During emergencies or while waiting for repair of a telephone line, AT&T can arrange at their home office to automatically forward to your cell phone calls dialed to your home phone.
A representative from AT&T's "executive appeals" office stated today ( 7/8/08) that the phone company (probably Bell South) arranged to automatically forward home phone calls to cell phones after Hurricane Katrina regardless of any call forwarding feature the home owner had or had not purchased. However, as of today, AT&T's customer service mail box program (the robot you talk to when calling 877-737-2478) to report service interruptions) does not offer the option. Also, AT&T now has customer service representatives all over the world, and they may be unfamiliar with Bell South’s past practices and may even deny AT&T has the capability. So you may have to be assertive and persistent to get it, and you may need the PSC Commissioner Leonard Bentz’s assistance as well. By the way, he recently responded quickly to a recent complaint AT&T's repair mailbox robot and an unhelpful CSR during a phone outage.
Home Repair 1800-427-4171
Customer Service and Collection 1800-622-6146
Complaints about Customer Service:
(A.K.A.. Executive Appeals) 1-866-232-9733
Miss. Public Service Commission:
Leonard Bentz - Chairman, Commissioner Southern District
Voice: (601) 961-5440 Toll-Free: (800) 356-6429 Fax:(601) 961-5842
southern.district@psc.state.ms.us
Mississippi Public Service Commission
AT&T Repair Web Page