AT&T should actually have something in place that, you know, WORKS before offering it for sale to their customers, ESPECIALLY when you take away an EXISTING service that DOES work!
Here's what happened - warning, wall of text coming your way!
Called AT&T, asked for DSL service. Was told DSL service was no longer offered in my area (this turned out to be a complete fabrication, as confirmed by 2 techs who came out and a specialist in Tier 2 technical assistance), so I was talked (conned) into getting AT&T U-Verse Internet service. This was a huge mistake, as we began discovering on the very first day of "service". Keep in mind - we're not out in the sticks somewhere. We're 9 blocks from downtown in a major US city.
Here is a running tally of what has befallen us thanks to AT&T's U-Verse:
10/27: Modem arrived and account was activated. Everything appeared to be running fine until 5:54pm when we lost the net. Regained after 8:30pm. Net unstable, figured it was due to new service syncing with modem, problem with the modem, or port assignment. Decided to wait until following day to see if it was ironed out.
10/28: Net still unstable, didn't notice going out at same time as yesterday. Modem making noise, order was placed for replacement modem.
10/30: Net still unstable, beginning to notice pattern. Called again. Appointment made for technician to come out following day.
10/31: Technician sent out. Found no problem with line. Placed order to have assignment changed. Net went out again at same time as the previous days. Pattern definitely noted.
11/01: Same problems experienced following day. Called, told that assignment was changed. Net went out again at the usual time, but could not tell whether this was from assignment change/re-sync or not as it was during similar time frame.
11/02: Same problem, appointment for technician to come out following day. Told no order existed for modem replacement. Order placed, told would receive November 8th.
11/03: Technician came out on follow-up visit. Still experiencing same problems. Technician called office, was told no assignment change was ever put through and no order existed for it. Technician placed order for assignment change while here. Assignment change occurred at time that net typically goes out, unable to confirm whether it was due to the existing problem.
11/04: Problem continuing on following day at the same time. Had separate and additional order for assignment to be changed, cancelled. Technician came out to check line. Found no problem, waited until 5:56, problem then found. Stated he would put order through to have this taken care of on Saturday - Sunday at the absolute latest.
As of 11/04, the Internet has been interrupted at roughly the same time every day since service began. Friday, 11/04 has been the longest interruption in service, possibly due to the assignment having been changed, possibly due to it being the weekend and thus more traffic, or a combination of the two. Internet still has not come back steady or reliable since 5:56pm - came back at 11:12pm and seemed stable until 11:39pm when it went out again.
Back at 11:43pm - 12:29pm, then out again.
Back at 12:39pm - finally stayed up.
11/5: 4:28pm, dropped. Came back, remained stable. Speed 1/8th of what we should have. Did not immediately notice this until after office hours (after 5:00pm)
11/6: Called tech support and explained ongoing problems and issues with slow speed, told no problem with service. Went to www.speedtest.net, saw 0.33Mbps. Told by tech support to go to att.com/speedtest - showed 3.48. Was told that speedtest.net may have problems and that my speed is fine. Was told that only att.com/speedtest can be relied upon for testing purposes as any other sites are outside the control of AT&T.
11/7: New modem arrived one day early, but net still problematic. Called tech support - speedtest.net, Cnet and FCC sites all show below 0.35Mbps. AT&T shows 3.49. Since three independent sites confirm this, including the FCC site, AT&T could not dispute that something was wrong. Call escalated to Tier 2 tech support, profile reset at office. Speed returned.
- 4:48pm - net down. Same overall time as before, only one hour back because of Daylight Savings Time ending.
- 4:52pm - called, told port must be reassigned, told would not occur until after 8:00pm on 11/8. I stated this was completely unacceptable, that this must be done now and resolved tonight or we would be cancelling service. Demanded to speak with supervisor. After waiting on hold for 15 minutes, was told this can be escalated to Tier 2. Still no supervisor available. Gave go-ahead for escalation at 5:27pm. Awaiting Tier 2 specialist. Net still out.
