I had the same problem with Verizon. AT&T and its children still all think they're monopolies...

Most things with AT&T are more of a hassle than they are worth. I had a similar issue with a DSL cancellation, I never activated it (because it would never work at my apartment) and when I mailed it back to them I was still getting billed for almost 3 months. I finally had to call and read them the UPS tracking number over the phone, informing them that they did indeed receive my equipment back and that it was canceled before that date.

I am considering switching to naked DSL, since I don't use my landline enough to justify spending $35/month on it. I figured it would be a hassle to explain what I want to their customer service people, and now I am scared.

AT&T IS a monopoly that nothing is being done about unfortunately. I have had many run in's with AT&T over the iPhone and 3G. Their service is beyond pathetic, price is exorbitant, and I usually will avoid them at all costs. They are not worth the headache. Who ever coined "Skynet" for AT&T was spot on.

I looked into an ATT dry loop DSL but price was pretty much the same as a naked line + DSL. Dry loop elite = $45/mo. DSL elite = $35/mo + naked line $10/mo. Plus, I have two kids so I figured that having real 911 service was worth keeping the landline.

@Wes_Sabi: You do know that if you plug in your phone to any inactive phone line, it'll still call 911. You don't have to pay for service for that.

I tried to get dry loop DSL when I moved into my apartment. I definitely spent several hours on the phone with them trying to get my service to work. As school was about to start, I couldn't take it anymore, canceled the order, and went to the Time Warner office to establish cable service.

In about 30 minutes (there was a line), I walked out with a modem in my hand, drove home, and plugged it in. I was on the net after a 10-minute phone call.

@pb5000: I had the same problem with it not working in my apartment. I cancelled and returned my equipment and figured that was it. Nope. They turned my account over to collections apparently as soon as I cancelled. I ended up having to send the UPS tracking number to Executive Customer Service after fighting them for months and dealing with two different collection agencies. A completely frustrating experience from beginning to end.

We've had dry-loop via Verizon since December. Aside from some slowdown issues (usually only happens when me and my husband are both playing World of Warcraft while downloading in the background) we've had no issues. They even knew what I wanted when I asked for dry-loop DSL.

One thing you can try is to get a meter rate phone line which costs < $10 a month including taxes and fees. Not only will you have the advantage of a land line for emergency calls, ATT will probably loose money installing it for you too :). If you have a cell phone with them, a wired line will also qualify you for UVerse giving you free calls to all ATT phone numbers including land lines.

I had a ton of problems both getting and cancelling my dry loop DSL. From what I could tell, they have a whole separate CS department for dry loop, with no external number, so you have to get lucky enough to get a rep who is aware of dry loop and will forward you over to the correct department. Of course, I cancelled mine April '08, so I'm not too sure if anything's changed since then.

I tried to sign up for dry loop with ATT. 3 times I called and was told that they don't offer DSL AT ALL for my area, and that I would have to pay for Verizon FIOS.

I called Time Warner and got cable internet, no phone required.

Went through nearly exactly the same thing when I tried to get AT&T to kill my dry loop circuit a couple of years ago. Took FOREVER to get them to close the account.

So have we "officially" established that this latest version of AT&T is such a large and disjointed series of corporations that getting lost in their system is almost common place? This article and the one from last week would indicate, "yes".

i wouldn't do it, it's way too much hassle

Someone at just read this and thought "Mission Accomplished."

Another good tip is RECORD ALL PHONECALLS when talking to anyone about billing issues, they are doing it to you, it's good to have some evidence of what they said.

@chiieddy: that does not work in every state. It's up to the states to require that and if the phone company wants to do it without being required to. in Ohio ATT does NOT do that and is NOT required to. only VZ does it and they do it willingly only because they allow you to sign up on the dead line as well.

@Joseph Blake: Those poor, poor corporations! I feel so bad now.

I have DSL with ATT even though I do not have a land line. I have had no problems ordering it getting it installed or using it. Even when the modem had to be replaced last week no problem. Beware when the install tech tells you he is going to make sure everything workes before he leave, there is a 210 dollor charge for that and the install tech does not warn you that there will be a charge. After talking to several reps including the disconnect department who old me they would cancel the charge if i did not cancel my service my DSL was disconnected for not paying the bill. I had to do and EECB which resolved the billing problem within a hour of email the CEO and 2 vice presidents of ATT.

Try getting as much info from the rep like the ticket number, their agent ID and the date and time. If you have that then you will have no problems.

ATT loves creating tickets for any reason you call so make sure you get it.

@chiieddy: Only in some areas. I have had inactive phone services in Michigan and Texas in the past few years and there is no dial tone and not even any voltage on the phone line.

Oh great. I have dry loop DSL w/ ATT. I've had problems convincing them that I am indeed a customer before. If you get their automated system and try to punch in your "phone number" (which is actually my account number and starts with 0), it acts like the number doesn't exist because it's not an actual phone number.
I'll make sure to get the Agent ID and other info when I call to cancel this fall. Ugh.

@chiieddy: That is not always true. Not all phone companies do "soft disconnects" on all lines, if the line isn't physically connected to the switching system they can't do the "911-only" thing. Mobile carriers will connect calls to 911 from inactive mobile phones, assuming it's a digital phone that can still get a signal.

@Joseph Blake: Didn't they merge with both those companies? And since you are apparently not a stockholder/executive of AT&T, your corporophilia warrants therapy.

@Joseph Blake:

I think they run a great blog, and one that reports facts, not bashes. I am so tired of people bashing on The Consumerist, Giz, and io9 for such small things when they are still conveying the story very well. Can we get a disemvowel on stuff like this?

