Review by Sahrin 
UPDATED: 37 days ago
member for 5.5 years, 179 visits, last login: 6 days ago
 Houston,Harris,TX
 $35 per month
 about 20 days
 AT&T
 "Excellent tech, invests a lot in the network, Technicians are Wizards - If you get the right support rep you will be home free"
 "Phone Support not good; Lack of communication between divisions; Sales-oriented Support is annoying"
 "Service is very good; if you can get them to respond in a reasonable amount of time"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Prior to a planned relocation, I contacted Ma Baby Bell to move my MRS (Measured Rate Service) to my new address. I had been getting DSL service from a CLEC called The Optimal Link (see review); for reasons that aren't quite clear to me I decided to switch to AT&T for my internet as well. I called the ordering center on the 23rd of June, and placed an order for MRS and Elite DSL (6/768). AT&T promised to have MRS setup by the 26th and DSL up and running by the 29th. Setup fees and charges (pending arrival of the first new bill) all sounded very reasonable; I was excited to get the new service and looking forward to being setup for my move-in date. The Sales Rep who assisted me with my order was extremely friendly, helpful and courteous - I was impressed with the level of service (coming from a CLEC I was used to this kind of treatment - it was gratifying to get it from AT&T). I told the Rep I would provide my own hardware (Dlink DSL-2540B) to get maximum control over my setup; she gladly agreed and gave me instructions on how to contact Tech Support to get the modem up and running.
Unfortunately, the experienced soured almost immediately. Upon move in, the MRS was working fine - point in their books. When the 29th rolled around, however, no DSL service. I waited 24 hours before contacting AT&T; on the 30th I called and inquired about my service. This is where the frustration began in earnest.
AT&T is currently in the middle of restructuring itself to support its different networks (wireless, wireline, FTTN) - one of the side effects of this massive effort is that the different divisions within the company are almost incommunicado with each other. The one hand literally doesn't know what the other is doing. I ran into this problem many, many times (you have to ensure you dial the correct number; if you don't you can get all the way to the tech support line, speak with a representative and not discover that person only supports FTTN until the very end of the call). Add to this the fact that depending on the time of your call, you are often routed overseas (the quality of service provided by overseas techs is markedly worse than 'domestic' techs). The restructuring also means that the company's own associates often are unable to access your account information without a long string of tedious questions.
That all aside, I called support on the 30th. They informed me that the order had never been placed correctly; and created a new order to be completed on the 2nd. I came home on the second, no DSL signal - and lo and behold; the phone service is down as well.
Another call to Tech Support (This time reporting the phone outage) and I was told that the 'line is testing good' so it must be a problem with my wiring or hardware. I assured tech support it could not be a problem with either (logically) - because there were no problems with the wiring or the phone service prior to the DSL 'activation.' Tech support told me that they could 'understand how I would think that' but that given our climate, it was most likely damage to my wiring in the house. AT&T would be happy to repair it, for the low cost of $90 per half hour and $40 for each additional quarter hour. I politlely told Tech support I wanted to think about it.
Until the 2nd of July, I had only rudimentary understandings of how the domestic telephone wireline network operates. In response to this call, however, I began to investigate more thoroughly. Remembering that I had read something somewhere about the legal importance of the Network Interface Device (NID) with respect to repair responsibility, I took my trusty flat head to the NID. At this moment I ran into my first surprise - there were 2 (count them) Network Interface Devices in my home. This puzzled me, but I ignored it and proceeded to open up the NID's (both) and test my working handset in each. No dial tone was available at either.
Another call to Tech Support (same night); I spoke with a representative and told them, "I have connected a phone known to be working into the NID test jack, and was unable to get a dial tone." The Tech immediately agreed that it would have to be a problem with AT&T's network, and told me he would dispatch a representative by Saturday on the 4th.
(Another moment of frustration - AT&T wanted me to spend $90 to plug a phone into a jack in the NID?).
The 4th rolled around, and I had no service. That evening, I called and was told that they would schedule a Tech to come out and repair the service by Tuesday (the 7th). Frustrated but feeling powerless, I agreed. I received a repair complete notification via e-mail (which I could only access at work) on the 7th; I came home and the phone service was still working - but the DSL modem still showed no connection. I called Tech Support and spoke with an extremely helpful and friendly rep (I don't want to bash the people working at AT&T - there were some unimpressive individuals like "I'll charge you $90 to plug the phone in" but there were also some extremely impressive nad helpful individuals like this person). The rep had me try various tests to determine if there was a problem. We were unable to resolve the issue; the rep told me that a tech could be sent out - but fearing the $90 I declined again.
