Review of AT&T DSL ServiceAll reviews of |  about |
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But first, the good news. ATT's pre-sales info was very good, and Covad's information system regarding line activation, and equipment delivery is top-notch. Installation was quick and easy. Second, some annoyances. While it is listed in parenthesis on one of the pages that appears when you set-up the account, ATT didn't really make it clear that you need an email reader that supports "Secure Socket Layer" and that your email servers have to change. That caused some minor frustration with my obsolete email client. Finally, the big problem. For whatever reason (probably I'm just a little too far from the central office) my DSL link was intermittent. When it worked, it ran at 650/108, (advertised at 768/128) which I regarded as acceptable. Unfortunately, the modem would drop the link, sometimes for hours. Calling tech support was horrible. My average wait time was 35 minutes! The person on the other end of the line was always friendly, although not particularly helpful. We did the usual stuff of disconnecting other phones, etc, but the problem persisted. They put my link in "safe mode" for 24 hours, and this greatly mproved reliability, but the data rate was abysmal at around 128K for the downlink. Then we got caught in a loop. I would call and complain about the speed, and they would throttle me back up to 650K, at which point the link would become unstable. Then I would call back to complain about the instability and they would throttle me down to 380K. (Of course they did NOT tell me they were slowing my link down until I SPECIFICALLY ASKED if they were doing that.) When I complained about the speed, they set the speed back to 650K and the instability returned. This loop repeated three times before I gave up. I honestly believe that the only control tech support has is line speed. At no time did they suggest any other possible action to solve my speed/instability issue. But you wouldn't exactly expect them to be able to do a physical test of your lines from India, would you? Heaven forbid they contact Verizon, that may incur a cost to them. Alternatively, I imagine they aren't allowed to suggest that maybe my line can't support anything faster than 380K. Fortunately, they have the 20 hr/month dialup feature. I needed it a few times when the DSL modem wouldn't connect. So, I packed-up the whole thing after about 3 weeks of frustration and returned it during the "free trial period." However, to add a little "salt to the wound", I had to wait on the telephone for 30 minutes to get an RMA number for the modem. I've been an ATT dialup customer for about 9 years, and it would have been nice to keep my email address and website on their servers. I was even willing to pay the extra cost ATT charges over Verizon to do this. Unfortunately, the DSL service was so bad I now plan to use a cable modem. Followup comments:
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I normally got 632 down and 108 upload, which is fine for me. I dropped Comcast Cable for this reason: they wanted $58.95 a month for broadband. I could reduce the charge to $45.95 if I got basic cable for $8.31. Well basic cable for me was 8 channels four of which were program guide channels. I can get the same with a $2 antenna. I think the cable guys have gotten very, very greedy. I will update the status of my service after the technician comes out. The Covad tech was great. He removed something called a 'half ringer'. The service was upgraded to 1500 down and I usually get 1230. Still not bad. Followup comments:
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I went with AT&T Worldnet DSL in order to keep my 8 year old email address. Dealing with Covad has been a pleasure...they are knowledgeable, helpful, polite and quick to respond. However, if you have an email issue, you have to speak with AT&T. AT&T support is useless: not knowledgeable (you start with someone in India reading from a FAQ--really), rude, incompetent. I don't wish to sound like an irresponsible flame, but I have had nightmare experiences with AT&T email support--hours on the phone, service reps who are rude and wrong, being routed to wrong departments, being cut off. I have not had a single positive experience with the AT&T side. I can count at least 8 instances in which the AT&T service rep was just plain wrong. That being said, the DSL works fine (provided by Covad). Bottom line: go with Covad directly, avoid AT&T like the plague. Followup comments:
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out of business in the area. The initial install of AT&T DSL was not a good experience and the transition is so bad to COVAD that I am probably going to call this morning and cancel the whole thing. I'd rather go back to my free Juno dial up than persist with this. 1. Lie: When I signed up sales told me it would work with Windows XP. Truth: Installation CD does not work with XP, you have to get tech support to walk you through an XP install. 2. Lie: Sales told me it work with an in home router. When it did not work with router, I was told it was not supported. I never got the router I bought to work. 3. Lie: Sent a CD 11 months later and told they were switching service provider in area. It would be back up in 7-10 days. Truth: On day 10 I get an email from new provider outlining a lengthy process to install that will take at least another 7-10 days. 4. Lie: Told me the CD would handle switching from DSL to dial up for 7-10 days that service was down. Truth: When service went down without notice, I had to call Tech Support to have them walk me through installing their dial up service. 5. Lie: Told me that in 7-10 days the new software installed from the CD would detect that the service was up and automatically connect. Truth: I have been switching the wiring between my AT&T DSL modem and my computer built in modem several times a day for the last week to see if things were working and it would connect. Got email yesterday outlining a tedious process to get connected allowing them about an additional least 7-10 days. Other problems: 1. Ever since I installed AT&T DSL I have had trouble with resolving names on links that I find with my browser. About 1/4th of all the links that show up in Google and other search engines do not translate. I get the "The page cannot be displayed" screen. I didn't have this problem with AOL or Juno. AT&T says it's not their problem. I haven't been able to resolve it. 2. Email indicating this would be another 7-10 days was from source: "Conrad Auto Service". Being back to dial up, I have been using my web mail rather than Eudora to be sure and delete all adds and spam before downloading so it doesn't take forever. I thought this was an automobile add. I came within a hairsbreadth of deleting it without even reading it. 3. When I was considering going ahead with the conversion to the new ISP. I asked lots of questions about when service would go down. How would I know it was down? How would I bring service up on dial up? How would I know when it was back up. To every question, and every time I called, the question was, "Didn't you install the CD?" Answer, "Yes". Response, "The software that is installed with the CD will handle all that automatically". 4. First email from COVAD says the address is bad. It says they can't take the next step until I correct it. But, it is correct. What a mess. I'm calling to cancel this morning. AT&T obviously does not want to be in the DSL business, if they treat their customers this shabbily. Answer from them, "Well we sent you $100 to compensate you for your trouble." A little customer care on their part could have avoided all of this. An hour's programming effort would have fixed the installation CD a year ago to be compatible with XP. They have spent more money in calls to customer support and tech support than it would have taken to fix the problems in the first place. They not only don't care about their customers. They don't have good business sense. Followup comments:
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Only bad (if you call it that) problem is AT&T Worldnet's online help (especially for the DSL) is very poor! And it is almost impossible to find an email contact for customer service! Other than that, I highly recommend this service! Followup comments:
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installation was a piece of cake,especially after talking to a SBC installer on the street before I signed up, he advised using one filter/splitter at the interface box and running a dedicated line to the modem; up & running quickly. No problems with speeds. Mark Followup comments:
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AT&T DSL Service
(47)
(43)
(56)
(17)
Trenton,Mercer,NJ
$40 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
Verizon
"Excellent Pre & Install Information, 30-day free trial period"
"Tech Support is a Facade"
"It's great when it works, but you're in trouble when it doesn't."
