Absolutely Frustrated and Angry

[yarbz]

Well, while I like the technical part of U-Verse, I have finally come to know that the people you deal with on the phone are not truthful.

I was promised two $100 Visa gift cards when I signed up and after making numerous calls and getting the run around, they now claim they don't owe me any rewards. Why? They didn't really explain and would not help me understand.

I have copious notes and will pursue this with customer service again in the morning and ask for credit for the entire time I have been with U-Verse and the $200 in gift cards or I will take my business elsewhere.

This is the worse service I have ever encountered. If anyone has any idea who I can speak with to get this issue resolved I would appreciate hearing form you. Right now, as far as I am concerned they will have to make a sincerely apology and offer significant credits on service if they want to keep my business.

Cris

New Britain, CT 

[Uniblurb3 ACE - Guru]

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yarbz wrote:

Well, while I like the technical part of U-Verse, I have finally come to know that the people you deal with on the phone are not truthful.

I was promised two $100 Visa gift cards when I signed up and after making numerous calls and getting the run around, they now claim they don't owe me any rewards. Why? They didn't really explain and would not help me understand.

I have copious notes and will pursue this with customer service again in the morning and ask for credit for the entire time I have been with U-Verse and the $200 in gift cards or I will take my business elsewhere.

This is the worse service I have ever encountered. If anyone has any idea who I can speak with to get this issue resolved I would appreciate hearing form you. Right now, as far as I am concerned they will have to make a sincerely apology and offer significant credits on service if they want to keep my business.

Cris

New Britain, CT 

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yarbz,

Do not blame you for being angry and mad about this situation. We may be able to offer some advice to help you receive your rewards but you will need to be calm to get results. When was your original order, by phone/online/door-to-door sales, and install? What promotional rate discount did they offer and would assume the rewards were supposed to be two $100 gift cards? Do you still have they yellow or pink order receipt? What package or service did you order (eg. U200, internet pro/elite, uvoice phone, etc..)? Did you reduce any of your services since your original order such as lowering your internet speed/service, reducing the number of set top boxes, etc..? While it is not widely publicized you will loose all of your rewards, and the 1 year promotional rate, if you reduce any of your services from your original order.

If you have "copious" notes do they include the date, time, name and ID number of the CS techs you have spoken with? If all this information is not included from now on request all this info on future contacts. They are required to provide their ID # when requested, helps hold them accountable, and ask for this information at the end of your conversation. It is to the point where you now need to request to talk to a Tier 2 supervisor to explain your situation. They may be able to work this out for you. Would avoid being angry during this conversation and would ask rather than demand.

It's up to you if you like your U-verse services enough to try and resolve these issues in a positive manner while trying to secure the rewards you deserve.

Good luck and try to get back with us on the requested information.

[CLKroute419]

http://utalk.att.com/utalk/board/message?board.id=billing&message.id=1020&query.id=61183#M1020

Try reading the above post about how to claim your rebates.  I would try checking the online rebate claims.  You will find a link to the site in the link I have referenced aboved.

Also you might try calling during the day and talking with either sales or retention.  If you talk to them in a calm poilite manner they will more than likely be willing to help you.  You can most likely get credits to your account and or upgrade in services at no cost to you for 3 to 6 months.

Just my thoughts and what has worked for me in the past.

[goot6936]

http://www.uverseusers.com

If the above suggestions do not work, there is a gentleman who goes by the username "David" on that website.  He works for ATT Uverse.  Anyways he has worked as an advocate for many people to resolve disputes that otherwise would not be resolved through normal channels.

Good luck.

[YUAN]

Just some thoughts:

If you dial the 1.800.228.2020 number, that is the public number of AT&T and that means that it's for all of the departments of the company (i.e, billing, sales, Uverse TS, DSL TS, Phone Repair etc.) So if you will get to a support representative probably they do not have so much ideas about the rewards. If you want to get to the Rebate and Rewards Center, dial this number: 1.877.288.7973. Like what the people above said, it really pays to be polite and calm no matter how frustrated and aggravated our feelings are. What you show them over the phone will more likely be the one they will show you back. Ask for a supervisor if necessary they are obliged to follow that request and before being transfered to anybody ask for the ID of the agent.

Happy day everyone!

[yarbz]

Uniblurb3,

Thanks for the info. Here are some answers to your questions in your response:

- Order was made by phone for U300

- We were told we would get two $100 Visa Gift Cards

- We have all the paperwork given which was via email. We have something from the install as well. Don't recall if is is yellow or pink.

- No reduction in services from initial order have been made

- My notes include dates, times and names. Only recently did I begin askeing for their numbers.

-Yarbz

[yarbz]

CLKroute419,

Thanks for responding.

