Tag Archives: att

ATT UVerse Review – Avoid this company

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Since I signed up for ATT UVerse and switched from Comcast I have noticed some interesting things that others should be aware of before they get this service. So here are my thoughts. And before you read this realize I am not one to complain about this stuff but I have never had such bad customer service in my life:

1. Do not believe anything they tell you. In fact, they will actually lie to you – well they did to me and I still just cannot believe how I was treated by this company. When I signed up for the service I was promised 1 year of HBO/Cinemax for free – nothing I care about but it was promised to me. I asked the person on the phone several times if this was for the year and she said yes. Keep in mind I actually said ‘this is for the full 12 months of my contract’ and she said yes. I asked this question like 2-3 times just to make sure that I understood correctly and she wasn’t giving me one of those 3-6 month deals that would end and increase my bill. Three months later I realize my bill jumped $50. So I call ATT and they say there is nothing they can do. I ask them to listen to my previous phone call (as they record them) and they said they would and get back to me within 5 business days. I thought great, they dont believe me but once they listen to the call I will get what they promised. 7 business days with no phone call from ATT I call them up and they apologize and tell me a manager would listen to the call asap and get back to me. 7 business days after this with no call I call again. I am told that no one is going to contact me and that even if this person promised me a free year of HBO/Cinemax that the company was NOT going to give it to me. Wow. ATT will be dropped very soon for this. Customer service gets an F.

2. Internet – I pay for up to 18mbps. I average around 6. This is terrible. No way on off peak hours should I be getting such terrible internet.

My recommendation – Avoid uverse like the plague. Comcast isnt much better but they never lied to me and my internet was always around 13mbps when I paid for 15. So what have I done? At this point I had to drop a bunch of services that were promised to me in order to keep my bill at the original cost. A real bummer. I had high hopes when I heard of Uverse but its a real let down. Oh well at least people now know not to sign up with them. I think the best thing to do is to cut the cord altogether.

 

It appears that ATT and Verizon are ripping (some of ) us off…

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This is from a blog on CNET. This is something they have argued for years but now it seems like that tables need to be turned in favor of the customer given certain circumstances. Essentially what has happened is that carriers charge more for their cell plans so that customers can get a cheaper phone – so what happens when a customer buys a phone at full price or uses a phone they had previously? shouldnt they get a discounted plan?

“…regarding the price of your monthly service even though you have had to pay for a phone at full price.

When the FCC questioned wireless carriers in 2009 and 2010 about their early termination fees, which customers must pay if they terminate their contracts before the term is up, the wireless carriers argued the fee existed because it offset the cost of the phone during that contract period. They explained that a portion of the fee that customers pay each month for their service was going toward paying off the cost of the subsidy that the customer got when he bought a new phone on the network.

In other words, the $200 a customer pays to get the phone is only a fraction of the total cost of owning that device. The carrier picks up the other $400 or so on that device. And the carrier claims it recovers the rest of the cost over the life of the two-year contract.

But what happens when you buy the phone at full price? Or what about when your contract ends? Does the cost of your monthly service get reduced because you’ve finished paying off your device? The answer to this question under most carrier plans is no. (T-Mobile is the only major U.S. carrier that reduces your monthly service charge once your phone subsidy is paid off.)

I’d argue that if carriers are subsidizing phones and arguing that they must charge ETFs (early termination fees) to cover the cost of phones when customers cancel their service early, then they should reduce the cost of the service once the phone is paid off. And they should offer a discount on the service if you bring your own phone.” – Source