It was recently announced that AT&T is set to buy T-Mobile for a cool $39 billion dollars, roughly a third more than its current market value. While this may be a great move for T-Mobile investors and management, consumers seem to hold a very different view. One site, StopThisMerger.com, has gone as far as to mobilize the base and try to, well, stop this merger.

Here’s What AT&T Customers Say…
Pretty much nothing. The voices from the consumer side of AT&T seem to be silent. There seems to be little or no perception of an upcoming change having an impact that they will notice.

Here’s What T-Mobile Customers Say…
Lots. The voices have been many and have said things that are really pretty awkward to answer, at least from AT&T’s perspective.

The following are a few comments posted by readers on the site StopThisMerger.com:

Mike S. – “ATT known for its bad service and shitty network. What other choices of GSM network I have? Boost mobile?”

Lenworth Williams – “ATT is the worst communication company in America half their operators are in other countries. The have the worst customer service Representative in the universe. i have no intention of being apart of a company that does not respect America’s and only consider how much money they can make by giving piss poor service.”

Bev Williams – “I have been a ATT customer inadvertantly when they took over SUNCOM, cellular one and cingular. I left when I realized how much their customer service sucked. I HAVE BEEN A TMOBILE customer ever since.”

Oscar – “I am completely against this merger because it would definitely create a duopoly(AT&T & Verizon)!!! Too much control left in the hands of 2 companies whereas they would basically be able to do whatever they wanted!!”

Penfold – “Consumer Reports rates AT&T at the *bottom*…..T-Mobile isn’t far behind. Who thought that combining The Worst with the Next Worst would bake something better…..I fail to see the logic in that. What were they smoking when they came up with *this* idea?”

Mark Brennaman – I used to do business with AT&T. Once I moved to T-Mobile I realized what lousy service AT&T really was. I will not be an AT&T customer, ever. This purchase needs to be stopped.

John C – I have been with T-Mobile for about a decade. Every time my contract goes up for renewal, I compare options with other carriers, but I always stay with T-Mobile. It is simply the best. I did not sign a contract with At&T. I did not sign up for bottom of the barrel customer service. I did not sign up for poorly maintained and woefully overwhelmed networks.

And there are many, many more comments. You can see all the comments here to see the opposition to the merger for yourself.

Bottom Line – Consumers Say NO!
An awful lot of consumers don’t have a good opinion of this, and it’s not based on rumor or hearsay, but rather based on their own personal experiences with AT&T. I have only had one experience with AT&T in my adult life, and it was having AT&T Worldnet as my first ISP, and I can tell you, I gave them $24.99 a month for two extra years because they made it impossible to disconnect my account.

While this is a different division, it is still the same company, and surely the same philosophy, and I for one am among those strongly doubtful that this merger will in any way help consumers improve their customer experience, and certainly not while lowering costs.