AT&T U-Verse

[CadaverDawg]

I'm sure Uverse has been discussed on here before, but AT&T came to my house today and offered me what I thought was a great deal. They said I could get their ultimate package including every channel except International channels....including all sports channels(including NFL Red Zone), all movie channels, all HD channels, AND my Internet service for $130 tax included. Not to mention free installation, and 3 HD DVR receivers.

This is $20 cheaper than my current DirecTV and AT&T bundle, but I would get way more channels and 2 more DVRs. Am I missing something? It seems to good not to have a catch. Does U-Verse suck? Anybody have any experience?

 

[mcdawg22]

After that it's gonna be about 180 a month. I could call and threaten to switch to get a reduction but I like the selection so I just am not that worried about it. I would say check online and see if they are offering a better deal.
The guy coming around offered the same deal plus a 100 dollar gift card. I went online and they had the same deal plus a 150 gift card. Also pray everything works because customer service isn't DS-Comcast bad but it's close.

 

[Barkman Turner Overdrive]

I got sold on a similar plan and was told that was all I would pay per month due to my HOA doing such an outstanding job negotiating with AT&T. Please believe I asked that question no less than 3 times and was assured of that price. Two months later I was socked with a bill by the HOA for another $240 because that was the cost for the standard package(land line, basic cable, and interwebs). Come to find out AT&T had sold this to several people in the neighborhood and that the HOA representative was going to talk to AT&T but also encouraged me to too. The service has been intermittent and pixelated. I don't like them and had better service with both DirecTV and Dish Network.

 

[CadaverDawg]

my price would never go up. I didn't get offered a gift card...so would you recommend UVerse then? Or stick with DirecTV? I called Direct to compare rates and they asked me why. I told them I may be leaving them, so they offered me the Choice Ultimate plan and 2 more HD DVR receivers, PLUS a free year of Sunday Ticket for $90/month...but I would have to sign a 2 year contract, and I don't like being locked in

 

[sleepy dawg]

After researching, I found that many customers seemed unhappy, mostly due to their service simply not working, and not being able to get help.

If they can get their act together, then it will be tough to beat, but my internet/TV not working half the time is not acceptable.

 

[CadaverDawg]

If not, why haven't you quit em?

 

[Salty Dog]

I would have quit them last year but have no choice. Can'thave satellite dish here and cable is not an option.

 

[Barkman Turner Overdrive]

Haven't quit them because the HOA believes the dish is too unsightly for the precious neighborhood and I don't live in an area served by cable or decent interweb connection. Bottom line is AT&T has me by the short hairs. I'd be ok with it if I wasn't given poor service to boot.

 

[CadaverDawg]

would be to give them a try and then if I don't like it, just tell DirecTV if they sweeten the deal I'll come back. It's a damn shame that you only get good deals when you're joining or leaving a company...loyal customers pretty much just get **** on

 

[tupelotim]

2 more DVR's from Directv is a bad deal when you can get the new Home Media Center that can record 5 channels at one time and has a 1TB hard drive. Ask them for a Home Media Center with cinema connection kit and whole home hooked up. Swap the media center out with one of your non dvr tuners. Your # of boxes would remain the same but you would be able to record up to 7 channels at one time with the existing DVR and Media Center and watch them on any box in the house. If you can get free Sunday ticket and a price break on Choice Ultimate that would be a sweet deal and I would have no problem with the 2 year contract.

Edited to add If you call Directv say cancel at the first two prompts to get you past a Customer Service Rep at straight to a Retention Rep.

 

[mcdawg22]

Pros: Great channel selection, no contract, great On Demand selection. I live on the coast so TV going out when a storm is coming is not good.
Cons: People say DirecTV has better high def, no slow motion, bad customer service, no watch ESPN.

 

[engie]

Are many of you having trouble with your connection being slow/pixelated? IF your att tech is a moron, there are some easily remedied potential issues to be had on that side that he probably overlooked. From my experience, about 60% are morons, 30% are good at their job, and 10% are geniuses that should be engineers.

