🚀 go-pugleaf

Bruce Esquibel <bje@ripco.com> wrote:

>There was some discussion recently about the Uverse service from AT&T and
>areas where ONLY the internet part of it was available, no phone or
>cable/video service.

>It's just marketing.

>They appear to have re-badged DSL, calling it Uverse. 

Plus higher prices. But if a DSL subscriber changes to Uverse, he needs
new equipment for the same tier price and discounts go away, and he's put
on a different Internet provisioning system. I don't know if the Yahoo
mailbox goes away, not that I use it.

I think the POTS phone line goes away and he's on overpriced VoIP from
then on.

>Because of some changes at Casa del Ripco I'll cover later, I went recently
>back to their website, looking to see if there was a clue if Uverse was
>anywhere near Albany Park. Was somewhat surprised to find out "ITS AVAILABLE
>NOW!!!!".

>Everything was labeled Uverse, but only the "Internet" portion of the
>program was clickable. Selecting that shows the 3 common DSL packages, the
>1.5mb, 3.0 and 6.0mb speeds, along with the same 150GB a month cap, which is
>odd since Uverse customers are supposed to get 250GB a month.

But they weren't offering 6 meg speed tier under DSL, at least not in
my area. They've told me specifically that if I want a higher tier,
they'd reprovision me under Uverse and make me buy a new DSL modem.

>Here at the homestead we had a problem last month, the phone line basically
>died, taking the DSL out. Since me and Melissa sort of depend on the
>connection, the "within 3 days" repair estimate was sort of a pisser.

Assholes. You're a big customer. In olden days, they used to mark the
accounts of big customers for special attention, but that before SBC.

>So I decided to see about getting in bed with the devil and started to check
>Comcast out. At least the "double bundle" services, tv and internet. 

Uh, Bruce, if you don't like calling every quarter to renegotiate your
bill, don't subscribe to Comcast.

btw, make Comcast replace all your inside coax, 'cuz the satellite companies
use cheap shit. Also, Comcast will bitch about pulling two wires to the
room I want the cable modem in and the main tv viewing room, but it costs
them a minor amount in additional material and labor is about the same.
I'd make sure I had a home run to the point they ground the drop (I'm
spacing out on what that's called) because it means fewer splitters.

But you know all this.

I assure you, Comcast customer service will make you miss dealing with
AT&T. Oddly, AT&T customer service can be truly awful, but they tend
to have somewhat more intelligent people.

The biggest frustration with Comcast is dealing with high fees. Change
anything on the set-top box, they charge a $20 one-time activation fee,
and then you have to call to get it removed. Do you have a tv that's a
CableCARD receiver? They now have additional outlet charges, even though
the subscriber has provided the receiver. The HD fee is itemized, too,
although it's included in a few packages.

They play stupid games with billing cycles. The billing cycle begins a week
before the beginning of the monthly service period. In SBC/AT&T's case, the
billing cycle versus service cycle is just one day's difference, although
DSL has its own billing and service cycle, which adds to confusion. Comcast
measures lateness of the bill from the date it's issued, not when it was
due, and they train their billing reps to claim that the subscriber's
payment is late even though it's not yet due.

But Comcast's biggest frustration is sending out technicians that you
have to wait before because they never tell the subscriber that they
caused the outage in the field, so it's a waste of the subscriber's time.
They typically upgrade their servers in a way that results in outages.

So don't subscribe to Comcast expecting better customer service than AT&T.

>There were other charges I'm ignoring for now, the install came out to
>around $50 and I opted not for a modem lease, ran $150 out of pocket for a
>decent cablemodem/wireless router. But I think that'll balance out when
>direct does another price increase, being an ex-customer now.

You bought a combined thingie? I never have because I want to make
troubleshooting easier.

Comcast offers subscribers a wireless router with no monthly equipment
rental fee, just a $10 shipping charge.