AT&T Wireless latest telemarketing blitz irritates

I am interrupting my reports of ISP news to rant about my experience with a wireless carrier that offers voice and data services to residential and business customers nationwide.

Here’s my complaint: AT&T Wireless has called my home 15 times in the last three weeks to hawk the company’s latest promotion. When the phone rings during dinner, my four-year-old now pipes up that it must be “that man from AT&T Wireless again.”

Granted, AT&T Wireless’ promotion is a good one. It includes 550 anytime minutes, free weekends and nights, and nationwide long-distance calling with no roaming charges for $39.99 per month. Included with the deal is a Nokia 3560 telephone, voice mail, three-way calling, call forwarding and text messaging. AT&T Wireless even offers a free accessory package – supposedly worth $100 – including a hands-free kit and a car recharging system.

The problem is that I have already signed a contract with another wireless carrier in the mid-Atlantic region where I live. I have explained this fact – first nicely, then firmly, now angrily – to AT&T Wireless representatives and their supervisors. Yet the telemarketing calls keep coming, sometimes twice a day.

I even complained to Charlie Bernstein, the AT&T Wireless executive who runs the company’s indirect sales channel. Bernstein says the people who are calling me are not employees of AT&T Wireless but instead work for one of the carrier’s dealers or resellers.

“AT&T Wireless is not doing any outbound telemarketing,” Bernstein says. 

That’s funny because when I’ve asked the people who keep calling me whether they work for AT&T Wireless or one of AT&T’s resellers, they say they work for AT&T Wireless.

Bernstein also claims that my experience with excessive telemarketing from AT&T Wireless is an anomaly.

I’m curious: Has anyone else been flooded with telemarketing calls from AT&T Wireless or another carrier? Have excessive telemarketing calls soured you on any particular carriers? Would a carrier’s aggressive telemarketing strategy affect your purchasing decisions with regard to voice or data services for your company?

Send me your tales from the telecommunications telemarketing front lines, and I’ll share them in an upcoming newsletter.

To view AT&T Wireless’ latest promotion, go to: https://www.attwireless.com/specials/att_landing.jhtml