AT&T Uverse Review: It’s better than cable
Ordering
If you've used Charter, Time Warner, Adelphia, etc. - you know what we are talking about. Our latest install order is with AT&T Uverse.
First of all, this review is not complete as we're still attempting to order the service. It is available in are area - via the website - uverse.att.com
While the online ordering seems to be the quickest route - we thought we would take the extra time to order the service by phone to ensure it is done right.
However, when we called - we were told they do not accept order by phone - you HAVE to use their website. This seemed odd considering the package we wanted (U100), when listed on the website advises to call AT&T for pricing. I informed the AT&T service representative of this and she said she still could not help me. Yikes - we're not sure if we are talking with Time Warner or AT&T at this point - they may share calling centers.
Well back to the website - this time we decided to purchase the U200, because the U100 package isn't available (their system works!).
We filled out the online forms for phone number, current address information and previous addresses - and social security number (for credit checking purposes). After which we proceeded to verify the order, after clicking next the Uverse order site advised the order could not be completed on-line at this time. However, they gave free coupon code "EXTRAGIFT" to use when attempting the ordering process again. There is an option to save the order progress - we save it.
After waiting a few minutes, we attempt to login again - it works - our order recovered. We verify the U200 is still selected and see they have a spot open for Coupon Codes. After typing it in and updating the billing - the system determines this coupon code is only valid for U300 and above orders. It goes ahead and erases my previous order and replaces it with the U300. Wow, that is frustrating.
At this time - we've returned to the AT&T Uverse homepage again - clicked on retrieved existing order, and logged in. It appears to have recovered the order with the discounts and cash back offers.
After verifying the mailing address again - the website says its unavailable again.
And that AT&T Sorry message provides little comfort considering IT DOES NOT WORK WITH U200!!!
We are unable to process your order online at this time. Please call us at 1-877-252-1717 between 8AM and 10PM EST, Monday through Friday. Mention coupon EXTRAGIFT to receive an additional $25 cash back on your U200, U300 or U400 TV order for a total of $324 in savings. |
Well perhaps better luck tomorrow - we are still certain this is better than Timer Warner... Maybe.
:: Update :: Service Ordered Successfully via the website
A final attempt at the website ended up being a success. While we did not bother with the EXTRAGIFT coupon code, the almost original order(see above) for the U200 went through - delivery scheduled for the weekend in the morning.
:: Update :: Install Completed
While we had ordered the service window, 8AM-10AM, apparently AT&T doesn't mind resorting to the Time Warner 6 hour window. After AT&T's install team did not show up a call placed to AT&T determined they did not know where the install techs were. A single technician did show up unannounced at Noon. And work began.
The first tech started on the wiring and a second tech arrived to assist. We didn't feel the need to monitor these guys as we were sure they are familiar with the install process. However, when they found the area they wanted to run the cable - rather than ask questions they simply started drilling into the decorative brick siding on the house to perform a "House wrap" - which would have been fine if there wasn't a full basement in the house. Yikes!!! Needless to say, we were a little T.O.'d that they just started drilling. While it was too late to stop them from putting holes in nearly new vinyl siding - it still looked like crap and we had them take it down and run it through the basement properly.
Cables being pulled and terminated to two rooms of the house. The living room ended up with the DVR, while the master bedroom got just the receiver. Towards the end of the install a third technician arrived asking "where the party was at?" - okay, maybe not, but it did seem a bit much to have three AT&T vans parked outside are home.
After five hours, yes, five hours - Digital TV and Internet were up and running. For the most part it looks great, there are still some channels that have the washed out look that make even New Releases seem like re-runs. But that appears to be dependent on the TV Station itself.
Features liked so far:
- TV Guide - Faster than Time Warner, similar to Windows Media Center - also video preview while channel surfing
- TV Guide Search - Searching for programs makes it easy to find needles in this 200 channel haystack
- Yahoo Integration - AT&T signs you up with Yahoo to get features on your TV like Flickr, local Weather, and traffic reports
- Web Remote - This is also part of the Yahoo partnership - http://u-versetv.sbc.yahoo.com
- Allows you to setup recordings from the yahoo homepage anywhere you have internet access!
- Yahoo Mobile Remote - allows you to check recordings and search for TV shows - http://us.m.yahoo.com/p/wra
What we didn't like about this (w)hole situation:
- New holes in the side of the house - Seriously - who does this without asking? Answer: AT&T
- 5 hour install?!? - It's a normal time frame for any cable tech, we still don't have to like it though
Features expected in the next 'couple months' - As reported by the AT&T techs (why wouldn't you believe these guys 
)
- 6 simultaneous recordings of standard definition (at this writing - 4 are allowed)
- Ability to play recorded programs from Uverse DVR to any Uverse receiver in the house
- Ability to plug-in a thumbdrive to the USB port on the front of the DVR to copy shows for viewing on other Uverse users' receivers
- A fully functional "Sling-box" style service(Demo available Now) - att.mobitv.com
Final Verdict:
This will be a fun diversion until Verizon's FiOS shows up.
