Try To Get DSL From AT&T, They Dare You
The person who blogs at MichiganTelephone just tried to help his friend sign up for DSL from AT&T last week. Their experience was so full of fail that now his friend doesn't even want to bother trying anymore. Yes, a customer came to AT&T ready to sign up, and AT&T drove him away. Michigan telephone wonders, "Does AT&T have a death wish, or are they really just that incompetent?"
The biggest problem — and this is a telephone company, remember — was that it was almost impossible to reach someone at AT&T who they could hear clearly, and who could actually help them. Were they dialing old phone numbers from out of date phone directories? Nope. They were dialing the number AT&T gives out in the television spot.
The first thing we did was to call the number that is advertised on the AT&T commercials for $19.95 DSL. That, apparently, is your ticket into the seven circles of telephone hell. If I'd been playing a drinking game, taking a drink every time we heard the phrase "your call is important to us", I would not be drunk – I'd likely be quite dead. We heard it from female voices, male voices, and disembodied voices that sounded like they were continents away. I'd guess we were transferred at least half a dozen times, sometimes by voice response systems that didn't even wait for a response and just seemed to randomly transfer the call. The last time we were transferred, it was by some guy with a distinct accent - it sort of sounded Indian, but by that time the quality of the connection was so poor it was hard to tell - who told us that if we got cut off, we could call the AT&T DSL department directly on 877-722-9337 (my friend repeated the number back TWICE to make sure he'd heard it right, and I copied it down also. That number may have belonged to AT&T at one time, but now it apparently belongs to an "enhanced" directory service (that has a web site at http://www.callingten.com/). When their recording first answers, it almost sounds like you are being charged $4.95 (or some amount, it was hard to hear) for the call (I think you actually have to call a different number for that to happen, but it wasn't really all that clear).
As we noted yesterday, Verizon is currently offering naked DSL for $20 a month with a free router and a one-year commitment. If you have the choice and you're in the market for DSL, you might be able to save yourself a lot of headaches by avoiding AT&T entirely.
"It's no wonder some people hate AT&T" [MichiganTelephone]
(Photo: rèi)
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Comments:
"...so full of fail..."?
Please. "Fail" is a verb -- not a noun. I've never been a grammar nazi in any of my comments here (check my posts if you dare), but this is really annoying. If I want to read high school grade commentary, I'll go to digg.
@jokono: oh noes! I can haz fail in mah post? kthxbai
@Chris Walters: Please, Chris, this is a Serious, Respectable Website. If your funny one liners are not completely above Grammar Reproach, how is anyone going to take you seriously?
AT&T is still just SBC with a new name, and to prove it, their DSL number is still 1-877-SBC-DSL5, which it has been since DSL was invented or something.
The number they gave you starts out 877-SBC- but goes wrong somewhere. It should have been 3755.
Before I retired, I was an IT/Telecommunications manager for a mid-sized company. I had one person in my telecom department who's only job was to audit our telco bills. They were never correct. I could attribute it to incompetence, but the errors ALWAYS were in the telco's favor. Personally, I think they are all crooks and thieves!
The "full of fail" thing really is truly groan-inducing.
I have AT&T DSL and can say that AT&T is actually doing this guy a favor by not letting him sign up. Run! Run far, far away!
I've been trying to get DSL from Verizon for years. I live in the more densely populated area of my "city", and one of the more affluent ones too, and they simply seem to have no interest in rolling out DSL past where they dropped it like 20 years ago, or whenever they first put it in. Zero expansion.
LOL. No kidding. I had DSL back in 05 & AT&T cut me off for non-payment... after they failed to BILL ME for 3 solid months. I thought they started doing quarterly billing or something, until they called & threatened to take me to court over $168. I feel about the same towards AT&T as I do Apple.
Why don't you just go right to the source for DSL questions?
Least if you can't get DSL they can pretty much tell you why.
@aaronjpoehler: No one can stop the internet, it will be in the Dictionary soon, just accept it. kthxbai
@jokono:
Urban dictionary gives Fail as "either an interjection used when one disapproves of something, or a verb meaning approximately the same thing as the slang form of suck"
I personally take "fail" over "suck" any day since the era that "suck" became a more inappropriate word as it lost its definition related to river geographics (also known as whirlpool) and was redefined as related to certain kinds of adult sexual activities...
I had the same exact problem getting ATT service. It took 3 orders- for which they sent 3 modems to me, to get service. 2 were sold on craigslist.
Then I moved. Call and change the address right? WRONG. You get to have a new account created for you. They retain none of your information. They want your name, social, address and everything all over again. I said forget it. Thanks Jessica, I am glad your access point is still open.
Maybe they're trying to force people to sign up for uVerse? 'twould be strange, since the pricing is about the same.
@Chris Walters: Um, I know THE INTERNET IS SERIOUS BUSINESS but really dude, since that link a couple weeks ago to ED you have been more than a bit too 'lawlzy' in pretty much every article.
Consumer Reports (and, by extension, Consumerist) has a serious reputation and while I enjoy the fun attitude that this site has always had I think you are doing it wrong cuz you just discovered /b/ or something. Cut it out. Please!
@econobiker: Well then, I stand corrected... *cough* by the tome of vernacular fortitude that is Urban Dictionary. ;)
@kabuk1: Just for an annoying counterpoint, I've actually been pretty happy with AT&T's DSL (they even replaced the wireless modem when lightning nailed it), and mine is even cheaper than the one discussed in the post. I signed up via the web, though, which may explain why it was smooth compared to the OP's experience with Actual People.
I have naked AT&T DSL and the actual service is fine. Getting it set up was not - since it's naked, they treat it like regular DSL and simply 'turn it on' there at HQ. Then, when it doesn't work at your location, they have to send a tech out to find out that the previous tenant's phone service had been physically disconnected and nothing was getting to the modem.
I'm going to be moving fairly soon. I'm not sure who I'll go with for internet again. My best experience was Speakeasy, although they're expensive and if their techs can't get into your phone closet (a concern for apartment dwellers) their actual DSL provider (covad in this area) charges you 300 dollars.
My vote is that they are just incompetent.