Thanks to the efforts of the Illinois Citizen’s Utility Board, people all across the Midwest, Southwest California, Nevada and Connecticut, can get AT&T dry loop DSL for only $23.99 (express) or $28.99 (pro), instead of $43.99 or $48.99. But they won’t tell you this through the regular customer service line, because AT&T would really rather you have a landline along with your DSL, and pay more for the privilege. A current AT&T retention rep tells us this is the way to do the discount dry loop dance:
- Call the AT&T Dry Loop department directly at 888-800-4095
- Ask to switch to “DSL direct”
- If they give you a hassle, say it’s a retention offer
Our source this will not work for the Bellsouth region. This tip is untested, but sounds worth the shot.
UPDATE: Reader writes that the speeds are Express 1.5/128-384, Pro 3.0/384-512.
UPDATE: Another AT&T rep writes, “DSL Direct IS available in the BellSouth region (sort of). It is currently only a Save tactic, but it will be offered as a product starting in November, due to the fact that it was part of the FCC’s requirements for approving AT&T-BellSouth deal…to my knowledge, AT&T does not throttle BT traffic in the BellSouth region.”
(Photo: Travis Hornung)
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I live in San Francisco and had AT&T High Speed, placed the order on 12/24/07 for $23.99 dry loop service. What a joke. They screwed up my order and so didn’t place it (after telling me it’d take two business days to get done). The originally scheduled downtime happened (on 12/31) but the uptime sure hasn’t yet. It was planned for 1/2 but on 1/3 I checked and found out that the “order hadn’t been placed”. WTF?
Currently no department wants to take responsibility to get this done, even though someone there screwed up the order.
They first told me it’d take 2 business days, now they’re saying 5 biz days from the date of the “fixed” order and that “Dry Loop cases don’t have escalations because they are not a priority.
Customer service reps are sweet but ineffective – if AT&T wants to keep its techier clients they need to get with the times. This is 2008 and Silicon Valley – play nice before the Google gets in on your turf.
Just to update everyone on AT&T dry loop pricing for central California:
Express – $29
Pro – $34
Elite – $39
Sorry I neglected to ask about speeds. Hope this info helps everyone!
When you call they will throw every sales pitch in the book to deter you from signing up for the dry loop. They got me, but it’s not bad I got them to give me land line with express DSL for about $30. They did say that if you want to sign up for dry loop you can do so without signing a contract.
I live in Indiana, and here’s the scam-like experience I had with AT&T when I tried to get their stand-alone DSL direct (dry loop) on May 2, 2008.
After being on hold for a about 10 minutes to speak to a disconnection agent, I explain to the agent that I want to cancel my phone service and retain my DSL only.
First, the agent tries to persuade me that I should not cancel my phone service. Then she tries to confuse me with their phone jargon, and says “So, just to verify, what you want is a dry loop, right?” And I’m like “What?”. She repeats her jargon. And I say “What’s a dry loop? What I want it to cancel my phone service and have only DSL”. So she tell me in most casual tone (as if I’m the stupidest person and everybody in the world knows what a dry loop is) that they call that a dry loop, and I’m like “Well, I don’t speak phone jargon, but yes, based on what I told you, that’s what I want.”
So after messing up my address twice, she puts me on hold and returns to tell me that I can’t get the dry loop at my address, which I suspect is not true since I had seen it available when I searched for DSL direct on the AT&T website earlier that day.
So then she tells me that she can remove all features on my phone to bring my bill down, and that she can offer me two options for my DSL:
1. boost me up one level on my DSL speed for the same price as I was paying (give me Pro for the price of Express), or
2. give me a $10 rebate for 6 months on the Express.
I tell her I want option 2, and then, just as she’s about to enter that on her computer, she tell me that if I
choose option 2, I have to commit to a one-year contract. Argh!!! So I tell her that it would have been nice for her to give me that info when explaining the two options. I end up choosing option 1, and finalize this phone call ASAP, before I start screaming at her!
So after this terrible experience, I call AT&T today to speak to her supervisor. Unable to speak to anyone in charge, I ask the customer rep to review my account and I ask him to check the availability of the DSL dry loop one last time, only to learn that… stand-alone DSL is indeed available where I live!
This process sounds very much like a scam to me, i.e. a way to confuse, frustrate and misinform customer so much that no one switches to DSL direct. Customers beware!
P.S. Needless to say, I’m calling 888-800-4095 right away!
Reconfirmed today for a new apt in Chicago South Loop! Tried the normal route via ATT site and was told to call, only to get disconnected. Numbers listed worked like a charm!