Here's another review http://www.satelliteguys.us/iptv-discussion-forum/87544-review-t-u-verse.html
DSL hangs up. Freezes. My previous SBC DSL rarely does that. U-verse DSL sucks
big time. Called support and they said that there is MS Update that stops or
unable to go to website. WHATEVER. Don’t let your paying customer suffer while
your CEO sits on his anatomy to get what we pay for the services.
UVerse TV freezes for a few seconds too a lot especially when you change channels.
Never had that problem with Comcast and I am paying more for a lousy service.
Will go back to old DSL, lot faster than this so called 54Megabits which is like
56K. Sorry Comcast for leaving you.
This service is horrible. The channels freeze up all the time especially when you change channels. The internet is always locking up and it is not a windows issue. and there telephone service department is never open. I have had the channel lock up on me and not do anything. they had to send a tech out to fix it and that took 3 days. If I were you save your money the grass is not greener on the other side.
What channels are included in the 200?
You can find the channel line-up by zip code at AT&T’s Uverse website https://uma.att.com/general/201-AMSS-X-DMA2-POPUP.html
The guy that came to install our system told us because the age of our house we have old wires and new ones needed to be installed. He called for service and proceeded with the installation on the outside of our house. Short while later another AT&T rep showed up, took one look at our patio and said as long as we had a 50 signal there was no reason to run new lines. Original installer said (he just doesn’t want to have to trench under the patio or second option would be to cut the patio to run the new lines). Since we have a crawlspace the installer had to go under the house. Did I mentin the fact that he dropped his tools on our new hardwood floors and then proceeded to drag the rest of his gear across the floor? Thanks for that. So after we put down throw rugs, just in case, he proceeded to enter the crawlspace. “You wouldn’t happen to have a flashlight I could borrow? Would you?” Now I would think AT&T would supply their techs with ALL the equipment needed to do the install, but that’s just me. Now the room where the TV is located is an addition on the house. There is some access to where the wires needed to be run. The tech couldn’t figure out where or how to run the new wires and asked if it would be alright to pull up a bit of the carpet and drill a new hole down into the crawlspace. Are you kidding me??? At this point he’s been at our house about two hours already.
Now I know when I called to set up the installation the AT&T rep did tell me the average install time was 4-5 hours. I guess that’s because the installers don’t know what the heck they are doing.
Five hours later and we are ready to watch the new system. Seems they failed to tell us about the volume problems. With the volume up all the way we still can’t hear very well. Called customer service, Opps. too late they are closed already. Guess we’ll have to wait until Monday now. Called first thing on Monday and was told “Yes, we have had some people complain about the volume problems. AT&T is working on it. There seems to be a problem with the program from Microsoft.” Nice, point the problem in another direction. “How is the system wired?” Is this guy for real?? I explaine that their AT&T tech installed it and since they did not leave any installation instructions I couldn’t verify if the unit was wired correctly. “We can send a tech out and switch the box, sometimes that helps.” Great, I can have someone out tomorrow between 12 – 2? Hello??? some people do work for a living? Fine Wednesday between 4 – 6PM. New tech was there at 4 on the dot. Nice guy, came right out and told us. It’s not the box at all and changing it out isn’t going to help. It’s just that some channels broadcast in analog and others in digital. He wasn’t sure if the 2009 regulation that all TV’s be digital will correct this, but at least he was honest. More than I can say for the rep I spoke to when I first decided to switch from Dish to Uverse. He suggested hooking this up to the receiver at least that way we could adjust the volume to a level that is audible.
Also had the wireless modem for the internet installed. I can’t even begin to explaine how slow this is, how many times it locks up, kicks me off. Now my system is old but with the old DSL I never had these problems.
Thinking about switching everything back. Never thought I would become so frustrated as I have with AT&T. Now I just want to get rid of them for everything, phone, internet, uverse. What a pain it’s been.
Yes surfing around the web I see many people with the uverse picture-freeze problem. I have the problem too, and so far I have not seen any clear cut solution. Seems to me that the Uverse is Not Ready For Primtime technology.
We have 3 boxes/TVs attached to uverse. I notice the problem of live freezing happens sporadically on all the Tvs, but it was especially bad the other day on 1 box where once it froze you had to reboot the modem (if that’s what it is) to fix, and that would take like 5 minutes — not convenient. However after a call to AT&T it’s now a little better. On my other boxes, the freezing on live TV is usually fixed by switching channels and then back again.
