Call At&T for cell outage

[mcdonoughdiane]

Everyone,

Please call AT&T at 1-866-700-2105 to report the cell phones being down AGAIN! The more that call the quicker they say things will get repaired? Please everyone call and complain (and ask for a credit for all the times it's been down!) Tech Support case #P 20100717-11077267

Thanks

[Angel Welke]

I just got off the phone with AT&T. The outage on BI has been labeled "critical" and they have had 8 calls with complaints. A repair ticket has been issued with a projected repair date of 7/20/10. They told me it may be done sooner that that but it is hard to say. The signal has "degraded significantly" at our sites and only emergency calls are going through. She said it is only labeled critical because they believe it affects 50% of less of the entire system on the Island.

More people need to call. I was only on the phone for about 5-7 minutes so it wasn't too painful.

The master technical repair case number is TT 0000 1495 2973. It is now after hours and the number is 866 801 3600. The number to call for refunds due to lack of service is 800 831 0500.

[Andrea Moore]

I actually called AT&T a few hours ago and received the following information:

I was told service, as Angel stated, will not be up until the 20th. I did, however, receive a refund for mom and I for the service we won't have from today until that point. I'd definitely see if you could get a refund if you are apart of AT&T.
Finally, after dad told me the townships have ownership of the towers, I asked the tech on the phone if AT&T would come make additions to the towers if the township contacted them. I was told to send AT&T a letter from the townships asking for such with certain information including but not limited to: name, address, e-mail, phone number, property size and location, latitude and longitude of tower location if possible, etc... After sending this via the United States Postal Service AT&T would approve or deny the use of the towers and either do nothing or provide and work on the towers.

If any of the townships want the address just let me know or stop by.

Andrea

[Marie LaFreniere]

I just got off the phone with AT&T. They said it's looking like it's going to be late afternoon/early evening on the 20th before service will be restored. They said the tower at the intersection of Kings Highway and Paid Een Nog is working and they tried reconfiguring my phone signal to that tower with no luck. The rep was very apologetic and is giving me a full month's credit. Every one with AT&T really needs to call.

Because it is Sunday, you need to call the after hours number that Angel referenced above.

[Angel Welke]

Also mention the service has been in and out for at least a week (or more).

[cathyg]

I just got off the phone with ATT Cell Customer Service, then, Tech support. 45 minutes total ..While I can say my phone experience was not as pleasant as the gals above...even with using sugar and honey and patience.....I was not give a full month credit or any adjustments of any kind and was told that I would be contacted by ATT when the service problem issues have been resolved and then I can talk with someone about receiving a credit.....O.K.....Then I hit the roof !! So then I asked to file an additional complaint, which was applied to the already exsisting repair service ticket number mentoned above.

When I moved to the island just over a year ago I had Alltel as my cell provider and got no signal at all and had to switch to ATT. During my past year here my ATT service is out more than it is available. When asking around the community I found the response to be "this is common" so I just accepted it and forgot about it assuming that I had no choice in the matter. Well after seeing the poster at the grocery store and the posts here on the forum I decided to make some noise.....its not doing much good at the moment......so PLEASE...call and make some noise with me if you have had enough!

The number above to call for a credit has a typo...the correct number is 800-331-0500
the repair ticket number for the original service outage report is correct.... #TT 0000 1495 2973.

My complaint # for not receiving a full months credit is... #CM 20100719-11157150.

The more that complain...the better chance we all have of getting better service.

Good luck !!!!

[brittac]

I called 800-331-0500

The woman was very pleasant. She filed the complaint for me and gave me one month minutes and texting free, but I do have to pay the $14.00 for fees and taxes.

She recommends everyone on the Island with a negative experience write a letter and will text me the address as soon as I have service again.

[cathyg]

Just got off the phone again from ATT...this time only 15 mins....after talking with customer service and explaining again the situation about the trouble and the unsatisfactory help I got last night from the previous person I talked to, I was transferred to a Supervisor and was given 1 months full credit to my account....geeezzzeeeeeeeee....persistance helps also to get satisfactory results.....and now I can say "pleasant expereince"...LOL

[DwightEarly]

I'm sorry to hear about AT&T cell problems on the Island. I don't want to "highjack" this thread, but want to share some AT&T cell info.

