SBC&T NO MORE! A RANT!

Ahhh, catharsis. After 13 years, I am finally cancelling my *AT&T service. It's been a customer-provider relationship I have dreamed about terminating, and today is a day of liberation. I've never been treated as poorly by a company, yet I stayed in an abusive relationship, hoping they'd get it right.

*formerly SBC. The real reason why AT&T went from the pinnacle of the telco companies, the standard-bearer for quality, to a cesspool of Texas-style predatory capitalism that cared nothing for customers or the long-established telecom divestment laws. (Which 'W' eliminated)

I have rather strong opinions about this because I used to be a contractor/vendor for them, among the broad spectrum of providers. AT&T pre-merger was a class act, the company which Ameritech/SBC modeled themselves after (poorly, like a person who learned a word but doesn't understand the concepts behind it). I used to be an expert on the Telcordia standards (a SME) which AT&T developed, and also a SME for SBC and the 600 page document they tried to pattern after it. Fail.

When SBC bought AT&T's name, and forced their staff out in early retirement, and soon thereafter began divesting telecom assets and closing capacity (all the while bragging about their temporarily having the largest network--Cingular plus AT&T Wireless--in the nation) down, they pulled a massive bait and switch on their customers and I am not proud that the equipment I built for them enabled them to do so.

Many factors led me to stay with them, price, and two long bouts of unemployment plus fear of change were a few. Plus, I tried to get TDS Metrocom when we moved into our house in 2001, had an appointment, and was surprised when they called and said that they don't serve the 'hood (in so many words). So now I have options, and we're finally gainfully employed in such a way that I can close this ugly chapter. I've been overbilled for the last 15 months on our combined bill, and 16 different calls or visits to stores and toll-free numbers could not straighten it out.

Now, it just doesn't matter. I'm shaking the dust off of my snazzy Keen size 12s and saying the loudest 'buh-bye' that Uptown Crossing has ever heard.