I have always had problems with At&T which is one of the main reasons I refuse to buy an iPhone. My experience with AT&T has always been poor and I should have listened to my instincts but when presented with the possibilities of AT&T U-Verse, their IPTV technology, I was curious. For the most part U-Verse would appear to be a nice alternative to traditional Comcast and although I had no issues with Comcast cable their internet service was less than optimal in my area so I made the switch.
AT&T spent 2 full day’s rewiring stuff, the anticipation was mounting and finally we had light – a picture – a nice high-definition picture that really brought out to my wife why we needed a 62 inch HDTV. Everything was fine for about 2 days but then the problems started, first certain channels would periodically report that we were not subscribed and then later they would automagically work, the television would freeze for several minutes at a time, and many of the features I had become accustomed to with Comcast were unavailable, such as being able to set a reminder for a future show. I mentioned this to the CISO at AT&T and he said “yeah, but can’t you just record on the DVR instead?” uhhhh no I don’t want to record everything I want to decide what I will watch at 10pm when 10pm rolls around, btw the set top boxes are running a crappy insecure version of Windows CE, but here nor there….fast-forward about a month and AT&T U-verse is virtually unwatchable, I can barely get through an hour of television without the picture freezing for 5-10 minutes at a time and we do not even watch that much TV, of course we also use the internet service and it as well experiences similar issues. So in short AT&T U-verse is not ready for prime-time.
Now that in and of itself is not a deal breaker for me. It is a new service, I understand that, I had similar issues with Comcast when they first offered digital TV, but the deal breaker is AT&T support. AT&T customer service/support is beyond poor, it is the worst service I have ever received in my life, the telecom equivalent of customer service at a fast-food restaurant staffed by jaded, hip-hop youth convinced of their own self-importance as they trudge through your order rubbing their Gangsta tatto’s and periodically pulling up their baggy jeans. This isn’t about the people that work in AT&T support though this is about the technology they use, one of those automated interactive support recordings that push one to the limits of maddening frustration. Let me give you an example…
AT&T: Welcome to AT&T although some of our business offices are closed we are available to you 24×7 for technical support, you can continue here for technical support or to use our automated system. I see your calling from <phone number> is that the phone number on the account you are calling about?
Me: Yes
AT&T: Sorry I didn’t hear you, please say yes or no? I got <phone number> is this the number you are calling about
Me: Yes
AT&T: Sorry our offices are closed please try your call again later
Me: WTF?
OK so I try again…this time I decide not to use my phone number and say no I don’t have one
AT&T: OK, please enter the phone number you are calling about or say I don’t have one
Me: I don’t have one
AT&T: Sorry I didn’t hear you? Please tell me the phone number you are calling from or say I don’t have one
Me: I DON’T HAVE ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AT&T: I am sorry I am having so much trouble hearing you please tell me the phone number you are calling from or say I don’t have one or for more information please say help?
Me: Help
AT&T: It will be easier for me to help you if you tell me the phone number on your account? If you do not have an AT&T account and would like one please say “I don’t have one”?
Me: I don’t have one
AT&T: Ok to continue I need to know where you are calling from, let’s try something else please say the zip code where you would like service
Me: <zip code>
AT&T: OK let me make sure I heard you correctly? Did you say <zip code>?
Me: Yes
AT&T: OK, now please say just your street addess or rural route number, for example 123 main street west
Me: <street address>
AT&T: Sorry I didn’t understand, can you please repeat your address?
Me: <street address>
AT&T: I am sorry I am having problems hearing you let’s try something else (then all of a sudden) this office is closed <hangs up>
Me: OMG WTF?
I give it yet another go because SF is playing NY and I really want to watch the game…I make it to the address portion again.
AT&T: Let me make sure I have it right (he does) is that correct?
Me: Yes
AT&T: I am sorry I am having trouble understanding your address, let’s move on. In a few words I need to know why you are calling today? You can say things like I need to know my account balance, order new phone service or report a problem. If you would like to get to an agent say agent.
Me: Agent
AT&T: Sorry I didn’t hear you
Me: Agent
AT&T: OK If you need to talk to an agent I will need to understand what you are calling about, please say what you are calling about, you can say things like order new service or repairs
Me: Repairs
AT&T: It sounds like you would like to make a repair is that correct?
Me: Yes
AT&T: OK it sounds like you are calling to repair your DISH TV service is that correct?
Me: No
AT&T: OK are you calling about your phone, internet, or television you can also say none of those
Me: None of those
AT&T: I am sorry I am having trouble hearing you can you please tell me why you are calling today
Me: U-verse
AT&T: OK I will transfer you now…
AT&T <busy signal>
So I call yet again and make it to the requesting an agent part…
AT&T: All agents are busy please cotinue to hold and someone will be with you shortly (this went on for about 20 minutes and I finally hung up)
AT&T support is so bad I was forced to cancel service and move back to Comcast, here is the call I made on a Sunday morning…
Comcast: Thank-you for calling Comcast, blah, blah, blah, please enter the phone number you have or would like service
Me: <phone number>
Comcast: Good afternoon, thank-you for calling Comcast, my name is Christina, how may I help you today
Me: Wow a real person, thank-you for working today…
And with that I switched service in about 5 minutes.
Now here is the thing I can tolerate problems with technology, I can understand that my TV will freeze or my internet access is less than reliable, but piss poor customer service is a deal-breaker it is why I hated AT&T to begin with and quite honestly is the root of all things wrong with our society.
EDIT: Apparently there are a lot of people experiencing the exact same issues and many are deciding to avoid AT&T or switch back to their old service provider (here), (here), (here), (here), and (here). I am sure there are many, many, many, many more…even Shimmy has taken issue with AT&T support, although for different reasons (here). It is baffling to me that a company the size of AT&T with the resources at it’s disposal is experiencing the same issues as a mom and pop ISP – sad!
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I wish I would’ve see this blog before I ordered AT&T u-verse. It is horrible and they do universally suck. I scheduled my installation for the services and took the morning off of work since I picked the AM time slot between 8am and 12pm. The technician did not show it was almost 12pm so I finally called and they forgot to tell the tech working my area about my order (bad sign). I should have taken that as a sign that this is not the cable company for me. I had to stay home the entire day and miss work it took the tech about 5 hrs to get everything running. I don’t know if the area I live in was new for AT&T u-verse but the picture would freeze often and I would have to re-boot the receiver on many occasions. I am just not very happy and when I call for technical support I have to go through all of this automated mumbo jumbo and finally get a live person who barely speaks english!!! I hate AT& T it sucks big time I am now in the process of switching to another cable company and even changing my internet services I don’t want to deal with AT&T at all.
Everyone is right AT&T is the worst Company on the Planet. I wish I could make them suffer the way they have made Thousands of customers do. I have the same problems as everyone has, locks up every 20 min. Digital is not worth a Sh–. I hope the Government would make them return all the wasted money we have all put in to the worst cable and internet service, ever created.
All I have to say to AT&T is kiss my MF ASS. I hate you At&t.
that was back in 2009. 4 years later and this is the difference: Tech Showed up on time (5 minutes before the alloted time), setup took 36 minutes (two tvs and internet), hasn’t been down yet and I have over 26mbps down!
This is the worse service on the planet..The government needs to close down AT&T Uverse for the shit service they provide and stealing peoples money…What a crooked company they are and all the false advertising about giving cash back which they never do…..BULLSHIT SERVICE…AT&T GO TO HELL
Funny thing this company AT&T. They were a good company years and years ago. Now I experience the same issues I have been reading on here. Their service is second rate. I changed from Time Warner to AT&T because of poor product and WORSE customer service.
Received good product from UVERS for about a year at a cheaper price. Then fell for the upgrade to 6.0 at a reduced price, still not a bad deal. The issue is that they can not deliver 6.0 consistently to my home. And their service people are a joke. One was so drunk two days ago at my home in Chapel Hill, NC that he left the house saying he could not fix my issue of .56 speed. Then passed out in the street for 40 Minutes. My wife finally demanded I go roll him to the side of the street before he was hit by a car. You could not dream this stuff up. But it gets better, they charged me $100.00 for this. When I call to dispute it they sent another Service rep. He called at 4:45 PM and informed me that he was going to charge me another $100.00 for a service call. Then was rude when I informed him it was already covered under the call from yesterday. Finally he said some nasty things and informed me that he had tickets to the game and I would have to learn to live with my issue of slow network speed. His name was Richard Arnold out of the Chapel Hill, NC office. Man these two reps should get a ribbon for worst service reps in the state.
Looks like it’s back to Time Warner.
We were being harassed by callers, mostly contractors, so we requested a non-published phone number. The call was answered in the Philippines by an excited fellow, who had to run to his supervisor to find out if he was correct, each time he answered me. After 1-1/2 hours of dealing with him, I gave the phone to my hubby, which was a huge mistake. He does not work the computer, but he thought that getting even faster computer service for the same price would be a good idea. What a mistake!
Guess who the Philippines tech sent out for our AT&T TV? Direct TV. We told him we did not want a dish. Period. We are still waiting for AT&T TV. The Philippines people were apparently being paid by Direct TV for referrals from AT&T’s calling room.
We were at the mercy of the technicians on two days for the hours from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. I HAD TO CANCEL ALL OF MY WORK APPOINTMENTS, disappointing clients, for two days. All AT&T did was install a different computer UVerse modem. I already had this, on the computer. One jerk worked at the computer, and another installed a new wire outside. The inside jerk, looking like a long haired shaggy unkempt hippie, played card games on our computer, saying he was awaiting the four-digit code, which was supposed to have been mailed to us. This code arrived a couple of days later.
There is no place for disappointed people to complain to AT&T.
So, in August of 2009, AT&T service is unchanged! They provide systems that no-one wants and that do not work. Someone at AT&T has to recognize that we, the customers are important for their success. Please find a way to provide services that customers want. I am not a Comcast fan, but we are headed there tonight. It is clear, AT&T UVerse totally sucks.
The problem is they say they have fiber optic. They do to the phone box in your neighborhood. From there it is crappy twisted pair. If your lucky you get 25 to 32Mb ( most are closer to 19Mb) to your house. This will never be improved upon because they don’t want to spend the $ to go fiber to your house. Crappy service that will never get better. You split that 19Mb between 3 TV’s and a PC or 2 and you have crappy service. So as other services get faster your crappy uverse will be the same old crap. Don’t pay for faster PC speed you wont get it if your TV is on. That 19Mb only goes so far.
I would like to say I realize that everyone is upset and should be if you have had so many problems but you have to understand that uverse is very very new and and engineering ,tech support and technician where learning about issue and how to fix them as it happen. just like a new car comes out they have bugs and ppl always say wait till the next year. I just think it a new product and need to get all the bugs out of it.
‘Just wait until next year’ or ‘let the bugs get worked out’ won’t solve the challenges faced by the realities of this technology that will not go away. Because high speed cable internet does not share the same distance limitations of UVERSE which drastically limits the available bandwidth, many people will continue to have issues.
If you read down a few more replies, there are two crucial issues. First, UVERSE doesn’t even sync(!) at the mid tiered speeds offered in many areas currently by Comcast (etc.). See the URL of the UVERSE blog I posted for more specifics. Second, the old school copper involved in the vast majority of UVERSE subscribers is a hinderance that will not go away.
well if this is still in trial mode then they should be paying us for helping them work out the kinks not us paying some over 150.00 a month for a product that is still being tested. BULLSHIT !!!!!!!!
That would be OK if they would let you pay for the service when they get it the bugs worked out. Paying $125 a month and not being able to watch your tv, use the internet or the phone borders on fraud in my book. When I terminated the service yesterday, I was told to take all the hardware to a UPS store, and they would know what to do. I bet they do! Thinking of uverse? Just hit yourself in the head with a brick, you will get more enjoyment from that. AT&T can KMA!
Maybe it’s new in your area, Teko but it’s been out for quite a few years already.
With that said, I love my service. Sorry about your luck but it’s the best provider I’ve ever had.
Yeah but their home phone service is incredibly bad, and they DO NOT TRAIN their staff at all. It took 20 days for them to turn on my phone after we moved. I felt like they were pretending to type info into their computer. Worst customer service I’ve ever experienced, by far. And I’ve been to France.
i hate uverse billing. i don’t get a bill from them every month. it only shows up every 2 or 3 months. they are completely useless and have no idea what they’re doing. we’ve never had any issues w/AT&T at all, but since we got Uverse last May, its a bleeping mess!
So, AT&T decided to just shut off my tv because they failed to remove the money for my March payment under my automatic payment plan. Without notice. Even though my account on their website lists exactly when the next payment is supposed to be (next week).
And when I finally got an actual person to talk to, she told me I had to call back between 9am and 5pm to talk to billing! Even though the whole thing was their fault in the first place!
God forbid they should have any actual customer service. Or, like, be able to take your money!
At&t U-verse does suck!!! I was a Technician installing U-verse for 2 years. On August 2, 2011 I was terminated for unsatisfactory performance. As a Tech. I met and exceeded expectations numerous times! U-verse has so many problems and At&t doesn’t know how to fix them. At&t does not properly train their techs. They just throw them out to the wolves to figure things out on their own. Their problems with service, network, and equipment is what recently costed me my job. I was terminated recently for reasons beyond my control. At&t is hiring lower paid technicians and are working hard to weed out all the senior techs that may know how to fix common issues. Good luck with freezing picture, pixelating picture, and complete loss of service! U-verse has really big issues in the future! The more customers ordering service the more crosstalk and interference problems they are having. The cable feeding all customers has pairs of wires designated for each customer. The more that cable fills up the more each customer’s service bleeds onto each other. At&t is clueless at the moment! Good luck and beware!
At&t U-verse does suck!!! I was a Technician installing U-verse for 2 years. On August 2, 2011 I was terminated for unsatisfactory performance. As a Tech. I met and exceeded expectations numerous times! U-verse has so many problems and At&t doesn’t know how to fix them. At&t does not properly train their techs. They just throw them out to the wolves to figure things out on their own. Their problems with service, network, and equipment is what recently costed me my job. I was terminated recently for reasons beyond my control. At&t is hiring lower paid technicians and are working hard to weed out all the senior techs that may know how to fix common issues. Good luck with freezing picture, pixelating picture, and complete loss of service! U-verse has really big issues in the future! The more customers ordering service the more crosstalk and interference problems they are having. The cable feeding all customers has pairs of wires designated for each customer. The more that cable fills up the more each customer’s service bleeds onto each other. At&t is clueless at the moment! Good luck and beware!
WOW – how enlightening! My only choices are COmcast and AT&T, what do you suggest? Sorry you lost your job, you probably came to my house at least once. . .
I had great expectations going to work at AT&T. I started at top pay (new hire Texas) because of my background. After about six months the management style and culture of the company started sucking the life force out of me. A T&T is the ENRON of telco there slogan should be “Rethink dysfunction” not rethink possibility. They are taking advantage of the high unemployment rate and acting like they are a good company to work for. The only good aspect I could come up with is there check do not bounce! The union support is a joke. “Sub chapter J issue” AT&T had to have made a sweet heart deal with the CWA ….collect the dues and give no support… When was the last time an I&R tech got fired due to production? Perkins / Otis what Dicks! I piss on att . Work there only as a last resort! Do not be fooled U-verse is the Black hole of att. I worked there 1.75 years I met some cool guys and learned some interesting stuff. Also, they should red tag more shitty Apts., there technology is too complicated, and ATT has not seen a problem a software update could not fix! HET
I’m a U-verse customer too. Beware! If you decide to go with this service, and have a working home network with a shared printer, GOOD LUCK WITH NETWORKING YOUR PRINTER. The installation tech unplugged my printer, and it’s taken me hours and hours to get it to operate–partially.
I had to threaten to cancel your service to get help–at first they wanted me to PAY for a service tech to fix what worked until they installed their equipment!
There are MAN Y new reps, ask for a Tier 2 technician. They have to make firewall changes to the router (allowing a secondary router) which magically made the printer work.
It’s NOT ready for prime-time. There are probably MANY home users with networked printers. I was lucky and got a GOOD technician. Otherwise, I’d be back to cable.
I live in San Antonio. I’ve had AT&T U-verse tech(s) come out to my house 6 times in the past 3 weeks, spending a total of maybe 25 hours, simply trying to get my U-Verse service WORKING! This is not an old house with a complicated wiring system. In fact there’s a centralized On-Q box to make things simple and clean…
To his credit, the latest tech to frequent my house DENNIS JOHNSON (give him a raise), has been much more personable than the others, and even took care of a wasps nest that was growing under the edge of my roof. Oh, and he also wired my house to have LAN outlets on the walls! Other than that, he’s been spending hours upon hours sitting around my house or in his van just waiting on hold for some other network guy to flip a switch or splice the wires, or whatever the hell they have to do to get my service working. I’m not angry about it, mostly because I don’t mind having the guy around. I’m really just amazed. At least they work around MY schedule and come for service calls after 6:00 pm and on weekends.
I can’t stop wondering wtf is going on at AT&T…
BTW, anyone considering service with AT&T should really watch this Frontline episode:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/homefront/view/
Thank GOD I decided not to disconnect my Time Warner internet before hooking U-Verse up. Now I can spend my time waiting for AT&T just cruising blogs and sharing my story… lol
I wish I had read the reviews before I cchanged to U-Verse JUNK ! You can only record, rewind,or fast forward on one tv ! I have 4 tvs! U-verse SUCKS AND SO DOES AT&T SERVICE !!!!!!!! You will spend at least 45 minutes on the phone then they transfer you OR HANG UP !THERE INTERNET IS JUST AS BAD !!
OMG I thought I was the only one. I was stuck on the phone for a good 30 to 40 minutes. They suck big-time!!
Jo/Josh,
Thanks for sharing your stories, hopefully AT&T will take some action…
That was awesome. I thought I was living in a tech support bubble until I read this. I wish they could pull up some of the records of the calls I made and hear what I said to the computer generated voice in my tech support nightmare. “I WANT TO SPEAK TO A F@CKIN HUMAN F@CKIN BEING!”. I did finally get my issues worked out though and my service seems to be performing up to par.
I have had it for a couple of months and it has been flawless from the get go!
I LOVE IT!!!
Way better than direcTV and Hughes net. I live in the hills and we have no cable so this rocks over satellite.
I thought it would be a better deal than comcast. Free HD boxes and more HD channels. And a DVR that lets you record 4 shows at once.
Okay, so I turn down working an overtime shift so I can be home for the install. Nobody showed up, nobody called. I called to complain and after I got a hold of a live person, they would put me on hold for 20 minutes, or put me on hold and then the phone would get disconnected. I keep asking for a supervisor and they just switch me to another service rep. I finally get a hold of somebody that is willing to help and she gives me $20 discount off of my bill (big deal). And schedules me for another install the next day.
The tech showed up this time and when he was done and I switched to a HD channel, I immediately noticed a crappy picture compared to comcast. I mentioned it to the tech and he said that some shows are not recorded in HD, they are just upconverted. I told him that I watch the same show on comcast and the picture is crystal clear. He just shrugged his shoulders and said, “Oh well, you have a 30 day free trial period, you can always switch back.” Unbelievable.
The last straw was when I was trying to schedule HD recordings, and it won’t let me record two channels at the same time, not even record one HD program and watch another channel. What kind of crap is this?
So I try to call the service support, and the same exact thing happened to me as the first person on this page. I had it, I called up comcast, spoke to a live person, and they are going to hook it back up tomorrow.
AT&T has got to better than this if they want to compete with comcast.
Ok let me say this to you.”We install service we dont build it” People often say what you say from time to time on installs. The truth is it is often the tv you have and how it works with the uverse service. I dont get why people complain about comcast then when you install and then when you install uverse service they find fault with it too,perhaps its you. It does no good to yell at techs most of us try our bests to provide you with the best service we can. It doesnt help to have customers yell at you like you own ATT or something. Remember we are just employees and would you rather have us rattle off a bunch of technical jargon or tell you the truth “I dont know”? Picture quality is subjective so what you may think is crappy another person thought was great. I suspect that the way you said the tech responded he knew you wanted to complain about something. Sir this is TV ! we dont take your kids or beat you if you dont like it,just cancel and go back to your other service.
Your response is the perfect example of terrible service. The fact that you can blame the sigal quality on the television? Unreal. You obviously know nothing about televisions, yet that is the business that you work in?
A television will have three basic qualities. Standard definition, 720 HD and 1080 HD. anyone with eyes that work half way can tell the difference between SD and HD, and beyond that its not about picture quality, its about signal quality.
You fail, sir.
Dude I feel your pain, I work in an industry where I’m exposed to users as well, and it sucks. But fact is when my uverse was set up.. the tech obviously had no idea what was going on. He plugged in a million cables into my roomate’s 1080p television.. except theONLY ONE THAT MATTERED.. being the super-simple hdmi cable. then he spent an hour after I left I guess punching on the remote trying to fix the picture that was too big.
I came right home.. and though I’m no television expert.. I got it working within 5 minutes
Rob us technicla support agents work 9 hours a day dealing with issues like this if we tell you it is the tv than more than likely it is either the tv or the cords connecting the set top box to the tv if you reset all the equipment including the residential gateway by holding the lil button on the back and reseting the set top box and if that doesn’t work hold the down button and the ok button on the set top box at the same time(mind you this can take up to 20 mins) and try the pic and if after all this doesn’t make your tv better then hey you know what it’s the cables not the TV just the cables
Follow up to the above. After switching back to comcast yesterday, I called att&t to cancel their service. I asked them to send a tech to pickup the equipment. They told me that they would send me postage prepaid boxes, and I have to take them to a post office. AND THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A MAJOR COMPANY!? WTF?
And btw, the HD picture on comcast is like night and day compared to at&t. I am glad I switched back. Screw that uverse crap.
I thought I was the only one, myapt comlex does not have a contract with comcast, so I decided to call ATT for Uverse service I was given a installation date of 10/29 a man calls my house and ask for Maria as if he knows mehe tells me he is 10minutes away that was at 11am he arrived at my home 1:30 pm with no explanation he remain until 5:30 to tell me I would have to pay for all wire over and over he removed the electic phone plate from my daughter wall and left the screws on the floor and face plate on the floor with all the wires hanging out of the wall after getting NOTHING DONE NO EQUIPTMENT NOTING HE WAS FROM HIS TRUCK ON HIS CELL PHONE TO THE PHONE BOX TO TELL me hecould not hook upSERVICE he would have to reschedule next avail date was Nov 1 they arrived at 9am at 1 am they informed me that they would finish the order from the office. I left home and returned later that nite to find out i had no service after speaking with severl people during the day to get my order complete to be told i didnt order the service of u300 with dvr box. I explained to the gentlemen that it was a promotion offer, I was told i would receive a $20 discount ( i dont want a discount on some shit that is not working ) they sent out another tech the next day Nov 3 he said it was the dvr box not getting a signal after a bottle water and his cell phone calls he informed me they woud work on the service order over the weekend meanwhile my picture freezes every ten seconds, when i ask to speak to a manager i was told he is on the line / she is in a meeting / i then ask the rep do you only have one manager no (response0 its two and they are dealing with other issues) everyrep says they are sorry i am sick and tired of hearing i’m sorry fix the &%$$ probleml its Monday Nov 5 I have boxes with no working service after speaking with 4 people this moring. I am now being told their serive went down over the weekend my order and problem started before the weekend!!! WTF- still waiting on service
I was told at 12noon a manager was on his way ove the rep phone he place me on hold my phone times said 33minutes before i hung up no call back it is now 1:03 as i type i am on the phone with tier 3 who say the next avial date we have is NOV 9/ who teaches CSR SKILLS AND WHO THE &*%$ IS RUNNING THIS SHOW
AT&T fiber optics TV and Internet was installed on Nov 7 by a non-AT&T contract tech. He connected the fiber optics to the TV via a coaxial
cable. It took two weeks, dozen of calls to tech
service and three visits before we got a competent tech. Yes, indeed, AT&T sucks.
So much for a 30-day free trial. I didn’t even have it for a week and I get a bill for $20. What a serious lack of integrity.
AT&T Uverse in Houston, TX – Received several promotional ads in the mail. Bought the service on a Summer promotion deal. Service was OK after 3 extra service calls. Billing has never been right. Every single bill I have received (4 so far) was missing the “package discounts” and has had extra charges. They are removed after a phone call to the piss-poor customer no-service referenced in 1st post on the page. (I had to laugh – he nailed it right on the head – that is my conversation almost exactly, except I use many more expletives). I would be a happy customer if they would charge me the correct amount that I signed up for at the beginning, but alas, addition and subtraction don’t seem to be AT&T’s employee’s strong suit.
Looks like another 70 minute phone call at lunch tomorrow at work (U-verse customer no-service is only open banker hours)
-J
So glad (but not surprised) that it wasn’t just me: http://www.planetmanuel.com/dirk/?p=79
To skip the automated phone crap you might check out http://gethuman.com/.
For att it looks like you just keep hitting 0.
I was planning to switch to uverse b4 i read this. Now I’m on the fence. a friend at work just got it so I’ll see how his works. My comcast internet has really been sucking ass though since it was switched from time warner. I don’t know how they could eff it up but they found a way. I think att can’t be any worse.
i have tried to have u-verse installed. my nightmare has just begun. hopefully, i can get it removed before the 30 days is up. as a non techie, i am not well prepared in any event. one tv does not work. the package i asked for changed 4 days after installation. one tv does not work. i have wasted about 7 hours so far. i now remember why i changed my business phone service 10 years ago.
I’ve had nothing but fantastic experience w/ Uverse internet service. And the tech support has been great for me. I have no experience w/ the TV service.
yeah after congratulation me on my home # being available for service, technician comes out to tell me i’m 3,000 feet away and can’t have it or have really crappy reception! Ugh, the answer was no thanks.
I’ve had Uverse HD and Internet for a week now with no problems. Installation was on time with plenty of support.
Recording HD is a challenge with any of the cable boxes I’ve seem. HD recording on my Time Warner box used 10x the memory of regular digital programs. I believe with Uverse you’re limited to one HD signal coming to each main controller (usually one per house with 3 tvs).
According to tests at DSLreports.com my internet speed is same as my Time Warner / Roadrunner Cable Internet (even though Cable was supposed to be faster).
The quoted price is ~$50 / month cheaper than Time Warner and I’m getting more premiums and HD channels. I’m happy with one HD program at a time and their base internet is cable fast.
So far, so good….
I cancelled my install in Fullerton, CA. The installers showed up on time and ready to go. Turns out there was some technical problem and I was asked to reschedule. I thought about it and called AT&T and told them to cancel my order. I didn’t want to waste another Saturday waiting around to find out there might be another problem. I was very calm and polite and simply stated that I wanted to cancel my order. She put it through and said, “well, that’s it.” I asked her if I needed a confirmation number or if there would be any charges and she simply repeated, “no – that’s it.” No apology – no asking my why.
Needless to say, I am going to go with somebody else. I was really put off by their complete lack of customer service at the 800 number. As I mentioned, the installers were great – their time was wasted as well.
Ahh yes the defector has arrived. Ladies and Gentlemen, I was a Tier 2 Support, and here are the facts…now I left in October so possibly some of my information may be obsolete. First, U-Verse is running on the phone lines…which is far less for ATT to spend money on. SInce they already have the Phone lines. Copper lines do not allow as much bandwidth as Coax cable…sorry that is just a fact. While the system sounds like a more efficient, and just better system. It just isn’t. The technology is 10 years old, and they are trying to make it sound like it is the latest thing. I live in Wisconsin. So I have Time Warner Cable/Roadrunner. While working for U-Verse, I kept my Time Warner digital cable…I think that proves my point. Here is a horrible example of what my job was as a Tier 2 Tech Rep. Customer calls is already pissedthey have been dealing with Tier 1 who are a bunch of complete wastes of time, with very literally almost no technical experience whatsoever. So the Customer is dealing with them for 20-30 minutes…prior to that the customer was probably on hold and dealing with the wonderfull automated phone support with crappy hold music for the first hour. ANYWAY so the customer deals with TIer 1, then I would get an alert on my phone to tell me tha a customer was being TXed in. usually it would tell me “ballpark” what the problem was. REPEAT CALLER, NEW INSTALLATION, UNKNOWN…my personal favorite. Then if the customer has dealt with us in the past, I’d deal with him/her screaming at me for the next 10 minutes while I turned down my volume on my headset. so I wouldn’t go deaf. After having them calm down, I would start to diagnose and treat the problem. My personal rule of thumb was if the customer was approx 70 years old, disabled, or just unable to understand what I wanted them to do or say…I would just dispatch a tech immediately. Due to the simple fact that we have/HAD maximum call times. WHich were 22 minutes when I worked for ATT. Imagine working under that pressure. Then, I woiuld hopefully get all systems back online as soon as possible, and write up a detailed reportand go on to the next call. Now here are some interesting things to know. The system is obviously flawed. If you don’t really care about your TV working then just don’t get it. There is no reason. Dish Network is Owned by ATT just so you know. and Dish network is pretty reliable. The DSL alone by ATT is actually pretty good…U-VERSE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH DISH NETWORK, OR DSL DO they operate kind of simalar, YES, but they are not related. I have no way of troubleshooting DISH network, or DSL, BUT I could do U-Verse, Dish network can do their thing, and DSL does their own thing. So if you want dish network, or DSL you should be ok…they don’t have anything to do with each other in almost anyway…except they are owned by the same company. UVerse is new…and has tons of bugs in it…It may be a reliable system in 3-5 years…until then don’t waste your time. Wireless is horrible with U-verse don’t waste your time or money. TO ANY CUSTOMER THAT IS STILL WITH THEM. HDMI cables are a known issue, you may have no sound, or your video may be erratic. That is because the STB..Set Top Box doesn’t work well with them. Use the Component cables if you have problems…I just saved you an hour and a half phone call, and a service visit. also $20 credits are a standard credit…you can get 60 out of them without having to poke and prod much. You will have freezing issues, loss of connectivity, and general discomfort if you have an ulcer….dont get the system, or you will have more than one. I remember in August of 2007 all of Conneticut went down….yes that is right the entire state went down for 2 days…we were busy. If you live in an area where storms are issues, the storm will affect the system, Baby Monitors will affect the wireless signal, so will certain cordless phones. THe wireless signal operates on 800MHZ. any questions please feel free to email me.
Oh and by the way after I left I recieved a notice in the mail from ATT notifying me that they over paid me by 900…and I am to send a check in the mail immediately, otherwise they will report me to the credit bureau…My Attny said…if they call me to send them over to him…he is going to have a field day with them.
The foregoing is a mixture of outright lies, stuff the guy made up, and one single fact (HDMI cables will indeed cause freezing – they are digital and very high speed, and thus are sensitive to all manner of radio noise – it has absolutely nothing to do with the STB though). I can tell you this; there is no such thing as 10-year-old IPTV anything. Furthermore, anyone who expects to get full-motion video over a wireless-B (800Mhz) access point shouldn’t be allowed to touch his own network let alone AT&T’s. Oh, and Tier 2 is in two places, neither of which are Wisconsin.
There is plenty to complain about without making stuff up.
Actually Terabyte YOU are the one that is wrong. I have been in computers for 30 years and know that the system AT&T uses was designed and developed about 10 years ago. Some changes have been made but it is still the same basic system.
Point 2 – A firmware fix has solved most of the problems with HDMI cables. Hummm, I didn’t know that a STB firmware fix could fix radio noise.
Point 3 – Full motion video over a B connection is very possible depending on the codec and compression. It is not advisable but it is possible.
As to U-verse. I did a search today and found all of this information. I guess I will NOT be getting U-verse any time soon.
As a U-verse installer, I can tell you Tony is very close to correct on ALL the issues. By the way, there is a T2 call center in Wisconsin, Dallas and Arizona.
Tony, would like to chat about your knowledge. L
eLink Payroll Office
One att Center
28th floor
St. Louis, Mo 63101
Subject Line: payr-50-201104-tx-0044
To Whom it May Concern:
To my knowledge, I was not over compensated for my services. I am currently not employed at att and do not wish to be contacted by anyone or department from att.
Furthermore, I do not appreciate being threaten with regard to a payroll dispute being sold to a collection agency or information passed to a credit bureau as though the dispute was bad debt or an old invoice. I am a former employee and because of that relationship I will not be harassed.
I will be contacting The Attorney General’s Office of Texas and the Labor Relations Board if you do anything other than leave me alone!
I consider your contact after requesting you not contact me further post employment harassment.
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I think all of you are comcast employees! Comcast cuts off AT&T phone lies when you disconnect their service. this happens so much that at&t Is aware of it! I have talked to MANY people regarding the slack job of installation. Comcast also goes down in bad weather. Uverse doesnt. comcast phone service goes down all the time, At&t never goes down. When was the last time your phone just QUIT on you? If it did you didnt pay a bill!
The picture in comcast CANNOT be better than uverse because uverse only has ONE signal down the line at a time, and cable shares the line with Multiple channels. ‘
and customer service with comcast is NOTORIOUS for being wack. So what the heck are you guys talking about? I had to almost have the cops called on me the way comcast was acting after CUTTING my phone line on purpose when I disconnected their tv service for dish.
Comcast is losing customers to u-verse all over the place. THATS why people are willing to go through the hassle of switching! You wouldnt fix what wasnt broken! They have people by the throat and raise the price up and up!
NOW they are placing a contract on people that you have to PAY to get out of! So how long is the u-verse contract? THATS RIGHT..THEY DONT HAVE ONE….
and some people have talked about their network printer not working…. Ok all of you snobs..HOW MANY PEOPLE ACTUALLY HAVE NETWORK PRINTERS IN THEIR HOMES?!?!?!?! Gimme a break!!
I have heard people talking about the 1 HD stream and soon they will have 2. And people are cryin!!!
HOW MANY PEOPLE have MULTIPLE HD tv’s in their homes???? And lastly, how many people have 5 or more tvs that Run ALL at the same time?!?! If you DO, Here is a thought…. READ A BOOK for god’s sake!
Comcast hires out jokers in beat down pick ups to service you. They are so cheap they dont even have their own workers, and wont join a union! They work their workers for over 11 hours a day!
One poster made a comment about U-verse tech as being ghetto, like a hip hop person with tattoos and sagging pants….HAVE THEY SEEN what Comcast Hires?!?!?! They dont even HAVE uniforms….And thats racist to say ANYWAY!!!!
You know, here is a tip for all you rich people out there that are this wacko about tv. DONT get U-verse. DONT get comcast. DONT get Dish. They ALL have one thing in common, they will NEVER please ALL of you. Many of you dont even like the fact that there are cables on the outside of your homes or a dish on the roof you are so snobby. So here is a trick for ya…. Get some crayons and draw on your walls. Make sure its washable. You cant get better HD than THAT now can you!?!? Geez! Honestly… COMCAST has GOOD customer service?!?!? YEAH RIGHT!!! try to get the sub-Contracted comcast guy to PICK UP the boxes you returned! Or to COME BACK to your house due to an issue within the same day!!!!! NOT GONNA HAPPEN!!!!
And people can steal cable. Can you steal U-verse or dish as easy? NO!!!! So please people stop smokin whatever it is you are smokin.
So the next time you need to call 9-11 I hope that comcast works out for ya…. WOOPS their 9-11 system is NOT hooked to the cops like the Ma Bell service we all KNOW so well!!!!
And when the dish and comcast FAIL in bad weather…. Guess what you will use to complain? AN AT&T PHONE!!! Which WILL be working…as it ALWAYS has!!! AND ALWAYS WILL…..
Hitlery clinton ran an ad… Using a phone… WHO do you want answering that phone? Her or Barack? Well BOTH will answer!!! And it WONT be on a comcast Battery Back up phone!!!! THAT’S for sure!!!!
please att is no way near ready too deal with what they got , is all about money too them , not the coustumers. and by the way i have 8 hdtvs in my house and if i want too watch all of them at the same time i can’t because you only can have 4 tv’s onat the same time , what a joke att is
I agree 100%, tech’s are people just like everyone else and should be treated with the same respect you would want someone to give your son,daughter father,mother or yourself. We try our hardest to please everyone but like someone else said we did not build the service and we are not the owners, we spend 10-12 hours a day,6 and 7 days a week away from our children to show up with a smile on our faces to be yelled and cursed at about things that are out of our control, and then to top it off it turns out the customer was responsible for the trouble to begin with, such as their tv putting back out ac voltage on the system,or they moved or unplugged the equipment and hooked it back up wrong and swear up and down that no one touched it.Then we are left to assume the cable gremlin snuck into the house in the wee hours of the night to create havoc on the customer or the tech that has to come out and repair it while being treated like a subpar human being, however we will never know why the cable gremlin does these things because no one has ever caught one and we may never be able to do so.(They are stealth and sneaky)
i am not a rich snob if i was i wouldnt be pissed about paying 150 a month for a service that only works 20 min. out of every hour and as far as calling 911 my mother thought she was having a heart attack and my shit was frozen i couldnt call 911 i had to run 2 doors down just to call 911. so here we are in 2010 and still same problems with uverse…etc..this is it if it is not fixed before they leave they can take all their shit with em and hopoefully find some other provider they are all money hungry bastards no matter who you go with.
I am so sick of hearing the whining of the bills..If you idiots would just read the bill you would understand that your first bill is prorated and billed one month in advance DUH just like everybody else….and when did cable internet and home phone cost 99?? Really did you all forget we are in America and we pay taxes on everything! 30 day money back guarantee does not mean you wont get a bill. Where is that ever mentioned?? And really people if you would stop yelling at the Customer Service Reps like they own the company I promise you would probably get more accomplished…AT&T techs work really hard to provide the best service if you don’t like it LEAVE and switch back to COMCAST,COX, TIME WARNER, DiSH or DIRECT!!! DAMNIT its cable people GET OVER IT!!!!….PS if you missed your appointment its probably your fault anyway if you would provide the correct number and answer it when the tech calls then you won’t have a missed appointment…and if I hear one more person complain of the HD streams and the DVR I am going to explode last I checked you cant record from any room in your home with COMCAST or the other guys and DUHH if there is only one DVR why would you think you could rewind and ff from any other tv except the DVR….AT&T has been around forever look at history not going anywhere if you can’t afford the prices don’t step into this Bentley keep riding in the Honda that the other guys provide you!
Haha…Dude seems like your an employee for them. You just sound like an arrogant ass. I have had U-Verse for about 3 weeks now and have problems on both televisions. First of all I was never informed that my appointment for setup was changed. I NEVER received a call or email notifying me of the change in installation date. I know I never received a call because my phone is always on my hip. Secondly, while the tech was very nice and personable, he informed me that I was not getting what I Initially ordered. Again, the service tech was a very nice guy. Lastly, since the install 3 weeks ago I have had nothing but problems with channels freezing several times per night. While my last service provider was pretty good, I plan to give ATT a few more chances before calling them to get their s**t out
Wow! you’re one angry dude, you also seem to have a broken caps-lock key. Your ! and ? keys appear to also have a lot of goo stuck in them – you may want to have that checked out
Mike,
I agree with your ideas regarding att vs. cable. Cable TV providers have had us in a stranglehold way too long. We must at least try Uverse for while, in order to get Cable TV’s attention, even if Uverse is a bit buggy at the start.
I think that the only way to get the all the bugs out is for users to put the service through the hoops, seriously analyze the problems, chat with each other about workarounds, and report the bugs and our fixes to ATT. The service cannot evolve in a vaccum. It must be regularly used and abused, tested for its limitations, in order to discover the problems and work on solutions. In the end all users of this digital data system will benefit.
Of course if would be nice if ATT would give us a better discount than only one month free service for providing them this beta testing service, but they have not offered that yet. It would also be nice if they gave free Uverse TV service to their employees so they could test it and report bugs.
I’m going to make a go of it with Uverse and look forward to what is possible, and not dwell on what is not possible. This is, after all, how progress is made.
Kudos to all early adopters out there.
D
I’ve had U’Verse for about three years now, I did experience the freezing initially but don’t have those problems anymore. I’d say that the actual product is amazing! But don’t ever try to talk to someone at their 800 number, poor customer care, and moronic technicians. Their routing systems automatically puts you into the regular AT&T service department, then you tell the person I’m calling about Uverse so then you have to hold again. After about 30 minutes you may actually talk to a person who could help you but they end up being an idiot.
I’m glad that I rarely need to call these morons because their employees suck! But, 95% of the time the product is working and its great. Not really anything out there that compares to UVerse TV just wished I could say the same for their workers.
I give up. I have had att Uverse since July 07. It was terrible at first–freezing constantly, then someone came out and wired the house with cat-5…seemed ok, but the last few weeks it has gone to freezing at least a few times an hour..sometimes for 5 minutes or more. Watching a program, and the picture freezes for several minutes and the system is unresponsive as it gets no data. During that time also, one’s internet connection goes down.
People have been out several times, but ATT doesn’t have a clue what the problem is.
I can’t believe they sold shit sh!t to me.
Going back to –anything else–
ATT Uverse blows, seriously. It is only good if you want to be driven away from TV watching (we don’t watch much anyway) to reading books. Keep in mind, if you’re also using ATT for your ‘net connection, that goes down too. I don’t eve know if it’ll be down when I try to post this f!cking comment.
I am also a victim of Uverse, and for anyone who has questions about the reliability of the service, here are a few numbers.
DSL Link Retrains: 3
DSL Training Errors: 2
DSL Loss of Signal Failures: 27
DSL Cumulative Errored Seconds: 33
DSL Severely Errored Seconds: 27
DSL Corrected Blocks: 461042
DSL Uncorrected Blocks: 11868
These are the errors that I’ve had in the last 11 minutes.
The numbers are actually higher now because the service went down AGAIN right before I tried to post this.
Uverse sucks, end of story.
First of in retort to that lazy ex Tier-2 agent self proclaimed technical genius phony who basically does nothing but dispatch because he doesn’t feel like dealing with a customer who doesn’t have a basic understanding of how their service works and how to operate it: Do you really think a tier-1 agent wants to escalate to a jackass like you? NO. In fact – We’re all glad an elitist like you has gone back to the McJob you used to work.
We escalate because we HAVE to. Trust me if I had the tools to fix these people’s problems I wouldn’t waste my time calling tier 2 or tier 3 for that matter. Do you really think I want to waste 10 minutes waiting for some tier-2 jackass for some basic problem that I can fix, but can’t because I have a frequent caller flash? Much less do you think I enjoy making excuses for tier-2 being in queue to an annoyed customer that has a problem that I must escalate for? Do you really think I’d waste my time calling an idiot like you if I could unblock a port 25 or clean up a registration issue? Cmon. Get your facts straight about why tier-1 escalates to tier-2. We either don’t have to tools to fix it or we can’t troubleshoot it because AT&T SAYS WE HAVE TO ESCALATE due to the frequency of the member’s calls in the last 30 days.
Secondly – for those of you that are having picture quality issues – here’s the FIRST thing to ask ANY agent to do: Get them to check to see if the gateway is trained properly. 80-85% of the time when I get a call about such issues it’s a simple case of a gateway not being properly set up for its defined broadband type and line selection. How does this happen you might ask? Most of the time a field tech just simply doesn’t bother to configure it properly before he leaves your house.
Once the gateway trained properly – the problem generally will be solved and usually the picture looks even sharper and the internet performance is better. If the problem isn’t this then likely it’s either bad wiring in your home or line issues outside. Usually it’s outside and probably because it’s an old line/tap that’s been in the ground for 20-30 years or more. Ask the agent to check the historical data in the lines – that data pretty much tells us whether we’re going to have to dispatch or not.
If it’s just internet performance issues only and you’re wireless – then get the agent to get the wireless channel off ch. 1 or 11 and/or get it out of auto channel select (channels 5-8). 75% of the time this is the problem. If that doesn’t work get them to change the encryption type – especially if you’re on an older laptop. WPA type encryption simply DOES not work very well with some older wireless adapters. 90% of the rest of the issue is because the gateway is in a bad location – elevate it or rotate it.
And finally if you’re computer is right next to the gateway (within 4 feet) just get a CAT5 cable, plug in directly to one of your ethernet ports and lose the wireless. Being too close to the transmitter is just as bad as being too far away – the signal will overshoot the adapter. Wireless is always going to be a security risk as well, encrypted or not – if you’re that close to the gateway it just makes more sense to go wired. It’s faster than the wireless G on the 2-wire box, and has far fewer connectivity issues overall.
Lastly if you are wired and having internet performance issues, again get the agent to see if the gateway is trained properly. Chances are it isn’t.
These few tidbits I just offered will likely cure about 80% of the problems I’ve read on this blog. Perhaps your Uverse won’t be so sucky.
And if and when you do have to call – pray you don’t get a jackass like Tony on the phone. He’s a really good example of why so many people are pissed off with the Uverse service and I don’t really blame them. And yes all of us at tech support hate the automenus too. We’re lobbying to get rid of the existing system and put something in that actually translates and routes callers properly.
ROTFLMAO, that transcript of your attempted phone call to ATT customer service was hilarious because that is exactly my experience! That being said, if I ever did connect with a live person they were always helpful and courteous.
I had Uverse television and internet install, but two weeks later I went back to cable for television. While Uverse Internet is a good product, the TV leaves much to be desired. Poor picture quality, compression issues, voice sync and DVR problems just made it not worth it…this really is a beta product. When I went back to cable, I realized just how bad Uverse is, it was like getting a new HD set for the first time.
I may not have as many HD channels now as I Uverse offers, but those I do get are HD quality and that is why I bought an HD set.
Uverse when it works was great, but when it didn’t which was most of the time is was a disaster. My experience with technical support was equally bad. I got the runaround more often than I can remember. The never fixed anything
Had some high-pressure folks come to my door yesterday trying to sell me Uverse as some new better thing. I’ve had Time Warner Road Runner Internet for 10 years and it’s fine. I did a little research after and discovered that Uverse is actualyl rated SLOWER than rr (6 Mbps instead of 7).
TV is not an issue. we have rabbit ears, folks, and they work fine. And the price is right.
I am a Austin, TX U-verse prem tech myself. I have a few tips for you if you are considering service. The service is NEW, so like every company there will always be a few kinks to work out and also just like every other job in the world…theres the employees who just do it to get paid and get out and dont care.
I am one of the ones that do care.
If you order service (which it really is better than the other guys when its done right) :
1)Ask for an ENTIRE CAT-5 cable install when the tech gets there. Yea they may charge you if theres nothing pre-existing that they can use for a “pull sting” but if theres a coax outlet there and you dont mind them pulling it out and replacing it then it will be free. If nothing else, ATLEAST get a CAT 5 cable pulled directly from the phone box on the outside of the house to the RG (The modem / brain) It provides much better signal and picture quality. The tech might try to make excuses because its time consuming but oh well…he/she gets paid by the hour.
2)If they are going to use coax to the set top boxes… make sure (and insist) they change the fittings on the ends of the coax BEHIND THE WALL PLATE! That leads to 50% of the trouble calls because that is forgotten to be done.
3)If you have a 2 story house and are getting wireless internet…Its better to put the RG upstairs to provide a broader wireless signal (It works like an umbrella effect…the higher up the better)
4)If you do have to call tech support…its best to ask for a Tier 2 tech rep. They have more say so and power over the other guys.
5)As far as the HD and the DVR is concerned…Give it a couple months and you can record on any TV in the house with no equipment change. You should recieve an email or notice on the TV when that feature becomes available. If its an HD picture quality and you can use an HDMI cable…USE IT. And make sure all the aspect ratio on the Box and on the TV itself are changed to the 720p or the 1080i settings.
Other than that, I want to personally apologize to each of you that may be experiencing problems and hope you get them resolved and thank you for your business.
This is good advice for any cable install, not just AT&T’s U-verse.
@J
Thanks for the time and the insight, it is appreciated 🙂
I have had U-verse for five months and the internet and TV have been flawless. Very few compression problems, great picture. No need to call tech support.
The compression that is visible (occasionally on things like a big green empty football field, which gets a bit mushy looking) is probably upstream of AT&T, imho.
A limitation of the copper wire approach, for now at least, is only one HD signal into the house at a time. We have two HDTVs so this is an occasional issue.
The online billing system (if you choose it) is a bit goofy — if you can’t remember them, or can’t dig up your userID and password from original paperwork, you may have trouble logging into your account online.
U-verse may be new, it may be a technology causing issues (for some people), but it saves us $30+/month vs. Comca$t and has some channels we wanted that weren’t available on Comca$t. And Comca$t service went out periodically.
J. — thanks for the tip about CAT5. Wish I had known that before the install! But we are doing OK with the coax feed.
>The compression that is visible (occasionally on things like a big green empty football field, which gets a bit mushy looking) is probably upstream of AT&T, imho.
[citation needed]
I’d like to understand how you can possibly think that every program on television is getting fed into AT&T with compression artifactas all over the place. I might as well watch youtube on my ps3
Anyone who has the capability of making a statement like yours is also going to be smart enough to know that’s not the case.
I suspect you’re an at&t employee.
UVERSE INDEED SUCKS!!
1) A single HD stream for the household is weak! I hear they are rolling out 2 streams now. Sorry ATT too little too late. I understand there’s a limit to what puny phone wires can carry, but really guys, is that my problem? Is it?
2) The DVR is the second worst I’ve ever used. Worst honors goes to DISH. Let me count the ways.
2 a. Is a product of 1) and 2) above. If two HD shows are scheduled, only one will be recorded. No pop up notifing you, it just doesn’t happen.
2 b. If two concurrent HD shows are scheduled, only one will be recorded. e.g. try to record an hour long HD show at 8 pm on nbc and an hour long show at 9 pm on the same channel.
2 c. The dvr will occasionally simply not play your recorded show. I was told by customer service this frozen black screen is a ‘known issue’ for which there is no cure.
2 d. When fast forwarding past commercials, the dvr does not automatically step back to compensate for the fact that you likely will likely overshoot your objective. For example, if you are fast forwarding through commercials and hit play when you see your show on, other DVR’s will step back an appropriate amount of time to compensate based on fast forward speed. This DVR makes no such attempt so each fast forward is a game of fast forward > play > rewind > play. Annoying!
3) Picture quality blows!! Because of the above issues we just switched to Directv. I didn’t know what I was missing!! The HD picture is SO MUCH better, I am absolutley amazed. I feel like an idiot for having lived with Uverse these past 6 months.
Conclusion. I was excited about the prospect of ATT / Uverse because I thought they were bringing fibre to the house. When I found they’re trying to squeeze HD content through a DSL connection, I should have known better than to continue. The channel selection and on demand features are great – beats cable hands down. It feels like they’ve rushed to market. They’re not ready for prime time.
Thanks for starting this thread. I needed that.
I have a friend who bragged about his ATT Uverse installation last week in Santa Rosa, CA. To my curiosity, I decided to be present at the time of installation. (really want to know what the fuzz is about).
At the time of the installation, a bald technician with bad tattoos showed up. Although he knew how to smile, he had a lazy eye and some jacked up teeth. Okay…I wasn’t impressed so far. I wonder if they conduct pre-employment background check. Two hours later, he was still not done installing this Uverse stuff. Does he know what he was doing? Perhaps he was milking the hourly wage system? Who knows, but I was not impressed.
It took 3.5 hours to install a stupid “advanced” digital television.
My friend and I took Uverse for a test after the weird-looking Uverse Specialist left. We went right for the HD contents. Surprisingly, channel changing was quite responsive. On the other hand, the HD picture doesn’t look like HD at all. I told my friend, “dude, this looks like crap.”
I also tested the Uverse On Demand. They have nothing that seemed on demand about it. Who watches I love Lucy on demand and why don’t they add more shows to this thing? It was like, some sort of a joke! It was a fake On Demand! Good thing I took for a ride before switching. Nothing compares to Comcast’s Video On Demand. I love it and I will never switch to Uverse because it was lame and they false advertise about it. I think ATT’s Uverse will not survive more than 3 years. — I will not be surprised.
Comcast and DirecTV are way better than Uverse.
I just had to say thank you to you Somedude. After dealing with ATT uverse for the past week and most of the day today, I laughed so incredibly hard when I read your note. You helped relieve all of the stress that has been accumulating since I made the idiotic choice to switch to uverse. My specialist didn’t have a lazy eye or jacked up teeth (he was a very nice young man), but he hooked up EVERYTHING wrong and I mean everything. He had phone lines hooked up to the ethernet slots, ethernet cables hooked into the gateway but not hooked up to a device, never unhooked the wireless network that I switched from so my internet was like dial up, AND he disconnected the only good and important phone line (I stayed with Cox on that deal) I had left. Now I have to call Cox to come out and reconnect and of course I will get charged. And you know what? That took him 4 freeking hours. Are people getting dumber? I am an old lady and figured out what was wrong the minute I looked at the equipment. Anyway, you made me laugh and I want to say thank you.
