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 Review by ebaykeith 
member for 9.7 years, 1310 visits, last login: 92 days ago
lodged 5.5 years ago
 San Ramon,Contra Costa,CA
 $64 per month about 6 days "Awesome channel line up, 1MB Upload Speeds on DSL, NO TECH or SVC CHARGES EVER!!" "Took a few hours to set up, but the quality was worth the wait. Not available everywhere." "Great product!!!"
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First Day with Uverse.
I just got AT&T U-Verse (U400 package). Install took a while (pretty much most of the day), but the techs won't even leave until everything is working perfectly and you completely understand how to use the service.
So far, my speed tests for DSL have been 5600+ down, and 900+ upload (yes I am getting just barely under 1MB upload. Incredible)
I have more channels than I ever dreamed of (like around 300), and HD to boot.
I also like that if anything goes wrong, I just call, they fix, no charge, EVER!!! Finally doing something right and just giving the customer service, with no hastle. I like that.
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 Review by HonestEnd
member for 7.2 years, 660 visits, last login: 60 days ago
updated 5.5 years ago
- Detroit,Wayne,MI
- $104 per month
- about 5 days
- "Excellent service, great picture quality, much better value than cable."
- "RG is freaking huge (not that big of deal), remote is IR instead of radio."
- "ATT U-verse provides a pretty solid service for the money. I'll never go back to cable, if I can help it."
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I finally got my U-Verse installed 2 days ago and it has been wonderful. The install took a little over 8 hours but that was due to them running all new CAT5e cabling. The picture clarity of U-Verse is amazing. I haven't been experiencing pixilation on my screen at all. The STB is pretty good but there are some minor bug fixes that are due. I think that in due time they will be taken care of. I love all the cool features from Yellowpages.com to U-Bar. The Yahoo! games are also a big plus. I don't have HD so I can't comment on the HD quality but I've read some reviews about the quality being bad so I'll hold out until they release the new encoder. Overall, my experience has been good. I've found that not using coax (even from the STB to TV) saves alot of hassle and gives a much better picture and better sound. I'll be keeping a look out for any negatives and will give updates as needed...
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Review by ashakouri1
member for 10.7 years, 508 visits, last login: 2.1 years ago
updated 5.5 years ago
- San Diego,San Diego,CA
- $55 per month
- about 7 days
- "Great service, reliable, lots of channels, free DVR, Lots Cheaper than cable"
- "Channel change is slow sometimes, Remote is IR and not Radio, channel placement is annoying"
- "Great Service for 2/3 price of cable, free DVR, but some issues"
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I had u-verse installed about one month ago. Great service. Channels look good, free DVR, 3 set-top boxes for free.
Only real problems are that the install times available are only 8:00-12:00, nothing after those hours, and weekend installs are very limited, so it will be a waste of one weekday. The install only took about 2-3 hours for me, but my complex had some equipment already setup so expect at least 3 hours plus for install. Also the channel changing is slow sometimes, a little bit more lag than digital cable. Also channel lineup is weird, the channels that most people watch are allover the place. The should put the entertainment and local channels is one area. I want my local channels, entertainment channels and news channels all within one area, then the sports and premium channels. But right now the selection is all over the place, and the lag in changing channels gets annoying when all your favorite channels are not near each other.
But I have to say that factoring in the price, this service is excellent. I got a special so I pay $55 for U-300, for the next six months then it will jump to around $70-80. But for comparable cable service and internet, I was paying $100+. Also I get one year of Showtime and Starz for free.
If the price stays relatively cheap, then I have no intention on going back to cable.
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 Review by bky
member for 10.8 years, 2149 visits, last login: 94 days ago
lodged 5.5 years ago
- Arlington,Tarrant,TX
- $98 per month
- about 15 days
- "Watching TV is cool again, connection reliability is rock solid as it has to be."
- "Interleaving make gamer smash!"
- "Not FTTP, but I still love it."
