| Is it worth fighting with ATT I had U-Verse installed back on 11-13-09. Had a pushy salesman come to my house trying to sell me the service. He completely lied about how the TV service worked. I have 5 HD TV, 3 of which currently have Direct TV HD DVR with over the air antenna card which allows me to recorded 2 OTA + 2 SAT in HD at the same time per box and other 2 TV have normal HD boxes. I told the salesman I require a min to be able to record 4 HD shows on the 1 DVR I would be getting as currently we are recording between 3 DVR like 3-4 different shows only even tho some of the DVR might be recording the same shows. He said it was not a problem ATT DRV could record 4 shows at 1 time but failed to mention the 2 HD limitation completely or the fact you can only watch HD programing on 2 TV including the feeds you are recording on your DVR. I asked about getting static ip's and being able to have a bridge configuration and his answer was U-Verse I-net can do anything DSL does but better and getting that kinda of config is not a problem.
So I figured I would give the TV a shot considering I was getting free installation plus $30 a month off my I-Net plus $150 credit on my first bill plus $200 gift card for trying the TV and I could cancel at any time he claimed and I would still get all the above bonus. After placing my order with him for Internet and U-400 package + 4 HD boxes and + HD package + 1 DVR. I went on here and Avsforums to read the reviews and exactly how U-Verse worked. And I was not happy about the things the salesman left off like limited HD streams and fact if you watch TV your internet will be slowed down, and how the router you get with the service can not be run in bridge mode etc as I had old grandfathered DSL package with true static IP running in bridge mode with an old alcatel 1000 modem and I had a Cisco 2621 router with VOIP card. I had told the salesman I had that router and wanted to continue to use it and I wanted to continue to use it.
So the day of the installation I asked the installer about it while he was doing the installation and he said yeah pretty much everything I read online is correct and the sales person pretty much lied to me cause he get paid a commission per activation weather you keep the service or cancel it. So I said I want to see how the DVR affect my bandwidth and we did some tests etc talked to tier 2 support etc and I then asked if I cancel the TV today will I loose all of my Promo's he said let me call and find out. He called someone who said I should still get all of my promo's as I tried the service and that is only requirement to getting the promos I was signed up for and their is no contract requirement and I am free to cancel when ever I want. I said are you sorry as I might be cheaper to take lowest U-Verse package and 1 box for 1 month then cancel just to get promo and waive install and told that to who ever he was talking to who said it was ok if I canceled today and I would still get all the promo/discounts. So I told installer lets just cancel the TV. Then he called another department to get my static IP assigned to me that is when I found I could not run the modem as a bridge modem and continue to use my Cisco router. So I opted for dynamic ip's and canceled the order for the static ip's.
Fast forward to yesterday I get my first bill from ATT for my U-Verse service, I was charged $149.99 for the install, I got no credits at all. I am paying full price for the internet service. I did not even get the online billing/auto pay discount. I am really pissed off about it. I fell I was lied to by the salesman at first so I would even agree to order the service then either person installer talked to or installer himself screwed me a 2x cause if I would have keep the cheapest service with 1 box it might have cost me $50-75 max to get $730 in promo credits. So I ended taking a service which is not exactly what I wanted, could not do what I wanted either ie run in bridge mode and allow my Cisco router to do all routing etc cause it was cheaper and faster than what I was paying for my old DSL package as I was paying $149.99 per month for 6/608 as I had an old grandfathered account and I was unable to make changes to my account cause when I was installed in 1999 when Pacbell was the telco here and under both SBC and ATT distance requirements I no longer qualified for the service I had so if I made any changes to my Dsl the max speed I could get was 1.5 max download speed. So I been overpaying for that service just cause it did what I wanted and it was super reliable for over 5 years to ATT/SBC over what I should be paying if ATT/SBC would have sold me one of their comparable plans with the same speed. And now to throw insult on injury they basically totally screwed me over on my new U-Verse package too.
