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tom75's profile

Teacher

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22 Messages

Wednesday, March 13th, 2013 12:34 AM

Learned Something Today

Yesterday afternoon the room in which I keep my computer was being painted. Right after the painters left, all of my U-Verse services went out. I assumed the painters had done something to cause the outage. I talked to tech support and after several tests were run the rep scheduled a tech rep to come to my house today. She mentioned wiring costs and said it would take about two hours to fix. I thought it was a little odd that she could know that much about what was wrong.

 

This morning two techs pulled up to the house. I took them up to the computer room and told them what I had done to research the problem. They didn't seem to interested in what I had to say and after only a couple on minutes they went outside to the box on the house. About five minutes later they came back and said spoke about changes in the wiring by AT&T and something about cat 5 cable and that my router would have to be moved to my living room because they would have to bring another line into the house and this would be the shortest route. After explaining all of this to me it was apparent that they couldn't run what they needed to my upstairs computer room.

 

It was apparent to me that the tech I spoke with last night and the tech reps who came to my house this morning all knew what the problem was before they arrived here. The answer was yes, they pretty much knew what the problem was.

 

So here is the deal: AT&T now has a defective product in many of their installations. Unlike auto companies, they aren't going to fix this until the customer has a problem. So if you need to find out what you can and get this fixed BEFORE you have problems on the night you really  want to watch TV or when you have something really important to do on the computer.

 

Meanwhile, I will see what regulatory agency has responsibility for communications companies and see if they can't force AT&T to do the right thing for a change.

Accepted Solution

Official Solution

ACE - Expert

 • 

34.7K Messages

11 years ago

Probably what happened is that a cable got jarred loose while the painters were working in that room.  Probably when you moved the table the RG was on, or they disconnected the cable at the wall so that they could remove the cover and paint the wall around it.  Now you have a wiring problem that needs fixing.  

 

If you don't have a wire maintenance plan, then correcting wiring problems inside your home is your responsibility. You called AT&T for assistance, and they're assisting you.  AT&T may have different wiring standards now than when you were first wired, or the tech who first wired you did not follow proper procedures when wiring you. You have the right to question why they can't put the RG back where it was, when it obviously was working there before.

 

 

ACE - Expert

 • 

14.1K Messages

11 years ago


@tom75 wrote:

Yesterday afternoon the room in which I keep my computer was being painted. Right after the painters left, all of my U-Verse services went out. I assumed the painters had done something to cause the outage. I talked to tech support and after several tests were run the rep scheduled a tech rep to come to my house today. She mentioned wiring costs and said it would take about two hours to fix. I thought it was a little odd that she could know that much about what was wrong.

 

This morning two techs pulled up to the house. I took them up to the computer room and told them what I had done to research the problem. They didn't seem to interested in what I had to say and after only a couple on minutes they went outside to the box on the house. About five minutes later they came back and said spoke about changes in the wiring by AT&T and something about cat 5 cable and that my router would have to be moved to my living room because they would have to bring another line into the house and this would be the shortest route. After explaining all of this to me it was apparent that they couldn't run what they needed to my upstairs computer room.

 

It was apparent to me that the tech I spoke with last night and the tech reps who came to my house this morning all knew what the problem was before they arrived here. The answer was yes, they pretty much knew what the problem was.

 

So here is the deal: AT&T now has a defective product in many of their installations. Unlike auto companies, they aren't going to fix this until the customer has a problem. So if you need to find out what you can and get this fixed BEFORE you have problems on the night you really  want to watch TV or when you have something really important to do on the computer.

 

Meanwhile, I will see what regulatory agency has responsibility for communications companies and see if they can't force AT&T to do the right thing for a change.


1. The techs are (in general) experts at what they do. Is it really that surprising that they would be able to figure out what was going on based on your description of events and symptoms?

 

2. Taking your assumption that this is a known issue (which it may or may not be)...if the known issue doesn't cause problems, why mess with it? You gave no indication of having problems with service before today; if AT&T had called you and said "We need to schedule an appointment where you have to stay home for two hours to change something that may or may not cause problems down the road" how receptive would you have been? 

Master

 • 

9.8K Messages

11 years ago


@MicCheck wrote:

@tom75 wrote:

Yesterday afternoon the room in which I keep my computer was being painted. Right after the painters left, all of my U-Verse services went out. I assumed the painters had done something to cause the outage. I talked to tech support and after several tests were run the rep scheduled a tech rep to come to my house today. She mentioned wiring costs and said it would take about two hours to fix. I thought it was a little odd that she could know that much about what was wrong.

 

This morning two techs pulled up to the house. I took them up to the computer room and told them what I had done to research the problem. They didn't seem to interested in what I had to say and after only a couple on minutes they went outside to the box on the house. About five minutes later they came back and said spoke about changes in the wiring by AT&T and something about cat 5 cable and that my router would have to be moved to my living room because they would have to bring another line into the house and this would be the shortest route. After explaining all of this to me it was apparent that they couldn't run what they needed to my upstairs computer room.

 

It was apparent to me that the tech I spoke with last night and the tech reps who came to my house this morning all knew what the problem was before they arrived here. The answer was yes, they pretty much knew what the problem was.

 

So here is the deal: AT&T now has a defective product in many of their installations. Unlike auto companies, they aren't going to fix this until the customer has a problem. So if you need to find out what you can and get this fixed BEFORE you have problems on the night you really  want to watch TV or when you have something really important to do on the computer.

 

Meanwhile, I will see what regulatory agency has responsibility for communications companies and see if they can't force AT&T to do the right thing for a change.


1. The techs are (in general) experts at what they do. Is it really that surprising that they would be able to figure out what was going on based on your description of events and symptoms?

 

2. Taking your assumption that this is a known issue (which it may or may not be)...if the known issue doesn't cause problems, why mess with it? You gave no indication of having problems with service before today; if AT&T had called you and said "We need to schedule an appointment where you have to stay home for two hours to change something that may or may not cause problems down the road" how receptive would you have been? 


The initial post, didn't pass my "smell test" as soon as I read "defective product."  Long story, short, apparently either the painters or the poster twisted, broke or in some other way, disrupted the connection.  If that is the case, it is, I guess, a defective product. Smiley Tongue  And of course, any good technician would do pre-arrival tests to get ahead of the game.  I'm sure that they knew that they were dealing with a wiring issue, beforehand and not something else (interference, mainly).

Teacher

 • 

22 Messages

11 years ago

I hoe you folks can resolve the problems of others better than you did mine. Let me see if I can summarize it for you:

 

(1) Called for help

(2) Person who received call and evidently thought she knew the problem as she mentioned the price of wiring and estimated two hours for the jog.

(3) Tech dispatch sent two techs so they must have known also.

(4)  At the box, techs picked up a small device and said that they no longer wired this way so for some reason they couldn't just fix the wire.

(5) Ran new wire into the house and placed Netgear equipment so I could get a signal at the greater distance.

 

Now, if my cable was so damaged by me or the painters isn't the issue. Think you can follow me so far?

 

Also, I didn't get billed for any wiring. To the brain who suggested there was no advantage in replacing an item which might or might not go bad. The answer to that is that it depends on what you were watching when the cable went out, Of course I can see you are a man of distinction so PBS probably has reruns of what you missed.

 

The principle involved is similar to a vehicle recall. Say 350,000 vehicles are recalled because of a problem and the recall is based on 17 verified instances of failure. Do you think a recall should be made 350000 or should you ignore the other 349,983 vehicles?

 

 

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