AT&T won't sell my U-Verse

[modhatter]

AT&T won't sell me U-Verse

Can you believe this:

I currently have AT&T DSL at 1.5 mbps. I wanted to upgrade to a faster speed, but also wanted to get rid of my land line. I was told by AT&T that max I can get with their DSL is 3 mbps., but if I cancel my line cost will go up considerably, so I asked if U-Verse was available, and I was told it was not available at my address. So I decided to switch my internet over to ComCast, but as I am leaving on a three to four month trip end of April, I decided to wait until I am ready to leave and cancel my AT&T phone and internet at my home, and then when I get back, I will go into contract with Comcast (I am out of contract with AT&T now)

Well this morning I had a knock on my door from an AT&T representative informing me that He had to get into my phone box on my house in my back yard as the people next door were getting U-Verse.

I live in a Duplex house with the telephone line coming to my side of the house and one telephone box (on my side of the house) shared by myself and adjoining neighbor. I told the AT&T rep that I was told I didn’t have U-Verse available, and he told me I do, and to call them. I did just that, and the representative I spoke to on the phone was ready to set me up with service until he looked up my address, and then informed me that it wasn’t available to me. I explained that the tech was at my house hooking up my adjoining neighbor from my box, but they said they would have to check into it, and would call me back at 3 PM after they confirmed.

They did not call me back. Then I saw another AT&T rep leaving next door (after completing the neighbor's installation) and I ran out my door and stopped him, and told him what happened. He gave me a card with his name on it and a code to give them, and told me to call them again and give them his name and the code. So I called AT&T again, but again they said there is no service available in my neighborhood. I gave them the reps name and code but I could tell they were not interested in it, gave me to a supervisor who asked me a lot of questions, and told me she would get back to me. I do not think I will hear back from her.

So I guess how it works is, if I want to get U-Verse with AT&T I have to cancel my phone and internet first, and then call them back sometime later and order U-Verse, or just go with Comcast as I was planning to do when I get back. My neighbors by the way were with Comcast previously. Anyone have experience with this?

 

[Rustic23]

DS had a similar problem with Verizon. Even though his neighbors had their fiber service, it was not available at his address, even though the box was hanging on the side of his house. Took a couple of weeks, and several operators for them to hook it up.

 

[Rustward]

It sometimes seems like in retail, the most important customer is the one the vendor does not already have. AT&T already has you. Follow through with the disconnect when you leave, and when you return try for U-Verse again, and use Comcast for your Plan B.

Believe me, I have heard some pretty unbelievable things from phone company reps. Cable companies, too. Good luck.

 

[Koolau]

Can you believe this:

Just about anything bad you say about AT*T or other "utilities", I would believe. My story is practically unrelated as it is about regular land-line phone service rather than internet or cable.

I got a long distance phone card several years ago at Sams and realized I no longer needed long distance from my phone company. I did decide to keep a land line as most folks at that time called me there instead of on my relatively new cell phone (with limited minutes). So I called them up and said I no longer wanted to pay the $5 per month fee to have their long distance service. They said "fine", but there is a $3 fee per month to NOT have their long distance service!

"CANCEL MY LAND LINE IMMEDIATELY YOU DIRTY, MISERABLE, ROTTEN, RATCHERFRATCHING, DOUBLE CLUTCHING MORTER FORKERS!" (Mods, feel free to censor!)

Never looked back.

 

[modhatter]

Well listen to this. There is a web site that you are supposed to go to (AT&T U-Verse website) where you put in your address and AT&T supposedly looks up whether or not u-Verse is available at your address. When I put in my address and wait a minute, it comes back and says "Sorry U-Verse is not available in my area yet. Feel free to check below if you would like to be notified when it becomes available for you."

So then I closed the site and went back in and plugged in my neighbor's house address number (same house) and the message comes back "That you are already connected to AT&T Universe" So then I did the same thing again with my neighbor on the other side of me, and guess what it said. "Congratulations, AT&T is not available at your address." I am sure if I go around the neighborhood and inquire as to who already has DSL with AT&T, it will not be available to them, and those that don't it will be available.