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I'll start with the TV service where I have the U200 package. Wow, I don't think I will ever go back to standard cable after my experience so far. The on-screen UI is just awesome to say the least. I can't get over how much I love the channel switch preview box and other features. The dvr functions are great, allowing you to record up to 4 programs simultaneously and schedule recordings remotely through your yahoo homepage. I've noticed that my HD/DVR box will sometimes peg it's resources and cause some aggravating latency when using the UI, often a 5-10 second delay between push-button on the remote and the function actually being carried out. I thought this was only when viewing HD programming at first, however that does not seem to be the case. I think it might be related to 1080p screen configuration, which I only hope could be fixed later on with a software update.
The internet, well, it's fast DSL and it works. I have the 6Mbps/1Mbps 'Elite' tier, which was a downgrade from 10/1 on cable. One thing that I did not realize before switching to U-verse is that the DSL utilizes interleaved signalling (»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interleaving) for data transmission. This is great in regards to delivering the unforgiving medium of video/television over IP, however it adds a noticeable amount latency to the internet connection compared to traditional DSL service(to put this in perspective, imagine that on ADSL you would ping 10-20 to a local game server, whereas on u-verse VDSL you would ping 25-40). Now, the only reason I picked up on this is because I'm an online gaming enthusiast where I found that my latency was actually a small amount higher than my previous RR cable service. If you are not an online gamer and/or don't care about low response times, then don't worry at all about this.
The cost for the service was too sweet not to switch. It cost me absolutely nothing for setup/installation. My monthly bill is actually a few dollars cheaper than what I was paying for base digital programming from time warner, who with I didn't even have a DVR or HD service.
What would u-verse have to do in order to make me a completely happy customer?
Allow customers to opt-out of using interleaved signalling with VDSL (if this would even be possible). Do I think they will ever do this? Hell no, but that's the bottom line.
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Review by warped_bird
member for 5.5 years, 5 visits, last login: 5.4 years ago
updated 5.5 years ago
- Dallas,Collin,TX
- $140 per month
- about 23 days
- "A Install Technician Named Mike"
- "Everything"
- "I hear its good but after taking one week off from work to get a simple install, gave up"
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I ordered this service hearing some mixed reviews. I tried to order online and the online system kept crashing. This should have given me a taste of what’s to come.
I had to call online support to finish the order because my order got stuck online so I couldn't finish is and waited on the phone almost 2 hours to have the service rep figure out how to get my registered and an install date.
Order completed on October 9th and install set for Oct 23rd 12-2pm.
Installer calls at 12pm on the dot on install date. So far so good.
Installer comes in and runs a series of test which takes about 30-40 minutes and gives me two thumbs up on signal quality and service.
He begins testing internal cable lines and cat five cabling in the house. He spends about 2-3 hours replacing older cable connections with newer ones.
Service person is very friendly and helpful and answers a slew of questions about the service and seems eager to help any way he can.
At 6 pm he finishes and turns on the residential gateway. Gets green light for broadband and service but no connection possible. Calls in and finds out that software for processing service is down and can't complete job till service is activated on other end. Tech leaves and tells me to call 800 # tomorrow.
24th:
Call 800# and reach tier 1 support quickly. I explain what happened and why tech left and i am escalated to tier 2. tier 2 takes over 20 minutes to get online but tier 1 stays online to let me know every 2 mins that they are still waiting to transfer.
Reach first tier 1 support for day and he puts me on hold for over 40 mins and never checks back. Have no clue what he is doing or if he’s just trying to get rid of me.
Call back and wait about 20 mins more to get to new tier 2 person. He doesn't seem to know what he's doing and can't figure out what to do. Looks at my record and tells me he needs to send someone out and he will prep everything so the install tech just has to make sure I have proper connection at hardware end.
Later that evening I call back to confirm next day appointment. No record found for dispatch. Support person sets new support date for November 4th. I insist he should try and get one out sooner. No dice.
I hang up and call again and get a more sympathetic support person who immediately calls dispatch and says he got a confirmation for next day at 12-2pm.
25th
I take afternoon off from work to meet tech at 12-2pm. Call every 30 mins to make sure tech did not call wrong contact number then leave. No record of attempt as of 2:30pm. I call 10 mins before and I am told there’s no dispatch record for me that day. No one was supposed to come out but they escalate me to tier 2 support again.
I am on hold most of that day and finally get someone who seems helpful around 6pm.