Another issue we had was cabling on 1 TV. When using Component connection, we would get NO SIGNAL message flashing on sporadically (every minute or so). When I switched then to HDMI cable, the defect changed: because you’d get no signial on initial start of the TV, and after switching from HDMI1 to HDMI2 several times it would finally “lock in” and then fine during the whole viewing session. So all in all that is satsifactory, but the issues of freezing are quite disappointing and hope AT&T can improve this technology in the future!
Certainly it’s good to have an alternative to Comcast, where, in the Chicago area, they had a galling habit of REMOVING channels from my lineup without even telling me (“you have to upgrade to a higher service level to get THAT channel”!). So I detested the Comcast but at least the signal WOULD come in consistently. … U-reversed in Chi-town
I’ve had AT&T U-Verse for a month now and its performed to my expectations. HD, phone and internet are all solid. I’d recommend the service to anybody that has good signal strength to their house. The quality of the install (from a networking standpoint) will effect the quality of your service. I’ve had 2 HD TV’s, xbox live and a wireless laptop all going at once with no problems.
I switched to UVerse from DirecTV. Big mistake. I use a DVD recorder to make DVDs of football games, etc. for my own personal use. For about a month, I was able to record onto the UVerse DVR and then to the DVD recorder. Now I get an error message from my DVD recorder that says the content is “copyrighted and unrecordable.” I called Panasonic and was told the problem was UVerse has a signal that they have added to their broadcasts that causes the DVD to give that error message. I called Uverse and was told “too bad” there is nothing they can (or will) do about it. Now I have a DVR full of games and apparently no way to get them. Any ideas?
i have the at&t u-verse tv, phone, internet package. i had problems with the tv freezing and had to go through the phone troubleshooting process. twice. it turned out that my time (est), poss. the daylight savings time, was not set correctly. seems to work great now.
We decided to switch over to the AT&T Uverse when we first heard about it, mainly because of our customer service experiences with our current satalite service. I should have written a review for them at that time, it would have served better. Anyway, the only issues we had with At&T Uverse was the fact that we gave them permission to go through our yard to do the install of one of their main box? Do not know what they call it, but its thebig box like the electrical and telephone companies have. Thinking that since this new service was physically coming right out of our backyard, we made an appointment to sign up. A service tech came over, sold us on the program, did the signing of the contract, he made his call to get it started then was told it was not available for our house yet……What????? So he left, we kept checking back with him over the next couple of week and did eventually get it going. We have a full basement, they installed through there, my husband was home, I didnt hear of any complaints while they worked or when they were finished and all works great!!! I have had to call once for a wireless connection issue with my ipod, and that tech went out of his way to get me going on my new toy. I have NO Complaints with AT&T Uverse and think it is a good service with a reasonable cost.
Just got uverse a few days ago.
2HD TV’S 2STANDARD TV’S 3PC’S & wifi printer ‘
Picture is great and I have no problems with any freezing up or internet lag. Still waiting to get my phone changed over due to a problem with order. The fact that I was told only one dvr box really sucks, because that box is the only one that can pause and rewind live TV. Also no time or channel display on the box is a set back. And just a quick note there is no slo-mo on the standard remote.
Larry I was told about a year ago with a lot of stuff going digital that it will be easier to protect programs from being recorded. HDMI and DVI cables also helps protect against recording
AT&T Uverse installation had some network problems on the first try. A very good Uverse installer ran most of the wiring initially, so when the network probelms were taken care of, the rest of the install took only a few minutes and it all works great. Love the service, the picture colors really pop out. No complaints and it all works as good or better than advertised.
I am having uverse come out tommorow how long is the process. I am with comcast now and I am switching due to price. I am getting 3 dvr boxes and internet hucked up. Another question is I live in a condo that I rent are they puting holes in the walls I have read blogs stating that they drill in the wall.
Thanks
Rachel
@Rachel – Most customers and AT&T seem to agree with 4-5 hour average install. Because you are in a Condo and have had previous service (Comcast) already installed. AT&T uverse will more than likely just plug into your coax connections and split your TV throughout the house. The receivers can take either coaxial or ethernet connections. More than likely, AT&T will not be putting holes in your condo – unless you ask them to put cable into a room it where there is no cable tv connection. Keep in mind that if you ordered 3 “DVRs”, only one will be able to schedule recordings and erase old shows manually. The others will only be able to view the content on the main DVR(along with the usual On-Demand items).