I am going to do this when I take my bike ride tonight, and maybe send out a letter to a few organizations like AARP etc. on the way AT&T treats its long time customers.

 

[missionfinder]

I simply cannot understand phone, cable, satellite wireless companies... they still operate in many ways like the old phone monopoly days. They can't get it through their skulls the age-old wisdom that it costs far more to acquire a new customer than it does to keep an old one. They offer bargains and incentives to new customers, and dump old customers by the wayside. I'm firmly convinced this is why the industry has so much customer turnover.

 

[ziggy29]

I simply cannot understand phone, cable, satellite wireless companies... they still operate in many ways like the old phone monopoly days. They can't get it through their skulls the age-old wisdom that it costs far more to acquire a new customer than it does to keep an old one. They offer bargains and incentives to new customers, and dump old customers by the wayside. I'm firmly convinced this is why the industry has so much customer turnover.

"We don't care. We don't have to. We're the Phone Company."

 

[donheff]

I had a similar experience with Comcast about 20 years ago. I had been waiting for cable for months and then a neighbor across the alley told me he had it and pointed to the cable coming into his yard from my telephone pole. The Comcast reps insisted my address was not ready and tried to give me some gobbledegook about how their cables could be running underground,etc. I harrassed and escalated until I got a woman so exasperated that she said she would roll a truck just to prove me wrong. I had cable the next day. Fast forward a week. The guy two doors down from me (upstream from where the cable was strung) learns I have cable. he goes through the same thing -- took him weeks. Fast forward another month or so and the neighbor in the other direction (he shares my pole) learns about it. Despite being forewarned about what to expect he too gets the runaround. I wrote the president of Comcast a humorous letter detailing the entire experience and asked for free service in return for my troubleshooting efforts. Never materialized but I did get free HBO and Showtime for a couple of years due to an error.

 

[braumeister]

We are not subject to city, state, or federal regulations. We are omnipotent.

YouTube - One RingyDingy

 

[modhatter]

Well, I just got off the phone with Comcast and ordered service through them. I have to order a new modem now.
This is by the way just after I purchased a new modem/ router from AT&T after my old one died and they said I couldn't get U-Verse.

I have purchased an Ooma VOIP, and I at least will derive some pleasure from calling AT&T to cancel both my internet and my DSL next week after installation. How stupid can a company be.

 

[glippy]

I used to work for Verizon as a lineman.

I would run into this at least every other month. One customer was getting service installed, while his neighbor was told the service wasn't available in his area. I called and talked to several managers about it and had called every service center I knew of (of which there were far too many) on several occasions, and there was never an easy answer. Basically, they wouldn't take my word for it that the installation was possible (even though maintaining those installations was part of my job). An engineer would need to come out and certify the address (look up at the wires, look at the house, and then offer their stamp of approval), which takes months, then the person could call and order service (no, they won't call you when it's done, you just need to keep calling back). But no one ever seemed to know which engineer was in charge of which town or what his phone number was or how to get in touch with him. And this is for people who are basically begging to be customers. - Been that way for years.

I suspect it's easier to pass an Act of Congress.

 

[travelover]

..........I suspect it's easier to pass an Act of Congress.

Along the same vein - I had a tree fall on a Comcast line and break the steel cable, but amazingly the communication cable was left intact. It was hanging a few feet off the ground. It took me 3 months to get someone out to fix it and I'm not even a Comcast customer, which seemed to complicate matters even more.

Various Comcast employees would show up, wander around, tell me it was a telephone cable (it wasn't), tell me it would be fixed right away (it wasn't), then disappear. Once the cable was replaced the crew left 300 feet of old cable in my back yard and it took many, many calls to get that removed. I was tempted to roll it up and drop it off in their local office. What a bunch of clowns.

 

[donheff]

I suspect it's easier to pass an Act of Congress.

Along the same vein - I had a tree fall on a Comcast

I would like post these stories about the much vaunted private sector in a thread about how inefficient all government workers are

 

[steelyman]

I would like to reawaken this thread to get people's feedback on how satisfied they are with DSL vs. cable. The reason is that I have about had it with Comcast's cable Internet service in my area, which is very spotty and frequently drops out. They moved into the area in 2008 after acquiring a company that had been doing quite a good job for ~8yrs. Once Comcast came in - boom, getting connected was much like a birthday party: "SURPRISE! You have a connection!".

