For those who wish to know....yes, I AM a former AT&T Broadband employee, who, thirteen days before Christmas 2002, was terminated from AT&T Broadband for the most BULLS**T of reasons....wanting to HELP OTHERS! They force their agents to read from scripts, are not able to help people to the best of their ability, and they constantly change policy to make the support worse and worse each day. If you go outside of "policy", you are SLAPPED DOWN! Ask any support person who works there, but only ask when they're not working, otherwise they'll be monitored if they are not spouting dogma.
I was with the company back in 1999 when it was still TCI@Home (TCI was a partner with Excite@Home back then), and then shortly after I jumped on-board, AT&T decided to buy them out, and then it became AT&T@Home. Well....right then and there I should have started looking for work, seeings how 9 years earlier, I worked for AT&T as a phone operator and got shafted there too. I should have just known there was going to be trouble eventually.
Working in a call center can be a harrowing experience....learning new procedures, learning new tools, and of course - helping customers. One thing that can frustrate a tech to no end is knowing TOO MUCH. Yes, you have all the answers to help someone, but can only go from "point A" to "point H", and then you have to transfer them rather than continue on and resolve the issue. This, in my opinion, causes people to feel like you're nothing more than a trained monkey or a script-kiddie who doesn't know anything!
In the winter of 2001, Excite@Home, as everyone knows, fell under worse than trying to support an SUV with a bicycle stand - KERRRRRUNCH! People were upset, tempers were frayed, and it was up to the front-line grunt to make sure they were happy, and most importantly, didn't cancel their service. Yes, you never knew you could spout more ways to suck up and kiss the customer's ass until it shined during that time, yessiree bob! There were more brown noses than at a suntan makeup convention!
After doing phone support for a while, I moved on to the "chat support", which is kinda like "IM with a purpose". During some of the more 'colorful' sessions, people would throw this particular site at me saying how he knows their area is oversold and to look and see how many people were upset about it. So I looked at it, and it was amazing how people were not only complaining, but also helping each other when they could not get help any other way. Amazing that the company did not do anything like this until MUCH later, and even then, in a very limited capacity. I figure the only reason they did was so that if people were saying how much their service sucked, they could just delete the topic (nice to be in power, huh?). It was a cheap way of just letting those who gushed love at them remain while those who actually said what a steaming pile of yak manure their service was went quietly down the johnny round-file.
After a while, I thought it would be nice to help people on my off-time, so I created an account there and started helping people, and for the most part, it was a success. I could actually research issues, escalate them as needed, and then get back to them! I did get quite a bit of support from the users there, and things were going quite well.....or so I thought.
Later on, the company started hammering into our heads their rule of "do not interact with any online discussion forums, newsgroups, or chat rooms", which of course I never did while on the clock, but have come to find out they can police your activities on your own time as well. In my opinion, I never posted anything of harm to "the big brother". I posted my opinions of people's issues, and also tried to troubleshoot as well. Then, in December 2002, I was called onto the carpet, hauled down to the HR department, and was told I was "being under investigation". I'm not 100% sure who was the fink behind revealing who I was, but I have a very good idea it was one of our coaches and my previous supervisor, while all the time, telling me to my face "don't worry about it" and "you have nothing to fear", all this time they were stabbing me behind my back and acting like good little stool-pigeons.
Of course, they knew what the outcome was going to be, but decided to let me "stew over it" for a WHOLE WEEK, while they "did their research" *coughBULLSH!Tcough* and then get back to me. The second time I was hauled down, they basically said "You're outta here" and then they thought they would have the audacity to say "we'll mail your belongings to you". I basically told them to F*CK themselves and get it NOW. Also, I told them to have my check to me within 24 hours or I was pressing charges.
Oh, they got it to me within 24 hours alright, but SHORT FORTY DOLLARS! Of course, they only said they'd mail it out to me on their next payroll cycle, which meant I would not see it until AFTER Christmas!
I think it's a cop-out move to get rid of agents without having to pay them severance pay, and they will stoop to as low of a leve as needed to get what they want. I also heard they fired another agent THE SAME DAY as me for the EXACT SAME REASON! It's been the same old "Fort Knox" routine since day one, and there was a site up about them back then (well, the old one is gone, but there's a new one HERE), and now there are others worth seeing (check HERE for more details). Since then, I have re-instated my account, but some time later, the account was closed and the password to it was changed (do I smell conspiracy here?), but I continue to chat with the friends I have made there. The odd thing is that they are only targeting centers owned directly by the company, leaving the ones that are OUTSOURCED alone!
Remember....there was NO warning this was going to happen, and the company did not even offer a second chance or anything like that, and being the sole provider for a family of four, feel this is the lowest, suckiest thing they could ever do to someone....but then again, they don't care about people, just MONEY! That's ALL they worry about and SCREW THE WORKERS! Someday they'll get theirs and I'll be on the sidelines cheering while they go down themselves, and changing their brand to COMCAST will not make them any more innocent.....their hands are dirty and they'll STAY that way!
More Theories On What May Have Happened!
The more I think about it, the more I think there is more to what happened. It seems pretty DAMNED ODD that I was helping out people on my own time for most of my career with AT&T (which is now COMCAST), but it wasn't until after I got my cable modem EMPLOYEE ACCOUNT that the human defecation hit the rotary accelerator. Am I the only one who thinks that's pretty darn peculiar?
Also....keep in mind my somewhat "colorful" personality and appearance (see HERE for that). I wonder if that didn't have some bearing in them singling me out....to get rid of anyone who didn't fit "their mold" of what their personnel should appear like. What I think it is, is that they chose to cop out, using their "off-site helping" theory to cover up another reason, which, if brought to light was a deciding factor, could very well be a basis for a lawsuit against the company for discrimination! Since I tended to stand out, perhaps they felt threatened by my ambitions and free-thinking ways, and just decided to oust me without a care in the world - not realizing the chaos they'd throw my life into....or perhaps they knew ONLY TOO WELL!
I guess this is why I hate large corporations....they can screw you over royally and get away with it. Since they have all the mega-bucks, people are pretty much defenseless against their machinations and so therefore nothing is ever done to bring them to light as to what they do. People are therefore forced to hide their feelings and just go about their day like good little lemmings and just take it up the tailpipe one after another. Heck...one of my good friends just got ousted while under FMLA protection! They stated some BS reason and just forced her out! What kind of horse-puckey is THAT? They say what comes around, goes around....and it's ABOUT FREAKIN' TIME IT HAPPENED!
UPDATE: 2005
Since those days of AT&T Hellbound/Comcrack, I have moved on, found a better job, and doing better now than I was before! Who says there are no such things as happy endings? I'm doing what I love, I'm being appreciated, and life is good all over. Hooray!