10 minutes of hold time, Tier 2 specialist answered. I explained situation and was offered by the specialist to have a technician come out to check the line. Declined - stated that nothing would be found since all of the other techs were not able to find anything that would be causing this problem. Tier 2 specialist stated that due to the modem order and the date of Nov. 8th after 8pm, she was not able to make any changes to account. She stated that this should clear problem up. I begrudgingly told her we would give AT&T one more day. If problem is not resolved tomorrow after 8pm, we will cancel account. I was told I could go with AT&T DSL service, despite the fact that the customer service agent when I ordered the service said that DSL no longer exists in this area. Will try to get account changed.
- 7:42pm - net finally came back and seemed stable; however, speed began rapid fall-off and at 8:24pm is again at 0.32Mbps. Reset modem to try getting better speed - will not re-sync. Net lost.
- 8:29pm - modem finally re-synced, then dropped immediately upon trying to test speed online.
- 8:39pm - modem has re-synced and appears to be stable. Speed has returned to 2.59Mbps download.
- 8:47pm - net down again. Back up at 8:54pm and 2.47Mbps.
- 9:11pm - net down.
- 9:18pm - net back at 2.48Mbps. Finally appears to be holding and stable.
- 9:56pm - net down again. Gave up and went to bed.
11/8: 7:46am - net down. Reset modem. Appears to be up again at 7:51am. Checking speed and connection. Showing 2.58Mbps and very little latency. Wondering how long it will hold.
- 4:50pm - net dropped. Will wait until after 8:00pm to call, assuming it's not fixed by then (ha!).
- 5:04pm - net back temporarily - expecting it to drop at any moment.
- 5:06pm - down.
- 5:15pm - up.
- 5:26pm - down.
- 5:28pm - up.
- 5:29pm - down.
- 5:30pm - up.
- 5:53pm - down.
- 6:01pm - up.
- 6:07pm - down.
- 6:13pm - up.
- 6:30pm - down.
- 6:41pm - up.
- 7:01pm - down.
- 7:19pm - up.
- 7:29pm - down.
- 7:43pm - up.
- 7:50pm - down.
- 8:06pm - up. It is now "after 8pm", so if it drops again, I will be cancelling and demanding DSL instead of U-Verse. If they won't give me DSL, I will order them to cancel the whole package and go with their competitor. NetZero has a great DSL package for the same price as the U-Verse package, with the same speed. Plus, we already have all of the equipment that will be necessary, so no additional charges will be forced upon us.
- 8:49pm - down. Called, received recording stating "Sorry, this office is currently closed." I was told that I could also get help online, but the problem is that I'm trying to GET online with the service I supposedly have.
- 9:03pm - up. Maybe it'll stay, maybe not. I'm tired and don't care anymore. I'm going to bed.
This has been my experience with AT&T U-Verse.
I highly recommend that people avoid it like the plague.
11/9: 7:00am - net up and stable. Will check again at 4:50pm and if down, will cancel.
4:51pm - net down. Cancelling service. Switching to DSL. Will have it working in 5 days - they need to re-establish the resources for this area since we changed from DSL to U-Verse. This may take up to 4 days, and we will be without the Internet for a day. I'm okay with this. I was told the reason our U-Verse signal was dropping is that we have too fast of a download speed, and that's why it was stable at 1/8th the speed we had. 2.59Mbps on the download is too fast? Not on DSL it isn't!
11/12 - called AT&T to check on status. Informed it was being worked on and that I would be receiving a call from the representative to confirm everything.
11/14 - called AT&T as I had not heard from the rep yet. Now being told that no order exists, and that they won't switch us to DSL. Except for the fact that we need the Internet as we do our business online, I would have cancelled everything right there and gone with another company. They lowered the speed slightly - barely noticeable, really, but we now have a stable connection. Nevertheless, they offered us the "up to 3Mbps" right off the bat, without any indication that IT DOESN'T FREAKING WORK!!! I will be demanding a free month of service due to all of the problems.
U-Verse - what a joke.
