AT&T High-Speed Internet Review

Overall 1.00 of 5 view all 5 reviews

Telpher
San Francisco, CA

Their motto must be "The Customer is always WRONG"

I believe in honesty, quality conscious, Every day computer user

Pros

None

Cons

Rude people, awful service, terrible communication, expensive

JUL

2008

AT&T High-Speed Internet —

We signed up with AT&T high-speed Internet when we first moved here. it made sense, since AT&T was our phone company, and they offered a bundle price. What a mistake!

Over the years we've had several problems with AT&T, but the problems we've encountered over the last 10 months have really taken the cake.

The Trouble Starts

One November day my high-speed, wireless internet service just stopped working. I turned on my laptop and was unable to connect to the 'net. I called AT&T customer service (after spending no less than 20 minutes on the AT&T website, where they keep their customer service phone number well hidden, in an attempt to get consumers to do everything for themselves.) I spent close to an hour on hold before finally getting through to a person. The person I was eventually connected to turned out to be a sales person, not a techie. Lovely. She transferred me to a techie. About ten minutes later, I had a techie tell me that my modem router was shot, and that I'd need a new one, which would resolve the problem. The techie explained that modem routers "have a shelf life of about 2 years", and that my two years were evidently up. Wow - built-in obsolescence! What a lovely concept! Interestingly enough, I didn't have to hold more than a minute before I was connected to a sales person who informed me the modem router I needed would run me $179. Not being able to go on without internet service, I ordered the modem router and agreed to have the cost tagged on to my phone/internet bill.

10 months, one expensive modem router, many hours on hold, a new laptop, and many, many customer service calls later (during which AT&T staff were extremely rude!) and I still didn't have wireless internet without falling offline every two minutes. On the advice of AT&T, who "detected a line problem", I agreed to have a technician come out and look at our hook-up. The guy who came seems to have learned telecommunications from the back of among his theories as to why my wireless wasn't working:

Halogen lighting interference
My toaster
The fact that I have three-way lighting installed

What????? Was this a techie or a witch doctor????? According to him, there was no problem with the line.

Since then, my building has installed free wifi, which I can easily connect to and not drop offline. Evidently, I can still make toast AND use the internet!

The Clincher

When my AT&T phone bill arrived yesterday, there was a $55 charge for the technician's visit. Unconscionable. My partner phoned to dispute the charge and complain about the ongoing problems. Instead of listening to the grievance, the person on the other end suggested we tag an extra charge of $7 a month to our phone/internet bill for internet service insurance." They've messed up, royally, and their only suggestion is for us to SPEND MORE MONEY!

It took me close to an hour to finally get it done, but I finally got through to a customer service person who admitted the $55 charge for the technician was unwarranted, and agreed to waive the charge. I still thinkt hey should refund the $179 I paid for a new modem router that, in all probability, I never even needed. Of course, they won't do that.

The Happy Ending

I cancelled my AT&T account - all of it: internet, phone, and long distance. They used to get over $1200 a year from me, but now they get nothing. All because they refused to deal with what was probably a very manageable problem - or even acknowledge the problem existed. I called Comcast, my cable tv provider, and found out I could get a bundle which includes all the same phone services, wifi, and cable with three premium channels, for $40 LESS than I was paying for JUST my AT&T bill.

Run, don't walk, as far away from AT&T wireless internet service.

AT&T High-Speed Internet is not recommended by Telpher

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Comments about Telpher’s Review

I totally agree - DO NOT USE AT&T internet. They have you sign a "contract" for a specified period of time telling you it is one price, then charging you whatever they feel like after that - and then have the nerve to tell you that you are under contract and have to keep your service with them! Complete a**holes! Plus, their service sucks. You have to babysit them every step of the way to get your service hooked up and set up. And the rebates they promise - forget about it. You will never see them.

Probably even worse then all this is that I cannot even use the stupid phone line that I had to get and pay for just to get their lousy Internet service since they have sold my phone number to anyone and everyone. I can't have my phone plugged in for even 5 minutes without some telemarketer calling me.