You’re an idiot! What the hell do you care what the technician’s eye looked like??? Where you looking forward to have your service installed or to get laid???
We survived iand we are number one right now and will always be.
08/16/2014
ok, here we go again. WHAT are you people talking about? fast forwarding pass a commercial? Ok STOP when the commercial is done. Problem solved.
Techs configuring the rg to your cable? Also not true, nor needed. Dont listen to that guy.
Picture quality bad? also impossible. Dish and uverse send a clean picture. You likely have a hd without composite cables or have the settings on aspect ratio on 4:3. Change that to 1080 and there ya go. But most of you are obviously On here to blow up the net for comcast. here is a trick, know how to use the service. Dont let the guy leave without having your questions answered and get the tech’s cell number and you wont have to “talk to a computer”
You people need to really come out the bag and admit you guys dont even HAVE uverse.
Mike,
You have to be an AT&T employee worried about your job. The fact is, the internet is garbage compared to Comcast, the HD is just unbelievably horrible (also, i’m running through composite) You can pay for the 300 package, but I’ll ask you, WHAT HD CHANNELS DO YOU GET FOR THAT?!?! What a rip-off, i’m already back to Comcast, which is far better picture quality, internet and customer service.
Ohh btw, I was going to throw the UVerse box out the window if this lame excuse for “advanced TV” *cough laugh*, would freeze up once more.
PEOPLE DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON AT&T.
I have been a U-verse subscriber in the San Francisco bay area since November of 07′. I will preface by saying that I’m the type who will place a phone call on someone’s behalf if I feel that they have delivered exceptional service. However, based upon my experience with AT&T thus far, ‘kudos’ calls will be the least of my concerns. I can honestly say that I have had more exhausting and frustrating issues with both the service and the customer service than anyone should reasonably be expected to deal with; The original sales rep placing the order incorrectly without applying HD service to my order (for my 62″ HDTV!) and it took three days to get HD running. Numberous outages for a variety of reason which are seldom well-explained, incompetence & lethargy in customer service, a grotesque lack of accountability whereby the person responsible for the issue in need of resolution is never the one on the phone with you! How about having a technician come to your home and, while resolving a simple issue, create another issue that is beyond his/her level of expertise! Functionality? My Comcast service delivered 4-HD channels along with the other digital channels. U-verse delivers 1-HD channel (though more are “right around the corner!”) As an avid sports watcher, I really miss the ‘slow motion’ button on my Comcast remote. There is no such function with U-verse. The channel directory can be more complex than the scematic for the Tokyo subway system and channel listings can change without notification. At some point during every phone call with U-verse customer service, someone invariably states, “We do value you as a customer and thank you for using AT&T U-verse.” However, with few exceptions, U-verse service and it’s support network are little more than hotbeds for frustration at this point. AT&T has had SEVERAL chances to “turn my around” over several months. Instead, they regularly find new ways to add frustration to an already aggravating situation. The technology simply does not appear ready to deliver on the promises of the advertizing. I have every intention of switching back to Comcast at this point. I’m not fond of actually sitting down and writing compliants so please consider that it took a lot to get me to this keyboard for this reason.
Wow, this blog sounds like one big retarded Comcast plant. I have u-verse and have experienced no problems whatsoever on any of the 4 tv’s connected. Picture quality is great on all channels and internet is reliably fast. Sounds like some nerds here who never leave the house complaining about their 10 HDtv’s not working perfectly and network printers (who the fuck uses network printers in a home environment?).
I dealt with shitty Comcast and their braindead techs for years (some of which barely spoke english) and had enough. Not only do they jack their prices up consistently, but over the years picture quality has gotten steadily worse on my cable and there’s been some type of interference problems causing audio cutouts. They’d charge an arm and leg just to send a tech over to check it out too, which is ridiculous.
The funny and ironic thing about Comcast is they blame u-verse for messing with their networking lines and they actually have anti-u-verse ads around. I’m assuming some of you jokes posting here are part of their campaigning or some shit, reminds me of the Mac kiddies playing their elitist cards constantly bashing Windows. Comcast sucks, anyone who’s stuck with them as their main cable company knows this outside of the poor souls who suffer with Charter. AT&T are much better to deal with, and offer much better deals. None of that cheap for 6 months then full price bullshit, just flat out better prices and service.
Hell, just scroll up to ‘Mike’ and read what he said. Was pretty spot on with some points.
If you have received no issues with Uverse, than you are a VERY lucky one.
Uverse is still growing and limited in some ways. AT&T is doing things right on a very large scale. The world’s largest network is taking steps forward when the time is right, focusing on known issues and delivering solutions while challenging the unknown at any cost.
IPTV uses IPv6 technology developed by Microsoft and it can be delivered across four twisted wires – two twisted pairs, two twisted wires – one twisted pair or a single coax cable. The cable must meet specifications and deliver 96 – 112 mbps. 112 mbps is preferred and can be achieved on any of the above wiring structures.
FTTP vs FTTN, FTTP = fiber to the prem. New development standards are to provide a single strand of fiber to an ONT that is mounted on the customer’s home. This only applies to homes built with this technology agreed between the builder, the HOA and of course AT&T. This currently in the minority among installation types.
FTTN = Fiber to the node. For those hundreds of thousands of pre-existing homes that do not and will not have fiber to the premise, AT&T installed VRAD’s in select areas where the community is provided their phone service. This is a crossbox or SIA. The VRAD houses the end of fiber assigned to each customer. The VRAD takes the VDSL signal and dial tone and slams it down a twisted pair of wires that are conditioned to provide uverse services to the designated customer. The maximum distance this signal can travel before losing too much broadband is about 3300 feet. Anything over 3000 feet is questionable.
A good install on FTTN is very close to a service provided FTTP. The service DOSE NOT need to be CAT5, You DO NOT need to pay to change your wiring. The service can be flawlessly installed on RG59 coax. The conditioning of the wiring being used is the key to delivering quality and reliability.
There are new premise technician and tier 1 & 2 agents hitting the field every day. Someone is going to get them, some are going to get those that don’t make it. AT&T will stay with you at whatever the cost to them to resolve your issues and they monitor the results of each dispatch of communication to support.
Here is how I got the job done right, whit no issues and I rather enjoyed it.
They gave me an 8-10am commitment. The night before, I removed all my chater boxes & cables. Cleared the area where each coax wall plate and phone jack was in each room to get service, 7 rooms – 6 tv’s. Moved each TV stand away from the wall about two feet and went to bed.
The next morning I was called exactly at 8am by the installer and told he was taking my phone out of service for a few minutes and would be right over to the house. When he go here about 20 minutes later, he walked through the house with me discussing my needs. I was surprised by his concern for my needs and he was blown away by how ready I was.
I hit him with the negative stuff I read and my concern for CAT5. I had three rooms with CAT5 and four with COAX. He explained to me what I shared above and told me he would use both the coax and CAT5 and if I could see a reasonable difference he would run CAT5 at no charge. I wanted to learn, so I asked if he minded if I nosed around and asked questions. He didn’t mind, so I did.
First he worked outside, the phone box, he called it a NID, network interface devise. He used a meter to measure the value of the VDSL signal the VRAD was sending to my home. I am at 2200 feet and the signal was good, around 56 mbps. He said AT&T uses about 25 mbps to deliver service, there was more than double that there. He put a new NID up and something called a balun in it. He said it separates the phone from the VDSL. He used a CAT5 cable to my office to bring the signal into the house.
He changed the wall plate from one jack to two. One for phone, the other for uverse. Again he tested, the signal was actually stronger. OK, so far so good. He told me I was getting an RG, residential gateway and asked where I wanted it. The RG is the gateway to all uverse services, including Ethernet broadband. I had him put it on my work center next to my network switch. He hooked it all up, plugged my main cpu and network switch into the RG and established service. This room has no TV but has a coax and data cable going to the smart panel. He connected two plugs to one CAT5 cable and one coax cable to the new wall plates he installed in my office and stapled all the wiring neatly along the top of the molding.
Then he went to the smart panel and connected the two rooms I have data cables in to the one that he put two plugs on in the office. Then he put a four way splitter on the coax that came from the office and connected the remaining four TV’s. He even tagged the wires for me so I know what they are. He changed all the fittings and explained that is a must on any install.
Then he changed the plates on the TV’s and made custom cut wires to each set top box. The DVR and 1 set top box that were on CAT5 he made patch cables for and the rest got custom white coax, all were stabled to the wall neatly.
Then he started bringing each TV up, the first three we HD TV’s, two he hooked up on component cables and one on HDMI. The component did better on two TV’s. The remaining three were hooked up using RCA cables.
The TV’s that were on CAT5 appeared to come up slightly faster the the others. He said they would, but I was still curiously concerned.
The picture on every TV was significantly better, more true color, more vibrant and crisp right of the bat. Then he asked, if I wanted all three HD TV”s set to HD, I was like, I thought that was HD. Then he used the remote to turn on the HD on the DVR, wow, now I know what the buzz is about. Totally Awesome. I knew my TV’s were good, but two of them with 1080i are great. With charter, the picture was flowering, now it is like a Kodak moment that never stops. Really pleased here.
Then he hooked up my internet and I did my registration. While doing this I told him I wanted the fasted speed I could get, he told me I was getting the elite which was 6mb down and there was a max available that would give me 10mb down. I told him I wanted it, he called and got it turned on. Then he showed me the difference using speedtest.net. With charter, I paid a lot for 10 and got between 6 & 8, it fluctuated by large margins and was a shared pipe. The upload on charter was the worst I ever experienced, the upload on uverse made a distinct difference while browsing. Then he showed me a cool web remote that programs my DVR from anywhere there is access to the internet.
Then we verified the other four computers that run on the switch as well as both network printers and additional storage drives. All worked perfectly and the computers with the same results. So he showed me how to use the DVR, turn HD on and off and walked me through all 6 TV’s, all demonstrating the same quality service.
Then he went to the truck to run tests and returned with a printout that showed all of my services passing with no errors and that the set top boxes were communicating flawlessly at 112mbps. Then he asked if I had any reservation about using coax, I said absolutely not.
I was was impressed with the on time commitment, impressed with the professionalism of the technician, impressed with the time they spent insuring the quality of my service meets their standards and mine, impressed that the technician worked a solid six hours with no break and took time to educate me on what he was doing and seeking my opinion on installation choices and preferences, impressed with the investment AT&T made in me as a customer and impressed with the respect for my home. The technician cleaned up everything and wore blue covers on his boots in my house, even though I told him not to.
I am pleased and so are my neighbors, so I guess there are a few that started out on the wrong foot getting service from AT&T, the tech told me a lot of that comes from lack of experience, wiring issues mostly in apartment complexes where AT&T can’t address the main feeds into the apartment and issues that the field technicians have not come across before or have equipment designed to detect.
So, it’s new, it’s growing, in fact they grace periods seem to be ending. I got lucky, I get three set top boxes with no rentals, my friend procrastinated and he only gets two. I got free HD for a year, he got it for a month. They are constantly adding stuff, now two HD channels and soon whole house DVR. There is no telling where this is going, I only know I am on board for the ride.
My advice, get involved in your install, prepare for them to visit, insure they have access to work. Everyone that has followed the same steps as I did, is very pleased and happy with the uverse service.
I have had it for almost 8 months. Not one problem.
I guess I am the odd duck out here. We’ve had U-Verse for about six months, and internet and television viewing are fine. We occasionally get a short burst of pixelation, but that’s about the extent of the annoyances. We did have the network go down during a particularly important football game, but I lived.
I have had the exact same experiences with AT&T’s customer service. I can’t begin to explain how much I loathe them! About a week ago, AT&T started coming to my house trying to sell their U-Verse service. I was at work and my husband answered the door four different times in three days. Much to my horror and dismay, he signed up for the service. I about smacked him for doing this because we have the all in one package with Charter and I don’t want to fix what’s not broken. After reading so many complaints about the U-Verse, I made sure he cancelled his service order. I refuse to do business with that company. Sorry to hear you went through so much trouble. 😦
Who has networked printers? 1. Anybody with both a desktop and a laptop. 2. People who run a home-based business with multiple PCs. 3. Computer geeks like me. 4. Several homes on my modest block.
I switched from U-Verse to DirecTV a couple of months ago, and aside from service outages during severe thunderstorms, it works flawlessly. Note: both cable and U-verse also had outages during bad storms.
In the past 18 months, I’ve had cable tv, U-Verse, and DirecTV. Of the three, cable probably had the best HD picture; U-Verse the worst. DirecTV has the most ‘user options’. It also has the biggest DVR of the three. Charter Cable was pretty rudimentary, and switched from local (WI) customer service to India. That’s what prompted me to try U-Verse in the first place.
ATT, it’s time to spend some time and money training your service techs! Reinvest some of the ad money. You’re overselling and underdelivering.
I have had Uverse since April. It has been a headache the entire time. First, we had Dish network, which was a bundle with all of our phones and our internet. They would not take the dish box with them during the uverse install and after many phone calls have yet to send a shipping box to get it back to them. This has led to them charging us every month for Dish even though we canceled it when we got uverse. Within a few days we were quite unhappy with the tv freezing and the lack of customer service and decided to switch back to Dish. The person we spoke to could not understand what we wanted and so we asked for a supervisor. They told us a supervisor would call us right back. Within the hour our internet and tv service had been shut off and we did not get a call back from someone until the next day. They told us we would be charged if we went back to Dish so we decided to stick with the uverse. Unfortunately the supervisor said that a tech guy would have to come back to the house to turn our tv and internet back on. I asked why they couldn’t just turn it back on over the phone since they shut it off over the phone. They said that they would need to put in new boxes. After a week of no tv or internet they finally came. All the tech guy did was make a phone call and it was back on. Since then our tv has been less than reliable. Every time we call customer service the automated service says that we have a past due amount. I then try the automatic bill pay and it says that all of our accounts are paid in full. No human contact, no tv and we are still getting charged for Dish network. UGUGGGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGUGU!!!!!
AT&T is a joke, U-Verse is pitiful and I am about to cancel our U-Verse.
I am a customer, not an employee or former employee of AT&T.
Having been working from home for 6 years in my own business, I thought U-Verse was supposed to be a speedy alternative to DSL, especially considering they put fiber-optics in our neighborhood.
Boy, was I wrong. First, it took them 2 weeks to actually finish the installation. What a joke. They sent a tech out on a Sunday and then the poor guy has to call the same phone # as every other customer does only to find out that the dept. he needs to get the authorization doesn’t work on Sunday!
What a bunch of idiots. Then, it takes them another 10 days to reschedule, send yet a different tech out, this time on a Saturday… The guy literally spends 10 hours at our house and then the installation still wasn’t activated at the end of the day because the dept. that is supposed to do the activation had gone home!
We called and stayed on the phone with them for 3 hours only to get outsourced Indian support. I was livid! I work from home an absolutely HAD to have my connections live by Monday morning.
This was now 2 weeks into this and they still couldn’t get it right. We actually waited on the phone and refused to take no for an answer. I threatened hiring an attorney, I didn’t know what else to do.
They were supposed to give us one month free service for all the hassle they put us through, which never happened even after repeated calls.
U-Verse was supposed to be this lightening speed connection because of the fiber to the prem and it is not. I don’t see any difference in speed than DSL and I am on the computer all day, so I would know.
So, now our tv and internet are bundled… and the telephone is separate. There has got to be a better alternative than this.
WOW ..glad i’m not the only one,,,signed up in april..installation in may , took the day off of work while still paying for day care ..comes to the door tells me they have alot of work that is done behind the scenes before they can install it..THEY HAVE HAD 4 WEEKS!! the tech also forgets to mention he has cut the wires to my phone and internet, 2days later and 3 techs and 3,5 hour s on the phone I finally get my phone and internet turned back on …they schedule another installation ..again they say they are unable to hook up ..I live in a subdivison in a metropoitan area ….but they say i am too far away from the box? whatever..Fact of the matter is they could have fiqured this out before the instalation date and I have had 9 techs out to my house!! All the tech have said att&t will contact you ..low and behold no call!! I finally call again ..they said they would get back to me ..guess what they called after that to let me know ..sorry there is nothing we can do.. What the heck is that ? numerous hours on the phone, sitter fees and 2days off of work for “Im sorry there is nothing we can do /?I am so dissapointed and frustrated..I heard WOWWAY has excellent customer service but i think i need some time to cool down before starting again
I have had the at&t u-verse for a little over a month now and have spent everyday for the first 3 weeks talking to customer service to get my internet connection stabalized. I must say at&t has GREAT customer service reps that are good at dealing with the angery pissed off customer on a regular basis, they’re just not too good at actually solving the problem.
so my latest problem is my u-verse has been frozen for going on four hours now. TV service is frozen on one picture, I can not connect through the secured private line I am having to use a public airport wi-fi service to get on the internet. Oh and most importantly of all I have NO telephone service, man sure hope my house doesnt catch fire or get robbed or something. so Im stuck here with no way what so ever to get my problem fixed.
after wrestling with their useless website for help I finally get a reply e-mail that answers nothing.
Thanks AT&T you’re the worst!!!!!!!
I loved the first post here by amritw. I’ve heard that computer guy so many times I think he knows me.
I signed up from a door to door salesman on 6/6 – for an installation on 6/19. By 6/24 I hadn’t heard from them, so I called. They finally found my order, but found that
1: Both my primary and secondary phone number had been entered incorrectly, and
2: My email had been entered incorrectly. So they rescheduled.
The installer came out for a 1 box installation (my copy of the order form clearly said 4). So what he was thinking was going to be an easy install turns out to be a 6 out hour ordeal – after he called in backup. These two guys are the ONLY ones from ATT that have been good. EVERYONE else has been either inept, has not followed up on promises, or flat lied to me.
To progress. The installers left and my Uverse is working fine. However I have no phone. (Isn’t that what this company was founded on in the first place?) So the next day I start calling – on my cell phone.
During the past week I have literally spent 4 HOURS on my cell phone getting bounced back and forth between Uverse and ATT. As a result, I have gone over my cell phone minutes this month.
My latest promise by their customer unservice is that I will have a dial tone tomorrow. At this point I have not spent a penny with them and will gladly be done with them if this promise is not fulfilled.
In my opinion they launched this service before their service unservice people were ready to handle it. It’s a good idea, but not meant for a company with the bureaucracy of ATT.
I’m a retired IT professional whose experience predates the use of telephone lines for data. (There really was such a time). My first experience with what was to become AT&T wasn’t too much different than what is described above. The problem then, as now, is to get past level one customer service. We had great hopes for the 1984 breakup but it only got worse. (Five years of finger pointing).
I currently use Time-Warner cable service. When U-verse was announced I decided to do some research on it. It seems everyone I talk to, pro or newbie, all have pretty much the same negative experience.
Some business analyst once told me it was next to impossible to change the “corporate culture” in a large organization. AT&T proves he was 100% correct.
I’ve had at&t uverse for 4 weeks now and its been nothing but problems from the start. The picture on our t.v. is too dark, people’s faces are a bright orange, the audio quality is a high ear-piercing treble, and it picture constantly freezes up. One of my biggest complaints is the telephone reception. There are voice delays so the conversation is constantly over-lapping and we interupt each other because of the delay. On top of that I have static on the line and when I speak I can hear a vibrational static sound in my ear while talking…in addition to all of that I hear a intermitent “beep” that interupts the conversation. The person on the other end says that they hear static and experience the voice delay as well.
We have had 5 different technicians here and the problem has not been resolved. Has anyone else experienced phone problems since haveing at&t uverse installed?
Funny thing this company AT&T. They were a good company years and years ago. Now I experience the same issues I have been reading on here. Their service is second rate. I changed from Time Warner to AT&T because of poor product and WORSE customer service.
Received good product from UVERS for about a year at a cheaper price. Then fell for the upgrade to 6.0 at a reduced price, still not a bad deal. The issue is that they can not deliver 6.0 consistently to my home. And their service people are a joke. One was so drunk two days ago at my home in Chapel Hill, NC that he left the house saying he could not fix my issue of .56 speed. Then passed out in the street for 40 Minutes. My wife finally demanded I go roll him to the side of the street before he was hit by a car. You could not dream this stuff up. But it gets better, they charged me $100.00 for this. When I call to dispute it they sent another Service rep. He called at 4:45 PM and informed me that he was going to charge me another $100.00 for a service call. Then was rude when I informed him it was already covered under the call from yesterday. Finally he said some nasty things and informed me that he had tickets to the game and I would have to learn to live with my issue of slow network speed. His name was Richard Arnold out of the Chapel Hill, NC office. Man these two reps should get a ribbon for worst service reps in the state.
Looks like it’s back to Time Warner.
Well, I have had all of the above issues or problems with my U-Verse install. I had an installation date of 6/13/08 and that went OK and w had internet and TV at the end of that 9 hour day. Then, everything stopped working and 6 techs, 3 RG’s later we had some service again. We still did not have any dial tone, and that took them 14 days to get online. I spent so much time on the phone with them, and wasted so much time away from working that I was way past the boil-over point. Our cell plan has 1400 shared minutes between my wife and I and we usually only use half of that. During the U-Verse fiasco we used all minutes and then some, and one call alone to the support line hit me for $14!! When we called in to complian about all of the fees the rep on the phone tried to sell me AT&T cellular service! I told them to focus on te current issues at hand at this point.
We did get alot of money from them after alot of yelling, but it paid off. the paid the overages for my Verizon bill, $200+ in credits to the account, etc.
We finally got Internet, TV, and phone service together for the first time 14 days later and all has been good to this point, but now I have a wireless issue that I need to look into. My wireless clients disconnect and will not connect back to the gateway. It is almost like I have put in the wrong encryption key or something. I have changed the SSID and the key and it still does it. This is a new one to me, but I am going to dig in before I call you know who again.
Other than the wireless issue service has been good once everything started working. The picture is great, the phone is nice and clear, and the internet (wired) is flawless. Hopefully this last hurdle is nothing major.
Good luck to all with your issues.
have att uverse for a month.no problems………much better than the disk I had before
I just signed up for Uverse and will be getting it installed in the middle of August. I am excited about the potential, but after reading some posts here, I am a little nervouse. However, I think a number of the posts here also educated me on what I need to do during the install to make sure that things are working properly before the Tech leaves. If I remember, I will try to post again after the install to let you all know how it went. They are currently offering the 1st month of TV free, I have to pay for equipment and the internet. But they are also offering $200 cash back after sticking with the service for 1 month, so I will give it a month and if it sucks too bad, I will take my money and go back to Time Warner. If this service works as good as they make it sound, Time Warner is going to be in some trouble. In my area, Time Warner doesn’t even offer Fox in HD. I am in Wisconsin and the Packers play on Fox, so Fox in HD is a must. Uverse is new to this area, so we shall see how things turn out.
I have 15 minutes before the 2 hour time frame expires for my umpteenth visit from the AT&T service rep. Usually they call and say they’ll be here an hour later then set. For Dan from Wisconsin….good luck to you. I am also from Wisconsin, an ex-Time Warner cable user who purchased At&T for the major reason that my kids wanted the Big Ten channel. This has been the worst summer I can remember as I not only have to run 3 kids around but the majority of the time I am on the phone with AT&T, waiting for AT&T techs or explaining to the service rep on the phone or at my house just what has been done up until this point. Life is too short for all these problems. Pay the extra money for another cable service. The continual problems are unbelievable. The issue with the service is so frustating because you start over everytime you call. No one follows up with you. They leave and then you start all over again. This last visit (last week)..they intalled a new Gateway. When I called a couple days ago with more problems they had no record of that. I saw the tech install the new box. I am giving them one last shot then it is back to Time Warner. But what a pain because I have to switch my email address again. I have of coursebeen told that 95% of the AT&T users are happy….I suggest they have a special phone line for those 5% that are having real problems. I have advised all of my friends not to switch to AT&T. My next step will be to offer my services to Time Warner in developing their next commercial. The sad part is I have been waiting for AT&T to arrive in our area. I read numerous articles prior to it’s intall in our area. It’s been one of the most disappointing purchases I have made. And the sad part is that no one cares. How very disappointing to have such a unreliable product sold from such a well known company. The Better Buisness Bureau should look into this. Oh and by the way it’s 5 minutes after the expected service arrival time and I haven’t heard anything from them!
I had U-verse and internet for three months (and liked it). After 5 days without service, they told me they will no longer attempt to resolve my issues and I need to FIND A NEW PROVIDER.
We had called for a service interruption, however the service came back on so we told them repairs were no longer needed. AT&T went ahead and DISCONNECTED our service so they could improve our signal. After a comedy of errors, they told me 5 days later that THEY WERE DROPPING US as a customer.
During those 5 days, their communication was horrible. I could list all the issues here and triple the length of this posting.
AT&T said that our signal was too weak and they should never have provided service in the first place. They also are telling me that the signal gets weaker because in the heat their lines stretch. I thought that was BS, especially with the cables buried – is that possible or are they making excuses???
My advice, if they tell you your signal is weak, do not get the service.
ATT U-Verse completely sucks, unwatchable, and I just canceled as well.
UnBEARABLE!
Obviously this is a blog for frustrated angry former and maybe even current Comcast & At&T employees. I want to say this: I am a Comcast employee. The difference is I am not angry. I have had customers curse at me, call me racial slurs, threaten to kick my a&& when they have no idea who or where I am. I thought it was so sad and I wanted to say, (God knows if I could hit the lotto and quit, I probably would) Get a book and read sometimes. If TV makes you this angry then I feel real sorry for you. However, I purchased my first HD television for Christmas of ’07. I work for Comcast but I moved to an area that is not serviced by Comcast, so I had to get Dish Network from At&T.
I’m not even talking about U-Verse. I am talking about sattelite TV with HD. It took 3 trips to get it right. I was patient because I didn’t want to sound like the customers that call me from 9am-6pm Monday through Friday. I have to admit that the customer service reps were friendly and the tech were nice. But this was an interesting reply from tech number 3.
Me: (Not mentioning I was a Comcast employee) I hope Comcast comes into this area because there is just some programming I’m not getting that I know is offered by Comcast.
Tech: Yeah I know, you and thousand of other customers can’t wait.
Me: I’m surprised to hear you admit that
Tech: I’m just telling the truth. It’s not big deal for me. I’ll just put in a resume at Comcast.
Me: Let me just tell you that I work for Comcast.
Tech: You do… Are you guys hiring cause this sattelite mess sucks
THIS IS A TRUE STORY AND NOT EMBELLISHED LIKE SOME OTHERS BEFORE ME.
Comcast was unreliable (cables all over poles, some cut), the wind would blow interrupting TV and Internet for two years running. Switched to UVerse and my internet average download speed went from 4.1 MBS to 2.8 MBS (that’s mega bytes) which is not a problem. Uplodad went from .364 MBS to .765 MBS. Smooth installation, great DVR, user-friendly remote, better picture, reliable phone service all for $35 less per month + $300 with intro specials and coupon. 🙂
Wow, I just had teh same experiance most of you have had. AT & T sucks and I switched back to TW/RR in Austin.
These are the same scam guys the gov. broke up 15 years ago.
Just don’t do it….100’s of calls and piss poor service. They are aweful.
BTW: The HDMI on the Motorola new 1200 series boxes does not work. No firmware update, nothing, just does not work. They don’t tell you that part.
lol…HD with RCA conenction…sucks…AT & T, what a bad joke…where is the FCC and BBB when you need them.
Well, given all the feedback here, mostly negative, i decided NOT to go with Uverse. I went back to DirecTV. Wow, they gave me some love…free HD for a year ($9.99 month), 12 month discount ($13 for 12 months); free DVR service (5.99) for 6 months; free premium tv package for 4 months ($104 x 4) if I bought NFL Sunday Ticket. So I did! Free installation. Oh yeah, I’m loving it!
Alright, I am back. As I posted earlier, I wanted to update everyone on my installation experience with Uverse, as well as the quality of a product that I received. I must say, so far I am actually impressed, although I do have some concern. I will start out with the installation process.
I got my service installed on Saturday morning Aug. 9th, with the tech scheduled to arrive between 8-10 am. I had my Time Warner cable disconnected and my tv’s accessible for the tech when he came. I received a phone call from the tech at 8:30 verifying that I was home, and telling me that he was leaving the garage and would be to the VRAD location in around 25 min to do some work there before he came, and that he would call me once he was done there and would then be on his way to my house. I received his call at 9:00 and he said he was all set at the VRAD and would be to my place shortly. Minutes later he pulled up. He was a friendly younger man, and was willing to answer all of my questions that I had.
One concern I had from reading this board was the distance from the VRAD to my house. He said that he did not measure the distance, but said it was less than a half mile from my house. I asked him where it was located, and he said he doesn’t think he was suppose to tell me exactly where it was located, but he did anyway. From my calculation, it was around a quarter of a mile away.
He went on to check my phone line into my house to see if it was good enough to use. He said that it was too old and that he would need to call another AT&T tech to drop a new line, warning me that this could take between a half to two hours. In the mean time he check the wiring inside my house to make sure that was good to use, and this was good. I asked installing CAT 5 wire was necessary throughout the house, and he said that COAX has enough bandwidth to carry the signal, and also warned that CAT 5 is unprotected and can pick up interference with other wires in the house. He did run CAT 5 from the signal splitter to my Gateway base station. The rest he ran through the COAX, letting me know that if I thought the picture was not good at the end, that he would be happy to run CAT 5, but that it would likely not be necessary. The second Tech came in around 1:35 minutes to drop the new phone line, which he laid across my back yard to be burried in a couple days by a third party that AT&T outsources this process to. (Being that today is only the second day since I got the service, I will let you know if that happens in a timely matter.)
After the new line was put in the original tech checked my signal and said that it was excellent, which I was very happy to hear. After that, he went ahead and connected the gateway and the three set-top-boxes in my house. When we went to turn on the TV and see if I was getting a signal there He ran into a minor snag, and needed to go back to the VRAD because the information he was given pertaining to my VRAD number was off by one, and he needed to head back to VRAD to switch this. (I don’t really understand this completely, but it seems as though this was someone above him giving him the wrong information initially, luckily for me he caught it.) This set the install back about 20-25 minutes, as he had to install a new gateway. After he did that, we tried to turn on the TV again and hoped that the signal would come through, and it did.
He then programmed my one HD TV set-top-box to 720p HD, and the picture was amazing. (I have a 42 in. 720p LG TV) Way better than what I had seen with Time Warner, granted all I had was the free local HD chanels with Time Warner, But NBC on HD with AT&T was so much more clear.
He walked me through a demo on how to use the TV and the remote and the features that it offered, he also set up my laptop wireless internet and showed my how to program my DVR from any computer with internet. (very easy and very cool). The internet was very fast, and I only got the hi speed pro.
At this point the Tech left and I was left to watch my awesome new HD picture. The total install took 6 hours from the time he first called me at 8:30 and left at 2;30pm,this was primarily due to the new phone line I needed to have dropped. While it took a long time I was alright with this, and would recommend anyone else looking to get this installed to find a good book to read, they are not lying when they say 4-6 hours is the average install time.
After I watched TV for about three hours, mainly the Olympics, but also flipping to other channels to see how the picture looked on some of my favorite channels, I ran into a problem. After watching TV for three hours without a flaw, my TV started to freeze and pixilate, primarily during quick movements on screen, while the sound stayed on just fine. I had read about this on this blog, as well as others, and was getting quite concerned. I didn’t call Tech support right away though, primarily because my in-laws were in town. After the whole screen and sound froze for around 20 seconds the glitches went away and the TV was excellent the rest of the night. The next morning the same thing happened again, short screen freezes with the sound still working, followed around 10 minutes later by a 20-30 second full screen and sound freeze, and no problems the rest of the day.
That is where my concern lies, if this only happens occasionally, and hopefully not even weekly, I will be okay with it, but if it continues to happen every day, I may need to cancel my service, although I am already hooked on NFL Network, I am excited to watch the Packers in HD on Fox this season, and come Wisconsin Badger football season, it would be hard to give up the Big-ten network.
So, my initial reaction is the technician that installed my house was very knowledgeable, and very friendly. The Standard definition picture is excellent on all three of my TV’s, HD picture is awesome (Although some concerns on reliability…see above). High speed pro may be slightly slower than road runner, but I didn’t feel like spending more for faster service, and this speed is excellent for browsing the internet and viewing videos on Youtube or nfl.com. All in all, I am happy, and I am going to return by STB and Modem from Time Warner Cable tonight…hopefully I don’t end up needing to go back if the minor problems I have experienced so far become major ongoing problems.
I will try to keep you updated on any big changes or continued concerns.
By the way, I have 2 HD streams and they sound like they are targeting year end for full home DVR.
Well my service day has come. My tech was two hours late…..bad start……he was at my house for nine hours….yep….NINE!!! hours…..I will say the blank screen on my TV is impressive though. He will be back tomorrow to as he put it “Try the last thing he can think of” which incidentally is to connect from the ATT box at the street directly to my house. Im not sure what in the hell he was trying to do today but he failed. I do have internet (obviously) my download and upload 10/1.5 are fairly close however my ping has doubled on the online game I love to play so basically the so called “fiber optic” internet is slower than my Time Warner cable internet. The phone works but frankly I don’t really care about the phone. I’m curious to see if the TV works. I feel like I was lied to by ATT. If you take a fiber optic line and at any point run it trough a copper line doesn’t that negate the fiber optic capability?? Oh at one point the tech wanted to drill into the side of my house (which is brick)um…..no? He also had no idea how to configure anything on my computer (I do so not big deal but what about all those people who don’t build there own computers.) This is starting to feel like a joke on my family and I.
Friends don’t Let Friends U-Verse!!!!
READ THE ABOVE!!!!
Never Even Got far enough to complain and yet I still have a complaint.
They will run a ‘Hard Credit Check’ on you without telling you!!! (This is illegal). Which WILL lower your credit score. When I called back to complain they sure did offer a $50 dollar credit card real quick (and try to sell me; cell phone service!!! geez), which I will call blood money for the 15 hours I spent on this already and the hit to my credit report.
I did not pass (720 FICO) , despite owning my home!, Despite having a phone and internet without a credit check for X years.
Lost: Hundreds of orders from people I tell my story to.
Byte Me – U-verse.
Cable Glad I Never Left Ya!
Regulated POTS – the crumbs of Ma Bell – Oh how I love you.
U-Verse is not ATT or Ma Bell – It’s like cell phones rules. Too Bad.
I USED to work as a prem tech. The service is shabby with channels that pixilate constanly for no reason at all.The system is extremely unstable. The voice service drops at least once a month. The CT garages forced all thier techs to work mandatory 6 day weeks( which usually ended up 10-12 hour days) On top of the exhaustion, I got to deal with all the problem customers, in which we rarely were able to fix their problems!! I eventually quit after the second line boss told us not to worry about quality, and just get the system into customers houses. “we can fix it later,” he said. They had techs from Ohio come to assist us, and they could care less about the quality of the installation, all they care about is how fast they can get it in!! I like to have a little pride in my work. If you hate the product like I do, warn your friends, an stick with the local cable company. It may cost a little more, but its worth it to not have to deal with the CONSTANT BS of uverse.
posted by Lynn….”Obviously this is a blog for frustrated angry former and maybe even current Comcast & At&T employees….”
Lynn, we don’t even have Comcast in our area. The only alternative it Time Warner.
I am a business owner and have never been an employee of any telecommunciations company.
I could care less about the tv. I run an international business, online, and HAVE to have excellent internet connection and service.
AT&T was promoted to me as being this super ultra-fast lightening speed connection and it is not. It is not any faster than regular DSL and AT&T support is horrendous.
In 3 weeks, we’re moving to Colorado, which I understand is heavily covered by Comcast. All I can do is hope it’s at faster than what I’m getting now.
Alright, so I have now had Uverse for just over two weeks. I am continuing to experience the screen freezing issue more frequently, especially over the last couple days. It is getting pretty annoying, but I have found that if I reset my gateway, the freezing stops….at least for a while. The freezing occurs almost every time I try to go on the Internet while watching TV, at which point the internet also doesn’t work very well and the TV is almost impossible to watch. I have been very patient, but will be calling Tech support this week to see what they can do. My guess is they will want to replace my gateway, but I have a feeling that all gateways are likely to experience the same issues. I still love to channel lineup, the DVR works great, and the HD picture is excellent (when not freezing). I will post again after I see what tech support can do for me.
Lets just say i work in customer service for a much larger international company. Sorry but most of the people that call in only either A speak not clearly for 1 hence why their phone automation system can’t hear the retard from bumtard Arkansas. 2 Half the customers that call in are pretty much retards that can’t find the source button on a Tv remote. 3 Most the people that call in think they are smarter than the agents that about the product they are assisting them with. 4 my god 4 The people they hire are probrably outsourced who cant usually not give a shit about the product they support but do. Saying AT&T makes numerous systems that you can use Cell phones, VOIP, Wireless Internet cards Dish Network, Uverse. No wonder why Comcast support is easy to get to what do they specialize in…. CABLE…. WOW big step for them.
The truth is with Uverse if you did any research you would know that these boxes use fiber optics. Wikipedia Fiber optics. My company specializes in making electronics. TVs,MP3, Blu ray players, Dvd players so my extent of knowledge of how this stuff works is pretty much qualified not to mention i did dabble in TIME WARNER which is considered a much better system than beloved COMCAST though they use the same cable boxes OH MY. People who post to the about some dumb issue they had such as the the video keeps freezing Call em Ask for a new box R-tard. Oh and by the way i get more calls about how much comcast doesnt work compared to how bad the Uverse system doesnt work. All i hear on the phone all day is people saying this Uverse system is amazing.
So enjoy your hunk of crap comcast system i seen it I had it PIECE OF JUNK. I now give my money to the UVerse system that i have had for over 6 months now. Record shows i set up on the internet because im busy helping Retarded people that cant find their ass where the source button is. You people think oh you work in customer service i make more money than you so there for i am just better. Thing is we are trained to know the product and to be able assist the customer. So yeah if you have had a stroke or 2 dont get customer support over the phone its called ONLINE SUPPORT THEY HAVE IT WOW. comcast where is it at? Oh not there.. SWEET!
So you can go cry hugging your 60 inch tv which is probrably not worth a crap because you cant find the source button. I think you need support for that too probrably so guess what gotta call us customer service agents that are supposed to what you will want to orally pleasure you at the cost of OMG you may return the product. WOW big deal most manufacturers MADE THEIR MONEY by selling to dealers.
You post is almost impossible to read. Please learn how to write using the English language.
Hey Trey,
Thanks for posting, you obviously have some serious issues at home to be so angry. What happened did your wife leave you for a comcast technical support technician, perhaps she even won the big screen HD in the process, or maybe as a kid you were taunted and called “retard” so much that you feel it is an appropriate word to use – it isn’t, unless you are a neanderthal who is trying to compensate for their own little cable package, if you know what I mean, and Trey I am sure you do.
BTW – couple things about technology, especially UVerse that you clearly do not understand. It is not the cable boxes that are causing issues with UVerse, and if there is an issue with the system there is no way to use the internet – the entire systems is down – so having online support does absolutely nothing since you cannot access it.
Trey I suggest you seek out a mental health professional and get the help you need, perhaps one who specializes in aggression.
You said it man. Trey is a douche. It’s funny how everyone gets so excited on postings. In any case, I’ve only had Uverse for a week now and I have had a few issues, but nothing major yet.
1. Wireless Gateway didn’t work, so we ran an ethernet cord directly to the computer
2. we had issues adding another wireless router, which connects to the PS3, but not the laptop for some reason
3. you can’t select to record a program from the room that doesn’t have the dvr
4. haven’t figured out a way just to review hd channels
5. doesn’t work w/ zone alarm
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions that may help any of these issues it would be much appreciated.
Hey KB,
Couple of comments:
1 & 2. My guess is that issues 1 and 2 are not related to AT&T and can probably be solved by someone who has spent some time configuring WAP’s.
3. Yep, sucks but you cannot program to record from the room that doesn’t have the DVR, but apparently you can program the DVR from an internet connection – never had a chance to try it though
4. You could add only the HD channels to favorites and I believe you can review only your favorites
5. When you say that it doesn’t work with zone alarm, I assume you mean that you cannot access the internet, again this is like 1 & 2 above and can probably be resolved with someone who has experience with personal firewalls
My 85 year old father finally signed up for AT&T service. So far it seems to be a BIG mistake. The technician arrived yesterday, did the intall for the 4 televisions and the internet. When attempting to activate the internet he ran into problems. It was the end of the day and the tech said he would return the following morning, today, at 8am. Well, at 10:30 we called AT&T and found no one was set to be there today. The best they could do is schedule someone between 2 – 4. So, we waited….at 4:30 I called AT&T and explained, several times, the problem. Finally a representative looked into the problem and after another hour on the phone it was arranged that someone would be at my father’s home tomorrow at 8am. They also took down my cell phone number stating that someone would call me to confirm this. Well, my goodness, here we are 6pm and guess what…no one called. So, once again, I have called AT&T and someone asked “How can I give you excellect customer service this evening?” You have got to be kidding me!!! Then to make it even better, there is NO RECORD of someone supposed to be calling me!! So evidently AT&T had no clue how to give “Excellent Customer Service”
If you ever find out how please let me know. My father still does not have his internet service, which he uses daily to communicate with his 83 year old sister and his 88 year old brother in Florida.
AT&T Uverse as well as AT&T Csutomer Service is the most horrible product and service I have ever had to deal with. Needless to say, we got SUCKERED to switching from Direct TV and that was a horrble mistake from day 1. It took 7 1/2 hours for the “tech” to do the install and problems from the beginning. Like everyone else the pictuer freezes or pixelates. We sunsequently had 3 other “techs” to fix it and same shit happened. I had one cs rep. tell me that the boxes have been sitting in storage and it would take a week and a half to get debugged…..what the hell excuse is that?
DONT USE AT&T. THEY ARE HORRIBLE AND UVERSE SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!
I had uverse for one day. What a mistake!!! They installed boxes on FIVE televisions and never told me that only 4 can work at a time and if you record you are down one per recording.
The worst part was that sent my bellsouth.net emails into cyberspace. I was portalled to att.yahoo.net and no emails to be found. According to Bellsouth DSL who were nice, ATT portalled me away from my bellsouth account. I could not access it from home or another computer.
Uverse would not answer my calls because I had cancelled my service and the system hangs up on cancelled customers. Bellsouth could not have access to the problem.
So all my business emails are gone forever. ATT answer was that is not our problem it is yours!!!!!
The one thing I would say for sure to ask is to find out how many HD channels is supported in your area. I left Time Warner for U-Verse and you can only record 1 HD channel and then can’t watch ANY HD channel except that one you are recording until its over.
They are apparently updating my area to support 2 HD channels but that is still behind Time Warner HD.
I was talking to a CS rep and they were working on my problem and while I was on hold I got disconnected. I called back and was on hold when I came across this website. Someone said to go to http://gethuman.com. I went there and found a another 800 # to call. After being on hold 41 mins I hung up and call 800-983-3091 and got an actual human in 1 min.
I agree, that the CS is not good at all and I have had several problems.
My experience with people who say Uverse picture quality is good, is that they do not have an HD set, or their HD set is less than 37″, or they are just not smart enough to know the picture sucks. All the Uverse techs could see my issues and indicated that is just the way it is and that’s why they don’t even use it.
Hello,
I just happen to hop on this discussion and practically went through 90 percent of the readings.
A little about myself, I work in technical support for a major cable company.
I live in the states, provide local support only as our company only provides local support for cable/phone and internet as well (however the lower tier seems to be outsourced)
I had to respond to Trev’s comment. One thing is obvious, you truly should not be where you’re at. Yeah I understand, and I know many people call in upset that they have no picture, and end up hating our company when its simply the source button, but majority of the time its the elderly.
And you really cannot blame them, one day you too will be old and will need help with something that you do not understand or grew up knowing, and a young fella will laugh at how ”retarded” you are.
Secondly, people have every damn right to be upset about a service they pay for.
They spend a lot of money, the hard earned money the consumers make and spend on cable products and what not is what gives your ”sorry ass” an income and without that you would not be able to even post here in these boards so please learn some respect.
Whenever I get an extremely irate customer who is upset that their services are out, and they hate it and are upset, 1) they aren’t upset at me, 2) they are paying for something that isn’t working. Again, they have a right to be upset.
Just take it easy and know they are only expressing themselves, and I suppose just as how you’re express yourself here. One difference, you’re not paying them, they’re paying you.
So love your job or leave it.
I love working where I work, I enjoy taking the calls, even the ones where they’re extremely irate.
Because I have been down that road of irateness with other companies whether it be cell phones, tv, internet or whatever, so I know and everyone knows the frustration.
So I take this oppurtunity to treat a person how I wished I could be treated.
I ‘ve been with my company for almost two years now, and not a call goes by that I don’t think that. So to all who receive poor quality customer service, I wish to apoligize and wish to thank you all for calling in, because if you did not call in or have problems for even the simplest things, I would be out of a job.
Thank You
AT&T (was) a good company… but HOLY CRAP does it take an ETERNITY to get a HUMAN on the phone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When you dial 1-800-ATT-2020….get ready for the automated circle-jerk..
Next…(after wasting 5 minutes of your life)….guess what you get a customer service rep that puts you ON HOLD for ETERNITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Waited 1 hr 15 mins 23 secs…When I finally got a HUMAN on the phone….they stated they are BACKED UP and will have a technician call me later in the day… WTF?!!!!!!!
Solution:
Googled Comcast for my area.
Spoke to customer service rep.
Ready to go in 5 minutes.
ATT = A wasTe of Time
Ordered and had U-verse installed last month (9-3-08). At first, there was alot of freezing. Called customer service and a tech arrived several hours later and fixed the problem. No more freezing and the picture quality over cable can’t be beat. I love the DVR features, and if you can get over the newness of this product, I highly recommend it. I saved alot over cable. For the price of U400 over the “silver package” of Comcast, your throwing your money away. Too bad the other comments on this website had some tough luck with it.
U-Verse –
Today is my 3rd installation of U-Verse, and it still has failed to be installed at my home. I live in Northbrook, IL, in a subdivision that has been newly introduced to U-Verse.
So far my history has been:
1. Interested in U-Verse, so I take off a day from work and schedule a tech to arrive. This is a Monday. The tech, Ryan, is very nice & knowledgable, and comes over to inspect my home and the VRAD. However he tells me he cannot do a thing because the VRAD is not even setup completely yet. Supposedly there is a piece of paper in the VRAD that says that the next day (Tuesday) the VRAD will be setup and have more work done with it. So, he tells me that he can schedule for someone to come out two days later, on Wednesday at a 4-6pm timeslot. So that sounds good and I wait till Wednesday. But AT&T has struck out in my book – their VRAD equipment is not even setup yet! Why sell U-Verse if it is not even setup in your area???
2. Wednesday – I quickly drive home early from work, and wait and wait, no one comes around. I call their Customer Relations Center, and they tell me that nothing has been scheduled. So CRC/dispatch (both are on the line) tells me that basically the tech totally dropped the ball, and on top of that, normally techs don’t do installs from 4-6pm, only repairs, and on top of that, the tech can’t in fact schedule a install date, only CRC does that! So this tech, Ryan, whose manager is named Don, was just irresponsible – either he has no authority to schedule jobs, or he completely forgot to get me scheduled. Either is unacceptable. So I schedule with CRC to come out yet again a week later, on a Saturday. Second strike in my book for AT&T, for having a tech saying something that is bogus.
3. Saturday, 1.5 weeks later (today) – I am scheduled for 12-2, and when 2pm hits, no one comes. So I call CRC yet again, who tells me that although CRC’s records say someone was supposed to come from 12-2, that dispatch has a tech scheduled to come from 2-4pm! Third strike AT&T, for letting me know this after the fact & keeping me waiting. While on hold with AT&T, the dispatch guy, Brian, finally calls me at 2:30pm at tells me that a guy is coming between 3-4pm. Great. So I wait till 4:30pm, and no one has arrived. So I call CRC yet again, and ask what is going on. I finally get a hold of dispatch, and they tell me the tech is running late, and will arrive at 5-6pm! So when the tech finally comes, he inspects my home, I once again show him the home and the coax cables coming into my home, and he walks across the street to the VRAD. He comes back 30-min. later, and tells me that the VRAD has some issues, and is not setup correctly! Fourth strike for AT&T… So basically I have to wait for these CRC guys to call me back again once the VRAD is correctly setup. What a total waste of time, I have been sitting home / waiting home all day. So I have probably over the last 2 weeks waited about 16 hours literally waiting for AT&T to show up, and when they do show up, their equipment is not in order so more time is wasted!
ADVICE FOR EVERYONE: don’t bother with setting up U-Verse if it is new in the area. Don’t listen to all the young kid salesmen walking in your neighborhood – wait another 6 months until other neighbors have suffered first with VRAD issues. On top of that, don’t fully trust the techs, make sure you ask the same question to Customer Service and the tech if you are unsure about something. Sometimes they will tell you anything (like Ryan in my case) just to be nice. But in the end you’ll suffer when your time is yet again wasted later. So these issues are in the Northbrook, Illinois area. If AT&T reads this blog and feels like contacting me regarding resolving these ridiculous problems, I invite them – my email is s p a m AT s n o w c l o u d DOT n e t, and I invite them to tell the general dispatch / general INR / MLAC technicians responsible for this suburb of Chicago (Northbrook) to get their act together, so that customer’s time is not wasted!
U-Verse –
Today is my 3rd installation of U-Verse, and it still has failed to be installed at my home. I live in Northbrook, IL, in a subdivision that has been newly introduced to U-Verse.
So far my history has been:
1. Interested in U-Verse, so I take off a day from work and schedule a tech to arrive. This is a Monday. The tech, Ryan, is very nice & knowledgable, and comes over to inspect my home and the VRAD. However he tells me he cannot do a thing because the VRAD is not even setup completely yet. Supposedly there is a piece of paper in the VRAD that says that the next day (Tuesday) the VRAD will be setup and have more work done with it. So, he tells me that he can schedule for someone to come out two days later, on Wednesday at a 4-6pm timeslot. So that sounds good and I wait till Wednesday. But AT&T has struck out in my book – their VRAD equipment is not even setup yet! Why sell U-Verse if it is not even setup in your area???
2. Wednesday – I quickly drive home early from work, and wait and wait, no one comes around. I call their Customer Relations Center, and they tell me that nothing has been scheduled. So CRC/dispatch (both are on the line) tells me that basically the tech totally dropped the ball, and on top of that, normally techs don’t do installs from 4-6pm, only repairs, and on top of that, the tech can’t in fact schedule a install date, only CRC does that! So this tech, Ryan, whose manager is named Don, was just irresponsible – either he has no authority to schedule jobs, or he completely forgot to get me scheduled. Either is unacceptable. So I schedule with CRC to come out yet again a week later, on a Saturday. Second strike in my book for AT&T, for having a tech saying something that is bogus.
3. Saturday, 1.5 weeks later (today) – I am scheduled for 12-2, and when 2pm hits, no one comes. So I call CRC yet again, who tells me that although CRC’s records say someone was supposed to come from 12-2, that dispatch has a tech scheduled to come from 2-4pm! Third strike AT&T, for letting me know this after the fact & keeping me waiting. While on hold with AT&T, the dispatch guy, Brian, finally calls me at 2:30pm at tells me that a guy is coming between 3-4pm. Great. So I wait till 4:30pm, and no one has arrived. So I call CRC yet again, and ask what is going on. I finally get a hold of dispatch, and they tell me the tech is running late, and will arrive at 5-6pm! So when the tech finally comes, he inspects my home, I once again show him the home and the coax cables coming into my home, and he walks across the street to the VRAD. He comes back 30-min. later, and tells me that the VRAD has some issues, and is not setup correctly! Fourth strike for AT&T… So basically I have to wait for these CRC guys to call me back again once the VRAD is correctly setup. What a total waste of time, I have been sitting home / waiting home all day. So I have probably over the last 2 weeks waited about 16 hours literally waiting for AT&T to show up, and when they do show up, their equipment is not in order so more time is wasted!
ADVICE FOR EVERYONE: don’t bother with setting up U-Verse if it is new in the area. Don’t listen to all the young kid salesmen walking in your neighborhood – wait another 6 months until other neighbors have suffered first with VRAD issues. On top of that, don’t fully trust the techs, make sure you ask the same question to Customer Service and the tech if you are unsure about something. Sometimes they will tell you anything (like Ryan in my case) just to be nice. But in the end you’ll suffer when your time is yet again wasted later. So as an fyi, these issues are in the Northbrook, Illinois area. If AT&T reads this blog and feels like contacting me regarding resolving these ridiculous problems, I invite them – my email is s p a m AT s n o w c l o u d DOT n e t, and I invite them to tell the general dispatch / general INR / MLAC technicians responsible for this suburb of Chicago (Northbrook) to get their act together, so that customer’s time is not wasted!
