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Review by cptully See Profile

  • Location: Raleigh, Wake, NC, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Fast service response, knowledgable techs
Some difficulty porting my home phone number
Very happy

Signed up in mid Jan. Had an initial install date while my mom was in the hospital dying of cancer. I had to cancel that initial install date and moved it out to Mar 15. After mom's death I called back and they rescheduled for a week after my call, I've had the service now for about 3 weeks, and have been quite happy. The install was a bit rocky, because there were a number of upgrades to be done to the wires in my neighborhood. I live in an older neighborhood (my house was built in 1925) and there are still houses that have the original MaBell equipment in them here! In addition to replacing the drop wire fom the pole to my house, they've had to rewire and/or replace several junction boxes between me and the central office. With all of that work, I've never had to wait more than ~18 hours (usually less) for the follow-up techs to show up if the initial tech could not complete the install or service request.

member for 14 years, 2 visits, last login: 14 years ago
lodged 14 years ago


Review by eakenn See Profile

  • Location: Smyrna, Cobb, GA, USA
  • Cost: $140 per month
  • Install: about 14 days
Excellent PQ, stable inet connection
some billing issues
Best bang for one's buck in my opinion
Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I've had the service for a few days (TV & internet) and I have been nothing but impressed with the service. Much better than Charter cable.

The tech had do some tweaking with the twisted pairs in my apt, but he got the 2 TVs hooked up and zero issues thus far.

member for 19.1 years, 185 visits, last login: 1.1 years ago
updated 14 years ago

eakenn
join:2005-02-20
Knoxville, IA

eakenn

Member

Update

I've had UVerse for about 7 months now and everything is still good. I've since upgraded to HD since I bought an HDTV recently.

The PQ on HD is very good. I'm not a videophile, so I'm sure its not the greatest HD, but when compared to Charter's HD picture quality, its like night and day.

I had a 2 week stint when I switched to Charter and that was a joke, but I'm not reviewing Charter.

The internet could be better on UVerse, but its doable. There are some latency issues from time to time, but I'm not a gamer, so it doesn't bother me all that much.

I never have any issues with the TV service, it works as advertised.

The DVR is awesome and it provides a lot more space than a cable DVR does. The UVerse DVR and STBs are a lot more energy efficient as well.






Review by hokioi See Profile

  • Location: Clovis, Fresno, CA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
None!
Too much to mention!
Dissapointed!

Have had U-Verse since the 29th of Jan 2010. In that amount of time (now 3-2-10) Nothing but problems. Loss of service every week. Have had three service techs come out and blame COMCAST for the problem. I had Comcast and will not go back to them either (tired of fluctuating bills every month) thats another story.
Anyways as far as U-Verse is concerned.. The service STINKS! Have had nothing but problems and LIES. Out of the 3 rooms in my house, 2 of the rooms have lost service. My living room and my daughters bedroom. Only in the master bedroom do i still retain service. Why? Well this is what i was told by 4 different techs and a representitive.

LIE number (1) " Comcast messed with your wires"

LIE number (2) : Is that a Playstation3? Sometimes that interferes with the service"

Lie number (3) : I don't have a key to the box Ill be back tomorrow to check out the problem" ( He never showed up! )

LIE number (4) "Call this number anytime, we will send a tech out, we have someone on call 24hrs a day" ----------(still waiting for this service)

I believe U-Verse is a big lie. They claim to give you a great service while taking your money, but you like myself our nothing more then lab rats to them. They use our money while they experiment with there service.

Techs are amateurs.. Can't even make up a good lie. "messed with wires" --Its a cable for crying out loud!

And as far as anyone who gives U-Verse a thumbs -up? Your either 3 things..Very lucky, a U-Verse employee or a liar (a u-verse employee)

member for 14 years, 1 visits, last login: 14 years ago
lodged 14 years ago

Moffetts
join:2005-05-09
San Mateo, CA

Moffetts

Member

Location

What part of the city are you in?

Review by lew_jean See Profile

  • Location: Marietta, Cobb, GA, USA
  • Cost: $138 per month
  • Install: about 7 days
Very stable picture,
None so far
great value for the money
Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Had U-Verse installed 02-02-08, so far very pleased, far better than Comcast both in value and picture quality. internet speed is running 5.8/980 for the 6/1 package
and very stable. I am going to be up grading to the 10/1.5 package.
The installation was very smooth, the Tec know their product. The tec review the operation of the full system and made sure we were happy before they left.

The picture on the older tube TV are far better than they were on the LCD with Comcast.

