Att & pots

[Katsmeow]

So I had an interesting experience with ATT and my main plain old telephone service (POTS). I knew ATT wanted to get out of the POTS business (I read an article saying that less than 10% of their customers subscribe to POTS in states where AT&T is the traditional phone provider). But I was surprised at how difficult AT&T seems to find it to even support those with POTS service.

My mom had a regular old landline. She also had a cell phone on our account, which she hardly ever used. I found that she was spending about $48 a month for her landline which didn't have free long distance. But she didn't have internet so things like VOIP weren't open to her and she wanted a landline.

She recently died. My first task was I wanted to switch her automatic bill payment from her checking account (which is now closed) to my account. I decided I would set up online access for her. Well, that didn't work as doing so required sending a text to her phone number. Of course, she had a landline and couldn't get a text.

I searched online and found an AT&T official forum where someone had the same problem. The response was basically that the people in the forum mostly dealt with U-Verse and had no idea on POTS problems (they did have a thread they pointed people to). As far as I could figure out, there was literally no way to have online access with just a POTS line.

Since my mom has died, I don't really need to keep her home phone line in place. However, that phone number was hers from before I was even born. I decided that I would port the number to her existing cell phone and I would keep that in place a few months so I could at least make sure I was answering her calls for a few months.

Went in to Verizon to port the number and found that I needed a PIN to do it. OK. I call AT&T and go through the automated recording saying when asked that I wanted to establish a PIN. After time on hold I got to someone. I give her my name. She doesn't ask why I'm calling. She wanted my phone number and some other information which I gave her.

She then asked me if I was calling about a U-Verse phone. I said, no, it was a landline. She just stopped dead and said she had to transfer me to the people who handled those phones. I sat on hold for quite a while. Eventually, she came back on the line and apologized for the wait saying that the POTS department must be busy. (Yes, she called it the POTS department).

I waited longer. Then she suddenly came back on the line and very sternly told me that I must listen! I then heard a recording saying that if the repair person found there was no problem in the line that they would charge me $99. I was to press 1 to cancel my repair request or press 2 to have the technician come out.

Of course, I immediately said that I didn't have a repair request! There was nothing wrong with the line. The person came back on the line as I was saying this. She kept saying that I must listen to the recording then went away. (She never once asked me why I was calling). I hit 1 as the recording just kept repeating. At that point, the phone hung up.

Having wasted half an hour, I called back, waited again and finally got someone on the line. I immediately tell her not to transfer me to anyone! She again seemed flummoxed by the fact that I was calling about a landline. I told her my mom had died and I needed a PIN so I could port her phone number. She then tried hard to get me switch my cell service to ATT (no - I explained we had multiple iPhone X's on Verizon and weren't going to change), or my internet (no - In my area I can get Frontier fiber optics while ATT service is much slower) or my TV service (she was cheered when I said I had Directv Now).

We went round and round for awhile with her saying she couldn't tell me the PIN because there was no PIN on the account and my telling her that I knew that. I was wanting to set up a PIN! Eventually, she set it up....

The totally weird part of the whole thing is that no one I talked to seemed to know what to do with someone who had a traditional landline. It was almost like speaking a foreign language to them... And, the inability to even set up an online account was equally strange....

[Sunset]

Did your mom rent the phone like people used to do ?

[Texas Proud]

I had an POTS with AT&T until a few years ago and went to Comcast...



The line was crap... found out it was buried about 2 to 3 inches in our backyard when DW was out digging and cut it... they came and fixed it and buried a new line at the same depth...


We had DSL at a whopping 3 mbs that usually ran 1.5 ish... the phone was crap with static all the time...



I think it was them who put in fiber this past year... but I have had so many problems with them and also with my mom's service that I will only use AT&T if it is the last option...


BTW, if you have a landline they should be able to give you the pin with voice... I have that option when I am dealing with my bank... have them call the number and the computer voice gives me what I need... maybe AT&T does not have this option, but it is out there if they wanted it...