Look out: After I signed the contract, U-verse poached my phone number (without my permission) away from my ISP, Time Warner, before they discovered they couldn’t do an install at my house (older non-grounded electrical plugs). After the first failed attempt to install, during which the tech didn’t discover the problem, my phone service with my old ISP disappeared, rerouted to a non-existent connection. The second install attempt discovered the problem, ATT just said “sorry” and walked away. Now I’m without home telephone for two weeks while Time-Warner drags its feet getting my digital phone hooked up again, at an extra charge and in a more expensive package.
Nothing like being gang-raped by a couple of giant corporations.
Worthwhile noting that the poor UVerse tech was left on hold by his own company for over 20 minutes. It took me an hour (of cell phone minutes) to get anyone to complain to when I discovered my phone had been disconnected and re-routed into cyberspace.
A plague on both their houses.
Ramsey
COMCAST SUCKS IF YOU OWN A BUSINESS!!!!!
Well sir, we have a window open from noon until five.
And REST FKIN ASSURED, they will be there at 4:59pm.
So, expect to stay a while.
Your story has inspired me to wait for Uverse 2.0; they have been marketing that here in my area (just outside of Chicago) with promises of biblical proportion…I knew it was too good to be true!
I had a terrible experience with U-Verse also. They completely got our order wrong. Our technician installed the 2Wire box, but somehow, the customer service people missed that we ordered internet. They also installed the wrong cable (U200 instead of U100). When I called because the internet wasn’t working, I got the runaround for THREE DAYS until finally on Monday I was on the phone for 1 hour and 45 … only to be told that the reason the internet wasn’t working was because the order hadn’t been placed yet.
Then, when I was transferred to talk to the Customer Service people to place the order, after another 20 minutes, the CSR told me that they couldn’t place any orders because the system was down or something. Wow. Ok. Lame. Why didn’t you tell me that in the first damn place?!
THEN … later that same night … the cable just stops working. The picture freezes and won’t come back on. Ridiculous.
I have spent a total of 3 hours on the phone with U-Verse technical support due to U-Verse deciding how much of a show it is going to record, basically, the Tier 2 tech states that having more than 50 shows scheduled to record in the next 14 days is “excessive” and that the system is not intended to record so many programs. I did the math and their limit is a whopping 3.57 shows PER DAY. I cannot fathom who set this limit, but they should be shot. I changed over from DirectTV when I moved into a new apartment that does not have a southern facing exposure. I was wowed by the AT&T hype as to how great and cutting edge their product is, yeah, cutting edge….. I think I am going to figure out how to get DirecTV back or go with Comcast (I am guessing they have figured out how to record more than 4 programs per day)……
This is the worst experience I have ever had! I signed up with because of the great price as compared to Comcast. The salesman should be fired for all of the lies and promises he dished out. My service froze two weeks after it was installed and has never recovered. Customer service and tech support are of no help as you get transferred over and over again. So, tomorrow Comcast will be out the reinstall. DON’T SIGN UP FOR U-VERSE! Believe me, you will regret it!
Good info but were the racist, stereotypical comments really necessary?
Hey Asha,
that’s a new one – which race was I talking about?
very well written.
I thought they were supposed to come yesterday…..they showed up today…….while I was in the alley taking out the trash. Funny they didn’t wait around for more than three minutes.
The tech. left a voice message but even before that I received a message saying they were going to reschedule. When I called, they said I was sent an email reading it would be the 19th….but then there was a dispatch today….for some reason. Apparently they’re not entirely sure how things have been scheduled
Don’t get AT&T U-Verse…….This is strike #4 That’s right: this is the FOURTH time I’ve been stood up or rescheduled by AT&T for u-verse….they suck
U-verse is a company in witch everyone is trying todo somehing at the same time. If you call and the reps are busy THEY ARE BUSY!! be patient. YOUR NOT THE ONLY ONE CALLING!! try simple things to fix the problem, try unplugging the motem, and dont yell at the agent, that just makes it worse. explain the problem. when you yell at them it just makes the frustated, wheather you are yelling or not it will not change the ANYTHING they are able to do. if they can get a hold of someone THEY CANT GET A HOLD OF SOMEONE, just because you are yelling does change that. i have att -uverse and we have a had a few problems but thats lfe. i could not get a tech out for 2 days but im not going to get bent out of shape about it and neither should you… calbe broken WATCH A DVD!!!!! or matter of fact put an antena in and WATCH ZYOUR LOCAL CAHNNELS stop complaing so much. they are doing everything that they can do. respect that
Thanks for the blog – I was just going to order U-Verse tomorrow – this info may have just saved me some serious aggravation.
I hate this company! I have been dealing with u-verse for 3 weeks now. I have had 3 different tech out and I still am not up and running correctly.
The first 2 times a tech was out there was something wrong with the order. Then I had no incoming phonew service for over a week. Then i had no caller ID. I had my voice mail turned off so everything would go into my answering machine. I receive messages on the voice mail for calls that never even rang at the house. I was supposed to have a tech come out today. The now say it was canelled.
This sucks!
When are they going to figure out what they’re doing.
I have been told that someone would call me back. Never happened.
My parents just ordered U-verse in Michigan, and it has been a nightmare since day one. For 3 weeks they have had to deal with the TVs freezing up or the phone not working. The Red Wings hockey game will change jersey colors whenever it wants. They have had multiple tech “experts” at the house, and even a few area managers. The whole house has been rewired 3 times (the latest to cat5), and everything else has been changed. Still the same old garbage product. The bad thing is my mother has been an area manager with AT&T for over 30 years. If this is how they treat employees, then how do you think they will treat the general public? Don’t bother with this garbage service.
Just got U-verse installed today, in Wheeling IL
I have a Sony HDTV , that supports a 1080i picture
I dont like to spend a lot of money on cable, so I and am signed up for only basic service. Comcast’s basic service ($20) includes a few HD channels (local news etc) . The U-verse u-100 plan does not include any HD channels , you must pay an extra $16 a month for the HD package. So in order to get the full use of my 1080i capable TV , I called U-verse and signed up for the HD package. I had to reset the u-verseTV box , and then change the settings (aspect ratio to 1080) , and then the amazaing blue HD light illuminated. So how was it ? Simply, Uverse HD picture does not compare to Comcast picture, there is no question, none. The u-verse picture looks cheap, grainy, pixilated, and compressed, unsatisfactory. Also , the u-verse remote looks really goofy compared to Sony remote that came with my TV. OK, so maybe I am a bit over concerned about the appearance of my remote, but the u-verse remote really is UGLY, REALLY UGLY.
I am calling U-verse to come remove their equipment.
I called u-verse today and found out I can keep the home phone and internet for $60, and cancelled the cable TV service. Then I called comcast and cancelled my internet serivce , but kept the basic cable TV ($19.99). So after removing all my U-verse TV boxes, I reconnected my Comcast cable and am happy again with the excellent picture, it really is remarkable!
So I end up with
$19.99 Comcast cable
$30.00 u-verse home telephone
$30.00 u-verse internet
I am happy now, picture is great , and no more ugly remotes. The ATT home phone works out good for me becasue I have ATT cellphone service, and I dont get charged against my minutes if I call home , or vice versa.
I have been experiencing this “Freeze” issue from just about day one with my att uverse. This issue is actually the network itself. At the same time the telivision freezes my internet and phone go out. This is because the IP address to the gateway has been dropped. I call customer support several times a month to get this issue resolved. I really like Att uverse, it is new technology so i am giving it a chance. I just wish support would listen to me. The issue is not anything in my house as everything has been replaced and all my neihbors experience the same issue. I have tried to explain this but after 6 months this issue has not yet improved.
Thankyou ! I am so glad that I read this tonight. I was considering signing up with ATT&T U-Verse. Not now !
Funny, I had the exact opposite problems with Charter in St. Louis. Charter has absolutely the worst customer service of any company that I’ve ever dealt with. I’ve had U-verse for over a month and the customer service has been a breath of fresh air. The technician was able to get our service installed in less than three hours (in a house that never had cable or satellite service) and any questions that I’ve had have been answered by someone that actually speaks English and in a professional manor. U-verse is a new service, I’m sure there have been problems getting service in some areas, but my experience has been great so far.
Sad thing is … this is the exact reason I’m moving *away* from Comcast ASAP. Their customer service here in Houston is *horrid*. Even when you get a human on the phone, you get transferred from person to person, each time having to go through your entire problem, yet again. I got so fed up with the phone system that I went up to their office … *big* mistake. Nothing but Ghetto-fab employees, all of which must be two weeks after ovulating … even the males. At least their billing has been proper, aside from sending me two bills one month (two weeks apart … and I paid them both, not realising!) … At least my next month’s bill was already taken care of >_<
AT&T’s U-Verse simply put – is the worst entertainment delivery system on the planet.
It is completely unreliable when it counts most.
I would have to say that the most maddening thing is the need to explain on an individual basis – exactly what is not working and then be told how lucky you are to have such amazing numbers (from a diagnostic stand point) or we fixed the problem but don’t know what it was that could be causing said problem.
If you are thinking of signing up for this cluster f*%k of a internet/entertainment/communications provider, ask the hard questions. And at the end of that long conversation with a salesman who will promise you the world and even maybe want too sell you a bridge or two – “Just Say No”.
I wonder – is false advertising illegal?
I came across this thread and would like to correct some fallacies that have been put up. Let’s get one thing straight DSL has limitations for a reason. The reason being that the digital side of your “POTS” Plain old telephone system can only handle so much throughput/bandwidth. The throughput and speed is in mega”bits”/mbps not mega”bytes”/mBps which someone state earlier. Also, CAT5 has specifications for a reason and the so called Techs do not run it to its specification then you will have failures. Just some specifications: CAT5 has a max length per segment of 100m/300ft and regular CAT5 can not be buried underground. CAT5 UTP (unshielded twisted pair) is very susceptible to interference such as radio waves, emf, and other things you would not expect. So if U-Verse is trying to run over your old telephone lines then for get it. TVoIP takes up so much bandwidth that there is a reason it has not been in existence in 80% of the neighborhoods. With that being said if you do not have fiber to your premise and CAT5 run in your house forget it. As they ramp up the bandwidth, IE add more then one HD channel, you will see a huge degrading in your service and who wants to pay for something that does not work.
Okay, where do I begin with ATT? We sold our condo and moved, and asked them to transfer our basic home phone line plus our DSL service to our new address, to be completed by 11/20/08.
On a seperate scheduling basis, they “upsold” me to try out Uverse, and once I heard about all the features and fiber optic transmission, it sounded way better than Time Warner Cable, which I used to think of as sucking generally, but shines in comparison to ATT.
I was told Uverse would happen on 12/01, and that my other services would just cancel out once Uverse kicks in, with no conflicts.
Okay, neither of the original services (phone and DSL) were connected by 11/20. We called a total of 4 times, cycling through idiotic menus, waiting on hold with outsourced staff overseas, being re-routed to US operations and finally speaking with management, who promptly sent out a teck to connect our phone line – and had no answers about DSL, which still was not activated.
When I called back, I was told the phone service had been “escalated” and was already active. (Thanks Genius, I know that…) However, DSL is a WHOLE different department, and that by no means under heaven would the DSL line be activated until the 25th, but a request would be made to expedite just in case. Sure enough, it wasn’t on until the 25th.
Now, getting back to Uverse. On Sunday morning the day before our Uverse service was to be installed, at 8:00am no less, I got a mysterious phone call from Uverse customer service (actually, it was a vmail since I was sleeping like normal people do at 8 on Sundays) The tech on the Vmail stated: “This is ATT Uverse letting you know that we will NOT be able to install your new service on Dec. 1 as originally planned. This is due to a conflict with your DSL SERVICE(!!!) which can not be coordinated for un-install on the same date…” !!!)
Okay, this is after waiting 3 weeks for TV, since the earliest install date was 12/01.
And yes, our gut told us to avoid ATT like the plague due to pevious service issues, we should have known better….
I love my U-Verse. We had it for over a year and have had only minor problems.
Any time I have ever had to call customer support, I have reached a live person who has been pleasant. My issues were resolved promptly every time.
This is the only service (that I know of) where you can 1. set shows to record from the internet 2. watch recorded shows from any of your U-verse boxes in any room 3. record or watch four shows at one time. (By the way, the fast forward function has been corrected and the system will back up a smidge so you don’t miss any of your show) I think they are really working out those bugs that a new service usually has…(just look at how many versions of Microsoft products there are out there…)
We have also had Comcast (they bought out Time Warner in our area and service went from good to very bad) and Dish Network. With both services, we lost our signal every time the wind blew or a drop of rain fell from the sky.
The Comcast salesman came by last week and asked me if I’d like to switch. When I told him I had U-Verse, he said they couldn’t offer me what U-Verse was providing. To me, that speaks volumes.
It is ashame you have had problems, I switch to AT&T U-Verse over 3 months ago and have not had one problem. It has always been good. I had nothing but problems with Comcast. From reading different comments I think it boils down to the area your in and how well it is layed out and age of equipment. I am in Spring TX in I believe the Comcast equipment was old although getting updated as even tole me by Comcast workers and the New techniology of the Uverse System blew them out of the water here.
I had been an ATT customer for over 7 years. My DSL and phone went down and it took a week of phone calls to ATT to get it working. They refused to give me a refund for the down time. I continued to have widely varying DSL speeds and static on my phone line. The service tech said the line needed to be replace or repaired from the box to my house. It never worked right. I canceled the service. I got Comcast and it worked OK from the start. Acutally the internet really worked well – the rest of it was OK. Actually I use my TIVO to record programs – I am not a TV person and this worked just great. TIVO and their customer service is the best.
I decided to give ATT Uverse a try because of the refund offer and the $275 rebate. What a mistake…
The first installation appointment was in November. After sending me a PIN code I had to say to the installer to get my installation, He showed up at the house next to mine. Someone input the wrong address he said. He tried to change it and no one would. I heard him call the dispatcher telling him that they screwed up. He said they would call and reschedule for week week. No one called me.
I called ATT that week on the following Thursday after not hearing from anyone. I finally got a supervisor who said my install was “hanging there” with no one or nothing being done about it at all. She she I would have to start from scratch and that the install supervisor was available in the same office that day and she would get me another (close) install date right away.
She scheduled me for December 6th and said they would call to change the date. They never called. They sent me THREE pin codes for the installer.
The installer showed up on December 6th. After a short time he said it couldn’t be installed because the line to the house was messed up.
Can you believe this???
Anyway, I told him the drama that had previously occurred to date and somehow he got another tech out there to repair the line. He said that the last repair person had spliced three lines together to get mine to work.
(well that answers some questions about the random DSL speeds and static on the lines doesn’t it?)
He repairs the line and the install proceeds. They give me this large cable modem/router and the installer tells me I have to keep it on my desk off the floor because static electricity from the rug could damage the modem.
I think it is more like they want their large ATT logo in front of you on the desk.
7 hours – that’s right SEVEN hours later the install is near completion and the internet is on and they couldn’t get it working.
I finally got it connected and set up. The speed is 16000 KPBS. Comcast is at 17000 KPBS plus upload.
Then the TV didn’t work correctly. Only partial color.
The installer calls another tech. They replace the cable and it works. Finally something works correctly.
Then they go to port the phone number. As it turns out they cannot do that because there is a flood in St. Louis. He says they will call back on Sunday and get it straightened out.
No one calls on Sunday. I walk out of my house and notice that the instaler decided to run the CAT 5 cable around the frame of my front door instead of under the eaves where it cannot been seen as he promised.
In total disgust, I disconnect everything and reinstall the Comcast equipment myself. Everything is back to normal.
No one from ATT calls on Monday morning. I call ATT and the recording says they have a heavy call volume and to call back later. I call three times and finally get through.
After battling with the voice robot (ala the same as the original poster) I finally get thru to a human.
He is very nice and apologetic and says he cannot do anything because they cannot take or modify anything because of the St Louis flood issues.
(you would have to think that a giant company that overcharges people like ATT does would have enough money to have a backup server or two….)
A T and T is the worst and it is sad that I am forced to use them for my iphone. You can see why so many people want to jailbreak their iphones. As a side note, I have an extra iphone that I won and wanted to add a second line and they wanted a new 2 year contract and $60 per month more with anly a 100 minute added to my account. Are these people serious?
I tried to be objective here in this post and not let my emotions override the facts. While new technology is great, I would rather have outdated technology that works with good customer service and real people that take responsibility for their service commitments, actions and mistakes.
We have had uverse for about a month now and are calling tomorrow to get it removed. Everyday we are having problems with the television freezing and the recording on the dvr doing the same thing. With our Dish even if the dish was out we could still watch the dvr with the uverse if one thing goes wrong you are out of luck with everything. We are also having a problem with an echo throughout our house. If we watch the same program on mulitlple tvs and go from room to room no tv is running in the same time frame on tv is always a few seconds behind. When we told a csr about this they said they didnt see this as a problem and it could not be corrected. I cannot wait to get rid of this service and am telling my family not to bother with uverse. The money I would be saving is not worth the hassle of the daily problems we are having.
Hi Audrey
I’ve had uverse for about 3 months and I think I can explain the program echo/program time issue.
Each time an individual tv is turned on and the channel is selected, 1 video stream (of the supported 4 streams (2 HD & 2 SD or 4 SD) is being written to the DVR, and then read back for the display on that tv. This is where the first delay comes from. Write than read.
This approach allows each tv to pause, backup or move forward without effecting the videostream on the other tvs.
This is normal behavior for the way it is designed. Is it the best design? I don’t really know, but think not.
Your other issue is the true valid issue, TV freezing.
My first suggestion would be, with all equipment, tvs, etc turned OFF, unplug the main router and let it sit for a minute or 2. Then plug it back in and let it reboot (mine took about 5 minutes to fully recover). After 5 minutes, try one tv. If all is functioning, go turn on the next tv and so on throughout the house making sure all tvs work.
It’s BS that anyone should have to do this, but since the system is based on WindowsCE I’m guessing the there are some possible issues that cause the system to freeze and stutter. Coming from the Windows computer world, I’m used to restarting systems to fix issues like this.
If you still have picture freezing or sound drop outs after this “fix”, I’m guessing that this issue is related to the copper line coming into your house. There is nothing you can do to fix this but you can hope that ATT sees the problem and properly conditions the line to your house.
Having dumped Comcast due to picture and/or sound problems in addition to their pricing, I certainly understand your issues. I reported problems to Comcast for over a year and they could never fix the problem which brought me to Uverse.
Overall, after 3 months with uverse I see more good than bad. But the bad is just as annoying no mater who the provider.
AT&T SERVICE IS ALL BULL SHIT
A T and T Drama Part II
(read my previous post)
After I told A T and T I didn’t want the Uverse system anymore they said they would ship some empty boxes for me to pack it up.
The day after, I received a voice mail on my wireless phone saying that their system was back up and they wanted to make an appointment to set up the phone part.
(are we all in the same time continuum here?) I know I already spoke to them about this.
I called a special number the installer gave me and it turns out this is a number to call when all else fails. It’s called the “save desk” LOL. I spoke to someone called “Angel” – very nice lady. To make a long story short, she finally cancelled my service (I didn’t know I had any) and would see that I got a refund (never had or used any service as agreed) and they would send me some boxes to pack up my (their) stuff which I never signed for. Nor did I sign the completed installation sign off because it was never completed.
She then told me I would be charged $450 if I did not returnthe equipment within 21 days od yesterday. She said it would “take a while” to send the boxes because of all the issues with the St Louis office servers going underwater.
Well, we’ll see what happens next. I have to wonder if these people who work for A T and T have any way to communicate with each other.
I just converted from Direct TV to ATT UVERSE and can not believe how poor their Customer Service is. I ordred the entire package (U400 tv, Phone & “Elite” internet). The installer was supposed to show up between 8-10 and finally showed up at 11:30.
This was on Monday 12/8/08. When he left all was good, he told me that my phone was not going to be switched over to VOIP and was going to stay on the POTS side due to the St Louis flooding issue and the problems with the Granite System and that they would contact me to come in and finish the wiring and move it over.
It worked fine on Monday. On Tuesday I could only call out and could not recieve calls, I called Customer Service and was told that they could not come to fix my issue until Monday the 15th (A entire week later)…NICE…. I asked to speak with a manager and was put on hold and after 20 minutes was told that a manager would call me back.
It’s now 2 days later I HAVE NOT RECIEVED A CALL BACK FROM A MANAGER AS THEY STATED THEY WOULD DO.
Now my phone will not call out or recieve calls I hope I do not have a emergancy where I have to call 911……IF I DO, AND CAN NOT, I WILL OWN ATT AFTER THE LAWSUITS……..Then you can all call me for customer service and the service guys will be there that same day………..
If you told them you could not receive incoming calls why/how could the manager call back?
i have had att -verse 12/26 of november we have tried to get them out on a service call for five times each time they scheduled it,but didnot show , but each and everytime they were welling to say they were sorry, and lied to us about another service call . att has very bad service what is here reason for lie/ing and bad service a description of service very bad center columbusicc 11 nov 2008 asgn / dewayne h williams columbus ohio
Wow! We are not alone! The problems are still lingering now a year later and I wish I had done more google searching before I tried this. And it’s mostly due to corporate or whoever trying to get the phones switched over and I’m not even sure why we need VOIP! We have been working on this for THREE MONTHS. My husband wanted to cancel 3 weeks ago but I didn’t want to go through all the crap to go back to old providers, but now I think we’re going to after another failed attempt today! It’s beyond ridiculous and I don’t think you can try harder to actually lose business on purpose.
BTW, I got to this post by searching “att uverse sucks” b/c I’m beyond frustrated, but the technology is actually really good, but you can’t get beyond the service.
Frustrated in Ohio
Uverse is trash, just told I can only watch 1 high definition tv in my house at a time, I have 3 hd televisions and 3 children. Just told by a friend all service calls are chargeable to the customer, I had bright house and was never charged for anything.
Will be switching back during the free trial period….sorry bright house!
I am on day 5 with no internet or television service after AT&T disconnected Comcast but couldn’t complete installation. 3 missed service calls later (they never called to advise they weren’t coming … just didn’t show up) and I’m about to take a sledgehammer to their boxes. haha Okay, I’m not, but it sure would make me feel better.
Apart from a letter to the BBB and the FCC, is there anything you could suggest? Oh, and I’ve been paying for Comcast’s services since this debacle began … it’d sure be nice if they’d just come back out and “undo” their damage, but “we don’t do that. You’ll have to call Comcast.”
Signed … UGH
So I took the bait and signed up for uverse a month ago. A friend of mine warned that he signed up, but when the tech arrived it was discovered that uverse was not available at his house. So I have called 3 times to verify that it is available at my house. The tech showed up today ( an hour later than scheduled ). He spent time getting everything setup and ready to go ( 2 hrs ). Then tested the line, no dice. He had to put in a help ticket and we waited an hour for another tech to come out for assistance. Well, it turns out, uverse is not really available at my house! This company sucks. Not to mention that my land line was canceled as was my DSL since I was getting uverse, oh and my cell service was designated to be canceled as well ( why? I have no clue ). So the tech leaves and I have no DSL, no Phone, and no Cell phone. I can’t even call AT&T at this point. So I have to get in my car and drive to an AT&T store ( luckily there is one a couple miles away ). Well, at the store I am on the phone with AT&T for 3 hrs! I talked to 30 different people and nobody could understand a frickin thing. Well 5 hrs later I now have the services I had yesterday. If I didn’t have to have a land line for my alarm and satellite ( which thank god I didn’t cancel ), I would drop at&t completely. This company is so f*cked up I can’t believe it.
If you can’t map your own printer you shouldn’t have one. If you are that big of a numb nuts, call your printer company. It’s unreal what customers think they are entitled to!
As for Uverse. It doesn’t work because they do not have a quality department that insures your services are working locally. Their phone tech support is your quality. And those poor suckers are going off tools on their computer that work on resistance from far far away. Their tools aren’t even that accruate. The feild techs are not capable to do quality installs 35% of the time. The product is STILL IN DEVELOPMENt!
OH and BTW AT&T only hires Contractors to do their Tech support. They are currently training cheaper people in the Phillipines to do their work. By Training them… 5$ an hour to pretend they understand you, they are saving a bundle. This product is garbage they treat their employees and contractors like garbage…. get ready for the phillipines
I would just like to take a moment to reply to Lynn from July, who said, in part:
Lynn
… Get a book and read sometimes. If TV makes you this angry then I feel real sorry for you. …
Lynn, I use my television and internet (both of which have been unavailable for 5 days) for NEWS as well as entertainment. With the state of the country (and, well, the world), I should hope that many of us would have an interest in what President-elect Obama is doing, how the uncertainty of the stock market is robbing me of my retirement, whether or not “The Bailout” is taking place and where the funds are being allocated. I think it’s a little unfair of you to presume that not having television or internet service for days and days is such a trivial inconvenience.
Oh, and as for U-Verse … Comcast arrived a few hours early today and has re-connected my home service. Goodbye and good riddance, AT&T!!
Ignorance is bliss… living the american dream thinking everything is as easy as flipping a switch. In one you want at&t to be a huge company in next you complain because it is one… My suggestion is to smile, go into your local at&t store so they can solve your problem for you… there is something you cant go to dish for or comcast.. maybe thats because its this big evil empire…
maybe we are just jealous we didnt start the company… try smiling… it makes life easier
I too have had problems with AT&T! I just signed up for their 200 channel TV package and internet which was supposed to be 6.0Mbps! I’ve been getting dialup speed since I got it a week ago. Yesterday I had had enough and called customer service. Upon speaking with the rep, my service magically started working just fine and I was told everything is as it should be and if I want more support I should pay for it! I refused to pay to get my service running as it should and hung up. I called back immediately since my service once again sucked as soon as I got of the phone and actually got a rep who would listen to me. Long story short, they figured out that there was a problem with wiring in my house and sent a repair man out. The repair man just left a few hours ago and I’m having the same issues again.
Short story long, don’t get uverse! Although I hate Comcast as a company they’ve always given me more than I’ve paid for! AT&T seems to want to charge me extra to get WHAT I’ve already paid for! I hate them already and I’ve only been a subscriber for less than two weeks. Do yourself a favor and don’t get Uverse!
ATT should give everyone a discount of 30 to 60%. That is the amount that my family and I are dissappointed with the pixelization, the frozen screen – making watching TV at our house pretty impossible. We have 3 boxes and a wireless router. But I miss cable. Even Satellite didn’t mess up the video like this “fiber” so called superior service. Its really copper – they just lie – hey, its an American company.
I can’t believe people put up with it. Too bad too, if it worked – it would be the best service. Their implementation of DVR is great, being able to watch the shows recorded on 1 box, watching from another. You need this as when the live tv starts to freeze, you can watch the pre recorded shows.
It seems bandwidth limited. Over thanksgiving, they offered free on some premium channels, but that meant at my home, nothing at night was viewable – well sometimes ok but video refresh every 3 seconds seems like 1948 not 2008. If this IPTV is our digital future- I want analog back!
And the FCC thinks this is better and are forcing all of us dummies to go digital.
Wow! I must be a rare breed. I’ve had Uverse for a year today. And it has been completely flawless, except for one instance when the wireless quit working. Hard reset of the gateway took care of that. I’m a PC hardware tech, and that time I had to call support, I did lay into the first level person I spoke to. He was less than helpful. When I asked to speak to a mentor, I was put on hold. While I was on hold I reset my gateway, and all was well. The second level tech could actually see the problem I had experienced before he took the call. My experience was good with the second level support person. Level one support, well……..I expected more, but maybe it was because I was probably more knowledgeable about their equipment than he was. Overall, my Uverse experience for the past here has been superb!
Guess I should add that my installation went very well. The installer was here on time. It did take him 11 hours, but made sure everything was right! Three TV’s hooked up via coax, and two with CAT 5. Cables I had strung across bedroom floors upstairs when I had Comcast are now hidden in the walls thanks to the AT&T installer. I am paying $30 less a month for much more. With Comcast, I had Basic cable and internet. Was paying for cable on one TV. I had to run the cables for the other four. HDMI cable works perfectly fine as does the fiber optic audio. I’ve had my HDTV hooked via coax and CAT5. Picture quality is still superb at 1080i. I’ve referred seven friends and relatives to Uverse. They all love it. And they all used to be Comcast customers. I will say AT&T’s referral program is a joke. I’ve referred seven, been paid for one. But, that’s another story…..
sorry, but I also have to join the group of happy campers here and say that my install was a breeze as well.
8am appt, he called at 810 saying he would be here in 20 minutes, and he was.
Took him 8 hours, had a couple trips into my attic, ran cable inside and out, and everything has worked perfectly for over 3 months now, although a couple of times I have had to reset my Gateway, and I have had to restart the boxes on occasion.
ALL my calls and experience with their Customer Service has been good, especially when dealing with Tier 2 folks.
Supposedly they are raising some prices on Feb 1st, so that’s not a good thing, especially for a new service.
Ready to switch back to Comcast. Switched to U-Verse in August — took the tech 12 hours to install. Issues arose about 1 month after. A couple of different techs came out — one of the problems was due to the line being deisconnected (they blamed Comcast since that is the predominant provider here in mycommunity — SW burbs of Chicago). Other issue cannot be resolved — timing out of box after tv is on for 7 hours.This typically does not provide an issue since rarely do I have tv on for that long at once, but, if affects the timing of the tv that I have set to come on in the a.m. as a supplement to my alarm. After doing an on line chat with their Support deparment was told this is a design issue — boxes automatically time out. Now, since Dec. 30th the main tv is constantly freezing. A tech is to arrive on Sun Jan 4th to resolve (supposedly). Have tried all the steps they outline to resolve — if you catch the freeze quick enough my changing channels that works some of the time. Otherwise, you go thru unplugging and replugging the main box or Gateway. Other tvs work fine — only main tv. A hint — I only tried their 800 number once with the same frustration of not being able to get thru — if you go on line and do a “live chat” they are very quick in trying to assist.
One more comment — no issues with internet and I have 2 desktops set up plus using a wireless lap (reason for all the typos above — small keyboard). Also, have used AT&T phone service (thru them or their other companies for over 30 years). Only issue there was a misquote of plan price. I was told to come back after service was installed and a credit would be issued for $10 month – 1 year (signed up at a store). Needless to say, even tho I went back and that was to happen — it never did.
As I was sending this, another freeze on tv. Oh, well!
LMAO! Man, I wish I would have read this a few months ago. I signed up for ATT U-Verse, shortly after getting an iPhone… another mistake. I too have always been against ATT for their poor (customer) service and service in general. For some reason I thought things would have changed when I signed up a few months ago. I am in Southern California, the service is new and it sucks! I have had more than one phone experience as you mentioned above and reading through yours made me laugh…. sadly, I then noticed the date of your post! *shakes fist, bangs head*
*Calls U-Verse to cancel TV service*
Currently have Uverse bundle(phone, TV, and highspeed). The whole system is down and they wont send someone out until 3 days later – WTF. The phone line is down and is causing the other two services to go down. What a brlliant system. I’m totaling cut-off from the world. No phone, tv, or internet. I’m currently, using my neighbors pc to complain. Directv here i come.
I saw an installer outside my neighbors installing Uverse so I quizzed him on all the problems I heard about the service (freezing up, poor video, etc…) he told me that we would not have to worry about it since there is a fiber optic line just across the street but he has had these problems when the line is much farther away. I decided to try it out as I wanted at the extra features and I couldn’t be happier. I used the installer’s advise and went to att.com/referrals used code PA1414428 then use promotional code “EXTRAGIFT” on checkout which gave an additional $25.00 cash back ($200 already by signing up online) then before finishing online order went to “Chat” at top of page and told them my neighbor got an additional $100.00 cash back for ordering the same day which they added at end of order so I got a total of $325.00 Cash Back for ordering online. Way better than the deals at AT&T stores or the kids coming to the door (no cash back).
Service is awesome, picture is great and don’t forget to watch mail for the cash back cards as they look like junkmail and I’m sure many people have thrown them in teh trash without opening them. I love being able to go online from work and schedule shows to record (I never miss a football game now because I’m running late or forget to record it).
I’m not sure what to do now; U-Verse is new to my area– and brand-new to my apartment complex. My installation date is scheduled for the 1/16, but after reading all these comments (and ones elsewhere), I am definitely having second thoughts. The negative comments outweigh the good. I live in an “older” studio apartment with only one phone jack and one cable jack. I can just imagine all the problems they may have with installation because of old wiring, etc. If they use my phone jack instead of the cable one, it as at the other end of the apartment and nowhere near where the TV is located. And the U-Verse rep told me their main box or whatever is located on the corner across the street, but I see techs out there working on it nearly everyday of the week, both during the day and after dark. Are they are repairing it?
The bottom line is I wanted to switch from Comcast because of the savings and the rebates that U-Verse offers (was told I’d get a $100 check, $100 off first month’s service and $20 off a month for six months), but I cannot risk the installation going bad/not working and messing up what I already have. Nor do I want to worry about all this freezing and stuff. If things go wrong, I cannot be constantly taking off work for techs to come out and fix things. I cannot risk having a bunch of TV/Internet problems. Maybe I’ll wait until U-Verse gets more established in my area and the bugs worked out. I heard there were a couple other tenants in my complex who recently switched to U-Verse, but of course they can’t tell me who so I can ask how their service is working….
This is so unbelievable..!!!!!!! Had Uverse added to home Oct9th of 08. Found it strange we were not recieving a statement….. Logged into the account,, AND the account already exists to a family in Texas…… WE HAVE THE SAME ACCOUNT NUMBER!!!!!!!! Spent hours on phone with no solution…. Support had No idea what to do!!! I asked “Can’t you just change my account number”?? They said No, that would be impossible……. :-0 They suggested I change I change my email address…… Like what the &^%& would that do?? They were suppose to call back and never did… Tv has issues…….. laggy,, INT disconnects repeadedly.. But what can I really complain about?? Im not paying for it???? Totally BIZZARE
I’ve had U-Verse cable and broadband service since late July. Very, very happy with it. It’s amazing technology. Have recommended it to many others.
My installation was supposed to last for 5-6 hours, but he was through in about 2.5.
Have had a few time where the TV froze up in the first few months of service. But haven’t had any of those problems since they updated the entire system in late Sept. And they’ve done several other updates since them. Service just continues to get better and better.
The few times I’ve had to call customer service, they’ve been friendly, chatty and very helpful.
Sorry others are having problems.
I’m in LA, if that makes any difference.
Oh, and for the first month, I kept my Time Warner service too. Did this just in case I didn’t like the ATT U-verse. Often compared the picture quality between ATT and Time Warner. ATT was always the better quality.
I had a very terrible experience ordering AT&T UVerse. The way I was treated was so bad that I recently canceled my order.
My scheduled installation date was Friday Dec. 26th, 2008. I took off of work and stayed home all day to wait for the installation. Nobody had contacted me about a time-window, so I called (30+ minutes of hold time every time I called) and was told that it was coming later that morning. That day came and went but no installer showed up. We re-scheduled a window for the next day, Saturday Dec. 27th 8AM to 10AM. That time window also came and went with nobody showing up. I called and received a new window noon-2PM. I waited at home, nobody showed up. We rescheduled for Wed. December 31st, 8AM-10AM. Nobody showed up. I called and received a new window noon-2PM. I waited, nobody came.
I wasted three days waiting on five time windows for an installer who never showed up! Screw AT&T.
After tonight, I needed the comic relief that this blog has given as well as the knowledge that I am not alone. I really hate Uverse. This is my first switch away from analog (and still using vcr’s). We changed because Comcast was taking away channels (making them digital) and raising prices. I have spent hours on tech support for both TV and phone since installation. But tonight was the last straw.
I came home from work with no TV at all. Some may say get a life, but I am very pregnant, my husband lives 200 miles away, and all I wanted tonight was to veg-out. I am reading the James Bond series. I would like to see him take on ATT .
I read all of the comments above. Some give great tips. But I shouldn’t need tips, advice, or a degree in computer networking to watch TV.
As many of you mentioned, customer service is very bad and the service is beyond buggy.
AT&T should be ashamed of themselves. I’ve been taken by capitalist pigs. Luckily, I will lose a lot less than those taken by Enron, AGI, Lehman, and the like.
I will be switching to something else. Probably Comcast.
Please pass on my outrage: UVERSE IS THE WORST SH@&!
We have had nothing but problems with the UVerse service, the constant picture freezing, the pixilation, the skipping and the latest, the DVR erased all the recordings and won’t record anything. I have had six service calls, three of those no one showed up, I had an appointment for Saturday between 12-2 no one came got a call from att at 4:15 that they were running an 1-11/2 late, got a call at 6:49 they weren’t coming but they would be here tomorrow. Sunday my appointment time is between 12-2 at 1:00 I got a call they were running 1-1 1/2 late at 4 I got a call they were running an 1-1 1/2 late at 6:15 I got a call they weren’t coming but would be here first thing Monday. Monday between 8-10 I get a call at 9:15 they are running an 1-1 1/2 late tech shows up at 10:10, I was told he would be an INR guy, a line specialist, he wasn’t but he did call one we waited over an hour for him. He was here for 3 hours replacing the splitter and some of the lines inside the house everything is working. 8:00 last night picture freezes for over an hour the few programs that are on the DVR are gone and we can’t record anything.
They really don’t know what they are doing, I had Comcast previously and they had gotten to be so expensive I was really excited for this service. This is ridiculous! I have to cancel!
CAN YOU SAY CLASS ACTION LAW SUIT.
I am filling a lawsuit for illegal billing.
I have spent hours each month and basically had to force them to pay out on the promises of rebates
Ms. Barker from AT&T – we will change your bill and correct the fees if you set up automatic bill pay.
I hate ATT and that is why i have held off on an iphone.
Cant’ wait for the day that APPLE breaks it’s contract with ATT.
No response from AT&T
Mr. Graver,
When are you going to give us the courtesy of answering our complaints given by phone and emails for the last 2 ++ weeks. Re-read the following message we started leaving on January 14, 2009′
Susan Baker Redfield:
Hi Dan Graver,
I left a phone message for you @ 7:36 am @ 517 334 3513.
Just wanted to put it in writing.
About 12-13 hours ago, Mr. John Borton all but finished installing our Uverse package. As far as we can tell, he did a great job. He was personable and very helpful in every way.
Before he left, when he gave us a very thorough demonstration of how all things worked, we realized that we had less service than with DishNet.
We, this AM, consider it a definite step down in service…very inconvenient and cumbersome for more money.
We now know that we have only TV watching service upstairs where with DishNet, we had the ability to record and delete etc…, Uverse can do none of these things in our upstairs unit.
Apparently the ATT machine can’t handle what the DishNet did.
Also, on both TVs you cannot jog back live TV, Dishnet can…
Also, 2 out of 3 times when you change the channel, you also have to go through 12-20 clicks to adjust the aspect ratio and when you return to the channel you already adjusted it on, you have to adjust it again. It seems to be designed so you won’t use it because it is so very aggravating; practically every single channel change.
Also, this morning I went to switch channels for the news and it told me something like I had too many HD channels going and I would have to cancel something. Huh?
We do not have HD so HD channels are not chosen by us, they just happen to be.
Dishnet let me do all of this without a hitch and did not put these unnecessary stumbling blocks in our way.
As it now stands, when we retire to the upstairs, every recorded program we watch, we have to write down and remember to bring them up in the morning, on the set downstairs to delete them.
Dishnet was never like this
In short, we realize now that we were oversold by three ATT door to door salesman before we bought,did not have the proper information to compare, otherwise, by the above comparisons in only 3-4 hours usage…it is clearly difficult to see how anyone could choose Uverse.
Once again, John Borton represented ATT in very qualitatively and this should in no way reflect on his work.
Please send someone out and restore us to our original, much better service as soon as possible.
Thank you for any and all considerations.
Clayton Redfield and
Susan Baker-Redfield
My wife is at home this very minute trying to get at&t internet service so that we may have the pleasure of telling comcast to go “F” themselves. She’s crying because everytime she talks to someone in Mumbai or wherever their call center is, she ends up getting disconnected midway through explaining her scenario. This has happened three times. None of these people know what to do…and to top it off…can’t quite grasp the English language. They’ve managed to get our comcast service completely screwed up (now non-existent). We don’t have internet service. Someone here at work tells me it took him two weeks to get internet service through AT&T (I won’t dare tell my wife this since I’m afraid she’ll burn the house down).
Bottom line – all these communications companies can’t seem to communicate. They ALL SUCK. Each and every one of them. They are lucky. I miss the days where TV was free (commercial advertisements paid for the programming). That made complete sense!! Now these companies get ad dollars for programming and they get big dollars from consumers. I don’t have one movie channel, and I pay big money. My internet service is down about 10% of the time (of course when I need it most for work). AT&T and Comcast are swindling, snake oil salesmen who can stick their service in their hole. Customer service in America is non-existent…and I swear these corporations have old Soviet Politburo hacks running them.
@Tom,
“Customer service in America is non-existent…and I swear these corporations have old Soviet Politburo hacks running them.”
You know that is the part that burns me up the most, I can understand issues with new technology, I can even understand that it takes them multiple installs to get it semi-working, but the customer service is so bad and non-existent that is just completely undermines everything else.
I saw the Uverse commercials on TV and my interest was piqued. Mostly because of the total home DVR deal. I though that was pretty cool. So I order up the service, and I’m told it;s gonna take roughly 3 weeks for the install to commence. I thought, wow that sucks, but hey whatever.
After signing up and during the time I was waiting for the install I jinxed myself. I hopped online and read more about UVERSE and I am not exaggerating one bit when I say I DID NOT find one positive review. Anywhere. Whether it was Uverse in California or Connecticut, everybody had bad stuff to say. So needless to say I got nervous. I was coming from Cox, who I had numerous issues with (digital cable going out, internet not working, my phone locking itself out….not to mention my $137 monthly bundle was over 200 each of the 3 months we’ve been in our new house). So I figured why not change providers. But the talk of bad picture, slow internet, freezing boxes just turned me off. I had also found out in my research that you needed a box for every TV, I assumed you could just wire coax to the TV. So I call the customer service folks before my install date (after reading about the must have a box issue) and they say they can’t modify the order without terming the install date. In a nutshell they say we can change your order to include 5 boxes instead of 3 but your install will be pushed back another 2 weeks. Or keep you install date as is and just tell the tech when he arrives you want to make the changes and he’ll take care of you. I just got a bad taste in my mouth right from the start….and what started as excitment about uverse changed to guilt…cause I sold my girl on it and bragged to everyone I know that I was getting this awesome new cable system and all these movie channels ETC.
INSTALL DAY: I had taken a vacation day. But a work emergency forced me back to the office and my woman was left home to deal with the install. They show up, they say my house is too far from the junction box so I might not be able to get UVERSE period. The guy calls me at the office and says he’ll call his boss and see what his boss says. An hour passes, 2 hours pass I call home and my girl says “he’s still sitting in his truck in the driveway.” Here we go.
Another hour passes and the tech calls me from my house. He says his boss gave him the OK to do the install because the signal strength looked “ok”. I decided to let him go forward with the install cause I thought there’s no way things could have gotten any worse than they were with Cox.
The tech calls me midway through the install, we start chatting about technical stuff, he says I will only get 720p presentations through the box and that HDMI won’t make the pic any better….he basically told me everything I didn;t want to hear. But it was too late. I already told him to start the work. He wraps it up and my girl calls me with the news that he’s done. She doesn’t know much about techie stuff and she gave me an “ehhh, it’s ok I guess” when I asked her what she thought.
I get home expecting the worst. Let me tell you….ALL OF THE INTERNET POST WITH ALL THE TERRIBLE HORROR STORIES COULD NOT BE FARTHER FROM THE TRUTH!! I AM 150% ABSOLUTELY IN LOVE WITH MY UVERSE.
Only 720p? No. There’s an option for 1080i right there on the box settings. And let me tell you, having had Comcast in Cromwell and Cox in Glastonbury just before switching to AT&T, I speak from experience when I say the HD on UVERSE is just as good, arguably better than either of the other providers I’ve had. The video on demand service is quick. The all home DVR technology is awesome. I cna play games on my cable box using my remote control. Customer service so far has been impeccable. I had a router set up for my PS3 and laptops with Cox. The ATT guy disconnected them and left paperwork with SSID and WPA Keys for me but they were wrong. I called cust service and I was on th ephone for a total of 5 minutes….and they gave me all the info i needed and i was running wireless in my house ASAP. The phone is great, clear, no drop outs. Internet isn;t super fast, but I didn’t purchase the super fast level….just enough for what I do online (shop amazon, surf pRon lol, read news, download music etc….). Also there were reports online that you could not get PPV. Not true, we watched GSP beatdown BJ Penn this past Saturday in beautiful HD.
I felt kinda like I had to post just in case there are other people out ther elike me who are on the fence or get discouraged about all the bad reviews. I’m not saying everyones experience will be like mine, but for anyone on the fence out there might as well give it a shot. I AM 100% SATISFIED WTH ALL ASPECTS OF UVERSE SO FAR. I WOULD HIGHLY RECCOMEND IT TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY IF THEY WERE INTERESTED. GOOD LUCK OUT THERE!!!!
oH YEAH PS….the tech instaleld the 5 boxes versus the 3 just like the rep at athe call center said he would. I wasn’t counting on that one to happen…..you know how that works….”oh yeah he’ll do it when he gets there.” Then he gets there and says “Oh no we can;t do that, they shouldn’t have told you that, they know better.”
I’m real happy, give it a try folks. NO!!! I do not work for At&t!!
I have worked as tech support then a escalation supervisor for ATT. Frankly the service is a peice of crap….why?….because they get cheap where it counts…..Instead of running fiber optic to your premise they run copper coax 93% of the time. and they offer a 18Mps internet speed…..This is the biggest false statement…….to get 2HD and 2SD you have to have a 25Mbps line profile guess what it takes up 19.6 Mbps for the 2HD so that leaves you with maybe 5 Mbps …..so sales will sale 18Mbps to you knowing they cant possibly meet even 6 Mbps which is the elite speed…….Oh yeah did i mention since you have coax from the neighborhood connection “a DSLAM” they run fiber optic to it but not to your house…so how far can you get service from DSLAM 3000ft anything past 2200 and you can kiss 2HD goodbye….but wait theres more…..they will change your line profile manualy and give you a setup that connection can not handle……..YOU guessed it horrible internet speed and picture freezing is the outcome……..The contractors they use 60% of them are useless……..they leav you half installed or they cause property damage. NO JOKE we had one where lady said installer was pissed and grabbed her lil dog and left. The tech support for 11pm- 7 am is outsorced to the phillipines…….when you get them they tell you alot of incorrect info and say they will send techs out and never do it……trust me that center makes It a pain for the supervisors who take supervisor calls. Let me put it this way If you get uverse you will not have a working TV or phone for a week 70% of the time. Payperview and sports games blackout even when they should not be blacked out….The cisco recievers cant have HD issues with the component cables and the Motorola ones have issues with HDMI….And most comon call is wifi wont stay connected “the 2Wire adapters they use are horrible and prone to fail just like the main router which controls everything “2wire 3800”. I was constantly giving a $55 credit and letting ppl order the netgear adapter from store.att.com . People dislike AT&T and some dislike their cable companies…..but I will tell you this Uverse is a rushed product that was not ready for market and still is not. Do not get uverse and if you do have it and it is giving you issues Switch to whatever you can.
wow at least we’re not alone! We have had most of the same problems and snafus that others have had with customer service at AT&T. If anyone out there is sitting on the fence deciding which carrier to go with I would definitly NOT recommend AT&T! I said to more than 1 tech who came to our house , “You know, for a communications company, the communications between yourselves surely isn’t anything to brag about!” We have had more techs out to our home and not one has been able to solve the problems we have had with our TV. We were switching from Comcast to U-verse 3months ago and the straw on the camel’s back finally broke and we’re going back to Comcast except for the phone [Comcast phone is not available in our area yet] so we’ll have to put up with AT&T for a while .Today they disconnected the U-verse and now we have NO PHONE service.Trying to explain problems to the service dept is like wading through sludge with snowshoes. We are SO frustrated at least reading the other comments restored some of our sanity
This Uverse experience has been to this point , and just 4 days after my install by far myworst experience in the triad of ;
1)customer service
2)satisfaction with a product or service that i requested.
3)Assurance, actually (lack threof) that they have a handle on the problem(s) mentioned many times above by previous victims.
I ,after reading this thread , I am amazed that my picture/sound freezes just like posters complaint(s) 1 1/2 years ago and that they sell this buggy crap.
I scheduled a tech visit to replace/repair newly installed dvr HD box that doesnt work on Fri ,02/06/09 from 4p-9p.
not only did they NOT SHOW or CALL,they lied and said they came and no was was here. Now im pissed, first you sell me this raggedy shit, dont show up to fix it and now you LYING.
However, I take some blame and newfound appreciation to “if it aint broke, dont fix it” Here in Houston my comcast was perfect, but like a dumbass, i switched to save a few dollars a month.
UVERSE sucks unversally.
come get your shit.
This article was very informative and well written and I was intrigued until i got to the part where the article begins to make a comparison of “hip-hop” kids and the poor technical support service he received. I just can’t understand why you have to make such a negative comment about listeners of hip-hop when you nothing of the culture. It’s a new day people.
I then discussed this with a friend and realized that I was the one being racist, since a. making a reference to hip-hop is different than making a reference to a race b. to imply that a reference to hip-hop is racist is a racist comment in and of itself, since it implies that I believe that hip-hop = a specific race, but we all know it is touches all races today.
Anyway I digress, U-Verse sucks
That is very enlightened of you Mike, Thanks for posting the comment.
This entire thread only reinforces what I think about UVerse two weeks into the experience. It is absolutely horrible. And frankly, I can’t believe that these comments go back so far. It’s as if ATT simply stopped trying to make the system work.
Beyond the picture freezing constantly, on both live and recorded programming, beyond the fact that the original tech didn’t even connect the telephone system, beyond the fact that the second tech who arrived to replace the main DVR and try to get the telephone system working was drunk (and continued drinking from a flask during the service call when he left the house to “make calls” from his truck), there IS the little issue of a household sharing a single printer via the wireless connection. We’ve been without a printer in the house since the install, because the second tech “had never dealt with a printer before,” and because there is no solution to this with Uverse that I’ve been able to find. Hasn’t it occured to ATT that many households now share a single printer? Is that so difficult to comprehend and accommodate? In addition, if you have a home alarm or need to dial 911, just be prepared to let them know where you’re at before you pass out, because VoiP only issues an IP address, not a real home address.
With Comcast, every television had its own DVR (tough crap if I couldn’t see the recorded programming on every other tv in the house–I simply went to where the show was); every DVR was able to pause, etc., live television. The internet signal was great. Wireless was simple because I ran Airport Expresses, which also meant the printer and iTunes ran from wherever I wanted them to in the house.
This has been a singularly crappy technology experience and Uverse is absolutely is NOT superior to Comcast. We’re switching back.
Yes, Everything about ATT sucks! Not just ATT u-verse. U verse active functions were not very active. Yes, we had the wireless printer problem as well. Also, the freezing up and not being able to get thru an entire program without this freezing thing happening. Also, I was unable to record anything unless I used the main TV. That also included rewind fast forward and pause functions as well. Just think that your DVR functions are only on one TV. Comcast and Dish network are much better!!!! Also, ATT have great salesman. However, horrible customer service to back it up. I have never called ATT and been on the phone less then 1 hour and 22 minutes. But, when I asked the ATT rep to hold? That was a problem…. she could only hold for a brief moment. So, I would place her on hold and the come back periodically as they do to us. I guess our time is not as valuable is it? We bundled everything with ATT u verse and the bills are never correct. Then we cancel everything but local service and still somehow end up paying 131.00 for our bill. ATT is a horrible company. I hater hearing the Name and I warn anyone to stray from ATT if possible. In this economy, WE the customers need to take back the rains of control….. If anyone has any ideas on how we can do this. I know that we have all spent countless hours on our phones dealing with ATT’S crap lets work together and make them feel it…….
With all the frustration on here I thought you would enjoy some humor… read my online AT&T chat below, especially the last three comments!