So should I call ATT and complain like crazy saying I am sick and tried of the lies and deceptions you used to get me sign up and keep my U-Verse service and I either want all the promo's I was promised and I even don't mind paying for 1 month of TV service like I originally offered to just to get the credits I was promised or please put back my DSL service the way it and cancel my U-Verse service. I am so pissed over this I am considering switching my 5 lines of ATT wireless service away from ATT and 4 pots lines too cause this is ridiculous. It seems ATT/SBC just wants to bend me over all the time and I should just like it. |
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 Tanshin
join:2009-07-18
West Simsbury, CT
kudos:1
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| I would call if I were you. If that person said that you would still receive the promos, then you should have gotten them. I'm surprised though because most of them require 30 days of service.
Before calling, make sure you check here: »rewardcenter.att.com
If there isn't anything there, call up AT&T. If you don't get anywhere with the main AT&T area, try the Rewards department. You can find the number if you hit "Contact Us" on the top right of the Reward Center.
Good luck! |
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1 edit | reply to Mike90210
To have avoided the install fee, you had to get TV installed and you cancelled it at install, so you owe the $149. To get the promos you had to keep TV service for 30 days to qualify and redeem, then you'd have to keep TV until you receive the reward. At that point you could cancel TV and keep the rewards.
As to the internet slowing down by TV, only occurs on Max 18 where it might drop to 12-14M when all TV streams are in use. As you can see by the figures above, 12M and lower internet are NOT affected by TV. Unluckily you missed the 2 biggest and most active forums Utalk and Uverseusers.com, there you would have gotten the straight scoop about the salesman and the rest. 
Chris
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No SD Stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-800-983-2811 to avoid Mr. Voice Recognition
YRMV IMHO Simply a Uverse user, nothing more |
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Reviews:
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to Mike90210
So, here's my advice
1) Do not ever... ever... buy anything or sign anything from a door to door cold-calling salesperson. Including AT&T. Now you've learned your lesson. They will say anything to get you to sign.
2) Call AT&T and don't rant and don't accuse. Simply tell them you've gotten a bill which includes an install fee that you did not agree to or even understand would be charged, and you'd like it taken off. If they say "no", tell them that you want to cancel, and that you will contest the bill by any means possible if they try to collect. They should transfer you to retentions and maybe they will give you a break. Being polite and non-emotional gets you a long way.
3) After you get out from under the install fee, decide what you want to keep and get rid of, and do that. Don't worry about your cash back. |
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| reply to mibrnsurg
I had TV installed and it was canceled at the time of installation as well after finding out the limitation etc.
And the installer called someone to confirm I would still get my all the promo if I canceled the TV.
But here is what att did for me after talking to them. Gal reversed the install charge cause she saw the notes on my account saying I was not happy about the limited HD streams on the notes and TV was canceled durning the install and she said if the person the installer talked to gave him correct info I could have kept the TV service for free for up to 29 days and then canceled it at no cost to me and I would not have been charged the install fee. She also applied the 1 time $150 statement credit to my account and gave me the $30 off my I-net for 6 months promo too.
But she said she would not be able to give me the $10 off a month for auto pay as that discount is applied to the TV portion of the bill and if I was to cancel the TV at any point within the first 6 months I would loose that credit anyways. The $200 gift card required U-verse 200+ service to be maintained till the gift card is issued which would have required me to pay at a min of 2 months of service $74.00 per month which means I would really only have made $52 profit.
The way I look at it right now even tho ATT lied to me and I would have been better off keeping the TV for 30 days even if I did not use it as I really would have been over $72 ahead between $10 a month promo for auto pay and $200 gift card as I have a felling if I canceled TV on the 2nd month those charges would have been prorated as well. I am still get my U-Verse Max plus for free for 5 months so that is not too bad either in my opinion and my ongoing I-net charges is less than 50% of what it used to be for my DSL and 3x faster too at a loss of having static bridge connection which I can live with honestly.
Still think ATT needs to crack down on the door to door salesman giving out wrong or misleading info and I think ATT techs need to stop giving out info about promotions etc and not call into their special support numbers to get info on promo's etc or ATT should train those people on the promo's etc so people can choose to make informed choices about keeping/canceling ie rewards you are getting vs the cost to get those rewards as I would have kept the TV for 1-2 months to get those rewards as the rewards were more than what it would have cost me. |
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Tanshin
join:2009-07-18
West Simsbury, CT
kudos:1 | That sounds like a pretty fair resolution to me. |
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