I have the ATT uverse and the install was fast. As always I supervise and am integral with the installation of stuff in my house. The guy had me up and running in about 2 hours. My house is 12 years old and I have no problems with hang … Although the dish let me copy programs from DVR , the attuverse will not. if i record live before i record it to the dvr it will let me. The shows are Copy protected on the DVR . i plan on using the grex device to put inline with the dvr… they have a list of dvd recorders which are compatble with it .. other than there are a couple of channel we dont get and some vizio remote issues . its ok .. its better than comcast and the dvr function is better than dish .. with the dish we were always messing with the start and end of the shows and never got it to work …
Folks,
Iam very sorry to say but Uverse sucks, about 20 techs paid a visit and none of them figured out why the rg(router) re-sets thereby dropping the TV, Internet and phone. Several occassions had to put in long hours while working from home due to frequent disconnects. One thing I do not have a clue is that where lies the problem, have been a AT&T customer for the last 8 year using their telephone and DSL service without any problems. Every tech uncovers the mistakes of the other, None of the techs seem to know what they are doing any questions I ask they have to call tier2 to answer even on some occassions they could not get the answer. Now sicne they have not only tampered with the telephone lines within the house but diturbed all the insulation in the attic and even my 5 year old is disgusted and points out they are dumb.
Any clues which directions I should go before I switch want AT&T to restore the back the telephone lines in the house or else think of filing a lawsuit I know cannot win against the big wigs but least I want my stuff to be resored to what it was before going for Uverse.
Ok, my situation is a little different, but ATT just sucks all around. Ok, I installed phone and internet in an apartment in mid december. Me and my wife decided to downgrade from a 2 bdr to a one bdr Feb 10. I called ATT and asked them to transfer my service to the new apartment (in same complex). My phone was transferred within 2 business days, but my DSL light failed to light up on my modem. I called them and they said they would send out a tech to look at it. 2 days roll by, noone shows up. I call them again. They say that they dont physically need to come out and hook up my DSL, that they can flip a switch, but it would require 2 business days again (wed) so it would be ready by friday. Friday rolls around, Still no DSL light, I call them yet again. They reply saying that the DSL in the old apartment hasn’t been disconnected yet, but they would be able to have it disconnected and transferred by the following Monday. Monday rolls around, still no DSL light. I call again. They say they have to physically go to old apartment to disconnect DSL line before they can turn mine on. I talk to his supervisor, they offer me a month free and 5 bucks off a month for elite internet package. I call the Head of the Internet services department, feed them a line of crap IE. I own a trucking company and lost 6 grand in past 3 weeks due to not being able to relay Brokered loads to drivers over internet. Mister 300k a year insures me my internet will be hooked up within 2 days. Wed. rolls around, No DSL light. I call them. DSL is finally disconnected from old apartment, but can’t be hooked up to new address til Friday. Finally, today rolls and guess what?????????? No DSL STILL. I called them, They say the reason it hasnt been turned on all along is because I havent paid a 100 dollar deposit…… and if i pay it today, the DSL still wont be available until next tuesday. Hmmm, I paid deposit for DSL when i first got it, no surprise, ATT has no prior record of it. Hmm, in fact last Friday when I called them they said they had documentation of me paying the deposit. Pretty shady if you ask me. Well, if they want to keep me as a customer, they will eat that BS cost and hook up by end of the day or its goodbye for me.
Hope this helps anyone who is thinking about switching from their current provider to At&T. DONT DO IT!!!!!!!!!!
d
wow. that is alot of information. I dont even know if I could do all that. And thank you so much for lettming me in on all the info.
Sorry others have had so many problems, but I have to say so far Unverse has been flawless. Had it installed last week, and while they say 4-6 hours mine only took 3 (would have taken 1/2 hour less if there had not been a technical hitch caused by my own router, which they soon resolved). Did run into a problem signing up online, caused by my having a credit freeze for signing up with one of those credit monitoring companies, so I had to call AT&T and they called the credit monitoring service so I could authorize the credit check. The customer service rep was very helpful and very polite.
Other than those two minor glitches, everything went smooth, and the service so far has been flawless. About the same price I was paying for cable + internet, but I get a lot more for the money from Uverse. If I get the rebates I was promised I will be a 100% satisfied customer, and if the service continues as good as it has been so far I’ll be their customer for years to come.
I’m confused, they can use your existing cable to run Uverse to the tvs? If so, why is everyone talking about drilling holes etc?
Still undecided. $7 a reciever puts them equal with TW. But, to finally have NFL network – hmm.
@jay: AT&T like any other cable installer, will install cable in the rooms you choose. If that room you pick isn’t cable-ready, they will run new cabling to the room through the walls and floors as needed. Thanks for reading!
2 separate bills!!! I recently started my service with att uverse. I got a bill in the mail for $39 then another bill for $152. I paid it to att as the first bill showed… not know there’s a diffrence. Now I’m sitting here with a 300.00 bill with past due charges from att uverse and another paper showing 150.00 credit from att. What kind of bundle is this. And 29 out of the 30 people I talked to said I couldn’t transfer the credit from att to the uverse account. I finally got them to transfer it and now I only owe uverse 190.00. Blah Blah Blah.
You’d think att and att uverse could coordinate better than this, and it drives me crazy how I now have to pay 2 separate people for 1 bundled service. Especially when the 2 separate people are both att.
