AT&T Customer service manual leaked

Do the letters LTV1 ring a bell? Probably not, unless you're an AT&T customer service rep, but AT&T gives deals to those it considers to be a "long term value." If you're rated as an LTV1... you're not going to get any deals on equipment, but if you've got less than 12 months on your contract, you might be able to get out of it without an early termination fee.

The revelations likely aren't a surprise to anyone whose dialed 411 on their mobile phone, but now the complete details behind AT&T's customer retention strategies are available on the Consumerist. Other sections we found particularly noteworthy? We'd heard rumors before of using too many off network calls to get out of a contract, but now the practice seems to be documented. We've already seen Sprint shudder some of its worst customers in favor of cutting support costs, and now we have confirmation that AT&T isn't actively trying to keep every customer either; one can only assume this is an industry trend. We'll be interested to see if someone picks up on these "high maintenance" customers and creates a mobile service specifically for them, or if they'll just keep getting bumped from carrier to carrier.