At&t doesn’t honor free installation

Has anyone ever had free installation not honored? I went to an At&t store to sign up for At&t fiber since it was now available in my neighborhood. It was going to be a promo of $80/month, free installation & $50 credit (since in-store they didn’t offer the online promotional gift card but were willing to offer me $50 credit on my first bill) so of course I signed up. The day of my installation everything was wired up ready to go but then the box down the street didn’t have enough slots for them to start my service, even though they said it’s “available” at my house when I signed up, an obvious setback from their part. I was told they would let me know when service is available for my house. I was super bummed because I was excited to try this At&t fiber 1000.  

A few weeks go by when I noticed an At&t install guy across the street setting up what seems to me service for a neighbor. My husband goes & talks to the At&t guys to ask if there is service available in our house. They inform him there is & look up our account. They say it was canceled but the second guy offers to call his office & set up an installation. I agree & he is able to get us an installation appointment for the next day. 

The day of the install I asked the At&t guy if I got the same offer they offered me. He informs me that “as far as he knows” the account is all the same. He tells me they pulled up my info & it should all be the same. I told him that I had free install, 1-year contract, promo of $80/month, etc. Again he just says the account “should be the same”.The install goes well, really friendly & thorough.

Once I receive my bill, I notice I am getting billed for the installation & my account number is not the same as the original service I ordered over a month ago when the install was incomplete because of At&t’s end . I call AT&T customer service & they were not very much help or reassuring.  I explained what happen & they just told me they would look into it. I told them it’s unfair that my first install was incomplete because of there end & now they can’t honor what was promised. The At&t representative told me I had 2 options: pay the bill or pay everything minus the $99 install while they “investigate” while I wait for the next bill.

The new bill came & nothing was resolved. I still owe $99 for install & I’m stuck with AT&T internet for a year because apparently they don’t offer a 14-day grace period. If i’d known it was going to be such a hassle I would have canceled right there. How can they offer free install online & in-store but yet not honor what was told to me. I have my paperwork from the first order to show all that was offered but it means nothing if they opened a new account number, not the “same account” as I was told. 

They should get better at communicating with each other: At&t store, installers, customer service. It’s no fair that I now have to pay for the install when that’s not what I was offered at the beginning of this whole ordeal.