To moderator Pamelaz - what is the truth of the slow speeds of the u verse internet

[tired of excuses]

Pamelaz:

What brings me to this forum site is I''m TIRED OF EXCUSES!!

Just as many of your other customers are stating their frustations in this forum, we are not getting the truth..

What is advertised is up to 12mb. What should have been advertised is you actual get an average  of 8.5 MB and/or what the Minimum speed might be. (do you think that would slow down sales knowing the range could be as low as 5.1 Mbps. less than the BOLD number 12 Mbps)

I fully understand the Terms and Conditions that the "Service Capability" is to the point of the router at my residence and is also ATT's disclaimer, that there may be a drop in speed after that. After that means, due to ALL the exclusions stated within the Terms and Conditions. Having stated your legal jargin  I sit here typing this message at 10:06 a.m. EST on a Sunday morning, 9/18/11. I am the only person on- line. The televisions are not on, no other computers are on. Only me on this computer.

The following test speeds were taken at 9:30 this a.m.:

       1.   ATT Speed Test..........Download 9.52 --- upload 1.43  ---- In my back yard??

       2.   speakeasy.net............Download 7.57 ---- upload 1.33 ----To Atlanta

       3.   speedtest.net.............Download 8.39 -----Upload 1.13 ---- To Miami

                (please see test results at the bottom of the message)

                 ( These test were performed sequentially, not simultaneously.)

In addition to this issue is another one. They may be related, don't know. As happens, all to many times, over the past month, my wireless conection to the ATT router/modem reads connection: EXCELLENT. the speed however goes from what it should be of 54 Mbps to (last night on the phone with ATT... 2 Mbps) normally it drops from 54 to 48 to 36 then to 24. At which time, I need to hit the repair button to reset the connection. Right now it is at 36 Mbps. Again, I am the only one on the system. This laptop has been at the same location for nearly 3 years...this also happen on 2 other laptops, including a mac.

Custumer Service Questions:

    1.    Why does it take 30-45 minutes for a Live person to answer the phone? This happens whether it is 8:00 a.m. or 1:00 in the morning, why?

    2.    When they do answer the phone, why do I hear story telling between agents and laughter at the stories being told?

    3.    When I do speak to the level one technicians, why are they not reading the notes from the previous time I called and then, make me do all the same unconstructive steps that failed the last time?  Einstein stated: this was the sign of insanity, if you expect a different result.

    4.    Why is it 50% of the time (on a land line) I get disconnected and start the process over. Out of the 50%, I get a 20% call back rate. Please do the math to see how low that number is..

    5.     After going through those hoops, level 1 technicians send me to Level 2. why does this take another 20-30 minutes? simialiarly, I'll hear the backround story telling, is this why I need to wait? What ever happened to customer service?

    6.    Again they walk me through unconstructive steps, once again failing...(right now my wireless speed is 24Mbps)

    7.    Why is it 50% of the time (on a land line) I get disconnected and start the process over. Out of the 50%, I get a 10% call back rate. Please do the math to see how low that number is.

    8.    ATT scheduled a technician to do an in-house swap out of the router/modem.......Should my expectaions be HIGH?

Service Capability Questions:

    1. If ATT is to provide a "Sevice Capability" as advertised of  12 Mb to the 1st connection point at the house router, how do I indepentdenly test that? As Reagan stated "trust but verify"

     2.   If I am only recieving the speeds indicated from the test results shown above (again, with no other usage happening) what is the real speed at the entry point?

    3.     If , the advertised expectation is 12 Mbps, and the small print says don't expect to get it, what speed at the entry point am I truly getting. If it is not 12Mbps, then  allow us, custemers, to pay for the prorated average for the month. How is it unfair to ask for that?  I would rather have the speed given a choice...

   4.   Why are the speed results always higher with ATT. One of the tests goes to Miami and I am in Ft Lauderdale, the other goes to Atlanta.? This happens repeatedly, why??

Wireless laptop connection to/from Router/Modem Questions:

    1.    If my signal strength reads EXCELLENT (similar conditions on other laptops) why does the speed drop from 54 Mbps to 24 Mbps?

    2.    What happens when the signal strength is at 54Mbps,then the web site takes a very long time to load (dialup speed) and at times timeout?

If I could bill you the hours spent on resolving this, ATT would be sending me a check for services rendered.

Pamelaz, it was not the intent to have a rambling statement, I presented the questions, I perceive as accurate and certainly more than fair to ask.

