Lies, Lies, and More Lies

[cabinetman]

Our internet has been dropping off intermittently every day since the beginning of December. AT&T has sent out 5 different "Techs" to our house to check everything out. No problems.

We've been told that the DSLAM card has been changed, and they say they show a signal to our house, so the problem is solved. But, we still have the problem. We call almost every day, get a different "supervisor" (who sounds like a 12 year old), telling us that there are outages in the area, and the problem can't be looked into until the system is up, and that won't be for 24-48 hrs.

They've lied about what modem we need, and what speed is qualified. One CSR will say one thing that is negated by the next one. So, the problem still exists and AT&T doesn't seem to be able to fix it. They lie about what's been done. They lie about how many have the same problem. Last week they said three "engineers" went to the DSLM to troubleshoot. The three must have been Moe, Curly and Larry.

We are at wits end.
.

[pierhogunn2]

Time to call in the better business bureau... I have noticed that companies, big and small get really anxious to fix your problems when you file a report against them, esp. when you have the gall to call them up and tell them what the complaint number is... also, do you have a local TV station? I am sure that they would love to do one of those consumer pieces on your situation, esp. since more and more people are jumping on the broad-band-wagon these days...

I know this doesn't solve your immediate problem.

do you use a wireless router? is it yours? if so check our www.dd-wrt.com. it's a freeware wireless router software replacement packages that runs on all sorts of routers, and it gives you far more power over the control and monitoring of your internet connection, you can monitor your bandwidth with it, and you can start giving the phone company more detailed information about the times and durations of your outages, etc.

[phi1l]

In you situation, I would have given up on DSL long ago. Isn't there a cable company there? There is a new (relatively) wireless technology that is now being rolled out called WiMAX. it uses no wires, no cables. just direct line of sight to the antenna. Both the cable & DSL guys are very afraid of WiMAX. Demand is such that you will not see any adds for it though so it will take some digging to find a local provider.


I have DD-WRT. I would recommend it only of yo enjoy diddling with routers of the wireless/wired kind, otherwise you will not appreciate its advantages.

AT&T obviously has no interest in solving this problem, I doubt that any efforts you can take will get them out of the technical support equivalent of the rope-a-dope defensive posture on this one. It's time to move on...

[crokett]

I would have dropped DSL long ago and gone with the cable co.

I also have DD-WRT running on my new router. The factory code on it had something wonky in the DHCP client and it wasn't getting the right IP address from my ISP. I put DD-WRT on it and that fixed it. I am now looking for a 2nd router to put DD-WRT on so I can put it in bridge mode and connect my DVR receiver to the internet.

[turkeywire]

I have been through the same thing with ATT only it was u-verse. The final thing was when I found out with u-verse you can not accept collect. I told them to take it out and put my DSL line back in. What I was told on several occasions was that ATT was phasing out DSL and going to u-verse, they are on a 3 year plan to convert everone to u-verse. Also some conversationsI hve had with linemen working on a business line leads me to believe that ATT is not investing any money into infrastucture. If you want details please ask.

Carl

[crokett]

Also some conversationsI hve had with linemen working on a business line leads me to believe that ATT is not investing any money into infrastucture. If you want details please ask.

Carl

I guess it depends on the infrastructure. I talk to ATT once a month or so. Last year they deployed almost 300 FC switches in datacenters around the country to upgrade older hardware. My team wrote the rollout instructions.

Also, the telco industry overbuilt the infrastructre in the mid to late 90s expecting a boom that didn't happen. So for a while they were way over capacity. I don't know if that is true any more.

[Uncle Cracker]

Also some conversationsI hve had with linemen working on a business line leads me to believe that ATT is not investing any money into infrastucture.

Coulda fooled me... Six months ago they dug up my whole neighborhood to upgrade their lines and connections to introduce U-verse in my area. My sidewalks are now two different colors, and my lawn has not even come close to recovery...

[cabinetman]

I have been through the same thing with ATT only it was u-verse.

Carl

I was told (it was probably another lie), that uverse was in a different DSLAM.
.

[vanguard]

I was told (it was probably another lie), that uverse was in a different DSLAM.
.

Uverse is a different technology. I've had it about 6 months now and am happy, although we did have some troubles getting started.

Did the techs swap out the pairs on your DSL?

[cabinetman]

Uverse is a different technology. I've had it about 6 months now and am happy, although we did have some troubles getting started.

Did the techs swap out the pairs on your DSL?

After 5 techs, they did everything they could think of.
.

[alpha]

Do you have a router in addition to your modem by chance?

Bob

[cabinetman]

Do you have a router in addition to your modem by chance?

Bob

It's an all-in-one, provided by the AT&T techs (new).
.

[crokett]

Seriously, I would switch, unless you have a service agreement with penalties, and even then I would think hard about it. ATT has had plenty of chances to do right by you and I'd bet they aren't giving you any credits on your bill.

[gjat]

We were long time Brighthouse (cable) customers and tried Verizon (FIOS) after a couple of neighbors swore how good it was. In the first month, after re-wireing the cables in my house twice, replacing individual cables a few times, reterminating the old/new/replaced cables a few times, sending countless techs, including 1 tech we'd see twice a month, a couple of meetings with area supervisors, tech supervisors, region supervisors, installation supervisors, replacing the fiber to the house twice, three new DVR's, numerous hours long appointments, new fiber modems, etc., etc., etc.... We had to go back to broadband cable that had it up and working in 30 minutes and had a minor issue after 8 months. Sometimes you're the shoe, sometimes the sock, and sometimes the dog toy.

[cabinetman]

Time to call in the better business bureau... I have noticed that companies, big and small get really anxious to fix your problems when you file a report against them, esp. when you have the gall to call them up and tell them what the complaint number is... also, do you have a local TV station?

I found a site with AT&T corporate offices. I might just try to get to someone at the top. But maybe that's where the problem starts.
.