Simon: Hi, How may I assist you today?
you: i was wondering if you can get internet and phone without tv service
Simon: To qualify for AT&T U-verse phone and Internet services you need to order TV service also.
you: ok, thank you
Simon: If you order U200 or above plan online today, you will receive $200 cash back and free professional installation up to 3 TVs.
Simon: How does that sound to you?
you: i am not sure i want tv service, i dont watch much.
Simon: AT&T U-verse TV offers a differentiated viewing experience with crystal-clear all digital picture and sharp, all-digital channels, and super fast channel changing. Also, enjoy picture-in-picture browsing via the interactive AT&T U-verse TV channel guide.
Simon: I suggest you to go for U200(TV and DSL) $89 a month. U200 + Internet includes AT&T High Speed Internet Express U-verse enabled. Includes: • Up to 220 channels in this package • Local channels • One HD-ready receiver with DVR • 48 Digital Music Channels • Video on Demand Library Not included, but can be added: • The Movie Package $20/month • HBO/Cinemax Package $24/month • The Sports Package $10/month.
you: what speed internet?
Simon: With U200 you will get Express plan: Up to 1.5 Mbps downstream and up to 1 Mbps upstream.
Simon: Can I know on which page are you currently on?
you: comcast.com 😉 Looking at the tv, internet and phone for 89
Simon: It seem’s that you are on the right page. Please select your desired plan and continue with your online order process.
I’m from Houston, TX and just want to confirm what many of you have said already. U-verse is HORRIBLE!!! I had it installed Monday 2/16/09 and as of today Sunday 2/22/09 I’ve already had a total of 5 techs in my home trying to figure out why my U-verse tv, internet, and phone services keeps switching off and on again at any given time of day or night. Sometimes service is off for 8 hours at a time and just pops back on like nothing ever happened. I’ve had both inside and outside line techs come in and run tests, attempt to make repairs, reset the gateway and receivers, and still no service. They, as well as AT&T’s Tier 2 support reps, are all still clueless as to what the problem is and how to fix it. After just having a tech out yesterday evening, this morning my U-verse service is down AGAIN and the 1800ATT2020 automated 24/7 customer service guy says “sorry(pause)ok(pause)sorry(pause)ok(pause)sorry I’m having so much trouble(pause) this office is closed, please call back during regular business hours…”
Yes, this and all I’ve read in previous posts about lying techs who didn’t respond because they say the customer was not available has happened to me, too. I’m going to uninstall U-verse myself (rip this u-verse crap out and set it outside on the porch for the next tech who decides to show up) and I’M SWITCHING BACK TO COMCAST!!!!!!
I really hate AT&T u-verse. First day it was so much better than comcast. I got alot of TV stations, my internet was running fast enough for me to play 3 internet games at once while my family was on the web and my pings were great.
Lately it’s been dwindling. Mother tells me about how the TV skips and breaks up, sometimes giving “You don’t have access to this channel”.
Topping that, Internet cut out 4 times last night, which is unacceptable. Kind of hard to do any work when the internet will cut out for 8-17 minutes, go back up for a second then crash again.
Considering canceling AT&T.
Greetings to everyone!
Before I state my case to enlighten both the current Uverse Members and my
once-fellow tech support agents @ 1-800-ATT-2020 (yeps! I had just tendered my
resignation exactly a week ago), here’s a CAVEAT from a
“cheaper-contractor-agent-offshore” and “waste-of-time” as referred to by some
understandably pathetic native folks “up there” whom my former client, Uverse
Member Care, has caused much inconvenience:
I shall come from experience as a tech support for Uverse Member employed by one of
its biggest contractors, and yes, I may be in breach of corporate confidentiality
agreement as I share my thoughts right now but I so deem it necessary to tell the
concerned people RIGHT IN THE FACE that … It’s just not so easy for our members
to understand how a CLIENT, such as Uverse, ‘virtually coerces’ help support agents
to deliver verbages and manage trouble (almost like robots if not for our
insistence to usually DO IT OUR WAY rather than what we’re told to simply because
it doesn’t normally works for the VERY SATISFACTORY TECH SUPPORT experience they
would want to offer) in complete blindness (hence, the
WHAT-THEY-WONT-TELL-US-and-the-members) for corporate interest…that we hopefully
understand…so if the service disgusts you, don’t take it out on the agents
(unless they themselves directly cause you inconvenience) ‘coz we do try our best
to manage trouble OVER THE PHONE and THAT’S ONE TOUGH JOB to execute daily,
needless to mention the bizarre and crappy protocols (even the product per se) for
call (CService/TSupport) management which I myself find impracticable.
Hope the following enlightens most of you in this thread:
1. Product is New. I concede to the fact that the trouble management basically is
“wait-and-see” and we can only deal with it at the moment.
2. Tier1 agents have limited technical training that YOU must KNOW and UNDERSTAND,
needless to mention limited TOOLS to resolve issue so that’s why we have the
so-called CALL ESCALATIONS to Tier2 or other support departments as MANDATED by the
client not ALWAYS because we want to get rid of the call, STRICTLY on the following
grounds: (a) if the member is a FREQUENT CALLER, hence have been calling for the
same issue within 30 days
3. Admittedly, UVERSE IVR is a total crap. So we do understand if members are
already irate once they get to a LIVE person. That’s just the way it is for the
client executives “up there” and all we can do is to APOLOGIZE even if we don’t and
cannot sincerely mean it (yes we have our grievances as employees as is also the
case in whatever company. Sadly, we have no other way to escalate the call to the
RIGHT people unless we place you on hold but of course, that’s why we get back to
you every now and then usually every after 2 minutes, to refresh the customer and
set his/her expectations right, so to speak.
4. ALWAYS ASK FOR CREDITS coz we issue them but only when one has been totally
without either of the or all three services (IPTV, HSI and VoIP) and geez, we can
only issue up to $45 on the tech support level, beyond that, TALK TO BILLINGand
why? that’s a limit of our means in the help desk.
5. IF YOU REALLY WANT TO GET YOUR ISSUES RESOLVED, NEED NOT SHOUT OR TAKE IT OUT TO
ANY AGENT OR SIMPLY ASK FOR A SUPERVISOR (we prefer this though!) OR ASK TO BE
TRANSFERRED TO TIER 2 (most esp if you are calling fo the same exact recurring
issue) coz to be perfectly honest with you,even if we try not to get your
complaints in our hair and resolve your issue to the best of our abilities as front
liners, we can always MAGICALLY disconnect the call if you KEEP “THE” ATTITUDE and
CANT TOTALLY KEEP YOUR COOL as you speak with us. We are compelled to do it.
Otherwise, we sincerely want to resolve your trouble coz we are paid to do that and
it’s a learning advantage as well.
6. AGAIN, WE DON’T HAVE THE ANSWERS/RESOLUTION TO EVERYTHING SIMPLY BECAUSE THE
CLIENT WON’T TELL US EVERYTHING. if not for our effective comm skills to go about
the MEMBER EDUCATION regarding certain trouble issues, we would’ve ended in
complete disaster. (a) OUTAGE? It happnes but then again, we can only explain the
estimated Time of Resolution which usually is not accurate since we can only depend
on the report alerts and LINE TESTS we perform It would be best to ask the agent
right away if there’s any NETWORK outage in your area and perform NEIGHBOR CHECK
for you, we have that tool to determine the outage repair progress. Nevertheless,
we simply have to wait and see and agents on the phone CANNOT and WONT RESOLVE
OUTAGE REMOTELY even if you cry a river over it! besides, it’s not only you dealing
with it, you’re with the entire NETWORK AREA. (b) KNOWN ISSUES (usuallt Set top boxes time out, pic freezing, etc)? Yes we can only advise you about it but we cannot completely resolve it simply because the CLIENT is still perfecting the technology. Also, there are factors beyond OUR control (c) DISPATCH: one rule you have to remember, troubleshooting over the fone is a prequisite for us to diagnose the issue accurately if not at least ballpark, if it entails servce call apptment, we certainly can arrange but if you refuse to T?S over the fone and demand tech at the onset of the call, sadly even if it’s a frequent problem, we have to change you 35$ trip even for disabled or aged members (yes, tis unbeievable!) We can only opt not to quote the CHARGES to prevent irate callers or supervisor calls or simply issue credits. AGAIN, WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DISPATCH TECH FOR OUTAGE, WIRELESS ISSUES and REMOTE CONTROL ISSUES, oherwise the dispatch gets to be tagged INVALID. Also, INSIDE TECHS (Resident Uverse tech) are different from OUTSIDE TECHS (who handle outside lines and are usually contractors)
7. BEAR WITH THE PROTOCOLS. We cannot just simply defy them, however bizarre and ineffective they usually are as I thought, upon client’s strict mandate coz no one has ever wanted to put his job in jeopardy just to please one MEMBER.
8. SOME PREMTECHS are JUST DUMB, and so are some tech support agent as well, but which company doesn’t have even a bunch of bozos? It’s just a matter of luck getting to skillful trouble managers over the fone BUT STILL WE HAVE A BUNCH OF EQUALLY SKILLFUL AGENTS (so to that ex-tier2 agent “up there” the nerve to UNDERMINE OUR ABLITY) .Needless to mention, the technical training for outsourced agents, inlcuding me, I believe is INADEQUATE in certain respects and simply bear with some of our BIZARRE fone SPIELS…
after all, we are just slaves of client protocols, limited tools and the “bugs” of product itself so whatelse can we do?
nevertheless we are trained for effective technical support but again, the work is just not for me coz i simply cannot bear with some MEMBERS who would call for “STUPID” and “BIZARRE” concerns.
I’ll add up once I remember the rest….have a great day and again “thank you for calling Uverse member care where we value your business…” lolz just bear with the work around, we surely understand.
some additionals ….
another reason why your calls have to be escalated aside from caller frequency /chronic caller status, sadly what’s QUALITY CALL HANDLING/TROUBLESHOOTING for AT&T Uverse executives is following the articles TO THE LETTER that even if skipping through ’em makes a difference and usually resolves the issue, we are obliged to escalate it to tier2 once a portion of the article says however simple the step is….and we are dinged during call calibrations that’s why, we’ve also got no other choice but FOLLOW.
and be reminded that the tech support reps you get to speak with over the fone LARGELY RELY on our customer survey results and yeps, at least once in ur Uverse lifetime you’ve answered those surveys that go satright to ur Uverse primary account once you log in to ATT Yahoo and please, it’s STRICTLY FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE and not for the UVERSE service per se coz we never fail to get verbatims such as Uverse service is not satisfactory even if the customer service at a particular call was very satisfying at least, so rating the agents fairly or even giving ’em a five and commendation if they really deserve one even if the product disgusts you, is greatly appreciated.
oh, did you also know that you get a 5$ discount every time to you answer that customer service experience survey? …..
seems every night around 12 AM to 12:45 it’ll go down for 5 minutes, not my router either, and my TV goes out too.
Dont believe U Verse has gotten their act together.
I have now waited twice for the technician to come for pre-arranged installation, gotten confirmation that they are on the way and twice NO SHOWS.
In fact they lost my orders twice and wanted to charge me for another install date. Managers were not available to hear my issues.
This is the WORST service EVER.
Save your time and dont bother with AT&T.
Ordered service last week, was told technician would be out between 12-2 p.m. on 3/3/09. Took afternoon off work. No Show/No Call. Called at 6:30–went through similiar “maze” with 800 number. Finally got through and was transferred somewhere else. Waited for 10 minutes for someone to pick up. Explained situation and was put on hold for 20 minutes while they called the dispatcher. Was told technician was “running behind” and would be to my house by 8 p.m! Technician called at 7:30–no apologies–was told “there’s no way I’m coming over tonight”.
Asked if he could come today at 8 a.m. on 3/4. “Let me talk to my dispatcher”, he phoned back and hour later and said he would be at my house promptly at 8 a.m. Took another morning off work. No Call/No Show at 9:15. Called technician (had his cell# saved in my phone) and left message. Still no call at 10:30 a.m., so I promptly called and cancelled order. At&T could care less.
I got rid of my home phone because of AT&T. Glad to see nothing has changed with this *!@*-poor company.
ATT (or SBC) whatever it is, is only successful because it runs a near monopoly on telephone service, this is why their customer service is pure shit, they do not care about the customer because they do not have to. AT&T is pure garbage. I was lied to by their sales representatives about bundle deals. The installation went fine but i was told later that i was too far away from the “VRAD” and that is the reason why i experience pixelation every 5 minutes. Why wasnt i told that in the first place? Another thing i wasnt told was that i cannot go back to regular DSL once i signed up for U-verse DSL and i would have to pay 5$ more a month and have to deal with the constant disconnects because of the unreliable 2-wire gateway. I canceled all of their services and am now with TimeWarner which does cost more, but performs circles around ATT.
This has been one frustrating day. I had an appointment last Sat. to have U-Verse installed. Guy came out and told me the wires at the pole wasen’ t right. He called the office and guess had a newbee that didn’t know what he was doing. 4 hours later this installer tells me his shift is over. He said they would come back Monday. I said I work and it couldn’t be done till this Sat. The installer said he would be here at 8:00 am this morning that way me whole day wouldn’t be screwed up. When he didn’t arrive at 9:30 I placed a call. I was on hold forever transferred to another person and told I didn’t have the right dept she transferred me again and I waited. Ask why my Installer wasn’t at my house and again I was put on hold. She came back on the line and told me she would call me back in 30 minutes (she was very hard to understand.
I waited two more hours and called again and was again put on hold while he checked out my ticket. he told me a return visit was never setup. He said he set up a ticket and the installed would call me within two to three hours. He told me someone would still be out today.
Three hours passed so I called again I was told after holding that my ticket had be cancelled two days ago. I told them I wanted to speak to a supervisor and was given another number to call. I call that number and the office was closed.
After reading all these remarks I think I will leave it As cancelled. It will be interesting to see if anything on my bill has changed.
Re: Uverse ex-Tier 1 Assoc
You can’t even string a sentence together. I can’t imagine how frustrating it must have been for a customers to wait 20 minutes, only to end up speaking with you.
I suspect English is not your native language?
I can’t explain why so many of you seem to have problems with AT&T. I can, however, describe my experiences with them.
I live in Spring, Texas and was using Comcast for my Internet access and cable TV programming. I was using AT&T for my land line and mobile phone service.
I had absolutely no problems of any kind with AT&T for my phone sevice.
Comcast was a completely different story.
I was subscribed to their Basic Extended service. The cost was 47.99 per month. This sevice provided my wife and I with a total of 68 channels of which we only watched a maximum of 35 at best.
Of those channels, only about 40% had a clear picture reception with the remainder ranging from poor to bad.
To make matters worse, the channels would go off air at all time of the day or night.
Customer service to rectify the issues was non-existant at best.
Last month they raised our monthly charge to 52.50. this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. They provide crappy service, fewer channels and then raise the price.
My Internet service was even worse. One never knew if the service would be working. Most mornings it would be inoperable or, would go out at any time day or night. Plus, it was supposed to be the super fast service but my speed tests showed it barely hit 765 kbs on a good day. To add insult to injury I was paying 45.95 per month for the crap.
Well folks, I signed up for AT&T U-verse Triple Play. The result:
It drives circles around Comcast in terms of service, quality and price. Additionally, I am saving exactly $31.50 less than Comcast, tax included.
My Internet service is a helluva lot faster. My phone service is fantastic and my TV picture is fabulous. But wait, it gets better.
I was also able to get my mobile service moved into my U-verse account and they gave me a 15% discount on my monthly fee for doing so. I have the 700 minutes roll-over plan.
Bottom line people: I not only saved a good chunk of money, I am getting a better quality service and I have had no problems with any technical support.
However, in all fairness, there are a couple of things you should know:
First, I am 132 feet from the DSLAM box. Remember now people, this serve (Internet,VOIP phone and TV) are come from the Interent. The farther away from the DSLAM box the weaker the signal becomes. I think its 3000 feet.
Second, getting the service wasn’t without its bugs.
To begin, I had to wait two weeks from the time I placed the order to the time they came to install it. on top of that, the installer failed to show up as promised twice. On my third phone call the technician finally came.
The installation was a walk in the park. We had to fiddle around a little bit to get the computer to hook up to the Internet but there were no major problems.
We did have to call tech support twice the first two days we had the service on but that was due to operator error. It’s just going to take a little time to doing things dirrently than what life was like with Comcast.
I read the complaints on this blog about the picture freezing and it’s true, it has happened mometarily with the U-verse service but, not nearly as bad or as frequently as we experienced with Comcast.
In conclusion, I think several factors will determine your success with AT&T U-verse.
First, the availabilty in your area and next, how close you are to the DSLAM box.
Secondly, be prepared for to accept a small learning curve such as getting used to using the service and programming all your remote controls into one single remote. If technology is above your head then you may want to stay on the safe side and use the idiot proof Comcast service.
I can’t speak for others, but I’m certainly not going to get so overtly emotional like so many on this blog.
My wife and I are happy, happy, happy with AT&T U-verse and will never go back to Comcast or any other low-life service like it.
Coming up on 6 months with u-verse. I left Comcast and DISH before that for all the reasons in most of the notes above. U-verse has some a few minor glitches but all-in-all, it’s quite dandy. Wi-fi works well throughout house on 3 floors for 5 pc’s and 4 tv’s (2 hdtv). Internet up 99.9% of the time. DVR has more capacity than Comcast. Customer nonservice isn’t any worse than their competitors.
I should have known when I first called to get the service to stay away, but hey, they are a big respectable company, they can’t be that bad. WRONG!!
It took several attempts to get my U-verse services up and running properly. This problem that has gotten me soo irritated today is: Last Sun. at 4:00 PM my internet and cable shut off. I thought “that stinks cable is out” It happens. Next day, same issue. This goes through Tues when I finally make the call. Customer service tries to help out over the phone and seems to know what he is doing. Internet and cable eventually come back on about the same time it has since Sun, around 8:00 PM. and they set an appointment for a tech. to come out to my apartment to check the cables in my house. So, I tell him come between 4 and 9 as I am at work until 3:30.
I get a call at work at 1:30 from the tech saying hes right around the corner. I tell him no I’m at work come back at the correct time. He says, “I don’t need to go inside, I can just check outside lines.” He calls back a little later ” Lines test perfect , there is nothing wrong. I get home from work at 3:30 start to settle down and my cable goes out at 4:00 I make another call. Set up another appt for a tech. he comes at the correct time, between 12 and 4 as I am off work, he comes in checks my lines inside. He says” all your lines check perfect there is nothing wrong. An hour after he leaves My internet and cable is out again until about 8:00. It has been going on like this eveyday. Today I had another “Senior Technician” supposed to come again between 4 and 9. NO SHOW!! When I call customer service I just get the standard “sorry for the inconvenience sir” Which I AM TIRED OF HEARING!! IHe sees in my file that yes indeed I had an appointment for 4 to 9 so he calls the dispatcher and I wait for 23 minutes until he comes back and says the tech was dispatched to your house at 1:58!! WHEN I WAS AT WORK. I got no phone call or nothing. Plus my wife is at home. There was not even a knock at the door. So the little guy at customer support gives me the number for dispatch. I call dispatch and am informed my appoiontment was for 12 to 4. THE LAST GUY I TALKED TO SAID MY APPT. WAS 4 TO 9!!! When I tell the lady that my wife was home during the time the tech supposedly came by she said in a rather rude way “well sir, maybe your wife was in the shower” This is the worst customer support I have ever known. What happened to the customer is always right. I guess that goes out the window when the only time they actually talk to a customer is when the customer is highly P!$$ED off. These companies are getting way too big if they have forgotten about the little guy just attempting to purchase a service for which there is pretty much nowhere else to turn. There are not enough choices any more!
U-Verse makes me want to vomit. In South Florida a friend of mine who works installing U-Verse says that the managers treat the workers like dirt. Policy is that if your truck is in danger of crashing into a tree or an animal – then you must run over the animal. Workers get text messages on their cell phones everyday saying that they MUST work late and that NO ONE is going home until ALL the work is finished everyday. No exceptions. Forget about asking for time off as well. There is no motivation to go a job like that. I can’t support a product or a company that treats it workers bad – and pays them a fast food salary. I hope AT&T and U-Verse fail miserably. By the way I have seen the product and I’m not impressed at all. I’ll stick with my D*.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Oh god I’m glad I stumbled upon this! I was a U-Verse customer about a year ago before I got relocated to another state. I’m moving again in a month and was looking into alternatives to my outrageous Time Warner cable bill. I had actually forgotten how TERRIBLE U-Verse is and was looking to see if it was available in my area. The transcript from calling their “customer service” is right on, I felt like I was on the phone with them, especially when you resort to screaming at a robot because it can’t understand you.
Well thanks for reminding me… ATT is out of the question now!
AT&T is the worst company ever!!! I had a U-Verse installation from hell. My DSL was disconnected the day my U-Verse was to be installed. The only problem is that the tech never showed up. A week went by and I was without DSL. Finally the day the tech came by he started work rewiring my house at about 10AM and disconnected my Dish setup. After a few hours another tech shows up and says they are having problems getting sync. Several more hours go by and they run a new line from the pole to my house still it does not work. Mind you about 6 hours have gone by and have missed an important appointment. It is getting dark and still nothing. The tech has messed with every tv and cable in the house so that he can apologize and tell me that they are going to have to come back. Now I dont have DSL or Dish – NOTHING!!! My advice to anyone considering installing U-Verse is to not do it. I don’t care what rebates they offer – it is not worth the headache and hassle like I have gone through. AT&T has failed as a company and U-Verse sucks!!!
Quick reply to Gus. I am a U-Verse Premise Technician and I can personally say that AT&T has been the best company I have ever worked for. I have worked with Verizon in Tampa, was a Comcast contractor in South Florida, and for the past year have been an AT&T U-Verse Premise Technician, and I can honestly say AT&T is by far the best of the three. When I worked with Verizon, the training for their IPTV and FTTP was only one week. ONE WEEK. I learned almost nothing and was having the worst time as an installer. Nothing makes your customers more comfortable with you installing when you answer “iunno.”
AT&T sends regional managers from everywhere in the USA that have been personally educated from the developers of U-Verse to training centers. The training centers are one of the most orderly and well-put together establishments I have ever been to. The training for a Premise Technician is 6 weeks, and another 3 weeks of partnering up with a senior Premise Tech during installs.
Now with Comcast, they hire contractors. That means you have to buy your own tools, provide your own work vehicle, and get paid by the job. AT&T not only provides the tools, they provide the vehicles, the gas for the vehicles, and even a GPS for the vehicles.
The rate at which I am being paid far surpasses anything I have been getting previously. As for the amount of work, yes, they have a certain amount of jobs that are on the load, and unlike Comcast and Verizon, we don’t leave our customers hanging and not show up at all. Every job gets done. They let you know it’s going to be a lot of hours right from the get-go, so I don’t know why your friend seems to be complaining about something that cannot possibly be even close to the truth.
The product has it’s flaws, I admit that. I have U-Verse at home and I love it compared to Comcast. U-Verse wasn’t given the J.D. Power & Associates Award for best home entertainment product of 2008 for nothing. If you’re a perfectionist that expects nothing to go wrong, then pick a company that has been doing it for more than a year. U-Verse is still in it’s infancy, and yet, we’re still putting everyone else to shame. Just imagine what U-Verse will be like in 5 years. I guarantee you will find a rather familiar foot in your mouth.
All I can say, is that I just got U verse installed the other day, and its amazing.. not sure how many of you out there are”computer literate” but I have been working on both mac and pc units for 10 years roughly. I sat and watched the tech explain everything, about what had to be done, what he was going to do etc.. Maybe the housing division I live in was almost brand new ( with new wiring etc..) and the fact that we were about 1,600 ft from the crossover box. He climbed into the attic countless times to drop wires to all 3 rooms so we will have a wall plate for each unit with ethernet. Poor guy said it was 3-4 hr job turned out to be 6 hr job, good thing I was off work that day (planning ahead helps). Not every location can support U verse for particular reasons. All 3 televisions work perfectly, 47 inch, my HD monitor 24′ and a smaller screen one 20′. I switched over from DirecTV and I can say I am really happy with the service so far. Quick channel changes, no delays (*like sattelite) etc.. But there are alot of us who are happy about it, but there will always be those who for particular reasons (geographical mostly) cant get the full benefits of U verse. I haven’t tried the wireless capabilities as of yet, but I am sure it should be a cinch to work. As far as hardwiring goes, its pretty darn good.
Bob – Kendall, FL and Homestead, FL crews is all I have to say … turnover rate will make your head spin.
UVerse Rocks
I am actually a tier one support agent for uverse and I can tell you now that we do EVERYTHING in our power to get your services up and running 100 percent. Weather you believe it or not AT&T prides itself on its thorough customer service. If you saw in person how much training and quality monitoring goes into each call you would be assured of this. I myself can take care of about 75 percent of any issue that comes my way weather it be something super simple like get the tv on the right input or something complicated like accessing your Residential Gateway *the tower with 8 lights* and tweaking it to improve tv quality.
I know the robots are frustrating and annoying almost all the time but just be aware that they are there to filter the enormous amounts of calls that uverse gets. If you need to get an agent I suggest that you you dial * or 0 on the phone or say agent various times. We will ALWAYS be courteous and kind and I can assure you that we want to get your service up and running just as much as you do and if we cant we make sure that it goes through the right channels to get resolved.
Picture quality issues are a popular call for us so if you need to speak to an agent I suggest you try a little troubleshooting yourself to save both you and the agent time. Your residential gateway is the uber system for your house, EVERYTHING IS HOOKED UP TO THIS. It is a black and silver box with 8 lights on the front, it says 2 wire and looks like it has a picture of a key on it. Most importantly is the “broadband” light on the front of that unit. if your tv freezes check the status of this light, if it is anything but solid green you are going to have trouble. If freezing does occur on the tv 90 percent of the time you can fix this by unplugging the power cable *black cable* from the back of this unit and leaving it off for one min before powering it back on, give it about 3-5 mins and check the status of that broadband light.
Also go to any of the affected tv receivers *att boxes* and push and hold the green power button on the left for 5-7 seconds. the system will reboot itself and give you 3 dots followed by a blue uverse screen. This screen will last up to 10 mins so please be patient, its basicly just connecting to big brother so give it some time until regular tele comes back on. This will fix most freezing and pixel issues and might save you A call to the tech line.
If anyone is having any problems with their service or general questions please do not hesitate to email me at
nickireland123@yahoo.com
I can answer ANY question regarding high speed internet, or Uverse tv.
please contact me if you are having
>tv pixelation/ freezing
>tv frozen
>need help programing the remote
>need help getting past error screens
> having problems connecting to your network
> having login issues for att.yahoo.com
> etc
If i can save anyone a call to tech support it then I will do it in A heartbeat. Seriously I would love to help anyone in need of it and help you get through some of the red tape.
nickireland123@yahoo.com
We switched from Comcast to U-Verse and we absolutely love it!
The internet is SO much faster, it doesn’t time out like Comcast started doing if I was away from my computer for 15 minutes (besides the fact that the speed was getting slower and more frustrating all the time).
I have 2 criticisms of U-Verse, that is that you can’t set a reminder for future programs, and they have to fix up their personal web space feature (on the other hand who cares about that since they let you run a web server). I remember how upset we were when Comcast bought MediaOne and we had to take down our web servers since they don’t allow any servers to be run unless you pay more for it.
I didn’t hate Comcast, it was okay, but I love AT&T U-Verse.
I forgot to add in my previous comment that I called Customer Service to ask about the Personal Web Space and I had no problem getting through to a tech.
I have also called Comcast Customer Service, and I don’t see where they are any better.
We have had ours for about a month and love it!!!! Way better than direct tv!! Love the “on demand” kids shows. It comes in very handy!!!! It works great! I think some people just get back from the world what they put into it. Positive in, positive out or negative in, negative out!
U-verse must be so bad that my techie son doesn’t even want it. He heard it has terrible problems with the internet not working right all the time. Our neighbor had att dsl which he was happy with but then made the mistake to switch to u-verse and has problems ever since. Another friend had the RG changed 3 times and countless techs over to his house. Lastly please explain why it has to take so long to install. There is no way I want someone installing service in my house for 5 or 6 hours changing cables and messing with everything. What happens when I don’t want it anymore – then who changes it back to the way it was.
It took 3 different people to get my internet and TV up and running. I had to miss multiple hours of work to be here three different times. The first guy ran a wire across my attic entry so I would trip and stubble down the stairs. The second guy got a personal phone call, gave up and ran home and never sent another tech like he said he would. The third guy finally got it running. The first three months, it worked fine. Now, I have constant freezing-up and the best music station is basically a bunch of static. I’ve been through the stupid phone “customer service?”. I have found that most of the Internet and TV services have bad customer service. Sure, they are really good and quick about signing you up but then forget it if you have problems!
I found this website, just looking for a number to call about the lousy U-Verse service. I’ve just about had it. For the money that they charge, you would think that you could talk to a professional when there are problems and have much more reliable service. I do not recommed AT&T at all! They need to get their act together and I’m spreading the word!
Someone teach Nick the AT&T agent a little grammer. That would be whether not “weather” in the context of your sentence. Sure, it might not be the agent’s fault that U-verse is a piece of crap but here’s a concept… get a reputable job with a reputable company!
I switched from Comcast to U-Verse. Bad choice I made. My monthly bill comes to $150.00 for cable, phone, and internet. I get no movie channels, and the channels i do get are scattered all over the damn place. I would pay $129.00 for phone iinternet and cable with Comcast, and i got premium channels just for upgrading to the bundle.
This fuckin modem makes my computer slow as hell, My Computer! comcast never did that. u-verse internet loads webpages slower and videos take long to load too. stick with comcast. u-verse blows
U-Verse Vs Direct TV as of May 04, 2009 (The date is important since technology is always changing).
I just had u-verse installed. The installation Started around 11:00 AM and ended around 4:00 PM. The service tech said this was normal. I am still a Direct TV customer and I didn’t want to disconnect without testing the u-verse package. My biggest concern is the HD Channels and the quality.
I want to say before I start.. I love Direct TV! The HD quality is superb! I had very little problems with them. The only reason why I switched is I currently have AT&T Phone & DSL which is being switched over to fiber optics and the sales guy talked me into trying the full package (Phone, Internet, & TV).
So far I am happy with the Internet service since it is much faster than DSL. The Phone I really don’t care about since I use my Verizon cell phone 90% of the time.
I am still up in the air about the TV service. To start my comparison let me add that I have a Sony 52” Flat screen TV. I’m only on Day 3 with U-verse so the opinion I’m giving is a little premature but I will not be bias toward one or the other since neither is paying nor do I work for them.
So far this is what I’m seeing…
The reception is a little more “grainy” with U-verse. U-Verse claim to have more HD channels but I don’t think that’s true. For instance I was watching the ABC Home makeover in the High Def section (channels starting at 1002) but to me the picture quality was awful and to top it all it wasn’t full screen. On Direct TV it looked clear and was in full screen. As for recording four shows at one time… this feature is great but just know that you can only record on the Main TV that has the DVR. As for the pause, forward and rewind feature this is only available on the main TV as well (I have four TV’s connected). This is also true with Direct TV but I wanted to bring that up since the sales guy forgot to mention that part to me. The good thing is you can pause a show on the main TV, go to another TV and continue watching it from where u left off. (I haven’t tried it yet but that’s what I been told). The biggest deciding factor with be the High Def.
As for the price… I will let you know once I get my first bill.
The good news is there’s no contract to sign so I was able to switch back to Direct TV.
The bad news is I gave U-Verse a try and did my best to like it. But after the TV froze on the 30th time I had no choice but to throw in the towel.
If it took two days for them to set up U-Verse, they obviously did something wrong. I spoke with a very reliable and weathered electrical technician from ATT and he said it should only take up to 3 hours.
He also said that whoever was the last person to service you is the person you need to have come again. No matter who was the person before them. Get their card and call them if you need servicing.
As an AT&T customer, I am appalled that they don’t have a more efficient customer support system. I, too have called the
helpless desk for continued problems with my high-speed Internet, and the pathetic email service with all the irritating pop-up advertisements. I hate AT&T and was sad to hear when they acquired Bellsouth. I knew things were going to go downhill after that.
I think most folks get caught in their trap because of the inconvenience of changing over another company. Not to mention the extra set up fees involved with switching services. But, I’m beginning to think the change will be well worth the inconvenience.
AT&T sucks!!!! Telephone, Internet, cable, Customer service, ALL OF IT SUCKS!!
U-verse does not take just 3 hours to install. First you may a tech to check the signal or run new wire from pole or box – this should have been done before your appointment – but usually it is not the case. Problems here can really delay your install or even worse you may never get it because you don’t qualify.
In the mean time the installer will have to work on the box beside your home or modify wiring and jacks in an apartment. Then they have to change out all jacks and wires in house – this is AT&T policy. Then they have to fire up the remote gateway box and download updates and hope everything is working fine. Finally setup your computer – also hope that everything goes well at this point. AT&T often screws this part up bigtime and if you had DSL you may lose your old account. Oh and if you want your old service like cable or satellite back then they might have modified everything so much that it can take another full day to restore it.
On average an install including having a line tech check everything takes about 4-6 hours if all goes well. More often than not when things do not go well an install can take a whole day, with repeats necessary.
I installed U-verse for 2 years before giving up – the whole process is foobar. Also, all the managers are bastards and treat techs like dirt and work them like slaves. Don’t waste your time and stay away from U-verse it is possibly the worst technology every.
FYI Most of you who have had missed appointments have gotten the special treatment! eg:at&t will file local reports indicating that the customer was not home and/or not ready for service when they where home waiting(makes everyone at at&t look great on paper), because that way at&t managers/employees seem as if they never miss appontments. the “sub not ready” box is checked on the missed appontment record, then when you call for the a new appontment maybe the rep states that at&t tech was there and you blew the gig. the books are always cooked and nothing is at it appears….
Technician not showing up after they agreed over the phone to reload your job for 1st am appointment, the employees that throw (distribute) the work load for the next day cant concern themselves with the previous days customers or missed commitments, they have X amount of jobs for technician Z and any reloaded/carried over work thrown to a technicians daily load will require him/her to miss a appointment on current day….
technicians are thrown loads based on statistics and statistics may say 1 out of 6 customers wont be home or ready and all techs can handle 5 good jobs a day,so every tech may be given 6 jobs and right from the start of every day they are overbooked and will be “required” to skip someone or something….<<at&t is a failure before is even starts its daily routine(if all customers are accounted for and present the technician cant winn)…..
call center folks are caught between us the happy consumer and at&t which would rather miss thousands of appointments before ever giving their employees sufficient time to perform their job safely and properly….
Att uverse… what a joke! I had direct tv previous to att, and now I’m switching back. Everything about uverse sucks.
The thing that annoys me most is when I rented movies. I rented six of them and none of them were in widescreen format! What the hell is wrong with you people… are you living in the dark ages?
Nearly all the movies TCM shows are in widescreen format. You would think that att would show the movies in the format they were made, and meant to be seen!!!
Att… you suck!!!
After going through numerous recorced messages while trying to get UVERSE support I discovered that there is a number (1-866-912-8216) that will get you directly to a real person. I find the persons who answer courtious, but many times wihtout adequate knwoeldge and experisnce to help with the problem. Like many of the other memos I have had numerous visits from the techs. Each time they fix “something” but it never really fixes the problem. I was tols last time that they were sending a “senior tech”. What the “senior tech” asked if UVERSE had ever frozen while a tech was here. Of course it had not. I generally had to leave work to come home to meet the tech. No one had told me to leave the TV in frozen state. The “senior tech” explained that the pattern of outages was generally different that the pattern I described. My wife and I both got the ides that he did not believe that we were actually having all these problems. Since prior techs had replaced almost everything else in the system, I got him to agree to replace the set top box. He was happy to do that and get on has way, he was already 2.5 hours late arriving and I’m sure needed to get home. He asked me to log the times that the TV froze to confirm that there was a problem. It was now about 6:30 PM and I have to tell you that I had no problems the rest of the day, watching TV until midnight. Being true to my promise to log outages I turned the TV on the next morning about 8am. From 8am to about 8pm I logged eight outages that required recycling the box. (by the way it was Sunday and I had the TV tuned off for about 3 hours during that period to attend church and had lunch.
I don’ would love to know the secrets of those who have not had problems with UVERSE. I am an “early adopter” and I would love to see this UVERSE thing work, but I am almost at the end of my patience. By the way I have only had the service for about 3 months. I have broadband, TV and VoIP. Only the VoIP had performed adequately. Maybe the secter was spilled by the last tech when he told me that all equipment used in refurbished. This does not seem to be the way to get a new line of business off the ground??
****Uverse is Horrific, RUN!***
Installed Uverse on 3/31/09
Messed up my cell voicemail-had Uverse Voicemail tied together with it, lost my Lifetime Tivo service, No Internet for over a month, was sent bills in the $300 range for the past 2 months for services that were malfunctioning. I have logged about 30+ hours of wasted time on the phone with both billing and mostly tech support. They refuse to transfer you to talk to the same person twice so each day I had to start over with tier 1 tech support even tho my case had been accelerated to management and engineers (some computer glitch kept hard suspending my account when they’d try to cancel the TV portion)When I tried to put everything back to the pre-Uverse trial, I was told I could not (hows that for a 30 day trial?) because there was no longer an open port in my area to put me back on dsl, all full– CSR or managers do NOT return phone calls at all. If you get into the late afternoon and they have not called you back–you won’t hear from them again! I’d say 90% never called back and that’s no exaggeration. The last thing I’ll mention is AT&T finally got the glitch fixed it all fix after 2 months of basic DAILY HELL & hours on the phone, 3 afternoons in a row waiting 4+ hours for no show techs. After several more days of badgering the phones I was given credit for only the services I didn’t receive and NO not a penny for inconvenience or loss of use.
The topper–yesterday a billing manager called full of attitude before the word go as I started explaining my situation for the gazillionth time. She asked things like “who said these were engineers? Do you have the names and phone numbers of each individual person on the so-called “engineering team”? I don’t understand what your “internet wasn’t working means?” Then amazingly she replied, “we don’t have any record of any problems with this account”. When I tried to explain how that is impossible that I have been working with (and she asked for clarification as to what “working with means”) I was mid sentence explaining and she abruptly interrupted with. “I’ll have to call you back.” and hung up. She has not called back. That’s it, I’m outta here! Next week I’m finding new service and I’ll NEVER do business with AT&T again. Previous to this, I had been a happy customer for 15 consecutive years with phone, cell, & Internet services. When I returned the DVR at my local UPS Store a couple days ago, the clerk inquired as to what is happening, in his little store alone he has return about 600 units in the past 2 months–tell you something? Think Uverse is wonderful? Wait until you have a problem, then we’ll talk. (smile)
YOU CAN NEVER TALK TO ANYONE !!! U-VERSE SUCKS ! I have been on the phone for hrs at a time and then they end up transferring me or hanging up on me ! You can only record, fast forward, or rewind on one tv. Well I have 4 TVs ! Now I have to call back tomorrow because they are closed after 1 hr on the damn phone with them ! This is the 3RD DAY OF TRYING TO RESOLVE THIS ! AT&T SUCKS !!GIVE SOMEONE A JOB AND SO WE GET SOME RESPECTABLE SERVICE !!!!!!!@ I’d LIKE TO SEE THE CEO STAY ON THE LINE FOR SERVICE AND THEN GETT HUNG UP ON !!! AT& T SUCKS FOR SERVICE. NOW THEY AREN’T WITH DISHNETWORK??? ALL OF THIS IS DISCUSTING !
Well today is the day I finally give up on ATT-Uverse. I had it installed on May 19, 2009, switching from Comcast due to rising costs. It seemed like a good deal with DVR and HD, internet and phone for about 40 bucks a month less than Comcast. It has not worked properly since installation. I have had it reinstalled once and have been told every possible explanation for why it doesn’t work. Bad gateway, AM penetration on cable, bad port, too far from port, etc, etc. I will lose internet, telephone, or all three and it appears to be completely random. I will comment that all of the customer sevice folks, tier one and tier two, have been excellent. In addition all of the line techs and in home techs have been great. Everyone appears to genuinely want to do a good job and make the service work. In my opinion the technology is flawed and therefore results in an unreliable product. Be forewarned if you have a home alarm with a monitoring service. If Uverse drops telephone service and your alarm is set, your alarm may go off, although it cannot be monitored and you will not be notified by your monitoring company. This has been an exaperating 3 weeks with a tech here 3-4 times per week trying some new “fix”. At one point a line tech told us it should never have been installed because we were too far from the box. The very next day a different tech tells us we are well within installation range and it was just a bad port! Begrudgingly going back to Comcast, the service was bullet proof.
Everything the author cites as issues and bad experiences, I second. Happened to me too in south Fontana, CA. CRAPPY CUSTOMER SERVICE and CRAPPY IP SERVICE that keeps us from watching an entire 60 min show.
After several complaints and having dumb techs (who’s answer is always to splice the coax and run another 2-3 ft I gave up.
Loved the whole house DVR. FIOS please come to my area!!!
Dish sucks! DTV (you call that VOD?!)!!! & TW uses ancient set top boxes that remind me of early 80’s betamax/vhs players.
I have had the uverse internet (no TV) for about 14 months. In that time they have replaced one uverse router box and one part in the box that hands on the outside wall. Other than those two problems, my internet has been pretty good. I suspect that it will be even better, now that they fixed the part in the outside box. The reason it is good for me is the price. Where else can you get 1.5mb down and 1.0mb up for $25 per month?
To all the hundreds of above uverse haters .. thank you ! I’m a uverse tech and all of you make me laugh because I have had all your situations happen at a customers house somewhere. When uverse works … it’s a great product if you understand it … when it doesn’t work … it sucks … is a headache … and all of you that have had techs at your house … I guarentee that most of them just want to put a bandaid on and run. Most of you probably have your boxes hanging off coax, which is part of the problem … the stb communication to rg is HPNA which is terribly sensitive … pixelation on your HD tv ? bet your using HDMI … toss it and put in component cables …. you will notice the improvement. Also … there was a florida guy describing how terrible a job this is … he is absolutely correct with everything he said … there was someone (Bob I think) that chimed in about how great a job it is … Bob .. you can pound sand because you are not a tech … probably some pain in the ass 2nd level manager … there is NO prem tech that thinks the job is as great as he says .. even the young kids that like doing the job know it sucks ….. this forum is great, but remember when reading them that it is loaded with cable guys wanting to slam the competition .. att employees wanting to say how great it is …… I work here … I know the service is difficult at best … and there should be laws agains the way they treat us …. if you TRULY are a customer … don’t tear the techs head off when he walks through the door … he barely makes more than minimum wage, and only has control over a small portion of making the service work … make sure he uses his equipment (meters) and verifies no problems and have them show you the status report that tests your home before he leaves …. if you have a bad feeling when the tech shows up (ie that he’s lazy and doesn’t care ) tell him you will call and put another repair ticket in as soon as the situation happens again (we literally are micromanaged by the day to hit our quality quota’s as well as our production numbers … a recall to a job within 10 days is a big no no). Oh well … enough of me rambling ….. keep on posting people …. I love reading this stuff
Big applause to you for not keeping U-Verse. They’re just a waste of time and money (and, not to mention, resources.) Comcast over U-Verse (and IMO, Cablevision over Comcast)
When you have freezing picture the problem almost certainly the wiring in your home. If you disconnect everything and run a line directly from the RG to the DVR box do you get freezing? If not start a recording, then another, then another, if you still do not have freezing then you know the problem is the wiring in your home.
I had a similar problem and I narrowed mine down to a single port on the hub between my DVR and the RG, once I replaced that hub with a new switch I no longer had freezing problems. Simple as that, not AT&T’s fault and I didn’t need to call them.
and i donno if any one notices, At&t old CEO got a $158 mil retirement package and now, just a few months later, he’s the head of GM??? Anyone else smell that? yea, its the sweat off the back of the greedy ass head honcho’s of corporate america.
and now to all you haters of uverse, keep hating. I’m right there with you. but don’t blame us, the techs, cuz about 85% of us do our job everyday and we do it right. times are tough and we all need our jobs. hence we do it right.
door to door salesmen, all you dick bags should be fired and sent to Iraq. all the promises you make are bullshit and then WE, the techs have to deal with pissed off customers.
to you bastards pissed about having a tech come on time, dont take it out on the tech! we dont scedule the jobs, we just call in and ask for more. there is only so much a person can do! blame the greedy globe (At&t logo) for wanting to get as much money as possible. were FUCKIN EXHAUSTED from working nearly a year with only 1 day off a week and close to 75 hours a week! lets see the desk jockeys do that shit….
As a real life prem tech I have a few things I wanted to say maybe it will help clear up some basic complaints that you have. I hear all kinds of crazy rumors from people everyday sales tends to tell people all kinds of lies to make a sale so if u are thinking about u-verse read this and listen to ME.
1. Your cable boxes are NOT wireless, you have wifi for your internet not for your TV.
2. If u can only watch one Hd show at a time its cause your signal is to low to your house and the installer should have made u aware of this during your install
3. We do NOT collect dish boxes, to whoever was complaing about this all I have to say is really are you serious, would u order dish and expect them to collect your comcast boxes? We have no affiliation with dish at all maybe att offers it but uverse and dish are not related in any way, and Were not going to take that ugly satalite dish off your roof either thats your problem.
4. You have to have a Box if you want a TV to work, we are not comcast,charter or wow we dont have a basic siganl that runs on the lines ours is an advaced digital signal requireing a box for any tv that you want to have ANY picture at all.
When it all comes down to it Att service works great if your installer did his job the way he was taught to with the exception of freak sitsuations such as having a ham radio operator as your neighbor, we are told everyday how to do our job correctly and if you get a tech who listens then you will be happy if not them welcome to tv HELL
And now I move my attention to BOB the prem tech from Flordia, Are you high? I worked with cocmast also as a contractor and yes this is much better then that but that doesnt mean its the GREATEST company ever to employ people. This company is run but a bunch of greedy old men and they could care less about us lowly techs and our crappy lives. What hoosier is true we work and work and work and then work some more 70 hour weeks are common here and if we go home after a ten hour day they will yell at u the next day, I went to the garage after 11 hours one day and was told that if i didnt go back out there I might as well turn in my truck keys. Its not tha managers fault either cause there bosses give them a hard time if the load isnt covered and same to their bosses so it rolls downhill to us, and BOB all that crap about how you said its cause we care for the customers and want to get the jobs done is crap, You have no idea how many times I finish my morning job at 2pm only to pick up another 8-10am job, this happens because greedy AT&t wants as much money as they can get and they schedual more jobs then the techs can handle. We are not at fault when we are late so please dont blame us we just hit a button and the computer gives us the next most urgent job. Bob whats with these lies about At&t giving us GPS again are you Drunk to, they put GPS on our trucks so they can watch everything we do from using a turn signal to wether or not our truck is idle its not the kind that guides us places.
Just so everyone knows BOB is not a prem tech its not possiable no chance he probally helped develop uverse or something cause he has no clue what hes talking about.
If you order uverse let the tech come out ask them questions your not going to get charged if u cancel after they arrive honestly we really are the only ones who know the truth about uverse. Good luck to anyone getting it and to everyone who canceled it I’m sorry about your bad experiences
I can top you all! We got U-Verse in 12/08. We loved it! Great picture, great quality. We bought a large screen HD tv and blu-ray player. So happy to get away from Charter. End of May, 2009, everything went out. Raul (tech I spoke to) told me they were performing maintenance in my area and it would be up soon. Had my husband call a few hours later and techs were dispatched to our house. I spent the next 72 hours with technicians at my house and the all said “it should have never been installed, it should have never worked and it won’t work now – you’re too far from the box”. How did they not know this when they set me up? Well they did and didn’t tell us. I overran my wireless minutes because my telephone was part of the U-Verse package. I had to call Charter back to get service. Took 2 weeks. ATT would not pay for my install fee as they “were not forcing me to go to another carrier”. Really – they couldn’t provide me the service I contracted for and had for 6 months. I do think it’s their fault.
I am a uverse tier 2 technician. I can vouch for all of your problems and can simply state that it is the absolute most trash service in the entire world.
We are understaffed. over worked. and yelled at by understandably irate customers 10 hours a day. We spend 90% of our shift fixing things that the tier 1 outsourced moron technicians and the genious install technicians break.
I hate uverse. and i Hate at&t.
Your loving caring (and fully functional) tier 2 support
-anonymous
I am a genious prem tech but i can tell you that the main problem with uverse is the ignorance of reel problems and bad management , we have a lot of problems every day with lines , I&R and systeme outages,and with your help we have to satisfied customer with all this kind of problems.
We work 6 days a week 12 hours a day and some times we spend 6 hours a day just waiting for I&R ti show up and get sync for us.We dont have any break time and we suppose to clean all the jobs in the hole area 100 miles west and east north and south, immagine if you have to 3.5 hours to finsih installation of 2 tvs internet, with all those problems and driving time is include , that mean the company make some curious normes to everybody to make miracles but unfourtounly the customer pay result.
By the way.
The sales people that work for AT&T have absolutely NOOOOO technical knowledge about the product.
The limit on a customers line is 3000 Ft from the box. The reason is that it is a DSL line. nothing more.
It is called attenuation. and the sales reps will to you left and right to make that commision. Meanwhile we (tier 2) have to time and time again explain somehow to a customer that there is absolutely nothing we can do. This is absolutely 100% the truth. were not lying. were not lazy. We literally cannot do anything what so ever if that happens.
Im not lying when i say the tier 2 agents take care of 100% of the customers and 95% of the issues. The other departments are lazy, incompitent and just utterly embarrasing.
And I thought I was the only one having problems with U-Verse!
Though it’s small consolation knowing so many others are having the same problems I’m having…
I signed up for U-Verse 8 months ago- and it’s been nothing but problems ever since! Interestingly enough, it’s never been the same problem twice- the variety of problems is truly amazing! A veritable smorgasbord of defective product, dreadful service, and all-around incompetency. And ALL of these difficulties are seemingly caused by A LOOSE WIRE! That’s what I’ve heard countless times from AT&T!! No TV? Loose wire! No internet? Loose wire! No TV AND internet? 2 loose wires! DVR needs to be replaced. “Residential Gateway” needs to be replaced. The world is being overrun by loose wires, apparently!
I live in a condo complex, and unfortunately, AT&T is my only choice for internet- believe me, if I had a choice, I would drop U-Verse in an instant. By far the worst purchased service I have ever had the misfortune of using.
I installed U-Verse in my home about a year ago and have to say it was the best decision I have ever made. Now I will say this my wife and I do not watch enough T.V to validate a cable bill so we just got the internet service. In short it totally rocks super fast speed, easy to network, and finally a wireless router provided by the carrier that actually gets some range.
On another note if you want to save money and watch TV sparingly get a Digital Antenna (Home Depot $50.00) and pick up the new local stations all sorts of interesting things to watch now that the signal is all digital and for movies get a Roku player (Online $130.00) and a Netflix account for $9.00 a month. You might find you get everything you get from Cable and spend a fraction of the price.
AT&T’s customer service is unionized. The purpose of the union is to make the company’s labor force less efficient each and every time the contract comes up. To try and make up for that, you get crappy automation. Eventually customers bail and go to the competition.
We ordered Uverse at the beginning of June. AT&T couldn’t send an install tech for three weeks, but I was excited about the product, so I was very accepting. Took the afternoon off from work so I could be at home for the install. The tech did nothing but check the line, tell me he couldn’t do the install at the moment, but that he *might* be back later that afternoon. (WTF does that mean??) Ofcourse, he didn’t return. I spent 4 days calling AT&T trying to find out the status of my order before somebody told me they had fixed “my” problem, and they were rescheduling for FOUR WEEKS LATER!!
I pulled my wireless accounts, local service, everything – ran straight back to Charter.
I live in Midland, TX. I have lived here nearly my entire life; however, last year we made the mistake of moving to the City’s edge.
We are still inside the city of Midland, but there are no cable service providers where we live. In the past we have had both Grande and Suddenlink and today I am sitting here kicking myself for any complaints I may have had with these companies.
When we first moved we had Direct TV for TV service and AT&T DSL. However every time the weather got bad the TV would drop out and stop working.
The DSL was great, we never really had problems with it back then. Which was surprising because we are heavy web users, at any given point we will have at least 4 live connections to our modem if not more. We have a desktop, a laptop, a Wii, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Playstation Portable, and Two Palm smart devices all connected to our DSL WiFi. When we first started with AT&T we just had the 6Mbps package and it was speedy and reliable.
The Direct TV was awful so we cancelled it and began to use the internet to download our favorite TV programs onto our XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 to watch them. This worked out great… for a few months.
