Need Immediate DSL or Landline Assistance?

 I subscribe to DSL and DirecTV.

The last five days have been a nightmare for me and when AT&T was offered the chance to improve my opinion of them, to prove themselves a corporate entity who has the best interest of a customer in mind, they failed terribly.

Let me start from the beginning. I live in a very remote rural area. After retiring from law enforcement I moved here a little over three years ago to be close to my wife’s family. I moved from a metropolitan area where I had multiple options of internet and cable companies from which to choose. The only ISP available at my new residence is AT&T’s DSL and satellite TV the only television. It was a difficult to adjust from cable provided download rates >25Mps to the <5Mps provided by DSL. I endured multiple AT&T network outages, replacement of faulty equipment and these slower speeds, all without complaint and an eager anticipation of U-verse making it to my area. On Thursday 12/01 the connection between my outside IP network PTZ camera and the laptop I use to monitor and record motion activated events failed. I spent the day trying to resolve the issue and was unsuccessful. I spoke on my cellphone with an AT&T support technician and was told connection problems, including those involving third party equipment, and also a year’s worth of any and all connection issues would be covered if I agreed to a twelve month commitment with ConnecTech at $15.00/mo. With a $120.00 Early Termination Fee. You must understand that at this point I was desperate. I need my camera primarily for security reasons, but also because this area of the state is under a severe drought warning and wildfires are more an more common. Taking the advice of the AT&T technician I contacted ConnecTech by phone. I agreed to a service agreement and turned over control of my computer to a ConnecTech technician. To make a long story short, over the next two days four different ConnecTech employees (names available upon request) used remote access attempting to reconnect my laptop to my IP camera. The final claim from ConnecTech was it could not be done and maybe if I replaced the cable connecting the two it might fix the problem. I repeat. ConnecTech said they could not repair the issue. I then re-contacted an AT&T DSL support person named “Ron” via chat on the AT&T site. I told him I wished to cancel my ConnecTech account as I had received no help from ConnecTech. “Ron” assured me that he could repair my issue if I followed his directions and still being desperate I followed his advised steps. These resulted in going to my Netgear router online page and making adjustments. The last adjustment resulted in a “PPP Location Warning” and complete loss of my home network’s connection to the internet and dropped me from my chat connection. Now imagine my frustration! From a bad situation to a complete loss of connection. My next and only recourse was to again call ConnecTech. It is true that ConnecTech did help me regain connection. This did not result in my original issue with the IP cam being reconnected, so I was still no better off than I was when I subscribed to ConnecTech. ConnecTech only resolved an issue created by the AT&T online chat with “Ron”.

Yesterday I called ConnecTech’s billing office and spoke with “Karrie” (maybe Karen or Cara, she speaks English better than I speak her native language but she was difficult for me to understand). I told her I wished to cancel my ConnecTech subscription, as I had received no help from them on my original issue. I also asked her to waive my ETF as it had only been three days since I subscribed and that after four attempts my original issue could not be resolved by ConnecTech She refused my request to waive the ETF and told me that because ConnectTech had reconnected my router after the fail created by “Ron” it was not within AT&T’s policy to do so. I just do not think this is right or fair. ConnecTech did not help my original issue and only gave assistance to resolve an issue created by an AT&T support person. I cited Section three of the AT&T ConnecTech Terms of Service which reads:

Solutions Guarantee: AT&T ConnecTech Support Plus, One-Time Remote Support Services and In-Home Support Services come with a Service Guarantee available to the original purchaser of the AT&T ConnecTech service.
for Support Plus subscriptions: If AT&T cannot provide an effective solution to the first issue presented and the first issue was presented for resolution is within 30 days of the subscription purchase date, the first month subscription fee will be refunded and applicable Early Termination Fees (ETFs) will be waived upon request. Requests for refunds/ETF waivers must be made within 30 days of the purchase date
The billing representative’s response was this did not pertain to my situation as ConnecTech had helped me in reconnecting after my loss resulting from following the AT&T tech support (Ron) directions.

What do you think? Do you think I am entitled to a cancelation of my ConnecTech subscription with no Early Termination Fee? Do you think I should pay ConnecTech when they did not and could not resolve my original issue? I have to call a contractor and pay to have an ethernet cable, routed from my carport and through an exterior wall through an interior wall to my den removed and replaced. This may or may not fix my problem, but ConnecTech did nothing to resolve this when I was assured they could when I was sold the subscription. The $120.00 fee may not seem like a lot of money to you, but as a retiree on a fixed income I can ill afford paying this for service not received and paying a contractor to do the work ConnecTech tells me might resolve the issue.

Please help me. Please help me retain a positive opinion of AT&T. Please tell me AT&T is more interested in their customers than they are in taking $120.00 from a retiree.

Thank you so much for the time you took in this issue and feel free to call me, or email me at the address associated with my AT&T account, with your thoughts on this matter.

