| reply to bitbang3r
Re: 24Mb "Max Turbo" A few more tips:
* The quality of U-verse support is WILDLY variable. During my quest to get 24/3 max turbo, I encountered a few tier-1 support people who knew EXACTLY what I wanted, and I encountered two complete *idiots* in tier 2 who knew less about VDSL2 than I did (one of whom said I couldn't get max turbo because I also had TV service, another said the service "wasn't offered in my area". Both were obviously wrong.)
* In general, the workflow seems to be that you call support, tell them that you want to get your line's profile upgraded to the 32-meg (32mbps down, 5mbps up) profile so you can upgrade to max turbo 24/3 internet. They'll go through the motions of trying to add the service, be unable to do it unless you already had 24/3 and just discontinued it, and transfer you to tier 2 support. You'll tell the same thing to tier 2, at which point they'll do a little more work to try and automatically activate it. When they fail, they can only transfer you to sales. The sales person has to dispatch a prem tech to your house. The prem tech has to put in a buddy ticket to dispatch a lineman. Once the lineman arrives, you can breathe a sigh of relief... you're in the home stretch. The lineman will get everything necessary to make it physically work done, at which point it goes back to tier 2 to get your profile changed in the computer, then enable 24/3 internet.
* My experience is that activating 32/5 does NOT automatically translate into upgrading to 24/3... it's a necessary, but not necessarily sufficient, prerequisite. I've been told that even after they've increased the line speed, they try to throw that last speedbump at you because a Max Turbo customer uses the VRAD/fiber resources of two 18/1.5 customers, and their senior management's #1 priority is to sell what they have and maximize sales per VRAD, so they REALLY don't WANT anybody to actually subscribe to Max Turbo. They REALLY want you to upgrade to U450, or get additional receivers, or upgrade to unlimited international calling... anything that doesn't permanently allocate a chunk of their VRAD's hard capacity to one single customer.
WARNING: After the visit from the prem tech, but BEFORE the lineman arrives, you'll probably get a call from customer care. DO NOT ANSWER IT. If you do, DO NOT in ANY WAY say anything that could be interpreted as "I have working internet or tv service" right now. They'll do ANYTHING to get you to imply that the prem tech's visit resolved your problem (or "a" problem), and if they do, they'll close the support ticket. Closed tickets can't be re-opened, and automatically cancel any outstanding service requests (including the lineman the prem tech just scheduled).
I'm not making this up... it happened to me (they tricked me into saying my internet was working, and closed the ticket before I had time to even scream "No!"), and prem tech #2 literally told me point blank, "DO NOT answer any call from an 800 number, an unlisted number, or a non-local areacode, until the lineman arrives... and if you do, just say "I'm still having problems" and hang up without further discussion." The guy told me that they will literally TRY to use any excuse they can to close out the ticket, and will sometimes close it anyway if the autodialer logs an answered call from you. As long as you don't answer the call, you're safe (they can't close the ticket unless the call is at least logged as 'answered'). |
 Tech007Premium
join:2013-01-25
Belleville, IL
 ·AT&T DSL Service
| the only problem with what you have described is that not every customer can get a 32mb profile because of Loop length on the copper. So yes what you have described is a good process to get thru some red tape, but this wont work for everyone
just dont want everyone to thing that this is gospel |
