SMTP outbound blocked

As a new U-Verse customer, I just went through the Port 25 wars.  It took 43 minutes of waiting and getting transferred and I got hung up on once, but eventually I reached someone who bumped me up to tier 2, who then just.....unblocked it.

Othas,

Thanks for your advise.

Ray

Tier I is supposed to now have that power; if they sound clueless and try to do the hard-sell (for-pay) ConnecTech, ask to be escalated to Tier II.  Be persistent and tell them you know the score from reading ATT's online forum. 

I'm not liking how they are using ConnecTech as a solution for TS these days.  What happened to referring customers here?  (Yeah, I know, no $ to be made from U-talk.)

spelling edit

I called U-verse technical support and they said that, "due to recent policy changes", they were no longer authorized to unblock port 25 but that I could call ConnectTech and then dispute the charge with Customer Care.  I declined to do that and, honestly, I'm quite annoyed.  If I call ConnectTech, I *would* expect them to charge me a fee and don't want to have to try to dispute that charge.  I looked through the terms and conditions and there is nothing in there about port 25 being blocked.  I require that being open so that I can continue to use an email service that I currently have which does TLS on port 25 for outbound mail, i.e. my outbound mail, from my client to their MTA.

Perhaps a complaint to DPUC will work.  I went from the TS agent to his supervisor and got the same response and I really don't feel like spending hours on the phone over this stupidity.

Anyone have another approach that has worked recently?

 Frankly I think it's time for a few complaints to the government. AT&T's arrogance is getting out of hand lately. Maybe it's time the govt steps in again and breaks them up.

---

@ram1220 wrote:

 Frankly I think it's time for a few complaints to the government. AT&T's arrogance is getting out of hand lately. Maybe it's time the govt steps in again and breaks them up.

---

Really, what do you expect that to do?  Our government is about to give the ok for NBC\Comcast merger, do you really think they are going to do anything about how a for profit business carries out it's day to day operations?  If they want you to pay for support, the government isn't going to stop them.  The person on the other end of the phone call probably didn't know what they were talking about and if you ask to be transferred to tier II, the issue will more than likely get resolved.

Reading this thread was a breath of fresh air. I just got off the phone with DSL tech support (bounced twice to ConnectTech, pointlessly), after trying to explain my problem in technical terms. Its so frustrating when you obviously know more about what you're discussing than the person who is supposed to be helping you, and they get defensive and tell you that you don't.

Anyway, rant over, ... my question is whether David and Matt are appropriate contacts to call for DSL tier 2 support, or are they just for U-Verse? And if not, do you happen to know good level 2 contacts for DSL?

Thanks,

Mason

David can also handle DSL problems.

I have the same problem. I have a personal domain and cannot send over Port 25. I have just spent an exausting 90 minutes being bounced from department to deparment at ATT with people in techincal support that knew less than I did about email services. No one knew Matt or David in Tier II but after speaking to the 6th person I ended up with a VP who actually knew what "SMTP" and "Port 25" were. The short answer is that they will only unblock Port 25 for business customers and not residental and there is not a fee. Regardless, its crazy that it took going through that many people to get the answer. The VP gave me the number to Business Sales to find out what it would cost to upgrade, which was actually for the Residental sales department. I got the correct number for the business side which was an automated system. After going through 2-3 minutes of prompts, I was disconnected. I attempted this 5 more times and had the same problem. After 10 minuntes of getting no where, I called the residental number back, and the guy told me that I need to call 888-757-6500 and just keep pressing 0 until I get to a person. After the joy of verifying my identity for the 10th time today, I was told I need to call 866-620-6000 for small business services. I went through 5 minutes of prompts, and 5 minutes of hold time it tells me the hold time will be 40 minutes and I can schedule a call back. I called back and chose a different prompt and finally got someone on the line.

The shocker, afer ALL THIS is that its not going to cost me any more than I am paying now for residental to convert to a business account. Apparently, it will take a day or two to convert it over and then I can call back and speak to someone about unblocking Port 25. I hope this solves the problem, but my overall experience with ATT was horrible.

I'm sorry that you had such a rough experience.  Others have gotten port 25 unblocked on a residential account.  However, they did have to be persistant.