Teacher
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19 Messages
Ridiculous
It's gotten to the point that I don't trust ATT processes at all. The people, usually, are great, but they're stuck with the most ridiculous limitations and procedures and requirements.
Case 1: I originally had DSL and POTS service on one line, and another POTS line. I got tired of always having interference between the POTS and DSL (filters on my end were all installed and fine, they'd switch me to a different port and things would be fine for a week or two, then it would deteriorate again - symptoms were that S/N would sometimes drop when I was using the phone, or even just receiving a call without answering, sometimes to the point of dropping the DSL connection entirely. Tried multiple modems, multiple filters, whole-house filter, etc).
So line 1 was POTS, line 2 was DSL/POTS, I wanted to switch to line 1 U-Verse with line 1 voice number, keep line 2 just POTS with the same number it already had. Couldn't port both numbers to U-Verse, as highest speed I was offered was 3Mbps, required 6Mbps for 2 lines.
What ended up happening is that they installed U-Verse connection (ADSL2+) on line 2, disconnected line 2 POTS, a week before the installation date, so I had 1 phone line, no DSL. Called to complain, they ended up disconnecting line 1 as well, was without any service for 2 days.
The mismanagement of information between the "POTS people" and the "U-Verse people" was stunning, as it seemed neither side had the authority to do anything that involved both worlds. Maybe that's gotten better, it's been a couple years.
Case 2: I noticed that I could now get a 2nd voice line on U-Verse with only 3Mbps service, so I went ahead to try to do that on-line. It insisted I needed a new modem/gateway/VOIP box. The modem it insisted I needed was, in fact, the older version of what I already had, but without the wireless router. Not understanding why it insisted I needed new equipment, I called up. After being told "well, the computer is the final authority on everything, if it says so it must be true", and that (even though the upgrade page on-line only showed 3Mbps available) I could upgrade to 6Mbps, and that wouldn't require new equipment, and that now that it was being ordered as 6Mbps I could also add a 2nd line, but that if I added a 2nd line I'd also need a tech install, and "if the computer says so, it must be true" again, I finally got to a supervisor.
He called tech support, who basically (with him on the line with me) told me "if the computer says a tech is needed, then it must be true, the boys say maybe you need a new RG or you need pairs bonded or something", I ended up just getting the service upgraded to 6Mbps, figuring that if that worked, I could then just request the 2nd phone line to be ported and it would be relatively hassle free. Unfortunately, about 90 seconds after he put the order through, it actually updated in the system, my modem reset, and we got cut off.
So, trying to enable the 2nd line on my own, nope, it still insisted on a tech to come out. Called in, spent another 45 minutes trying to get it done without needing to wait around for a tech install appointment. Said I'd be very surprised if the tech had anything to do. So, the tech came out, all prepared to do a full installation. Nope, I already had all the inside wiring ready to go, the 2nd phone line got enabled the night before, all it needed was to be ported so I could receive incoming calls on it.
Tech was a bit confused, but rolled with it. Called the number to have it ported (said "this number to call would have been in the self-install kit"). Called in a more experienced installer, and we established that we did indeed have FTTN with plenty of capacity, so I should be able to upgrade to a higher speed (I wasn't even getting the full 6Mbps, at around 5 I'm at a S/N of 6 or so), and he'd put in an escalation ticket to see why the website was still showing I could only get 3Mbps when I tried to do an upgrade on-line. Was somewhat puzzled that if I pretended I was moving to this address and wanted new service, it claimed I could get 18Mbps.
Case 3: So now, not having heard anything back, I went ahead and tried to get service upgraded to 12Mbps. "System is rejecting it, says bandwidth problem". After 15 minutes of consulting with whoever billing/orders calls for tech support, they claimed that they'd have to cancel my current account and create a new one in order to get the higher speed.
Started doing that, when it became apparent that they were going to cancel the existing service NOW, then install it "sometime in the future, probably no more than 3 days". No way. Are you kidding me? You can't place an order that won't become active until a specific date (when a tech can be made available), and THEN cancel my existing service and switch everything over?
