had a relentless “can-do” attitude, she maintained a smile in her voice and she is an exemplary asset to AT&T. If it wasn’t for Vanesa’s attention to detail, my phone would have shown up in Colorado and been worthless to me. Throughout the call I had to be put on hold numerous times, but she always checked in, kept me updated, and thanked me for my patience.
My personal thanks goes out to Savannah, Vanesa, her supervisor and to AT&T’s El Paso call center. This was a tough transaction, handled professionally and handled with true customer service in mind.
Stay tuned, as I will likely post a review of the Samsung Mythic – in case it helps other people decide which phone to get. I chose it over the Backflip because reviews on the Backflip were a bit dicey, the version of Android was outdated, and Mythic doesn’t require a data plan (if you have family messaging, that is all it needs). Ah, more on that when I get to play with it.
As for AT&T, they have a wide variance of agents…and I wish they could understand which ones were really good, so they could have THOSE agents train the ones that create bad press… or something. Anyway, there is so much bad customer service at large in this world, I think a story with some good news deserved to be posted!