iPhone 4s, how do I love thee? AT&T How do I loath thee?

To the AT&T Company, I cannot understand how you stay in business. Bravo for fooling the Apple people into letting you handle the iPhone. The iPhone is a wonderful thing. But your customer service is horrible. Actually, I think it should be called something else, because you’re certainly not serving the customer. I am appalled. My daughter’s phone that we’ve had since march broke. I pay for the insurance each month. Her phone just quit working. So, after getting the run around from several people, because apparently no one at your company has any records of a customer’s calls or issues, I went to my AT&T store. That’s right, 2 people in customer service said that since it was less than a year old, I didn’t even need the insurance, just go to the store and they’ll replace it. Well, when I went to the store, waiting a half hour and told them this, they laughed at me. I believe the quote was “who told you that?”. So then the guy at the AT&T store placed the order online for me for the replacement phone. I told him that my daughter is going to New York City and she HAD to have the phone by today, (Tuesday, October 25), so he asked if I was willing to pay $12 extra shipping to guarantee that. I said yes. I was told it would come in the mail by today. When I went to check on the order (they told me I could track it), my order said they were sending me a “headset”. I was concerned this was the case, so I called AT&T Customer Service (ha, ha), I talked to Stephen who said on his screen it said they were sending me a phone, not a headset. I have the screen shot of what mine said. He guaranteed everything would be fine. Said it would be here Monday, Tuesday at the latest. Well, surprise, my mail came today and it’s not here. I am just sick to my stomach. So I called AT&T (customer service ha, ha, that’s so funny), and I talked to Cynthia. She then, I guess, transferred me because after reiterating the entire story, I was suddenly back at the main menu (“if you are calling about a problem with a different phone, dial that number now...”). I really think it is polite to tell someone if you were going to transfer them. Next I talked to Ciera. Poor Ciera, I was pretty much a crying mess when I talked to her. I had promised my daughter her phone would be here by today. She is leaving tomorrow for New York City. I feel like I am going to have a heart attack, I am so upset. At least Ciera called the “shipping company” for me, she said they said it may be here tomorrow or Thursday. Well, that does me no good whatsoever. But, I’m pretty sure AT&T hasn’t done much good for anyone. Ciera did tell me I could take my new iPhone 4S back to the store and return it and only pay the $35 restocking fee. We’ll be seeing if that’s true because I plan on taking it back as soon as I leave work. And I’ll probably get AT&T’s signature line..” Who told you THAT?” Seems to be a way they can get out of actually helping anyone. I hear Verizon carries the iPhone now, I may check it out. Can’t decide. I so love the iPhone. But I will NEVER, EVER, EVER buy another thing from AT&T, and I encourage everyone on the planet to stay away from them. They are horrible. Their customer service is not even a joke. When we had US Cellular, they were at least very helpful. I wish they carried the iPhone. With Verizon getting in on the iPhone, I can’t imagine too many people with stay with AT&T. Truth is, people are going to need help with things and if your customer service and your website are so horrible, eventually people will go somewhere else. I know that’s what my family is going to do. Please feel free to repost, tweet or email this!