Oh and did I mention the quote the sales rep gave me when signing up for this service did not include this recurring 40.00 charge from att. I switched to att with intentions of saving money. Now I’m paying more that I was with time warner.
-poor customer service
-lack of comunication between there own company
-lack of comunication to the customer
-Two many seperate people involved in this bundle
I’m going to get my head back on straight and get things started back up with time warner.
At&t u-verse sucks
Had Uverse, phone and internet installed Sunday. Phone and internet working like a charm, no glitches, but then I had dial up, so I probably wouldn’t know the difference if there was a glitch. We had Comcast. I switch ONLY because of the price increase Comcast seems to do every couple months. The box with the DVR was put in our family room with TV, the regular box in upstairs bedroom. The TV with the DVR box hasn’t worked since installation. After about 40 minutes, the TV screen goes black, and then you can’t get it to reload. We’ve tried turning off the TV, unplugging the cord, changing out HDMI cables to component cables – nothing works. Yet the TV upstairs has never had a problem. Have had techs out twice, and they have done everything but change the DVR box. We are very frustrated. Not only that, the remote doesn’t have the ability to surf “favorite” channels. IF you want to surf, you have to surf 482 channels (we have U300). I’m not too happy right now. Another tech is suppose to come out tonight. And lastly, even if we wanted to go back to Comcast, the ATT tech CUT OUR LINE!!! so we’d have to have a new line installed to switch back to Comcast. ARGHHH!!!!
We got Uverse installed last friday – install lasted about 4 hours. 1 Dvr and 3 other receivers, internet and phone. So far everything is working great. Picture quality is excellent. we got the U450 package and the VOD options are endless! Sports package is great as well ( but would love to see the new MLB station and the tennis Channel added). agree with some of the complaints – no time or channel # on the reciever, backing out of a menu is not easy, can’t pause live tv on a non dvr receiver – but really these are only minor complaints. We are very pleased.
good bye Comcast – we are never coming back!
The more companies try to get by with new low paid employees, the more these install problems will happen. Thats the new business fad, pay people as little as possible till they complain and quit and then just replace them.
Just ordered U-Verse. It will be installed this coming Tuesday. I hope I do not run into the issues many people have noted on here.
I have been on the other side of the phone before and I understand how big business is run – but that is no excuse for bad customer service.
Things were easy to get going today over the phone – I just hope AT&T has gotten their act together since last year.
Purchased AT&T U-Verse from a knowledgeable door to door salesperson and have found the service to be nothing more or less than what we were told. Had Time Warner digital TV and Roadrunner prior to the switch. After 2 weeks, here is my impression:
*Better HD picture than Time Warner
*Not as many HD stations included as TW but my total package price including phone service is lower than my TW bill and that was one goal I was trying to accomplish.
*No pixelation!! – in the evening we would completely lose up to 5 or more channels on Time Warner
* Wireless worked out of the box on Windows laptop, iPhone, Linux and Mac desktops
* Channel guide is hard to get used to after so many years with Time Warner but is laid out more logically than TW.
*DVR is fantastic. Records up to 4 at a time and can be managed remotely through U-Verse web site and with iPhone app. Couldn’t do that with TW
*Installer was thorough and did an excellent job. Made one penetration into interior wall. Cleaned up some of TW’s previous cable slop as well. That’s great service.
*Internet not as fast but we selected a 6mbps down; 1mbps up and have actually seen faster downloads than 6mbps. Paid TW for Turbo and never even got close to 10mbps as promised. My bad for not cancelling turbo
*Got a nice Belkin UPS to power U-Verse router. Will keep phone system up during outages
*Was going to use Google Voice to control incoming calls but AT&T’s web-enabled voice service interface is darn near as good and feature rich as Google Voice. Voice mails can be emailed and played back on web
As a former telecom industry IT employee, I bad mouthed AT&T for years but I’ve got to admit, the U-Verse service is a good example of a professionally implemented and managed service. Have made two calls to customer service in two weeks for minor questions about billing and have had both calls answered within 3 minutes and questions completely answered. I haven’t found anything I don’t like about this service yet.
Greg Zenitsky
Lee’s Summit, MO
IT’s amazing to me to see some of the things that people write, ATT does not require deposit for DSl install, Sold it for years never once asked for deposit, Most problems with Uverse are home wiring issues, Over the years how many times has that coax been split, where are all the connections are they tight, ask for a cat5 install, Here are the facts, SD picture Uverse, HD Cable slight advantage due to compression, This will change, DVR Uverse and constantly being upgraded at no charge, Had the service myself for over year with very little problem, Have had the picture freeze a cple times over the year for a second or two, will take that over the snow and pixelation of cable all day. People This is a new service and it is being upgraded all the time. Cable providers will have a hard time keeping up with the innovations to come. Femtocell. Wireless tv connections, I truly beleive that IPTV (uverse ) will eliminate the need for a pc to surf internet and play games in near future. Cable providers are already looking at iptv solutions, what does that tell you.
the biggest issue I have as a new U-verse customer is the 2-stream HD feed. This means that while you can record up to 4 programs at once, only two of them are HD. The bigger issue is for those of you with multiple HD TV’s. We are currently recording an HD show and watching another on the same TV..no problem right, now go upstairs to the other HD TV to learn that you cannot watch another HD channel unless you cancel one of the other feeds…what a crock…..ashamed to admit it but I’m going back to Comcast in Chi-town….stay away from U-verse..it isn’t ready
Sox kept raising our rates. Sometime without announcing – last bill said to expect two more raises.
