Today's rant against.... ATT

I spent wayyyyy to much time on the various ATT/SBC web sites (there isn't just one, and they are interlinked) trying to find a new phone plan that doesn't end up costing almost $1/minute to talk to someone 20 minutes away.

Somewhere in between various web servers going back and forth on every click, I must have crossed over the River Styx, and began a descent into HTML hell....

After my best shot at it, I bailed out and started looking for a phone number to a real person.

I eventually found someone to CALL, and got it all taken care of... whew...

At the end of the web experience, I answered a lengthy survey about the web site(s)... here's what I said to the "what do you suggest to make things better" question:

1. Unify all of the sites, eliminate artificial (sp?) separations between local and long distance, between DSL and Uverse, wired and wireless, etc.

2. Fix naviation so that the BACK button actuall works as intended.

3. Always have support links on the page, a number to call, an email address, and a place to chat.

4. Always show where in the naviation tree things are, and UNIFY that tree.

5. Make a nice grid for showing options on phone service, even if I have to scroll both directions, it's much better than trying to work around a broken back button...

This web site is like playing ZORK, except there's no place to type XYZZY to get back to a known location.