AT&T Wireless Services

First Incident

coverage in Connecticut is minimal. It is achieved through partnership contracts.
any problems you have (and you will have many): nothing that AT&T can do. For example:
- if you do get an incoming phone call while in CT or elsewhere, the cell tower may or may not detect your phone.
- if you do get an incoming phone call and your phone never rings, the system may also *never* get into your voice mail. Apparently (I was told by the AT&T customer loyalty department [yes, this was their name]), some local tower needs to forward the phone call to voice mail, and this may not happen. In my case, many (but not all) callers will never get the chance to leave a voice message.
```
     I can understand spotty wireless service.  I cannot understand
     why my voice mail cannot work reliably when the wireless service
     does not.
```
- nothing that AT&T customer service can do, technically.
- nothing that AT&T customer service can do, financially (i.e., reduce the $100/month cost of the AT&T 1 rate plan).
- the AT&T customer loyalty department cannot offer any financial compensation for poor service, either. They can point out that other wireless services may be worse.
To escalate beyond this department, one needs to WRITE a U.S. mail letter. Email---no. Yes, this is the technologically advanced phone giant that requires communication by snail mail.

In fairness, there have been consistent other problems with voice mail (such as weird messages coming on) over the first few months of 2000. However, these problems have been improving over time.

Second Incident

I misplaced my phone, and called AT&T Wireless to ask what number I dialed most recently. They are not able to look this up!! Instead, they advised me to go to the police and file a report ("hi police, I have misplaced my phone last week"...). Another time-saver from my favorite company.

Resolution

I have since switched to Voicestream. They are ok, which means much better than AT&T.