It took a while for my U-verse system to be installed. There was problem with the outside switching. Since I wasn’t doing the work, I didn’t mind. Had a few problems – my ADT service wasn’t working when the technician left but I called that night and AT&T sent someone out the next morning. It is back online. He also changed out a cable on a little kitchen TV that was pixelating. After he was finished, he sat outside for 15 minutes monitoring the complete service – knocked on the door and said he notice some anomolies and replaced a connection.
It took me a while to dig out all the neat things that are available. I messed up setting my phone answering system but eventually saw it was my mistake and that is now working perfectly.
I had one TV (5 tvs) that was too dark and could not adjust that – no matter what I tried. Ratio aspect, screen adjustments, etc. Called AT&T a second time – someone was out that day (late in the evening) and resolved that problem. All is working quiet well!
I have found that the customer service through all of this has been very nice and cooperative. I have no complaints. The people I talk with on the phone and the people who came to my house have all been great.
People need to remember it is a NEW system – a new way of doing things. And they are resolving some things like the weather channel – couldn’t get local weather on that particular channel but the Weather on Demand now has been added and you can get all the information you could ever want about local weather.
I like being able to sit at the computer and set up everything. I LIKE THIS SYSTEM! And I will recommend it.
I am contemplating switching from DirecTV to U-verse. I would save a substantial amount per month by having my TV/internet combined. I would drop my phone service. (I only use it now so I can upload into my DirecTV HD-DVR’s) Salesman told me that I WOULD BE ABLE TO WATCH MY FOOTBALL GAMES ON SUNDAYS this fall. I didn’t buy it. I understand DirecTV has exclusive rights to NFL Sunday Ticket. He explained something about AT & T cameras being used at the games and that I would be able to watch the games anyway. Anyone know about this??
I have had U-verse for a year (former Direct Tv Customer) and I love it. Had a few hiccups with initial set up (internet would not connect at first) but this was resolved by a super nice- over the phone – tech. From time to time, the receiver a/k/a hub needs to be reset. This will stop the freezing issues/internet connection issues everyone else has mentioned. Do this once a month and you are fine!
The only problem issue I have had so far is that the DVR had to be replaced (just stopped working). Service guy came out the next day after my call to AT &T. Tech switched it out with new receiver- no charge to me! When the same thing happened with Direct TV I went almost two entire weeks with no DVR. Very frustrating! And I had to do the reinstalling/initial setup of the DVR myself with Direct Tv.
The Pluses:
I love the fact I can record 4 shows at once! Love the fact I can replay any show on any receiver! Customer support is always 100% helpful.
I have Elite Internet connection and can download from ITunes hour long TV shows in around 10 minutes! Very efficient and quick.
I highly recommend Uverse!
DISCLAIMER:I only have tried U-verse Internet. I’m paying $45 a month for the 3 meg/1 meg package with static IP addresses and I’m very, very happy with the service. Highly recommended.
Cable-free since 2004!
Hello… I have had ATT&T Uverse for a couple years now and I’m finally happy with it and having no problems, but…… it took me quite a few months after it was installed to get all the glitches resolved! It was always freezing up for hours sometimes… after 6 different visits from 6 different techs (all who said the tech before him apparently didn’t do something right) they finally resolved the glitches! Yey!!! Anyhoo… just wanted to let you alll know if you’re having a problems with freezing, I did learn that the Energy Efficient Light Bulbs interfere with At&t’s cables, so if you or a neighbor is using these bulbs outside or if you are using them inside, it could be causing the problems?? If getting rid of the lights doesn’t resolve the problems, which it didn’t for me, just be sure to stay on At&t’s ass! Call them everyday and have them send out tech after tech if need be until the problem gets resolved… I believe they finally realized the original hook up and installation was not done right and had to do it all over again apparently.. Now I’ve been like a whole year with no freezing up at all! It’s great! But you have to bug the shit out of them to get it fixed! seriously!
Good Luck All!