02/28/10 Have had U-Verse for 2 years now and still running GREAT.
I have had a total of a 1hr outage over the 2 year and they were having problems with a up-grade in my area
Their is no way I would ever go back to Cable as long as I have U-Verse

member for 18.8 years, 3593 visits, last login: 5.8 years ago
updated 14 years ago


Review by BrianB31 See Profile

  • Location: Belleville, Wayne, MI, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Great customer service, clean install, everything works great.
None!
You want this tech to install at your home

Ok ,I am going to break the rule shown as I post because this guy was SO good and needs credit!

I am waiting for AT&T to call so I can give my utmost compliments on the tech who installed our service yesterday. We got the U200/phone/internet package. We had AT&T land line, Pro DSL and Dish Network. We'd been happy with these but when u-verse came in at 35 less a month we decided to try it.

First, the online ordering was easy, the chat window did pop up and I had a great conversation with Mercedes. She answered all of my questions quickly and without the usual "double talk." I scheduled our install and they had the date up within a day, just as they stated.

Day of install, I am at work, my mom is home helping with our kids. I had given both home and my work cell number. The appointment was between 9-11. Brian, the tech, called my work cell at 9:30 and stated he was on his way. I told him I wasn't at home, but my was. Also that I left some questions for him. He answered everyone.

According to my mom, he was great. Very personable, she said. He called me approx. 3 hours later stating he was done, but he went the extra mile with voicemail and wireless set up when I wasn't home. Left all the info, plus gave my mom a quick course on the remote.

I came home after work and every cable was run cleanly, the outlets he changed over from Dish looked great and clean, he put the RG out of site, but easy to get to and the battery back up installed. All set tops are working great, phone is working fine and the internet was good to go.

We are very pleased with the service. If you're in Southeast Michigan you will want Brian to do your installation!!

member for 22.2 years, 55 visits, last login: 13 years ago
updated 14 years ago


David
Premium Member
join:2002-05-30
Granite City, IL

David

Premium Member

I can pass it along if you wish

I would just need you to send me your BAN or post a new topic in direct

1.) follow this link (open in new window or tab): »/forum ··· =noreply

2.) upper right select "New topic"

3.) use the subject of [COMMENT]

4.) just leave the BAN (billing account number) and I can pass it on.

Thanks
David

Review by tiniwotini See Profile

  • Location: Fremont, Alameda, CA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Poor customer service
Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:

AT&T Customer for over five years, DSL for around the same time and no trouble then. We moved, however, and needed to transfer DSL.

Application finished over the phone on January 29, saying internet will be available at the new address on February third. No internet ever came and after two weeks and many, many, minutes spent on hold to speak with a customer service rep, AT&T realized that they no longer have DSL in the area we moved in and recommended us for AT&T U-verse.

I agreed.

By week three, still no internet and a new problem came to light. We need an U-verse modem for internet to work! Well, ATT Reps INSISTED and CONFIRMED that we did not need a new modem, yes, they are 100% sure. I was very frustrated at this point and was given the number for their Retention center. It was confirmed that we DO need a modem, and it will arrive the following week, week 4, thank you for my patience.

Week 4 was yesterday, Feb. 24. We had someone stay home from 1-3 PM to wait for the technician with the U-verse modem. Internet at last? NOT!

No one came. So, I called the retention center again today, Feb 25, skipped lunch break at work, spent the whole hour with a rep and a tech that told me NO ORDER WAS PLACED FOR A MODEM on the 19th. None. Nada. Zero.

I was about ready to combust. WOW. Ensuring a modem was sent, either with a tech or by mail (they ship from TX and I'm in CA), was exactly what I spent two hours on the phone for on Feb 19.

The earliest AT&T can have someone come with modem to our house? March 4. That is a whopping 34 DAYS after the order was placed. I asked if the modem can be shipped, and we can install it ourselves. No, it can not. Their system won't allow it for a reason the poor tech can not explain himself.

In the end, I wish I didn't try to stay with AT&T.

I called Comcast less than three hours ago. Comcast arranged for a self-install kit to be picked up from a local office, installed the thing, modem included, and now have internet up and running after less than three hours.



member for 14 years, driveby review (so far)
updated 14 years ago

mjwise
join:2007-05-09
Ann Arbor, MI

mjwise

Member

That's odd

This is really odd. U-Verse, AFAIK, is still a full tech-installed service. I don't see how you even managed to sign up without having a tech install date set up as well, where they would bring a modem and set up the outside plant. Modems aren't available for purchase either, so I'm not sure exactly what they expected you to do.
mjwise

mjwise

Member

Re: That's odd

Well, let me correct myself. Apparently they are launching self-installed Internet-only U-Verse - they apparently haven't worked all the bugs out though...
tiniwotini
join:2010-02-25

tiniwotini

Member

Re: That's odd

the thing is, they scheduled for an AT&T tech w/a modem to come over after one rep realized we need a new modem for u-verse. confirmation e-mails were received that a tech was coming over, with a date and time. however, no tech ever arrived. it was just bizarre.

