Scot has been patient, but he wants AT&T’s crap out of his house. He was supposed to move his U-Verse service to his new house back in December. A technician came and left a pile of HD receivers and other equipment behind, promising to come back at a later date to finish the installation after a line was run to Scot’s house. The technician stood him up, no appointments were available for another month, and Scot sought refuge in the (comparatively) warm embrace of Comcast.

But $1,000 worth of AT&T equipment has been sitting around his house for three months. Scot doesn’t need it, and doesn’t think it should be his responsibility to haul it to a UPS Store. AT&T doesn’t seem to want it back. A customer service representative told him to throw it in a dumpster for all the company cares, which is idiotic and incredibly wasteful.

Hoping that someone at the company must have some common sense, he sent this letter to CEO Randall Stephenson.

Dear Mr. Stephenson:

This is my third and final attempt to find someone within AT&T U-verse that is willing to use good judgement and display some common sense. My first two attempts resulted in different employees (and their supervisors) suggesting that I discard over $1,000 worth of new, unused AT&T equipment, still in their original boxes.

As a long-time U-verse subscriber, I attempted to get service in my new house. The technician showed up on the appointed day (December 30), but discovered that before he could do work inside, a line needed to be run to the house. He advised that it would occur later that evening and he would be back the following day to finish the installation. Before he left, he asked if he could leave the following equipment at my house:

– 1 Belkin battery backup
– 1 two-line modem
– 4 Motorola HD receivers
– 1 Motorola HD DVR

I agreed with his request. The following day, the technician never showed, nor did I ever receive an explanation as to why he did not show. To my further distress, I was advised the next available opportunity for installation would have been the third week of January. At that point, I took my business elsewhere and had Comcast’s Xfinity installed within a week.

When I recently called AT&T U-verse and informed them that I had this equipment in my house in an attempt to make arrangements for it to be returned, I was informed that I should take it to a UPS Store. Since I never used the equipment, since I never signed for the equipment, since AT&T had no idea that I am even in possession of this equipment, and more importantly, since I already wasted two days in attempting to get service installed, I do not feel inclined to waste any further time by running your equipment to a UPS Store.

I asked that a technician be sent to my house to retrieve your equipment and they said that would not be possible. When I said I was not inclined to take your equipment to a UPS store, they suggested I could do with it as I choose, even putting it the dumpster.

I hope you will agree that discarding this equipment would be incredibly irresponsible and extremely wasteful and make the necessary arrangements so that your equipment can be returned without further aggravation on my behalf.

Well, if Scot’s neighborhood were anything like mine, he could set it out at the curb and it would all mysteriously vanish within fifteen minutes. It’s overly optimistic to assume that anyone from AT&T would show up for the pickup if they couldn’t be bothered to do the installation. Perhaps UPS will do a pickup and take them away.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.