Review: AT&T U-VERSE

**DirtyTurbin** · 02-08-2007 09:22 PM

Well the way I see it is they might be having cable issues/distance issues etc. Just a thought. Im sure they wont put a vrad in just for the store demo but could just run fiber to it. You never know with at&t....

**capt.video** · 02-09-2007 01:23 PM

Originally Posted by DirtyTurbin

Well the way I see it is they might be having cable issues/distance issues etc. Just a thought. Im sure they wont put a vrad in just for the store demo but could just run fiber to it. You never know with at&t....

I was thinking the same thing maybe b/c it's in the mall there is a wire or connection problem... but they should have all that taken care of b4 set up so I think that the point still remains that if they can't get it working there after almost a month than it does not look good on a marketing & sales position... sorry to keep going on about this but I work in marketing & sales so it just unacceptable to me not have everything in place & ready to go on a major product @ roll out time in your main pos

**DirtyTurbin** · 02-09-2007 09:46 PM

Well let us not forget it is at&t also

**capt.video** · 02-10-2007 01:11 AM

Originally Posted by DirtyTurbin

Well let us not forget it is at&t also

now YOU do have a point there...lol

**WyrTwister** · 02-11-2007 05:19 PM

Originally Posted by capt.video

I know about this offer but the point that I was trying to make was I can't understand how att can offer a service b4 they can have it working in one of their walk-in stores b/c Stamford is one of their 1st "roll-out cities" (after all its only been 3-4 weeks now

that they have had everything displayed & turned on) hey, if they can't get it working there...?) but get the run-around when you ask for a demo... its like buying something just by looking @ a picture or reading about it or someone telling you about it & then "oh you'll see it when we have it delivered"... I think that att is "putting the cart b4 the horse"...lol

This is called marketing ....... :-)

Also , this is something totally new for AT&T ( SBC ) . It is not like the telephone land line , which they have been doing for a 100 years . They have a learning curve .

Seem to remember that cell phone service was not born , fully grown wearing a three piece suit , in a wink of time . :-)

It took quite a while to become what it is now ( a pain in the behind ) . :-)

As far as where they are locating the first groups of VRAD's ( have been doing them for about 1-1/2 years , here , they are cherry picking ( I would be too , if it was me ) . Locating them in the high dollar parts of town . Would not make sence to first fgo into the low dollar part of town . Plus , if it REALLY becomes popular , have to heep the folks with money and influnce happy first . :-)

Wyr

**no12call** · 02-12-2007 10:22 AM

I think that everyone is just speculating. I have seen the Uverse product in our mall in Kansas City. It worked, and it should with over 8 billion invested in it. But I noticed that the reps had no idea what they were talking about. And that while the channel changing was fast I did see some artifacts in the HD feeds. Plus I am thinking that since they haven't unveiled the service here yet, anything alone on a IP network is going to look great because there are no other packets clogging the pipe. So what I am arguing is that even if you do see an trial box in store working, I am going to assume that as more customers come online you may see a degradation in service. Plus having only one HD channel viewable at a time is a HUGE! disadvantage. What are they thinking???

They can't compete with such a limtitation. (Walmart quit selling SD tv's last year.) They are unveiling a new product that is already behind the times. I am sticking with cable, even with rising prices at least I can watch several HD channels at once!

**capt.video** · 02-13-2007 02:16 AM

Originally Posted by no12call

I think that everyone is just speculating. I have seen the Uverse product in our mall in Kansas City. It worked, and it should with over 8 billion invested in it. But I noticed that the reps had no idea what they were talking about. And that while the channel changing was fast I did see some artifacts in the HD feeds. Plus I am thinking that since they haven't unveiled the service here yet, anything alone on a IP network is going to look great because there are no other packets clogging the pipe. So what I am arguing is that even if you do see an trial box in store working, I am going to assume that as more customers come online you may see a degradation in service. Plus having only one HD channel viewable at a time is a HUGE! disadvantage. What are they thinking???

They can't compete with such a limtitation. (Walmart quit selling SD tv's last year.) They are unveiling a new product that is already behind the times. I am sticking with cable, even with rising prices at least I can watch several HD channels at once!

Well, guess what? I finally saw it today @ the Stamford att mall store & I liked what I saw b/c the number of channels (sd & hd U400 would be my choice btw) was one of my main reason for wanting to switch from CV but have to agree w/ you on a few points you made like the c.s. reps not knowing "enuff"(really minor)but only 1 hd & 1 dvr @ a time

who's idea was that??? behind the times is right!!!...I already have 2 hd dvrs from cablevision & could get a 3rd just for the asking (along w/ more $$ of course) also no NESN its not available in this market area

(don't know about the dish b/c of all the trees in yard but going to check it out too) so all those reasons make it a deal breaker 4 me but will be waiting for more upgrades in the future so if they can give me what I have now then I would make the move

**jkt** · 02-25-2007 08:49 PM

Scott,

Thanks for the great info on U-Verse. I just signed up as I am currently a Cox cable subscriber for cable, phone and internet. U-Verse is set to be installed on 03/10/07. Was a little skeptical but financially it seems to make sense. Has there been any improvements since your install. I just recently began Hi-def on Cox, picture is great but not many channels. Any other info would be a great help.

JKT

**Scott Greczkowski** · 02-25-2007 08:55 PM

No real improvements to report, but I keep hearing the ability to watch 2 HD channels at the same time is coming soon.

So lets hope thats true.

**talltexan** · 02-27-2007 10:51 AM

Ah yes, I read the review that Scott had and decided "well, his complaints are in areas that aren't that important to me, so I'll give it a go". Boy, was that the wrong decision!

First of all, kudos to AT&T customer service. Everyone is fantastic. They may have dropped the ball in many places in my experience, however I think that AT&T has the best Customer Service people on the phone, the most professional and very knowedgeable.

The first problem stemmed from my order. Their U300 and U400 packages had 2 months free, so I signed up for U300. I had negotiated a $25 install instead of $50, and low and behold my first bill came for $149 and it should have been for $25. Additionally, what they didn't make clear is that the free 2 months is only the TV and not the internet part.

My initial installation was scheduled between 11 and 1. How nice is that?! Normally you're given a 4 hour window, and this is 2. They arrived as planned. The installation, however took 4 hours! Yes, 4 hours and my situation is not complicated. I have 3 year old house that is prewired with both CAT5 cable as well as Coax, and they chose the Coax route. The had issues with the 2WIRE hub not working right, and then poor quality picture/sound. They replaced my HDMI cable with Component cables which helped, and went on their way. I had to leave when they did, so later that evening when I started to use the service I noticed the audio/video being out of synch. Imagine watching a dubbed movie, except it's the 5:00 news. Very annoying.

Anyway, I had reported this issue, and to keep this short, I had spent hours on the phone with tech support to try to resolve the issue. I had 2 separate onsite visits killing 2 separate weekend afternoons, and to make matters worse, every time I called tech support my case was taken by someone new, despite the previous person claiming they would take ownership of my issue. I had everything in my house verified, reset, replaced, cabling inspected, and even telephone wiriring outside replaced and redone. Nothing.

My issue was suspected to be a network one, and nobody could figure it out. I had spent more hours with people in my house or on the phone that I was going to start charging them rent. AT&T really blew it. I was so angry that I got DirecTV, who installed their system in 45 minutes and works beautifully. Even getting 2 months free (if that ever was going to happen with the messed up billing), it wasn't worth it. I agree that this is a beta product and not worthy of distribution just yet.