VP
@sonic.net

VP

Anon

ATT sux

I had the same problem upgrading from AT&T dsl to U-verse.
Ended up with canceling AT&T and signing up for Comcast.

kman
@sbcglobal.net

kman

Anon

the worse

The installation was wonderful. After that I found that the system was Slow, many software bugs, piss poor performance, tools don't work, on phone or TV
Gave up Direct TV for this, it was the most stupid thing I ever did, the DTV system is far better FAR BETTER! Uverse DVR works sometimes Records what it wants when it wants, lacks the wish list feature from DTV , and unless u want a head ache DON'T CALL Tech Support!
Not finished but tired of typing.
One year left on contract and I will be back to DTV

Review by jwhalgx See Profile

  • Location: Fort Worth, Tarrant, TX, USA
  • Cost: $40 per month
  • Install: about 2 days
reliable, and consistent speeds for about a year
could be less expensive
Im happy with my ATT dsl 768Down service. it usually runs a bit faster than advertized

ordered the service online, no hassles.
I pay ~40/month for dsl internet _only_.
ATT no longer requires a home phone service to get their DSL.
the gear came with a motorola MSTATEA DSL modem
I currently use it in bridged mode with my wireless router handling the PPPoE.

member for 21 years, 28 visits, last login: 12.2 years ago
updated 14 years ago

BigVe
join:2005-07-15
Gulliver, MI

BigVe

Member

Are you sure?

Only 768 down?? I have way faster than that from my cellphone way out in the sticks
dolmar4
join:2004-01-16
Beverly Hills, CA

dolmar4

Member

Re: Are you sure?

If your service is using MSTATEA DSL modem then it is not U-Verse but standard DSL. All U-Verse installs get the 2Wire modem/router combo even Internet only installs as that is the only current hardware compatible with U-Verse Service.
JonBoySC
join:2009-06-26
Pickens, SC

JonBoySC

Member

Re: Are you sure?

Also uverse starts at 1.5 down, not 768. You are reviewing the wrong service.

sdatt
@sbcglobal.net

sdatt

Anon

Not U-Verse.

That is just regular old DSL service by At&t not U-verse. You can not get U-verse without the T.V package

garypen
join:2001-02-06
Laguna Beach, CA

garypen

Member

Re: Not U-Verse.

You are wrong. U-Verse Internet can be ordered without U-Verse TV.

However, you are correct that the guy was reviewing standard ATT DSL. But, that is obvious due to his description of the service.






Review by tungsten_22 See Profile

  • Location: Carlsbad, San Diego, CA, USA
  • Cost: $110 per month
  • Install: about 5 days
stable service, fast internet speeds
2wire router, HDTV picture quality
get U-verse for internet, not for TV if you value sports picture quality
Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

I live in a townhouse in Carlsbad and I initially wanted to be able to get both TV and internet from the same company. This ruled out Dish and DirecTV for TV service even though several of my neighbors have that installed, leaving me with either Time Warner North County (ex-Adelphia), or U-Verse. I have had personal experiences with TW, and they were generally not pleasant. Being in ex-Adelphia territory makes things even worse as they get fewer and slower TV channel updates than the rest of San Diego county. This essentially sealed the deal for me to go with U-Verse, and I signed up and got it installed on August 2009.

I chose the 12Mbs down/1.5Mbs up internet package and the U100 TV package with HD service. As I did not bundle telephone service (I pay for CallCentric VoIP separately for $3.50/mo, purely as a backup to my cell phone), I didn't really get any monthly bundle savings, but I did get free installation. The "Max" broadband package costs $55/mo, U100 TV costs $54/mo, HD service costs $10/mo, after taxes/fees and a promotional discount, my total bill comes out to be about $110/mo.