Yep - signing up with AT&T was a BIG MISTAKE.

Tks for the review. I was thinking about going with them, but so much for that. Saved me some grief I'm sure.

So i pay my bill through my on-line banking, about 3 times now they put my payments towards my grandmas bill who has a completely different account number and no internet. I have no land line and only internet. I did find someone very nice at att who did help me and was very confused as to why this was happening, but still did not figure it out. They did wave the late fee's which are obviously there fault, but to have to call them again and be on hold and just go through this agin is crazy. I don't know how much longer I can deal with this. I also know co-workers who have canceled there att services because of poor customer service. I mean i know they have alot going on know with wireless, home phone, internet and tv, but let's get it together att.

After 15 years of keeping my ATT landline as backup to my cellphone, I switched to online banking with direct payment to ATT. Because of a wrong number in my "routing" entry, the payment was misdirected. My fault, but I immediately paid on-line directly to ATT, so my bill was never overdue. It was obvious, I thought, that there was some kind of hitch with the on-line banking process. ATT was going to charge me a $90 fee for the "bounced" payment. I told them they could waive the fee or cancel my service. They let me cancel (the girl on the phone didn't have the authority to waive the fee and couldn't connect me to anyone who could.) I bailed. They've been sending me "come back" letters ever since. Haven't missed my landline one bit.

Comcast is no angel either.... I wish there were more service providers out there.. Its like Comcast has a monopoly in cable internet service and ATT has Monopoly in DSL internet sevice.
Both these companies have poor customer services

Comcast is doing the same to me as to what at&t did to you. To inform you comcast will do the same. Dirty rat scumbags

I feel your pain, Buddy! I've been there, done that, and got the tee shirt. I got a new modem in Feb. and since then I don't know HOW many times I have turned on and not been able to connect to the Net. How about those long labored phone calls! In my case, they "did tests from their end" and admitted to me frankly that someone was "working with the system" and caused the problem. Again and again it happened, then finally someone told me the secret was to just temporarily disconnect the modem for about five minutes. This seems to do the trick but it shouldn't have to do the trick every other day! Thanks so much for spelling out what you've been through here.

In response to Telpher's comment from Jul 23, 2008 at 5:15PM:

Bet you're glad you switched when you did.

In response to Katrena's comment from Jul 23, 2008 at 3:10PM:

Want to hear something funny? A week after the technician tried to blame our toaster for the problem, I met a technician from another company who was doing work in the building. I figured it couldn't hurt to ask if he could detect the problem with out line, even though he wasn't with AT&T. He told me that he wasn't allowed to touch AT&T lines but he said, "Let me guess - their tech blamed your microwave oven or toaster, right?" I guess some people fall for that line.

In response to Telpher's comment from Jul 23, 2008 at 2:36PM:

It was very attractive...the savings to have the bundled services of the satellite for the TV, the cell phones, the land line, and the computer connection. It did give us a huge financial savings over the separate services through separate providers, but I too agree, that customer service is less than spectacular.

Sounds like a frustrating time for sure. Hope you're enjoying your toast while you're writing reviews!

In response to AWESOMEMOM88's comment from Jul 23, 2008 at 8:55AM:

Since we've had this trouble, my partner and I have found dozens of accounts of people getting knocked off their AT&T wireless connection, and not getting any satisfaction from the company. It's definitely not an isolated incident!

I have had problems with my computer hook up as well... thought it was just me, because I am decidely low tech, but after reading your review, and others comments....I wonder

I used AT&T for years. Then I got a cell phone. The customer service was AWFUL. I switched over and won't even open the letters from AT&T now. They were rude, rude, rude.

In response to mysticstarfish's comment from Jul 22, 2008 at 10:40AM:

My partner, who is from overseas, is shocked at the poor level of customer service. The phone company in NZ would have notonly refunded us the money for the new router, but probably given a month or two of free phone service to make up for all the trouble. AT&T just wanted us to spend MORE money!