About three months ago our AT&T DSL started to drop off a lot. This is something in the industry that we call packet loss. Even when we were hard wired into the modem/router out of desperation (which it was a mess running Ethernet lines all over the house) we still had the problem.
Occasionally we would lose so many packets that websites wouldn’t load at all. This also made it impossible for us to continue to use video on demand services to watch our favorite shows. It was around this time that we started to get phone calls, mailers, and emails telling us to Join AT&T U-Verse. Offering us these awesome prices, telling us to enter the coupon code and it all sounded so great.
Around that time we were also having problems with our AT&T DSL line at my place of business. When the technician came out he gave me an “employee referral promo code” and some awesome prices on the U-Verse package that were way cheaper than what we had been paying. I also had a promo code in an email that AT&T sent me. I talked to my fiance’ and it was settled. We were going to get U-Verse.
That is where the problems began. We got our promo codes together and called AT&T U-Verse to get service set up. The woman on the phone was not American and it was extremely difficult to understand her. What we did understand is that the promo codes could only be used on the website. So we went to the website. It had a convenient place to plug in the promo codes. The website said that it could not find the promo codes. So we called back and got another non-American that we could not understand. She also could not take promo codes.
That day we just gave up. We discussed it the next day and decided to just pay full price for the service because we really missed seeing our TV shows. So we go to the website and it is very self explanatory. We enroll in the top of the line 18Mbps internet package with the U300 TV package, We added the HD and HD premium tier, and told it that we would need two receivers. I took a screenshot of the final order page. The total promotional price for six months of service monthly would be $149.00. We ordered our service on June 2nd. The earliest they could come install the service was June 20th.
So the waiting began. Finally the day came. When the technician arrived he asked why we were paying signed up for U-Verse if we did not want any receivers. I told him that we signed up for two and showed him the screenshot and he told us that was incorrect and that we must have removed them. He then informed me that if we want TV service on two TVs that it would be $14 extra dollars a month. I wanted him to install it then so I didn’t have to wait another 3 weeks for him to come back so I agreed to the extra $14 bringing our total monthly services up to $163 before tax during our promotional period.
While the technician was here I showed him the problems I was having with the internet and he told me that he had no idea why it would do that and told me to call U-Verse. Shortly after the technician left the problems with the internet worsened. We would have to refresh pages to get them to load all the images or load at all constantly. The TV would drop sound, image, or both frequently. When watching movies two-thirds of the way into the movie the movie would stop and a message would come up saying the program you have selected is not available. We would rest our modem and then reset our boxes and it would not work.
So we called U-Verse, and 3 days later they sent out a “senior field technician” to look into our problems because the people on the phone did not understand what we were having problems with because their English was so poor. The senior field technician couldn’t even be called a technician. He openly admitted that he isn’t familiar with the internet or computers and that he doesn’t have a computer at home. What was even more surprising is that he didn’t even know that the internet service we had was DSL he honestly thought we had cable through AT&T. After walking around the house aimlessly for about 20 minutes he asked me where the U-Verse was located and came in and plugged his laptop into our modem and ran some speed tests showing speeds between 3Mbps and 17Mbps on various websites. He loaded ESPN.com a few times and told us he could not do anything else because we had not had our service for 10 days yet.
More Waiting. Today it has been 37 days since I have ordered service and 19 days since the service was installed. I took the afternoon off from work to come home and deal with AT&T. I spent four hours on the phone dealing with people who do not speak English or know what I telling them. I was hung up on twice because they had to transfer me and instead they would transfer me to a busy signal. None of them could run this special latency test after 10 days of service and they told me that if I wanted the channels I was already paying extra for that I would need to pay $4 more.
I called again and cried and begged to talk to someone in advanced technical support who spoke English but there was no-one. They told me this would be a job for their “senior field technician” and I explained that I have already had one out and he told me I would have to talk to them. It fell on deaf ears.
My internet is so latent that If I load Google.com 10 times it will only load completely 7 out of 10 times and 2 times it will not load at all. Google.com is a simples site, don’t even get me started on youtube.com, gizmodo.com, or any other website I care about.
Why am I writing this? Because a good many of you have cable service through Grande and Suddenlink. I am sure you have seen the ads for U-Verse and maybe even considered it. But what you need to ask yourself is are truly ready to pay more for less? The concept of U-Verse is awesome, if it consistently worked I would recommend it. It goes beyond cable in many ways. But it rarely works. Then, when I need someone to help me, there is no one there. No one that speaks English fully, no one from the United States.
I do not even have the phone service. The hidden fees are killing me, the service is so costly. I am locked into this contract, with no way out, no help. NO ONE WILL LISTEN OR HELP ME.
I wish I had Grande or Suddenlink as an option. Literally a block south of me they are available, but we live in a new development where we have no choices. For those of you that have a choice. Do not choose U-Verse, if you do not regret it now you will when you see your bill or when you have your first problem.
I had the worst expieriance with them also. after a year of their crap service I went back to my old cable company. I can’t believe these Idiots think they provide good service. I am so mad that I even made them remove the phone line they attached to my house. They originally didn’t want to do it untill I told them they would be out here to fix the neighbors service after I remove they line myself. Can’t wait for trouble free service from my new provider. I plan to cancell my cell phone next from them.
Incredible. Uverse is the biggest farce I’ve seen promoted in years. I rely on my internet connection for work, and I cannot get through 30 minutes without freezing and losing my connections. And it is getting worse byu the day. I has DSL with AT&T prior to this with no problems, so I thought Uverse was the next logical step. WRONG!!!
MY ADVICE: STAY AWAY FROM U-VERSE AT ALL COSTS! IT IS A COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY.
I wish I had known that before I ordered Uverse 6 months ago, it’s been a pain in the neck, system turns off, DVR service does not work, CSPs lie, I’ve had techs come out 8 or 9 times, DVR /HD receiver replaced 5 times and they still can’t figure what the problem is
Never mind the voicemail system you have to go through to try to get to somebody
Does anybody know the corporate number?
I have nevre seen that poor of a service, and I thought Comcast was bad…. Comcast starts to look like the dream service compared to ATT Uverse.
Time to do something about this, since it’s almost impossible to talk to anybody who cares at ATT, let’s all twitter is and blog it on Facebook, myspace and any other social networks we can broadcast, maybe they will listen.
At&T Uverse is the worst TV/internet provider I could ever imagine. I could write a book about its faults, but for now all I have to say is shame on you, AT&T. I’m seriously considering cancelling my AT&T iPhone service (which I love) just to spite these sorry AT&T S.O.B.s. Worst customer service, worst television service (HD on only 2 TVs… WTF? Oh, and the picture quality is far worse than Cox Cable) and the internet/wireless router is piss poor. I am in my bedroom 15′ away from my wireless Uverse router and the signal keeps going in and out. ‘Nuff said.
Dealing with AT&T is my most horrible experience ever. From the date of installation, I kind of sense that I have to put up with this group of unprofessional slakers for the months to come. First, they did not show up for the appointment which I had to take off from work early. Then they rescheduled to the second day, and again, did not show up all up. At this point I was way to upset and called AT&T that I don’t even want their service anymore. It was only just installation and it appeared they don’t even care to have any additional customer anyway. Then the rep put me on hold for about 30 minutes while he tracked down the technician who supposed to be in my house. Finally 2 more hours later, about 6pm (supposed to show up at 10am), someone came and set it up….. Who konws this is just the beginning of a nightmare.
Last Saturday 7/18, there was a severe thunderstorm in Houston area and we experienced power outage. After that, the DVR stopped working. We followed the self-diagnosed steps suggested on AT&T’s website and still got to nowhere. We called AT&T on 7/19 and the customer service rep when through exactly the same steps we just did and still can’t fixed the DVR. Then, she said she’s going to send a technician to our house the next day between 4 to 9pm. That’s fine….as long as he comes.
Then the next day 7/20, did not show up at all during the appointment time. Someone call around 7pm said the technician is running late and if we dont’ want to wait, we can reschedule. I told them we will wait as long as he’s willing to come. We waited till 10pm, not even a phone call from AT&T to offer reschedule. We have to call AT&T and went through that stupid voice answering system again to finally get to someone. Then they rescheduled to the next day between 4 to 9pm again.
The next day 7/21, to no one’s surprise, they did not show up again. And this time, there’s no one even bother to give us a call saying they are running late or just don’t want to come.
On 7/22, I called AT&T ONCE AGAIN asked them if they even want to have me as a customer. If not, I would like to go ahead cancel my account because my time is way more valuable than theirs. This time, they said the job order is rescheduled to today between 4 to 9pm and he has confirmed with the dispatcher that they will definitely show up. What do you think? I doubt they will. I already make up my mind to cancel. The service was only installed on May 7th, and if I have to go through this every time there’s something wrong, I would rather live a life with no TV.
I’ve had Uverse for over 1 yr now, no issues, no problems. Overall we’ve had a good experience.
My results with AT&T seem on par with everybody else’s experiences. First off, I’ll give a little background.
I was living in Houston until November of 2008. One of the guys I worked with had AT&T U-verse; he mentioned a few problems, but overall said it was a decent service. A few days later, I got laid off. I then found a job in Midland, Texas.
I’ll try to keep the dates correct, but this has been going on for a while now and I didn’t start cataloguing these events by date until recently. Any time I refer to the date, I am positive that was the exact date.
And so it begins…
Mid March (Somewhere around the 20th): I find a nice, new apartment on the outskirts of Midland. AT&T has an exclusivity contract with the apartment, so they are the only internet provider. (For the unaware, the only way to get an exclusivity contract on a phone line is to be the private company that installs them. If the government lays the lines, they are public and ANY chartered phone company can use them.) I give my apartment permission to let AT&T to call me. A sales rep calls a few days later. He is polite, takes my information, and sets an install date for April 4th.
A few days later: He calls back. There was some problem with the computer. He lost all of my information and has to take it again. I give it to him and he enters it into the computer. Unfortunately, my installation window is gone and the earliest weekend appointment he can set me up for is April 18. I’m irritated, but I agree to it.
Early in week of April 12th-18th: ATT sends me their flyer showing the people on the rollercoaster telling me to get ready. The service date is shown, but I don’t pay any attention to it, thinking it would be correct (it is). They also send a piece of paper with the instillation PIN on it.
The next day: I get another rollercoaster postcard in the mail and drop it on my desk next to the other one. When I do this, I notice that the other card had a different date. The previous day’s card correctly indicates April 18th; today’s card indicates the 16th. I call AT&T and go through the automated system for the first time. It takes a few minutes; I end up with an AT&T rep that has to transfer me to a U-Verse tech. I talk to him for a while; he doesn’t know why there is a problem but knows there is absolutely nothing he can do to fix it. I don’t ask to talk to his manager, but I probably should have. Finally, I’ve had enough of his BS, and, when he offers to reschedule, I say “no” since I have no clue when I am going to be in town because I am busy for the next several weekends. I cancel the appointment for the 16th.
Week of April 19th-25th: I find out when my next available weekend end is and call back to schedule the installation. Again, I go through the irritating automated system and finally get to a human with AT&T. She transfers me to the correct department and I wait on hold for a few more minutes. She is very courteous and takes my information again. I’m now set for installation on May 23rd.
A few days later: I get another PIN letter and another install date notice. This one is correct. A few days later, I get another PIN letter and another install date notice. It is also correct.
May 23rd: I get up, eat breakfast, and hang around my apartment. The technician is supposed to be here between 8:00 and 10:00. At 11:00, I call AT&T. Again, I wind up with someone who has to transfer me to the U-Verse department. I talk to her for awhile; she puts me on hold to talk to dispatch. Every two or three minutes she chimes back in and apologizes for the delay. Finally, after about thirty minutes on hold, she says she has to transfer me to the sales department. She transfers me and I get a busy signal.
I call back and get a different operator. I tell her I need to speak to her manager. She tries to run me through the same stuff again, but I ignore her. She tells me the manager is busy. I stay on the line and finally he answers. I explain how I was disconnected, that AT&T has now missed three appointments. He puts me on hold for a few minutes, comes back and tells me that everybody in the department he needs to speak to is at lunch. He takes my number and says he will call me back by 2:00.
At 3:00, I call AT&T back. Of course, I can’t get in touch with the manager I spoke to earlier, and having his first name really is not much help. I talk to another manager. He says he’ll call back.
At roughly 6:30, I get a call from the sales department. It’s not either of the guys I’ve talked to earlier, but he seems pretty knowledgeable. He tries to fix the problem for another 30 minutes before saying he’ll get back to me on Monday the 25th.
Monday the 25th: He doesn’t call.
Tuesday the 26th: Same thing.
Later that week, I call back again and try to schedule another appointment. They inform me this can’t be done because my service was installed in March. Talking to the rep, we discover that the problem is caused by my service address not being entered correctly. My billing address is my apartment number; my service address is the apartment’s front office. She does not know how to fix it, but goes back in forth between “engineering” and sales to fix the problem. They assure her that reentering my account information will solve the problem. She opens another account and retakes my information. They can’t install it during the next few weekends. I have a conference in Houston June 20th – 27th, and I’m traveling on July 4th weekend. I schedule for July 11th.
July 5th: The AT&T computer calls me and tell me that my instillation is confirmed for July 11th.
July 9th – late afternoon: The AT&T computer calls me again and says that there is a problem with my information and we may need to reschedule. It thanks me for choosing AT&T.
July 10th: I call AT&T again. I get my best telephone-tag runaround with them yet. I get routed to Ohio’s AT&T U-verse. That guy says he will transfer me to the correct department. He transfers me back to the automated queue. I could have done that by hanging up and redialing.
I run through the automated system again, and it transfers me to a human. This is the first time I actually get the AT&T U-Verse person before going to somebody from AT&T not affiliated with U-Verse. Unfortunately, it’s a hollow victory since I got transferred to Ohio first.
We talk for several minutes and I explain that the address is wrong. She points out that I already have DSL service according to her computer. I don’t. She says that it is likely caused by an old tenant not canceling his or her service. I point out that the apartment I am at is brand new. There are ten different buildings and I am only the second resident in my building. They opened it up less than a week before I moved in. This goes on for awhile and she tells me there is nothing she can do to get the service technicians out to my apartment the next day. All she can do is “escalate” the problem. She says I will hear back from them in a few days.
July 13th: I get a call from a U-Verse rep saying they’ve scheduled my installation for July 24th. Who chose this date is beyond me; but I point out that I have a job and explain everything that has happened to date. I give her the same spiel about the connection and she says she will have to call me back.
July 14th: Another person calls me to confirm my install date of July 24th. He is unaware of the previous day’s conversation and I again explain the events.
July 23rd: I have not bothered to cancel the previous instillation date. A few of my friends are driving through and are crashing at my apartment for the weekend. They will be there on the 23rd. In the end, it does not actually matter. In the afternoon, the AT&T computer calls me again and tells me it may need to reschedule. It apologizes and thanks me.
July 24th: I pretty much give up on AT&T. I check out DirecTV for the television, and I am dealing with the fact that I will never get internet.
July 27th: An AT&T rep calls me to confirm my installation date of August 12th. Again, I have no idea what hat they pulled that date out of. I tell him that I am not taking off of work since they have now missed 5 installation appointments. He checks the record and finds out that I have 5 different accounts with AT&T, all at the same address. He then points out that every one of them has DSL. He then tells me that he has to report this to the FCC because it is not legal to have multiple DSL connections at the same address. I’m trying to avoid laughing at how ridiculous this entire thing is. I regain my composure and explain everything that has happened. He tells me that he can’t help with the problem, but can give me the number of the people who can. He gives me the automated queue number again, and I tell him that if I have to make another call to AT&T, it will be to cancel the service. After several more minutes of that threat, he gives me his personal assurance that he would take care of it and call be back by the end of the day.
July 28th: Please notice that July 28th is not the same day as July 27th. Hence, when my phone rings at 10:30, I am actually somewhat surprised to see the same AT&T U-Verse number I’ve seen before. I am guessing that maybe he decided to call me back.
Nope.
It is the computer, saying we may need to reschedule. It apologizes and thanks me for choosing AT&T.
Tomorrow, I’m canceling the “service.”
On Thursday I am filing complaints with the BBB and the FCC.
We just installed AT&T Uverse two weeks ago when we moved into another home in our same neighborhood. We’d had Comcast HD cable and Internet for more than 3 years.
So far, we think Uverse is great. The installation guy called the morning of the install to ask if he could come EARLY. Good thing he did, as it took more than 5 hours to complete the install. He was great. Knowledgeable and coureous. I suspect he understands the tech support problems because when he left, he gave me his card, told me what hours he worked, and suggested that I call him directly if I have any problems. I haven’t needed to call yet, but it was a nice gesture.
Picture quality seems similar to what we had on Comcast. I knew I wasn’t going to be happy with the default “pro” Internet package (3mbps down), so I upgraded to the “elite” (6mbps down) for an extra $5/month. We’re averaging 3 to 5 mbps download: not bad.
The totalDVR is pretty slick. Record from any room. playback in any room. Very cool how I can schedule or erase shows from an iPhone app or a web browser.
Where I echo the complaints above is that having to call the 800 number for support is an absolutely miserable experience. As long as things stay up and running, I’m hoping to avoid the experience as much as possible. If we end up with reliability/quality problems, I’ll probably head back to Comcast (which we really liked, too).
I think we lucked out with the installation, and the installation guy seems pretty good. Looks like that makes a big difference.
AT&T’s systems are definitely messed up: so I can understand how, once things go awry, that frustrations mount quickly.
I don’t get the above complaint about getting prepaid boxes to return the equipment and having to go to the post office. What’s the big deal? When I cancelled my Comcast service I had to physically drive the equipment back to the closest service center (45 minute drive) and then stand in line for an hour. Seems like being able to drop them off at the local post office would be a win.
So, far I’d give AT&T pretty good marks.
Good luck everybody!
After reading all the comments trashing Uverse, I almost canceled my order, but my hatred of Comcast won out. So far, I am delighted with Uverse. The installers, two, came twice right on time, and explained what they were doing, were courteous and gave me their cards to call them directly. The TV part works fine and the Internet is a lot faster than the DSL I had. In the process, I got the hard wired land line for $30 with unlimited long distance. My only complaint is that Uverse in our area comes with only one PBS channel, when Comcast had two or more, with each station broadcasting on several channels. I hope they fix that.
I think it all has to do with how far you are from the fiber optic node. I was 2900 ft away and the limit is about 3500.
And it is always compared to what. Comcast doubled the charges and reduced service. Even returning the cable box to Comcast was awful. An hour wait to deal with just two surly clerks behind bullet proof glass. (I can understand the need for that, since the line of irritated customers was way out the door.
So far, so good with Uverse
Hate Hate Hate my Uverse package. Technicians come and go. Tv and computers always freezing up. I had to wait for not 1 but 2 technicians today who were both late and I still am unable to watch TV. They have been here so many times I want to scream. Last time I waited for the tech and they ended up arriving the next day. who has time to sit around and wait for this crap? Do not order it if you want to keep your sanity. Little TV program then freeze again and again.
Mary Witherell
We’ve had our Uverse for about 6 weeks now and find it is a big improvement over our DirecTV which would lose signal any time it rained or got real overcast. We are less than 1000′ from the Uverse DSLAM box so the install technician got a reading of over 60mbps which gives us a real stable signal.
There were some initial installation problems because our install occurred during a week where ATT was upgrading their software that communicated with the set-top boxes. It took 2 days to get all 4 boxes working, but they didn’t start the billing clock until the install was completely functional.
The biggest problem I had which I was unaware of was that Uverse and DSL cannot run separately to the same location. I have my business located in a building next to my home and all the lines run to the house first. Two days AFTER the Uverse install was completed, my DSL, which was on my business line billed separately from my home phone, just quit working. I called ATT and found out that they had submitted a DSL disconnect order because they couldn’t coexist. I asked why they worked properly for 2 days and they couldn’t answer that. After many hours on the phone for 2 more days, an ATT supervisor finally took my suggestion that we call my business building a “separate location” and allow the DSL to be reconnected without putting it on the Uverse account. I could have just let them put it on the Uverse account, but I prefer to pay for the DSL through the business. I already had all my computers and networking set up and didn’t want to rewire my network into the Uverse Gateway.
About 2 weeks after our install, ATT rolled out an upgrade which allows recording to the DVR from any TV in the house, which eliminated having to run downstairs whenever we wanted to record a show. That’s one thing I like about Uverse, they can push upgrades directly to our boxes without us having to do anything.
I’ll admit I haven’t spent much time on the phone with Uverse Tech Support, so I can’t comment on their capabilities. My DSL problems were handled by a DSL supervisor, not a Uverse person. Hopefully, they have gotten most of the bugs out of the system because it is a gret concept as long as it is implemented properly.
That’s great for you. Many customers are not 1000 ft. away from the nearest AT&T station and as a result experience line capacity issues.
If AT&T wants to offer U-verse as a product then they should address their line issues. People, don’t fall for their claims for having fiber optic lines. It does not translate into anything. Bottom line is that often they can not carry Two HD stream ad the DVR/ set top box is designed to do.
AT&T U-verse tech support is awful as well. They told me he was going to arrive between 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM and he never showed up. So, I called them and they said that he was running a little late and that he would arrive an hour late. Two and a half hour later, the tech called me and told me that he had only gotten the ticket an hour ago and that there was no real point in him coming over. Basically, we sat at home for 7 hours when we could have been out doing stuff.
I have dealt with Comcast, Dish Network and U-verse and I’d have to say that , by far, U-verse offers the worse product and services.
I have had the displeasure of subscribing to U-verse and experiencing numerous technical difficulties. They just can’t seem to fix it. Now they’re recommending lowering our profile which means we lose one of our two HD streams which really sucks and to make matters worse they expect us to continue to pay the same fees. Bull crap!!! I’m dropping U-verse TV, internet and phone.
Yeah at&t does suck. But if you want an iphone you can always run it on t-mobile.
U-verse is crap.! it freezes up all the time both TV and Internet. I am getting rid of it for good.
Now I am a Uverse Tech In Houston TX I install in Friendswood, Alvin, Manvel Areas This what U-Verse is Really Made Of After This Do Your Research And Look up What Iam Saying. Uverse has fiber optics wheater it is directly to your house or to a serving terminal. Now If you live In a 3yr old Neighborhood that recently got uverse active 6 out of 10 you may have fiber optics straight to your house if not it hits a serving terminal then goes to your house across the actual phone line.Now If you have fiber an you will now a tech will come out ethier befor or at the same time with the uverse tech to install and bond the fiber optics to your house along with a back up battery usaully newer house have cat5 and coax cable which cat5 cable works well with the uverse but coax also works great there is no digration in signal on is not faster then the other they both work at same speed so forget the hype. Now the older sub division that are close to 70 yrs old gets complicated thats were distance issues come into play pretty much if you are more as of right now until we fix this problem 3400ft away it you can just forget about uverse and in the future it it will eventually be available every were. now inside wiring if a customer has a none grounded house uverse will not work up to par as it does in newer home then the customer would have to get the house grounded which anyway is required by law with the nec (national electric code) if your house was just to be randomly check buy the city if they go to that aspect you could be fine for a unsafe hazard and the reason we look for a ground in the actual house is that our system use a lot of back feeding electrcal current so when excessive voltage is on the line the ground gets rid of this so if you haave a older home and you have problems with uverse this is a posiblity. Now some people say well comcast doesnt check for this nor does dish r direct. Lets clear up the confusion and tell why the reason why is that comcast grounded at the meter box befor it enters the house will this may raise a question will why dont we do that and we do but the difference between us and comcast is that there equipment does not communicate with all the divces in the house why we require in the house to be grounded so you can only have one dvr and watch recordings in any room with no problems. Now Dish and Direct Iused to work for Direct so i have past hands on in cable tv but they also ground at the meter box but this is something they are getting ready to start checking if you wounder why your box goes out and the tech comes and pulls out a burned card you need to check your electrcal and also is one day you touch the coner of the box and you get that little zap you have a problem. Now that beyond that fact if you dont have compressed fittings this is with any company you will have signal loss but this not your falt this the actual installer part so yes every company hase lazy techs that don change out twisted on fittings and crimped fittings with the compressed and this is also a problem. Now for the smart guy how was talking about 1080 and HD and SD vewing now i also worke for sears in my teenage years and worked in electronics but if you actually look and read what tv your getting instead of looking at prices then you would now if you buy a 1080p tv right now that no television programing is actually broadcasting in 1080p so if you dont have a blu ray player and a movie that has a rating of 1080p then you have wasted an extra 100 to 200 dollars because you payed for style not production now also what plays a role in a good lcd, led, plama is the hertz the mor hertz the sharp and more vibrant the pic is now i have installed many customers and since ive been with uverse none of them have canceled they have my number and if they have a question iam at the door the next day to show them a new feature so after al this that is being said and some should agree if it is more 40 60 40 on the customer 60 on the tech the reason i say this is becouse 40 is for the customer not calling reading the starter kit that we send in the mail just going off of word of mouth and also not knowing the standards of their own equipment. Now the 60 goes against us for first not taking the time to walk threw with the customer and explain what is going on talk with you guys before we get started which is on us now 30% of my customers have looked at blogs and still tried uverse out and when they till me that this is what i say all it takes is one person to ruin your veiw of a company to make you get that impression that it sucks but i tell you this having a bad attuide toward the next person gets you no where and makes the problem worse but i say this i am a install tech and a go to tech so if you have uverse an 5 people have been out there in three days our more in some cases i agree that some cases we f up but some times and with every provider will say the same we have people in the world who like to experiment and dont listen but more it is just a comunication problem between us and the custome Here is my personal email i have no problem answering questions even if you have uverse are if you plan on getting uverse iam welling to help to me if i can help a few then you guys can see that we r not all the same quenton2006@yahoo.com
Advanced Tech my Ass, you Suck as well as AT&T.
Att by far is the worst company I have ever dealt with. They do not know their ass from their elbow and it is no wonder why everyone seems to hate them. I am still being billed for an account that I have not had for over eight months. When I try to get in touch with some one they transfer me to the wrong area. I was on transfers for over 40 minutes only to get no one who could help. Hey but they “understand” which makes it so much better. CLassic customer service 101 answer. I am very responsible and now I am in collections because att are truly a bunch of idiots. What should I do? Is there a number to call corporate to yell and scream at? An att hotline? Better Business Bureau? Which way do I go as I can not get this resolved with att?
We are existing AT&T DSL customers and AT&T Wireless… imagine my surprise and frustration when trying to sign up for U-Verse I was told I have to cxl my DSL first then call back to schedule an installation date. I was told there is no way around this I even spoke to a supervisor who told me the same… I heard a lot of “I can’t” on that call and have asked for the next level up which is usually an Area Manager to call me back.
Clearly their information tells you “You can prevent interruption of your TV/Internet service if you wait to contact your previous provide until AFTER we install your AT&T U-Verse service.”
Not even a U-Verse customer yet and already having horrible service??? You would think with the economy as bad as it is they would be more accommodating and willing to take our money.
However after this horrible customer service experience and over 2 million google results for AT&T sucking they have lost any chance at getting our money for U-Verse and we are going to start looking for a new wireless provider and internet as well.
Thanks for this information!!!
Great stuff!!…..Very interesting blog….Thanks a lot. This is hdtv reviews blog.It’s definitely everything for HDTV
Do not get AT&T Uverse under any circumstances. My phone has been highjacked, and has been unusable for 2 weeks. I am unable to find ANYONE at AT&T who can solve the problem or who even knows what the problem is. I have spoken to 18 different people and been on the phone for more than 6 hours. Their customers service is a COMPLETE DISASTER.
How can we get everyone who has the terrible AT&T U- Verse, to cancel, God I wish we could all put them out of Business forever. You should check out all the neg. credit reports that people have who have never even used AT&T.
Thousands of people have bad credit because of AT&T.
They SUCK SUCK!!!!!! Never use AT&T for anything.
We’ve had ATT Uverse for about two years. When we first got it, it seemed to work great. After I noticed more people in our neighborhood getting it, we started getting a freezing problem where the cable and internet would freeze for a few seconds up to a few minutes and we would just miss the show while the service froze up for that time.
It seems to be worse on weekends, like when a lot of people are using their internet/cable. It is SO frustrating. I’ve called customer service, they’ve been out here 3 different times to fix it, and they’ve been responsive and nice, but the problem is they never fix it. They try something, say they cleared the errors, and then the freezing continues. Even as I tried to search the internet for “ATT uverse freezing” just now, my internet froze. It has gone beyond annoying and frustrating. If you really want ATT uverse, I highly recommend getting a direct line into the tech services. I now have the cell phone # of one of the tech services people who come out and his manager. Even though they can’t seem to fix the problem, at least I don’t have to go through annoying menus and talk to clueless people at the first line of Customer Support.
Bottom line is, ATT Uverse can’t seem to scale their service to the # of people they are signing up and selling this to. The more people who get this service in our neighborhood, the more our own service sucks. One of the only reasons I am keeping it for now is because I can watch my recorded shows on different TVs in the house. As soon as our other cable provider offers that, I’m switching and getting the hell out of ATT Uverse.
Att sucks,
3 weeks to get incredibly slow dsl moved to my new address. 21 phone calls 22 hours of my life stolen from me I have the slowest internet service ever finally installed and they charged me $40 for the priveledge of having 22 hours of my life stolen from me by ATT. I can’t even watch a video on youtube because it keeps stopping to load. I call for hour 23 and am told I have to wait for a supervisor to call back who of course never calls back. Did I mention I had to have the service at my old address shut off 3 times because each order to turn it on at the new address they instead turned it on at the old address I moved out of and cannot, of course, turn it on at the new address while it is on at the old address. I had to shut off my old phone number and my old slow dsl account and get a new year contract to get these incompetent thieving pieces of shit to turn it on at the new address after the 3 weeks and 20 phone calls and 2 tech visits to my home and being told it was in the central office after the last tech and they were working on it to call and find out it was never sent to the central office. Every phone call a lie and transfered to a department that transfered me back to the first department. every phone call a minimum of 1 hour of my time and 3 departments and 3 phone trees, these people should be put in jail.
I don’t have any problems with the quality of u-verse, but I have a serious problem with the “sports package.” When I originally ordered this service, I was torn between DirectTV and u-verse. I am a big Seattle fan, and living on the east coast, I NEVER get to see any games unless I stream them online in very poor quality.
When I ordered u-verse, the guy made it sound like the u-verse sports package was nearly as good as NFL Ticket. COmplete and utter bull. I don’t get any more NFL games than I do on regular cable. There are the local games, and that’s it. The sports package added a bunch of sports “alternate” channels, that are always just blank. This is really disappointing for me, because if I would have known this, I would have just gotten DirectTv and their awesome NFL package.
I have had ATT for over a year now and have had nothing but problems with the cable and internet freezing on a daily basis. I have had 5 techs come out to replace routers, outside cable rewire and replaced some faulty box outside. This does not include the one tech that never showed up or even gave a curtocy call-that would have made 6 techs. Its after all that I just get so fed up and can actually break down and commit to 30 min or more on the phone with tech support and an entire day to have them send out a tech that will do nothing that helps solve the problem. When I call they are able to pull up the more than 40 errors they have seen and I have yet to receive any credit to compensate me for my time and inconvenience. Their bills keep coming and they expect payment. I want to be clear when I say that on a daily basis I am not able to watch a single 30 min program without the picture freezing several times for minutes at a time. This also freezes the internet as well. It will on occasion freeze for hours on a weekly basis. I cant believe I am not seeing more people voicing this same problem. That would have made me shy away from this service. Can someone please advise on a service that works. Thanks for all-
Jen
I have had Uverse for over a year now. It is absolutely!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the best service I have ever had. I have friends and relatives that are eager for the service to become available in their areas. I even had a relative tell me she decided on one of the two apartments she was going to rent, by determining which one offered Uverse.
LOVE IT!!
I have a dilemma…how do I condense the entirety of my horrific experience with AT&T Uverse into something readable and not 15 pages long??? I have had this “service” for a mere month, and have had nothing but major problems. Bonus, they even farked up my house!!!
Here it is in a nutshell: Install guy spends 3 hours hooking up Uverse in my new house when previous owner already had it. He leaves w/o telling me what the red and green flashing light mini WOPR box is. Didn’t program Uverse remote properly, so had to go online to look up remote codes. After 2 weeks, picture deteriorates to the point of being unwatchable (see above…frozen picture for 5-10 minutes, pixelation, LSD-esque trailers on screen, sound in and out, etc…). Call at least 3 times to Barbados, or the Bahamas, or whatever Carribean country the call center is located, with no resolution to problems. Of course I was promised a call-back during one of the conversations, which never materialized.
Finally, after much begging and pleading (and sobbing into the phone), Jamaican phone lady dispatches tech guy to the premises. Tech guy shows up at 11:55 during my 8-12 window, proceeds to actually fix picture, but alas, there’s a catch! Apparently the cable from the utility pole to my house is “substandard”, and needs to be upgraded. Such technical terms as “two old copper wires” and “new copper wires are braided and are better” was used to convince me that this procedure needed to happen.
This is where the fun starts. Apparently it’s Line Guy that has to do this work, but line guy and tech guy don’t communicate, so tech guy will write “the ticket” and line guy will then arrive at his leisure. But somehow, *I* have to be home for line guy, because he has to access my garage. But line guy is supposed to call tech guy, but apparently they rarely do. AND(!!!) line guy does not make appointments, so tech guy will just hope line guy calls him and then he will quickly call me so I can immediately drop what I’m doing and rush home to be present for his holiness, Sir Line Guy. Of course I’m not home when line guy shows up 2 days later (a day after tech guy assured me he would arrive), so line guy does his thing and then vanishes without a trace. But of course line guy has succeeded in knocking my cable out of service. But in all fairness, line guy did leave me free stuff, such as extra bolts and screws and snips of cable and pieces of wire on the top of my fence and scattered about his work area. Also, I got extra cable…about 100 feet of cable wadded up and stuck to the side of my house. And to top it off, the new cable sags about 5 feet over my driveway. Apparently he thought all of this was acceptable.
This is where I’m at now…watching a Blu-Ray and waiting for “Senior” Tech guy number 2 to come out and fix the latest problem. Oh, and line guy #2 is supposed to come at the same time to fix the mess on the side of my house, even though they apparently don’t communicate with each other…
Bottom line…AT&T is THE worst cable company I have EVER dealt with…nay, the worst COMPANY I have ever had “customer service” from. Don’t make the mistake I did…don’t choose Uverse.
This almost sound humorous to read until you’ve lived through it. I empathize for you – been through the same thing and am about to cancel all of uVerse for good and go off to someone else. How does AT&T expect to survive as a company doing business like this?
My gf and I were asking the same question…how can a company actually do business this way? I know it’s massive worldwide conglomerate AT&T, so do they think they can just do whatever they want and not care if this tiny arm of their corporation is run like poop?
Thankfully we have one other option where I live…Astound, and I’ve heard better things about them, so it’s probably only a matter of time before I switch over. Hell, even Comcast is actually better than this.
uVerse = non-stop problems from hell. Where do I start with my awful experiences with uVerse… I had it installed a week ago last Thursday and it has not worked properly from day one.
1) The first problem was with their uVerse TV, in particular their DVR. When their DVR was hooked up to the CAT5 line (also tried CAT6) it would eat up all my bandwidth such that we couldn’t even open up a web page. When bandwidth was optimal a speed test would show fluctuations between .05 – 1 Mbps (I have the 18 Mbps option). Rather than hooking up the DVR using coax, they said that it would work just fine running it on the shared CAT5 cabling used for the Internet. “We can hook up more than seven DVRs using the CAT5 line and there will be no problems.” Yeah right… To make a long story (extremely long) shorter, after five separate on-site technician visits, trying coax instead of CAT5, trying a different router (was using N) using wireless G, replacing the 2Wire, replacing the DVR, etc. etc. nothing helped. You can imagine how many times I had to call to speak with their lovely tier 1 support in India to get to their tier 2 support to ultimately get a technician out to try to fix the issues. I probably spent more than ten hours on the phone! At any rate, after multiple calls about the DVR problems and six sets of techs coming out to try to resolve I finally said enough is enough. My time is money and they were taking my pay away. I’m sticking with DirecTV. It works, is reliable, and they treat their customers right.
2) AT&T’s “uVerse Voice” service is horrific. I ordered two voice lines (I’m in Los Angeles and they couldn’t even get me a 310 prefix – instead forcing me to get a 424 line) and neither line has worked. The voice quality to people who speak with me is nothing short of intelligible. From low volume to a horrible grinding metallic noise. When I call in to one of my two numbers I get a fax machine. Sounds good, but alas there’s no fax machine on the line. A tech came out (another 5 visits to try to fix) and he said that my wireless all-in-one printer was interfering with the line and that it was my fax that was picking up. I quickly showed the installer that I could unplug my all-in-one (I went over and pulled the power plug) and that you could still dial the number and get a fax machine. I said that ghosts must be powering up the fax machine since no a/c was going to it. On the last visit the tech came to my front door and he proudly said, “I’m going to be the last tech you’ll need, I’ll get this solved.” I took the bait and felt some feeling of perhaps he’ll actually do what needs to be done and this horrific nightmare will finally be over. To again shorten the story, this tech couldn’t fix any of the issues. He re-wired and installed a new AT&T box from the drop, re-wired the internal wiring and still no go. I could call my number and get a fax machine, and when calling someone they could barely decipher a word I was saying. He finally left saying that the problem was in the drop from the line and that they would be sending installers within the next two hours to fix. I waited two hours, three, four, five, six, and finally eight hours. Nobody showed up. To boot, the installer left my line #2 completely disconnected. This is the one that went to my fax machine which I reconnected upon his departure. I was waiting for an important business fax from a client for a bid that I had submitted. I found out that this client had been attempting to fax, but of course the wonderful line was dead still. Needless to say I lost that client and lost the bid worth many thousands of dollars. Clients tend to think that if your phone system doesn’t work (repeatedly) that your business must not be particularly reliable to work with.
Note: One of the techs who came out to fix the phone said to me, “we have many problems with this uVerse voice system. All of my jobs today are related to voice problems. I’m not supposed to tell you this, but if I can’t fix it then you should disconnect service and get two normal phone lines using copper runs (no VOIP).” I couldn’t believe he was telling me this – good business sense.
Observations:
A) AT&T support is terrible because they continually force you to begin at tier one and move up the process even if you’ve called before and have had many outstanding issues.
B) Ed Whitaker is gone from the helm and the current CEO is no Ed Whitaker. Ed was respected by all personnel and he respected his people. This helped to make the company more functional. People did the best they could and would go above and beyond with a leader like Ed heading things up.
C) The left hand of AT&T has no idea what the right hand is doing. The techs do not talk to each other about problems. They don’t talk thus don’t share what’s been done, what hasn’t been done, and what should be done. Even though they aren’t independent contractors the techs acts and run “their business” like they are. In the end, you are just a number and the more numbers they can cross off their list in their day’s work is all that seems to matter.
D) The techs seem to intentionally not carry business cards with them. They say, “if you have any problems you can call me.” Great, can I have your card please. “Oh sorry, I don’t have any business cards.” It’s okay to have to write down their info, but again very unprofessional. This level of unprofessional action just supports their overall level of professionalism of the techs, their managers, and the company. It’s just not there.
E) AT&T are still debugging uVerse. It’s three years old now, but new fiber runs in major cities are still untried. I personally believe there are major flaws in uVerse as a whole and that’s why so many people are having trouble.
F) My next door neighbor is a telecommunications expert. He has uVerse installed too. I told him about my problems and he mentioned a checklist of things that they did wrong. He said that the techs who came to his house had no idea what they were doing or why. He had to tell them how to do the install and explain the how and why of it all. Very sad. The techs just flat out are not properly trained. They escalate to a manager who often doesn’t know solutions any better than them. Take a look at uVerse talk web site and you’ll see an unending plethora of ongoing problems with uVerse.
The scary thing to me is the greater picture of all of this. Is this indicative of how our country is doing business as the norm? Is AT&T different than other large companies in that the American worth ethic of quality, commitment, and support is gone. I hope not, but fear that AT&T are not atypical anymore. I hope I’m wrong.
Laf, you are using the same terms phone lady and tech guy used, but I had no idea WTF they were talking about. My call last night was answered by “this is phone guy in Tier 2 support and the GPS tracking microchip in my head is ID #4345499 whiskey whiskey alpha”. Uhhhhhhhhhhhh, ok WTF did you just say?
And tech guy was all about Cat 5 or Cat 7 cable and coax this and braided copper wire conduit level Blue 72.
No communication between various arms of support…they are all about these damn “tickets” but apparently they don’t actually speak to one another.
I tried desperately to get an actual street address where I could send a complaint letter, along with photos of all the crap scattered all over the side of my house, and the lovely sagging wire which we have to avoid when driving home, but I guess no such place exists. I haven’t canceled yet, but apparently you get a UPS label and you have to ship your box back to some random address far, far away…they don’t even have any local offices! I swear, Uverse must be a Ponzi scheme…or Enron! They don’t actually exist, everything is just floating around in the ether…
You can send a complaint letter directly to the new wonderfully talented CEO at AT&T corporate. Here’s his information:
Mr. Randall L. Stephenson
AT&T
208 South Akard Street
Dallas, Texas 75202-4206
after 3 times of going through the procedure of setting up an e-mail accout i finnaly got tired of att changing everything and went to comcast. Comcast is just as cheap and not near as bad to change everything every day or two. ATT sucks hind tit and i will never have any service with them again its ridiculous to have service set up, e-mail estaBLISHED AND THEN HAVE THE PROVIDER TELL ME I HAVE TO COME UP WITH NEW SCREEEN NAME AND PASS WORD EVERY 2 MONTHS. ATT can kiss my butt
I don’t know how you people getting problems with Uverse but so far, I don’t have any problems with them. Probably because I’m new to to Uverse. Hopefully I won’t have the same problem or regret I made that switch.
We have been trying to get static IP’s for our BUSINESSS about four hours total. Should be easy to do, but I just keep getting transferred over and over and over and over and over. Four Days and counting. Soon as I can, SWITCH. They really suck bad. I get soo frustrated telling every rep the same thing and getting transferred to a diffrent department. Guess what…. I AM ON HOLD for 22 minutes RIGHT NOW
(Not so) humorous update…
Since my last post, the tech guy came…half an hour AFTER my FOUR HOUR window. So I was waiting for over 4 1/2 hours at home for this guy to show up…and of course the line guy NEVER showed up. The tech guy was there for about 20 minutes, cleaning up the mess on the side of my house, and when he got out his fancy Google Machine to check the signal to my house, “uh oh, there is absolutely no signal coming from this line”. Right dumbass, the line tech was supposed to be here with you, remember what it says on “the ticket”???
He swore up and down a line tech would be at my house the same evening, but of course he did not show up. Needless to say, after being without cable for almost a week because of a screw-up THEY DID, AND NEVER ACTUALLY FIXING THE PROBLEM, I disconnected my service for good.
And AT&T is stupid, because I got a $200 rebate just for signing up, and I canceled after only paying one bill, so I actually made money suffering with their crappy service for 6 weeks. Don’t know if it was worth it though… When I canceled, I told them they should rethink their business strategy because I made money on their sorry ass, laf.
One last thing…and a very important point…when I got my new cable installed, the guy told me he sees a lot of people cancelling AT&T service because in my area, they use copper wires to send their signal instead of fiber optic lines, and that severely bogs down their service (although I’m sure he had a vested interest in bad mouthing them…).
Anyway, I’m relatively happy with my new service, and I’ll never go back to AT&T again (at least for cable or internet).
Perhaps the government should regulate communication services better? I also believe that the government should pass stricter consumer protection laws starting with basic 2 year warranty on all goods sold, 5 year for major appliances etc. Once communication services are regulated and monitored by some central entity other than the provider accountability enters the picture and ridiculous claims lose their validity pretty quick. Because Capitalism runs ramped without any oversight we’re left with indifference that rivals the so called communist countries during the cold war. Perhaps a more socialistic government is the answer. I know some pretty remote places in the world that are using this approach with great success. Villages in the middle of nowhere with a population similar to my neighborhood here enjoys better telecommunication services and connection speeds at a lesser cost than what I am paying! And we think we live in the best country in the world. It is especially important to keep these telecommunication ‘giants’ honest since the cost of entry into this market is so huge there really is no ‘open’ competition. Thus I favor better, more and stronger regulation of the industry. As to the point of consumer rights and privacy there is none, nor will there ever be. You’re better off writing a letter and mailing it.
I’ve had uVerse for three years. It froze a lot the first year and then worked reasonably well until a few weeks ago. Now it freezes up several times a day on 4 different HD televisions. The remotes frequently lose their settings and are very difficult to reprogram. Happy to say DirecTV will be out in 2 days to replace uVerse’s piece of crap. I am paying $170 a month to watch the screen freeze up. No more ATT!!!!!
OK, as far as HD quality, composite cables are the yellow/red/white rca cables used for standard def, not high def. if you are trying to watch HD on composite cables it will not work as the composite connections on the back of your tv are for SD. If you want HD service be sure you are using component which are color coded red/blue/green, or and hdmi cable and that you have the reciever set to 1080i. ALso, just because the boxes are all HD capable doesn’t mean you get HD. If you are not subscribed to HD service all you will get are SD channels.
Repeat after me, ‘I will never use AT&T for anything if I don’t have to.’ They have the absolute worst service period. They don’t care about you or getting it right. They are oblivious to what it means to be in a service industry. If and where I have a say for any business dealings with them it is always ‘no way’.
I HAVE COMCAST NOW BECAUSE WE BOUGHT A HOME AND U-VERSE WASN’T AVAILABLE HERE. THE PICTURE NOW ISN’T AS CLEAR AS IT WAS WHEN I HAD U-VERSE BUT COMCAST CUSTOMER SERVICE IS 100% BETTER. WHEN I HAD ATT U-VERSE, I HATED DEALING WITH CUSTOMER SERVICE. WHEN I HAD HOME PHONE SERVICE WITH THEM, IT WAS A TOTAL NIGHTMARE!
As someone below mentioned, I also wish I had seen this before I signed up for Uverse. I am in Columbus, Ohio and moved in late September 09 and decided to try Uverse out. It’s a month later and it’s been an absolute nightmare. I should have just dropped it at the beginning when the technician who came to install everything had issues with the lines outside that according to him were “fixed”, but hours later when he was almost done and I went to test out the 4 at a time DVR recording feature, he announced that I was in a “low profile” area and could only do 2 at a time. In addition, I would have the honor of still paying the exact same price. It had literally been 6 HOURS though so I just gave up and decided to give it a try. My picture freezes for up to 5 minutes at a time as well, during live TV and in my recorded programs. Some of my recordings had the sound garbled so badly for multiple sections of the program I just had to delete them. In my bedroom the picture and sound are often out of sync and you have a second or so lag between when you see someones mouth moving and you actually hear what they say! Plus, as someone else complained the response of the box to the remote is awful – half the time I have to push buttons repeatedly and it takes forever to page through any of the menus. They also completely messed up the transfer of my old landline number to the Uverse digital phone and STILL don’t have it fixed. I can’t even count how many HOURS I have been on the phone with customer service and still haven’t gotten anyone to come out to my house yet, and kept getting forwarded to one dept after another each saying they can’t address some issue, until I’m back at the first department again.
I had heard people complain about Time Warner before so thought trying AT&T would be a good idea, but I don’t see how TW could possibly be worse. I’m switching to them imminently.
I have a new tone for this blog that is going on first and last we hav well over 1.8million customers and we are going to say we will loose you guys on this blog so that leaves 1.79 million left with the group of people that are waiting 2 weeks out for this service so if you never read my blog up oh well in houston in the southeast part any way we have great customer who dont sit there and make there life picks of what lies that r spread threw this site further more i have worked at two different cable companys and you guys are just like any other person looking for a excuse to ethier make money of a company r doit yourslef liers that just dont like change so i say to you get a life because you guys who sit here and dewil on everthing negative probably who feels like the current president is trying to take over when he is only doing what you guys want when no president befor him wanted to touch the task so to you guys grow up get off the internet and spend time with your family thank you
Listen closely “Mr. Advance TV Advance Tech” or just try and read a little closer. The people that post on here are not doing for any type of monetary gain because there isn’t any. The People on here all pay bills just like you do. If I purchase something in a store and it doesn’t work as designed or the item isn’t as good as the company said it was then we as taxpaying Americans have the right to voice our opinion and try to warn others not to make the same mistake. It’s not a hate thing… trust me I wish it worked better because I would love to have more choices. I like the idea that AT&T doesn’t make us sign a contract and rightfully so. If they did they would be going through a lot of litigation. I love the new president and I pray he does well enough to vote him back in after his term is through. I wouldn’t be boasting about the customer count.. Dish network has 13.5 customers with total revenue reaching $2.91 billion — up 2.1% compared with $2.84 billion a year earlier. DirecTV has 15.95 Million customers Fourth quarter revenues increased 16 percent to $4.18 billion. So your 1.79 million customer count really doesn’t make a big difference.. wait a minute.. it does.. since the actual count as of April 22, 2009 is 1.3 million and dropping.
Facts are Facts.. Good product plus Good Customer Service equals happy customers.
Yes AT&T tech support call tree has been a major pain in the neck. If you continue to ask to speak to a agent you will get through to a live person. Now here is the first question you ask this person, “WHERE ARE YOU LOCATED”
If they say offshore, tell them you want to talk to a tech support person in the “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA”.
I did this and all my questions were answered. The tech in the USA understood my problem and scheluded a repair tech for the very next day, This is a simple solution and will help save American jobs. This will work for any company, remember when calling for tech support with any problem with any product, always ask for a tech support person located in the USA.
I am visiting my sister in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Her AT&T U-Verse drops link every few minutes. Her TV locks up and stays frozen for five minutes at a time, then comes back a few minutes, then locks up again. When the network is up, web pages are served very slowly. This is the worse quality of service I have seen on any network since broadband became available. I use Comcast back home and it is much much better. I would advise everyone considering to switch to AT&T to reconsider, as it is CRAP.
I have a guy that can provide T-Mobile iPhone service….works great!
E-mail me if you are interested….
I have had U-Verse for a year and my experience has been great. I have only had a technical issue twice and when I called they had it fixed in a matter of minutes. My TV has never once frozen up. The only problems I have had was with the router.
I also know a number of other people here in Kansas City that have had U-Verse and have never had an issue. My good friend was actually one of the first people to get the service in KC nearly 3 years ago and he has never once had a technical issue with his service.
It’s unfortunate to read this stories but to say that U-Verse Universally sucks is very untrue. Until I came across this site, I have never heard one bad thing about U-Verse.
If you think U-Verse is bad, try having Time Warner.
AT&T, NEEDS TO START LISTENING TO THERE CUSTOMERS..
poor service, phone wise, very poor, speaking with an agent, even less. Image keeps freezing and stays frozen for more than 7hours…and usually happens around 9pm, right when im watching my UFC fights.. I called them up and told them why are they freezing my picture, they said they dont know and will have a technician come out and look at it.. i ask when, they said next week.. (current date was 10/25/09) so, they expected me to continue paying for service that i wasnt recieveing until the technician gets there on 11/06/09.. now, is this by far outrageous??? ohhh, and get this, i call asking to add internet servie to my uverse bundle.. they say it will be 159.00 for the technician to come out and install..on top of my already LARGE monthly bill that is $145.00 for phone and cable..
so, i tell them, forget it, im going with time warner, they only charge 39.99 for the technician to come out and install.. the agent puts me on hold, and she rethinks the issue and comes back and says, oh im sorry, WE WILL DO A ONE TIME COURTESY WAVE on the charge and install for free.. WHAT A LOAD OF BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.. if a customer is adding to the bill, why charge for the tech guy to come out?? they are already winning as it is.. and WHY ON EARTH IS IT 159.00 to install internet service..?? im an IT guy myself, and i know for a freaking fact that it does not take more than 15 minutes to do that nor is the charge that HUGE!!!!!! AT&T, your coverage, it just got smaller WITH ME!!!!
I have been following this thread for a couple of months now. From reading all the comments, my conclusion is that whether or not you like AT&T’s U-Verse service is directly related to four things:
1) The quality of the technician who installs your service
2) The quality of the existing AT&T wire infrastructure in your neighborhood, and
3) The distance from your house to AT&T’s local connection box.
4) Whether or not you ever have to call AT&T about any service, billing, order, issue etc.
I think the general consensus is that having to contact AT&T for anything (service, billing, order issues) is a kiss of death. They’re dying under the weight of their own bureaucratic infrastructure.
