UVerse

[Iwant2playNOW]

OK..here is the truth about Uverse...

It is a GREAT value, that's for sure, however dont expect the best picture clarity. I recently switched back to TWC from Uverse because of terrible customer service and some illegal billing activities from ATT.

Basically, ATT's Oklahoma City Billing/call center is being investigated for "double billing" customers....it appears that a few employees there are taking advantage of customers like myself who enrolled in their automatic payment plan.

What happens is they charge your credit card that they have on file for your monthly rate, then bill you again via the US Mail for the same charges again.  They eventually sent me to their collection department when I refused to pay again...then I got the police involved and cancelled service.

They believe the main culprit is a lady by the name of Elizabeth Haus...it is a mess, but they are by far worse thn TWC. I didnt think that was possible, but YES it is...

So, with Uverse, enjoy the less than high quality picture and soon to be increasing rates (big price increase planned for quarter 1 of 2009 I was told).  You should be fine as long as you do not give these thiefs your credit card info...

[TPK]

Basically, ATT's Oklahoma City Billing/call center is being investigated for "double billing" customers....it appears that a few employees there are taking advantage of customers like myself who enrolled in their automatic payment plan.

What happens is they charge your credit card that they have on file for your monthly rate, then bill you again via the US Mail for the same charges again.  They eventually sent me to their collection department when I refused to pay again...then I got the police involved and cancelled service.

Ummm, wow....  Sounds like a billing SNAFU to me....   But I'm scratching my head because its something that should have been easily fixed (I mean before it hit the collections department)...

Are you the only one this happened to, or was this a common thing in Oklahoma City???

[Iwant2playNOW]

All I was told by the local police here who were in contact with the OK fuzz is that they have received other complaints about this and it is being investigated...it was hinted to me that it's an inside job by a couple of bad apple employees.

Regardless, ATT is trying to cover it up and keep it quiet as I am sure they do not want the negative press over this matter.

I dumped ATT UVERSE at home, have had 3 family members ditch them, and pulled their internet / phone service from my work...not huge numbers, but I figure I have yanked around $1000 business from them a month which makes me feel some-what better.

And as for the HD quality questions, UVERSE is by far the worse, though they offer the most channels for the money (if you are not getting ripped off).

Again, if you go with ATT, do NOT sign up for their auto pay service and you will be fine.

[gparris]

Hey, Paul S....what is going on with your new U-Verse installation and experience?

-After all, you are the one that started this thread!:huh?:

[SVD]

Hey all.

Had a gal come to the door last night trying hard to pressure me into switching over from TWC to the Uverse.  She was going to give me what seemed to be alot more for even less money, provided I sign up last night in order to waive the $95 install fee.

Currently, I have four TV's with one HD DVR thru TWC,  ATT DSL line, and ATT phone with unlimited long distance for about $150 / month with my ~25% discount on TWC coming through my part time employment at Colders.  I also have HBO.

She was going to offer 1 HD DVR, and three other STB's., internet (maybe faster?), and digital phone for $140, going up to $150 after a year, provided I sign up on the spot.

First of all, I don't like to make snap decisions, and my wife is alergic to change.  (Got a new computer with a new OS recently, and I'm still paying the price because of software upgrades not looking and acting the same as everything we had under XP)

I would lover to see a list of plusses and minuses pitting TWC against Uverse prior to making the switch, so I can further educate my wife.  I'd love to jump over, but I'm not sure it's the best decision right now, as TWC is working just fine (knock on wood)

I do like the idea of not having to use the scrolling menu guide on channel 2 on all the other TV's in my house.  I also think I'd benefit from the whole home DVR functionality.  More HD channels certainly don't hurt, and scheduling DVR from any computer sounds nice as well.

What I'm not sure of is picture quality of HD, user interface with the remote and menus on the HD DVR, on demand type features I've grown accustomed to having with TWC, and HD size / capacity in relation to the 8300HDC (we're usually struggling to keep the current box below 90%, and we don't record HD stuff)

Any non-biased, non-fanboy input, or links would be appreciated at this point.