The townhouse I live in is a somewhat old building (built in 1982), and previous owners of the townhouse have done various strange things to it when hooking up satellite TV, so the installer was a bit confused as to how all the coax in the house was wired. As I only care about getting TV service in the living room, I had the installer just run a coax line there so I can hook up the 2Wire router that is supplied by AT&T. I had the contractor who was remodeling my townhouse run CAT6 from my living room to all other rooms in my house because I run a HTPC in the living room (1st floor) connected to a file server on the 2nd floor. Wireless would not cut it for uncompressed HD streaming. Were it not for the fact that I had a contractor run CAT6 everywhere, however, the installation would have been much worse as I would not be able to use a wired connection for my 4 computers. Please note, I don't really blame AT&T here as the installer did try to figure out how all the coax was connected, even once crawling into the attic, but it was to no avail as the coax lines in the house have been rerouted rather strangely by previous owners. Aside from the coax line situation, the install went without a hitch and I am syncing at 32200kbps down/5040kbps up. This is higher than what I paid for for internet service because U-verse uses the extra bandwidth for TV/VoIP service.

The router supplied by AT&T, and that I am forced to use, is the 2Wire 3800HGV-B Gateway. It does not support QoS (at least not in an easily configurable way like all other routers I've owned that supported QoS), and it only supports wireless up to 802.11g, not n. The router is not all bad, as it is able to support port forwarding in conjunction with DHCP. Sadly, the router gets finicky with how it detects computers on the network, so this functionality is somewhat hit or miss. I have had to go to the hidden diagnostics page to reset the device list on the router to force it to recognize all the devices connected to it. Because of this problem, I just reserve the first 100 addresses of my local subnet for static IP, leaving DHCP on for just my laptop, a Wii, and the Motorola VIP 1200 cable box that comes with U-verse.

As far as the internet service goes, it has been rock solid aside from a couple of router resets and a problem with U-verse's DNS servers (I had switch to different ones than the pre-configured DNS servers for improved DNS performance) in the 6+ months I've had the service.

TV service, sadly, is another story. It, too, has been rock solid in terms of stability, but in terms of picture quality, it is quite simply horrid. At first, I could barely make out some compression artifacts on my old 32" 720p TV (but I did notice that it was already worse than the Cox Cable that I used to have before I moved into the townhouse). When I upgraded to a 55" 1080p TV, the results were painfully obvious. I don't ever watch SD, so I won't comment on those channels, but for HD channels, the quality ranges from mediocre for many programs to unacceptable for sports programs (70% of what I watch is sports). On non-sports programs, the picture is soft but otherwise devoid of compression artifacts unless you look very closely. All in all, non-sports HD programs are acceptable and not that annoying to watch. Sports fans with a big TV or projector, though, will need to steer clear of U-Verse. Compression artifacts are rampant and constant. Watching the Winter Olympics allows me to find all the ways that snow and ice can macro-block that I never thought possible before. For NBA and NFL games, you will see a decent picture only when the program is doing a close-up of somebody's face because U-verse's compression algorithm can apparently only handle low-motion/low-detail scenes at an acceptable level. During high-motion scenes, AKA not during a timeout, edges of players blur significantly, and edges on the field or court also blur quite a bit. The overcompression is so bad that even the static score overlay on the screen is susceptible to macro-blocking. Changing between the TV box's 720p and 1080i output does not change a single thing about the poor quality of sports programs, nor does changing between component and HDMI connections. The most memorable scene I had was the at end of the Super Bowl when confetti was raining down on the stadium. Well, at least I assumed it was confetti because literally every single pixel on my TV was part of a macro-block.

I tried calling AT&T's tech support to see if they can improve the PQ, but their answer to everything seems to be resetting your cable box multiple times. I was even told to do a factory reset of their TV box because they had reset their connection to my house. After all that fiddling about, the only thing that was different was that their resets nuked my router's firewall settings so I had to go and configure everything on it all over again. The AT&T tech on the phone offered to send out a new cable box (during which I would have to stay at home to wait for an installer to replace it), but after having checked out posts by very knowledgeable folks over at AVSForum, I concluded that I would get a new cable box, but from DirecTV instead. I have not cancelled U-verse's TV service yet, so I will be able to do a direct PQ comparison of DirecTV and U-Verse next week once the satellite installer is done. I will update this review at that time.

UPDATE 2/24/2010:

I just got DirecTV hooked up today, and the difference in picture quality is incredibly obvious. In sports programs (Olympics hockey and NBA game), the picture on DirecTV is still somewhat soft compared to non-sports programs, but at least it does not exhibit the extreme amount of macro-blocking that occurs on U-verse. Gone are blocky and blurry edges when players are moving fast, and gone are the blocks that appear when the compression codec adjusts the background level of detail. DirecTV does have its disadvantages, such as not being able to preview programs in the guide (with the HD21-200 PVR) and slower channel switching. I won't delve into the various issues as this is not a review of DirecTV, but the picture quality improvement in both sports and non-sports programs is clear. It's time for me to cancel U-verse TV.