There's nothing he can do but he begins to shift blame to install guy and says he needs to dispatch someone again.
This time for Friday 12-2pm.
26th
I get home at 12pm and start calling to confirm appointment and also that tech hadn't tried to call again. Same thing as day before but when I call at 2pm they tell me tech just called and left because no one picked up the phone.
I say I'm home and no one called so they call dispatch and route someone as an emergency call.
Tech arrives around 3pm. He checks everything and says I have no live connection. He calls tier 2 to get assignment and provisioning port at network junction. He checks my port and its dead. Looks at install document and first tech has me on correct port but somewhere in the system it says I should be on a different port. Tech calls MLAC to get port assignment and is assigned new port address. He installs me on new port and gets great signal.
Service won't work. He calls tier 2 and after about going back and forth for over 4 hours a tier 2 tech tells him I'm on wrong port which is not even the one I was installed on to begin with.
Install guy goes down and switches me to the port the system says I'm on.
Service finally works at around 10pm. Install guys was there really late to make sure everything worked.
He leaves mission accomplished.
27th
Call customer support and tell them of my experience and tell them I ended up taking almost a week vacation time just to get my service up. CS tells me they understand my frustration and offers me $10 per month discount for 6 months and hangs up.
Services works pretty good till Sunday when service goes down unexpectedly. I call and told there is an outage.
28th
I call back a couple hours later and now am told there is no outage. Only my system is down in my area.
Tier 2 tells me my order is all wrong so he deletes my order and starts over. After 2 hours on the phone, he says he will call me back.
29th
On Monday I still have no service. I speak with 3 more tier 2 people who don't know what’s going on.
Says someone will come out on Tuesday to fix everything for good.
30th
I call at 12 and they can't find my dispatch record. I make a fuss and somehow they find it and says its from 12-2 and its only 12:30 so be patient. I call every 30 mins to makes sure tech doesn't call wrong number no record of tech support making their way out. After 2 pm find out no one is scheduled to come out at all.
I'm really pissed at this moment and start just yelling at them for being so stupid. Somehow this tactic works and they dispatch the same guy who got my service working on Friday.
He arrives and checks everything and the port I'm connected to is dead.
Meanwhile the tier 2 guy I was speaking with is the first guy in over a week that seems to know what he’s talking about and he makes the tech come out by escalating the ticket. His comment after reviewing my order, “This is wrong, just wrong! How can something so simple become so bad?" I agree!
He also mentions the problems I'm having are software issues and something he should be able to fix remotely but needs time. Doesn't want to cancel tech coming out just in case because no matter what he wants me to be up this day.
After 2 hours, tier 2 guy gets my gateway to go green. I connect my services and finally get broadband and TV again.
The tech says just in case he will call back next day in case of any other problems.
15 minutes after service is live and I get off phone with tier 2 guy, the service goes dead.
The install guy is still at my house and can't believe his eyes. He calls in and tries to see what the problem is. Tier 2 guy reads notes on my order and can't believe how screwed up everything is.
Reads final note from OMA who notes that they need to bring down service for short duration to do maintenance and will get order up as soon as possible. That was around 5pm today.
As I am writing this no one at ATT can explain why my service is down and explains there would be more delays.
Blames software for my problems now. I'm told that I may need to meet tech again. I tell them I ran out of vacation time and can't take any more time off from work.
Although this may not represent the typical service installation, I found that when it comes for ATT to show their stuff and in the face of so much screw ups and in competencies in-house they refuse to escalate my order to be handled immediately with the exception of the second install guy (Mike) and the tier 2 guy who got people on the phone while he had me on hold and wouldn't let them leave until he got what he needed from them, no one in ATT seemed sympathetic to the fact that I had to take off 1 week from work and still have no service and despite all that my ticket is treated like any other call that comes in.
Not that they can't escalate, but tier 2 to escalate obviously requires a lot of work because they have to file a report and report it to their manager and have manager get involved as well as following through on their tasks. Its easier to make promises and get you off the line as its impossible to get same rep again.
After 1 week, I can't vouch for the quality of the broadband or cable service but the tier 2 people are pretty much morons who step all over each other and don't know what the right hand is doing from the left hand.
