New Member
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6 Messages
Unable to become a customer because AT&T cannot verify identity.
Long story short, I have invested around 8 hours or so trying to become an AT&T wireless customer and because I share a name with my father and grandfather, I cannot be verified and complete the order.
During the order process in-store for new phone, phone number porting, etc there is a step where they do a credit check. During that part they always need to verify my identity and have the rep call the fraud department.
After a very long wait, there’s a very dry, mean, prompt-reader on the phone who will go through some legal jargon and then ask some verifying questions. All of the questions asked, all 6 times that I’ve done this, never pertain to me. They are about my father and grandfather to which I do not know the answers to.
I’ve explained this several times and every time the person on the phone will just get angry with me and point me towards the credit bureaus. Well, the credit companies have my information straight. I own multiple homes, cars, credit cards, etc and I have never run into this issue. I can buy and finance anything else with no problems.
I have tried to elevate this issue but no one will assist. The front line reps are always kind and do their best to help but they are all frustrated with AT&T’s corporate level service as well.
It is a true shame that corporate brings such a high level of resistance towards their selling staff and new customers.
This is my last attempt at rectifying the issue before writing off AT&T entirely and avoiding them in the future.
Accepted Solution
Official Solution
MicCheck
ACE - Expert
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13.2K Messages
6 months ago
If they can't verify you with photo ID in store, then you are probably out of luck. AT&T doesn't create those questions out of nowhere. They are provided by a 3rd party from credit bureau information and the mix up is happening somewhere in the interfacing of information.
Typically, these sorts of questions have a "none of these apply" option among the multiple choices; is that not the case here?
In any case, it sounds like you've spent too much time on this already and nothing's changed. Cut your losses and move on to a company who uses a better verification service.
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formerlyknownas
ACE - Sage
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107.4K Messages
6 months ago
I hope your answer is, "that's not me. Please refer to my SS#, address and age"
No other explanation like that's my father and grandfather should be offered
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Tillis3
New Member
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6 Messages
6 months ago
Unfortunately, they don’t care. They simply say “sir please answer the questions. There is no other details available. Thanks for calling AT&T” and they hang up.
One guy told me to just guess or ask my dad if he knows the answers. Lol.. like what?
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ATTHelp
Community Support
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215.5K Messages
6 months ago
Hi there @Tillis3, we're here to point you in the right direction to report possible fraud.
You can contact any of the three major credit bureaus to place a fraud alert on your credit file. The fraud alert asks creditors to contact you before opening new accounts or making changes to your existing accounts.
More steps to take in case of identity theft
Learn about fraud, scams, and security on our Fraud & security resources page.
Please let us know if you have any additional questions; if so, we'll be delighted to assist.
Ashley, AT&T Community Specialsit
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Tillis3
New Member
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6 Messages
6 months ago
Ashley, that copy paste does not help with my issue.
There is no fraud suspicion. There is an issue with the software being used to verify my identity. Someone who has override should be able to look at my credentials and verify everything manually.
I literally just want to get a new phone and proper service. This is exhausting.
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ATTHelp
Community Support
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215.5K Messages
6 months ago
We can understand your concern about verifying your identity @Tillis3.
Let's meet in a Direct message to check your options for porting your number to AT&T. Please locate the chat icon next to the bell icon in the upper right-hand corner of the Forum's page.
We look forward to assisting you soon.
Ashley, AT&T Community Specialist
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Tillis3
New Member
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6 Messages
6 months ago
I was reminded to mark this as resolved but posting here to mark this as not yet resolved.
I have not received a response since sending my phone number via DMs to the above.
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Tillis3
New Member
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6 Messages
6 months ago
@MicCheck you’re absolutely right. It’s a shame that the software or interfacing issue creates such friction with a new prospect. I feel terrible for the sales people who did their jobs well and are let down by a poorly designed fraud department.
I ended up switching to t mobile who did not have any of these issues. A real shame.
thank you for your thoughts and help.
PSA: the employee via DMs only ever sent pre-written scripts to me and never solved or attempted to solve my issue. They clearly did not understand or attempt to understand my issue. Just talked in circles.
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formerlyknownas
ACE - Sage
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107.4K Messages
6 months ago
@Tillis3
I can't imagine that AT&T is the only time this has come up. You should run your credit report and make sure that you dispute anything that does not belong to you.
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public13
New Member
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1 Message
6 months ago
@Tillis3 - Just wanted to say that I'm just now hitting this issue as well (namely, fraud alert causing problems), and I share your pain. It's amazingly frustrating, and I'm blown away that a company like AT&T can't handle this. I have *worse* service with T-Mobile where I am, but I know they can handle the alert, so I'm going to have to switch to them as well.
(Let's leave aside that companies like Experian say they can remove a fraud alert online, but you actually have to mail in forms.)
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