1 edit | [General] Uninformed UVerse Sales Pitch I had quite an interesting and infuriating interaction with some AT&T sales people today. Around dinnertime tonight, 2 guys came to our house to tell us about all of the wonderful fiber optic upgrades that have been made in our area and how we can hook up to this "much better service" from AT&T. I asked them if they were referring to UVerse and they told me that indeed they were. Funny thing...UVerse have been available in our area since early last summer. How do I know this? Because I got mailings when it first became available and continue to get 1-2 pieces of mail per week from AT&T about switching over. So these "new" upgrades aren't quite as new as one would think.
Being a glutton for punishment, I decided to listen to their (BS) sales pitch anyway. They go through all of the wonderful things that UVerse has at which point they ask me if I have any questions. This was the interaction:
Me: "Is there a cap on this service?"
AT&T: "Well, I understand that there is a cap on the DSL services, but not with UVerse"
Me: "Hmmm...that isn't what I understand. It is my understanding that there is a 250 GB cap on UVerse."
AT&T (after the 2 guys look at each other a bit): "Oh...well...uh actually, there may be a cap on it. But you would have to be running a small server in your house to hit the cap."
Me: "So there is a cap. And the point isn't whether I would ever hit the cap or not. It is that AT&T is hampering internet development by having caps in the first place."
Well, that was the end of the cap discussion for a bit. When I told them that I would not consider upgrading if it involved having to pay hundreds of dollars for the equipment to upgrade. "Oh no", I was told. "It is only our business services that have to pay for the equipment." Funny, in every one of the pieces of UVerse mail that I have gotten it mentioned having to pay at least $200 for the equipment to "upgrade". When I mentioned this, there was more backtracking.
When I finally told them I was ok with what I currently have, I actually had one of them laugh at me for not taking them up on their "great deal". Seriously AT&T! If you are going to send people to my house to bother me at dinnertime, at least train them to not lie directly to my face. |
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| Same thing happened to me last thanksgiving...
ATT Uverse sales guy talked about how they upgraded thelines to fiber optic and all the good things about uverse...
I just flatly told him, i've seen this community get developed and know where att lines are. I said here, here's the att fiber marker warning sign that fell off from the curb. I keep it to remind me, where the lines are coming in to my property.
I said besides, you still have caps...and he walked away |
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 CanezoidWe are the Corps
join:2001-02-16
Powder Springs, GA
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to JSJarvis
I am not really sure what the point of your post is ?
Are you just venting because your angry at people who are being "mis-informed" about things they obviously know nothing about or are you just trying to elevate yourself as to thinking your some kind of "know it all". Infuriated ? Really ?
As far as the caps, you are aware Comcast is doing the same thing, right ? Not sure if TWC is your cable HSI provider in Charlotte or not, so I can't speak for your area.
I am in no way defending the practices, canvasers mis informing customers reg Uverse has been a major PIA for quite sometime, but you can say that about a lot of things about a lot of things, yes I just said that 2x.
Just be nice, it pays off more in the end. |
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| reply to JSJarvis
Does anyone really believe the companies that don't currently have caps aren't going to eventually institute them? I'm betting within the next 2 years every ISP will have bandwidth caps. |
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| reply to JSJarvis
Always remember... a sale by elicit means is still a sale on the tally sheet. At&t will never admit to it, but they really don't care how they get a sale.
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»the53.tumblr.com/ |
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NWOhio
join:2011-10-25
Toledo, OH | reply to JSJarvis
My U-Verse IP service isn't capped. No meter or nothing. And was told and have it in writing from ATT that the service is NOT capped until a meter is in place. |
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 NetFixerFreedom is NOT freePremium
join:2004-06-24
The 'Boro
 ·Vonage
 ·Cingular Wireless
 ·Comcast
 ·AT&T Southeast
1 edit | reply to JSJarvis
said by JSJarvis:I had quite an interesting and infuriating interaction with some AT&T sales people today. Around dinnertime tonight, 2 guys came to our house to tell us about all of the wonderful fiber optic upgrades that have been made in our area and how we can hook up to this "much better service" from AT&T. I asked them if they were referring to UVerse and they told me that indeed they were. Funny thing...UVerse have been available in our area since early last summer. How do I know this? Because I got mailings when it first became available and continue to get 1-2 pieces of mail per week from AT&T about switching over. So these "new" upgrades aren't quite as new as one would think.
Actually, I have been getting the same spam and junk mail begging me to sign up for U-verse for several years (and am still getting it), but guess what? U-verse is most definitely not available to me, and I have been (unofficially, of course) told by local AT&T techs, that I won't live long enough to see it at my current address.
said by JSJarvis:Seriously AT&T! If you are going to send people to my house to bother me at dinnertime, at least train them to not lie directly to my face.
Seriously, this is AT&T you are talking about, what else do you expect from AT&T?