[Katsmeow]

My mom did own her phone eventually. So there was at least that...

Texas Proud - I think part of the issue is that AT&T really, really, really doesn't want any POTS customers. They don't want the old copper wire lines. I sort of understand there point. But, there are some areas that are not well served by cellular or VOIP connections. In my mom's case, the area was easily able to be served by those things but she didn't have internet so VOIP wasn't an option. She did have a cell phone which we provided for her but she rarely used it. She was just used to using the handset.

[ncbill]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunset Did your mom rent the phone like people used to do ?

Ha!

My mom rented two phones from AT&T for at least 20 years.

IIRC, at one point the above revenue center was bringing in a billion/year for AT&T.

When I turned them in I couldn't find but one phone - after going back and forth over the phone with them they admitted she only had one rental phone, but wouldn't refund even a month of charges for the phantom one.

OTOH, I never had any trouble with my AT&T POTS line, nor the 6 MBps DSL service on that line either (dropped it for much faster cable broadband)

[MRG]

You got someone at ATT to transfer your call? They told me they couldn't. That why I pulled all my business away from them. Other than my health insurance company ATT's customer service is the worst.

[GravitySucks]

All the people that knew anything about POTS are here.

[jazz4cash]

My cousin had some health issues, so she relocated to live with her daughter. She called to cancel Verizon phone service and Direct TV. Verizon was no problem, but the return "kit" from Direct TV never arrived. I volunteered to assist. By this time she is gone and I don't seem to be able to get ATT to understand that shipping the return kit to the service address won't work because the home has been sold. Finally they say go to any UPS store. I went to 3 UPS locations before I found one that knew how to do it. It was actually a franchise location and they were very efficient, so I put this on ATT.

[JoeWras]

To the OP: eventually, you may want to transfer the cell phone number to a google voice number. I did this with my Dad's number.

It was helpful to block a lot of garbage. And more importantly, I was able to tell a few long-lost-friends of his of his passing, even years after the event. It is free, and I still have the number. I'm thinking of re-using that number now for a garbage number you use to fill in forms.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GravitySucks All the people that knew anything about POTS are here.

True. I worked on a project in VOIP that helped kill POTS. Sadly, I know plenty about POTS still. In my blood.

[SumDay]

When my folks died in 2008/09, I called to get their POTS cancelled. She must have asked me 10 times why I wanted to cancel, because they'd had this number for 50+ years and wouldn't I want to talk to the people who called them, so I could report they'd died? And wouldn't it be nice to have an extra landline at my house? Extra line? I didn't even have one, so no, I didn't want their number either.


After a long painful call, she finally relented and told me she'd mail me the packaging to send the phones back since they were RENTALS. I found their last phone bill and realized they'd been renting three phones for all those years. I can't remember what we calculated, but they'd given AT&T thousands and thousands of dollars for those bricks with handsets, not to mention the $60 a month service fees. What a racket they had going.

[Sunset]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SumDay ... She must have asked me 10 times why I wanted to cancel, because they'd had this number for 50+ years and wouldn't I want to talk to the people who called them to tell them they'd died? And wouldn't it be nice to have an extra landline at my house? Extra line? I didn't even have one, so no, I didn't want their number either. After a long painful call, she finally relented and told me she'd mail me the packaging to send the phones back since they were RENTALS. I found their last phone bill and found they'd been renting three phones for all those years. I can't remember what we calculated, but they'd given AT&T thousands and thousands of dollars for those bricks with handsets, not to mention the $60 a month service fees. What a racket they had going.

It was so hard to get folks to switch and buy a phone, I recall having quite an issue with my parents to buy phones. They didn't believe it would work.

[Texas Proud]

I am surprised that AT&T wanted their phones back... when my Dad bought his own phone (back in the 70s as he passed in 1980) they told him to keep them... they were rotary phones...


