Forced to change internet service and plans.

AprilSun

AprilSun

Senior Member
I hate it when we are forced to make changes we don't want! I received a letter this week from AT&T stating they will be transitioning customers in "high network areas like yours" from their traditional network to their "advanced digital network" which is Uverse. I have to call them by 1/6/2018 to set up an appointment to move my service and ensure my service isn't interrupted. Right now I have FastAccess Ultra DSL and I have no complaints. I would rather keep it but it sounds as if I can't. I dread more than anything talking to the sales reps. because they don't do anything but lie just to make a sale and will trick you every way they can. I've had that experience with them too many times. They will tell you one thing and do another! I've gone to their forum asking which plan would be equal in speed and price to what I have now hoping other users could help me out but no one replied. And of course AT&T isn't going to post anything to help us out in prices! It just doesn't seem right to make their customers make a change against their will! They have the monopoly in this area and they know it and they take advantage of it!
 

AprilSun said:
I hate it when we are forced to make changes we don't want! I received a letter this week from AT&T stating they will be transitioning customers in "high network areas like yours" from their traditional network to their "advanced digital network" which is Uverse. I have to call them by 1/6/2018 to set up an appointment to move my service and ensure my service isn't interrupted. Right now I have FastAccess Ultra DSL and I have no complaints. I would rather keep it but it sounds as if I can't. I dread more than anything talking to the sales reps. because they don't do anything but lie just to make a sale and will trick you every way they can. I've had that experience with them too many times. They will tell you one thing and do another! I've gone to their forum asking which plan would be equal in speed and price to what I have now hoping other users could help me out but no one replied. And of course AT&T isn't going to post anything to help us out in prices! It just doesn't seem right to make their customers make a change against their will! They have the monopoly in this area and they know it and they take advantage of it!
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You might want to check it out. It might be a better service . We were forced to change from analog t.v. to digital. Digital is better except that older t.v.'s can't receive over the air signals without a converter.

In the U.S. you got a rebate on the converter. Not in Canada. But cable does the converting and they gave out free digital boxes if you had more than one t.v. hooked up.

I'm guessing they won't increase the fee. (at least not immediately).
 

Out of curiosity, I checked the AT&T website, and it looks like the change from At&T to Uverse is some internal At&t move. Uverse appears to be part of AT&T, and it looks like the prices should be pretty much the same. Uverse looks like it is fiber optic service...in which case you would receive substantially better TV reception than cable or satellite, and the Internet/phone service is also better with Fiber. Our local provider switched to Fiber about a year ago, and the difference in quality is quite noticeable. About the only hassle might be the physical install of the fiber, and the setup of the different receiver/modem...but the service reps will do that. The question I would have is what is the installation fee, if any? Go to the AT&T web site and check it out.

www.att.com/internet
 
AprilSun said:
I hate it when we are forced to make changes we don't want! I received a letter this week from AT&T stating they will be transitioning customers in "high network areas like yours" from their traditional network to their "advanced digital network" which is Uverse. I have to call them by 1/6/2018 to set up an appointment to move my service and ensure my service isn't interrupted. Right now I have FastAccess Ultra DSL and I have no complaints. I would rather keep it but it sounds as if I can't. I dread more than anything talking to the sales reps. because they don't do anything but lie just to make a sale and will trick you every way they can. I've had that experience with them too many times. They will tell you one thing and do another! I've gone to their forum asking which plan would be equal in speed and price to what I have now hoping other users could help me out but no one replied. And of course AT&T isn't going to post anything to help us out in prices! It just doesn't seem right to make their customers make a change against their will! They have the monopoly in this area and they know it and they take advantage of it!
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I really have to agree with all you said about A T and T. They fooled me. They told me they had a plan for me that would total 99. a month with tax. When I got my bill it was 140.00 a month. There wasn't anything I could do about it as I had discontinued the other bad service provider in the area and there were no more. I did call and complain and they acted as if they did not believe me. So, I do know what you say is true.
 
Hate my AT&T. If you don't keep up with your contract date they switch you to the higher package without notice. I know mine now and plan to switch to Dish asap before my contract date.
 
Ken N Tx said:
What area are you located??
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I'm in the southeast. I don't mind the service itself as long as the price stays about the same and the service is good. It's talking to those Customer Service Reps. trying to get my account changed over, etc. that I hate because they try to pull everything on you. If I could get one that treated me honestly, I wouldn't mind it at all but sometimes I wonder if they even let them be honest. It's fiber optic they are wanting to change over too and from what I've heard, it's faster and hopefully better although I don't have any complaints with what I've been using all of these years. I just hope that it is at least as good as what I've had and no higher in price.
 
The DSL comes through old copper phone lines. There are too many maintenance problems with these lines, especially at connection points. It would be expensive to replace them for an older service that's not any faster. If you stay with DSL, eventually, they will quit servicing them at all except for minor things. That's my guess. Squirrels even chew insulation off of the wires here, rain gets in and interrupts service.

When I got my service changed I went to an AT&T store where I could talk to a real person, slow things down a bit, and ask more questions. Is there an AT&T store in your area?
 
You will continue to see changes. I'm still grousing over the fact the floppy disks were eliminated, 8 tracks went away, then VHS tapes went away, and landlines are going away as we speak..........
 
NancyNGA said:
When I got my service changed I went to an AT&T store where I could talk to a real person, slow things down a bit, and ask more questions. Is there an AT&T store in your area?
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It sounds like you have already made the switch, am I correct? If so, how do you like it? There is a store near by but not close enough to walk to because I can't drive any longer and it's hard to find someone to take me when I need to go to drs., etc. so I hate to ask for something like this when I can call and get it done. You say a "real person", when I call, I talk to real people but all they are interested in is "making a sale" rather than treating the customer right. Did you have to talk to computers when you called? I'm only asking out of curiosity.
 
