Review by DynaPat 
Posted: 1.1 years ago
member for 1.6 years, 47 visits, last login: 150 days ago
 Bolton,Tolland,CT
 $140 per month
 "Good channel line ups"
 "Fails completely every 2 to 3 days."
 "No good at all - not working for me."
| Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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Here's my tale of woe after 2 months of UVERSE.
I was initially drawn to the AT&T Uverse package for a couple of reasons. 1, the channel line up for the money appeared to be better than what was being offered by Comcast. Comcast seemed to have a bewildering array of selections, and it seemed like I couldn't get what I wanted without going to their top of the line mega-digital package. I also poked around a bit right here at dslreports.com and it seemed that most were satisfied with UVERSE. Nobody at work I know has it so this was all I had to go on. We already had DSL. I forgot which one it was other than it was the mid-level speed which was more than adequate for my needs. Combining TV, Internet & phone service saved us a few bucks every month compared to what we had.
Not a big deal, but it should be mentioned. The installation was postponed twice. Luckily, since someone else was going to be home at the time, I didn't need to take any time off of work. If I had to take time off from work to be here two or three times for a no show I probably would be a little more upset about that. The installation apparently went smoothly and everything was working when I got home. The phone had not yet been switched over due to some screwup at AT&T, but so what? Not a problem, the phone still worked and life was good.
About a week later a tech came out here and changed the phone service over to the UVERSE system. Very nice guy, and within 15 minutes and a RG reset later everything was working.
Then the fun began. The very next day (less than 24 hours later), I couldn't make or receive telephone calls. TV & Intenet still working. I called the AT&T service, They were able to do something remotely to the RG and got it all working again. Hmmmm. Oh well, having been in electronics in one form or another for 35 years I as well as or better than most understand that s**t happens, things break, and nothing is perfect. That's life. Ok, I'll give them a pass on this one.
I wasn't keeping records, but maybe 2 weeks later it failed completely. No phone, internet or tv. No "BROADBAND" or "SERVICE" leds. Tried resetting the RG, checked to make sure everything plugged in, all the usual stuff. Nope, it's dead Jim. Called AT&T using my cellphone and reported the problem that morning before going to work. It was still out when I got home. On a lark, I reset the RG and it worked!
For the sake of brevity, there were 8 or 9 failures that followed that basic pattern. Several calls to AT&T service, tier 2, etc, ad nauseum. And here I am. 2 months later, and I still don't have a reliable service.
The techs have been in and out 8+ times now, have fiddled with the RG, fiddled down in the VRAD box, checked and double checked the new lines they ran, and have tried their best to get this pile of stuff working. It just leaves me with the sense that I'm nothing more than a beta tester for untested technology, or AT&T fired too many of their good knowledgeable people for the sake of management bonuses.
Hey - if the people that have this UVERSE service are happy with it and it's been reliable, that's great. Good for you, I'm happy it's working for you. Sadly, based upon my experience and the facts, I can not in good conscious recommend UVERSE to anyone.
They're supposed to come out again tomorrow and replace the RG and switch to another Port down in the VRAD. I really do hope this fixes it. I'm sure they hope it fixes it too as they can't be making any money from this customer if they're sending someone out here every 2 to 4 days and have yet to resolve the problem.
I will follow up with another more positive review if it works for more than 30 days without failing. I'm hopeful, but I don't expect this to happen.
While I was writing this, then entire service went out and came back twice.
Followup comments:  koolkid1563
Premium,MVM
join:2005-11-06
Powell, WY
clubs:
1 edit | Replace RG? You mentioned that they fiddled with the RG here and there, but have they tried replacing it yet?
Nevermind, I see it now that they are supposed to do that next  | |
|  | 
StarFish267
join:2005-11-25
Fort Worth, TX | Re: Replace RG? Speaking of the RG is your service ran in on Cat 5 or Coax, and do you live in a house or "mdu" apt. building? | |
| | | 
TransmissionEng
@bellsouth.net
| Re: Replace RG? One thing people might not know is that Uverse works better on cat 5 than it does on coax. Even if you have to pay for the tech to install all your service on cat 5 it is worth it. Everyone thinks that that big black wire must be better than that little telephone wire but the truth is that you are dealing with data and not RF. Even the installers are caught up in the culture (and myth in this case) that TV must work better on coax. With cat 5 you do not have to deal with the leakage issues that come with coax and the touchy connections that are easily screwed up during makeup. You may save some money with reusing the existing coax or cat 3 but I contend that you will pay for it in quality and service issues. | |
| peharris
Premium
join:2002-10-13
Indianapolis, IN
 ·Covad Communications
·AT&T DSL Service
| Uverse SUCKS I too have uverse here in Indianapolis. I think it all depends on the tech that put it in. But........I have talked to ATT uverse more times in the 5 months I have had it than the entire 3 years I had Dish, I've been on the phone with uverse at least 20 times with problems....Dish 1 time with a problem. The uverse people and the system sucks!!! Att has too many rules about this thing and it's just ridicioulus. I'm keeping it because I am moving in a couple of months and uverse does not have a contract! SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lately I am starting to have freezes and skips in the picture. | |
| |
StarFish267
join:2005-11-25
Fort Worth, TX | Re: Uverse SUCKS You may have a Defective Balun in your N.I.D.
