In theory, Number Portability was supposed to force wireless companies to provide better customer service (in an effort to keep their customers). Unfortunately, I’ve noticed that AT&T Wireless customer service has gotten considerably worse since Number Portability went into effect on November 24. Quite literally, it was still great as of November 23, and it’s been completely horrid since the 24th. It’s as if they fired half their representatives on that day and only kept the incompetent ones. Every time I’ve called since then, they’ve claimed to do what I’ve asked of them but have neglected to actually do it. And the hold times seem to get longer and longer.

Today was no exception. I was on hold for thirty-five minutes before I could speak to a representative.

“I’d like to remove Multimedia Messaging,” I said. (I had asked them to remove it a month earlier, but when I received my December bill, I saw that they had failed to do so.)

“You’d like to remove Text Messaging?”

“No, Multimedia Messaging. For $2.99 a month.”

“Okay, is that the same as mMode Data? $12.99 a month?”

“No. Multimedia Messaging. $2.99 a month.”

And so it went. Ten minutes later, she had successfully done what I’d asked. I even made her read back to me a list of services still on my account so as to verify that the correct one had been removed. Now I’ll wait till next month to see if she accidentally removed my calling plan or something.