See that picture of me in Red Square? I uploaded it to Facebook on November 29th, and according to my calculations, this was the picture that sent my AT&T international data plan into overdrive….costing me and extra, unexpected, and wrong $567 on my wireless bill.

Now, aren’t you dying to read a customer service horror story  about my customer service experience with AT&T? Well, not so fast…This one’s got a great ending. Read on.

The Story
- I went to Moscow two weeks ago. En route to the airport, I called AT&T and told them I needed a quick international data plan for Russia- enough for 3 days.  I went with the smaller $24.99 package, thinking that 25 megs would be plenty for me. And they told me that my  billing cycle ended 2 days after my return from Russia, so my plan would be pro-rated. Perfect right?
- I returned back from Moscow with said $567+ roaming charge. What the heck?!?!
- I apparently went WAY over on my data plan.  The data plan was promptly turned off by AT&T
- I was angry. Naturally I turned quickly to social media and  made a few comments on Facebook and Twitter, prepared for a good fight on my hands. I also reached out to Seth Bloom, a friend who works with AT&T, hoping that he could quickly help me get to the bottom of this.

During this process, I found out the following things. My friend Adam Cohen had an eerily similar experience., and got hit with a $6,000+ bill. Another friend returned from Switzerland with a $582 bill, another went to Mexico for 2 weeks and got hit with a $1200 bill. And for me to dispute my bill, I needed to send a letter to AT&T to get the ball rolling. A letter? seriously?

What Happened Next.
Two days after my angry tweet, I received a tweet and a phone call from Trevor over at AT&T. After talking to him, he told me that,apparently, my data was pro-rated, not the actual price of the plan. Therein lied the error. I only really paid for about 3 megs of data for 3 days. Once I uploaded that picture above, I was incurring some serious extra data charges. So Trevor did the following:
- Got to the solution first. What would it take to fix it? (and keep me as a customer)
- Quickly fixed it. I agreed to pay for the bigger data plan (about $50) and save my self about $500 (earmarked for a X-box with Kinnect- christmas present for my boys…)
- My data plan was promptly turned back on. Bill fixed. Voila.
- And, Trevor sent me a tweet, phone call and a text message confirming all of this- nice work Trevor.

What I like
- AT&T quickly responded – using ALL forms of communication at their disposal. Can’t say enough about this. If you have all these tools at your disposal use them. AT&T had them, and they did.
- It seems like AT&T has empowered their employees/social media reps to make a right out of a wrong. And from talking with Trevor, it sounds like he is one of many AT&T reps out there working remotely from their home. Smart use of resources. Train your employees well in social media. Don’t pay their overhead in a call center, give them the right tools, and let them be good customer advocates.

What AT&T should do
-Train your reps at the call center on ALL the nuts and bolts of international calling and data plans. At some point along the way, there was some misunderstanding of what I’d get and how much I’d pay. Maybe some wrong assumptions on my part? Perhaps. But after the fact, I found out that Russia isn’t even included in the international data plan. Shouldn’t the rep I called on Saturday night at the airport known that?
- Fix the international data/calling issue. Apparently, I’m not the only one this has happened to. Coincidence? Probably not. (AT&T if you are listening, I have the names of the customers that had “not-so-positive” experiences with you…)

What’s next?
I told a friend yesterday about my “great” experience with AT&T using Social Media as an outlet for customer service. She shrugged. “This shouldn’t be that big a deal, that should happen every day”. She’s right. I know there are countless examples of good customer service using social media (@comcastcares anyone?). But ,as more an more of us turn to social media, maybe more companies should hire some savvy social media folks, train them in customer service, and start mothballing their call centers.

So, it looks like AT&T is on their way back with some good customer service. So, AT&T, go ahead and give Trevor a pat on the back and hire some more people like him. Let’s hope other companies can learn from this example.