AT&T

This is comically the worst store I have ever been in.
Not the worst cell phone store I have ever been in,
the worst store period.
TLDR: Get back in your car, make a harrowing left turn onto Mentor Ave. and drive the 5 miles or so east to the other AT&T location at 9570 Mentor Ave, Mentor, OH 44 060.
I did not know of the other aforementioned AT&T store at the time of my punishment in this purgatory. I had willingly gone to this place on several occasions and the pain was always the same. I won’t bore you with multiple anecdotes, simply read this one and know that each experience I have had there has been comparable.
I needed something fixed with my cellphone. I decided to take time off work so that I would arrive at a time when the place had a low likelihood of being busy as I had already had much difficulty at this location. I arrived at 2:30pm on a Tuesday.
I walked in and stood near the entrance for about 10 minutes. Nobody greeted me.
I walked around for another 5, went to the back desk, nobody there. There were a few reps talking to people at the tables around the store. Nothing changed for these 15 minutes.
One of the reps got up to get something from a cabinet. I intercepted him and asked what I should do if I would like to speak to somebody. He told me to wait.
I waited for about another 15 minutes or so and pretended to be interested in the floor models as there was only one TV playing a loop of adverts and all the couches in front of it were occupied. After that second 15 minutes I again intercepted a different sales rep who informed me that I needed to sign in. I asked if he could do that for me and he did so (although he was pretty rude about it). He told me that I was 4^th in line.
I waited about half-​an-​hour.
Nothing changed whatsoever.
Nobody left, nobody came in. It was like an episode of the twilight zone.
I intercepted the second sales rep who checked me in and inquired about my place in line.
He said that I was still 4^th.
I then asked (after spending about an hour in the store) if I could set up an appointment and come back.
I was told that the only opening was at 6:15pm.
I signed up for it and left.
At 6:10pm I returned, entered, walked to the nearest rep and said that I had an appointment for 6:15.
He checked his tablet said I was 3^rd in line.
I said no, I had an appointment.
He said I was 3^rd in line.
I told him that I had made the appointment at approximately 3:30pm earlier that day and was told to come back at 6:15pm.
He said I was 3^rd in line.
I left and shortly thereafter, discovered the other AT&T location at 9570 Mentor Ave, Mentor, OH 44 060, and got immediate service.
I never set foot in that terrible place again.

When we moved to Willoughby last year, I signed up with AT&T U-​verse and DIRECTV.
The only reason I am still an AT&T customer is LATEIKA SMITH at the Mentor Avenue store. She is patient, intelligent, persistent, and polite; in other words she is the perfect customer service representative in an age when customer service is becoming less and less civilized.
Realizing that we only watched a couple of stations, plus football, out of the hundreds of stations available, we asked ourselves, «Is this really worth $ 150 per month?»
«No.»
So my wife called and cancelled the DIRECTV portion of our service. She scheduled termination so that we could at least watch the OSU — Virginia Tech game. Out of capriciousness or vindictiveness, they dropped our service 24 hours before they were supposed to.
And that was when the nightmare began. I had made the horrible mistake of allowing them into our account to withdraw our monthly payment. DIRECTV cancelled our service but continued to extort money from our account. My wife made several calls to get the mess straightened out, but DIRECTV refused to listen to her. They talked over her, ignored her explanation of THEIR MISTAKE (or attempted thievery), and reduced her to total frustration. Interestingly a colleague at the Cleveland Clinic said her husband had exactly the same telephone experience with DIRECTV.
Because of my wife’s time limitations, I decided to go to the AT&T store myself to resolve our issues. My plan was to get my bill straightened out and then drop AT&T, too, for not having the good sense to get rid of their relationship with DIRECTV. Lateika Smith (and only Lateika Smith) completely changed my mind. So I am, at least for now, a very happy AT&T customer.
Thank you again, Lateika, for the fine work that you do. You have a great career ahead of you.