member for 14.1 years, 15 visits, last login: 13.1 years ago
updated 14 years ago


COMMAN
Plug Me In
join:2000-07-17
Mount Juliet, TN

COMMAN

Member

Great Review

Just had to say thanks for an excellent, well written review. Lots of info, very readable. U-verse isn't in our area yet, but we just upgraded to HDTV with Comcast (already had the SD service and Biz class Internet), and have been amazed at the difference in picture quality - so far the HD is awesome. Hope the new DirecTV works out well for you, keep us informed.
dolmar4
join:2004-01-16
Beverly Hills, CA

2 edits

dolmar4

Member

Re: Great Review

Just so you know if you have keep ATT U-Verse Internet and have ATT Pots service(plain old ATT landline phone) you can get an extra $5 a month off your Pots line + $5 a month off your Direct Tv package just by bundling your direct tv service on your ATT Pots bill.

The $10 discount for bundling Sat, Internet and pots service is an ongoing promo and not a limited time promo either.

Personally once all my promo ends with ATT/Dish in Aug(ATT used to bundle Dish network with ATT before 2/09), If Dish does not give me new promo to stay, I will switch to ATT Direct TV or TWC.

P.S. my current bundle is ATT Dish, ATT U-Verse Max Plus and ATT Pots service( ATT U-Verse All Distance which is basically unlimited free long distance in the USA for $30 per month and includes 13 features and Voicemail is an extra $5 bucks per month).

tungsten_22
join:2010-02-16
Carlsbad, CA

tungsten_22

Member

Re: Great Review

Unfortunately, I don't have a POTS line. Thanks for the heads up tough. I'm going to have to research whether I can save money going with a bundle with my current level of services vs what I'm already getting now.
tungsten_22

tungsten_22 to COMMAN

Member

to COMMAN
DirecTV got off to a rocky start because the first installer who came to hook up the satellite dish failed to install a power inserter for the satellite box that is required for the new slimline dishes. That caused the box to just freeze up when it tried to do a software update. Fortunately, the tech who came to investigate the issue figured out the problem and got it fixed. At least so far DirecTV customer service has been very prompt. I'm almost a little annoyed at how many times they've called me!

As for your HD service, I hope it works out well for you. Unless Comcast really drops the ball, they should have better picture quality than U-verse as well.

Review by Ufansius See Profile

  • Location: San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
  • Cost: $24 per month (12 month contract)
None
Lack of connection; abysmal customer service; false advertising
Stay away, if you value your sanity
Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Here's the text of the letter I sent AT&T:

Gentlemen,

Not that you care (as Ive learned to my sorrow), but Im going to tell you a story of what it feels like to be one of your customers.

Early in the week of February 15 (I didnt take note of the date or time), I was reviewing my monthly AT&T bill and noted that I was paying $7.57 a month for long distance access. Since I never use long distance, I called your billing department to discontinue that access. While I was on the line with your customer service representative, she asked me if Id like to switch my AT&T DSL access to a new fiber-optic service called U-verse, newly available in my area. I said no. She proceeded to sell me the service, promising me that Id pay $5 less per month for a year, that Id need no new equipment and wouldnt need to be visited by any technician. All Id have to do, she assured me, was to turn off my modem at 5 pm on Monday, February 22 for 30 seconds and then turn it back on. Voila! Id have faster service at lower cost, at least initially.

Well, I couldnt pass that up; faster service for $5 less per month, and all I have to do is flip my modem switch off and on? Okay, I said, Ill take it.

Id give anything to be able to take those four little words back. Anything.

Because, as youll see when you read on, they sparked a nightmare, one that is ongoing as I write.

One of the conditions under which I agreed to sign up for U-verse was that my online access would be uninterrupted by the switch (which was to take place on Monday, February 22, remember).

AT&T promptly disconnected my DSL access on Friday, February 19 at about 4 pm. My partner, who teaches online classes for a university here in the city, was thrown offline at that time, as he was working with one of his online students.

I was out of the house that evening so I called in on Saturday morning to find out what was going on. At that time I was told that my DSL access had been turned off because Id switched over to U-verse. I explained that the DSL turnoff was supposed to be seamlessly coordinated with the U-verse turn-on on Monday afternoon, and that the Friday turnoff was obviously in error. I asked that either the U-verse or my DSL access be turned back on right away. The customer service representative couldnt do that. After a bit, when I realized that continuing to talk to the customer service representative was a waste of time, I asked to speak with her supervisor. Thats when XXXXXXXXX came on the line.