As part of my phone call with numerous U-Verse folks yesterday evening I went online with Mike (JV0830) and it came up that there are no rewards associated with out account. I plan on calling from work today and discussing with them. I do expect to be given additional discounts and/or upgrades for the hassle but the two $100 Visa gift cards have to be delivered as that is part of the deal I made.

I will post again with the outcome of my discussion. 

Yarbz

[yarbz]

goot6936,

I will keep this info in mind should my attempts at resolution fail. I am at my wits end however...

I am so upset I am even considering Comcast.

Yarbz

[yarbz]

YUAN,

thanks for thei info.

The Reward Center is the place that was most rude and uninterested in helping me. I spoke with somebody who stated they were a superviser after demanding to speak with one. I am not at all sure that he was a supervisor (Adam AS2003) and he was rude and clearly not interested at all in helping me. He was so stubborn, I blew my top and called him a bad word and hung up. Mind you, this is after a hour on the phone and everyone pleading ignorant and telling me that we don't quality.

Stay tuned.

Yarbz

[gcheng75]

Don't talk to the Rewards people, just talk to customer service.  And if you dont like what they say ask them to transfer you to the cancellation department.

[bobntina_1]

Not one person asked this question from what I saw so I will have to ask it.  When was you service installed?

Best,

Bob

[kizzie_xo]

 

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yarbz wrote:

Well, while I like the technical part of U-Verse, I have finally come to know that the people you deal with on the phone are not truthful.

I was promised two $100 Visa gift cards when I signed up and after making numerous calls and getting the run around, they now claim they don't owe me any rewards. Why? They didn't really explain and would not help me understand.

I have copious notes and will pursue this with customer service again in the morning and ask for credit for the entire time I have been with U-Verse and the $200 in gift cards or I will take my business elsewhere.

This is the worse service I have ever encountered. If anyone has any idea who I can speak with to get this issue resolved I would appreciate hearing form you. Right now, as far as I am concerned they will have to make a sincerely apology and offer significant credits on service if they want to keep my business.

Cris

New Britain, CT 

 

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you can get your reward after 3-4 weeks of having the service + you'll get an email from them notifying that you can now redeem your rewards.

this is what i have for rewardscenter's direct #: 877-258-1427 / rewardcenter.att.com... just be nice and calm, you'll surely get it. never stop calling them until they give it to you.

and yeah, they're right, if customer service rep won't give in, tell her to transfer you to cancellation dep't. you'll be surprise of what they can/would do just to keep you as a customer!

Message Edited by kizzie_xo on 05-12-2009 10:22 AM

[yarbz]

Well... Here is the final status. I eventually received the equivalent of the $200 in Visa Rewards cards... They credited my bill $100 and promised a check for another $100. The check arrived two days ago, well after it was supposed to arrive. Getting the check was another series of frustrating calls but they did finally come through.

Then thing took a turn for the worse. I have three HD televisions in my rec room/personal sports pub downstairs. When I ordered this they knew that I was going to run all three at the same time. The installer knew this as well. When installed in March, I was able to have all three HD televisions run different HD programming without incident. About three days ago, I began getting a message that we were using too many HD streams. I had two TV's on and when the third was tuned to an HD channel, it would not go there and stated that we would have to turn off one of the other TVs to a STD def channel. This came out of the blue.

I called UVerse and Ryan (RA865B) told me that we can only run 2 HD and 2 STD signals at any given time. I told him that I had this for a couple months and it was never an issue before, what's up? He didn't know anything except he kept going back to the statement that we can only run 2 HD streams at a time.

That was the final straw with UVerse and I have ordered a bundle from a competitor which will be installed in the very near future. I will cancel UVerse once installed and deduct any and all startup fees with the new company from my UVerse bill. I feel that I was mislead from the beginning and feel that quite a weight is off my shoulder now that I've set up the install of the competitors product.  I think the worst part of all this is that UVerse misleads by omission.  I can't say that I was lied to directly, but selectively omitting negative parts of a package or not telling prospective customers of obvious and known limitations of a system is as bad or worse.

Apparently, while 'fiber optic' sounds all nice and modern, it's not up to par at this point. More importantly, the treatment I received from UVerse throughout my time with them, with the notable exception of Rita [RC6341], seemed uncaring and less than honest.

[destew]

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yarbz wrote:

Then thing took a turn for the worse. I have three HD televisions in my rec room/personal sports pub downstairs. When I ordered this they knew that I was going to run all three at the same time. The installer knew this as well. When installed in March, I was able to have all three HD televisions run different HD programming without incident. About three days ago, I began getting a message that we were using too many HD streams. I had two TV's on and when the third was tuned to an HD channel, it would not go there and stated that we would have to turn off one of the other TVs to a STD def channel. This came out of the blue.

