AT&T - UVerse Service Review

My partner and I have AT&T land-phone, cell-phone and Internet/DSL service in our apartment. Last fall, we decided to upgrade to AT&T's U-verse package including cable TV and higher-speed Internet service. So we scheduled a U-verse installation in our apartment for the end of 2008. When the technician came for the installation, he told my partner he could not install U-verse, due to inadequate wiring going into our apartment building.

Within a few days, we got a call from AT&T offering to reschedule the U-verse installation; the AT&T rep claimed the installation was still technically possible! Thinking there had been a miscommunication between the technician and my partner (who speaks English as a second language), I rescheduled an installation for two weeks after the first attempt. This time, I stayed home from work so I could talk to the technician directly. When he arrived, he told me basically the same story, in more detail: The copper wiring going into our building is unshielded and untwisted, and thus unable to reliably pass signals to and from the fiber-optic cable that U-verse uses. Installation cancelled.

A few days later, we got another call from AT&T offering to reschedule the U-verse installation again! I politely informed them of the reason for the two aborted installation attempts.

Three months later, two young women called at our door saying they represented AT&T and wanted to schedule a U-verse installation! I told them of our experience with two frustrated installation attempts. They assured me that the wiring going into our building had been upgraded in the previous month, so that U-verse installation was now possible. "We've signed up people on the floor below you, so it's no problem." I told them I needed to consult with my partner, and they said they'd return the following day.

The next morning I asked the receptionist at our apartment complex if the wiring had indeed been upgraded; she told me she knew of no recent work being done on the wiring. I also called the AT&T installation technician and left him a message, asking if the wiring had been upgraded; he never called back. When the sales reps returned to our door that evening, I told them I had not been able to confirm a wiring upgrade. The main rep assured me, "We [AT&T] do the wiring upgrade ourselves, so the receptionist wouldn't know about it." Taking a leap of faith, I scheduled another U-verse installation and again stayed home from work.

The technician who arrived told me the same story: outside wiring still inadequate. "We wouldn't do the wiring upgrade ourselves -- the apartment property manager would have to arrange it."

That was on a Friday. The next Monday morning, our Internet/DSL connection failed. When I called AT&T that evening, after some fruitless attempts at a technical fix, I learned that AT&T had cancelled our Internet service, assuming we had upgraded to U-verse the previous Friday! A customer service rep told me we would have our Internet service restored by 8 PM the next day. I told her that was unacceptable: I wanted immediate restoration of the Internet connection, plus compensation from AT&T for my lost salary staying home from work to receive a technician who could not perform the installation. I also said the door-to-door sales rep who misled me into thinking U-verse installation was now possible should not receive a commission for her dishonest work, but should rather receive a reprimand. The AT&T phone rep replied that their door-to-door salespeople are contractors, so AT&T might not have disciplinary control over them.

The next morning, navigating through AT&T's user-unfriendly "customer service" phone menu, I managed to reach the "U-verse Blue" department. A rep there told me out U-verse order had yet to be canceled. "We have a specialist who will come in[to our office] at 9:30." She promised to try and find a faster way to restore my Internet connection and said she would call back by 10:00 am.

By 11:00 am, I had received no call-back. So I called the AT&T toll-free "customer support" number (877-722-3755) and wandered through their Kafkaesque phone menu again. Try as I could, I could not get back to the U-verse Blue department. Instead, I kept getting connected to DSL tech support reps in the Philippines and other countries. Each tech support rep, after delivering their canned "apology for the convenience," asked me what kind of modem I use; evidently, this basic information, which I've now given to AT&T support reps at least a half dozen times, never gets recorded in a commonly accessible data base. Then they started me through a standard trouble-shooting protocol. I kept telling them, "It's not a technical problem, it's an administrative problem," explaining that AT&T had cut off my DSL service due to the supposed (but nonexistent) U-verse installation, and asking them to transfer me to the U-verse Blue department. But, try as they might, they could not make the telephone transfer.

Finally, after a fresh start and an alternate run through AT&T's nightmarish phone menu, I got a tech support rep who sounded American. When informed I had lost my DSL connection, he queried: "Is this a connection problem or a billing problem?" Having reached my boiling point, I blurted: "It's a problem of AT&T's complete incompetence and stupidity!" He snapped back, "That doesn't answer my question. Good-bye!" and hung up the phone. After cooling down and chiding myself for impetuosity, I reflected that this last tech had displayed no more conceptual flexibility than a poorly designed phone-menu robot.

Our DSL service finally kicked in that afternoon, over a full day after AT&T had mindlessly cut it off. The next morning, an AT&T rep called to ask me if our DSL service had been restored. I said yes, but I wanted compensation for the downtime and my loss of wages for having stayed home for an aborted installation attempt. She agreed to refund us for one month's DSL service ($25), but added: "We can't compensate you for lost wages." We're still waiting for the $25 refund.

This series of experiences reveals an organizational pathology running through the AT&T mega-structure: Despite being one of the world's "leading" telecommunications companies, AT&T has abysmal communication between its technical arm and its administrative/billing arm, and between its various departments fragmented around the country and around the world. Customer data bases are not shared between the various "customer service" departments, and management seems to have no control over dishonest door-to-door salespeople. Their middle management seems locked in a smug torpor bolstered by upper management's utter indifference to customers' needs. Underlying this managerial pathology is AT&T's near-monopoly position in telephone and Internet service.

We're considering changing from AT&T's DSL to Comcast's cable Internet service -- but Comcast's very low reviews for customer service give us pause.