XXXXXXXXX and I spent the day together. He called periodically throughout the day to provide me with progress reports as he was trying to figure out what had happened. Thats right - your supervisor was unable to figure out what was going on at your company despite pursuing it all day. I dont say that to fault XXXXXXXXX, who was clearly trying his absolute best to help me. But, as Ive now learned, your company is so monumentally screwed up that he simply couldnt.

My last chat with XXXXXXXXX took place at about 5 pm on Saturday. At that time he informed me that, yes, my DSL access had been turned off early in error but no, he couldnt get it turned back on. There was no way to reconnect me to my online access until my U-verse order had gone through on Monday.

You keeping up? Because I just told you that a mistake that your own representative admitted had been made by AT&T that deprived me of access to the service Ive been paying for for more than six years couldnt be fixed by your company until Monday, after Id have been deprived of online access for 3 days. You broke it, but couldnt be bothered to fix it. Got that?

What could I do? I waited till Monday. Meanwhile, my partner couldnt do his work. His livelihood was put on hold because your company couldnt be bothered to fix its mistake in a timely manner.

Monday came, and with it my new user packet from U-verse. When I opened the packet I saw that the turn-on time for the service was not 5 pm, as Id been told by that original salesperson, but 8 pm. Having experience of what Id get if I called you, I didnt bother. I waited till 8 pm.

No service at 8 pm.

So I called again. I spoke with a customer service representative (XXXXX), telling her the whole story. She couldnt do anything, of course, so I asked to speak to a supervisor and was eventually connected to XXXXXXX, right here in San Francisco. I told him the whole story, again, and he eventually told me that the turn-on time on the order was 11 pm and that there was nothing he could do; Id just have to wait till 11 pm. He promised to call me back at 11 pm to make sure our service had been restored. I told XXXXXXX that I didnt trust anything he or anyone else at AT&T had to say at this point; he swore, repeatedly, that hed call me back.

The service wasnt turned on at 11 pm, of course. Shocker: XXXXXXX never called me back to check.

I couldnt sleep; I was worried sick about my partners inability to do his work. At 4 am I called again and spoke to XXXX in Texas. He did some research and told me that there was nothing he could do, and that Id have to call U-verse when they opened at 8 am in order to get the U-verse order canceled and my original DSL restored. He also told me an interesting fact: the modem I had (a SpeedStream 5100) wouldnt work with U-verse anyway, despite my having told the original salesperson the name and model number of the modem and having been assured by her that it would work. So even if the U-verse order had been turned on properly I still wouldnt have had any online access.

Thats right. The salesperson who originally sold me the U-verse service lied to me in order to get me to switch. Just plain lied.

At this point I was getting desperate to get my partner back online so he could perform his job duties, so I phoned my own job and told them Id be in late after I dealt with this. I then called the U-verse people to tell them to cancel my order for U-verse and restore my original DSL service. Again, it was clear that no one had even bothered to enter the details of my problem into your customer service database; the person that I talked to had no record of any of the many calls I had made previously, just as none of those Id talked to before had. So I went through the whole story again, first with XXX (who put me on hold after I finished and then disconnected me 10 minutes later) and then, after waiting for 20 minutes on hold when I called back, with XXXXX. XXXXX put me on hold for 62 minutes (thats over an hour, youll notice, though she did at least have the decency to check back in occasionally to let me know that she was still working on it) only to come back on the line to tell me that my original DSL could be restored but that it would take 24 hours. Thats right; turning on a service that has been set up for over 6 years would take a full day. But what choice did I have? With my experience of your company I knew, obviously, that it wouldnt happen but I told her to go ahead and then left for work. That morning spent on the phone with AT&T cost me almost $150 in lost wages.

This is all in aid of saving $5 a month for 12 months, remember. Thats $60.

I probably dont even really need to tell you the rest of the story. As Im sure youve already guessed (you work for this company, after all), 24 hours and more passed and my service still hasnt been connected. I called AT&T again just a few minutes ago to find out why. Guess what they said, at the end of an hour-long call (mostly spent on hold, natch)?

Even if we cancel your U-verse sign-up its not possible to restore you to the service that you had before.

Ill repeat that, cause even you, who work for AT&T, probably cant believe what youre hearing: Even if we cancel your U-verse sign-up its not possible to restore you to the service that you had before.

I gave up at that point, of course. I told the customer service representative to cancel any and all online access deals, new or old, that I had with AT&T. I still have phone service through your company, but that will be canceled too as soon as I nail down an alternative. Im looking very diligently, because it galls me to think that I have to give AT&T even one more penny.