April
I have had ATT for over a year now and have had nothing but problems with the cable and internet freezing on a daily basis. I have had 5 techs come out to replace routers, outside cable rewire and replaced some faulty box outside. This does not include the one tech that never showed up or even gave a curtocy call-that would have made 6 techs. And thats when I just get so fed up and can actually break down and commit to 30 min or more on the phone with tech support and an entire day to have them send out a tech that will do nothing that helps solve the problem. When I call they are able to pull up the more than 40 errors they have seen and I have yet to receive any credit to compensate me for my time and inconvenience. Their bills keep coming and they expect payment. I want to be clear when I say that on a daily basis I am not able to watch a single 30 min program without the picture freezing several times for minutes at a time. This also freezes the internet as well. It will on occasion freeze for hours on a weekly basis. I cant believe I am not seeing more people voicing this same problem. That would have made me shy away from this service. Can someone please advise on a service that works. Thanks for all-
Jen
I have no problems with my Uverse. I guess it has something to do with the location as well why others encounters such, I don’t know…basicall, I’m satisfied with their service. Uverse High Speed Internet is really impressive.
I have had Uverse since August after being a long time TW customer. I am pretty much a loyal customer, so to get me to change is a challenge. As I am a big NFL fan I was finally ready to switch since TW still did not have the NFL channel and AT&T did. I did not want a dish put on my house so DirecTV was out of the question. All I can say is I wish I had made the change sooner. I have had some minor freezes and I also feel the HD picture quality is probably a little better with TW. But it’s plenty good for my tastes. My wife tapes plenty of shows and loves the fact you can watch from any dvr. We also have voice and the internet. Love the service and also saving money. Can’t ask for more than that.
PS…they just added NFL Redzone channel in HD for $5 a month…..very happy here.
Got tired of the Charter limitations,pixelation and poor service.Switched to U-Verse
a year ago and am quite pleased
Got young Indonesian IT geek for installation and only took a couple of hours(small
apt,one receiver). Great picture quality considering I have a Toshiba HD CRT.
Love that I only pay $30 a month for unlimited calling including long distance.
I am one block from a new ATT box. I heard the distance from these boxes affects internet speed. Have the Elite internet and I don’t know if the sometime slowness
is the system or that I have an old PC. Customer service has been helpful when I
had questions.Have the U450 package so I have tons of stations,especially the NFL Network and all the premium movie channels. May have too many as I always have to keep the channel guide nearby still to find out where is what. Paying about the same I paid w/Charter TV and cable and SBC phone service.And I got free HBO and Cinemax and Showtime as a apartment manager. I don’t know how this compares to FIOS, but very happy as well.
This service is amazing, i’ve had no problems. I was even downloading from 2 computers, watching tv, and playing xbox live all at once, and the only thing i noticed was a very minor lag in the xbox, but everything else was smooth. I love the voice too, caller-id is soo cheap!
I have read reviews posted on this website from July 13, 2008 t0 the most recent October 13, 2009. Earlier postings consitently complain about channels freezing on the TV, but later postings don’t mention the freezing problem. Is the freezing problem resolved?
I currently have Cavalier DSL and telephone service. The service has been very reliable and internet speeds have not been an issue. I switched from ATT to Cavalier because Cavalier did not limit internet speeds. I would have had to pay extra to get the sme speed I am experiencing with Cavalier. Do customers still need to pay extra for higher internet speeds with ATT?
I read comments in some of the ealier postings that say ATT DSL is no good for gamers. I assume there is a problem with bandwidth and speed that makes gaming no good. I play poker online and it seems to consume a lot of bandwitdth. Can the ATT DSL handle the speeds necessary for playing online poker?
I checked out the U-verse website and chatted with a U-verse rep, but it was not obvious how to go about ordering the U-verse service. I also called and talked to a rep. The rep I chatted with told me the sevice was available at my location and the person I spoke to on the phone said the service was not available. The rep I spoke to said she would escalate the issue and get back to me, but I didn’t get any response. My neighbor has U-verse and I previously had ATT DSL, so I think ATT has some training issues with their reps that need to be resolved.
When I had the ATT DSL, I was told the speed was dependent on how close you were to the telephone switch equipment, and how many users were accessing the equipment. I did experience some instances where the speed was degraded and it ussually in the evening. I have not experienced this with Cavalier. Do both Cavalier and ATT use the same telephone switch equipment?
I would like to switch to a U-verse TV, internet, and cellular phone package, because I can same some money, but I really don’t feel like fighting with a bunch of people who are not thoroughly trained to do the install and support.
I would appreciate answeres to my questions, and any comments that could help me to make an informed decision about switching to U-verse.
what is ATT box? does it come with u-verse service & installed in the back of the house? What’s better: Comcast or U-verse?
Can a TV receiver be connected directly to the coax cable which feeds the DVR?
billg…on my system the DVR is connected via ethernet cable, all of the other TVs in the house by coax which is fed by the gateway. You have to have a U-Verse receiver for each TV though regardless of whether they are connected by ethernet or coax.