As these issues are certainly above your pay grade, I stronly request, if not require, that they be addressed by someone with the appropriate pay grade. 

The simailar issues being brought up in the suraounding posts to this one certainly indicate an issue, I'm just TIRED OF EXCUSES, what are the facts...

JPEG'S of the resuls follow:

[jimgfitzgerald]

You need to direct these question to AT&T, not a moderator on a peer-to-peer forum.

[woodbourne]

At some point you get tired of spending anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour getting someone on the phone to answer a simple question like the OP is posing.

[jimgfitzgerald]

That's when it's time to move on to a different provider.

[tired of excuses]

ATT is it, no choices..

[tired of excuses]

Do you have a phone # ? my method is not working..

[ScottMac]

Based on your technical questions, it appears that most of the issue is a lack of understanding on your part regarding how the various technoliogies work.

For example, The reason your uploads slow down over longer distances, and the reason that a "54 Mbps" wireless connection only gets ~ 22Mbps.

For the upload example: Most file transfer applications use TCP, which requiers that the receiver acknowledge ("ACK") periodically to show that it has received the transmitted block(s) correctly. Latency (caused as a function of distance and infrastructure apparatus) becoomes the limiting factor, because the sender cannot send the "next" block(s) untile the receiver acknowledges the received block(s).  For any given measure of time, closer receivers will be able to ACK more blocks (sooner) because there is less latency to close hosts.

For the wireless example:  54Mbps is a signaling rate. To accommodate the nature of the transmission medium (through the air, via RF) information is duplicated as well as encoded such that the receiver(s) have more than one opportunity to "catch" the data, per transmission. Wireless is unreliable, multiple copies of the data per transmission makes it a little more reliable. When you add on thingslike protocol overhead for TCP/IP, Ethernet, and the 802.11 encoding and administrative traffic, it's easy to see why you're only getting 54Mbps on a perfect connection, and often much lower (due to distance, interference, the visibbility of 802.11b hosts, and some other factors). Keep in mind that it is also shared data, and if you have multiple devices, they are all contending for the same bandwidth.

In my opinion, your snarky attitude is offensive. Understanding that you are frustrated only buys you so much slack. This is a peer-to-peer board. The Mods are not necessarily technical people; they are heere to coordinate information through this system, not unveil the mysteries of the communications universe.

If you have questions, ask them without the attitude and you'll likely get a pretty solid answer. There are a lot of pretty sharp folks hanging out here.

[sunsetgrill]

@ ScottMac

Dude, who do you think you are coming here and criticizing a person fed up with their service?

 This is a peer-to-peer board? Do you not see the tab at top of page that says "SUPPORT"??????? The only thing that says "peer to peer" is your [please be courteous]

If you have questions, ask them without the attitude and you'll likely get a pretty solid answer? Since when is there anyone officially from AT&T on this board to provide actual help??? It doesnt exist.

AT&T already has so much against it on these boards, I wouldnt be having a sig that says you are an AT&T employee, cause that means you are just as much of a joke!

[jimgfitzgerald]

But this is a peer-to-peer forum.  AT&T does not provide support here.  What support they provide elsewhere is debatable.

[berkeleyjack]

I have to agree.

Unfortunately Scott's response is pretty indicative of AT&T's attitude regarding these problems.

I'm so sick and tired of having to sit through hours on the phone trying to get through to a tech support person in India, only to have them not be able to reproduce my problem and assure me that everything is fine.

I know everything isn't fine. I can't get on the internet half the time! Just because I can't reproduce the error on command doesn't mean it isn't there.

[TerryUSA]

Well I can see that signing up on this board was a waste of time. {Please keep it courteous}answering questions in rude and condensending fashions I am more likely to get frustrated then if I had just stayed away and excepted the fact that AT&T is only interested in making money at the smallest expense to themselves. Customer satisfaction really is a joke to companies this large and always will be low on priorities. I am however upset at the lack of help in these forums, but what was I expecting from a forum with the letters AT&T in it. Like they say the apple doesnt fall far from the tree.

I am having greater success of finding ways to force AT&T in letting me out of my contract on forums where people have been forced to the level of legal action, work arounds, and outright scheaming to get what they deserve.

My AT&T Wireless contract is up next month and im heading to another carrier, I will be dropping my DSL as soon as possible and heading to another provider. I have made it my mission to scare everyone I talk to away from any form of AT&T service.