@Joseph Blake: at SOME point in the past SOME part of AT&T merged with cingular because i had a prepaid cell phone from AT&T.

and then i started getting letters from cingular about the switch to their service when the merge happened, then a letter telling me they no longer offered the $10 a month prepaid package and i could pay $40 now, cingular's lowest prepaid amount.

and then when i declined an upgrade in service for a higher price for three times the minutes i ever used a month and requested to be 'grandfathered in' i got a very nasty letter from cingular saying i had 30 days to buy a new phone because mine was too old to service or they were cutting me off.

[been a happy virgin mobile customer ever since]

Honestly, that's why I bought a conversation recording software for my phone. They can never lie to me again.

I moved outside of Time Warners coverage area and chose to go DSL.

DSL Elite Direct was $45/mo plus sales tax (on at least a portion). Would have been 48-49. Required 2 year contract and offered a rebate for installation

Got a Messured Line for 12.95 with tax and added DSL Elite for $35. No contract, and got a $125 rebate since I was "switching" from cable.

I pay less than $52/mo tax and fees included, and get full 911 access (again, Texas doesn't require dialtone on inactive lines as some states).

@Joseph Blake: Actually, Cingular, AT&T Wireless, and Bellsouth were merged, then AT&T acquired all three of them. So yes, AT&T merged with Cingular (as well as Bellsouth). I worked there when all this chaos was happening.

If you're gonna' bash a blog that is based on covering corporations, you should probably get your facts about said corporations straight first.

@Joseph Blake:

Oh nohs! Someone made an error on the interwebs!

Thanks for pointing out the error in such a kind and constructive manner, as your first post on this site.

Now go back to Facebook where you came.

@Dan Seitz:

I had issues with Verizon as well. WORST SERVICE EVER!!!
I had dry loop service and was moving to another city with verizon service...after setting up the cancel date and the new install date for 2 months later (when we were closing on both the old house and new) they cut our service the next day and set it up at our new address, even though we didn't live there yet.

They refused to set my service right at my then current house, because, as the manager stated, they dont make enough off my extra two months of service to make up the cost of sending a tech to get it working again.

They then sent a bill to me for the house I did not even own yet...Another nightmare ensued, because they wouldn't disconnect it unless i was there to meet with a rep, which I couldnt do, because I didn't live there. Yadda yadda yadda...They now lost me as a customer forever because of their incompetence.

@Joseph Blake: Just so ya know...

AT&T and Cingular did merge, or at least *they* think they did. If you are going to post on a blog being all uppity about it's content, you might want to check that you are correct in the first place.

[www.att.com]

@ponycyndi: Why wouldn't you get the Fios if you had that option? It's wonderful so far.

@Phillip Guyton Jr.: in some jurisdictions this is not legal or there are very strict rules you have to follow if you are planning to use it legally. Be VERY careful if you try this, know your local laws and the laws of the area you are calling.

@Joseph Blake: another facebooker gets PWNED

We had AT&T naked DSL for less than a year. In that time we had to request a replacement modem because the first one died and they changed our account number. They managed to credit our payment to the discontinued account number and then tried to charge us a late fee on the new account number. And there's virtually no way to get through to customer service on the phone because it doesn't accept your "account number" because it wants your phone number.

@Joseph Blake: Maybe you can explain to me why my Cingular wireless accounts are all AT&T now? Strange, huh?

@AD8BC: I'm sure that's true. But it sounds like that phone line was physically disconnected by the phone company. But your phone line has to be physically connected if you have DSL, which is the situation we're dealing with here.

@Phillip Guyton Jr.:
Calif. I believe both parties are required be notified in order to record calls. Calling HP Tech support for a LCD screen bought broken on a laptop, I was getting no-where, They were recording, so I notified them I was recording as well. The tech told me he was not able to help me as long as I was recording, I pointed out that they told me they were recording, that was the end of the conversation. Every time I called back, they would disconnect after telling me they would no talk to me if I was recording them. I wonder if their notice that the call is being recorded/monitored is enough for me to record legally, without my having to give notice (just make sure I record that notice from them, that they know they are being recorded?)

Question for other dry loopers: despite lack of actual land line, can other land lines interfere with the signal? I've had amazing AT&T dsl service for a few years, but in the last several months it will simply go out for 10-30 minutes at a time during the day. It's especially bad on traditional high call volume days, like Christmas. I've tried to solve this with a tech rep, but they can never find any interference (I've also tried a filter). Just curious...

@Joseph Blake: If you're going to be a complete douche, I'm sure Meg will be happy to refund your membership fee and you can go somewhere else and bitch like a little girl.

@Brianne Gibson: they accept my cell number...also, a rep can find the phone number assigned to your dsl line.

@Joseph Blake: Then why did my husband's Cingular cell phone service become AT&T?

@cinnarose: in my neighborhood a landline now costs around $60/mo!

@cinnarose: I dunno, if I could save $35 each month, I would give it a shot. Call and ask for info, like "Is it possible to switch my service to dry-loop DSL? How much does it cost? How much would I save each month? Will the speed the same as I get now?" and such. Estimate your CSR's knowledge and IQ by the responses. On the ball = win, dim bulb = kthxbye.

Also, I naively assume that the nightmare stories that end up on Consumerist are (knock on wood) proportionately rare. There are dozens (or hundreds?) of unnoticed times the system more or less works properly, for each time a customer like Brent gets wrapped around the axle.

The same thing happened to me; however, I also lost the $50 I spent on the returned modem. I canceled within 30 days, an AT&T rep said I was clear, yet somehow my account was sent to collections.

I've also had issues getting through AT&T's automated phone systems when I don't have a real phone number.

My advice to your readers: Don't purchase the dry loop service.

Too late...

I don't understand why companies insist on screwing things up at the end. I had the same problem with Charter.

@cinnarose: We have AT&T basic phone service for $14/month. It can be done.