In our case, the install rep was great, and we’re close to the local switching point. Our service quality has been great, and we like it! (We had switched from Comcast, which we also liked, due to price.) Basically, we lucked out.
I think the basic problem AT&T has is that it is almost impossible for them to deliver a product with a consistent quality — there are simply too many variables (i.e., state of the wiring, distance to the neighborhood switching point, etc.) I think they’ve been very aggressive about hiring install technicians to support their growth, so I think they’re having problems on the personnel end as well.
IF you call the ATT number, As soon as the automated speaker starts talking, just say “Customer Service” He’ll start talking again, just say, “Customer Service” Keep doing that until he asks “It sounds like you want to speak with a customer service representative” You say yes and you are there. It save you a headache and about 10 minutes.
The Uverse service has improved a lot. We have 5 boxes with 2 HD tvs and we have had no problems since the summer… fingers crossed. It did take them about a year to work out the kinks.
Ok mr. Roldan you have a great point about the other cable companys but here is what you over looked uverse just started in 2004 you are comparing companys that have been around ten plus years oh and another thing that you missed in your research is that direct tv was brought to life by sbc today know as att back in 1998 when directv had grown enough it departed from att do you rember primestar guess who made them so att has been in the cable game for some time just not in the public but iam not here to talk about other cable companys this is what iam saying and i said it before last month on the same blog if you read one it depends on the tech you get same with any other cable company two location if you are in range or how old your neighboor hood is three wiring in the house if you have up to date wiring then you should not have a problem but like i say i work in the greater houston area and i do great work and all my customers that have uverse and my family love uverse so if you dont have the time to deal with stupid tech i understand but all it takes to get the sevices right is email your area manger when a tech comes ask him for it
I just hung up after speaking w/ a tech that said he needed to place me on hold for just a few minutes, 42-minutes later I hung up, just got u-verse but think I’ll switch back to my old
Today was installation day and I just cancelled (I certainly hope it took!) my order for U-Verse (4 TVs, 2 phone lines, Max internet). The tech arrived at the beginning of the evening time slot, as promised (even though the automated dispatching system still insisted on believing the appointment was for the morning slot instead of the evening slot). He was nice, well-dressed, no tats, with all the authorized teeth, well-spoken, and seemed to be quite competent.
He explained a little about the service. As one of the other posters has said, I was under the impression that U-Verse was fiber-to-the-door. The tech explained that it was really only fiber-to-the-box-somewhere-in-the-vicinity-of-my-house.
My antennae went up on that, having been burned a few years back with ATT’s highly marketed failure, “Wireless Internet” (we won’t go into that. other than to point out that the experience tended to color my attitude toward ATT).
After driving off to find the neighborhood box and do some settings on my line, the tech came back and began to run some tests on our line at the house. After an hour or so, he advised me that the quality of the signal as it entered our house was marginal or substandard. He offered to check back up the line and see if they could do something about the signal strength/quality issue. I told him it didn’t hurt to try.
After another hour or so, no response from up the line. By this time I was pretty nervous about the whole deal. I told the tech that I was going to pull the plug on this caper, given that my household cable runs are several years old, the idea of jury-rigging something to try and enhance the signal was, to me, likely doomed to failure, and, given the size of my order, there was no way he could get it completed before midnight or later.
Then the fun began. Called the tech support line and told the robot I wanted to cancel a U-Verse order. Got a level 1 (I assume) person who was obviously very young and suffering from that malady so common with her age group whereby they feel they absolutely have to compress their sentences and paragraphs into the shortest possible slice of time, blurting them out in a sonic vomitus that defied comprehension by the listener. After I coaxed her to slow down and explained why I wanted to cancel, the inevitable handoff began, whereby I was treated to a cheesy Muzak serenade lasting the 4 minutes it took to get to the next level. When I explained (again) my purpose to this next level person, the lady allowed as how they were unable to handle that in her department but would be happy to transfer me to the department that could, and, by the way, I should expect a call with a phone survey on my level of satisfaction with the service she gave me. I pointed out to her that the “service” amounted to a phone transfer – which had not yet been consummated – and I did not, at that instant, have a basis upon which to make any evaluation. The irony of this seemed to escape her.
More cheesy Muzak, and then a nice fellow comes on the line. I had reached the “cancellation” department. Actually – and I should have known this – the department was really the “save this order” department, in which the reps were authorized to offer me additional discounts if I would but forget this silly cancellation business. The reps were not, however, authorized to actually do any installation-day cancellations. But all was not lost, they were authorized to call another department (apparently located in that same nether region where Dick Cheney used to hole up) and argue my cancellation case with the poobahs therein (all the while letting me enjoy the cheesy Muzak) and providing me with periodic updates, most of which were something like “I am still trying to get them”.
After a long while and several “Still waiting for …” updates, the nice fellow came back and told me he had been successful in cancelling my order (but, of course, there was no confirmation number or something similar). I asked the next obvious question: what about my current phone lines and DSL (also with ATT)? How could he assure me that these would not be cut off? More Muzak, after which he came back and told me he had cancelled the phone number port orders and had checked with the DSL disconnectors to be sure they would not cut my DSL.
So, here I sit, hoping against hope that he was right, they would not cut off my phone service nor cut off my DSL serv
I would like to start by informing everyone that I am a prem tech working in the state of Illinois. First I would like to say hello to all my fellow prem techs out there. Unfortunatley, it looks like we’re going to have to suffer through another bad contract, but I found something to cheer you up. I would like to recommend that all prem techs go to youtube and do a search for “prem tech” and watch the black and white animated videos titled “prem tech meets customer and duty manager” they are an outstanding portrayal of our jobs.
There is also an additional issue that I would like to address
Roldan: In your response to my fellow prem tech you mentioned that, “Facts are facts.” However, your facts are incorrect. I am completely aware that our amount of customers compared to other major television providers is insignificant but you need to consider that U-verse is a new product. Also in your condemnation of my comrade you stated, “The actual count as of April 22, 2009 is 1.3 million and dropping.” I know that I am only a lowly cable installer and that your intelligence far exceeds mine, however, your statement is incorrect. I am currently enrolled in business school and I just wrote a paper on the rapid growth of At&t U-verse and unlike you I have the “facts.”
The statements below are from At&t’s quartery reports. I’ve also included the links that my research is based on. In order to maintain my 3.90 gpa my instructors require that my research is based on fact and not opinion, apparently you were never taught that principal.
First Quarter 2009:
Strong growth in AT&T U-verseSM TV subscribers, with a net increase of 284,000, nearly double the company’s gain in the year-earlier first quarter, to reach 1.3 million in service
http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=26752
Second Quarter 2009:
Continued strong growth in AT&T U-verseSM TV subscribers, with a net increase of 248,000, to reach 1.6 million in service; more than three-fourths of AT&T U-verse TV subscribers have a triple- or quad-play option from AT&T
http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=26961
Third Quarter 2009:
240,000 net gain in AT&T U-verseSM TV subscribers — up from 232,000 added in the year-earlier third quarter — to reach 1.8 million in service, with continued high broadband and voice attach rates
http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=27290
As you can see the rapid growth of U-verse continues on regardless of the problems listed throughout this blog. Anyone who thinks that at&t actually cares when you cancel your service is sadly mistaken. I think it’s funny when someone cancels all of their services with at&t because of their problems with U-verse. Don’t you realize that you are only hurting yourself, because now, you no longer have the opportunity to own outsanding products like the iPhone because you want to make a point that no one will hear.
The only reason there are less U-verse customers than Comcast or Timer Warners customers is because of it’s limited availability.
Roldan you also stated, “Good product plus Good Customer Service equals happy customers.”
At&t is 8th on Fortune magazines list of most profitable companies in 2008. Your complaints have gone nowhere and cost them nothing. If At&t isn’t providing a good product or good customer service than how come they are the most profitable telecommunications company on the planet.
See the full list of America’s largest corporations, including detailed company profiles and contact information. Plus, post your thoughts on the winners. more
1. Exxon Mobil 6. General Motors
2. Wal-Mart Stores 7. Ford Motor
3. Chevron 8. AT&T
4. ConocoPhillips 9. Hewlett-Packard
5. General Electric 10. Valero Energy
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2009/
On a daily basis I deal with customers who yell at me for everything and anything that at&t has done to upset them. If my post sounds harsh or insensative……..oh well, deal with it just like I do. I think it’s ridiculous that people log on this site to complain about how their installers had dreds, tatoos or missing teeth. Perhaps your installer is having issues communicating because hes nervous around you, not because he is stupid. Most of my fellow technicians work hard and do their best to provide you with quality service. Just because you don’t understand why they did something the way they did, doesn’t mean it was wrong.
I look foward to your responses…….(Roldan)
Which business school could you possibly be enrolled in????
Here is my response since you asked.
PremTech & Advance Tech..
Ok Mr. 3.90 GPA.. I’m not going to try and give you all the numbers.. you will need to do this on your own but you are forgetting one important factor in your calculation.. the numbers you quote are indeed for the full AT&T Uverse package.. but now break it down to just the “fiber optic” cable. The figures I quoted are for just the Direct TV Satellite TV.. No internet.. No Phone.
As for the techs appearance I have no problem with that and if you read my comments there is nothing in there about how they looked. Everyone on here had their own issue and they have the right to post what they want. I don’t question them. I’m glad that we have AT&T techs reading this blog.. they should use it as a learning tool and not try and fight with potential customers. I can tell you this.. Ten people that I know in my “New” subdivision had AT&T Uverse installed and every single one of them switched to something else. All of us had the same issue.. The TV froze and once that happens you also lose the phone and internet service. This happened at least five times a day.
As for the iPhone.. That is a wonderful product (Thanks to Apple)but would be even better if they allowed Verizon to carry the signal. I can still own a iPhone.. I don’t have a problem with AT&T Cell phones.. I have a problem with AT&T Uverse .
I’m sure you can find people who love the service and I’m happy for them.. but for the people who are having issues this is the place to voice your experience and see who else is suffering from similar issues.
I’m in the IT field.. have been for Twenty-five years. I work with Network engineers, Programmers, Quality Assurance, and customer service. I know a good product and I know when a product is not ready to go live. AT&T Uverse is not ready to go live in all areas.
Roldan see its asham when some one presents the facts you have nothing to say but one thing you said and i agree with uverse is not ready to go live in all areas that is why it is not available in all area thats why there is a geo issue which we put in all advertisments so its not like we are hiding from it you guys cant expect a ip tv service to flourish with out putting it out there learning what it can and cant do then expanding on the fixes which is what we are doing here so even with out this blog att knows whats what but for you to talk someone out of a service that helps people no matter what pay scale you are on is wrong all wee are trying to do is improve the way of living by providing the best ip tv at a small price we dont make you sign a contract because we know of problems with are techs and the system in a few years we will provide service to other areas and for those people expecting a installer to walk up to your door clean shavin hair pressed and all teeth accounted for something is wrong with you and also to let you know one thing they are also 9out of 10 smarter than you and that is in some of the basic things like hooking up a vcr surround sound sytems just to name a few you guys buy these things and dont have a clue how it works and expect us to and when we do something for you guys the tatted up tech sucks it up and what provides for the customer but your mad cause you see his tatoo are he is missing teeth but not how he left your house how it was when he came and if this is the case let me vent majority of you guys need to clean up your house it is a shame when i walk in to give service that there is shit and piss all over the floor becous you think a great dane is a house dog and also you cant get your lazy ass up and take out the trash are have the nutts to say can i move it out of the way but you know what that same tech that came in your house that his looks didnt attract you what does he do he deals with the smell of pissy carpet and roach infested house and what he does the install the best he can so before you talk about another tech try reading the email are the info that we send you about what to do to get ready for a install how to make sure nothing is in are way make sure we have room to get behind the tv are the bed to fix the cables dont sit there the day of and say sorry the house is a mess think about what you would do in his shoes if he has to try to put up with that and also one more note if a lot of tech were straight buy the book alot of you guys will not even be getting uverse services.
oh and also check out jd powers we have been ranked first in customer satisfaction for the past 2yrs so read a little more into uverse
1) I never made a bad comment about any techs appearance.
2) I’m a systems engineer which means I’ve been programming for the last 15 years. prior to that I was a network administrator.
3) I’ve tested nearly every electronic gadget out there so hooking up a DVR, DVD, VCR, or calibrating a satellite system is no real big task.
4) JD Powers never looked at this site.
5) My house is clean.. always is. (Ask my maid).
6) We agree about one thing.. AT&T is not ready to go live everywhere. My problem is that the sales people tell you that it’s ready. I’m guessing They just want to make their quota.
7) I still have UVerse for my phone and internet only. They both cut off at least three times a day. I have my Verizon cell phone and Direct TV for backup.
I will now write in large caps and type real slow so maybe you will understand a little better…
I HAVE NO PROBLEM HOW THE TECHS LOOK.
I EXPECT THEM TO KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING. I’M SURE THEY ARE WELL TRAINED.
THIS PRODUCT ISN’T FOR EVERYONE AT THIS TIME SO IN ORDER FOR IT TO IMPROVE THEY WILL NEED TO EXPECT CRITICISM.
WHY NOT BE UP FRONT AND WHY SHOULD WE HAVE TO ALWAYS READ THE FINE PRINT? I LIKED THE IDEA THAT I CAN RECORD ON UP TO 4 TV’S THE PROBLEM WITH THAT IS I CAN ONLY RECORD TWO IN HIGH DEFINITION AT A TIME.
I HAVE 4 HIGH DEF TVS.
JUST LIKE WE HAVE SITES THAT SAY AT&T UVERSE IS GREAT THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH A SITE THAT DISAGREES WITH THAT STATEMENT.
IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT DONT READ IT.
THANK YOU FOR UNDERSTANDING.
Hi, I tried to have Uverse installed. The tech couldn’t get it to work after trying for 8 hours in my home. so I told him to leave, and don’t bother, I’ll stick with comcast. It has been 1.5 years (yes, Years), and I got on two occassions collection notices for 600 dollars worth of equipment, and it is still not resolved. I Never had the equipment, and have been on the phone for over 20 hours since this has started. Who Can I talk to to finally put this to rest. PLS HELP..
They keep saying they will call back in 4 days, but never do. It is so frustrating… I just want to be left alone!
Please help..thanks
Maybe u just totaly suck balls!
U-VERSE IS THE WORST FU@$ING THING EVER!
Excuse my French, but U-Verse has drained every ounce of patience and hope that my poor little body had.
I had Dish network, with my beloved DVR. Dish started giving trouble (After about a year or two of service) and with all the hype about U-verse, we switched over. HUGE MISTAKE.
U-verse sucks and AT&T is a sack of sh3$. It took them three weeks to successfully coordinate a time when they could install U-verse into our home. Their ‘help/assistance’ lines were BEYOND incompetent. Half the time I was speaking to someone who couldn’t help me or connect me to anyone else, and the other half of the time I was on hold for almost half an hour with freakish exorcist music playing in the background. When the idiots finally managed to arrange a time to come (after three grueling weeks) they set everything up. They leave. U-verse seems to work fine for about a week. Then..I start to notice everything I schedule to record, does not record. Even when I’m watching the show and it says ‘recording’ it really isnt. After a few minutes the record sign disappears and there is nothing recorded. It was easy to pause and rewind live tv at first; now it’s not an option. No matter how many times I press the pause button, or rewind button, nothing happens. So I can’t record anything and I can’t even rewind or pause tv. I feel as though I’m back in 1996, except that I’m being charged god knows how much money. There are countless other problems and glitches and I’m sure it will gradually worsen as time goes on.
AT&T is more fit to sell ice cream from a dumpster on the corner of a prostitute and hooker filled street than they are to provide any type of TV service to anyone. I wouldn’t even make an animal like my dog deal with this kind of crap. Not only does U-Verse suck, but AT&T sucks. When I called and finally got through to talking to a PERSON and not a recording, I spent about 30 minutes trying to get the other person on the line to understand that I’d had just about enough of all of this, and I demanded to speak to someone with some type of ranking. After about a billion transfers I got to some “manager”, probably a poor monkey they’d snatched from the zoo to handle the ‘big calls’. When I demanded someone higher up, he refused and said I could lodge my complaints on their website. Except that my internet started failing.
Alright so, you want me to take time to write my complaints on your website (and I’ll probably never even get a response) and you can’t even provide me with the internet service required to do that? (All this time I was STILL being charged for whatever the hell ‘fantastic’ service they claimed to be giving me) When I kept asking for someone more competent, he hung up. The dirty little monkey got fed up after about 5 minutes and hung up.
I would have called back and threatened his life, but, silly me, I hadn’t written down the trillion extension numbers I needed to get back to him, and my cell phone (house phone line was messed up thanks to AT&T; I ended up going way over my minutes for these people) was close to being crushed in a storm of my fury anyways.
Dish network isn’t making me too happy either. Even after all their glitches (Which made me switch to U-verse in the first place) they still sent me a 200 dollar bill. Either way, while I hammer my u-verse remote into little pieces I still send loving glances towards my old dish network remote.
Anyways that’s enough ranting for me, ugh I’ve just been so frustrated this whole month. And if I EVER come face to face with any AT&T executive, well, it’ll be a great stress-relieving day for me at least.
Hilarious and true. It’s a damn shame.
P.S. Advance TV Advance Tech guy, you’re a Uverse tech? My God, it all makes sense now. If only I had been exposed to your idiot posts before I might have known ATT would be a huge mistake. If you represent even a fraction of whatever the hell they stand for, then surely they’re headed to hell in a hand-basket. I can hardly understand half of what you write because it’s all so smashed together. Ever heard of punctuation? For goodness sakes the people writing from Kansas are more literate than you. And I feel sorry for Roldan. At least the poor sweetheart had the decency to respond to your stupid remarks.
I would sooner pay Roldan to smack me than I would pay you to come out to my house to set up this U-verse crap from the ninth circle of hell.
do not try to correct me first off cause your grammer and punctuation a overhaul to. next i didnt get on here and disrespect anyone not even roland iam just here to present the facts and that is it not to argue with someone who got picked on in school and wants to pick a fight behind a computer screen so plz if you dont have a presentable fact that me or prem tech can dispute plz dont borther me and try to call me. this is the first and last response all others will be ignored have fun trying to start a fight with someone else hows that for punctuation.
wow, started reading in 2007, and went down to 2009, thinking that it had to get better as the product matured. not the case though. think i’ll stick with my cable! thanks
The product can’t mature – your are bringing all these signals for HD, phone, and Internet into your home over two thin copper wires split at the NID – the same copper wires the home and neighborhood had when it was built. Put whatever technology you want on the end of it but it is still not going to work perfectly all the time. People still believe AT&T is bringing fiber optic into the house – it is not.
I worked as an installation technician in South Florida for about a year and have since moved on to a much better job in IT. The product is terrible – with repeat jobs and trouble calls everyday. The company and the way it is managed is even worse. Let’s just say I would rather clean toilets at a fast food restaurant than have to ever have to work installing U-verse again. I don’t want it, I don’t recommend it, and I think that you will do yourself a huge favor by choosing something else.
I wish I would have seen this before I sign up for U-Verse and the awful cell service. First they asked for a credit card to be placed on file and then proceeded to take money out of my account. When I finally got a real person on the line after two days. They told me it would take four to six weeks to return the money to me. I have now been waiting over three months and haven’t seen a thing. I should have known it was a bad idea when after I’d made the inital call for U-Verse service after 2 weeks the tech finally arrived to “install” the service and then after two hours of wasting my time and calling in one of his tech buddies they informed me that my signal was weak. So I call U-Verse’s dreadful customer service and they inform me that they will not be able to send someone out until another week and a half. The service has finally been installed and I’m just praying to God that there are no more issues. But this is At&t we’re talking about so I know that a stretch.
At&t’s customer service overall is the worst I have ever encountered. As a customer who may have issues after 7pm Eastern time (when they’ve closed) what are you to do if you have issues?? Wait until morning? I’m thinking I’m going to have to accept the loss, break the cell contract, and give them back their equipment.
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NikeT-
You must have less than ideal credit. I’m not aware of UVerse requiring a credit card or deposit on file, at least not when I’ve signed up relatives for the service (2x).
hey Pepe,
as an employee I know that customer requires credit card to order att uverse then they started to accept debit card. those customers whose credit is good don’t require credit card. that’s a trick to grab money from their account. coz if customer choose paperless billing then they can get $10 discount for 6 month. but what if the service doesn’t work properly? still once month is over money will be automatically deducted from their account. it’s better to have bill with paper. coz I know how we feel bad when our money goes without our permission and still we do not get better service.
Things were so bad, I canceled before it was installed! We are moving and the electric company has a contract with U-verse to do a one-stop shop on utility connections. It seemed easy and I was interested in the newer technology, so I agreed to sign up.
Here’s what happened: A week later, I got a call from ATT saying that there was something wrong with the order. I called and they couldn’t figure out what the problem was except they wanted to verify my name. Did that. They were supposed to install on 12/14.
On 12/14, I called again because no one gave us a window of time when they’d be there. I tried first with the utility company and was transfered twice. Then I called ATT and got the same automated process that doesn’t understand plain Engish that was mentioned above. I was so mad by the time I got to the first rep.
When I got to the first rep, she said that they had rescheduled for 12/16 and had ‘attempted to call’ and email to let me know. They had done neither (why do people use the ‘attempted to call’ line when everyone has voicemail and can disprove it??!?!).
By this time, I was getting a very bad vibe about the whole order. The rep said I couldn’t reschedule for several days, so I told the rep that I would just cancel. I had made the decision too quickly and clearly the beginnings of this relationship were not going well. She transferred me over to an individual whose job it was to ‘retain the sale’. So then it was high pressure time. I told the guy to just cancel (this was after about 20 minutes into the entire call process) and that i had another meeting. He said it cancelled and hung up.
On 12/16, I got a call saying that ATT was waiting to do the install at the new house. Argh! So I started researching the sites to see if this was a normal type of feedback. Also looking to see what really is the best way to handle all this.
Very informative review.
And for your information AT&T tech support ARE A BUNCH OF
[qoute]
the telecom equivalent of customer service at a fast-food restaurant staffed by jaded, hip-hop youth convinced of their own self-importance as they trudge through your order rubbing their Gangsta tatto’s and periodically pulling up their baggy jeans.
[/quote]
Seems that you have meet some of them posting wonderful experiences about uverse. This is the way AT&T works nowadays, any negative comment about uverse is ridiculized at AT&T’s official web site and completely censored at that other ‘illegitimate’ uverse web site that shall not be mentioned.
The truth is that uverse have made some advances with vdsl2 but the overall outlook looks bleek. The weakest link in the service after the uverse zealots roaming the internet is FTTN which is fiber optics to the VRAD and copper twisted pair cable to your home.
The poster that said that comcast looses signal during storms is lying and has no idea of what he/she is talking about as a matter of fact uverse is the service that does that.
The problems that you had with uverse are typical of a subscriber far from the VRAD one site called this difference in service the ‘have and have nots’ I think the link for that site is here http://adslm.dohrenburg.net/vdslm/uverse.php
If you type At&t, Comcast,Dish-network SUCKS or whatever your service IS you will find THEIR service SUCKS. I have dish-network recently I recorded a 2hr movie, that was recorded in ONE (1) min intervals WTF. So I started typing At&t, Comcast,DISH-NETWORKS SUCKS, and I found this site and many others maybe ALL these forum’s should be grouped into states ?. Just a thought, So we can get better idea Of what is going on, aren’t They are all run by individual Owner/operated company’s. Mine’s Conrad dish-network in MI
UNHAPPY IN MI
UVerse max 24MB lol, slow americans I’ll stick with my UK 50MB connection 🙂
‘UVerse max 24MB’
You don’t understand the whole concept. You get 24Mbps IF and only IF you are not watching any TV.
The moment you start (turn on) a TV stream that 24 will become 19 at a tune of 4-6 Mbps per TV stream.
So… if 3 TVs are on you’ll get around 12-14 Mbps and that is if your VDSL2 line is clean with no interference.
my 2 cents.
I couldn’t agree more with everyone else here. AT&T Uverse sucks! I’ve never had a more unreliable data internet connection and their customer service is completely worhtless.
I wish I had seen this site before I went through weeks of ATT hell trying to get u-verse. That company is losing so much money simply because the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. Guess that is what happens when companies get too big. Bring back the old Bell South ways of doing business…
I cannot believe how many sites there are discussing how much AT&T Sucks.
I totally agree with you Ron Turner…AT&T Customer Service is the worse CS on the planet…and please keep in mind I’ve also dealt with TXU Energy CSR’s.
On Jan 13th I wanted to upgrade my DSL to a higher speed, the CSR said it would be completed NLT 8:00 PM on the 19th. OF COURSE the 19th comes and goes without the upgrade. I call on the 20th–I fully expected to hear that they didn’t have any record of an upgrade ordered because it is, after, AT&T Customer Service. Surprisingly they did have the order and I was informed by this brilliant person that the order said, “Incomplete”. He gives me the number for Tech Support.
I call Tech Support and he ingeniously tells me the same thing, except that it scheduled for today, the 22nd. He then asks to put me on hold where he transfers me to “Gene” who is eating his lunch…he has NOTHING to do with Cust Svc or Tech Support…he’s the regional sales manager in Chicago…I’m in Texas. He transfers me back to Tech Support where I was placed on terminal hold where I recently passed away from natural causes.
Still no upgrade.
What great company.
Hi,
I am an employee of AT&T. m wokring in sales dept. for u-verse. I am taking orders online. I chat with new customers and convince them to order att uverse. but the company sucks me, my colleague and customers too. we r making new orders n not getting a single penny as an incentive. it just sucks everything n everyday. I hate to work att. here everyday they run new promotions for customers. like from jan 6th jan 2010 the promotions for u-verse changed, during christmas time at&t was offering $400 reward. but this is very tricky. like customer will not get cash reward. they will get gift card. which they can use only there where it is accepted. they can not pay their att bill. also customer has to be aggrasive to get their reward otherwise they may loose it. also from 13th jan they again started $400 reward for 3 days. after 3 days they again stopped it. this is like they are showing piece of eatable to dog and then they hide it. so here we always get customers who r asking that they r looking for $400 reward. but everytime we have to make disappoint the customer that we do not have that prmotion run any more. also they charge $7 for each receiver and each TV requiers receiver. can anyone tell me what kind of technology is this? and we r always been forced to show other benefits to the customers. and I am feeling very bad for customer that he or she is cheated by me by not telling how expensive this service is. also there r so many customers who is interested in u-verse, their neighbour can get it but they can not. how bad it is for that customer that his neighbour can get it and she or he can not. also customer has to pay $10 extra for HD, but still they can not get all the HD channels. they have to order U-450 to get all HD chanels so customer will automatically get sports package, all the movie package and everything which never watchs ans still be paying.. how tricky to loot customers… if customer orders cheapest package like u-family then they will get very few HD channels and still they have to pay $10 in order to view them in HD. How unacceaptable is this. also price is going to increase for each customers from february n poor customers do not know this.
Hi,
I’ve always wondered about at&t’s tactics so I have a few questions.
I’ve noticed that there is some orchestrated public relations campaign (mainly from at&t employees?) to do damage control when uverse users publicly complain about the service in forums and blogs like this one.
Do you know something about it? Are these actions on purpose? I mean for at&t employees to bluntly lie about the reliability, features and promotions of their service someone at at&t have to be encouraging this type of behavior.
just curious
quit crying if you need a reminder to watch a show you must not want to watch it that badly
I wish everyone on here would quit bitchin about at&t!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have had U-verse for almost a year and not a single problem what-so-ever.
The tech was late at first and the install was two weeks in advance but to be totally fair, it’s a new service so impatient people should just SHUT IT about that specifically.
Tech hooked up everything right the first time and did not screw with my network. I’m a network engineer so I was vigilant about them leaving that alone.
Tech ran an ethernet cable like a moron INSIDE my house to the second tv when it should have been run OUTSIDE and I called at&t to come re-run and they did without question a couple of days later.
Picture quality rocks.
Recording 4 SD or 2 HD + 1 (maybe 2) SD rocks. Recording 4 at the same time is for big families or major LOSERS.
No freezing
Fast internet and almost exactly what I bought (6Mbps is really about 5.7)
Fast customer service response at all times.
Better guide than Comcast by a long shot.
I don’t like at&t for circuits (T1, bundled T’s etc.) because they’re just too big a company to accomodate but their residential service is unbeatable.
Plain and simple…………..ANYONE who prefers Comcast over at&t is a meritless moron with no credibility and should be stripped of their decision making privileges permanently!!!!!!!!!!!!
Go with at&t………….they may have had issues at the beginning but those have been worked out since the U-verse inception. I promise. (Granted not EVERYONE will have a flawless experience but this is part of our GOD fearing world as no one is always perfect.)
Sorry, as a network engineer you get a FAIL.
Keep in mind 90% of the people signing up for this service don’t have and cannot get FTTH or FTTB, but instead, good ‘ol slowpoke copper from the VRAD to their homes. That last ‘slow’ portion is the kicker where Comcast, and it’s DOCSIS 3 technology, spanks ATT pretty soundly.
Back to school you go….
Well I do not know about that much, as we have so many departments, like sales, customer support, technical support, online support, door to door sales rep., att store , in u.s as well as overseas.
actually we are being pressurized by our leaders and managers to make more sales. like as I said I work in online sales dept., so if you start order att u verse online then here we can see ur order process like on which page u are. also a single chat rep. assists 3 customers at the same time. so we r chatting 3 customers at the same time that’s bit hard. we r being coached on product with it’s benefits always. we r also being teached about not to say any disadvantage of the service to the customers. e.g., customer can view only 1 HD channel at a time. also in some states now it is 2. but we can say this only if customer asks. also customers compare speed of u verse internet with cable..but we have to say always that cable is shared connection and u-verse is dedicated connection. but only because of that speed doesn’t increase of att u-verse. also att dsl or u verse never provides the speed which they advertized. before 2 month ago we had promotion buy 2 get 1 free. right now that prmotion we do not run online. but still customers getting mail that they can grab this opportunity. those customers come to us to buy that deal but how can we sell it as that offer is not available any more n we always get poor survey by customers. n our customer satisfactory ratio goes down always. it should be 85% , but how can we increase that ratio if att changes prmotion always like this. previously customer was getting 3 receiver free now it is only one. the price for receiver was $5 now it is $7. we r being told that never say the total bill of the service otherwise custoemr will not place the order. there are double standard too in promotion. if customer call to order then he will get different promoiton, if any rep. goes his house to sell product then it will different prmos and if comes online then again he will get different promo. If customer wants to order only high speed Internet with u-verse then he will be charged $149 activation fee. but if he adds tv service then that charge can be waived off. then if any customer doesn’t want tv..then buy TV service too coz company provides n watch it or not but pay for it n we have to try to sell tv service too to those customers who doesn’t want it. Company just thinks to stay in compition n profit. customers r not important for them. also try some time to place the order online, customers r facing so many technical difficulties during their order process. so is company unable to resolve even technical difficulties in their sites?
there r so many things which I can share.. I’ll share it again some time.
Paragraphs!!!
We would like to sympathize with you, but it’s a headache to read such a text(!) 😉
pepe,
it is good that u showed ur sympathy but whatever I said that’s the reality if u read it or not..
I can see why people would complain about Uverse if they had the several people claiming to be employees. It’s apparent that AT&T needs to raise the bar a little bit on who they hire based on their literacy.
Customer service sucks no matter it’s dell or hp or AT&T or Verizon but that doesn’t mean AT&T U-verse is bad. I am pretty happy so far .
Please don’t make the mistake of switching to ATT UVERSE. It is the worst possible service. Can’t count the hours I’ve been online and waiting at home for their techs, with whom I’m now on a first name basis.
I am going back to Cox no matter how much it costs.
Hi there. Would like to speak with you about your experiences. L
Pepe pepe pepe……….wetbacks aren’t smart enough to know up from down I thought.
Comcast’s DOCSYS or “data over cable” does not spank At&t.
At&t is U-verse is Fiber. Not fiber to the door but fiber to the outside demarc.
As for you spic assed, smart assed comment about me going back to school, well, it’s without merit. First, you have made no technical basis for your claim to back it up. Second, what the hell does the fact that 90% of the people not being able to get fiber have to do with ANYTHING I said? NOTHING what-so-ever so pipe down and keep your ignorance bottled up. Comcast deals in bursting and THAT’S ALL. At&t uses comcast’s existing cables and is HALF the price of Comcast. Better customer service, smarter and their techs are just as effective. I know. This is what I do and your lame, meritless comments will not take away from the fact that I am one of the foremost experts in this field.
Also, since you felt bold enough to shit talk my comment simply about being a network engineer and that I’m vigilant about having my network situation screwed with………….please…………clarify why I fail just because I have had an unparalleled experience with At&t.
As for data………….this is why you’re a goof and should have your decision making privileges taken away (God forbid if you have kids and are making decisions for them-they’re doomed).
Data is like the old days of long distance…….people wanted to stay with At&t unconditionally for no reason and passed on taking a discount provider for complacency reasons. WHO CARES about the provider………as long as it’s inexpensive and is working as promised. I get 6Mbs with At&t vs 14Mbs with Comcast. I pay about 42 bucks a month vs 60 with Comcast. Never ever need to call At&t; had to call Comcast once a month at least and so does my girlfriend and my mother who all live within 10 miles from eachother.
Here’s the clincher and the network basics 101 for ya Pepe…………MS uploads at 650K. Most Bittorrent downloads upload at less than 700K. I’d have to have more than 8 consecutive downloads to surpass my speed now. I don’t ever because I’m not jacking and pirating everything on the planet like you most likely are. This would make you a leach on life and one who doesn’t contribute anything. A waste of life you might say. I don’t download dozens of things at a time……………………..AND I DOWNLOAD A LOT.
[quote]
Pepe pepe pepe……….wetbacks aren’t smart enough to know up from down I thought.
[/quote]
Actually ‘wetbacks’ are very smart in many aspects and us ‘gringos’ are not. Have you ever wondered why there are so many HIB visa requests?
[quote]
Comcast’s DOCSYS or “data over cable” does not spank At&t.
At&t is U-verse is Fiber. Not fiber to the door but fiber to the outside demarc.
[/quote]
DOCSIS3.0 COMPLETELY obliterates uverse FTTN as a matter of fact comcast lowest internet tier of 50Mbps? doesn’t even compare to uverse highest internet profile of 32 Mbps!
Simply put uverse gateways CAN’T EVEN SYNC at comcast lowest internet wideband speeds.
Uverse IS NOT I repeat IS NOT FIBER at least not within the context that you are implying. All cable companies can also claim they they are ‘fiber. Not fiber to the door but fiber to the outside demarc.’
And your claim that uverse is fiber to the ‘outside demark’ is also incorrect. Outside the dmark means outside the NID and in reality outside the NID is plain century old corroded cooper twisted pair cable all the way back to the VRAD up to 5000 feet away.
The rest of your post is in just unintelligible and babbling. You should follow Pepe’s advice and go back to school… uverse bigot.
Thanks for replying. I didn’t have it it me yesterday to respond to such a racist, babbling tirade ;).
A self-proclaimed ‘network engineer’ using bittorrent download speeds as an example of why one technology might be used over another was really good for a chuckle though .
first of if u dont have a degree in this field it would explain the fact that u dont know what ur talking about all cable companys us fiber period if it is straight to ur house are to a dermarcation point doesnt mater its fiber second comcast sends 50mbs because u share a line with ur neighbor hood are apartment so about time u have got the signal it is about half of that now with uverse 32mbps is straight to ur house no line share and to correct u on one thing demarcation poinrs if u look up what it means is a place were u can work on the cable at diffrent points the vrad which is located in your neighborhood has fiber to it if u live in a new subdivision that was planned at least around 2005 in some areas the fiber might be directly to the house which in this case u wouldnt use a nid it would be a oni optical network interface on the side of the house which has a small hard drive installed on it next i would ask all of you before the name calling and the supposed knowledge of a system that apparently between the three of u know nothing about (comcast & uverse)please do a extinsive research before u listin to word amouth and get on here and make it seem like you know a system when u dont so please all of u let the cable providers do their job and u stick to complaining about how it doesnt work also fyi uverse is ip based platform comcast is not .
P.S.
The way u guys are talking u are nowhere near as close to how u think this work i know i install it u can reply with your put downs and what not but remember the one who installs knows way more then the one who guess.
Hey NOYFB, I don’t know why you say you have had an unparalleled experience with AT&T. My experience, and I would guess a lot of people’s who DON’T post on here, has also been almost perfect. Other than a few small glitches on installation day, at a time when AT&T was introducing a major firmware upgrade to the set top boxes, I have had 0, yes ZERO problems with my Uverse.
I’m in an area where I can’t get cable and my satellite TV kept going out whenever it got cloudy. With everything bundled together, I’m getting HD and 1 more set top box than I had with DirecTV and my phone & Internet for $40 per month less.
OK
Get U-verse installed on the 13th of January. Everything appears fine, THAT day. Next day, phone is gone, out for a few days. New tech shows up and puts in new RG. Works fine, THAT evening. NExt day, dvr is completely screwed up, soft and hard resets done, nothing. New tech comes out, replaces DVR. Works fine, THAT evening. Next day dvr is all screwed up and now the tv doesn’t even have a picture and I can’t even turn off the dvr. Sorry att, I’m done with you. I switched from WOW where I was a customer for years and I can’t remember having a problem. I wanted to try out the “latest” technology in U-Verse but it is clear I made a mistake. All I can say is unless you are unemployed and don’t have to take continuous 4 hour blocks of time off or enjoy a never-ending parade of different people going through your house, just simply avoid U-Verse. Now I have to take 30 minutes out of my work day to cancel U-Verse. WHY did I ever leave WOW????????
Sorry to hear of such troubles ;(. Out of curiosity- did you check whether or not you havefiber to the house or only to the DSLAM down the street w/ copper to the home(?)
FWIW, one of my friends is lucky to live in an area with two cable internet choices (WOW & Comcast) and also UVERSE. Out of the three he has stuck with WOW for a good reason, apparently. They seem very responsive.
When you are back on WOW (sounds likely), try asking the CS reps to apply the latest discounts on your account. IME you will have more pull if you subscribe to their equivalent of Comcast’s ‘Triple Play’. Every three months I receive a different discount by simply calling in to Comcast and politely inquiring about such deals. It’s either half off internet for 6 mos, half off digital voice or some sort of CATV service discount. The deals rotate typically. If you could get this rolling it might mitigate at least part of the discount (and clearly, potential headaches) of the switch to a ‘beta’ service like UVERSE. If I had fiber all the way to my house it perhaps would be another situation entirely.
Sure, there are going to be success stories. But my guess is you simply aren’t aware of the performance differences between the minuscule <10% of UVERSE subscribers who actually get fiber to their homes vs the rest who are very, very limited based on the mere presence of old copper/infrastructure & significant distances from the DSLAM.
For reference some of you may get some useful info from the following site. It really gives some perspective on the thoughts that have been circulating elsewhere on various technology sites/blogs.
http://adslm.dohrenburg.net/vdslm/uverse.php
I have had uverse for a little over a year, had trouble with the installation because the tech couldn’t find well you know what I mean. Then came the real trouble, they have been out to repair their substandard equipment approximately 18 times since. They have replaced everything at least once, including the line to my house. I am on the fourth controller, DVR recorder, and I have a call in for them now to make it the 5th. I am on a special list because of so many trouble calls, that when I call, they are willing to fit my schedule, exept they were a no show last night to come out and replace the controller. The tech’s admit that motorola is crap equipment and they did not renew their contract, but where does that leav us. I would change, but I checked into the competition, and they are no better from what I read.
I too have not gone to the I-phone because it is sold by ATT. Good luck if you choose uverse.
That stinks they have backpedaled to the point where their techs are not even showing up to a scheduled appointment ;(. Reminds me of what I went through years ago with the local telephone company when I tried to get DSL installed at my condo. That was an exercise in futility at its finest…
Regarding your comments above, it’s silly to equate the Apple iPhone with UVERSE simply because they both come from ATT. Even out of pride it makes little sense since it’s an entirely different and capable device.
By all means peruse the blog I posted above for a real eye opener in what’s involved w/ UVERSE.
I really like AT & T Uverse. Especially once I understood how every thing worked!
If you really understand how things really work with uverse you wouldn’t like it.
Perhaps you ‘think’ you are getting fiber to your home instead of that tiny winy thin copper pair cable used by the phone company since the days of Alexander Graham Bell… you know the inventor of the telephone?
just my useless 2 cents.
I wish I had read this too. I just need to vent since I am getting nowhere with AT&T. I moved 1 mile. I called to have my service switched on Dec 13th. They told me I could not have my regular service, that I had to upgrade to U-verse for my internet and phone. (Not TV, since I have DirectTV, and would never change that) After it seemed to be cost effective, I elected to go for it. BIG MISTAKE!!!! They were supposed to come out Dec 22nd (my birthday). After waiting all day, he showed up almost at the last hour….only to tell me U-verse wasn’t available, and they would have to have crews dig up my street. I called to get regular phone service back, but that took another 3 weeks, because the first guy cut the lines. When the U-verse was finally available, they sent the dumbest guy ever to my house. Oh and they forgot to put the phone order back on. 7 hours – and he cut the phone line again, and said there was nothing he could do. I told him, you are not leaving until the phone is hooked up. The third day off work, the next tech came to the house, only to plug in one wire. ONE WIRE! Now, this guy was nice, but really? I took another day off for this? I coulda done it over the phone with a rep. So, now a month and a half later, I finally have U-verse phone and internet (as of Jan 26th), but this week the service went down 3 times, only to be told that my service was cut off because of a service issue 45 miles away. HUH????? Now, we called again last night since the internet went down a 4th time, and we were told another tech has to go back under the street…..unbelievable!!!! They are coming today Feb 7th to fix it… Superbowl Sunday? Wanna take bets if the guy shows????
I’m guessing he never showed up ;).
Very very poor installation service! About 6 weeks age we decided to get ATT uverse installed. We already had the basic phone line. Five Saturdays ago the field tech came for the installation. He said that the outside line was Not good enough for data transmission and did not install the inside system. Four Saturdays ago two another techs arrived and said basicly the same thing. Yet the outside line had not been installed. Two weeks ago the new outside line was installed but last weekend the tech still did not show up install the inside system. Four days ago the original tech showed up and installed the inside system which took 6 hours. He only finished it up with me helping him pull three cables in the attic and walls. Now cable TV and internet is working but the phone is not working. How do they do that? As usual, we the consumer are screwed again and again.
If everyone that has had even the smallest of problems with AT&T or Comcast would contact their Public Service Commission or the FCC and file a complaint, you would be suprised how much this will get their attention.
These companies have to answer to the PSCand the FCC, they can not just sweep a complaint under the rug.
Having worked for AT&T trust me they will fall over themselves responding to you.
My wife and I live in Frisco, we have had the horrible Time Warner. I had enough of TW or Comcast, when the biggest sporting event the Super Bowl their service went out and we could not get customer service on the phone.
So we decide to try out Att, so far it hasn’t been installed, but if it is anything like the customer service I have experianced i might be in for a long ride. I had an installation appointment for a Saturday which I had cancelled Time Warner (very expensive)
and the ATT tech was supposed to install between 9.00am and 12.00 pm. Well it is about 1.00pm and I decided to call to see what was taking so long, well the tech claimed he had come by (a lie) and noone was home (family of 8! doorbell works, house built in 2007!) So i thought what the f__k , long story short called made complaint they issued an apology and rescheduled for Sunday 1 to 3.00 pm, well waited spoke with some one in CHINA! they apologized and said something went wrong with their communication and appointment was not made! Pissed I ask when the hell are they coming out because I just missed the Allstar game, they apologized and said Monday 1 to 3.00pm, I TOOK OFF WORK!! waited till 2.00pm and decided to call they said the other department(whom you cannot speak with) made a mistake and moved it to Tuesday, well its Tuesday i will let you know how this crock of s_it turns out!
I’m sorry to hear that so many of you had trouble with UVerse. I was living in Ohio for awhile. At first I had cable but was very unhappy with it. No service. Constant problems. Did I say no service? Not even a welcome packet when they installed. When UVerse became available I jumped at it. It took them a day to install it, there was some problem with the cable from across the street, but once it was installed, never had an issue. Great picture, lots of stations, good, dependable high-speed internet. They were always efficient and helpful in person and over the phone. Was very happy with it!
Then I moved back to Colorado. No UVerse available here. Had cable for awhile. Hated it! The internet is good but the TV was lousy. No service. Moved to DirecTV when cable was going to jack up my rates. Happy with it so far. More stations, more HD, faster response. Hoping it lasts. Will definitely consider UVerse again if it’s ever available here.
This is a story of how not to treat a customer.
If you’ve got a Keurig (single cup coffee machine), AT&T U-verse and Modern Warfare 2 (online game).. what else do you need? I could stay inside all day and be happy. Or so I thought.
It’s the morning of March 1st, and my appointment is scheduled between 9-11am. As I have my 3rd cup of French roast, my ears perk up as I hear and then see the AT&T van pull up outside.
Me: Opening up the door.
Only to see the person they sent is also a weed dealer. If it wasn’t for the van, I am thinking at this point he’s going to try and rob me.
Note: ATT send people who look like they work for your company! Not one distinguishing mark on this individual that says they work for any company. This is my single point of contact for AT&T at this point.
Him: Hi, my name is (can’t recall).
I let him in. He scopes out the place and sees I’ve got 3 TVs. Only 2 boxes ordered but I figured that’s fine because I can get regular service on one. Just not the DVR.
— WRONG —
That doesn’t work. There will be no service on any TV that doesn’t have a box attached to it. Unlike Comcast and Astound, with U-verse, if there is no box, there is no service.
Anyway….
–> He checks out the rest of the place and then informs me he’s got to go down the street to physically switch stuff over in the cable box in preparation for my U-verse service. I’d be out phone and DSL for about 30-40 minutes while he does the work. <–
Me: Sure. I can hang.
Him: Okay, I'll do that and then come back.
1 hour later, I roll to the garage to get some paper towels because the ants have once again taken over a section of the cupboard.
The tech is in my driveway, inside the van. Dealing?
Him: Hey, there’s a signal issue to your house. It’s weak. I’ve put in a ticket. They’ll send someone out to fix it. It should take about 2 hours. When they are done, I will come back and finish up. In the meantime, they want me to work on another issue nearby. I’ll be back.
Me: Okay. Sounds good. I’ll leave the door open. Come on back when you are done.
By this time, I’ve watched the entire “Family Man” movie with Nick Cage. Again. And some other random shows.
Twice I see some guy who appears to work for the cable company outside in the wire closet and across the street. It’s 4:00pm and I see this person leave.
** No Updates.**
Frantic at this point since every minute without high speed internet is another game I can’t level up in.. I call AT&T to find out the status. Since most call centers are closed, I’m routed off-shore to the AT&T U-verse technical support.
Me: Hi, I’m checking to find out the status of my U-verse installation.
At this point, they run thru a standard set of questions which includes the catch phrase…
“I’m very sorry for the inconvenience.”
CLIFFHANGER: Turns out, the ticket was closed and the techs have all gone home. I need to re-schedule my service installation for March 12th. That’s a week and half away.
Mind you, I’ve got NO dial tone and NO internet service. They are unable to switch it on since the tech switched things at the box down the street. I’m now officially in limbo.
Customer Experience: You leave me without service? Then make me schedule an appointment a week later?
>>> Twitter Time! <<<
Knowing that big companies are all about social media and they couldn't care less about the phone tree, I hop on twitter:
"@ATTCustomerCare U-verse installation makes #1 on the worst customer experience in my life. Where shall I send the gift card?!"
** I've got a Direct Message! **
That's right folks, AT&T tweeted back and I had a contact to a real person in the social media department. We chatted and I told her the whole story. She assures me she'll escalate this off to the contacts in the U-verse department.
And that's it.. No updates from this point. I'm without a dial tone and no high speed service. I guess it's the norm to send out a contractor to save a dime, route your calls offshore, and leave you hanging. Only respond to social media as it makes us look bad.
My biggest gripe is that my single point of contact just left his post, went home and left me without service. What kind of customer service is that I ask? You show up, disconnect my service, never once call or show up again and then go home? Leaving me to wait another week to re-schedule an installation? I wonder if I never called or said anything if a bill would just show up for services?
You bet it would!
Lucky for me, my neighbor has an unsecured WiFi!
** Update **
3.2.2010
A person from AT&T called and offered me 3 days of comped service for the trouble. Although they couldn't re-establish DSL because the U-verse order is in the system. They would need to cancel that and then re-establish DSL service. Since the tech wasn't around (are times so tough we have 1 AT&T guy covering the entire Bay Area?) it wouldn't be turned back on for another few days.
Pathetic.
If it wasn't for the social media team, I am willing to wager nobody would have called me back or questioned why the service wasn't on. I will give credit to Natasha of AT&T for being helpful. Unfortunately she's one person in a faceless company that has long since ceased to care about a person. Her attitude is not shared by the masses. I'm more disappointed at this point than angry.
GoodBye MaBell:
If this has not been resolved, contact your state’s Public Service Commission.
Case Point (I have ADSL and Satelite TV, btw):
AT&T was building into our area early 2009. As such, they had to replace alot of the underground copper for all the units on my street. Unfortunately, during this conversion, they broke my ADSL. Then, while trying to fix the ADSL, my dialtone went out….no static…no power over the copper line.) Turns out the ticket was forwarded to the central office servicing my area. After frantic calls (on a Friday, mind you) to get voice service reinstated I get the run-around….
….Time to call Tallahassee…
One 20 minute call to the Florida Public Service commission….15 minutes of waiting and I have a regional director on the phone. It takes another 5 hours (11:00PM by this time) but my voice service is restored.
People need to remember that the FCC does not regulate everything the Telcos (and cable companies for that matter) do. Each state has direct supervision of the utilities. Most people, however, do not realize this.
That’s my $.02. Keep this in mind for the future.
Not sure if the previous listing are just old news but a bunch of them don’t even make sense to me and i have used DirecTV and others services for a long time so they should at least make sense. The detailed discussion makes me wonder about some of these people complains as i could probably not communicate effectively with them if I worked for U-verse and would become frustrated by there talking. A bunch of us in the neighbor has switched to U-Verse without problem. The U-Verse installation and follow-up people have all been great and the service is great. I used DirecTV from 1989 so I know what TV service and HD TV service should be and there are only two things I don’t see and that is the ability to do slow motion and to have it stay on channel while switching to recorded material and come back later and still be on channel and be able to go back and see whats missed. On U-Verse., you must record the channel since the recorded material comes off another channel which you will be switching too. Thats all…. the service and follow up people have been absolutely great.
My experience with att has been horrible. In terms of they have aggressive strategies when it comes to upgrading your service. During the Olympics my cable was disconnect and then i got a special 3 month coupon in the mail. It was a dishonest and ill mannered issue. Coming from Vancouver British Columbia and not being able to see or hear the broadcasts of my home town start off the Olympics or att show no remorse for the poor response. I was so lost and sad about the whole thing. It took more then days to get a service representative to my place and hours of disappointment in att overall package. YOU BURST chic ching and not a single clear thing. Constantly reconnecting my cable box. Poor installation! Just overall bad service. I feel att should welcome company errors and respond in dedication. They need to work on their dull, drab, and muddy responses. I understand that att is available all over North America but I felt personally violated!
Did you really mean to say ‘ATT is *not* available all over North America'(?)
