When a simple transfer of service goes wrong

The apartment building I live in or I should say lived in, had a water pipe break that soaked all 4 of the apartments in that section of the building. This happened Christmas Eve afternoon. It was determined 3 days later that I was going to have to move out temporarily until my apartment was rebuilt. After I had chosen another apartment in the complex I called AT&T to transfer my service on my moving day. I was told they couldn't transfer it because they showed active service at that location. Yes I saw AT&T equipment in that apartment but no one had lived there for several weeks. AT&T said someone from the complex management would have to call AT&T to verify no one was living there.

The next day I called the leasing office to tell them what I was told and they said "oh our local AT&T rep is on the other line, let me get you to her so she can fix that for you". I talked to Britney Bell and gave her my account info, the apartment I was moving into and she told me she took care of it. I moved on a Friday and I was so exhausted I didn't get a chance to see if I had service. Got up Saturday morning and checked and I didn't have service. Got on the phone and contacted service. I was told that instead of transferring my service, Britney set me up as a new customer AT MY OLD ADDRESS!!!! and that new equipment was being shipped to me. I was livid. I totally went off on the support person. It wasn't her fault but how could this have happened? It took her a little while but she said she undid the new customer order and restored the transfer order but it would be Jan. 4th before I could get service back, 4 days from now!!! Why so long? Just flip the switch.

Jan. 3rd I thought I had better call just to make sure everything was going to happen and there were no slip ups. I was also concerned because the email I got showed the property address but not my apartment number. Sure enough the person I talked to said there was no specific apartment number listed. He said he fixed it. Jan.4th comes and I come home for lunch at 11:30am. Service was supposed to be available after 2pm but I checked anyway. I had service again. YES!!! But I also had the box of new equipment that apparently they couldn't stop. So I called to find out how to send it back. What I was told absolutely floored me. She said "well we don't show you to have service at your new address". WHAT?!?!? How is that possible because I'm using it? She just said, "ahh,um, well we don't know". Apparently she went in and made the change to my address and told me that I could just go to the local AT&T store and they would take the equipment back. I did that and of course they said they don't take equipment back. Someone would have to send me a return shipping label to send it back. I finally got that done today.

The levels of ineptitude all along this process are staggering. How could each person I talked to have consistently messed up?