AprilSun said:
It sounds like you have already made the switch, am I correct? If so, how do you like it? ..... You say a "real person", when I call, I talk to real people but all they are interested in is "making a sale" rather than treating the customer right. ...
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Yes I made the switch. The service is really good, so far. Much more reliable than DSL, but that might be just my neighborhood. It's a very old neighborhood. Speeds are much faster, especially upload.

Sorry April, I said that wrong. I should have said someone you can "reach out and touch", look them straight in the eye, watch them squirm, tell better if they know what they are talking about, point to stuff on the paper and ask what it means. LOL!
 
retiredtraveler said:
You will continue to see changes. I'm still grousing over the fact the floppy disks were eliminated, 8 tracks went away, then VHS tapes went away, and landlines are going away as we speak..........
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Replaced by? CD's. TV on demand. The floppy's. ? I still have an old t.v. that can record on floppies but what I have found out is that some of the old floppies (2 1/4) have lost the recorded content.

The landlines will always be with us although I think for the first time cell phones have overtaken them.

If the price is the same the cell phone is the better option.
 
NancyNGA said:
Yes I made the switch. The service is really good, so far. Much more reliable than DSL, but that might be just my neighborhood. It's a very old neighborhood. Speeds are much faster, especially upload.

Sorry April, I said that wrong. I should have said someone you can "reach out and touch", look them straight in the eye, watch them squirm, tell better if they know what they are talking about, point to stuff on the paper and ask what it means. LOL!
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What about the price?
 
Don M. said:
Out of curiosity, I checked the AT&T website, and it looks like the change from At&T to Uverse is some internal At&t move. Uverse appears to be part of AT&T, and it looks like the prices should be pretty much the same. Uverse looks like it is fiber optic service...in which case you would receive substantially better TV reception than cable or satellite, and the Internet/phone service is also better with Fiber. Our local provider switched to Fiber about a year ago, and the difference in quality is quite noticeable. About the only hassle might be the physical install of the fiber, and the setup of the different receiver/modem...but the service reps will do that. The question I would have is what is the installation fee, if any? Go to the AT&T web site and check it out.

www.att.com/internet
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I posted this same thread on the AT&T site and got just what I didn't want to get. That is a response from AT&T Cares which is one of their employees. I was hoping a user that has it now could give me some information. This employee wanted me to give them my address, etc. and they would get back to me which would probably be several days before they did if they did. I'll just wait and talk with someone on the phone Monday. I just don't trust any of them. I've been lied to by them too many times to trust them at all.
 
The landlines will always be with us although I think for the first time cell phones have overtaken them.
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In Illinois, At&t has received initial approval to end land lines. However, FCC has to approve it.
 
Yes I think there is an old regulation that they have to provide landline telephones to every household. Comes from back in the old days, like when they had to provide electrical service to everyone. Otherwise it would not be cost effective in rural areas for either, for electric and phone companies. That regulation will probably disappear.
 
NancyNGA said:
The DSL comes through old copper phone lines. There are too many maintenance problems with these lines, especially at connection points. It would be expensive to replace them for an older service that's not any faster. If you stay with DSL, eventually, they will quit servicing them at all except for minor things. That's my guess. Squirrels even chew insulation off of the wires here, rain gets in and interrupts service.

When I got my service changed I went to an AT&T store where I could talk to a real person, slow things down a bit, and ask more questions. Is there an AT&T store in your area?
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Nancy, did your package come with Wifi or do you have to pay extra for it? I'm asking because I don't really need it and if I have to pay extra I don't want it. The problem will be getting them CSR to not add it to it if it has to be extra. I hope I'm not asking to much. I'm just trying to do my homework before I call them tomorrow.
 
AprilSun said:
Nancy, did your package come with Wifi or do you have to pay extra for it? I'm asking because I don't really need it and if I have to pay extra I don't want it. The problem will be getting them CSR to not add it to it if it has to be extra. I hope I'm not asking to much. I'm just trying to do my homework before I call them tomorrow.
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This stuff is above my paygrade. Someone else please step in if I'm wrong about this.

WiFi is available with my installation. It is set up on the particular router (gateway?) they provided. The charge is in the data minutes in your plan. I think you only get charged extra when you run over the data minutes in your plan. It's a hefty additional charge I imagine, like with a cellphone.

If I unplug the ethernet cable, the internet service automatically shifts to WiFi. Ethernet is the default. I know you can disable WiFi on the router if you want to. There are videos of how to do it. I don't know if you can get a plan with zero data minutes or not. I doubt the difference in cost would be very much even if they did have a zero data minutes plan.

Final answer, after many edits. LOL!
 
NancyNGA said:
This stuff is above my paygrade. Someone else please step in if I'm wrong about this.

WiFi is available with my installation. It is set up on the particular router (gateway?) they provided. The charge is in the data minutes in your plan. I think you only get charged extra when you run over the data minutes in your plan. It's a hefty additional charge I imagine, like with a cellphone.

If I unplug the ethernet cable, the internet service automatically shifts to WiFi. Ethernet is the default. I know you can disable WiFi on the router if you want to. There are videos of how to do it. I don't know if you can get a plan with zero data minutes or not. I doubt the difference in cost would be very much even if they did have a zero data minutes plan.

Final answer, after many edits. LOL!
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Ok, thank you for the information!
 

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