Oh, and I immediately went to att.com (on my work computer, of course) and canceled my online bill payments. It makes my blood run cold that I ever entrusted any personal financial information to AT&T, and when I reflect that I gave AT&T permission to access my funds, well, I feel faint. Given the lying, incompetence, indifference, contempt and disdain Ive experienced over the last few days, Im frankly surprised that AT&T hasnt embezzled my money, too. Now that I think of it, it might be a good idea to review my bank records for the last six years. Then again, the company Ive been dealing with for the last six days probably couldnt embezzle its way out of a wet paper bag.

So, to sum up what that simple billing adjustment call cost me and my partner:

- Six days of online access to email, news, etc.;

- Six days of work for my partner, work hell have to make up on his own time and at his own expense with whatever makeshift online access he can cobble together in some internet cafe;

- At least six hours of phone time, nearly all of it spent in fury and frustration;

- A full day of my weekend which I had to spend at home after canceling my plans for the day in the vain hope that I could get my online access restored;

- A mornings wages, wages that amount to two-and-a-half times the amount I would have saved if this service switch had gone as promised.

Now, I realize that, having irrevocably lost me as a customer forever, youll probably just chuck this letter in the trash. AT&T, after all, has millions and millions of customers, and most of them probably pay you more than the $75 a month Ive been paying you for the last six-plus years.

Whatever. Youve done everything you can to me, and Ill soon be entirely free of your clutches. No, it wasnt really for you that I wrote this; I wrote it for posting on my blog, on my Facebook page, on Yelp, on DSLReports.com and on any other blog, review site, tech forum or other outlet that I can find. And Im highly motivated to look long and hard.

Because the delirium I feel at being free of AT&T, despite the annoying and tedious work ahead in replacing your services, is akin to the freedom an alcoholic might feel at finally, finally being free of booze. Its the very best feeling Ive felt in a long, long time and if what Ive written here can bring that feeling to even one more of your customers, or prevent even one person from ever starting down the road to AT&T hell, it will have been worth the time spent writing this a hundred times over.

Oh, one last thing. On my last call to AT&T, when I canceled any and all orders for any kind of online access, I told the customer service representative that I was going to cancel my phone service too, as soon as I could. Then I went to lunch. When I got back I had a voicemail from someone at AT&T checking to see if I wanted to cancel both online access and telephone line. She didnt leave her number (would you, if you were working customer service for such a wretched company? The number of raging people who would be calling you would be enormous), but she promised to call back by 2 pm to make sure shed gotten the cancellation right.

Its 3:30 now.

Sincerely,

XXXX XXXXXXXX

member for 14 years, 1 visits, last login: 14 years ago
updated 14 years ago

billydunwood
join:2008-04-23
united state

billydunwood

Member

File a BBB and PUC report

Att does have billing problems, as I am experiencing it. However, I think you should file a BBB amd PUC report, as they both will lead to an investigation. When I did that against ATT West awhile back, the president's secretary of ATT west decided to call me, and she sent a senior tech free of charge, and gave me a $35 goodwill credit.
Ufansius
join:2010-02-24
San Francisco, CA

Ufansius

Member

Re: File a BBB and PUC report

Thanks for the tip - anything I can do to give back as good as I got is a good thing!
Ufansius

Ufansius to billydunwood

Member

to billydunwood
I just went to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) website and found this:

Please be aware that the CPUC cannot help you resolve issues with:

* Publicly owned or municipal utilities, such as SMUD or the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
* Federal, city, or county taxes and surcharges on your bills.
* Long-distance telephone, cable TV, cellular phone rates, paging, or Internet rates and services.
billydunwood
join:2008-04-23
united state

billydunwood

Member

Re: File a BBB and PUC report

But the BBB does. It doesnt hurt to try anyways, as a complaint will get to ATT and you will most likely get a call from a representative higher up than a regualr employee. The BBB works well!

CatieD
@rr.com

CatieD

Anon

Forget BBB--Just keep posting, as, you've saved me.

I thoroughly enjoyed you letter, and totally understand your pain. I've only had ATT cell service, and ATT home phone service. Both if which, are the absolute pitts.

I live in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, and I just received a notice that ATT Uverse is now available for me, and thought I might drink the Kool-aid to save $10 a month, as my partner is out of work right now.

I must have been foolish to even consider it, but it was a combination of contempt for Time Warner's crummy customer service and recently jacked up rates, and my envy that for the last two years, the neighbors on both sides of my house (15 ft between my home and theirs) have had Uverse for the past two years, and every time I inquired about the service, ATT would tell me some kind of garbage I couldn't understand, as to why I was out of the loop.