Kinda wished we had ported my mom's phone number up here when she moved 8 or so years ago.... but I think that they said it would cost more money since it was not in the central area of Houston... she had that number since 1959....

[Red Badger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeWras To the OP: eventually, you may want to transfer the cell phone number to a google voice number. I did this with my Dad's number. It was helpful to block a lot of garbage. And more importantly, I was able to tell a few long-lost-friends of his of his passing, even years after the event. It is free, and I still have the number. I'm thinking of re-using that number now for a garbage number you use to fill in forms. True. I worked on a project in VOIP that helped kill POTS. Sadly, I know plenty about POTS still. In my blood.

+1.

Only friends and family have my real cell number. I have one Google voice for utilities, banks, other biz that I want to hear from or contact. I have another for mandatory forms where I will never communicate with company in question.

[Katsmeow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazz4cash My cousin had some health issues, so she relocated to live with her daughter. She called to cancel Verizon phone service and Direct TV. Verizon was no problem, but the return "kit" from Direct TV never arrived. I volunteered to assist. By this time she is gone and I don't seem to be able to get ATT to understand that shipping the return kit to the service address won't work because the home has been sold. .

This reminds of one company I called the other day. One of my mom's insurers had charged her for an insurance premium in June (not knowing she had died in May). I called them and they were just going to reverse the charge. But, the bank account has been closed. So, they said they would send a check to my mom at her address. I pointed out that there was no one actually living at the address any more. I also said that it would be difficult for my mom to endorse a check. It seemed to take awhile before they finally grasped that my mom, being deceased, could no longer endorse a check....

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeWras To the OP: eventually, you may want to transfer the cell phone number to a google voice number. I did this with my Dad's number.

What do you mean? My mom has a long existing landline number. It has now been ported to a cell phone for a couple of months (well, Verizon says it will go through in 2 to 10 days and that it takes longer due to the porting being from a landline). Are you saying that it would possible to port that number to Google Voice without my having to keep paying for the cell phone? I would love to keep the number but don't really want to keep paying for an extra cell phone indefinitely....

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katsmeow What do you mean? My mom has a long existing landline number. It has now been ported to a cell phone for a couple of months (well, Verizon says it will go through in 2 to 10 days and that it takes longer due to the porting being from a landline). Are you saying that it would possible to port that number to Google Voice without my having to keep paying for the cell phone? I would love to keep the number but don't really want to keep paying for an extra cell phone indefinitely....

Yes, port again and you don't have to pay for the cell phone!

Google Voice is free. You port your number to a "virtual" server of sorts, controlled from your computer. The number is the same! You can set it up so that the incoming calls ring your cell phone (any cell phone, not a specific one), or just go right through the computer. The computer has voicemail, and most calls are automatically transcripted so you can read instead of listen. (It only does a fair job at that.) Outgoing calls have options too. I can't remember all the details because for a long time I just use the computer since I rarely call out.

Once ported, you can toss away the fee for that phone. It is really perfect to park a number or ramp down a number.

Porting from a cell phone is required. I actually had to port Dad's land-line phone to a burner cell phone first before I could get it to Google Voice.

Just search "Google Voice" for more info. Study up a bit. It takes a little work. Once you do it, it makes a lot of sense.

[cathy63]

We ported our old landline number to Google Voice a couple of years ago, and I highly recommend doing it if you want to preserve access to the number without paying a monthly phone bill. You can do it as soon as the Verizon port is complete. Do create a new google account to port to, or use an existing account of your mother's instead of attaching her number to your own account. Each Google account only gets one Voice number, so using a separate one for her account gives you flexibility in the future if you ever want to use Voice or Google Fi for yourself.

[Katsmeow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cathy63 We ported our old landline number to Google Voice a couple of years ago, and I highly recommend doing it if you want to preserve access to the number without paying a monthly phone bill. You can do it as soon as the Verizon port is complete. Do create a new google account to port to, or use an existing account of your mother's instead of attaching her number to your own account. Each Google account only gets one Voice number, so using a separate one for her account gives you flexibility in the future if you ever want to use Voice or Google Fi for yourself.