I am currently still with Comcast, and have ongoing connection issues which have grown so tiring I am considering switching to AT&T (the only other option here). I have no idea what DSL entails, what equipment is needed, how reliable it is, etc. Any feedback/experiences appreciated.

 

[Mulligan]

I would like to reawaken this thread to get people's feedback on how satisfied they are with DSL vs. cable. The reason is that I have about had it with Comcast's cable Internet service in my area, which is very spotty and frequently drops out. They moved into the area in 2008 after acquiring a company that had been doing quite a good job for ~8yrs. Once Comcast came in - boom, getting connected was much like a birthday party: "SURPRISE! You have a connection!".

I am currently still with Comcast, and have ongoing connection issues which have grown so tiring I am considering switching to AT&T (the only other option here). I have no idea what DSL entails, what equipment is needed, how reliable it is, etc. Any feedback/experiences appreciated.

I use ATT DSL. I have the midrange of 3.5 mb. It costs $35. The u verse is not on my side of town for some reason. Check the ATT website and put in your zip code. They usually have a one year teaser rate significantly cheaper than the rack rate. Depending on what modem you get, it will be between 50-100 bucks. I just replaced mine, lasted 6 years left on the whole time. I had the 1.5 which was about $5 cheaper, and did me fine, but started watching Netflix on my iPad so I wanted a better speed so it wouldn't freeze on me.

 

[Webzter]

MIL and her BF have ATT U-verse... he loves it, works from home, no problems.

I'm still with Comcast, mainly because ATT can't get me a deal anywhere near what I'm paying now (oh, and their rep laughed when I said we only had one TV and 10 channels). I also work from home, no problems. Well, except when I sliced my cable with a shovel Saturday night... but a quick patch and I was a-ok.

 

[Rustic23]

We have Windstream DSL. It is the only internet available to us, other than satellite or dial up. Because it is the only provider we pay $50 a month for 1.5 mps. I can not speak to U-Verse, but I would not hesitate to use DSL. Our only problem with DSL is the distance from the primary switch and your connection can determine the maximum speed you can get. I do not believe this is a problem in most cities or towns. It is in rural America.

 

[Lakedog]

I switched to DSL a few months ago after my cable service became unreliable for some reason. So far, DSL with Windstream (3.0 mbps for $25 per month) has been very reliable, no issues at all, and less expensive than cable. They even gave me a free wireless modem with the switch from cable.

 

[GregLee]

I have a choice between Time Warner Cable wideband or DSL from my local telephone company. TWC is good, from what I understand, but the telco DSL is much cheaper. I get the telco DSL, at 8MBs download speed. That's a little too slow for good video, but plenty fast for me, since I have satellite TV for my high quality video. My DSL subscription at 8 MBs costs me $20-25/month. There is a faster DSL speed available, if I wanted to buy it, which I don't.

 

[Nords]

Our DSL has been so reliable that I have trouble finding the phone number to call on the one or two times a year that it goes out.

OTOH our cable TV company has a box at the top of our street that floods out at every rainfall. The higher-freq ISP bandwidth is the first to die. When I'd call to complain I was routinely treated like an idiot ("Is your computer on? Is your monitor on? How come none of your neighbors have complained?").

I'm not considering a change unless our entire neighborhood pulls fiber.

 

[Texas Proud]

We have Windstream DSL. It is the only internet available to us, other than satellite or dial up. Because it is the only provider we pay $50 a month for 1.5 mps. I can not speak to U-Verse, but I would not hesitate to use DSL. Our only problem with DSL is the distance from the primary switch and your connection can determine the maximum speed you can get. I do not believe this is a problem in most cities or towns. It is in rural America.

Heck, I am in the middle of a nice neighborhood and I can only get 3 MPS speed.... I was willing to go to 6 and the AT&T person was wanting to sell it to me... but came back and said 'sorry, I do not know why but it is not available where you are'... nor is U-Verse...