I understand that service would need to be interrupted (well, not really, I still have two pair installed into my house, and several more available on the drop from the pole, they could install the new service onto the 2nd pair, I plug the new modem (I'm assuming I'd need a new modem) into that, port the two numbers, plug the internal phone line into the modem and I'm done), but "the system won't allow a new order to be placed until the old account is cancelled".
For all I know, that would mean I'd be cut off in the middle of the call as soon as she cancelled my account. Even if it wasn't quite that fast, that's totally unacceptable, I mean even the idea that you'd need to cancel an account and create a new one in order to move some wires on the pole is ridiculous, but that you can't even put the order in until you've cut my Internet and phone service? That's totally unacceptable.
Yes, I'm going to contact Customer Care, I just wanted to point out that your systems are ridiculous.
Oh, that one supervisor I was talking to (when I got cut off because the service got upgraded)? He seemed to understand that it was ridiculous, but couldn't do anything about it. When I called back to try to talk to him again, I was met with "I'm sorry Mr. Steve, it is very impossible for us to route your call to that specific supervisor as our calls are handled in many places".
If it weren't for the fact that the cable company here is even worse and that there are no other real options available, I'd not be a customer at this point.
CoryLuba
Teacher
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23 Messages
10 years ago
U-Verse has been like this since it was first created. Their technicians and phone representatives usually do a great job with this kind of stuff, however when you have a configuration like yours it isn't always easy. I'm at the 18 Mbps package, but I want them to install the Two Bonded Pairs. My neighbor down the street (farther from the box) has it, yet I can't get it... At&t can be very frustrating.
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baseballisback
ACE - Professor
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7.7K Messages
10 years ago
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JefferMC
ACE - Expert
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35K Messages
10 years ago
No, there are now two uses for pair bonding. The first use was if your loop length was appoximately 3000' to 5000' and you were unable to get a 25 Mbps profile on a single pair.
When the Power High Speed Internet Tier was announced, a new qualification for dual pair was created: If you have a loop length of less than 2200', you can get a 40 Mbps raw signal (i.e. you qualify for 32 Mbps profile on one pair) the VRAD has the right kind of cards on it and there are ports available for you, there is a free pair in your bundle, and you can run a cat5e cable from your NID to your RG location...
Then you might can get dual pair for a 55 Mbps/6 Mbps profile, and get Power Tier HSI (45/6). But only in limited areas, and you must use either a iNID or a NVG 589.
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baseballisback
ACE - Professor
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7.7K Messages
10 years ago
Oh, nice!
I'll assume that this new Power High Speed Internet is one of those things that is slowly rolling out based on equipment installation, similar to U-Verse back in 2007-2008.
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tricorn
Teacher
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19 Messages
10 years ago
Thought I'd give an update on how this resolved.
After sending a message to ATTCustomerCare, I got an e-mail response in about 3 hours to let me know that someone would be calling me within 24 hours. I actually received that call a couple hours later. The person I spoke with was very knowledgeable, and more important, very dogged. She spent a lot of time working to get various problems solved, and continued to follow up with me as things progressed. My hat is off to her, she did a great job.
So, what she did was put in a cancellation order for the future, then put in an order for the "new account" for that same day, then find out when a tech could be scheduled (initially about 3 weeks, but she was able to get that pushed up to just a few days). Not sure why the first rep I was talking to originally didn't understand that you could schedule a cancellation for the future and then be able to place a new order.
However, there was still a problem. My original phone numbers couldn't be assigned to the new account, presumably because they were still active. She set it up to assign new numbers to the account, which would then be replaced with the correct numbers once the original account was cancelled.
So, on Monday morning, around 2-3AM, my Internet and phone service went out when the cancellation kicked in. Tech showed up on schedule, gave me the new modem, went to the node, switched my second pair from the original POTS connection to the VRAD, came back, and everything worked (except for the wrong phone numbers). Signal quality excellent. I was down for about 10 hours.
He then spent over an hour on the on-line chat and waiting on hold trying to get through to get the numbers fixed. VOM (Voice Order Management) was down, some major maintenance and/or upgrade had everything messed up.
Got a follow-up from the person tracking my problems, the account was still showing as "tentative" and the order not complete and who knows what else, she handed it off to someone else to take care of. Apparently, HE spent about 8 hours working on the issue, early in the afternoon the next day I saw both lines get de-provisioned, then the two (correct) numbers showed up. He called me to verify everything was fine.