Hi, this is P..patty from India, I was working in call center n was handling sales campaign for att uvers..I worked for att uverse for 2 years. att uverse is new technology, some time it works good ne some time not. That depends upon only ur luck, coz there are customers who like their cables only there are so many satisfactory customers who like uverse.. whatever its.. my company earned so much profit by sellig uverse to customerrs like you, I sold so many uverse product to so many customers online, may be some one from you might have chated with me some day and u might have purchased product from me..I am open here for every one.. who needs assistance to place an order online can ask me.. I can help them,.. always ask for promotions. also do not forget to ask if it ties u up in an contract. ask for any extra promotion, if they r not eligible then their superrvisor can provide it to you, if u think u want to cancel ur servcice in one month then don’t forget to ask that if u gonna be charged for anything coz previously customer was being charged by $20.. if u place order online then u will find that alwas onlline chat rep. will push u to make an order online .. I understad that coz they are being pressured by their leaders..I still have sampathy for them but still as now I am not the employee thats why I am teling u people.. sales dept. have lot of cash back coupon to offer the customers so alwasy ask for that. If u feel that u were provided wrong information then u can alwas complaint. To complaint u can save the IM(chat history) name of the OCR(customer service rep). once u complaint then ur complaint will be forwarded and once they found that from where the thing happned then they will take immidiage step.. coz overseas country call centers run by client.. it happens because of only one complaint they take away the busniess from them… call center business is good in overseas country but it’s my personal experience that working in call center it’s bullsheet.. u can make handsome money bye exploiting urself by leaders..ur americans.. we r Indians.. as u love ur country we also love our country,. we work the whole night to serve you..My mean is not to say that americans are not good.. but when u make call to ur service provider or if u chat with ur service provider’s rep,… he or she may be from overseas like India pakistan philiipines or somewhere else..do not hate them as they are also people like you..just their country is not advance like ur country..
we had COMCAST for years, but decided to give AT&T a try since its a bit cheaper.. WOW you really get what you pay for. They sucked the first day they attempted to come to my house. two different people, two different times, they went to the wrong house on the wrong block. then they said they would have to reschedule… then when they finally found my house they spent a few hours effing around and then said they cant do nothing because the people did not bring any lines to the house…..ok??? thats not my fuking problem, so then another few days go by…. and nothing no calls, and no show by them. finaly after a week, i called and they had nothing in their computers that I had previous apointments or that they had attepmted to set this shit up. Then they said that my monthly payment will be an extra $12 beacuse the special deal is over… They saod since i dont have it hooked up yet, that the contract isnt started.. this fucking company is terrible and i dont know why businesses, people, sport teams, want to be affiliated with this company. The customer service was the worst. I get better service from the high school kids that work at mcdonalds or the people at walmart. OMG!! as of right now (3 weeks from the original date) the cable box goes in and out of service, and they said they cant get to me untill three days from now…. yea there busy fixing everyones shitty service! PAYMORE GO TO CAOMCAST, OR GET DISH.
just to repeat myslef to all uverse is a great service but we have tchs that dont do their job right in the first place which makes us look bad but we are making big adjustments to do away with all the techs like hst who is here just for a check but to actually please the customer and provide the service that you guys are expecting from us but our techs is a major problem it doesnt matter what type of wiring set up u have if our tech do their job from the get go when we walk in your house then u would know if you can get uverse and if its going to work so i apologize that we have caused so much drama but we are making a big change as we speak to seperate the good from the bad once we make that move our uverse service will become a great cable service all negative remarks will not be replied to i am triying to talk on here with a professional base not to cause trouble sorry for the trouble but we are trying to make the move to please more customers not just some
and also what iam seeing on here is alot of people who think they know how uverse works and never physicaly set the service up are even touched a fiber but i want to tell people please dont stop here looking at the reviews this is supposed to be a site telling about their experiance not how it but please explore other blogs and sites before making a decision
http://adslm.dohrenburg.net/vdslm/uverse.php
Hello,
I have complaints regarding AT&T UVerse service. I am one with an issue I believe AT&T is not telling the truth. We signed up for their service March the 6 with an installation date of March the 20th. They came out and ran a check on our line and after 6 hours of this we were told we were too far from their tap for us to have UVerse service. I find this to be untrue because my neighbors on both my north and south side have their service. My thoughts are, they have a wiring issue and don’t want to fix it. I believe the UVerse box they tie into is no more than 800 feet north from my house. I have tried calling but I get the run around and most are very rude. I currently have Charter service and my issues started Feb 22nd when they turned my service off after I had paid my bill on the 16th. They still to this day can offer any reason why this occurred. I was also informed that I would be charged a 35$ service fee for them to come out and fix their troubles at their tap. UNACCEPTABLE!!! Now my internet drops, cable TV tiles up and freezes, and I have bad static on m y phone. They have sent countless techs out to my house to correct the issue and tell me the trouble lies outside after changing my DVR’s every time, but they never send out a line tech to fix the outside issue. I also get rude customer service from charter regarding this issue. I feel like I’m in the middle of storm that I cannot get out of. If you can offer any assistance in the AT&T issue, it would be greatly appreciated. I’m ready to move from the rudeness of Charter, but seem I’m walking into the same issue at AT&T.
You have to be polite but firm with Charter- that’s for certain. Been there, done that. If they have a franchise agreement with your community/suburb/subdivision, they are legally obligated to send a line tech out to your site if necessary. Keep in mind the first layer or tech support you speak with won’t be as helpful as the folks up the food chain, so prepare yourself for the delays before you actually get a chance to speak with the appropriate people who supervise. Take notes of the conversations you have and the interactions you encounter, along with the specifics of the service calls/phone calls. It’s good evidence if you have to report the poor service to your village manager, etc. dealing with the franchise agreement/utilities issue.
Did the tech inside your home measure the line levels? If those aren’t within spec and a hardware change didn’t fix the problem, they certainly should have had a line tech behind your house by now. You need to be firm when you communicate this fact with their tech support folks on the phone. Reiterate to them what actually has transpired. They all want your money, so their do have incentive to keep you on as a customer.
Regarding UVERSE, are you 110% certain your neighbors have UVERSE or do they only have basic DSL service? If so, maybe it’s some sort of address/database glitch with the telco that’s shutting you out(?) Until that was first examined with a local ATT truck rollout, my mother in law was unable to sign up for service. It turned out to be a database error since her properly has multiple buildings, one of which was erroneously listed as the primary residence. Although she’s far from the CO, she was able to get mid-tier DSL service but not UVERSE.
I had At&T’s internet for almost a year. At first it was $35 a month, and fairly reliable. Within a few months, they had almost doubled the price, and my internet service continually crashed (which I attribute to the horrible combo router-modem from Gateway they use). I had to reboot the system every day. after numerous calls, and three modems, I’d had it. Switched to Comcast, my internet is now reliable, and faster. It is just far superior. And no, I’m not a Comcast fan. I had their HD cable service, and it was terrible, as was their “digital voice” telephone service. I do love my Direct Tv service though.
i thought i was the only person with this problem.very wrong the entire company is set up through an automated system, it took me over half an hour just to get the contact number for att”uverse” which was the same number(redirected) to att as a whole. it really pisses me off when you pay a little extra for a name like aTT, they were good in the late eightys but wtf. i cant even get through an entire 30min episode of craig ferguson without the thing freezing , skipping, and everyone else’s problems. F att honestly. i still havent talked to an actual person regarding this issue due to above. thinking it through the only option i have is walking into a store in person and raising my voice so i can get a direct line to a human being.the problem is i dont have 4 inch acrylic nails. …painted neon purple. anyway FU att you owe me 12.99 for the Corona
i agree theres no point in watching tv every time i turn on the tv to watch a show it freezes every time i get on the pc its not online and takes any were from 20 mins to a hour or more weve had att for 2 months and have called every 3 days with same problems saying rest the box that dont do shit after the 20th call they set up 5 times to come and never show up wasting my time finaly the 6th time they send bevis and but head over and cant find any thing wrong next time 2 weekes latersend some one else who soposly finds something on the teliphone pole and gose and fixes it same night tv and internet and phone are still messed up so i call agin ask them what happens if someone brake in to my hose and trys to kill me and my phone dont work to call 911 the dum ass dont say anything but go reset your box (and how im i sopost to if theres someone in my home thats going to kill or hurt me o ya im going to walk right past him and rest my box and one the way back b4 i get to call 911 all cook him brekfest to fuck att if i wouldnt get in troble id be cuting down and destroing anything that said at&t on it
allso the dvr never picks up on the right time and shuts off be4 the shows over whats the point of having dvr for then? att sucks and if i see anything that says att on it its never going to be coming with in 10 feet of me
All these AT&T service reps, techs, whatever need to be deleted off of this page. They don’t have a right to voice their opinion. I have heard all their dribble already from the numerous reps and techs I’ve talked to trying to get my (now canceled) service working.
The reps and the 28 mile high phone tree can go back to the sewer with the rats and tampons from whence they spawned and the techs can go back to the circus.
For the service I received, when the techs came over, they may as well have had 12 pile out of their little clown car, then proceed to ride unicycles around my front lawn while juggling plastic tools and wrangling CAT5 wire. Maybe they could have thrown a few pies in my face too.
The whole Uverse universe is a grand joke although I’m not sure who’s really laughing. I’m not.
Just tried to move to U-verse and consequently was left without internet by AT&T for a month!
AT&T could not restore my DSL within a five and a half week time frame – so after a month I switched to Comcast (who had me online in less than 24 hours).
Didn’t have time to read through all the replies but I recently switched to UVERSE and I too find it to be garbage. And though I have vented at work it feels good to put out in writing that this service is junk. I just got home from work and it took me five minutes just to log out of e-mail. Also my cable freezes up so much it makes watching something unenjoyable. The other thing that kills me because I am without a car checking the weather is important to me and I live by the Weather Channel on UVERSE I get some sort of satellite version without the local on the 8’s, and the on demand Accuweather is a joke the radar doesn’t even zoom in to see local areas. I used to have WOW and it seem kinda dated but at least I knew what to expect this AT&T shtuff should be pulled off the market or people should just boycott it.
Uverse may be a little cheaper than roadrunner but I will never give up my roadrunner and now I get 30Mbit dl speed. That’s 30,000kbits for those of you who are used to dsl’s 768kbits with at&t.
Bryan
You guys are luck to get so much speed. You know in some developing countries in Asia what they call DSL is what we would call dial up. You’re lucky if you get over 60kb’s…very lucky.
I have had nothing but trouble with uverse since we had it installed. I have had my equipment switched out 6 times and it still does not work. They send complete morons to my house and all they know to do is to switch out coax cables. They have never actually fixed the problem. There should be a class action suit filed against AT&T over the problems everyone on this blog seems to be having. I would be more than happy to join any suit filed. They came to my house today 5/11/2010 to repair my system, and less than an hour after the moron left, it was down again. Then they said they didn’t have any more time slots and would have to come back tomorrow. They suck ass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just dealt with ATT for the 7th month in a row about UVerse and their hidden costs! At one point, someone from ATT was hacking through my account and someone signed me up for premium channels that I didn’t order.
The phone center personnel lie, deny and are getting even nastier and snarkier. They have almost no supervision and I hear of many crazy things going on.
After arguing over a 140 a month bill for a 99.00 “bundle”, I finally got back to basic cable and internet, but only until “August”, when something else is supposed to happen, like Comcast I guess.
I like uverse beter then charter bye now
This is the worst service on the face of the earth…..I just want all my money back….they are a bunch of crooks…..
After 15 years of enjoying my unlisted phone, my “cover”
was blown by the idiots @ U-VERSE ( whenI have signed for the service ). They have published, in their yellow pages,not only my supposedly unlisted # but my address as well. Needles to say I am no longer a customer .
What incompetence.
I was one of the first Uverse customers in my area over a year ago. Since then the cable television has never worked consistently. I’m paying $67 a month for that service. I’ve logged probably 1 call a month into customer service, the most recent being the day before yesterday. They first offered me a $20 credit. Yesterday they offered $30. Are they kidding? They are a bunch of criminals.
I find it amazing that all you are whining like babies, when I’ve had the service for 6 months and have never had a problem, ever. Speeds are a consistent 23 to 23.5 Mbps. TV is rock-solid as well.
Thats because you probably work for them or they are probably paying you to say that….How much are they paying you….I want some of the action….With money I’ll say anything…….
First of all this site is for people who have problems with those assholes….Why would you even consider posting here unless they were paying you…..
I am a new Uverse user and I am still tryng to decide if I like this or not. Can you help me with these issues?
1) Why is it that some chanels do not fill the complete screen? Especially when watching a non digital signal. Also, some others (i.e. Univision) babe black bars in the sides, even when the signal is supposed to be HD.
2) I am watching the World Cup and I can see that the quality of ESPNHD is great. But the same match in Univision HD, Galavision and most of the Spanish channels, the quality is poor and there are boxes in the sides. If a day or two later I hif “on demand” and watch THE SAME MATCH, now it is cristal clear, and no boxes.
3) When I record something and watch if back, the signal gets interrupted for a couple of seconds. Sometimes every 5 or 10 minutes. Not sure if this is when I tape of if the problem was in the original signal.
4) Quality of standard channels on Uvers is worst than the quality I get from Direct TV and there are no boxes, I see the full screen on DTV. When I asked the technician he just said “they use different systems”. Wasn’t Uverse supposed to be much better?
5) So far I find it very cumbresome to find any channel, to progam shows I want to see or to even find programs I want to tape one or two days in advance.
I share with most others what seems to be a pattern. AT&T does not seem to care what we think, need or want.
canx service…its garbage….
haha Yes this is about right everytime I call on the phone to ask a question about my bill! I finally did a employment background check on a representative that helped me and it didnt come back as I expected. They had a horrible background and shouldnt even have been working for a company this big. I called their corporate office and it was pretty funny to hear what they had to say. They didn’t even do checks on their employees to begin with.
I have to agree with so many of the people on this site. I’ve never posted something like this before. But, I have had such an awful experience with AT&T, if I can save one other person, then it’s worth it. I’ve had AT&T Uverse for a couple years. At first it was actually really good. I loved it. But, once they started “upgrading” the service with household DVR and others, it became horrible. I’ve had 7 repairmen to my house in the last 6 months and my service still rarely ever works. If I have to shut down a box, or push power while holding the down arrow, or unplug my router one more time, I think I’ll go crazy. The funny thing is that everytime I call, they seem so surprised that I can possibly be having problems. The last time I called, I told them to search the Internet and they would see what a horrible experience so many others are having.
AT&T is wonderful. I never had a problem with my DSL, U-Verse, cell phone or anything else. They have the largest selection of cell phone than any other company out there. Maybe it is the location all of you are living in, but I have never had a problem. When I was with Verison years ago, I had nothing but problems like dropped calls – especially when it was an extremely important call which caused me an interview in a wonderful firm. I think AT&T is wonderful and you are all crazy!
We might be crazy but I know that AT&T is paying you to say that or you must work for them…How much money are they paying you?
AT&T is the worst organization I have ever dealt with. They lie about their sales offerings, lie about their your contractual agreements and overcharge you intentionally.
Do yourself a favor NEVER EVER buy AT&T you will be sorry. No matter how bad Comcast is they are much better than AT&T.
And the Uverse TV is horrible all together. Direct TV is much better quality and it works.
This has to be the worse company in the world..Truer words were never spoken….Government should shut down those assholes
After working with professional, well-trained AT&T Uverse field people for six months, we were advised the background buzz on VOIP problem could not be corrected because it was an internal infrastructure problem. We dropped VOIP, kept Uverse internet TV and network connection service and were appalled by the high price.
Now that we are dropping Uverse TV and internet we find that the even MORE AMAZING RIDULOUS COMPLETELY UNSATISFACTORY AT&T policy is that when we revert to AT&T, we must be withut internet for at least 3 days!!!!
BE WARY OF UVERSE!
RUN don’t walk away from ATT Uverse, all of the negative respnses are so very true. The tech spent 11 hours trying to set the system up. Changed out every device 3 times, was on the phone for hours for help. Left with nothing working stating there was an outside issue and that he’d be back at 4pm the next day, he shows up a 10:59am with no one home, calls no one and leaves reschedules for the next day without talking to anyone. The ATT customers service line is a joke the people are so beat down from saying I’m sorry all day long it is sad. They leave you on the phone holding for hours and no one can actually help you. When you are fed up and want to cancel you have to do all the work, shipping the crap back yourself. RUN…RUN….RUNNNNNNN
I wish that company burns in hell…..
I would not say AT&T sucks, for this would be an insult to companies that suck. I have spent at least 7 days working with the full spectrum of AT&T flunkies and still I have no service. I think the whole compnay has like three or four good workers in each state. THE WHOLE COMPANY SUCKS ASS. Yes I am yelling, because AT&T is driving me crazy.
The problem that many people are facing are ridiculous problems. I agree with the poster who said, just like a new car, new device or whatever the new technology may be, there is always bugs. Even after years of working the most common ones out, you will always have an issue somewhere. DISH, DirecTV, ComCast, Time Warner or any of those other providers all had to start somewhere. They’ve been out far far longer than AT&T U-Verse. They’ve had time to work out there bugs and glitches to provide clear service.
You want to talk about AT&T being horrible service? Gimme a break. Every time I’ve ever called in to get Technical Support, I’ve waited no more than 4 to 5 minutes and other times, less than 30 seconds. They Reps are helpful and friendly (most of the time) and they usually get my service back up and running with in minutes. Saves me time of having to wait on a Dispatch Tech to come out and take time out of my day.
AT&T is making it convenient to bundle all your services in one package. Yes, Dish or DirecTV may off free HD or free this, free that… but it’s only TV. You can get Internet Service with them, but it is nothing compared to the speed you can get with AT&T.
AT&T does all there services through the internet basically. TV, Phone and Internet (Obviously). I can’t tell you how many people I’ve come across that love it and never had a problem since day one. Others, swear it is horrible service. I can’t change your mind, you’re obviously getting horrible service. I know they continually expand their services to provide better coverage and that is probably why some of you get great service and some of you don’t, switch back to another provider and when AT&T rolls out further service areas, then go back.
You all are saying AT&T Service sucks, fortunately you’ve all found this page to bash on the service and thus making it look bad. I’d say 8 out of every 10 people love the service, but I’m sure many of you will refute that seeing as almost every comment is saying the service is bad. If you honestly believe the service is horrible for every person, then you are ignorant. If you are offended by my last statement, then you are stupid.
You must work for these idiots or are affiliated with them in some way…or maybe you are getting paid to make that comment…….I hope this company folds and goes out of business so people would not have to put up with their bullshit any longer
I don’t agree with most of the comments here, I have great service, works great and I’ve had by far much fewer outages and time without service than any other provider I’ve had.
The worst issue I’ve had is when the RG lost power it would take up to 30 min. to come back online. A tech came out within 2 days (and I wasn’t without service), replaced some wiring and the RG and I was good to go. Other than that it’s rock solid.
I love being able to set my DVR to record from my phone and having the ability to watch it from any of my TVs.
I signed up the day it became available in my area (January of 07 or 08, don’t recall which and it doesn’t matter).
As for Wireless, AT&T is the horrendous and I am counting the days to my contract ending in 174 days.
This is the worse service on the face of the earth…they should be shut down
AT&T is the worst service I have ever come across in all of my years in business. They are actively trying to get rid of all of their customers through the customer service department. They have a computer ask you a long set of questions that it can’t ever understand. It then connects you with a person after 10 to 20 minutes and they ask you the same questions all over agian. They are smug and irrtating. Their equipment doesn’t work as advertised and when the system goes down they won’t admit that it was their fault so the user thinks that it’s their own computer costing time and money.
These people are evil.
ATT Worldnet just switched to ATT Dial and it is awful. Now, understand that this is sold as a “Dial up” service so one would think ATT understands that and would plan the webpages according to the speeds and information transfers available for dial systems. No, it appears they route the dial up through any ragged phone lines they can find. Literally I must attempt an inital dial up 3, 4 and 5 times and sometimes more. The homepage then takes more than a minute to load however you cannot just click on “email” and go there, NO. You must wait for YAHOO to load all of it’s REPUBLICAN slanted shit to load, wait for all of the adware to load, and then if you are lucky you can click on the email tab—if you don’t wait for the adware to load and try to click on the tab you just get either no response or a “this page cannot be displayed tab”. If you do get the fucked up YAHOO/ATT login page you also have to wait for more bullshit ads to load or you will once again get a “this page cannot be displayed” page. ATT boasts about how you get 10 email I.D.s with you new ATT Dial but the truth is it is a huge hassle to figure out how to do it and the phone numbers given for customer service offer very little help just sending you around in circles. If you decide to change an email I.D, oh no that’s when you have to wait. First you must make the account “inactive” and then wait 3 months before the account is finally deleted by them and then you can create another. The first time I logged onto my new ATT dial up internet page a few months ago I had to look at that fat fuck Rush Limpbone and his glorious wedding. It’s always some Republican slanted shit on ATT and usually some type of Democrat or Obama bashing slant. Isn’t it obvious though, ATT sold out all of our information during the lying Bush days after Bush ignored the terror warning and allowed us to have the worst attack on our shores during any president’s history. Ah, but ATT was part of that psychological ploy they pulled that turned a military zero and irresponsible president into a political hero because he let us get attacked. Anyway, I digress but the point is the new ATT Dial is a waste of even the $20 plus dollar a month paid for the shit. It is slow, non responsive and hello ATT if I am paying for the service I don’t want to wait for ads to load. I know most internet services do the “ad” thing but I think if you are paying for the service you should have to see a bunch of fucked up ads and even WAIT for them just to use the service. Could you imagine going into any restaurant or car dealer and before you can look at or purchase anything you have to be tormented with ads completely unrelated to the item you are spending money on? The sad thing about ATT for me is that my father worked for them for 47 years and I was a loyal ATT person because of that factor but now I can’t wait to dump this very shitty internet service. Hey, I don’t give a shit about Rush Limpbone or Quitter Pallin and I don’t want to read about those to losers. Limpbone is going to die soon due to his own excessive lifestyle of cigar smoking and lard eating. Remember you read it here. Pallin who is seen as a Republican hero at the moment due to the overwhelming corporate money megaphone she has been bestowed, will one day be blamed for the dismal minority the Republicans will continue to have during thenext decade or longer. The corporate megaphones given to these idiots make them appear to be a majority but that doesn’t translate to majority votes–a lesson apparently not learned by these assholes after the last election when the majority voted these liars and thieves out and voted for a black man who truly represents what America is today, not the America they want from days gone by. You know, the American that got lied to, attacked, and then robbed of surplus by those who simply don’t give a damn about American middle and working class–you know, the ones who built and sustained this country and carry this country around on thier backs. Wake up ATT, you are on the wrong side and you suck and I can’t wait for the day when you can no longer afford to promote hate and ignorance due to no more behind the scenes deals made by you and the Greedy Old Party. Oh yes, and your fucked up ATT Dial servide in tandem with Yahoo sucks. Trying to partner up to obvious losers, ATT and Yahoo (didn’t they lose tons of money in value a few years ago) is not a recipe for success. ENJOY !!! Oh, and any shitheads who are Republicans and want to say all kinds of nasty shit when they read this, go fuck yourselves–you are anti American and are polarizing and devisive and truly a minority and will continue to lose political races over and over—no, this country will never be that “white majority” you are trying to scare everyone into thinking was better for this country. Like I said, GO FUCK YOURSELF.
My experience with sbcglobal.net dsl and now uverse dsl has been mixed. It is a 6 year track record which includes at least a dozen instances when the smtp server quit taking mail from us. Deleting accounts and reentering data usually fixed things. Any time we had to get support it took hours… usually we got the problem solved. This time it was different. I am also posting this at the uverse forum and the apple support forum because a work-a-round has solved my problem… it involves another product but just knowing I got a solution may help others find a way to get something working.
I have spent the better part of the last 3 days trying to get a third party or vanity email address to verify. The panels say I have successfully verified my address but it will not send.
So we called att support and were told we would have to pay for premium support. We asked instead to cancel our service. We signed up with a local dsl service (Houston) and discovered to our dismay that DSL does not equal DSL. The local service has never been able to swap over a Uverse dsl service. So we were back to Uverse to have Uverse dsl canceled and regular at&t dsl installed…. it is like dealing with two different companies. Along the way we discover that at our location we will lose the 6 Mbps service and only be able to get 1.5 Mbps… our modem will have to be changed out and at this point we are sad and weakened. The Uverse rep offers to lower the premium support charge from $30 to $15 so we gave in and signed up for it. The next day I get the very polite and seemingly competent Paulo on the line. We get set up for him to take over the cursor and we start reviewing my settings. Bottomline. I had all my settings perfect… practice, practice etc. They were absolutely correct on every panel. Paulo got to see that the verification does not work and that it is not possible to set up a “reply to” third party address that will work. Paulo was very nice and very baffled. He invited me to call back but he really had no idea about what to do to get things working.
By this time I am feeling pretty defeated and trapped… I cannot reasonably move to another provider and no one at AT&T can make it work. There is a happy ending for me in this though and this could work for someone else which is why I am making this long post. My vanity email is from an email forwarding service where I have had an account for 12 years. My isps change as my job has moved me overseas and back and across the US several times… my email address does not change. The company I use is pobox.com I was looking around at their website and noticed that my service includes use of their smtp server. I printed off the instructions, which they have for about 20 mail clients, pc, mac, et al and within 10 minutes I was sending mail from myname@pobox.com. I got no error messages and when the mail arrived it showed from myname@pobox.com and when we replied to that email it put myname@pobox.com in the to:. Man am I happy! This fix did not cost me incremental $ and it was easy. The service costs $20 per year for a single year subscription… I have a 5 yr which runs me $15 per year. There are other benefits to the service… decent spam filtering and url forwarding.
If you are having a problem with a vanity address not working and you can stomach $20 per year, go on over to pobox.com and tell them Pam sent you.
ps the other thing that I got to work was sending mail out from my mobileme account using their smtp server. Mobileme will not allow me to use my vanity address but I am happier having .mac in my return address than att or sbcglobal.
Pam,
While I feel your pain, you might want to check out the TOS. I’m not aware that ATT is *required* in their TOS to support such third party vanity email forwarding. If they did before and it happened to work, then more power to you. But I believe it’s not part of their TOS agreement when you signed up for service.
What I do not understand is, why did you not stick with UVERSE if the speed loss was an issue? You can always change your business email and inform your client base. The idea that someone’s email address (even a business address) has to stay the same for life is very antiquated.
Another place to find out more about broadband is dslreports.com. There are some very ‘illuminating’ discussions regarding the various providers, including those around greater Houston. I’d also perus the link I included earlier in the thread so you can understand more of the specifics about the differences between plain jane DSL & UVERSE. Here’s it is-
http://adslm.dohrenburg.net/vdslm/uverse.php
this set up sucks so bad, i can’t watch a single efin program without this crap system shutting down, and these but holes charge top dollar, that blue can’t signal , how do we fix this ,,,, if it was free it would not be worth the time and effort to fix the problems,,, anybody have any suggestions..
another blue no signal box
wait now the picture is just going light and dark. and half breaking up , yea for me
anyone notice that people speaking are on a delay,
has anyone actually had any concern fixed?, i,m just asking cause this is really getting to me,.
oh looky its out again, no signal found
You dont have a contract….So just get rid of those suckers like everyone else….I cant believe people are still getting uverse….WHAT A BULLSHIT COMPANY
AT&T wouldn’t stop hounding me to get U-Verse. I don’t want it. Everyone I know hates it and many have already gotten rid of it.
Several complaints later to the Public Service Commission and still they would keep on, calling every other day, sending sales people by the house and mailing me promotions.
Solution? I disconnected my landline and I am no longer an AT&T customer.
So long AT&T – you SUCK!
hahahahahahah
Thats Hilarious
That company and that uverse service is garbage
I wish they get closed down
but the big companies always find a way to survive even if it means robbing and cheating customers….
You STINK AT&T
Three months as a new customer and three outages so far. My wife is an oncall employee and needs phone service when she is asked to work for someone. My daughter is in medical school and uses the Internet constantly for school. I also work from home a couple of times a week.
This is not a good start. If things do not improve when the special runs out, I am back on DirecTV and Comcast.
Ugh I’m having so many problems with U-Verse internet right now. Ordered in the beginning of September, for self-installation. They express mailed me the cable box, and then instructions said I could install on or after Sep 28th, at 8pm.
I called to see why I had to wait so long, and if there was anything I could do to have it earlier. They said a tech was coming out to my house on the 28th– never told me this before I called! I asked if I needed to be home, and they said “maybe”. So I took off of work (lucky I could) and waited at home. After almost the entire day went by, a tech came, never knocked on my door, fiddled with something on the side of my house for about 20 minutes, and left.
That night I tried installing my internet, after 8pm like they said. When it didn’t work, I tried calling the support number– but alas, the offices were closed. There is no support available if you try installing at 8pm like they say.
So I called right away the next morning. They asked if my power cable was plugged in, and if the modem was plugged into the wall— obvious problems. I did everything right. They had me on the line for about 20 minutes, and then said they were sending a tech out to my house. Nevermind that people have to work, nevermind asking when might work for me– they just expected me to be home.
They weren’t able to get it up and running. Two days later, I also came home from work, and spent another half day waiting for the tech to fix it. He said that I was the first in my area to get it, that there was something wrong outside of my house– something wrong with how they’d turned on service for my neighborhood. He was on the phone with people from AT&T trying to get it fixed, and they hung up on him when they reached the end of their work day– even though he was at my house, waiting for an answer.
He confirmed that he would be working all weekend, and that since everything inside my house was set up correctly, he would be able to work on it while I was out of town for the weekend. I came home, and it still isn’t working.
I’ve been waiting a month to get this running. Still no internet at home.
Had Uverse installed 8/2008.. was a real pain for almost a year. Started to improve gradually as time went on… Being 10/2010 I can say it is working very well.. now. How long it will continue no knows….. It seems as though problems with any service has an issue.. None of them know how it works, or how to fix it…… they just want your money.. I know two people with Clearwire.. nothing but headaches.. There is no escape from this situation..
Although I still have U-verse, I would not recommend it to anyone unless you’re able to actually see that it works for you.
Unlike many of the people here, our VDSL2 link (the DSL-on-steroids path between our house and the local AT&T box in our neighborhood) has actually been working rather well. But their router software support for static IP addressing (a $15/mo option) has serious bugs that show no signs of being fixed. I don’t recommend it unless you’re a knowledgeable networking engineer AND you’re up for a real challenge. See the gory details here:
http://www.ka9q.net/Uverse
u-verse constantly glitches I have had technicians come to
fix the glitching problem over 6 times and the glitching still happens.
The only good part about u-verse is the dvr, but it’s not worth the
frustration of the constant glitching. Heck, I’m even having trouble posting this message because my internet is not working properly.
At&T Uverse is a bunch of bull! I bought a 52″hdtv and they keep telling me that it is the television. Their technicians came out to my home 3 times. First they told me it was the infra red light in the television that caused it to freeze, turn to channels that we did not tell it to turn to or not turn the television. Secondly, they to me to exchange the television and the second tier technician would come out and fix it. Well he never returned our telephone calls. Finally I threatened to cancell my service with them and they came out and stayed for over 2 hours, and told me that my home theater speaker that I had in front of the television had a maganet in it and that is what was interferring with turning the channels. What a bunch of sh__!. Two days later, it went back to doing the same thing. We as consumers should file a class action lawsuit against them to re-oop some of our money back!
I truely believe that the only reason people are getting Uverse is to get that money back that they offer…They service and customer service is definitely the worse service out there….i wish they would just go out of business and give people their money back…what a waste of time money and effort
Although the VDSL2 link in our U-verse service is working reasonably well, it’s clear that in some places it just doesn’t work.
Consider what VDSL is trying to do: run 37 megabits/sec (32 megabits down + 5 megabits up) over a pair of copper wires that may have been in the ground for 50 years or more. Copper wires that were originally intended to carry a single analog phone call extending to 3 kHz.
It’s amazing that VDSL works as well as it does, but the fact is that it simply doesn’t work well enough. Working fine for just some of the customers isn’t enough.
AT&T has tried to build a network “on the cheap” by using VDSL on existing copper wires instead of doing it right and installing fiber everywhere. The public needs to understand that fiber is the way to go. And if commercial carriers like AT&T aren’t willing to install it, then the municipality should step in, install it, and lease it to multiple competitive service providers on equal terms. Only real, open competition will light a fire under these guys.
There service does suck I cant stand it, my Internet was supposed to be hooked up on Nov 12th it is now NOV 14th
the required me to purchase a modem im not allowed to use the one I already have from att it costs me a $100 it was taken out of my account withing 14 seconds but it takes 2 weeks for me to get it in the mail
nov 12 between 1-3 in the afternoon 3:35 comes around I go to set it up I get a red light I call them im on hold for about 45 min then a guy comes on line he tells me that they actually have until 12 midnight before it has to be connected because that is actually the end of there work day
12:01 midnight comes around i go to hook it up I get a red light, I call them up this time im on hold for 1 hour and 15 min a guy comes on the phone and then tells me it was a mistake on wiring they would have some one out to fix it within 24 hours
24 hours goes by i go to hook it up and get a red light I call them back on hold for about 30 min this time they tell me it was a mistake on there part that they were trying to send the dsl signal to my cell phone “which is a Nextel ( sprint) ” and not even a land line phone, I tell him that some guys came by about 2 weeks before and were running some lines at the pole which never got finished and are still tied to the pole about 3 houses down so he runs a test to see if there was a signal reaching the box
there is a problem with the lines sir
after all this since it is a sunday they are closed
monday Im seriously thinking about calling and telling them to just cancel the whole thing, only problem is im sure I will not get my money back for the 100 dollar modem
beware of at&t no matter what they will screw you
I cant believe they still have people still buying AT&T Uverse…It has to be the cashback offer they have..and even that is a fraud because the last bill they send you is gonna be more than the cash that you received….I guess they still have stupid and ignorant people out there who just want to try that piece of shit service
They will screw you left, right, front then bend you over and screw you from behind…and when its all done they will screw you all over again…
James White, I agree that AT&T will screw you however there are some things that you may want to check since it seems someone was lying to you.
U-Verse techs need to finish the job no matter what – if they have to stay at your house until the sun rises that is what management wants – and they must continue working the next day – and yes Sunday is a U-Verse work day.
I worked installing U-Verse but left after seven months of pure hell. We started at 7:30 and would get back to the yard after midnight on most days. An installer may get a day off after a few weeks – but that is it. They may as well keep cots at the station. Also we eat lunch in our trucks while we drive to the next job and keep an empty bottle for bathroom breaks.
I don’t have U-Verse nor do I want it – it sucks and the company sucks and if I ever see a U-Verse installer on the road I feel very, very sorry for them. Yes they have a job and put food on the table but the job can kill you.
Uverse really sucks. They suck you in for the 30 f=day free trial which they tlod me there was none. Then when I went to cancel they told me I had to stay or could not keep my number that I have had for the last 27 years,
They said I could cancel but if I wantd my number I would have to stay with the contract and pay for my first months service and then pay a cancellation fee for the rest of my contract that I was not suppose to have. I asked them to keep my number that I have had since 1987 and they told me that I would beheld to the contract plus cancelatiion fees . I went back to brighthouse and they gave me a better deal than I had before.
**** u-verse
It seems that you people dont read the posts here before trying this bullshit of a service called uverse…I guess it pays to learn….You must always check online before getting any service
It really sounds like you get the luck of the draw. Everything depends on your VDSL2 link. If it works, U-verse will work. If it doesn’t, for whatever reason — your loop is too long, or of poor quality — then you’ll encounter frustration.
I guess you should always insist on an evaluation period. Don’t disconnect any other services right away. Keep your options open so you can unravel things if U-verse just doesn’t work.
I wouldn’t say to ignore U-verse entirely. For me, it provides a faster Internet connection than I could get otherwise from anyone else (which means Time Warner Cable).
GOD I wish I read this first.
My U-Verse install was from 9 am till 7:30 pm. Day two my hard drive fails on the DVR… They tell me that they can have a new one to me by Tuesday (it’s Friday)..Like I don’t want TV for four days…..
I demand they come out and connect a new one…. ok but not till noon and you will have to stay at home from noon till 4 pm waiting….. Oh but its the last weekend before Christmas… Basically so F’ing what…
I am so Pi**ed!
Hey, at least you got to the point of installation. They targeted our neighborhood, we spent hours on the phone figuring out the plan we needed, going back and forth with sales reps, nearly canceling our cable account (thankfully we didn’t). And only after all of these hours spent doing all of this, they send a tech out after the fact to tell us that we can’t use their service because we are too far away….after we have spent hours on the phone going back and forth. Poor marketing strategy on AT&T’s side, they should know who to market too with their own product or at least have the decency to tell you this up front before blowing hours of your short life. Very frustrating to say the least.
Uverse customer service refuses to respond to any of my emails, even though I indicated on their email site that I would like a response. Whats up with that, sounds like arrogance.
Obviously most of you guys have never had to deal with Time Warner. We had Uverse in 2007, then moved to a condo beyond the reach of VDSL1. Been waiting for 2 LONG years – first tried DISH (awful), then back to my good friends at TW (beyond awful). Just had Uverse installed with pair bonding at we are doing pretty well at 4800 ft from the VRAD.
I guess I was “lucky”? Going from 6Mbps to 24Mbps (32/5) internet, dumping D* and cheaper phone, saving about $50.00/month packaged? Universally sucks maybe, but individually, I’m fairly happy. Consumers: you need to look at your distance from the VRAD. If it’s too far, then you will NOT get the best internet/TV. Look for what you really need.
Let me give you the goods on AT&T. I installed Uverse systems for over a year and have figured out, pretty much, what’s going on. First, let me say that many of you are correct (to some extent) on some aspects of the company and the system.
AT&T has gotten to big for its britches and is now a company who is out of touch with modern society. First of all, I am in full agreement that their customer service (phone support) is absolutely horrid (to put it mildly). There is no excuse for having the customer forced to talk to a computer when they are already having problems…a computer that doesn’t understand plain english most of the time. We have the same problem when we install VOIP; we have to talk to machines and it’s frustrating when a machine can’t understand the word “NO”. I fully understand your anger in that aspect. To compound that problem is technical support simply troubleshoots from a written list. If problem is A then try this. If this works then go to C, if not then go to R. Techinical support has no clue how the system actually works, this includes the Tier 2 support that technicians frequently deal with. Yes, customer service at this company sucks. Unfortunately, not all the technicians are good at dealing with the customer either.
When it comes to problems with the systems, most of the time it is an installation issue. However, this is not always the fault of the technician (not directly anyways). You see, the company is driven by productivity. Quality is further down the list. Each technician is expected to do a certain amount of installs/repairs each day. If they don’t achieve this, they get reprimanded. I know this because I was reprimanded on a daily basis because my focus was on quality and not productivity (I see good quality as being part of productivity when you consider that a repeat visit will be unnecessary). Unfortunately, management doesn’t care. To compound that problem, the manager of the technician that performs the work has no power to change anything and neither does the manager’s manager. The problem comes from some college geek with a business degree whose sole reason for existing is productivity.
Don’t even get me started on sales. These people aren’t that bright. I was performing an install in a neighborhood where they were selling Uverse, door to door. I had to cancel my install because the neighborhood was too far from the VRAD. I told the salespeople to stop selling in this area because the system won’t work here. The next day I was in the same neighborhood and who did I see? That’s right, the same sales people. Now, this isn’t entirely their fault. When AT&T puts in a VRAD, they look at a map to gauge distance then consider a certain area as “uverse ready” without any check of the lines or anything of that nature.
Why don’t these areas work? I saw a reference to it above. They are running 21st century technology on old-mid 20th century infrastructure. This system was designed with fiberoptics in mind but they have no plans to upgrade the copper to fiber. Often, we get lucky and we can get good service out to distances of 3500 ft or more…the expected distance is 3000 ft. Other times, the lines are so deteriorated that we are lucky to have service beyond 2000 ft. It’s the luck of the draw.
As far as the system itself; it’s great when it is properly installed. I was able to install my own (TV, 18Mbps internet, and Voip) two years ago and I haven’t had any problems. Sometime in the next year, I plan on upgrading to the 24Mbps internet service. BTW, we are in a FTTN area and not a FTTP. My neighbor also has it and has never had a problem. The biggest problem I encountered in the field is with the equipment. I did see something here about the version of windows being run; that is totally irrelevant as 99% of equipment related problems are with the DVR or RG. Of those, most of the problems are the DVR which is rooted in poor quality control from the manufacturer and whoever the incompetents are that “rebuild” them. (They are not built or rebuilt by AT&T). The fault I give to AT&T on the equipment issues is that they have done little to improve the problem even thought we point out that bad equipment is most often the reason that productivity is falling.
As far as another tech saying they work you day and night, that is partially true and partially exaggerated. In some areas, yes, the work is non-stop. In others, it’s touch and go. I’ve had some days where I worked 15 hours and others where I was able to leave early after 5-6 hours. We’ve even sent tech to Florida and Texas to help them caught up.
This just touches the surface. I could go on for hours on the goods and bads of AT&T as a company and their Uverse system. When all is said and done, I’m glad I don’t work there anymore. If it wasn’t for over-management and ignorant policies, that could have possibly been the best job I ever had. The work itself was fun and fulfilling, to say the least.
AT&T U-Verse is literally driving me to drink.
I don’t expect anything to be perfect, but I do expect to speak to a human, to be transferred to the appropriate party in the appropriate “zone,” that when something is fixed-it is just that-fixed, when a replacement part is mailed it is the right one, and that when a technician leaves a call back number that they return phone messages.
If I have one more issue with U-Verse, I am going back to dish. The only reason I haven’t is that I have invested SO MUCH into getting U-Verse working, I hate to admit that it has been a huge waste of time, energy, money, and emotion. I really want it to work.
To the dish guy who helped me unsubscribe…I’m sorry, you were right. I shouldn’t have left.
-One very p!ssed customer in San Antonio, TX
THERE WE GO AGAIN….AT&T SCREWING PEOPLE ALL OVER AGAIN ….WHY DO PEOPLE STILL ORDER THIS BULLSHIT SERVICE?….IT MUST BE TO GET THE CASHBACK THAT THEY OFFER……THIS IS THE WORSE SERVICE ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET…..SCREW U AT&T
My experience with U-verse has been reasonably positive, at least in comparison with the many horror stories here. The HD video quality is slightly worse than cable, but the difference was only visible in a close A/B eyeball comparison; the U-verse picture is perfectly watchable on the couch. More importantly, very little of the stuff I actually watch was available on Time Warner, while practically everything I watch on U-verse is HD. And that was far more important than the small difference in HD quality.
(Time Warner has been deploying more HDTV channels so the situation may have changed.)
I’ve also run into some bugs with the static IP option in their Internet service, but I’ve managed to work around them. I keep the service because, right now, it’s my fastest option for Internet service here in San Diego. See my web pages for the details:
http://www.ka9q.net/Uverse
So it seems to me that Uverse experiences fall generally into two categories: those for whom the system works pretty muh as advertised, and those who have nothing but problems from day one. It seems fairly unusual to have it work fine for a few months and then break in some way that the techs can’t fix. I’m sure it’s happened, but it seems unusual.
All that says you shouldn’t necessarily be afraid to have U-verse installed. Just don’t disconnect your cable service right away. Keep both for a few weeks or a month and THEN disconnect cable if you’re happy with Uverse.
Only 1 out of 10 customers actually keep uverse…The rest…within 1 year get rid of uverse…nothing but trouble…..A real shit service which they need to stop selling and stop fooling customers…Those uverse sales people tell the most lies…they surely going to hell
I feel I need to update they did fix the problem and it was the wires at the pole the tech that finally came out said he touched them and they crumbled in his hands so he replaced them and connected the other wires the other guys never did and the service works great ! though I still hate it when ever I have to all at&t because I pay through there automated service its quicker but much more frustrating !
there service seems to work fine we get a great signal and it is much much faster then comcast and costs us less also so to sum it up there service is great while the company sucks balls go figure
any way just though I should update since my November post and I can agree to those who say make sure and keep your old service until you are sure the new one works
I wish I found this blog before I ordered U-Verse as well.
My internet access bombed out after 8 months, and after 6 phone calls, plus one on line so called tech support “expert” exchange, together with a shipment of useless replacement netopia adapter equipment (the bit installed by ATT that went ‘bad’), I’m still out of service and now advised to contact the manufacturer of the equipment that AT & T installed in the first place in order to purchase the required replacement part. In other words, “it’s not our problem.”
I would NEVER recommend this service to anyone. The ‘come’ on cashback award offer never materialized either, and the explanation provided for that truly could have been knit into a blockbuster Monty Python skit.
The waste of money is one thing. The aggravation from a half day installation project, combined with zero service and tech support is quite another.
I’m going to sign back up with Comcast right now, and rue the day I switched over in the first place. Don’t make the same mistake.
As a former Comcast customer in Fort Lauderdale, I can honestly say that I have no regrets about switching to Uverse. There are several reasons:
1, Comcast has notoriously poor service in the South Florida region for internet and television. Since buying a single family house in South Florida, I did not want Dish or DirecTV since rain and storms cause frequent outages, not to mention satellite has horrible upload and download speeds at a high monthly price.
2, Our bill for a limited number of HD channels and hundreds of SD channels that I have no interest in watching (we are in the HD age), Showtime, HBO, and internet exceeded $185/month through Comcast! If I called to complain once in a while, I would receive a three month promotional package that would expire. Through Uverse, I receive their largest HD package, my current cell phone package and internet for about 75% the cost of Comcast, which now bundles my cell plan…a great advantage.
3, Through coax configuration, I am able to utilize FOUR HD streams simultaneously…something impossible through our former Comcast configuration with Tivo.
4, HD quality at 1080i is far superior to Comcast’s supposed HD. I’ve done the side by side comparison and it remarkably sharper and vivid. Besides the occasional pixilation (which happens with cable, satellite or even rabbit ears), it is nothing to get excited about.
5, While I never had a Comcast DVR box since I’ve always used Tivo, I am very happy with what seems to be an endless capacity for HD recording (although I know there is a limit).
6, Internet is reliable and steady. Unlike Comcast which had me virtually sharing my internet connection with my entire neighborhood, I have a dedicated connection which is far more reliable for my home business.
I have read the plethora of threads about AT&T’s poor customer service. While I have had some frustrations with Uverse customer service, have any of you dealt with Comcast’s army of incompetent tech support staff? I’ve always felt that Comcast never valued my business and treated me as such when a problem occurred. What’s worse is that Comcast would charge a service fee every time there was a problem with their own wiring or equipment. On that note, a service call from Comcast would typically be at least 3 days out at the most inconvenient time….on the one occasion I needed a Uverse tech, they were at my house in several hours.
However, I do agree that AT&T needs to revamp their telephone support system and eliminate Tier 1 support reps in India. This is most often a complete waste of time and frustrating to the user.
I suppose the service quality is subjective to your area, the integrity of your neighborhood wiring and the distance from the hub. It is a good idea to do your homework before committing to this service and rate it based on what your COMMUNITY says. It is unwise to evaluate Uverse based on irate posts from technically incompetent users spread all over the country….service in rural Colorado could be vastly different than service in my area, Fort Lauderdale, FL.
I say, good riddance to Comcast and their arrogance over the broadband system. I hope excellent service like what I receive will be a wake-up call to the traditional cable providers that think they have us “by the balls”.
Tim-
Your comments regarding the regional differences between services are definitely valid. You are lucky that UVERSE works where you live so you at least had an alternative to cable HSI. Unfortunately in my neck of the woods of late, ATT has dropped the football for several friends who ended up switching back ;(.
I would also like to correct your understanding about how internet traffic works, specifically UVERSE vs Comcast HSI. A Comcast HSI connection is not shared in the sense that having several users on the same [massive capacity HFC] trunk will necessarily degrade performance by that fact alone. This is a huge myth, apparently still being used by DSL and/or UVERSE sales channels to sway folks from cable. Truth be told, all internet connections are shared at some point along the stream, making your point moot. If more folks took the time to properly understand the differences between some of the various technologies we would all hold more power as consumers with these massive companies.
Bottom line is you found something that works for you, which is a good thing.
cheers.
People, if it is at all possible to go with any other company for phone, tv, and internet, then I BEG you to go somewhere else besides AT&T. I have a long, long history of customer service issues and have been repeatedly ripped off by AT&T. They WILL drain your bank account, literally, AND your valuable time trying to resolve their mistakes. Really, this company should be thrown out of business and put in prison for grand theft!!!!
I know friends and family who have had exactly the same issues. Please beware!!!! Do not believe anything they tell you. If you are charged for something that doesn’t work or exist or wasn’t mentioned up front, and you try to call the company to resolve the charge, then you will spend the whole day trying to talk to someone. They will tell you that they will credit your account, but you will never see those credits come through on your bills. You will have to spend another day (call in sick at work folks) trying to talk to someone at AT&T again, only to go through this same cycle. It is a real racket, let me tell you. Someone should file a huge lawsuit because this company is doing business as complete crooks!!!! Watch out folks. I urge you to take your business somewhere else, even if you have to pay more. It is worth it!! Amy
Their customer service is beyond terrible — it is EVIL. They are the worst people on the face of the planet. They are sickening, repulsive, degenerate, incompetent, slimy, miserable liars.
I hate them.
I have REVERSE(D) my U-VERSE!
Installation was completed March 30, 2011 and I called to cancel it March 31, 2011.
Things started going wrong from the onset, starting with the installation. I have had so many issues in just a 24 hour period, I knew I didn’t need (their) 30 days to know if I liked it or not.
Things are in motion now to “put” things back the way they were.
I can relate to so much of what so many here have said.
I don’t have the time now, but maybe in the very near future I will elaborate on my situation and save more of you from making a bad decision.
Stayed tuned……..and look for future comments regarding my situation. And in the meantime: REVERSE U-VERSE!
I could not agree more with this post! I have had uverse for all of two months now and I have already canceled! My second week with the service was completely interrupted with 5-10 min screen freezes! And when the screen freezes the Internet is down too! My tv and Internet was down more that week than it was up! I had technicians over constantly that eel and no one seemed to have a clue as to what the problem could be! Now I have seen this same issue described on these types of boards over and over… Surely someone brought this kind of issue to their attention before me! But no, everytime I called customer support I would have to describe my issue over and over… Each time they acted like this was something they had never heard of! I canceled my service… I have 3 days left on my service and it is pointless… The service has been completely unusable for the past 3 days! I hate Att uverse they are the worst tv and Internet provider on the market ( I have had comcast, time Warner, and directv). Good riddance Att uverse!
Well, there is probably a third group of folks who originally were quite pleased with the quality as well as service, but has recently watched the customer service plummet to abysmal levels.
I have called many times to rectify billing issues, so called “open orders” (who opened an order? not me), jittery picture quality, etc etc. It is an unbelievably tiring and frustrating experience. I know what good customer service can be – I have T-Mobile for my mobile, and we all know how rocking they are.
This – starting with the moronic abysmal automated piece of crap customer service (the blogger above described it oh so well), to wasted and empty promises of call backs and fixes, to repeat mistakes on bills.. I have to waste my time again and again to get something fixed. What an asinine company.
To top it all – they lose the contact notes. So one group to whom I get connected to (that I didn’t even ask to be connected to because the morons with American names from India who pretends to do their tier 1 service do not have a freakin clue how to deal with it. And I am not being racist. I am Indian.) had no idea that I had talked many times before to fix the bill, or to downgrade the ultra expensive internet, or to ask for refunds for interruptions. Nothing. Just the monotonous “well, what I see in this bill is, you owe us this much”..
But this time around, I showed em their faults. Made them realize their stupid mistakes. Hey, in the end I still might get screwed, but I still have that satisfaction.
So I am out here, looking to switch to someplace better. Not good, mind you. Just better. Because good aint happening.
Hate AT&T. And I hope to God T-Mo stays away from this terrible company.
I just went through switching to ATT Uverse. I have had one of the worst experiences of my life with ATT. I just had one of their billing people hang up on me because I disagreed with what they were charging me.
I was misled to believe that I would only pay for the Cisco router. I had installed my previous service on my own and did not need a tech. They assured me I could do it on my own. Then out of the blue a technician called me and said he would be by to install. I said i did not want to pay the fees and he said there is not fee for him to come by. OK. He arrives and has to check my inside wiring which was basic. Then he had to go out to the street twice. I figured he was here because they needed additional support for the street because it was a new type of service. He was a nice guy and all but then I received a bill for $149. What???
I am in shock. Then to have the customer service person tell me sorry. I said I would like to find out who I can speak to and she said no one. WHAT????
This company is TERRIBLE. I am going to get a refund and just go to Comcast. At this point it is not about the money. I just cant believe how I was treated. What is the deal with these companies?
I think your service is probably not as good as Cox. We had them for years and decided to switch over to AT&T.Reasons why one should not have AT&T 1 Freezes up way more then it should. 2. Cannot get in touch with a real person when you try and file a complaint.3. We have wires ran all over the front of our house and on the side. Looks horrible and does not work. I as a customer are very disappointed with this service.
AT&T did it to me once again. Seems like I will never learn. I signed up for AT&T U-Verse. Had it less than a month. Hated it & cancelled. Got my second bill today. The first one was for $184.86 & the one today is for $137.59. I called & was told immediately I owe it & if I don’t like it, then tough. My faster than light DSL sucks too. God, I despise AT&T.