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History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower |
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1 edit | reply to Canezoid
No, the point of my post is not to be a "know it all". The reason for my post was point out how AT&T is going door-to-door through my neighborhood and is flat out lying about what their service features are. Because I am already an AT&T DSL customer, I know about their caps for both DSL and UVerse and the upgrade/setup fees. What about those in my neighborhood that don't know these things? TWC in Charlotte does not currently have bandwidth caps (not to say that they aren't considering implementing them). What if these sales tactics result in one of my neighbors switching over to UVerse and gets slapped with these fees and cap? It is a bait and switch situation, people told one thing and end up with another. That is what the infuriating part is. It is knowing that they know about the caps, they know about the fees and they are blatantly lying to everyone they speak to just to make a sale. And if it is happening in my neighborhood and in my city, I would say that AT&T has people in other cities doing the exact same thing. |
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 timcuthBraves FanPremium
join:2000-09-18
Pelham, AL
·AT&T Southeast
| reply to JSJarvis
JSJarvis  has one very important point. Apparently, uninformed people will be sold the service with the claim of no equipment charges, then will be charged $200 on their bills. My guess is that very few, if any, of them will be able to get refunds based on what the salespeople told them.
That is out and out fraud.
Tim
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"Life is like this long line, except at the end there ain't no merry-go-round." - Arthur on The King of Queens
~ Project Hope ~ |
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| reply to JSJarvis
My sales pitch was that the AT&T fiber optic lines were in place right to my home but when questioned about the box that would be attached to my house to terminate these optic fibers the sales lady did not know. I believe that the way U-Verse works is that the fiber optic cables terminate in a box called a VRAD and then the copper wires, (2 wire), are used from the VRAD to my home, (my distance is 849'). The 2 wires that come into my home terminate in a box called the RG, (3801HGV). This box then has the phone (2), TV STB (set top box) connections, wired PC LAN & wireless WIFI ports. I was not charged anything for the equipment and if in fact if I would be charged I would switch to TWC immediately.
I have not had any problems using the 55 year old copper wire lines from my home to the VRAD which supply the HDTV, phone, and internet. |
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public
join:2002-01-19
Santa Clara, CA | reply to JSJarvis
said by JSJarvis:I had quite an interesting and infuriating interaction with some AT&T sales people today. These are likely commission based contractors desperate to say anything to close a sale. |
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| said by public:said by JSJarvis:I had quite an interesting and infuriating interaction with some AT&T sales people today. These are likely commission based contractors desperate to say anything to close a sale. Exactly! |
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NetFixerFreedom is NOT freePremium
join:2004-06-24
The 'Boro Reviews:
·Vonage
·Cingular Wireless
·Comcast
·AT&T Southeast
| said by shortyd999:said by public:said by JSJarvis:I had quite an interesting and infuriating interaction with some AT&T sales people today. These are likely commission based contractors desperate to say anything to close a sale. Exactly! Or just doing exactly what AT&T expects them to do. As I recently mentioned in another forum on this site, the ability to claim "it wasn't us, it was our evil contractor", is a major reason for outsourcing services.
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History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower |
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| I work for AT&T, we have these guys in our market down here in Louisiana.
The problem is they aren't contractors as we can tell them what to do and expect them to do it. They are set up as Authorized Dealers like on the wireless side. They just get paid commission and do what they feel they need to do to sell. Of course they do listen to customer complaints about them. We had several that were overly aggressive that are no longer allowed to sell U-verse services. You need to contact your local market and let them know what happened. there is someone in your area that is in charge of Door 2 Door. I have reported a few for customers in my area. Its all about who you talk to. The guys give my people a bad name. I'm in a local retail store. Sales isn't about getting someone to sign up, its about getting someone the solution that works best for them and making sure it keeps working and service after the sale. Doesn't do any good to sign you up for a service, you get it and hate it, then you cancel. The money just gets deducted from our next commission, plus good word of mouth is more important that one sale. |
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| said by nlwnola:I work for AT&T, we have these guys in our market down here in Louisiana.
Sales isn't about getting someone to sign up, its about getting someone the solution that works best for them and making sure it keeps working and service after the sale.
you truly are a salesman....
I believe with AT&T, it's not about the solutions, it's the numbers that those "supposed" solutions bring you.
Pls. don't come in here and preach about solutions. I had a very good solution to my problem before and what did AT&T do? Take out that solution without notice and can't give it back to me.
All about who you talk to? Every call to AT&T is a challenge, wherein finding the right person to talk to is the problem.
Local retail stores are no different. The simplest task of changing SIM cards is a gargantuan book of rules to follow sales pitch whatever is what you'll face. I did find one manager who went out of the norm for me and gave me what I wanted, with no hassle. And when the survey came, he was all 5 stars for me. |
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| "The simplest task of changing SIM cards is a gargantuan book of rules to follow sales pitch whatever is what you'll face."
LOL! Yup. A couple of years back my SIM stopped working with my old RAZR.
I put my wife's SIM in the phone and it worked fine so I called AT&T
"customer service" and the agent approved my getting a new SIM at no cost and sent me to the local AT&T store for it.
It took the sales crew at the store 2 hours of arguing with me
(they kept claiming that my old RAZR was broken - I took my wife's SIM and showed them it wasn't the phone) another half hour b4 they could find somebody in the store that could clone my SIM and another 20 minutes arguing with them because they wanted to charge me for the new SIM...
Even as I walked out, obviously peeved, they were still trying to sell me a new cellphone and Uverse which at the time was still not available at my address. |
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