Well, it wasn't. The other thing that had been going on was that an hour after the tech had left after the install, I tried calling in to get the numbers fixed (as the tech had suggested, in hopes that the problems with VOM had been solved), and found that I couldn't call the 800 number. From looking at call logs, it was apparent the call was going through, but I couldn't hear anything. I eventually ended up using Google Voice for the next few days as I tried to get THAT problem solved (the Internet connection was working great). Some numbers I could call and worked fine, most it would make the connection but I couldn't hear anything, and apparently sometimes they could hear me, sometimes not, but not positive about that (this morning, when I called the tech on his cell to test, he COULD hear me, but I couldn't hear him, but I get ahead of myself).
No one was able to figure out what the issue was. Initially, I was told that it was probably because the account was "tentative", and all I had to do was wait until after 8PM. Well, no, it didn't clear up AND the account was still showing the order not completed, nor did it clear up even when all the orders had been marked as complete.
Another funny thing was that the system had recorded that my new modem was a 3800. I don't have video service, shows it not even available at my location. The modem I had was the 5031. The billing information was showing me that I was going to be paying for the monthly equipment fee.
Anyway, all that got resolved, the system was told that I had a 5031, etc. Tech visit scheduled for this morning. He replaced the modem, all was well.
Until I turned DMZPlus back on.
Note to self: remember to do a full factory reset when everything else fails.
The DMZPlus feature in the 5031 is broken. Another symptom of the problem was that when I rebooted it, it didn't automatically enable the two phone lines (they were provisioned, just not registered). Manually resetting them worked fine.
So, two things come out of this:
1) AT&T order system needs to be more flexible. People need to be able to override things like "Only one UVerse account at an address", at least at some level of customer service/tech support. Even better would be to have a way to mark a new order as an upgrade of existing service - so all the billing information (including past bills), phone numbers, voice mail boxes and settings and call features, would all be automatically copied to the new account and the old account automatically closed when the new account is activated by the tech saying "installed". Now I can't go back and look at my previous bills, not even my final bill for the old account, I had to go reset all my phone options, blocking, voicemail, I lost my voicemails (fortunately, nothing particularly important).
Even better, of course, would be that you could simply re-provision a line without creating a new "account" - if you need a unique number for a particular circuit, use a different number. The customer shouldn't have to be concerned with which physical port you're plugging my line into. I can understand when you're switching from POTS to UVerse VOIP and DSL to UVerse, but not when simply upgrading the speed of an existing UVerse connection.
2) When a problem can't be solved by the usual means, check if the customer has done any configuring of the equipment, and suggest a factory reset (if the customer is comfortable with doing that). I didn't even really think of it as being the issue, I had set it up along with a bunch of other things such as the SSID, changing the access code and so on much earlier. I should have been clued in by the fact that I had been able to call the tech's phone right after the initial install, but when I tried to call him back later to tell him about the call-out issues, his was one of the numbers that didn't work.
It also bothers me a lot that the on-line system is so out-of-touch with reality. It showed that I could only get 3Mbps service, even though I was at 6 (and that caused some of the display logic to be screwy, it didn't offer me any voice options since I didn't have any Internet speed selected), it didn't show that I could upgrade to any higher speeds, it wanted to send me an out-dated modem to add a 2nd line to 3Mbps service, but wanted to instead send a tech to add a 2nd line when I had 6Mbps service.
The "Access ID" and linked account features also don't work very well, especially when interacting with Yahoo and e-mail. It's also very slow and unpleasant to use.
This should have been a really simple process - I place the order, the tech comes out, moves my pair, replaces the modem, done. Since I actually had a second pair coming into the house, it could have been even easier, given my setup - give me the modem, I plug it in and connect to the 2nd pair while tech connects the 2nd pair, modem comes up and is already provisioned, tech marks the install as complete, system switches the routing of the two numbers from the old modem to the new one and turns off service to the old modem. Total down time, 1 minute as I swap the phone and Ethernet cables. I'm happy, AT&T saves several hundred dollars.
I hope this has been helpful to someone in a similar situation. Send a private message to ATTCustomerCare, they're really responsive.
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