My mother's uverse landline has not worked continuously for over a month now.  I have rebooted the gateway many times and at one point there was a message that the gateway was damanged and a new one was being sent.  I then confirmed the street address, but nothing has ever arrived and that was at least 3 weeks ago.  The phone will ring but when answered there is nothing but static.  On the other end, there person only receives static.  After using the uverse "tool" and rebooting this morning, I received a message to call ATT, but that's a little difficult to do when you have no landline or working cellular service.  I tried to use the chat feature, but it asked for a passcode.  My mother has a brain tumor and cannot speak so I have no way of getting the passcode, but much knowing what answer she gave for the security question.

How are you to contact anyone at ATT with no working telephone service?????

I don't think I have ever been so frustrated with a company.  I have been with AT&T for 20+ years.  This started 3 weeks ago when I wanted to pay off my iphone installment plan. I called and was told because I had combined billing I had to go to the store. I drive 30 minutes to the store and was told I have to go to a corporate store.  I go to the corporate store and they say they can't do it because I am combined billing and tell me to call back again to customer service. I call, spend 45 minutes on hold, am transferred and put on hold again for 20 minutes, transferred again and told they (Melody) was definitely the right person and will fix by the next day. They even gave me Vanessa the supervisor's direct line in case of a problem.  The next day phone is still not working.  2 days later I get a call that they need to disconnect and then reconnect my home phone in order to decombine the bill and my phone will be out for a few hours.  That was 2 weeks ago and I have been without a phone ever since.  But even more frustrating is NO ONE will call me back.  I have a written log of this whole mess with who I have called and when and the many hours I have been on hold and dealing with it..  I have called Vanessa almost daily with NO REPLY.  I did get one call back from Grace about 1 week into this fiascoand  she promised that she would have my phone working in a couple hours but it would be with a new number which she gave me.  She said this would be temporarily until they could get my correct number to work (I have had this phone number since 1995 so it is important that I keep it and really the only reason I want to keep it or I would have cancelled )  So here I sit with no home phone.  Dealing with the worst customer service experience I have ever had in my 51 years and typing up letters to the FCC,  BBB and any ATT address I can find to try to get someone to help me.  Does anyone have someone that they worked with that finally took ownership of their problem and helped get some resolution that I could reach out to?  

Hello @kathy61344, 

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I agree with the statement in that AT&T is no longer "wanting" to install copper service but not "coming out and saying it".  They can't say it directly because AT&T is still the carrier of last resort in their service territories and they are obligated to offer basic telephone service in their territory.  But what shape and form that takes depends on whether the particular state has deregulated ILEC carriers.  However, as far as I know, in most of their territory they are simply "coaxing" people to get off of copper and sometimes misleading them into thinking copper service is not available.  But legally, if your neighbors have copper, they must also offer it to you.

In my state, Illinois, telephone service is still regulated.  When I ordered telephone service two years ago they did everything to try and get me onto Uverse voice, even telling me they were phasing out regular phone service.  But as soon as I said that they were breaking the law and that I was entitled to POTS service they changed their tune and took the order.  It did take over 3 weeks to get my service connected but since it is regulated, they had to pay me a penalty for not connecting the service more quickly.  And since it's regulated, it's dirt cheap.  I have unlimited local calling, caller ID and call waiting for $19/month.

I have noticed over the past 6 months AT&T has changed their tune.  They used to always try to coax me to Uverse and imply that regular phone service would be discontinued.  Then they started saying they were going to sell off their copper service.  And now they are actually saying that POTS service will continue to be offered.  I don't know if they got in trouble with regulators or if it is because their fiber roll out is way behind Verizon's and perhaps, at least for now, it's cheaper to maintain the copper network instead of installing new fiber.  

And I think the regulations are actually stricter in rural areas where there are less options.  In states such as Kentucky, some regulations have been dropped but still do apply to rural areas below a certain population.  Personally, I like the AT&T wireless home phone.  It is superior to voip in that you don't need internet and the battery back lasts a few days not a few hours.  And the service quality is much better than competitors, no installation is necessary and you can hook it up to your home phone wiring and it will ring all of your phones.

Check your state laws and order phone service while reminding AT&T that they are obligated to provide it.  

For the last week I have had no service on my At&t landline. I have had spotty service at best on this line for the last 18 months. The At&t tech's say they know what the problem is but it has to be fixed by a different person. HELP ME!!!!!!! My husband is very ill and we are supposed to be calling in health numbers to his doctor everyday and we can't. We live in the country and cell phones don't work here. I NEED my landline for emergency reasons. HELP, HELP, HELP!!!!!

I have called twice regarding my mothers phone outage.  She is on a Lifeline unit and the phone needs to be repaired before the estimated 12/21 date.  I realize some of the phone outages in that area occurred after a fire burnt the fiber optic lines, however, my mothers neighbors have working phone service.  She has no dial tone and when you call her number you get a busy signal.

No techician showed up and the area code I was given when I set up new service is wrong.