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8 Messages
Trapped, frustrated, and ultimately defeated
I want to start by saying everyone I've dealt with at AT&T has been excellent. The technicians and customer service people are polite and helpful. I tip my hat to them.
I'm writing to tell my sad and frustrating story with AT&T. It started years ago. I was an AT&T customer, getting 6MB DSL for $20/mo. A reasonable price for a reasonable service. When the deal expired I switched to Comcast. I was a happy Comcast customer. Then I moved.
I moved to an area not serviced by any cable provider. I had to get AT&T. So I look online at the bundles for TV and Internet. First gotcha:
You must rent an AT&T modem. That’s right. There is no option to just buy a u-verse modem off eBay and skip that 7 dollar a month charge. For that matter, with my TV set-top being Ethernet (read below), why can't I just use my old DSL modem from before? Are u-verse packets magic packets?
So the technicians come out, and it's the usual inevitable drama with DSL. The lines are old and crappy and the modem won't sync. They pull a new cable from the pedistal to my house. It took a few hours, but the service got going. A week later, someone comes to bury the cable. Both technicians that came were excellent. I give them a 10/10.
In the days that followed, my moving van arrived and so did my possessions. I decided to run my own Cat5 cable along the carpet from my modem (bedroom) to my TV (living room) to support my gaming consoles, etc. With Comcast, I had the cable modem next to the cable TV. I had also noticed that the TV was constantly freezing. Next gotcha:
U-Verse TV works poorly over coax. That's right. The cable that Comcast is pushing 100 MB a second on, and 5 TVs, U-verse can't utilize. Of course, when a house is built, what do they put by the TV, TV cable! Not data cable.
U-Verse comes out to investigate my TV. They tell me that coax isn't recommended, and since I have cat-5 at the TV, they switch the service. Fine. They also tell me that my Netgear router could be causing problems. That's right You must use the U-Verse router in the modem. Got your own router that does VPN and other cool stuff. Too bad, so sad, you have U-Verse!
Now the TV is working. I have U-family. It's 160 channels right? Wrong. It's actually 80 some-odd music channels, a mountain of home shopping, and a handful of local channels, with some bare-bones basic cable. Want to watch FX, TNT, AMC, Comedy Central? Too bad! U-Verse has basic cable channels as a premium package for an extra 11 dollars a month.
So this is a good time to catch up. In my old place, I had Comcast. For 70 bucks a month I had channels I actually wanted, 15 MB internet, and my own router, and no Cat-5 taped to the rug. Now with U-Verse I'm paying 80 dollars a month for 6 MB DSL and the Andy Griffith show!.
I'm dissatisfied, but I'm resigned to accept it. A month goes by, and I think, "hey AT&T never sent me a bill", so I login and look. Uh oh! It's past due! That's right, AT&T can't be bothered to actually send their customers a paper or electronic bill before the due date. So now I'm 3 days past due, and probably with a bad mark in my credit file, forever crushing my dreams of home ownership, all because I was forced into service from a vile company. The really frustrating thing is that the billing cycle was one day (my activation date). That means AT&T had a month to mail a bill, and never did.
I'm very upset. I call AT&T. Uh oh! No answer after 7pm. That's right: AT&T doesn't have customer service when people aren't at work!. Probably explains how they get away with these atrocities.
The next day I get home from work, and lo, in my mailbox, is a bill from AT&T. Fascinating. I open it up, and it's 200 dollars. 200 dollars for 6 MB DSL and the Andy Griffith show?!?. For 200 dollars, Comcast would come and tap dance in my living room.
I'm almost blind with rage. I call AT&T. I get the useless robot asking me if my cell phone is the phone on my account. I tell it no. Then I tell it my phone number. It tells me it sees I just made a payment, and asks if I want more information. I tell it "No. Talk to a person". This is important, the phone robot got my account information from just a phone number. I get on with a person, and they ask for my phone number, the same phone number the robot just successfully used, and the agent tells me they can't find my account with that number. The AT&T robot and the AT&T agents don't have access to the same information?!?!!!. I want to cry. I've nearly lost faith in humanity. The agent tells me my bill is actually 79 dollars (1 month), and that it's due in 12 days. Nice right? When AT&T does bother to send a bill, they give you less than two weeks to pay it. I thank the man for his time and hang-up.