I hate to go into much detail publicly on how to fix this, since it's technically illegal for you to work on yourself from your DFI(box on the side of house) back up the line to the PED...but it involves stacking pairs(your house line either has 2 pairs or 5 pairs), essentially doubling your copper in the ground on private property. This helps latency and fixes the slow/pixellated connection ~ 50% of the time...

 

[FlabLoser]

I have it. I like it. Except their tv box BADLY needs an "ignore SD duplicates" function.

Deal is good even after the promo.

 

[NTDawg]

I haven't had any problems since. Can't say the same for comcast, U-verse 100 times better than comcast. I pay about $160 (rate afterthe intro rate)I have 5 boxes and i record and watch in any room and I get every channel. The can only watch/record 3 hd shows at a time but that usually isn't a problem.

 

[boomboommsu]

By Federal law no entity can deny a satellite dish for cable. They can demand it be in a less obvious location (at your expense), if possible for reception, but they can't ban them.

http://www.fcc.gov/guides/over-air-reception-devices-rule

I'd advise going to them with your problems, and offering to work with them, but tell them that if they won't work with you you'll make the install as ugly as possible and sue the **** out of them(but that's me, i'm an a-hole that way). If they work with you you can probably install it on the ground behind a fence or bush or something. Up to you on if you want to deal with what could turn into a legal fight, and with the HOA probably badmouthing you to the neighborhood. First i'd check to see if there's an arbitration clause in your HOA terms, if so they're almost certainly lose at little effort and expense to yourself. But i would bet they already know this, and will fold as soon as they know you know the rule.

Most likely your looking at a couple hundred extra $ for the install to put the dish somewhere hidden.

 

[00Dawg]

but it's not from a TV perspective. AT&T sent me a letter that DSL was being cancelled in my area and that I had to switch to UVerse. In order to make it cheaper after the 1-year promotional period, I also switched the phone service. I kept DirecTV since I've heard too many bad things about UVerse to go whole turkey.

Our router arrived Thursday, and I installed it Friday since that was the activation date. We immediately had issues. The installation instructions missed on two key points:
1. You need https: to access the activation website, which a phone tech did know about.
2. You need two phone jacks nearby in order to use UVerse phone from the other jacks in your house. The phone tech guy parroted the party line on this one about being able to feed a line back through the included DSL/phone splitter. After getting off the phone with him, I found a forum whereuserssaid you cannot plug the line from the router back into the same jack, even with the splitter. Very luckily for me, the electricians that wired my house screwed up a jack location request in my office, so I had two phone jacks right next to each other. Problem solved,but I bet there are very, very few houses where that won't be an issue.

While we were doing the installation, any time you bumped the router it would reset. The reset time on these things is listed as about 5 minutes in the install guides, and it is literally like 5 minutes. But we finally got all the wires where they needed to be and left it alone.
The next day (Saturday) shortly after lunch, I'm back in the basement using my internet connection. Suddenly the AT&T battery backup beeps. I look down, and the router has no lights. It is stone cold dead.

I call AT&T to request a new router. They say they have to ship it. What's normally 2-day shipping is suddenly showing a Thursday delivery date (UPS now says it's out for delivery, so they shaved a day off). I'll be without home phone or internet for 5+ days. Iaskif we can turn back on the old stuff temporarily, and the tech transfers me to sales.
I ask the same question. The guy literally says "no". Silence follows. I ask again, specifically about phones only. After all, theactivation process was what turned off our old phone service. An AT&T repair guy had to switch something out that deactivated our DSL, but the old phone service worked up until the second we activated. "No, I'm sorry."

If I had another option for internet besides AT&T, they would've lost me right there. As it is, I'll be setting up a new UVerse router tonight, then calling to demand a big bill credit for all our trouble.

 

[Optimus Prime 4]

those, but I didn't think about it. When my house was fixed up a couple years ago (previous owners) they must have covered up the phone jacks. I can only think of one in the kitchen, and one in my office. I don't think I have one anywhere else.

 

[00Dawg]

cell coverage at my house, we'd probably haveditched wired phoneson Saturday.Then I'd only need one...