This is very useful. Thanks to JoeWras for letting me know of this.

About the attaching it to another account (I actually do have one that I used for my mom's email). Can I port it to Google Voice and then forward to my cell number and then on my Google Voice set up a Google voice number for me and also forward it to my same cell.

I had been thinking of setting up a Google voice number for me so I could have a local number since my cell number is not from where I am living now.

So - what I would like to end up with:

1. My mom's old landline number (currently in process to port to Verizon) ported to Google voice and then forwarded to my cell phone. I do have a Google account available I can do this with that isn't mine.

2. A Google voice number that is local to where I am now, mostly to give to people if I need to give a local number. Also forward to my cell number.

Is that possible?

[ExFlyBoy5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katsmeow This is very useful. Thanks to JoeWras for letting me know of this. About the attaching it to another account (I actually do have one that I used for my mom's email). Can I port it to Google Voice and then forward to my cell number and then on my Google Voice set up a Google voice number for me and also forward it to my same cell. I had been thinking of setting up a Google voice number for me so I could have a local number since my cell number is not from where I am living now. So - what I would like to end up with: 1. My mom's old landline number (currently in process to port to Verizon) ported to Google voice and then forwarded to my cell phone. I do have a Google account available I can do this with that isn't mine. 2. A Google voice number that is local to where I am now, mostly to give to people if I need to give a local number. Also forward to my cell number. Is that possible?

Yes to both your questions. I have 3 separate Google accounts with each having its own voice #. You can forward all to the same phone and set up different rules to combat spam/etc.

[cathy63]

The only restriction on forwarding Voice numbers is that you cannot forward one Google Voice number to another or to a Google Fi phone.

After a while, when things settle down and you no longer want to answer your mother's line, you can simply stop the number forwarding and just have it take messages. The messages are dumped in the gmail inbox associated with the voice account, so you can easily setup a forwarding rule to send them to your own email. You get both the transcription and a link to the original audio.

[Katsmeow]

Oh my! I thought dealing with Verizon was bad but AT&T takes it to new levels.

So - to this point. My mom had a POTS landline with AT&T. She died. I ported her landline number to Verizon (this thread dealt with that experience). I then ported the number to Google voice (all that part went fine).

So my mom had a now cancelled account with AT&T. AT&T said I would receive a final bill that wouldn't be very much. I got the bill and it was $14.84. My mom had had her phone set up for automatic payment from her checking account (which doesn't exist to make payments any more). The payment coupon on the bill is therefore not a payment coupon. It simply says how much will be debited (but it won't be debited). But it doesn't give the option to mail in a payment.

So I decide I will call and just make a payment by phone. Well, that doesn't work as the automated system says it can't find the account. So, it sends me to a representative and says that if I pay through the representative it will be $5 on next month's bill. I could see that setting up an endless loop. I pay $14.84 now and they bill $5 next month. I call to pay it and they charge $5 for the next month, etc. Also, why should I have to pay $5 when I don't even want to pay through the representative?

I get a guy and he says that sometimes for a final bill they can waive the $5 charge and he transfers me to someone who he says can handle this. I talk to her and explain the situation and that I really don't want to pay $5. She -- without a word - puts me on hold and I'm returned to the original automated system where I go through the same thing (can't find the account and sends me to a representative).

This third guy explains that they have no way in the system to waive the $5 fee. I ask if I can just send a check. He says, no, that won't work. It won't be applied to the account! He actually tries himself to get me into the automated system so I can make a payment but he can't do that either.

He finally says that until the 11th my mom's account is still active and can be paid at an AT&T store. That doesn't really hang together for me. Her account rolled over on the 17th so I don't see why the 11th matters. Also, the whole reason I can't pay by phone is because the account isn't active. But -- this seems worth trying so I'll drive over and see if I can get them to take the money....