Just pray you get the service up and running and you don't have an issue that requires you to be transferred to tier 2 support. They actually made my problem worse it turns out because no one seems to read what previous tier 2 people wrote and they all want to cancel the order and start it again so at one time they had 7 backordered tickets to cancel my order and restart process and after Fridays success all 7 tickets hit which is why service went down.
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Review by edr
member for 6.2 years, 18 visits, last login: 5.2 years ago
updated 5.5 years ago
- Waukesha,Waukesha,WI
- $74 per month
- about 31 days
- "Value, potentials, WOW very clear TV picture, channels & recorder access availabilities, EZ install"
- "Minor signal TV & internet connection deviations"
- "Better in all aspects than any I have used - exceeds expectations"
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I was not happy with cable their limitations in channels and pricing. Up until 2 years ago I was an antenna only user. Then reception was weak and took time to improve. Cable was the solution then. I went back and forth between cable and antenna forced to cable, we live in a very low lying area. I remained with basic cable. U-verse contacted me. I am former A&TT customer and I prefer not to use large companies. I researched u-verse and because it sounded better and required no contract and offered a 30 day trial. I joined. I have 1.5MG internet and U200, which is more than I wanted but has programs we like. This internet speed work great for us. Yes I enjoyed higher speeds but, being a previous dial up user, I do not download many files over 100mgs. The choice was simple at this time. I can change the package as needed too. Not perfect. Importance flexibility and no contract and I will continue to check out my options.
Outages at various levels do occur from time to time. Potentials outweigh this aspect as with any untested and new technologies. Trial and error require perseverance, communication, and endurance.
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 Review by DFWDraco76
member for 12.2 years, 2754 visits, last login: 173 days ago
updated 5.7 years ago
- Dallas,Dallas,TX
- $89 per month
- about 17 days
- "Much faster than regular DSL!"
- "none yet as far as the internet connection goes"
- "Great alternative for those people that can't get Elite DSL or FIOS"
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Written on 8/23/07:
Note the $89 is for U200 + Elite Internet (6/1). No contract, and 1 year of movie channels for free.
I live in an apartment and couldn't get "Elite" DSL before - the lines just couldn't handle the speed. FIOS was not an option, and Time Warner was fast but so unreliable I didn't want to have to depend on it. AT&T's U-verse DSL is clocking in around 5.5Mbps download and .8-.9Mbps upload. (compare that to the 2/.4 approx I was getting on "Pro" traditional DSL) I can VPN into work and RDP to my desktop, and it's just like being there - no lag at all.
The TV portion leaves something to be desired... Actually the programming, channels, VOD, etc. are all really good - much better than what I had with DirecTV previously, but the DVR pretty much sucks. I've had a DIrecTivo box for years, so I'm spoiled. Unfortunately the UVDVR feels like an alpha or beta product. I've gotten one software update since my 8/3/07 install and that did seem to speed the menus up, but it's got a long way to go.
The sales guy that signed me up told me several lies... No "whole home DVR" yet - hopefully sometime next year. No interactive U-bar yet - I've heard maybe next month but I'm not holding my breath. Several other features he told me were available right now but aren't - that's why I rated them low on the pre sales info.
My install was problematic. Initially they didn't have my particular apartment building in their system, so the girl that took my order just stuck it on somebody else's apartment! They showed up the first time and had a different phone number - and didn't even have my apartment number. So once they fixed their back end system they put in a new order and came out a second time for an install. That went mostly fine, except for one STB we tried to get up and running on HPNA (via the phone line). Any time the installer touched a wire though it would knock the other TVs and internet offline. It took him nearly 10 hours to get us up and running (ended up with coax to that one TV). Thus the lower rating for install.
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 Review by devil24
member for 10.8 years, 3316 visits, last login: 3 days ago
lodged 5.7 years ago
- Houston,Harris,TX
- $129 per month
- about 7 days
- "Great pricing, very stable"
- "Only one HD stream"
- "Great for the money, even if coming from AT&T"
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I've been a U-Verse user since 3/1/2007 and so far, so good.