AT&T tries to due the minimum neccessary to keep a customer and most of the time that isnt even enough.

THEY JUST DONT CARE!

[berkeleyjack]

It's a bit shocking that the best a company this large can offer in terms of customer support is call centers in India or a "peer-to-peer" forum with no official AT&T representatives.

It seems like the only real option for "help" is to deal with the countless hours on hold with phone support only to not have the root of the problems solved.

[jimgfitzgerald]

It's only typical of what's going on in this country.

[ScottMac]

---

berkeleyjack wrote:

I have to agree.

Unfortunately Scott's response is pretty indicative of AT&T's attitude regarding these problems.

I'm so sick and tired of having to sit through hours on the phone trying to get through to a tech support person in India, only to have them not be able to reproduce my problem and assure me that everything is fine.

I know everything isn't fine. I can't get on the internet half the time! Just because I can't reproduce the error on command doesn't mean it isn't there.

---

I am on this board as "just another user" i.e., peer-to-peer ...

My "attitude"  comes from snotty, snide, rude people that drop in on this board and make all kinds of unsubstantiated rants against people that have nothing to do with the alledged problem they are having.

That is further amplified by additional claims made out of total ignorance (i.e., "the U-verse call center in India" ... there are no U-verse call centers in India ... we do have some folks from India, Pakistan, Maylaysia, and other countries in that region, as well as from Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and the Med who work in the call centers of the exotic far reaches of Dallas Texas and other parts of the USA).

Then that is amplified further because the issue the ranting person presents is, with rare exception, one of their own making, and one they will accept no responsibility for. There are and have been infrastructure network issues,  no argument there, it's the nature of the beast when you're are running hundreds of thousands of miles of cable ... but they will not be solved by popping up on a peer-to-peer forum spouting trash.The only poeple that can fix that are at the support number.

Ranting at the administrative folks that operate this forum about a problem spawned from the ranter's own technical ignorance solves nothing, doens't provide any useful information, and serves no purpose other than possibly giving the poster some thrill that other people might actually pay attention to them for a while.

The shortest distance for assistance-to-resolution here is to state your problem, tell us what you've already tried, and offer any changes that occurred when you did something. Be civil ... you don't even have to be polite, "civil" will do. Because that's the best part about text-based conversations?  They're so easily ignored, even if you type in ALL CAPS and BOLD.

Have a nice day! 

[berkeleyjack]

Hi Scott.

I'm running Uverse using the propetary hardware AT&T sold me set up in exactly the way they told me to set it up.

I don't have a fancy setup, I don't have any additional routers or doo-dads tacked onto my network. No wireless phones or alarm systems or anything else that should cause any problems. Nothing I do or don't do on my end seems to be the cause of my constant outages. I have been through the setup with phone techs multiple times to confirm that everything is set up the way it should be.

A customer shouldn't have to be a technical expert to purchase basic home inernet from one of the largest providers in the country, especially when that provider constantly advertises their service as being easy and hassle free.

Your nasty and self-righteous attitude is a perfect example of what's wrong with AT&T employeed and with the company as a whole.



HAVE AN AWESOME DAY BRO!!!!!!



[spd2demun ACE - Expert]

You can try sending a PM to one of the (new) Community Managers and see if they can offer any suggestions.

AlexCM

or

Jam

[David]

I am still here as well... link below in my signature...

[spd2demun ACE - Expert]

And I'm still referring to you, too (just did one earlier today).  Good to see you here.

[David]

I try to hang more often here than dslreports.com these days. While there is many over there that are more network, software and hardware savvy than most, it has been kind of light over there past few weeks.

it's kind of like the whole outlook password pop up thing. Since we don't support individual mail clients anymore (they only support web browser e-mail) it's either too many devices checking email at the exact same time or a client issue.

My personal opinion is I don't feel sorry for anyone using MS outlook. I divorced it back in 2003 when I said "No thanks, enough is enough." Though if I happen to take a client again Thunderbird would be my choice. The trend seems to be growing to only use webmail as well. I suspect this is due to smartphones are able to check webmail, and the fact that you have to be online to get e-mail, why not just webmail anyway (as my wife puts it).

[ATTAlexCM]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for posting.  For account specific concerns, please shoot Jam or I a Private Message (blue envelope, top-right) and we will gladly do our best to help out. 

Closing this thread to keep it relevant since this has been thoroughly discussed.  Thank you for the feedback!

Regards,

Alex