AT&T

So, I bought a used iPhone from my friend, Potsy. When I bought it, he called AT&T and asked them when the contract for the phone ended and he would be allowed to have it unlocked. They told him that he could do all of this in September 2014. They, apparently, lied.
Potsy requested the unlock online and was denied without an explanation. He called AT&T and received further muddling of information so we arranged to meet at the AT&T store to get the deed done. We chose this location for convenience. We chose poorly.
When we arrived, Potsy was informed that no one in the store could help him get the phone unlocked. We’d have to call customer service (we already had) or do it online (we already had). Potsy made the call while standing in the store. The entire conversation took over 45 minutes and required that Potsy jump back and forth between the store and the parking lot due to random loud interruptions.
The squealing three year old who seemed to have complete control of his mother but no control of his own appendages forced us outside twice. The mother kept apologizing. To the kid. The rest of us and our burst eardrums could just go straight to hell.
Then, there was the guy who kept taking the display phones off of the tethers and setting off the «hey, this asshole is trying to steal me» alarms. He would disconnect a phone, the alarm would go off, he’d stand there gaping at it like it was a new life form, an otherwise unoccupied employee would reconnect it, saving us all from the brain bleeds.
And, of course, there had to be a couple of employees who were just so busy that they forgot to enter the security code for the door to the «back room» and sent that alarm wailing. We wouldn’t want anyone stealing those amazing company secrets stored in the back room of a shitty little retail storefront in a strip mall in a less than desirable segment of a not-​quite-​awesome town.
After all of the back and forth on the phone with a customer service representative, a solution was offered that required Potsy to agree to use the phone for a day or two. He was just fine with that as long as there would be no loss of *his* data. The representative on the phone assured him repeatedly that his data (voicemails, contacts, etc.) was safe.
I’d like to interject here that, at no time, while I was standing around waiting for Potsy to get this all sorted, did anybody ask me if I needed any help. I must have been emitting an aura of complete contentment and vast understanding because these guys seemed certain that I needed no help buying a phone or contracting new phone service.
We ambled over to the counter and explained that we’d need the SIM cards in the phones swapped. Potsy explained the situation and that the phone representative had assured him that his data was safe. The store employee immediately became defensive and started yammering on about not guaranteeing anything because, you know, something completely unrelated could erase all of that data and he wouldn’t be responsible. In fact, he wouldn’t be responsible for anything. There will be no accepting of responsibility by anyone, anywhere.
This, of course, irked the living shit out of Potsy and made me really want to sign right up for AT&T service. I mean, who doesn’t want to get in on a «service» that offers nothing? I was practically salivating at the prospect of being ignored, lied to, minimized, and shirked. We all want to relive high school and AT&T is there to make it happen.