The few times it has gone out, it was back up in 5 to 10 minutes...

 

[steelyman]

I can follow up on this topic now, as I have had 3 months of experience with DSL from AT&T (6 mbs plan). Based on the mostly positive comments from people here and from local friends, I did make the switch from cable to DSL in July and am amazed at the difference in reliability. I have had no dropout problems at all, and I notice no difference at all in things like web page loads (however, I am not a high-bandwidth consumer).

It is interesting to note how "conditioned" I had become to unreliable cable service!

The only issue I ran across when I received the modem from AT&T is that it initially only worked with a direct connection to my desktop computer. A call to AT&T support was no help at all (they wanted to direct me to some separate service outfit that would charge me $75). I said, "uh, no thanks" and looked into it myself. It turned out I needed to tweak my router - something about PPOE - and after doing that my wireless connections worked and work fine.

AT&T charged me $75 for the modem but sent a VISA rebate card for that amount, so the cost was zero. As someone noted, I am getting a one-year teaser rate of $19.95/mo, which works for me.

Thank you all for your feedback!

 

[JakeBrake]

I can follow up on this topic now, as I have had 3 months of experience with DSL from AT&T (6 mbs plan). Based on the mostly positive comments from people here and from local friends, I did make the switch from cable to DSL in July and am amazed at the difference in reliability. I have had no dropout problems at all, and I notice no difference at all in things like web page loads (however, I am not a high-bandwidth consumer).

It is interesting to note how "conditioned" I had become to unreliable cable service!

The only issue I ran across when I received the modem from AT&T is that it initially only worked with a direct connection to my desktop computer. A call to AT&T support was no help at all (they wanted to direct me to some separate service outfit that would charge me $75). I said, "uh, no thanks" and looked into it myself. It turned out I needed to tweak my router - something about PPOE - and after doing that my wireless connections worked and work fine.

AT&T charged me $75 for the modem but sent a VISA rebate card for that amount, so the cost was zero. As someone noted, I am getting a one-year teaser rate of $19.95/mo, which works for me.

Thank you all for your feedback!

I recently had to replace my AT&T DSL modem after 6 years. The replacement modem cost $75 with no rebate.

If you call AT&T DSL tech support. The first question they will ask is whether or not you have a non AT&T furnished wireless router. If you have a Brand X wireless router (as I do). AT&T DSL tech support will not continue until you disconnect your wireless router and connect your PC directly to the DSL modem.

 

[steelyman]

I recently had to replace my AT&T DSL modem after 6 years. The replacement modem cost $75 with no rebate.

If you call AT&T DSL tech support. The first question they will ask is whether or not you have a non AT&T furnished wireless router. If you have a Brand X wireless router (as I do). AT&T DSL tech support will not continue until you disconnect your wireless router and connect your PC directly to the DSL modem.

Exactly right. They offered me two options: buy an AT&T-supplied modem with a built-in router, or another without the router. The prices were, respectively, $100 and $75. I've been using my separate (IBM) router for a long time, and it is still working just fine and I wanted to keep the components separate, so I opted for the non-router modem.

When I ran into the only-through-PC problem, they said they would not help with a non-AT&T router. Google got me to the right info, and as I said it just turned out to be a configuration change on the IBM router.

Anyone else who runs into this problem: remember the cryptic acronym "PPOE".

 

[soupcxan]

We have Time Warner for cable TV and internet. The price went up $10/month and they wouldn't cut me a better deal. Plus the internet service is very unreliable. I've been getting at&t mailers for u-verse just about every week for the last 2 years, sometimes twice a week. So I go to the website to sign up. "U-verse is not available at your address". Oh, then why have you been direct mailing me with what must be 100 peices of junk mail about u-verse? I call the number and ask them to validate my address. They tell me that several people in my neighborhood have u-verse, including my next door neighbor, so I should be able to get it. They will open a ticket to investigate and promise to call in a week.

Two months go by. I hear nothing. I go back to the u-verse website just to see if they updated it but forgot to tell me. "U-verse is not available at your address." Talk about a race to the bottom...