I told the gal that if ATT really wanted to bring me over, then I was sure I'd be able to persuade them to offer me the same deal without having to sign up with her "on the spot".  I was really unimpressed with the sales tactic.

Thanks!

[klwillis45]

Check their website. I know when I attempted to get Uverse the web deals were better than anything I was mailed or the door to door people had.

[TPK]

First of all, any sales person that comes to your house and uses those kinds of pressure tactics does not deserve whatever commmission they would get by getting you to sign up...  Pressure tactics like that deserve a door slammed in the face, that is all...  I am quite surprised that AT&T would condone it, and if it were me I would actually go out of my way to report the sales call to AT&T and let them know how upset I was (and who knows, maybe theyll give you a better deal because of it)...

Now that the rant is out of the way, there is no way that AT&T would actually charge anyone wanting to switch a $100 installation fee (that would be suicidal)...  Usually they say that they "normally" charge the fee, but then either waive it or charge it to you but give it back to you as a payment coupon or a check or something...  This makes it look like they are giving you something when they are actually giving you nothing...  If you got on the phone with a sales rep and was going to sign up and made like the $100 fee was going to be the deal breaker, I would bet you the $100 that they will end up waiving it...

ITs hard for me to say, since I am not sure exactly what they are offering for the $140, but my guess is that if you have a 25% discount off of TWC you are probably better off sticking with TWC (at least when it comes to price)...

I guess I'm sort of curious why you would have a AT&T DSL line and phone service when you are getting a discount for TWC...  Even if the discount doesnt apply to those services and just applies to television, wouldn't the bundling discounts make the overall cost a bit less if you went with TWC for all of that stuff??

Chances are for the $140 the internet she was offering would not have been faster...   AT&T has 5 tiers of internet service (their literature shows 4, but there is a 5th tier called MAX which costs $55/mo) for their u-verse product and the lowest tier is barely faster than dial-up (768/384 for $15/mo)..  My guess if she didnt mention the speed of the internet in her sales pitch, that is the one they were going to give you...

I have had U-verse for a year and a half now, and I am (for the most part) happy with it....

When I first got it, I was disappointed with the picture quality on most of the HD channels, but since then either the picture quality has gotten better, or I have just gotten used to the degraded picture quality (its hard for me to say)...  U-verse certainly has a lot more HD channels than TWC, and they are apparantly adding 30 more HD channels next month...   Since all I ever watch is HD programming, this makes the service (for me) a lot more worthwhile than TWC...

I don't believe that the pricing is THAT much better than TWC (which is why I think you are better off with your TWC discount)...  If anything I would say that it is 'slightly' better...  But with the wider HD selection and the extra features (whole home DVR, ability to program your DVR over the internet, etc..) make it a better value than TWC, which is why I will stick with it (for now)...

U-verse only gives you one STB, and charges an extra $5/mo for each additional STB, so the 3 extra STBs the sales rep would have sold you would have been an extra $15/mo (which SHOULD have been reflected in the price she quoted you, but who knows)..

Did the sales rep say which TV tier you would have gotten for that price? (U-200, U-300, etc..) ??

With the information, its hard for me to say for sure, but I have a suspicion you are better off sticking with TWC (because of your discount)....  However, if you really really want more HD channels (as I do) then your choices are limited and you should swtich to U-verse or the dish...

Supposedly TWC is going to be adding more HD channels, but they have been promising that for years and I just don't believe them anymore...

[SVD]

Thanks for the responses!  

I currently have the middle of the 5 tiers for the internet through ATT, and it's pretty darn fast.  I don't go with the bundling service through TWC because my wife doesn't like the idea of a digital phone.

She was going to offer some 200 channel package.  

I think I'll probably just stay with what I have currently.

[cjucoder]

provided I sign up last night

I wish someone would come to my door with that offer.  No one will, because I don't have Uverse available in my area yet.  But, it would be so much fun to BLAST anyone with that ridiculous and insulting sales tactic.  Obviously it won't hold up to scrutiny if you are not allowed to scrutinize it.  

To AT&T: Very, Very LOW.