On the 9th, I tested a second modem (this time known to be working) in the NID; no signal. At this point, I was convinved it had to be an AT&T problem - I called second level support (when you call this number you are actually told by the automated system that this line is *NOT* for residential customers - not very helpful) and requested the Tech come out. I explained the situation and my testing; Support actually offered to waive the labor cost if it was an internal wiring problem and bill me only for parts. I agreed (mostly out of despair). A tech was scheduled to come out on Monday, the 13th between 8AM and 8PM. The open-endedness of this time window aside, I agreed. (This support associate was also extremely helpful - he was clear, friendly, made it clear it was important to AT&T that service get restored as soon as possible - more and more it appears to be luck of the draw).
On the 13th, the tech came out - he called me 10 minutes in advance of his arrival and asked if I could meet him on premises. I met him at the door, and showed him the NID - he immediately identified the problem as the second NID. Uverse had been installed on the premises, the hardware inside the Telco side of the Uverse NID interferes with the DSL signal, and this was the cause of the trouble. The Tech simply cut (literally) the Uverse NID out of the loop, and signal was restored.
All told, the tech resolved the problem in about 10 minutes.
I don't want to give the impression that I am dissatisfied, angry, or vehemently opposed to AT&T. There were certainly many missteps along the way - knowing what I know now, many of them appear to have been mine.
AT&T has many weaknesses (frustration points noted in the body of the review) - however, I would say that the strengths outweigh these problems. My situation is likely to be unusual - if everything had gone 'according to plan,' service would've been available on the 7th of July.
The point I keep coming back to, though, is that the 'diversity' in types of communication led me into trouble again and again. I was intimidated by the labor charge associated with 'repairing' my house's wiring. I was confused by the seemingly contradictory responses offered by tech on different calls. The company's inability to access and reference their own information about my site was ultimately the cause of the problem (per the tech who visited my home); the repair could've easily been completed with a good pair of scissors and a punch down tool.
As far as the actual connection goes:
I am about 2,500 FT from the RT, 11,000 from the CO. My modem syncs at 5,664 and 768. The connection is very responsive (though it has 'hung' once, dropped out entirely earlier today, and 'hung' once for about 20 minutes yesterday). When the service is working, it is excellent. Low latency, high bandwidth - it works very well for all the applications I have tried it with. For now, I am chalking my problems up to my total inexperience with DSL - the glaring excellence of the connection leads me to believe it has something to do with my configuration choices/usage, and not the service itself.
I would recommend AT&T to any users; because they are the ILEC they offer the best prices on the market, bar none.
My single biggest recommendation to AT&T would be - assign one knowledgeable person to each account. Have that person walk the installation all the way to satisfactory activation. Don't wait for the customer to reach out through the tangled jungle of Toll Free numbers and automated menus - follow up agressively. You clearly place a lot of value on Upselling customers to Uverse - if you follow this easy method (and close the India and Phillipines call centers) I can guarantee your upsell penetration will rise dramatically.
Ratings in detail:
Pre-Sales Information: 5 - sales staff is the focus, and it shows. Friendly, polite, helpful, knew the options and what my responses to them would likely mean (I told them I wanted MRS, and they didn't waste my time talking about entry level DSL).
Install: 3 - the phone service was well handled; but the follow up was not so good.
Reliability - At 3 because I've only had service for 36 hours
Tech Support - 5 may be surprising, but when you get the right person they are incredibly helpful and professional. Just keep trying - the good ones are out there.
Services - Excellent connection service, excellent online customer service suite. A lot of emphasis is placed on the online experience; the parts of it I have used are very good.
Value - Best prices possible.
====Update 10/20/2009====
Since the initial difficulties with the install, this connection has been flawless. I had been a cable user for about 10 years, until I made the jump to DSL. In the time of using cable, outages were out of the norm but they existed, were frustrating and were often as not completely unexplained. This service has not enough so much as looked at me funny in the time since I have had it. The modem sync process has raised by sync rates to 6000/768; I consistently test 'in the range' for those numbers. I'm raising the 'reliability' rating to a five (inhuman). I wish there was more of an upgrade path than spending another 100 bucks a month to buy AT&T's third rate cable package...but their it is. I'll take what I've got for now.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of AT&T Southwest |
|
AT&T Southwest
