AT&T Internet

My interactions with an AT&T Technician. First off I am not an AT&T customer, thank God, but my mother is. I am thankful that I was home during this situation because that allowed me to intervene with this aggressive technician. After living abroad for several years, in China, I am visiting my disabled older mother to catch up, so it is very lucky that I was there. My mother discovered that she was being charged for a non-existent line to the house, a line that was supposedly canceled and removed 15 years ago. It seems for 3-4 years AT&T has been charging her for this line. She called the customer service and inquired what this was about and the service representative, who I have been told was nice, noticed the line and said that they could remove it. But, she said something about the internet, also through AT&T, being attached to this non-existent line. Thereby needing to send out a service technician to deal with checking the physical lines to ensure that the internet was attached to the correct physical line. Now understand this is how my mother understood what was told her by the representative on the phone. The day arrives for the technician to come. My mother puts her life on hold so that she can be there when he arrives. The technician calls, his first statement, “I am on my way, what am I supposed to do?”. Now my mother is not a telecommunications expert and can only go by what the previous representative said. She says that he should have a work order. The technician says there is no work order, and begins lecturing her about her needing to be able to tell him what he needs to do in specific detail. To the best of her ability and with her limited understanding of how the phones are set up she says what she thinks needs to be done. She tells him that she doesn't need the lecture. My mother ends the conversation, hangs up and begins calling the customer service to figure out why she is being treated rudely and what specifically this rude technician needs to do. She calls the first number, the person on the other end says she can't help her and doesn't know what the technician is supposed to be doing. She is then transferred overseas to a call center. She asks to be transferred back to the local area so that she can have a representative deal with this problem. They say that it is impossible to transfer her call back. She calls an alternate number for AT&T this progresses to her contacting 7-8 different representatives who are unable to help her. Around the 7th caller the technician arrives. My mother is, still on the phone, still trying to figure out why the service details were not given to the technician who was supposed to be providing said service. So, I answer the door to deal with this technician. He again asks what he is supposed to do. I give him as much detail as I know, he then proceeds to raise his voice and start lecturing me on how we need to know what needs to be done and how all the other customers he has serviced knew what he was supposed to do and that this is how AT&T does things. I get tired of the lecture and say “I don't need the lecture. You are lecturing again.” He then claims that we are disrespectful and storms away saying he is leaving. At this point my mother is still on the phone dealing with the customer service and this technician has raised his voice and lectured me about how I am in the wrong and walked away. He in no way identified himself, or gave his name. Knowing that there will only be denials about what occurred I went ahead and went outside and took a photo of him and the AT&T vehicle. He seeing me proceeds to get even more aggressive and begin hurling insults. This young man, younger than me is yelling and carrying on insulting me in an aggressive fashion in front of my disabled mother's house. I am a big guy and I felt the aggression from this man. My mother is disabled in a wheelchair, I am so happy that I was there and able to be between this aggressive man and her. I headed back towards the house to try and avoid confrontation. The technician proceeds to follow me back towards the house. I stop before I arrive near the door to try to keep this out of control man away from my mother. At this point I feel that there is a chance that he might get physical and don't feel safe for my mother's safety around this AT&T technician. He proceeds to insist that we are in the wrong. He says he is going to call his manager and I try to convince him to tell me the number of his manager. He goes ahead and yells a number so fast that I can't get it in my phone in time. He makes a statement to the effect “Are we going to do anything here today or not” I proceed to tell him the issue again. He tells me it is just a paperwork mistake and gives another lecture. I ignore the lecture just to try and get this nightmare over with. I try to explain what we think the customer service on the phone was supposed to have set up for him to do, to check the physical line for the internet to insure that it is connected to the correct line. He says he has to get his ipad. So he goes back to his truck. I run back inside to see if my mother has had any luck in figuring out why AT&T has sent such a rude and aggressive man to her house. My mother is still on the phone trying to get the work order specifics. The technician arrives back at the door. When I open the door he places his foot on the threshold making it impossible for me to close the door if he gets aggressive again. From my perspective of trying to prevent this aggressive AT&T employee from harming or intimidating my disabled older mother this is a bad situation. He proceeds to tap on his ipad to check the connectivity of the lines. He does a check, never touching any physical cable or line at the house. Shows me the screen and says everything is working. At this point we just want him to leave. We nod go along with what he has said and get him to go back to his truck and leave. So AT&T sends their employee out to her house with no details on the work order. He gets rude and aggressive towards the customer. Taps on his Ipad, which he could have done anywhere and then leaves. No service was provided, besides an online check that could have been done over the phone. We are still not sure what the original work order was, and now I don't feel safe having any AT&T employees come near my mother's house unless there are other witnesses present. Is this really the approved treatment of customers? As it stands I am really working to convince my parents to switch service providers. Any recommendations?