or need your wall plates/coax ends changed.
Also could be a bad splitter. | |
| |
gj3924
@sbcglobal.net
| Uverse review from Ypsilanti MI (outside of ann arbor and detroit)
I have uverse and found out the hard way that the service is very delicate. my time line
Day 1) Arrived on time. Tech took meter to my phone box outside and said signal was too week. He changed the ground block in the box, signal was still to weak.He called a line tech and they shorted the distance from the vrad to my house by eliminating a "bridge tap" apparently this was supposed to be done before they sell uverse in my area. So the installation continued and it was installed. Tech then ran
his final test at the end to make sure everything was all good but it was not, picture and sound would freeze all the time, or pixelate. the tech said there was too many errors on the line. He calls a line tech again and appartently there were several bad connections on the polls.
The service did get better.
Day 2, pixelating and freezing still but not as often but still anoying. ATT send a tech out again. The tech calls
a line tech because he feels everything in the house is ok.
BTW 2 TVs are on cat 5, 4 on coax. Line tech arrives
and says my drop is bad that the squirells ate the line and
thats why I was getting errors. Ok.
Days 3-10 Service is much better but it the RG still disconnects a couple times a day. I call ATT again.
Day 10 they send a tech out again. the tech said the ground in my basement was bad, but also that AM radio signal was getting into my telephone line. that actually made sense, i live less than a mile from a local am radio station. They install a filter on my box outside.
Since then service is almost perfect, once in a while i still loose signal on the RG but very rarely. long story short if your line quality is bad, forget about having uverse or be willing to have the line tech guys out a lot.
I live in a house built in 1948, very mature sub so it made sense that my line quality sucked because att does not proactively maintain the phone lines, only when people call in a complain to they fix the line quality.
Overall though, Uverse does rock, my picture quality is amazing in HD and on my projector running 1080i. My internet is running perfect, i love the 1 mb upload which is great for sling boxing. The whole house dvr is nice but hopefully they will make it so you can set your recording from all tvs and delete shows from all tvs. right now i can only watch my shows anywhere in the house. i love the picture and picture guide browsing.
hope this helps.... | |
| Rob2647
join:2008-08-12
Rochester, MI
 ·Vonage
 ·AT&T U-Verse
 ·Comcast
| Ironed out... Once the issues are ironed out, it works well. I had to have 2 different techs come out on 2 different days to fix my service. Partly due to a bad gateway, and bad ground wire in the outside telco box on the side of the house. But I'm smooth sailing now. | |
| |
kelmckinley
@sbcglobal.net
| Re: Ironed out... I too have had horrendous issues with Att U-Verse. I signed up thinking i got an awesome deal for the money and the channel line up was great and the features it came with. I took 3 weeks to get a tech out to install the package ( phone,cable, internet), they called the day before and said they couldn't do the phones yet. Fine, they installed everything else and told me to call in 2 days to schedule the phones. I did and it was scheduled, I also upgraded my channels and added another box. I received a call about a week later I had to reschedule, fine, Then got another call about rescheduling, I was pissed, so finally 6 weeks after I originally signed up to get the service to begin with they came out and installed the phone. It didn't work properly (only making calls out worked) so they said it had something to do with porting the # over and it would take 7-10 days to finish. A week passed and a new tech came out and said something was wrong and they had to reset the order which meant my phone didn't work anymore at all and it would take another 7-10 days to work. Finally on the 10th day I called to get answers, was on the phone 1 hr and 43 mins according to my cell phone, just to be told it would be another 3 weeks before my phone would be working. I said no way, this is unacceptable. They tried to "get it bumped up" with no success and offered me $40 off for the next 6 months. I said no way, cancel it. In summary ATT U-Verse has a potentially good product when it works well, however, they are not equipped to handle the demand of this product nor the customer service involved. Wait times are terrible and they aren't even open on sundays. My fear was something would go wrong and they would take a long time to fix it. Save your headaches, don't get it! | |
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