Thank G*d I had the sense to do some digging, after being contacted yesterday by a sales rep, telling me, as of yesterday, service was available to me.

After reading your letter to ATT, it took me back to a prior experience with them, before they sold our local cable franchise to Time Warner. I remembered taking days off work and spending untold hours a day getting intimate with ATT service reps. over a problem with service I was paying for but not receiving. It culminated with me dropping ATT and going to DirecTV, with whom I loved and will probably go back to, now that I won't be getting Uverse. The only reason I went back to cable was, when Time Warner bought out ATT, they called me to offer full services with free HBO and Showtime for $39, yes, $39 for three years. How could I not go back?

Anyhooo... It's time to make a change and your letter has literally, saved me from making a huge mistake. As my Nana used to say, a leopard doesn't change it's spots.

Don't bother with the BBB, though. They're a huge waste of time, IMHO. If you do deal with them, it entails writing letters of grievance, waiting for responses from the company, and sucking away monstrous proportions of time and energy for it to possibly end up where ATT just states in a response that they have resolved the issue with you and BBB sends you a case closure letter, stating such, regardless of if it's the truth. Way too much hoop jumping for no resolve.

Well, I hope you've found suitable service at this time.
Thank you, again for the humorous (although, you're not laughing at this time) account of your problems. Just keep posting it on every board you can find.

Blessings!

lowerhaight
@pacbell.net

lowerhaight

Anon

same experience

unfortunately i saw this review a day late, same exact experience. i went into an att store and saw first hand how the employees care more about watching videos on youtube than resolving customer issues. there's maybe a handful of people in the whole company that actually understand the differences between uverse dsl and regular dsl, what to sell you, and what modem you need.

definitely the worst customer experience i've ever had. not only did no one have a clue what was happening, but they clearly didn't care about it either.
lijoneel
join:2010-03-16
San Francisco, CA

lijoneel

Member

Wish I would have read this sooner!

I too unfortunately read this post too late. I'm experiencing the same situation. AT&T sales and engineering are not on the same page. After hours on the phone with support, I eventually get a level 2 support engineer who says they should have never switched me to U-Verse DSL. He says he will cancel my U-Verse DSL order and re-establish my old DSL service within 2 business days. 2 business days go by and still no Internet. I call up AT&T again (their service reps in the Philippines are very rude and not very helpful) and after being transferred to several different departments they still have no clue about what's going on with my DSL service. The last rep I spoke to said their system is not allowing them to switch my service back to the old DSL and they are trying to figure out a way to override that. I'm awaiting to hear back from them and most likely will be disappointed again.

Review by tedshowalter See Profile

  • Location: Orange, Orange, CA, USA
  • Cost: $152 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 15 days
Well designed. When it works, it really works!
Troubleshooting calls go to somebody in a different time zone.
I am really pleased with the features of the system. Glad I subscribed.
Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

Had problems with installation of phone service. Took 3 visits by service techs to resolve wiring issues.

Once system was successfully installed, it has performed above promises and expectations. 5MBit speed checks out well (however I'm only about 200 ft. from gateway switch). I have HD TV access and U300 service with the package.

member for 14.1 years, driveby review (so far)
updated 14.1 years ago

vengance01
join:2009-03-06
Encino, CA

vengance01

Member

Contracts

There are no contracts with ATT U-Verse

blaken2001
@covad.net

blaken2001

Anon

More detailson how it works

Uverse has just entered my area and I haven't acquired it yet, but my background and contacts have raised some flags. Apparently either the router or the line is limited to 24 MBps throughput. HDTV takes 8MB per channel and SDTV takes 4MB per channel, so you can not have more than 3 HD channels coming in - and if you do there is ZERO bandwidth available for internet. This means if you want to record 4 shows the best you can do is 2 HD + 2 standard with no internet bandwidth. Has anyone else received this information?

Lighting Guy
join:2009-07-24
Berea, OH

Lighting Guy

Member

Re: More detailson how it works

Not entirely true. Currently there are 3 different profiles that can be provisioned for a Uverse Customer. The profile rate can be 19/2, 25/2 or 32/5. Also HD channels are between 6-7 mbps.

If you have the 19/2 profile you can only get max 12 internet, and only 1 HD live stream.

The 25/2 profile allows Max 18 internet, and 2 HD channels. Because of that it is possible to see your internet drop a little when using all your TV streams.

The 32/5 profile (not widely available yet) allows 24/3 internet, and 3 HD streams. Again your internet will drop a little when using all TV streams.

Also note your internet will not really be affected at any level if you do not have the max possible internet at that profile.

Hope this helps.