The Jobs Pod is swamped with email from people who are having hassles with AT&T. I guess they’re hoping I can help them. Truth is, I have no pull at AT&T these days. Randall won’t even take my calls. But I can provide a forum to publicize the hassles people are having.

Like this guy, dear reader Mark S., who lives in New Jersey and tried to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau because he and fellow iPhone users in his building could not get AT&T service in their homes. The BBB says they can’t take complaints on behalf a group, only from an individual. Whatevs.

Meanwhile, this is an excerpt from an email Mark got from AT&T customer service:

Mark:
Network has researched the issue and confirmed there are no current outages in your area. They have advised that your current home address is on the 28th floor of the building. This is considered out of AT&T’s coverage range-meaning the towers in the vicinity are not tall enough to provide adequate signal on the 28th floor. The fact that you are able to place & receive calls with 2G signal confirms this. Based on your information that the issue “got worse” around the time that you purchased the iphone 3Gs, I researched your account. The billing address was updated from [15th floor] to [28th floor] on July 8, 2009 which does coincide with the timeframe you experienced the change in service availability.

Seriously. The AT&T towers can’t shoot the data up that high. Amazing, right?

He also sends me the following other excuses that AT&T has given him for his lack of service.

So far, I have received the following reasons from AT&T about why I have trouble with calls:
1) Our 2 devices may be bad. (Both devices work excellent when we are in upstate NY) – ruled out.
2) Our 2 SIM cards may be bad. (We had both replaced at the request of AT&T technical support) – ruled out.
3) Our apartment is too high off the ground to receive coverage. (AT&T Network related)
4) Big bodies of water do strange things with radio signals, thus we have trouble with service in Jersey City by the water. (AT&T Network related)
5) There are too many users on the network. (AT&T Network related)
6) Our phones are staying connected to towers in Greenwich Village (connecting across the Hudson River), thus why we have bad service. (AT&T Network related)

Mark says he wants AT&T to let him out of his contract, because if he can’t make calls at home, what’s the point? AT&T is refusing, saying that they have a disclaimer in the contract that says “service is not available in all places at all times.” Mark says if they can’t provide service at the address where they send him his bill, then, like, that’s a problem. More as this develops.