Overall I am very pleased with the service thus far even after taking into consideration the few limitations the service has.
The programming packages are great and priced quite well.
SD channels are a huge improvement when compared to what I was receiving with TWC and Dish Network.
Now, HD is a different story. Even though the channel selection is pretty ample (and solid), the bandwidth limitations associated with this service results in a bit too much of compression on U-Verse's HD offering, but the big deal with it is that there's only one HD stream available, so only one HDTV set can tune to an HD channel in any household. I know many households only have one HDTV set, but that trend is changing incredibly fast now-a-days and this may become a deal breaker for many. Rumor has it that AT&T is working on raising the bandwidth early next year, but until they do, this is their Achilles' heel.
The internet part of the service is great and I have nothing to complain about (though having faster speeds wouldn't hurt  ). It's quite fast, extremely stable and well, it just works.
For the price (and the lack of contractual commitments), it can't be beaten.
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Review by sivelsew
member for 5.7 years, 16 visits, last login: 5.6 years ago
lodged 5.7 years ago
- Westland,Wayne,MI
- $103 per month
- "cheaper"
- "picture freezes, music station cut in and out, tech support iffy, imcompetent customer service"
- "If you need cable and internet on the cheap and don't mind crappy customer service then its not a bad deal"
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I switched from wow cable and internet, had no problems their service. A door to door salesman was selling the AT&T Uverse services and convinced me to try it... it was "free for 2 months" so I had nothing to loose. We ordered up the fastest internet and the U400 package. On the day of the installation I was told I was getting the 1.5 mb service and the U300 and was told I had to wait until after everything was installed before changing it... the next day my wife called and requested the 6mb service and the U200 with the HBO package(we had decided that was all we really needed and better to set it up now then forget at the end of the 2 months) It took a week and a half to get my internet speeds above 2mb and the cable picture freezes often not to mention the sound on the digital music channels cut in and out. The internet is usally down once or twice a day and nobody is sure why other than my upstream is slightly low. I would end up talking to the first tier of tech support who would tell me things that made no sense at all, and eventually end up at the next level and they would tell me something totally different. They could not even schedule the a tech to come out at the right time, I was given a choice of times and requested a 4-6pm appt. which was confirmed 3 times on the phone, at 6:10 I call and find out my appt is for 6-8pm and was told that was what I requested.
The kicker to all this is the $206 bill I received yesterday, turns out the internet was never "free" and because my wife asked for the U200 which turns out is not part of the promotional program only the U300 and U400 are free for 2 months, that would of been good to know when we switched.
The other down side is the phone number they give out, it does not connect you to Uverse it connects to AT&T phone services and they want your AT&T phone number to be able to assist you. You really mess then up when you give them your phone # and don't have a AT&T phone they can't pull up your account not to mention its a real hassel to have to mess around trying to get someone on the phone and then having to be transferred because your not in the right place.
The one nice thing is it does seem when I express my frustrations and state I am not even sure if I want to keep the services they seem eager to cancel the services all together so I am sure when I do call back once I get wow up and running it should not be a problem canceling.
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Review by wrusprod
member for 6.1 years, 47 visits, last login: 4.1 years ago
updated 5.7 years ago
- Saint Clair Shores,Macomb,MI
- $89 per month
- about 5 days
- "great quality.. lots of HD programs.digital box on every TV set. Wireless"
- "Gateway locks up once in a while..so far just rebooting takes care of it."
- "soo much more for the money compared to what i got from WOW..im still amazed on the great deal!"
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highly recommend U-verse...i had basic cable and internet before..with U-verse (300 package) i now get alot more channels,lots of sports channels,cable channels that were not offered at WOW. HD programs (i have the 10.00/month HD program).lots of kid programs (if you have children). wireless internet. a box on each tv. ( didnt have that before,so couldnt pull up menu on programs). movie channel package for one year.DVR for recording programs.
I was told by WOW that i would get HD programs for my HDTV. but when installed i was told i had to spend another 30.00 month for the HDTV box and HD package.
So far It has worked great..I had a couple times this weekend where my programs froze,so i had to reboot the gateway. but that has been it so far..
you get alot for the same price as the cable..i have recommended it to several people so far.
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