AT&T: It's Baaaaaaaaaaaaack!
Posted by Harry McCracken | Monday, November 21, 2005 8:54 AM PT
Communications behemoth SBC, which recently acquired AT&T, already announced it would rename itself after Ma Bell. Now it's saying that
its mobile-phone service, currently sold under the Cingular moniker, will also go by AT&T. (Cingular is a joint venture of SBC...er, AT&T...and BellSouth; if it ends up still being known as Cingular in the local areas that BellSouth controls, it'll go from a national brand to a regional one.)
I'm sure that SBC did plenty of research among consumers and business customers that convinced it that the AT&T name was an asset. It's not one that gives me the warm and fuzzies, though--I have too many memories of the company treating me like it was still a monopoly and I was a nobody. (It accused me of stealing a cable modem once--long story--and cheerfully referred to me being "on probation" when I signed up for cell service. Advice for service providers: Never use prison metaphors when talking to your customers.)
Of course, one of the lessons of the multiplicity of communications mergers over the past decade or so is that brand names, ultimately, don't matter much. When I lived in the Boston area, my cable service went from being Continental Cablevision to MediaOne to...yes, AT&T in just a few years. And now it's Comcast. At the same time. my local phone service morphed from NYNEX to Bell Atlantic to Verizon.
And in the three years I've lived in San Francisco, my phone provider has called itself Pacific Bell, then SBC, and now AT&T. (That's no biggie; emotionally, it's been a bigger deal to me that the baseball field I can see from my office has had to keep changing its name, too; soon, it'll apparently be AT&T Park. By contrast, I believe the place where the Red Sox play has been Fenway Park since 1912.)
Untold millions must have been spent on all the rebranding that accompanied all those mergers and acquisitions. But none of the names had any particular bearing on the quality of service I got, as far as I could tell. Wonder what would have happened if the companies involved had invested all that money in better customer service?
So while SBC's presumably using the AT&T name at least in part because of its air of longevity, the ironic thing is that (to me at least) this latest name swap just reinforces the temporary nature of corporate branding these days. If AT&T becomes Google Communications or YahooNet before the decade is out, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.
Do you have any feelings about the AT&T name--pro or con?
I, as many, have had some bad experiences with AT&T, especially their wireless service (even now, folded into Cingular).
Personally, it doesn't represent quality, just poor business.
The moniker AT&T retains some of the savoir-faire conjured by names like INTEL, MICROSOFT, APPLE (big, powerful, authentic).. once the thing has been aired out a little and any stink of failures is gone it makes sense to use the identity (for whatever AT&T now represents) and benefit from the respectability of tech icons that have been around forever.
'AT&T' and 'telephone' used to be synonymous.. maybe they hope to do the same with 'wireless.'
AT&T would be just as bad as SBC to me. But then again, some of us steeped in technical news and techno-savvy might have a different impression than, say, Joe Lowenbrau out there... (not to be an elitist)
Cingular changing back to AT&T will just be closing the loop for me. We started w/AT&T the month before Cingular swallowed (literally) it up & were exposed to their (Cingular's) "lovely" customer service. Along with that is the intermittent dropped calls, poor, no, change that, "dismal" reception in major areas and you get the nominal performance we've all come to expect from bloated corporate entities. PBPBPBPB!
you can call junk whatever you want. in the end, it's still junk.
The only feeling I have of AT&T is really, really poor and would never, ever again buy anything from them .
AT&T became a big, cumbersome, GM-type of bureaucracy with CEO's with a flair for meglomania. What's the advantage in that?
If you got a bad hamburger at mcdonalds would you never go back, give it a chance maybe good things will come out of this for us the consumer
if you replied to this question and you're a geek, please raise your hand.
I have had Cingular for over 5 years and have no complaints. I have over 1000 "roll over" minutes and have had no problems at all with Customer Service.
AT&T, Cingular.. It doesnt matter. Ive had both and both had horrable service in all areas.
I am a retired employee from AT&T. Lets see if they can't get it right this time. We used to give great service.
Ahhhh, as someone who's worked closely with SBC and the agencies involved in the rebranding effort... I can tell you this.
The development of the new at&t brand runs much deeper then a logo or a name. It's a vision set by the stakeholders and a promise made to the customers to provide quality products and services, fair pricing, and believe it or not outstanding customer service.
But you'd be a fool to believe that you'll see that tomorrow, or the next day or simply by the swop of a logo. The integration of people, products, and systems alone will take years. Six months from now will you get better service from Cingular? not likely. Will they have streamlined the company so it runs like a finely tuned machine? pleasing both shareholders and customers alike, ahhhhh no. Will it be everything you've always wanted in a communications company? probably not.
But believe me, if the employees are dedicated and the company truely executes against the new brand you'll see change. It may be small at first, but even a small change is enough to change perception or at the very least a step in the right direction. So keep an eye out for it... in their marketing channels, on their website, and yes, even in their customer service.
What changed? where? when? was something made easier or better, did you have a better experience? How? As a customer it's your responsibility, my responsibility, to let them know the good... as well as the bad.
I have great respect for AT&T and what they've done for our world we live in today. In case you didn't know or you've magicly forgotten.....they gave birth to a baby, a baby named unix.
Computer aided design, manufacturing control systems, laboratory simulations, even the Internet itself, all began life with and because of UNIX systems. Today, without UNIX systems, the Internet would come to a screeching halt. Most telephone calls could not be made, electronic commerce would grind to a halt and there would have never been "Jurassic Park"!
Taken partly from unix.org
I used to have ATT Cell service when it was called Suncom then they sold of, I will never use ATT again. When i went to cancel my service and change providers, my bill was rerated from the beginning of the month, each phone billed seperately and all night and weekend minutes vanished, a $500 cell bill is not pleasant and the company took 2 days to admit they made a mistake and would never has done that if i had not went into the local office for suncom and actually saw the employees name on the computer screen that made all the changes, also i had to threaten going to the FCC to get my bill fixed. I hope they go out of business.
Inquiries regarding advertising and marketing initiatives developed by one of the new AT&T?s agencies of record, Rodgers Townsend, may be directed to Jacqueline Bodet at (314) 259-8381 or jbodet@rodgerstownsend.com
Rodgers Townsend is a full-service marketing communications agency serving a wide range of national and regional clients, including AT&T, The Hartford, Energizer, Maritz, Ameren, Pleats, Grand Prix Speedways, the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, St. Louis Children?s Hospital, the St. Louis Rams and Spectrum Brands.
I recently switched my local phone service from AT&T to SBC. Since the AT&T name is being kept in the acquisition, I told the customer service person helping me out "this is like switching from AT&T to AT&T!"
I used to be with AT&T Wireless too, and seem to be among the few who actually liked the service. I almost jumped off a building when Cingular bought them out. But I recently migrated to Cingular as well, and so far it's fine. They must have improved over the last several years. Now the name change will have me back to AT&T for wireless too. Ugh! Maybe I should have waited on all my switching over.
But everyone should remember, it's just the name that's changing, not the companies, so take that for what it's worth.
re: Alex
"it's just the name that's changing, not the companies, so take that for what it's worth."
Um, did someone forget that the companies merged? That means they are the same company.
Seems Ironic to me, for AT&T to be bought up by its forced baby bells... :-\ ??