AT&T retention practices blasted by longtime employee
An AT&T employee is calling out the company’s retention practices saying managers turn a blind eye to accounting errors and force products on customers they don’t want.
In a letter to The Dallas Morning News, the whistleblower, who says she is a 17-year veteran with AT&T, called the company a “catastrophe.” “As retention reps, we are told to not only retain existing customers after their promotions expire, but to also sell more to these people.”
“In most cases, a customer’s bill will jump up $83 a month after the ‘intro’ pricing ends. We as reps are allotted at the beginning of week 5 ‘limited use’ promotions, giving folks the maximum of $40 off,” the anonymous source adds.
The source also said customer retention reps are encouraged to not give out their user ID, which leads to zero accountability for reps and management.
“This has created a culture of reps promising promos, but not adding them,” the letter said. “Or telling the customer they are disconnecting the service, but just not doing it.” Reps do not want to disconnect a customer, as this counts against the rep.
She also said “cramming” is a major issue. AT&T recently paid the Federal Communications Commission a record $105 million for the practice, which included charging consumers for third-party subscriptions and premium text messaging services they did not receive.
“It’s very frustrating to be an ethical rep there anymore, as you are constantly under their scrutiny for not meeting numbers. The only way to meet these numbers is to be a liar and a sleaze. Three-quarters of my call center is on antidepressants and anti-anxiety medicine just to deal with the company. It shouldn’t be like that,” the letter continued.
AT&T responded to the complaints as follows:
“Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing if this is an employee of our company, but the picture painted is not the experience we create, promote or endorse.”
“We have some of the best call center employees in the industry. We set expectations and limit the offers they can use. But we also provide new agents with 12 weeks of intensive training — with a focus on keeping customers with integrity and with offers based on needs determined during the conversation.”
“Once out of training, our agents get regular and organized coaching and updates to their initial training with the option of additional coaching always available.”