My wife and I switched from Comcast (who IMO has horrible business practices). Here is what has happened so far:
1. Ordered U-Verse and was given an install date. Told the person I ordered from that we didn’t currently have service from the pole to the house (we have Vonage VOIP that was used via Comcast cable modem). Was told, no problem they have to run fiber from the pole to the house (later found out this isn’t the case…they use dual twisted pair from the pole to the house, about the same as an ethernet cable).
2. Received a confirmation e-mail. It noted that all outlets must be 3 prong outlets, no adapter could be used. I called and cancelled as we have a very old house with two prong outlets in a couple of the locations.
3. Paid an electrician to rewire the outlets that were by the two TVs in question.
4. Reordered U-Verse, reiterated that there was no service from the pole to the house, was told again that fiber would be run (as I mentioned above, not correct).
5. Received an e-mail with an installation date.
6. Install date 11/10 came and went, no tech, no phone call. I called customer service. They said that even though the email said the 10th, it was actually scheduled for 11/11.
7. Technician shows up on 11/11, says there isn’t service from the pole so he can’t install (remember I told the customer service people about this issue twice prior to his arrival).
8. They put service to the house from the pole.
9. The dates get blurry here, but on the third trip the tech couldn’t install because the signal from the newly installed line had too much interference to work with U-Verse (he said it would be fine for simple phone service).
10. The fourth visit, same as the third, signal still to weak to connect U-Verse.
11. Finally, after much yelling and complaining, they sent out a truck to repair the connection from the pole, and sent another tech out on the same day of the fourth visit. This was the fifth visit (keep in mind my wife or myself had to take off 1/2 day from work each of four tries). They finally installed the service on this visit (it took about six hours for him to get everything hooked up).
If you are wondering, they ran twisted pair from the pole to the house and put a new jack on the wall to connect to the U-Verse Gateway. They connected the DVR (in my case it sits right next to the gateway) by ethernet cable. All other three TVs have U-Verse receivers connected via coaxial cable (a lot of our existing coax wiring was used, but they put new ends on and got rid of some old runs that are no longer in use). Other than the gateway, I think the receivers and DVR can be connected EITHER by coax or ethernet cabling (but I am not 100% sure on this issue).
Now the fun part…which is causing a LOT of friction between my wife and myself.
1. We have four TVs, three of which had separate DVRs when we were with Comcast. ONLY the TV connected to the U-Verse DVR (you can only have one per system) can pause or rewind live TV. The other three TVs can watch recorded shows on the DVR with normal DVR pause, rewind, etc… but CANNOT do this while watching live TV. Now my wife is upset because the DVR is on the TV in my office (I offered to switch to one of the two TVs she most commonly watches), and she can’t pause her TV shows to answer the phone without first recording the show (she doesn’t much care for workarounds). This aspect of the system was not explained by AT&T, and furthermore, when a salesperson came by about a week later, not realizing we already had U-Verse, he tried to say this wasn’t the case. My wife brought him in and demonstrated that his sales pitch was misleading at best (he really thought you could pause all TVs, so obviously AT&T has done a poor job of training).
2. HD channels are offered in 720p or 1080i. There is no option for 1080p (should have listened to those Comcast commercials). Not a huge deal to me, but AT&T never told me I wouldn’t be able to get the most of my 1080p TV.
3. Our existing phone number with Vonage still hasn’t been ported to AT&T (they keep giving excuses). They had promised this would happen when the installation occurred. Now they have an excuse for everything and I am paying both AT&T and Vonage for VOIP until they get things figured out. It has been at least a couple of weeks, still not working.
4. Weather channel lacks the local features we got through Comcast (wife is a weather nut, this drives her crazy).
5. Internet has been fantastic…absolutely no complaints. I have the maximum bandwidth in my package 18down/1 or 2 up. When I tested on numerous servers located througout the world I got up to 14.5 down and consistent 1.5 up. Way better than the 4-6 down and 1 up I was getting through Comcast.
On the bright side, AT&T has offered all sorts of credits for the poor installation service and all of our headaches. By the time all is sorted out, I will have received about $600-700 in credits and rebates for installing.
On the dark side, due to all of the headaches, and the issues related to TV noted above, I will be switching our TV service back to Comcast once I have received all promised discounts and rebates. It isn’t worth the $30 or so I will save per month at normal pricing to listen to my wife complain all of the time. I will be keeping Internet and Phone service through U-Verse (assuming they ever get the number ported properly), since the Internet is faster, and I am going to give the benefit of the doubt that the phone service will be at least as good as Vonage. If they don’t get the number ported in the next week, I will only use Internet and will keep Vonage (which should work fine over the AT&T Internet connection).
If you are single or have a small family that rarely watches TV and you don’t need 1080p, it is a good system. If you have a family that watches different programs and records a lot (especially HD), I would stay away from U-Verse until they make significant changes to the way their system functions.