Remember when I said I logged in to AT&T's website? Well I decided to do it again periodically. Every time I login, it tells me my password is invalid. Every time. I get a temporary password sent to my email, use it, set my actual password, and when I try to login a few days later, it tells me the password is invalid! AT&T's password reset doesn't actually work!.
I'm at a loss to cope with my utter dissatisfaction with AT&T. Comcast is legendary for their poor customer service, and as a loyal customer, I can say it's true. They couldn't schedule their way out of a wet paper bag, and the office is lined up for hours. But AT&T is evil. Pure, unadulterated evil. It's a sad state of affairs in America when monopoly companies have left consumers with a choice between incompetent (Comcast) and evil (AT&T).
I don't understand how AT&T is a business. Who, when given a choice, would pay more for less? Who would pay more for slower internet and less channels? Anyone out there reading this, if you live in an area serviced by Comcast, please trust me, you want Comcast. You need Comcast. It's faster, cheaper, better and smarter. I pray every day to the Lord Jesus himself to deliver me from the evil which is AT&T and bring salvation in the form of Comcast. When that day finally comes, I will pay whatever price to break free of my AT&T contract, and watch TV again a free man.
Thank you.
#IMissComcast
skeeterintexas
ACE - Expert
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27.7K Messages
10 years ago
Can you have satellite?
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oufanindallas
ACE - Master
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6.9K Messages
10 years ago
In the days that followed, my moving van arrived and so did my possessions. I decided to run my own Cat5 cable along the carpet from my modem (bedroom) to my TV (living room) to support my gaming consoles, etc. With Comcast, I had the cable modem next to the cable TV. I had also noticed that the TV was constantly freezing. Next gotcha:
U-Verse TV works poorly over coax. That's right. The cable that Comcast is pushing 100 MB a second on, and 5 TVs, U-verse can't utilize. Of course, when a house is built, what do they put by the TV, TV cable! Not data cable.
Absolutely not true. I have had UVerse in 3 locations and each and everyone of then was connected via coax and not ethernet cable.
U-Verse comes out to investigate my TV. They tell me that coax isn't recommended, and since I have cat-5 at the TV, they switch the service. Fine. They also tell me that my Netgear router could be causing problems. That's right You must use the U-Verse router in the modem. Got your own router that does VPN and other cool stuff. Too bad, so sad, you have U-Verse!
Not entirely true, Yes you must have a UVerse RG (Residential Gateway/router/modem) however you can put your router behind it. When it comes to feeding the rest of your house for TV you must have a switch and have it configured correctly.
Now the TV is working. I have U-family. It's 160 channels right? Wrong. It's actually 80 some-odd music channels, a mountain of home shopping, and a handful of local channels, with some bare-bones basic cable. Want to watch FX, TNT, AMC, Comedy Central? Too bad! U-Verse has basic cable channels as a premium package for an extra 11 dollars a month.
That is on you, the channel line ups are clearly listed on the AT&T website. Shouldn't have been any surprise. UFamily is geared towards kids channesl and shows. U200 is a better value package IMO.
I'm dissatisfied, but I'm resigned to accept it. A month goes by, and I think, "hey AT&T never sent me a bill", so I login and look. Uh oh! It's past due! That's right, AT&T can't be bothered to actually send their customers a paper or electronic bill before the due date. So now I'm 3 days past due, and probably with a bad mark in my credit file, forever crushing my dreams of home ownership, all because I was forced into service from a vile company. The really frustrating thing is that the billing cycle was one day (my activation date). That means AT&T had a month to mail a bill, and never did.
Did you sign up for paperless billing? Did it go to your AT&T email address?
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robertlabrie
Tutor
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8 Messages
10 years ago
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oufanindallas
ACE - Master
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6.9K Messages
10 years ago
Absolutely, unquestionably, 100% true. True to the core of what truth is. Same modem, same TV, same set-top. Coax == constant freezing. Ethernet == reliable. Confirmed by the technician who setup my service and was reluctant to use the coax, and by the technician who came to resolve my freezing issue. Full stop.
Considering how many folks have no issues with COAX again, that statement may be true in your house, but as I've said, I've lived in 3 locations, 2 of them an apartment where there wasn't any chance of running ethernet and my house now, which again, does not have ethernet only coax, and have had 0 issues with freezing.