At our Island house, we have TDS local only (no LD) and DSL. However, our AT&T cell is only good on Kings HWY and in town. Our house is a mile down the road from the firehouse on East Side Drive, and we get no bars.

AT&T is the telco provided for land line at our mainland house (Beavercreek, OH, which is near Dayton, OH). We also have AT&T cell service because I have an iPhone. We get good cell service around the Dayton area except in the house where our cell phone signal is so poor it renders our cell phones useless.

Then, along came the AT&T Microcell which looks like a wireless internet router, hooks up to your Internet (DSL) and provides up to four simultaneous cell phone conversations. So, I got one since I wanted to get rid of the LD at our Beavercreek house, too. The $25 per month for unlimited LD is no longer needed, and we have a huge amount of cell phone roll over minutes. So, far, it works like a champ in our Dayton house. The Microcell costs $150 which means I can break even in 6 months by using my cell phone for LD. I'll bring it up with us to try out in the East Side Drive house next week. (Hopefully, John & Joan Ackermann are reading this.)

So, if you're lucky enough to have a signal at your house, this won't help. But, if you're on a part of the Island w/o a cell signal, but can get DSL, this may be a solution. (BTW, I checked to see if AT&T supports the Microcell on the Island by typing in the Island's Zip code on the AT&T Microcell web site, and it came back as supported.)

Hopefully, by now (7/21) your AT&T cell phones are back up and you're talking away.

[Jeff Kaczmarczyk]

Well, Dwight, I hope it does work for you, based on your checking out the coverage area on AT&T's website.

I did the same for their cell phone service and found that, at least according to their website, anyone should be able to get at least 2 or 3 bars on the eastern part of PSJ. So I bought a Go phone to try in June. (I was assured that coverage for the pre-paid phones was identical to the contract service phones).

Nothing whatsoever. I lost signal entirely, heading out of town, along the Donegal Bay Road, sometimes not far past the library, but always by the time I reached the campground turnoff. So at least for wireless coverage, their map was worthless.

I hope you have better luck.

[NancyE]

I thought I'd add to the microcell topic my father shared. I do not have AT&T. I have Sprint. However, I think the information is still relevant.

I lived in an area of Indiana where Sprint signal was pretty much non-existent. I couldn't get a signal inside or outside my house. I called many times and complained and got no where with anyone. Fed up, I called the cancellation department. Sprint has the same thing as AT&T's microcell only it's called an Airave. It plugs into your internet and broadcasts the Sprint signal for up to 2,000 square feet. When you are using service through the Airave, it's free unlimited all the time. Except, the base costs $100 and then the service is an additional $15 a month. I explained that I would not pay for the base or the monthly fees and I that I was fed up. I ended up getting the Airave for free along with no monthly service charge for it. Many people in my town did the same thing.

So, what's the take home message of all this... I think AT&T should be providing you folks with free microcells. With all the issues the Island seems to be having, you've got nothing to lose!

[Jeff Kaczmarczyk]

Thanks, Nancy,

That's a great idea for year-round residents on BI. Unfortunately for me, as a summer resident, I'm not interested in having it at my cottage. Even if it were free, I rather like being offline for a few weeks.

But I would like my cell phone to work. I'm already paying for the service, and when I don't want to use it on the island, I can turn it off.

I'd go so far as to switch carriers if something worked across the island, but apparently nothing does.

Unless enough of us got together and petitioned AT&T to add another tower. Hmmm.

Thanks for contributing.

[Michelle LaFreniere]

It is very important that everyone let AT &T know about the lack of service. I talked to a very helpful woman tonight that encouraged me to tell everyone to call them.. we talked about the fact that most weekends we lose service especially in the summer time. She said the towers become "overloaded" and if we call every single time and complain the engineers will look at that and it will increase our chances of getting another tower here to avoid that. She said hardly NO ONE complained last summer and in comparison to how many people have AT&T here the number of complaints is reallllly low.. Call people or it will never get better!

[tomrock]

If you have an iPhone, AT&T has a free app called Mark the Spot to let AT&T know where you're having issues with service.

It might not hurt to have AT&T start getting some reports from Beaver Island.

[Jeff Kaczmarczyk]

Good advice, Michelle! The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

What's that phone number again? A few have been given here, so let's be sure we have the right one.