Living in South Florida and having Direct TV means you lose your signal almost every day during the Summer when it rains heavy, so after talking to a colleague about U Verse and hearing good things I decided to switch. I already had AT&T for my phone service and internet so we got everything bundled together. The installation went OK, the technician was nice and polite. I asked if the U Verse would interfere with my alarm system and was told it wouldn’t change anything. A couple of days later I set off the alarm by mistake but did not get a call from the alarm company so I called them to find out why and was told that they did not get a signal from my house. The alarm company checked the circuits only to find that the U Verse system was interrupting the signal because U Verse uses the phone line and basically holds the line hostage so now I have no monitored alarm and I lost the ability to use my Fax machine. When I called AT&T they said that this should have been explained to me at the time of installation, when I told them the technician said it would not affect the alarm they said one of their tech’s would not say that.
A couple of days later I noticed that on almost every HD channel the sound would intermittently cut out for a second or two when I had the sound on the U Verse box set to surround sound but would not do it when set to stereo. I also noticed that if I wanted to record every episode of a program, the system is not set up to do this. If you hit the record button twice like you are supposed to when you want to record every episode it would only record the episodes of that series. I called AT&T and they sent out a technician. He tried to tell me that the sound problem was because I had used a HDMI cable between the DVR and the TV. He replaced my HDMI cable with a component cable (red, green & blue). I asked him about recording a program and he told me to press the record button twice so I explained to him that this did not work and he said I must have had the settings set wrong so I showed him by trying to record every episode of a show and showed him what I had the settings on then he saw that it would only record some episodes.
The next day I realized that the sound was still cutting out so I called them back and had to go through to same thing the original posting said about not being understood but finally got to speak to a human who arranged for another technician to come out. I explained the problem with the sound and was told that problem was caused by the broadcaster not having a true HD signal. I explained that I had never had this problem with Direct TV in 3 years of having HD. When I asked him if he had U Verse and how to record he said he did have it and had never had a problem with recording every episode of something so I showed him that what he was telling me did not work. That was a year ago and still I can’t have surround sound or record every episode of a show without looking through the guide to find the shows.
I would strongly suggest that anybody thinking about getting U Verse think twice and find something else. If you don’t live in South Florida get Direct TV, it works how it supposed to.
AT&T U- VERSE
SUCKS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Im very supprised that AT&T Uverse is still in business…what a horrible company…They need to be Forcefully Shut Down……I think its the worse company in the world….A Uverse guy came to my house for a sale the other day….I could of shot that guy…instead I told him man you really came to wrong house here….just move on
They can’t seem to pull their heads out of their asses, they always make mistakes that cost me money, promise to fix them and make the same mistake over again. I called to straighten them out once again and after navigating their phone maze their machine finally tells me that they are closed and hung up on me.
Already cancelled their TV service for the same reason and they were about to charge me $150.00 for not returning the box that was in fact returned if I could not find the tracking number to prove it.
How would you feel if you where a U-Verse Tech. having to work 6 days a week 10 to 12 hours daily for the past 6 month? A mandatory abuse by AT&T Corp. We are fed up.
does anyone know how long the uverse contracts are for? Im ready to switch! I have had both direct and currently uverse. I have to say i privy att because I have had absolutely no issues but its just so damn expensive. My promo has ended and i went from a $99 bundle to $184 a month! im going to have to switch back to direct tv now 😦 I dont like it because when it rains the service always goes out.
uverse tech…I feel for you bud…dont take it personal….these comments are not meant for you….Its for the bulshit company that you work for….
This seems like a silly complaint to me. Did you or did you not agree to work for ATT? There are plenty of unemployed people right now in this country who would bend over backwards for your job.
Pepe7….Yes…many people would want to work there…..but you cant knock the guy unless you have tried those hours……Alot of those guys do good work even with the long hours….Its the service and the company that is crappy….Dont blame it on the Tech
I most certainly don’t blame the techs for ATT’s UVERSE woes.
IMHO though, anyone coming to a public forum and complaining about a 10-12 hour day in the context of this discussion is foolish at best.
If you don’t like the hours and can’t handle the work, find another job. Period.
I just had Uverse taken out. They screwed up my username substituting a t for a y so I could not pay on line. After two calls to fix it they turned off my service. No phone, no internet, and no TV. I called on my cell and spent 1.5 hours trying to pay. Then they said they would turn it on. Two hours later I called and the order was stuck. I escilated to level three they said they pushed it and I would be back up at 8 the next day. Not so. I called back got dropped 27 times in the queue after the annoying robot. Finally got through after 2 hours of trying. They pushed it again. It did not work. I called back which took 2 more hours and had the junk removed!
Everyone who has that crappy service needs to have it removed…Thats probably the only way that they would go out of business…but they have their diehard AT&T supporters that will leave their service in no matter how crappy it is
I’m stop regressed to switch to this at&t uverse. Service works every other day and when call in to schedule for in house service/retpair, they only tell me either morning or evening (up to 9pm) and I have a child need to put to bed at this time. In addition, all their technician always came with an attitude.
Here’s the thing. After a year with U Verse, I don’t want to have to push reset buttons, power down the gateway and restart the system, etc. to get my TVs and internet and phone to work, etc. when it has some kind of problem. How many years did cable boxes work just fine after initial setup without having to be messed with or do troubleshooting for years and years and years? Here’s a novel idea–how about hardware that is WAY over spec,and super reliable with NO problems (maybe an occasional failure over ten years and replacing a bad box, etc., is ok) which does its own self diagnosis, and fixes it’s own problems SO I AS THE CUSTOMER DON”T HAVE TO FIGURE OUT how to get it working again!!! Irritating also? Over the past few weeks, I’ve had recurring problems like this, the phone goes out also and doesn’t work…etc. It’s interesting that it’s easier to GOOGLE the problem and find an answer that way than try to get tech support from ATT.. The original install was GREAT, the tech was GREAT, and redid everything cable wise, etc., at least I can say that.
What we need to do is get together and sue those bastards for the bullshit service and company that they are….Maybe thats the only way to stop those assholes
AT&T website and service is the WORST I have EVER encountered. I am now into my 6th hour of trying to stop (cancel) my Internet Support at $15/mo. This is after they could not assist/resolve my initial problem I contacted them about 3 months ago.
You can sign up for services but I challenge you to discontinue something like “Internet Support Service”.
Wish I had read this three days ago…I got suckered in by some of the U-verse features and promises of financial savings if I bundled it all together. But now I am in heavy regret mode. Have had nothing but trouble for 48 hours. TV picture freezes, phone service sketchy, cell phones get no service inside my own home and barely out in the yard and the internet goes down randomly. I could get no one from AT&T on the phone, in the short interval it was working. Finally did but the phone connection died. I have made a terrible mistake. If you are thinking of switching to AT&T U-verse….DON’T DO IT!
WHy does their customer support for home phone suck, then? They’ve been doing that forever. It’s because they don’t care about customer service enough to change it. They are used to having business without competition in Illinois.
I hate at & T uverse. Please do not sign for this shitty service.
The absolute worse customer service ever! Have had uverse for 6 months, and in that time 15-20 service calls to my home, usually on Saturday morning, slow internet, intermittent TV service, and when the system goes down – everything is down! Everything! Hideous service. Am cancelling my service and then cancelling my Cingular wireless also. Been a customer sine 1979, but I will never go back to ATT.
My experience with Uverse is that it TOTALLY SUCKS. I have continuous problems the router going down, telephone not working, t.v. signal goes down and the t.v. line is very, very poor unless you upgrade to the premium packages. Can’t wait till my contract is up so I can cancel my service.
I really liked reading this because we are having some of the same problems. we had a HUGE package and after deciding to drop the hammer, they pulled out all the stops. new modem and dropped our bill over $70 with free HD, movie channels the works. so we’re going to give them one more try and if it doesn’t work, then we’re going on. does anyone have a recommendation? we were looking at one of the bigger bundles on WOW but do not know a lot about them.
I recommend you check out the reviews of WOW service in your area over at broadbandreports.com. The comments in their various discussion forums (including technical assistance) can be quite useful. There may be someone who lives in your town/neighborhood that can comment more specifically about their experience with that provider.
Link: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/wow
Chris, I had WOW when I lived in another town, its not currently offered where I live or I would have switched to them by now as I can’t stand COMCAST and the U Verse is just not that good. WOW’s service was good, I had a problem upon the initial installation, but they resolved it and for the 5 or 6 years I had them it wa all good and very reliable. Good Luck!
I had A T & T out again for the 20th time and this guy still found connections that had not been upgraded by the previous 20 techs that had been to the house. SInce his visit we have not had a single instance of the TV freezing, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that they have fixed my issue for good, its only taken 2 years and 20 techs . . . .
I had great expectations going to work at AT&T. I started at top pay (new hire Texas) because of my background. After about six months the management style and culture of the company started sucking the life force out of me. A T&T is the ENRON of telco there slogan should be “Rethink dysfunction” This company is taking advantage of the high unemployment rate and acting like they are a good company to work for. The only good aspect I could come up with is there check do not bounce! The union support is a joke. “Sub chapter J issue” AT&T had to have made a sweet heart deal with the CWA ….collect the dues and give no support… Mr. Perkins Otis what a Dick! Att has created new hybrid management style of: autocratic-pirate. I piss on att. Work there only as a last resort! Do not be fooled U-verse is the Black hole of att. I worked there 1.75 years I met some cool guys and learned some interesting stuff. Also, they should red tag more shitty Apts., there technology is too complicated, and ATT has not seen a hardware problem a software update could not fix!
I read many of the posts here and found the criticism to be warranted. ATT makes money the old fashion way accidently. Too big to fail! HET
Brother I hear you,
I worked there also for like 2 years…They suck the living daylights out of you and their Uverse technology is garbage….I wish the Goverment would shut those assholes down for stealing customers money and ripping people off.But the big companies always survive in this workforce ..Many times I wanted to get a attorney and sue those assholes….Uverse should really be shut down,,,im telling you
I had uVerse installed in December of 2010. Or at least I attempted to. It turns out that I’m over 4000′ from the vrad and the picture quality was terrible and only available on one of my 3 HD tv’s. The installer agreed with me that this wasn’t what I was paying for so he removed the gateway and the three receivers and left. Two months later I got a bill for the gateway and the receivers. I’ve spent countless hours on the phone with the “customer service” department since February. I can not prove to these idiots that I don’t have their hardware. Their installer took them with him!!! Now they’ve turned the matter over to a collection agency. My credit is being harmed because these morons can’t account for their equipment properly. Never been so mad and frustrated in my life. STAY AWAY!
Dont you guys go online and do some investigating before you order this shitty service and even a shittier company….Always investigate
Amongst all the hate comments here, I have to say something positive about AT&T U-verse: it continued to work just fine through the entire blackout here in San Diego last Thursday. I had plenty of backup power for the RG in addition to its own battery, but I was concerned that AT&T’s equipment would eventually lose power. It didn’t; it stayed up and fully operational (TV, phone and Internet) throughout the outage, which at our place lasted almost 11 hours.
Uverse for 2 years….never even had any issues. I love the service!
Phone and power are not on the same grid.
And as far as good service for two years.There as many unhappy att customer as there satisfied ones. Just be glad your not one of the many unsatisfied u-verse users on this blog! U-verse can be very unstable too many variables.
Believe me..its not even close…Out of every 10 installs that uverse may do……Only 1 customer might have it working correctly, and that customer after a few months will have problems also the other 9 would have major problems…They have people who post on this blog who actually work for uverse..thats why they are saying they have no problems…believe me…I know…That service is garbage to the fullest…its headache after headache
I thought it could be two 1st lines blogging after checking their email Monday AM. Just think if 50% of u-verse customer service sucks how big a number is that. On a repair I had the SELT test showed a prob on the copper a 1000 ft from the VRAD and it took 5 I&R helper tickets to fix. I&R kept saying issue was in the house!
Bottom Line, tech that are any good will not put up with the B.S. and will move on and what is left is equipment re-placers & JEP pers!
I’ve had att uverse and high speed internet for 3 months and it has never worked well. They both go out dozens of times every single day and at times for 10-20 minutes. Have had 3 techs come out and it is worse than ever. One tech changed out the inside box, the 2nd tech said it was the metal pipes in the house and the 3rd tech switched out an outside box. None of it helped. And twice we waited for techs to arrive and got a no show and when you do call and finally get through you are placed on hold for 30-45 minutes.The billing is all messed up too and they have overcharged me. When i called to inquire about my bill they said they would look into it and call me back, but I never got the call back. I am at my wits end with their equipment not working well, their no shows, their lack of support, their billing issues and them not following through. I don’t know what to do now!!!! I am seriously frustrated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Complain to consumer affairs…they probably have a billion complaints already from those assholes….I wonder if those people ever seriously help any body
Yeah seriously somethings gotta be done. They haven’t helped me one bit. I am kicking myself for not doing my homework and going with at&t.
I haven’t read any U-verse blogs until today, but my former co-worker has read them all, and we echo most of your sentiments. I worked with Uverse as a tech support rep for 14 months, and I’ve found only two types of customers: those who LOVE the service, and those that HATE IT! I haven’t heard any subscriber out there (paying on average $180-200/month for the full-bundled package) say, “Yeah, the service is ok …”.
Unfortunately, most of the new orders being pushed lately are in ancient areas with 40yr-old cable (sorry, but the company is not going to replace new lines on every install in your neighborhood). Also, if your residence is too far from the neighborhood box, you’ll end up with an iNID (bonded-pair) installation. Either way, no matter how hard they attempt to boost the signal, 90% of the time it ain’t gonna work!
Add the high-pressured sales pitch to switch providers, botched orders, incomplete/poor installs, field-tech issues, damaged/defective equipment, and the crappy IVR system, all-in-all everything leads to a very FRUSTRATING experience for the customers AND employees.
[In fact, if your tech issue can’t be solved over the phone, you’ll be lucky to get a field-tech appointment; nowadays, most service repairs are solved by sending equipment to your home (CSI- Customer Self-Install). I consider myself somewhat techie, but without training, I would have almost no clue on how to hook up a gateway/modem or cable-box, no matter how many color-coded cables and instructions you gave me!]
As much as I felt frustrated for customers when I handled their tech-support over the phone, I have to give it to the field-techs, because they have to deal with these issues face-to-face everyday . . .
I’m losing the battle with AT&T! UVERSE, Unlike Dish, Cable, DirectTV and off air will not let you download from the built in hard drive to a DVD burner, even when it is legal. Originally AT&T told me this was due to FCC regulations. I checked with the FCC who said it wasn’t them. The latest version from AT&T is that they have an “agreement” with the content providers but cannot/will not explain why nor how come AT&T also sell Dish and DirectTV which DO allow downlading.
Has anyone found a way round this restriction?
Here’s hoping someone has a hack!
I can’t say that in all my years of dealing with Comcast that I’ve ever had such ridiculously poor customer service and communication.
I started receiving services with AT&T in August of this year and at the beginning, everything was perfectly fine. The sales rep informed me that I qualified for a promotion with AT&T U-verse for Internet and Direct TV for television. She made me aware that my bills would be on one combined statement and gave me a monthly price that I would be paying starting within my first billing cycle.
To my surprise, I received an e-mail notification from DIRECT TV that my bill with them was due.
I checked weekly to see if a new bill for AT&T had appeared and had yet to receive one. I was told that both my DIRECT TV and AT&T bills would be combined on the same bill only to find out that that too occurs after 2-3 billing cycles. What’s with the lack of communication here?
It is now, the end of September and to my surprise, I receive a bill for $277. This is roughly $217 more dollars than I was originally quote and confirmed for regarding my first month’s bill. I look over things on-line and am informed that I was charged for a technician coming to my home and fixing a phone jack in order to establish an internet connection. Let me back track. In my initial conversation with the first AT&T sales representative that established my service, I repeatedly asked her if the internet worked the same way that Comcast’s did (in that the internet connection was made available via the television (cable) connection (in this case DIRECT TV)); her response was a very vibrant “Yes.” Therefore, my understanding of the matter was simply that I didn’t need a phone line in order to set up my internet.
Nevertheless, a technician was sent out and I was again informed that I wouldn’t be charged for a technician’s visit because of the AT&T representative’s not letting me know that a phone jack was necessary. AT&T sends out their first technician who says that he cannot finish the job because another type of technician has to come to verify some sort of connection. I say fine and another appointment is set up. At this point, another AT&T technician comes out and finishes the installation. These two technicians result in a $75 fee that I was told I wouldn’t have to pay (got waived after 2 hours of waiting, having the call be “dropped” and having an agent go back and forth between myself and her supervisor).
Moreover, I am now still sitting with a bill of $202 which encompasses two months of service (which should be $20/month but are actually $45/month for the first few billing cycles until I am later credited at some unknown time), an internet activation fee and a modem fee of $75 (which I was never ever informed of). I am grateful that the technician fee was waived, but I was then informed that although the customer service agent was sorry for my never being told about the modem fee, it had to remain on my account because it was for equipment.
I would have no problem paying these egregious fees had I (1) been informed of them and (2) not been treated as though I was some darn criminal for investigating these random charges on my account. To be told by the initial sales rep that I would be paying a first month’s combined bill of no more than $60 and then to be asked to pay nearly three and half times that amount is absolutely ridiculous. I could have stayed with Comcast if I was going to continue going through this madness; at least they tell you the hellacious costs you will incur upfront.
Beware of AT&T under all circumstances. Learn from my story. I set up to have all three services of Cable, Phone and Internet to be installed in my apartment in Austin last spring and I set it up to deal with the fact I would be away most of the summer. The date for installation was 9/29/11. I received two phone calls and an email confirming the week before. My unit number is 1209. On the morning of 9/29 the serviceman called me and did something on the premises and said he would be over in a few minutes. He showed up and told me that his work direction was for Unit 209, of which there was none on the premises. We agreed that it must be a typo but he could not install and I must call customer service. I asked him to wait and he said he was too busy even though he had been there only ten minutes. I had been told to expect up to four hours of work and now he was too busy after ten minutes. Before he left, I called customer service because he refused to do so. I put him on the phone and he refused to simply install and correct the paperwork later. Over the course of the afternoon I spoke to five different people multiple times and never got service or an installation date. The last person indicated there might be an opening on October 13 but I never heard back after a final call around five pm. At six pm I caledl Time Warner and they installeda my service the following morning. AT&T is a joke of major proportion since they could not correct their own error or simply install at 1209 when there was no 209 in existence. Not a single person could get the simple task of installation done; so what does that say for their entire service bundle? If they perform this way before you are a customer, think of how they will perform after it? They were a group of fools simply putting in their time and going home at the end of the day. Every one of the AT&T people I spoke to were incompetent and incapable of functioning within their own foolish bureacracy. They wasted my time and will certainly do the same to you.
The tech is working in a dysfunctional system. The tech would not have had much better luck correcting the address issue. Also, the production requirements for the tech are way too high and there is no way to code time to fixing problems like you had. At the end of the day the tech would have been reprimanded for not being productive regardless of the reason. The assignment at the cross box would have been wrong because of the apt No. Please do not misunderstand you are 100% right att Sucks the big one. Just be glad you did not get the service and that you will never have to work there!
Its your wireless router we have ad a few duds before 😀
I spent the better part of this evening trying desperately to get through to ATT&T Uverse. I’ve been round and around with them before regarding their land-line phone service which never ceases to drop calls made to or from my home phone.
I’ve had equally bad experiences with their television service. I’ve not been able to watch one, one-hour program from start to finish without having the screen freeze and or pixilate repeatedly. The problem’s gotten progressively worse.
Aside from the lack of technical quality from any of their triple play services, their utter lack of customer service is what should cause you to RUN AWAY FROM AT&T AS FAST AS YOU CAN! After three hours of trying to call, engage in interet chat, etc., they finally resolved the issue via chat. I was 52 in the queue and after 15 minute queue wait the technician did fix the tv problem.
We are moving in another two months and I’ll go without broadband services if I hhave to use AT&T again!!!
Why are people still buying into this shitty service…some people must just like aggrivation
I too wish I had seen these blogs before I ordered ATT Uverse. While talking with the salesman who came to my door when he was working the neighborhood, I told him that my sister had Uverse for a short while recently and had to cancel it because of all the problems from her landline phone shutting down to TV picture freezing or displaying that famous “no signal” screen. This salesman assured me that though ATT did have problems like this in not so distant past they have fixed all the problems in the area and he guaranteed that these problems are history. Short story is he talked me into signing up with them by promising me things he refused to put in writing. He explained that he couldn’t sign the agreement summary I wrote up following our meeting because he wasn’t the owner of the company as only he would be able to sign such a statement. Anyway, I had service hooked up on August 3, 2011. In the last 2 1/2 months to now (Oct 17, 2011) the service tech had to come out 3 times for ATT equipment related problems. Then they tried to charge me for these service calls! I had to return 4 pieces of equipment and still had problems. And the two times I went to UPS to return the defective equipment the only other people in line with me were all returning Uverse equipment. The last time I made a return the only other 5 people in line with me were all there to return Uverse equipment. We got to talking about ATT service and they all had similar complaints. When I got up to the front desk the UPS clerk told me that there is a steady stream of customers returning ATT equipment all day every day! I also spent a total of almost 20 hours on the phone with ATT’s customer service, billing, tech support lines. It is frustrating as hell getting a human being on the phone with you. I liked the example given above about how a typical call would sound communicating with that f’d up voice prompt call device. I’d be calling about an internet problem and I get the same voice prompts that instead of holding for an operator I could go online and troubleshoot it myself. At these points I am yelling at the recorder that I don’t have use of a computer as it is not working!!! The other continual problems I had with picture was I was not able to record on other 3 TVs nor was I able to pause or rewind live programming from those tvs. It took 2 1/2 months of calls and maybe a total of 20 different people I spoke with before I got a woman the other day who told me how to fix this problem. No one before this told me that the DVR box had to remain on in order for the DVR services to be operational on the other TVs. I can’t enumerate all the problems I have experienced in 2 1/2 months here but trying to resolve them has become a part time job! Figure 2 hours every week on the phone, 2 hours a week on the unuser friendly web site, and the travel time and expense of traveling 8 miles each way there and back 3 different times to return equipment!
sadly, I have to agree. It is really a royal pain in the ass and hardly worth the cost savings.
No real savings….AT&T will get all that money back in the end….They need to be fined and put out of business….
I completely agree as well — the U-verse is TERRIBLE. It took me 3 months before it started working — the company didnt refund the 3 months that I didnt have service (they wouldnt) — then they CHARGED me $75 to “fix” it. What a joke. I wouldnt waste your time with this — I’m considering dumping AT&T all together with this one…stay away! — billing is screwed up every month as well.
Hahahahahah…its a total mess…And the billing is always screwed up in their favor…..LOL
The customer is always right, wrong…
If you like being treated like a second class citizen/ customer, ATT is the provider for you.
If you only desire to speak to automated telephone support, ATT is the provider for you.
If you enjoy the inablility to settle any sort of dispute whatsoever, ATT is the provider for you.
If you’re enamored by offensive and threatening business letters, ATT is the provider for you.
God forbid you should decide to upgrade your services with them because they’ll continue charging you for both the old services and new ones.
After 6 prision-like years of services (if you know what i mean), I’m sending it all back. Good riddance.
ATT, this is my last act as a paying customer, and it’s only befitting that I let everyone know how wonderful you are!
Regards,
Hope ATT fires you Dimitrious from Sales, Service and Billing (phone click)
hahahahahaahah
That comment by TheFeds should be made into a commercial…….I like that one
Utterly the worse customer service I have ever experienced. It is really an embarrassment for ATT to conduct business in this manner. You get transfers and then dissconnected and so on, and so on. I was literally on hold for 25 minutes then 15 then 30, and not one representatiave has assess to your information.
UVerse wireless router was defective after 3 months was told they would ship a new one to me via FEDEX. When I requested a service man come and do the replacement was told there would be a service charge.
Let me understand this….U-Verse provided me faulty equipment, charge me$160.00/month and then they want to charge me to replace the router.
I AM CHANGING SERVICE PROVIDERS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE..
DO NOT USE U-VERSE unless you are in a vacuum because they suck
yes had att an never had a good receiver had to change it twice an this is the third time had a tec out to the house an gave a faulty diagnostic .im a tec i repair appliance an state law they are not to take an parts with they change out like cords or any this they repair which they took out an i got charge for it <yea rigth i call them an they did take away the charges but still the service suck an will go to comcast but there internet sucks as well an what are they charging fanchise fee an all other taxes that ppl dont even understand .they dont care for custmers .
I am so unset with this services. I requested services in July and I have nothing but problems. Billing, equipment, and conflicting information started from the beginning. I had Comcast, direct TV and Dish at various time. comcast was great but became to expenses for my budget at one time. However, it there were never equipment or over billing and account issues when I did request the services. ATT once was the leader in Phone services but since there are other players it seems like knowone at ATT really stopped to research and lock at what was best for they customers. I guess because for so long they did not have any competition and they thought they could cut corners and the consumers would just have to deal with it. To add to this mess my phone services suck too. I was locked into a 1 year agreement and now I no why. If the did not lock you into an agreement they would not get over 12 hundred dollars from each customer that was interested in their services. Do not get this services stay with comcast or any other provide that does not require contract agreement. I will leaving a soon as I can.
I just read over the above comments/blogs my services and experiences are just about the same. Thank GOD I dont have uverse TV just phone and internet. The service is very poor if I was not in a contract and had to correct every thing they messed up I would change. I am even thinking of ripping all the wires out of the wall and breaking the contract. The only time they made me happy was after I filled a complaint with our consumer service department of Miami, Dade County FL. This took the issues to the level like a CEO Department. Having problems again and or since day one apx 4 months ago. Hope AT&T reads all the replies and this one also. Will be filling another complaint. I am not sure if at this point if I am going to break the contract and ripe out the wires inside my house. Start fresh with a new company. Since I dont have Face Book if anybody that reads this and likes the reply please post and warn everybody possible.
I HATE AT&T U-verse! Service SUCKS! Connection SUCKS! Customer service hours SUCK! AT&T didn’t give me my $100 rebate which is WHY I signed up in the first place! Said it would be faster but I saw no change in speed. SO NOT WORTH THE TROUBLE! DON’T GET U-VERSE!!!! I’ve spent about 7 hours on the phone with customer support (waiting mostly!) since we got it! The web pages that I used to be able to use all the time don’t load. And when you call customer service or tech support you get transferred 10 times and the dept you want to talk to is usually CLOSED! After I get my money, I am so breaking up with @AT&T U-Verse! It is so over between us!
Yea I am having the same problem. When I signed on with AT & T Uverse in 2009 I had no complaints. 2 years later when on my laptop, Ipad etc the picture is constantly freezing even after replacing the main DVR box and the technician coming out yesterday. I am so done!
Mlemmo….You sound like a employee of AT&T….You know way too much just to be a regular customer…..You do a good job in promoting that Rats ass service they provide…robbing all these good customers of their money and precious time……Govt needs to close down AT&T Uverse for providing that very shitty service…Problems evermore…And AT&T needs to terminate your ass for lying about their shitty service
Mlemmo….You know way too much….How much money Did AT&T pay you to say that….I know you work for them
Well I had U-verse installed Friday.. Two techs showed up, one was young and knew his stuff and one was just coming back from a year off and was now in training for U-verse installs, The install went smooth , they toned and checked all cable ends and replaced any suspect or non compression fittings and replaced all splitters, and removed ones that were not needed. They also ran tests from the node to the house to make sure they had a clean pair for the IPTV and ADSL2+ , They installed a DVR and 3 receivers with a 2 wire modem, It all worked after registration, and it has been working fine… Also I have a business that uses U-verse with 3 TV and internet for the past 2 years and has worked fine, and a call to support when a power outage fried a receiver was fixed in a few days… unlike Comcast who scheduled a call and never showed up claiming I never confirmed the appt, (which I did) and then did it again, as far as technology the fiber to the Node,for the CO and then using copper to the home, which is usually less that 3000 ft with the ADSL and IPTV technology running 2 wires the last mile is not a big issue, however if the pair is suspect it will cause no end or problems… I expect technology to improve to allow higher throughput at those distances to go to 100Mbps, A key solution for DSL/IPTV is to use “vectored” technology which actively cancels crosstalk and can provide transmission rates exceeding 100 Mbps. also I suspect with the local nodes installed it would not be unreasonable to see fiber to the home from the nodes in the next 5 years …
You either work for ATT or took really good notes!
I JUST cancelled my At&T uverse. The modem kept needing to be restarted. The worst thing was their crappy DVR system. I love my TiVo and uverse doesn’t work with TiVo. Ugh. I could I on and on about what I hated. What super sucks is they hard wired a battery backup, so I can’t just unplug it to return it. So fucking annoying.
@mlemmo @mlemmo when are you going to tell uis that you work for att-sux-verse
De la Vega’s previous position as head of AT&T’s consumer wireline broadband business was handed to Andy Geisse, who was named senior EVP of AT&T Business and Home Solutions. In that position Geisse will be responsible for “serving the business segment – from global enterprise customers to small businesses,” and will also lead AT&T’s Home Solutions team that runs the company’s U-verse, broadband and voice services in AT&T’s 22-state local wireline operations.
i live in fort worth and have many,,,many problems with att uverse. they have come out severl times i mean at least 12, they have cancelled apt with me and not informed me tried to chatge me for comming out, and never fixed the problem my tvs go off no signal, and pet pixilation on the screen all the time, by all the time i mean every few minuites,, is anyone else having problems like this there tech tell me its in my wiring. problem is it didnt happen for over a year , then when it started it hasnt stopped. they had come for several days in arow but still say its ok then while i watch theymdrive off it does it again. this is a very bad company with bad service, and what has to be the worst que system in the world. i will be disconnecting and hopw to never hear from them again. i will also change my phone and internet service all where with them but wont be in the future. i
It’s true – it’s the worst experience we’ve ever had with any company ever – by far. You have no idea how bad you can have it until you have AT&T.
At&t Uverse service and tech’s are the worst. I love my Cox Cable they have local offices you can bring your receivers to when they go bad. With At&T you have to UPS’s back to them. Real inconvinence!! With Uverse I had no sound on certain channels. My picture would go totally black. My DVR would lock up. I called them for the same problem 10 times. Finally I went back to Cox Cable. I had to wait 1 year to cancel. It was only $80 to cancel but it was the principal of it all. I was not going to give them anymore money for horrible service. Dont get At&t Uverse!!!
I just got my new uverse (internet only) bill. They had changed me from $25.99 mo to $30.00 mo 2 months ago. This month they changed the rate again to $33.oo. When I complained, they said “I was notified of the rate change, look at my last bill.” Sure enough under general info; no asterisk, no bold print -HIDDEN was a rate increase. To check their website they are offering twice my speed for more than half as much ($14.99) . What thieves!
New uverse customer and very disappointed. The truth of the matter is that all in all the evil empire known as comcast is still the best bet in every way except the ridiculous prices you have to pay for it.
I have had pretty much every service you can name and even though comcast has the highest rates of all they are also the most reliable for cable and internet. Don’t get me wrong, I have zero love for comcast, they are thieves like all the rest, but at least they have more HD content and less picture freezing than at and …….t
They are actually all a joke and no matter which you choose you will find something to complain about. It’s a bs situation and I never thought I would say comcast is the better choice, but after Charter and then at and……t I have to. I have also had dish network, direct tv as well.
Inept customer service across the board for all service providers, stupid high prices everywhere, and to try and get a problem solved is useless. All this being said, if you can afford it and don’t mind wasting your money then comcast is your best bet in my long experience.
Here is a better idea……..take your kids to the park or volunteer in a soup kitchen. Then cancel all your cable services. Fuck em and if more people cancelled then the prices for all would go down dramatically. Yeah that will happen with all the brain dead couch potatoes in American society:)
Oh yeah, I wonder how many comcast/dish/ direct tv employees posted here to defend at and……..t? several I bet.
gotta love it
I work for AT&T and you folks are right! Our service does suck! It is NOT the Technicians fault nor is it the Customer Service Reps fault, it is MANAGEMENTS! We are so under-trained. After a 8 hour course, we are thrown to the dogs. To get U-Verse to work properly it takes 3 technicians and a Board Of Directors Meeting.
I personally have about 2 more months before I graduate from Vocational School and then Im out of there after I tell a few big-shot managers off as well as the CWA/ Union . Im not even gonna give a 2 week notice. Although it pays good, it is not a good job! Sure on paper the benefits are but if you use them you will be terminated. Work Comp is a good example of that. If anybody brags about how good their service is, is a liar and more than likely its an AT&T manager poseing as a satisfied customer. These folks are crooks and I often question my integrity for working for them. If you work for AT&T take advantage of thier free college educational assitance program and them quit after you get a degree like I am going to. My quality of life and marriage has really suffered from all the MADITORY over=time.
I have to say there are both good and bad things about U-verse, and NO, I am NOT an AT&T manager or shill. I’m just a customer in San Diego. I’m also more technically knowledgeable than most because I’m an electrical engineer who works in communications and computing; I know how U-verse and the alternatives all work.
While some people complain about specific U-verse features, the DVR, etc, to me the crucial part is the communications link it gives me to the outside world. I can’t speak for anyone else, but for us at least, the link that U-verse provides actually works surprisingly well considering how all that data is being crammed through a 50+ year old copper twisted pair plant originally designed for ordinary phones. But I am not at all surprised by the horror stories some other U-verse customers have. Knowing how VDSL2 works, what’s amazing is not that it works well but that it works at all.
So I do fault AT&T for cutting corners in this way instead of doing the right thing and pulling fiber to every house. I worked for both Bell Labs and Bellcore in the 1980s, and I got so damn tired of hearing “fiber to the home is too expensive”. They said it so often they made the lack of fiber a self-fulfilling prophecy.
My house, like many others, has an electric power line, a gas line, a water line, a sewer line, a cable TV feed (unused) and a telephone line. All are underground. The sewer line has got to be the most expensive of the bunch. The builder paid to have all of these installed, and he included those costs in the original sales price of the house. The cost of adding an optical fiber that could replace both the phone and cable lines would be a small fraction of these other services, and it would make the home far more valuable.
So why is it not being done (except for Verizon FiOS)? Lack of public will. Some other countries, like South Korea, simply decided that it was vital to have a modern communications network covering the whole country. So they just ran fiber everywhere. We visited in 2009 and everywhere we went, even in the rural areas, there was new Samsung fiber on the poles.
Here, we leave everything to the so-called ‘free market’, which in residential broadband is anything but free — it’s a virtually unregulated monopoly or oligopoly with very little incentive to do the right thing. And companies like AT&T feel that we ought to consider ourselves lucky to have their services at all.
Word of advice, when you go to blast away in a post like you just did, its a good idea not to put your real name Jim Alsup. A simple google search with your name, reveals your posting and if i were a job doing a background check, you just lost an opportunity here.
Even if what you said is true, you at least owe it to your own integrity to keep those details to yourself. Your job here in this forum was to add pertanent useful information about their service as a whole, not infringe upon your contractual agreement upon hiring to keep the companies intellectual property and internal process/policy to yourself. Entitled to your own opinion until it steps over the line.
I think the hardest part to read was how you blamed your the struggles in your marriage on AT&T.
Your daughter problems are mild considering what we have been through with at&t. I have never seen service this bad. In the past month three people have come to our home attempting to sell us the service. They do not even know who their customers are. The company by mistake sent our bill to the wrong address. As soon as we found out we sent a check for more than the amount due. A week later they turned off our service claiming they did not receive the check. After calling to remind them they sent the bill to the wrong adress they responded “the system turns off your service, we can’t do anything about it even if it is the company’s fault!”It this statement was made by Kelly Smith emp557 I was so shocked that I repeated the statement back to her and she said it again!
Oh yeah, I wonder how many comcast/dish/ direct tv employees posted here to defend at and……..t? several I bet.
gotta love it
Here is my pros and cons…
tech arrived on time, and setup was about 45 minutes for two tvs and high speed internet. Cable-less installation was pretty cool. Cons… Pay for 26mbps, usually get about 23. There have been two bad days of service where the internet was spotty and the television signal was intermittent. contacting support via chat was easy but was disconnected more than twce and no one called back. I could tell the support reps were outsourced which can make troubleshooting difficult. so far Im happy and I host a mirad of server farms and even a WHS2011 server which incidentally works fine on the UVerse equipment. Just had to manually forward ports.
This is the worse service on the planet..The government needs to close down AT&T Uverse for the shit service they provide and stealing peoples money…What a crooked company they are and all the false advertising about giving cash back which they never do…..BULLSHIT SERVICE…AT&T GO TO HELL…..I wish they shut your company down for good
I couldn’t stop laughing when I read your article about customer service. I was waiting for At&t Uverse to be available in my area, but it is still not here. I have had Comcast since 1978, and have never had a problem, except that they are thieves and continue to raise my bill on a regular basis. I guess I will stay with them after hearing your story.
I echo the “worst service on the planet.” If you have time to read a long transcript of an Internet chat, you see that these guys don’t have clue about customer service:
Welcome Mr. Steve Claypool.SystemConnecting to server. Please wait…SystemConnection with server established.SystemTechnical Support Topic: U-verse VoiceSystempr493u(Peter) has joined this session!SystemConnected with pr493u(Peter)pr493u(Peter)Thank you for contacting AT&T U-verse Member Support. My name is Peter {pr493u}. Please allow me a moment to review your account details with the information you have provided.YouCertainly!pr493u(Peter)As I understand ,you are experiencing call dropping issue with your U verse home phone service,am I correct?YouYes, and now it’s worse than it’s ever been. Normally, service is reestablished in a minute or two. I have now been unable to secure a dial tone for about 10 – 15 minutes.pr493u(Peter)I apologize for the inconvenience and I can certainly help get this issued resolved once and for all. I just need to ask you a few questions to determine the cause of the trouble, is that OK?YouYespr493u(Peter)Thank you .pr493u(Peter)May I know if you are experiencing intermittent connectivity issue with your U verse Internet as well?YouI have not experienced any disruption with the Internet service…I think that they both get here in a different manner.pr493u(Peter)Your Internet and phone service is serviced through the same U verse connection .pr493u(Peter)May I know if phone is connected directly to Residential gateway or is it connected via phone jack.YouInteresting…something is wrong then with PART of the service.YouThe phone is connected to a phone jack, coming out of the wall.pr493u(Peter)Ok.pr493u(Peter)May I know if you tried rebooting the Residential gateway to check if that resolves the issue?YouThat has NOT been tried nor has it been suggested during a couple of calls that I placed to your service center.pr493u(Peter)Ok .. I would request you to wait while I check out information on your service..YouOK.pr493u(Peter)Thank you for waiting .YouSure.pr493u(Peter)The result of line connection test just came in , I could figure out an issue with the line connection , that could be probable reason for the issue.pr493u(Peter)I can dispatch a technician to your location to isolate and repair your issue. If the trouble is found in the AT&T facilities or equipment, there will be no charge for the technician visit. If the problem is found inside your premises, you will be charged a $55 service charge. Any additional charges that may apply will be discussed by the technician prior to doing any work.pr493u(Peter)May I know if its okay with you?YouYes, but you know that my security system is making a loud beeping noise because it has determined that there is no phone service. I don’t want to listen to that all night, so we need an EMERGENCY dispatch tonight.pr493u(Peter)I would request you to wait while I check the tech dispatch availability for tonight.YouThanks.pr493u(Peter)Thank you for waiting ..pr493u(Peter)I really wished I could get a technician to come out tonight to repair the issue ,however I am sorry to tell you that there is no tech available tonight .pr493u(Peter)May I know if its okay if I go ahead and assign a tech to come out tomorrow morning?YouLet’s find someone who can locate a tech.pr493u(Peter)I am sorry to tell you that , as there is no tech availability window tonight ..pr493u(Peter)We won’t be able to allocate a tech tonightYouThat’s not reasonable and is unacceptable. I had called this in before and a tech was not scheduled. This MAY be your problem and you guys are trying to make it mine. Please put a supervisor on.pr493u(Peter)I would like to inform you that you will be getting similar answer from my supervisor as well.YouOkay.pr493u(Peter)May I know if its okay if I assign a tech for tomorrow?YouNot yet.pr493u(Peter)May I know what you want me to do?YouSure, put a supervisor on or give me a direct-line phone number that I can call, using my cell phone.YouAlso, give me the number that I can call to cancel my phone service with AT&T.pr493u(Peter)In case you would like to call someone to discuss the issue ,I would request you to call the number 1800 288 2020YouSame for a disconnect?pr493u(Peter)Yes, you can use the same number to disconnect the service as well.YouA supervisor, please.pr493u(Peter)Yes, I would request you to wait while I check availability of a supervisorYouThanks.pr493u(Peter)Thank you for waiting , my supervisor Kenneth would be joining the session soonYouOkay.Systemkk288n(Kennith) has joined this session!Systempr493u(Peter) has left this session!kk288n(Kennith)Thank you for contacting AT&T U-verse Member Support, my name is Kennith(kk288n)supervisor of Peter.YouHello.kk288n(Kennith)Hi, Mr. Claypoolkk288n(Kennith)Let me go ahead and review your conversation with Peter.YouSure.kk288n(Kennith)It may take couple of minutes..YouRight.kk288n(Kennith)As far as I have understood, you are experiencing Intermittent call drops on your phone, Am I correct?kk288n(Kennith)Peter ran the line test history and identified the issue in the line..kk288n(Kennith)We would need to send out a tech to get the Intermittent issue fixed.YouIt’s now been going on permanently for about 40 minute, causing my security system to emit a loud beeping tone which will not stop until phone service has been restored.kk288n(Kennith)My apologies for that, Rest assured the issue will be taken care of by our service tech.YouYes, that’s good. I reported this same problem on a previous day and nothing was done in a timely fashion. kk288n(Kennith)I can understand how frustrating it could be..kk288n(Kennith)Let me check the earliest slot for the tech visit.kk288n(Kennith)Tomorrow we have three appointment window i.e between 08:00:00 AM – 12:00:00 PM,12:00:00 PM – 04:00:00 PM,04:00:00 PM – 09:00:00 PMYouDo you folks understand just how awful an example of customer service this is? Fedex empowers its employees to satisfy is customer…not so with AT&T?kk288n(Kennith)Unfortunately, that is the earliest slot we have. The last slot is between 04:00:00 PM – 09:00:00 PM and half of the time has already gone throughYouWell, please contact the tech to see what he has left!YouI’ll wait while you contact the local officekk288n(Kennith)I have contacted the dispatch team , but we do not have any slot open for todayYouOkay, what a lousy bunch of hooey! I am NOT willing to wait for a four hour window. Please call them and get me into the first slot.kk288n(Kennith)Sure, I will mark the ticket on higher prioritykk288n(Kennith)Can I have a good call back number for the technician to call prior arrival?YouMake it the highest priority and please understand that this entire record is going to finds its way public. I think that all you customers or potential customer should consider looking for someone who really cares for their clients. 972.771-4620 BUT WAIT, THAT MIGHT BE OUT OF ORDER SEEING AS HOW IT’S THE SUBJECT OF THIS CALL. MAYBE 972-567-1821 WILL BE WORKING.kk288n(Kennith)I have reserved the slot for tomorrow..kk288n(Kennith)We will ensure the issue is taken care of..YouYour assurances ring a little hollow, due to you inability to take care of a problem that was reported more than 24 hours ago the first time. That slot is for the morning…correct?kk288n(Kennith)Yes it is..YouThanks.kk288n(Kennith)You’re welcome..kk288n(Kennith)Is there anything else I may assist you withYouWell, of course there is, but apparently you are NOT empowered to takre care of it. The only other thing that you MIGHT be able to accomplish is to send me a hard copy of this transcript.kk288n(Kennith)Unfortunately, we cannot send a hard copy of this transcript..YouOh, surprise!kk288n(Kennith)You can copy paste the transcript in a word fileYouI’ve tried, but haven’t been able to do it.YouGood night and better luck with your next challenge.
Check with you alarm co. and find out the other ways to monitor your alarm. (1.Internet 2.Cell phone
3. Landline 4.Voip) or keep dealing with big evil monster.
Att uverse is a complete joke, stay away from at@t anything.
I thought U verse was a step up I made a bad choice I intend to coorrect it.
I just cancled my att account. They sent a letter while I was out of town that they were goint to switch to uverse. I’ve heard horror stories about it and didnt want it!. I was told it was a mandatory change over I’d be happy with it. Well that’s not what I have heard and have read here! I was told Id have a tech out the next day. Nobody showed up. I called they didnt understand how I got an appointment so soon as their appointments were a month out! I said well that’s the time and day you gave me. They said they I had an appointment for the next week. I wanted to know how that was possible when nobody called to make that appointment. I had no knowledge of it. They could not tell me. I said OK I’ll wait. I figured that would give me enough time if they did not show up again I could then cancle and change companies. My appointment day came and left with no tech guy. I called and guess what ! They knew nothing about this appointment and said I had a appointment in two weeks! I spoke with a supervisor and another guy who seemed like he was helping only to find out when he “transfered me” he just basicaly put me on hold for another person to pick up the phone in the same department. Translated, he did not know how to help me at all. I informed att supervisor that Id be canceling and that I would look into class action law suits if my line was not cleared AT ONCE. They tried to convience me to stay and I refused. I called another company and in 4 days they mailed me a modem and ten minutes later I was online again. Att is losing customers they are doing bad business all the way around. I would of kept them for DSL service we had no problems with it at all. Now they want to switch to uverse which will be nothing but problems for them. Everyone I knew who tried it hated it. One friend told me if her internet went down so did her TV cable and phone line. It was all tied in together. She was being charged for everything under the sun! She too got rid of it. ..ATT you’re doing bad business people will move to other companies there are many out there doing better business.
Just wanted to let the readers know that my uverse works just perfectly. 6 stbs and 12meg dsl (I know, not the fastest, but all I need for three or four devices) and never a glitch. The first couple weeks I had some problems, the techs were always on time, courteous and professional. I do wish they would use only real people for tech support call ins but it seems like almost all companies are getting away from that. Such a shame. I’m happy with the service and certainly recommend it to anyone.
yes indeed att is terrible, unless you have hours to waste every month to sit and wait on the phone to resolve their mistakes, do no go near att.
AT&T U-verse is t&t reverse, it sucks in every aspect imaginable,record 4 shows at one tie, really, BS & the screen is always always freezing & doing the voice in a tunnel sound & I just wish he never left Infnity …. coputer service is very slow also…
You are sooooo right on! Uverse & AT&T suck ass!!! I’ve never had worse service in every aspect from the actual ass service which never works to the f’kn ridiculously useless & grossly incompetent customer service reps. It is truly baffling at how blatantly stupid human beings can be as evidenced by the useless CS reps at uverse whom have absolutely no idea how to do their basic job descriptions (I.e. help paying customers who simply want the service that we pay for to f’kn work!!) There is absolutely NO EXCUSE nor reason that one should have to waste our time, energy & inevitable frustration over cable service that never works resulting in even more time wasting & frustration dealing with the idiots employed by the suck ass uverse/AT&T to “serve” us customers! After sending out 3 service call workers my service still sucks ass as none of those f’kn idiots could fix the issue let alone pinpoint the problem as to why my service is constantly interrupted, dropping, blatantly not working! Waste of time & energy over something that shouldn’t even be a problem in the first place albeit an easily resolved problem had they employed competent CS reps with brains! Then when calling to cancel their f’kn shit service they transferr u to bunches of retention center asses to try & salvage your account which trust me is not worth the future headaches regardless of how low they offer packages b/c their services never work! It should not be such a headache & time waster to constantly have to call in to their idiot center simply b/c we just want the f’kn service that we pay for to f’kn work!!! That is not expecting too much albeit for AT&T uverse SCUM it is expecting too much from this MF’ing PIG company!!!! Ewww uverse sux asssss!!!!
Too many moving parts, so to speak, I was a prem tech for about 2 years. I feel your pain. Coax or Fiber works better bigger pipe + fewer moving parts. A difficult problem to find and fix: locating flaws in the copper pair from cross box to service pole. Also, a two tier pay & tech system, I&R would be responsible to repair any issues b/t x-box to service pole and it could take 4 to 5 helper tickets to repair.
The only way to stop the insipid At&t vampire commercials which play to excess is to stop purchasing the product and to boycott the stations ho keep showing them. Lets get rid of AT&T
I’ve had uverse since it debut in my city and my experience has been just the opposite. Comcast never worked right, even though I paid them money to fix the problems. Uverse mostly works and is far better, although it still has a lot of problems. The big difference between the two is that AT&T has decent customer support, while Comcast only pretends to have customer support.
AT&T service at my son’s house got locked up and asked for auto channel. I tried to get out of it. Nothing on the remote worked. Called ATT and they want billing info etc. It’s stuck all I want is to have service. They don’t help they are pigs who want your money and they s rew you on setvice.
All if the above is correct. Been there done that. Right now my tv is out so I’m letting off some steam by telling the world on here how horrible at&t is plus they keep raising the pice! Really ??! For what exactly am I getting poor quality service and they don’t have weekend service any more . absolutly. Frustrated with them !
This is by far the worst experience I have ever had with any internet cable TV provider. I moved into a home that already had the cable television through U-verse. I need an internet so the owner of the house called AT&T November 17th 2017 and had it scheduled to be set up and delivered with a modem on the 30th. The 30th came and gone no modem. We called and they said that it was delivered through UPS which we never received all we received was a self installation package. So they said they were going to rush one the next day and have a tech come out and install everything. The next day on Saturday I called at 12 to confirm and they said that they would be able tween 2 and 6. 6:30 came no calls to say hey we’re not going to make it no modem delivery nothing. I called today which is now December 4th frustrated aggravated and really pissed off. I get three different people telling me three different things. Finally I asked for a tech support supervisor she comes on and I explained everything to her how frustrated I am how I get three different people telling me three different things and days prior had the same problem with other support help. So she assured me that a tech guy would be out today which he did. Prior to him messing with anything we had cable television. So we hook up the internet if that’s supposed to be a 50 lb and it’s only pushing out about 21. So he goes outside and climbs up the pole and comes back later and says that he has to have a splicer tech come out tomorrow and leaves. He’s gone about 5 minutes and I turn on the television and now there’s no television. So I call him but of course he has shut his phone off so I call AT&T and of course they can’t help me because there’s nothing they can do so now we’re not home with no cable television no internet and some guy that just screwed everything up and left without saying anything. This is the worst service I have ever seen in my entire life I can’t even believe that they can stay in business like this. The aggravation of two weeks of this stupidity from a company that has been around for so long and they talk to you very condescending. AT&T November 17th 2017 and had it scheduled to be set up and delivered with a modem on the 30th the 30th came and gone no modem we called and they said that it was delivered through ups which we never received all we received was a self installation package so they said they were going to rush one the next day and have a tech come out and install everything the next day on Saturday I called at 12 to confirm and they said that they would be a between 2 and 6 630 came no calls to say hey we’re not going to make it no modem delivery nothing I called today which is now December 4th frustrated aggravated and really pissed off I get three different people telling me three different things finally I asked for at export supervisor she comes on and I explained everything to her how frustrated I am how I get three different people telling me three different things and days prior had the same problem with other support help so she assured me that a tech guy would be out today which he did prior to him messing with anything we had cable television so we hook up the internet at that supposed to be a 50 megabytes and its only pushing out about 21 so he goes outside and climbs up the pole and comes back later and says that he has to have a slicer check come out tomorrow and leave he’s gone about 5 minutes and I turn on the television and now there’s no television so I call him but course head shut his phone off so I call AT&T and the course I can’t help me because there’s nothing they can do so now I ran a home with no cable television no internet and some guy that just screwed everything up and left without saying anything this is the worst service I have ever seen in my entire life I can’t even believe that they can stay in business like this the aggravation of two weeks of the stupidity from a company that has been around for so long and they talk to you very condescending, the tech supervisor told me that the tech guy that would come out would get everything done and finished tonight and I told her that I needed a landline ran from the modem out in the living room into the basement and into the bedroom where I’ll be hooked into a machine there and she said he will do everything. But of course The Tech Guy shows up and tells me I’m not running a landline and if you do I’m going to charge you $100 I told him no that’s not going to happen I was told by your supervisor that you would have everything up and running tonight and would do everything possible he said I’m not running a landline in a very condescending shity attitude. This isn’t even my house or my cable bill and I want to just strangle somebody this is so ridiculous everybody I hope you read this and stay far the f*** away from AT&T UVERSE
AT&T‘s motto: WE do not care we do not have to. They make money the old fashion way accidently! Worst company I ever worked for! Between management & the union wow a great deal of dysfunction. My view the good techs where over worked and the 70% garbage that got their jobs through nepotism hide or make problems worse. I was the tech who would have to go behind the pieces of shit and fit things while the customer was on fire from all the BS!