I suppose I could correctly configure a high end layer 3 switch, but I don't use one of those. I use a normal layer 2 switch, so there is no configuration. The external IP pass-through (which required some DHCP reservation foolery) never worked. In the end I had to give up on my router, and configure a vpnd on a Linux box behind my firewall. Simple fact: With my router, which reliably served my Vonage, my PCs, laptop and consoles for three years on Comcast, could not support my U-verse set-top. The only thing which changed for me was switching from Comcast to U-Verse. "Correctly configured". Bah.
If you are feeding nothing more than internet to the rest of the house you don't need a switch, only if you are feeding the STBs. For adding your router behind the RG, see the 2nd post in this thread for instructions.
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Anonymous
New Member
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25.7K Messages
10 years ago
Your statements are untrue. I have had one tv on Coax for 5 years going on 6 with no problem. One of my tv is on cat 5 I can not tell the difference between the two. I have two switches I bought from Best Buy because I have a lot to connect to the rg. Both work fine. and I still have 6 ports open to connect other stuff too. I have 24 MG of Internet and no problems. The only time I have picture problems is in an electrical storm and that only interferes with live channels. On Demand and Netflix and other steaming services are not affected. Once the storm passes usually within a half hour since electric storms move rapidly tv is back to normal. With Charter I loose all cable and Internet for hours everytime a storm passes over. I have been very happy with uverse. Also the U Family is mandated by the FCC for tv services to have a kid family programing for anyone that only wants to see family style programing. Today that is easier said then done. The 200 package should give you most of the channels you want. I do not know if anyone who wants the family package. As I said that package has to be made available per FCC regulations.
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robertlabrie
Tutor
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8 Messages
10 years ago
As I've stated. Same RG. Same settop. Same TV. Same HDMI cable. Same location in the home. COAX == FAIL. ETHERNET == OK. Technician advise: Do not use coax. They don't like us to use coax. My statement is 100% accurate. It's based on demonstrable suckiness of AT&T, and on the very words of their technicians. If you have it working on coax, then good for you. My experience was that it didn't work. Full stop.
Yes, U200 has more channels, for more money. That's how it works right. Or, I could pay less and get more with Comcast. I don't care about the FCC or about the channel guide or whatever other nonsense is spewed. The FACT is that with comcast you get more for less.
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JefferMC
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35.1K Messages
10 years ago
Many people have used Coax to connect their STB. I have one that way. I have another that I changed from coax to Cat5 because the signal quality degraded over time, I think because of a small radius bend in the coax in the junction box.
So, if you have good quality coax, that hasn't been damaged (e.g. by bends), doesn't have too many barrel connectors, doesn't have splitters not rated for the frequencies U-verse uses, has good tight connections along the way (including behind the barrel connectors in any wall plates) then it can work fine.
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robertlabrie
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8 Messages
10 years ago
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JefferMC
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35.1K Messages
10 years ago
RE: Coax, I didn't say you were making it up. I'm saying there are plenty of reasons why coax may not work in a particular situation. There may be splitters hidden in a wall that neither you, nor the AT&T tech, know about that could absolutely kill the ability to use that Coax. Or there's a loose connection behind the wall plate. Cat5e is normally newer, has less chance of a hidden issue, etc. and so techs like it. However, coax does work in many, many situations.
RE: IP address. If your router got the same IP address again, then something didn't get configured right. You might wish to start over again with those instructions.
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robertlabrie
Tutor
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8 Messages
10 years ago
So I just want to wrap this whole thing up. Sure, you can say "It must be your cables, mine work fine" or "The packages are clearly listed", but that is missing the whole point of this awful experience. Forced into AT&T I'm now paying significantly more for significantly less. That's the point. How is AT&T still a business? Why, when given a choice between AT&T and Comcast, would someone choose to pay more and get less? The inability to property bill me, the unreliable service, and the lousy customer service are annoyances, but the real meat of it is why does AT&T have any customers at all? Is anyone out there actually deliberately paying for AT&T? Have you looked at Comcast, Time Warner, Charter, Cox or any of the others? Who, honestly, who would reasonably pay for 6MB DSL when they can get 15MB+ cable internet for the exact same price? Does AT&T put something in the water? It's absurd. I mean, it would be like Chevron charing $6 a gallon for regular gas. Would anyone buy that gas? Yet people are actually intentionally paying for AT&Ts slow, broken down, over priced internet? Same with the TV. I'm flabbergasted. Maybe during activation, AT&T checks their competitors websites to see if the customer has any other options, and if not, just rips them off. That's how I feel. AT&T IS SIMPLY RIPPING ME OFF. With Comcast I got more for less. This is awful.
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