AT&T’s corporate office in Morristown NJ is a phone company office without phones. No AT&T stores or toll-free help lines have its number. AT&T’s 411 Directory Services handles a request for that number in an inventive way:
It gives Cindy’s home number as an AT&T corporate number for Morristown, NJ. If called, Cindy’s answering machine says, “If you’re calling AT&T, this is not AT&T! If you’re calling Cindy, leave me a message.” I left her a sympathetic message. Cindy called me back to explain that she has had and paid for that “unlisted number” for the last 6 years, during which she has repeatedly asked AT&T to stop listing it as an AT&T office. The AT&T Response: Change your number, Cindy, it’s easier.
An AT&T “escalation” person told me that changing the directory service listing was hard to do. Thus my consumerist advice to Cindy: The six-year struggle amounts to a new sort of common law marriage between a corporation and a consumer. Cindy is stuck with AT&T and AT&T is stuck with Cindy. So, try a new message: “Hi. If you’re calling for AT&T help, stop right now and fix the problem yourself. AT&T is too big to help little consumers like you. Due to the heavy call volume thing, you are on your own. Good luck and good bye.”
It gives Cindy’s home number as an AT&T corporate number for Morristown, NJ. If called, Cindy’s answering machine says, “If you’re calling AT&T, this is not AT&T! If you’re calling Cindy, leave me a message.” I left her a sympathetic message. Cindy called me back to explain that she has had and paid for that “unlisted number” for the last 6 years, during which she has repeatedly asked AT&T to stop listing it as an AT&T office. The AT&T Response: Change your number, Cindy, it’s easier.
An AT&T “escalation” person told me that changing the directory service listing was hard to do. Thus my consumerist advice to Cindy: The six-year struggle amounts to a new sort of common law marriage between a corporation and a consumer. Cindy is stuck with AT&T and AT&T is stuck with Cindy. So, try a new message: “Hi. If you’re calling for AT&T help, stop right now and fix the problem yourself. AT&T is too big to help little consumers like you. Due to the heavy call volume thing, you are on your own. Good luck and good bye.”