I called UVerse and Ryan (RA865B) told me that we can only run 2 HD and 2 STD signals at any given time. I told him that I had this for a couple months and it was never an issue before, what's up? He didn't know anything except he kept going back to the statement that we can only run 2 HD streams at a time.

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Nobody is currently getting more then 2HD streams right now.  Not sure how you were getting more then this when you first got UVerse, unless two TVs where watching the same channel, one was watching something from the DVR, or one was actually tuned to a SD channel.

I know this is a pain (I have 3 HD TV's and actually thinking of adding a fourth in my office), but I knew the limitations from the start.  (although my installer was a bit confused and thought it was only 2 video streams and not 4.)

AT&T is saying VDSL2 is suppose to be out by the end of the year (and somebody posted the he temporarily saw the increase bandwidth associated with it.)  I really wouldn't start looking for the VDSL2 rollout till December - and then the increase to 3 HD channels.

Stew

[Uniblurb3 ACE - Guru]

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yarbz wrote:

Well... Here is the final status. I eventually received the equivalent of the $200 in Visa Rewards cards... They credited my bill $100 and promised a check for another $100. The check arrived two days ago, well after it was supposed to arrive. Getting the check was another series of frustrating calls but they did finally come through.

Then thing took a turn for the worse. I have three HD televisions in my rec room/personal sports pub downstairs. When I ordered this they knew that I was going to run all three at the same time. The installer knew this as well. When installed in March, I was able to have all three HD televisions run different HD programming without incident. About three days ago, I began getting a message that we were using too many HD streams. I had two TV's on and when the third was tuned to an HD channel, it would not go there and stated that we would have to turn off one of the other TVs to a STD def channel. This came out of the blue.

I called UVerse and Ryan (RA865B) told me that we can only run 2 HD and 2 STD signals at any given time. I told him that I had this for a couple months and it was never an issue before, what's up? He didn't know anything except he kept going back to the statement that we can only run 2 HD streams at a time.

That was the final straw with UVerse and I have ordered a bundle from a competitor which will be installed in the very near future. I will cancel UVerse once installed and deduct any and all startup fees with the new company from my UVerse bill. I feel that I was mislead from the beginning and feel that quite a weight is off my shoulder now that I've set up the install of the competitors product.  I think the worst part of all this is that UVerse misleads by omission.  I can't say that I was lied to directly, but selectively omitting negative parts of a package or not telling prospective customers of obvious and known limitations of a system is as bad or worse.

Apparently, while 'fiber optic' sounds all nice and modern, it's not up to par at this point. More importantly, the treatment I received from UVerse throughout my time with them, with the notable exception of Rita [RC6341], seemed uncaring and less than honest.

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yarbz,

Well at least you finally received your $200 in rewards.

There is no way you were receiveing 3 HD signals at any time during your service. One of those TV's had to be set on a SD channel. Well known fact in this forum, and elsewhere, that 2 HD streams is max that can be received. Seems kind of odd you had this service for 2-3 months and are now just receiving messages that too many HD channels in use at same time. A lot of people will record HD programs on DVR so they can watch more than 2 at same time.

Evidently you did not like U-verse service well enough to keep it, even with all your frustrations, and have signed with another provider. To each his own but good luck taking another companies startup fees out of your UV bill and expecting not to pay for it. Am sure you will find out how this goes.

Good luck.

[munsonfan]

On a side note you can run the same channel on HD and it will only occupy 1 stream.  I can only get 1 HD stream but I can watch the same LIVE HD channel on 2 different TVs in the home.

[mibrnsurg ACE - Geek]

Yarbz, here is the only way 3 HD TVs could have been running 3 different HD programs:  2 Live, 1 Recorded or 1 Live 2 Recorded (or 1 from a Blu-Ray), you never had 3 Live streams at one time!

Chris

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Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-800-983-2811 to avoid Mr. Voice Recognition
YRMV IMHO

Message Edited by mibrnsurg on 05-13-2009 01:33 PM

[yarbz]

Thanks everyone for the input and advice.

I suppose that I could have been using only two streams and not know it but I guess that would have been just by chance.  I never got the HD stream message on screen until recently however...  But, regardless, U-Verse knew I was planning to use multi HD displays yet they never mentioned this system limitation... That's a bit disingenuous...

U-Verse should have told me was that I would only have two HD streams up front. I would not have signed up for the service.  Omitting such information is not something an honest, forthright company would do except to reel in customers any way they can... 

I guess my overall dissatisfaction is caused by the entire experience with U-Verse. I've had one issue after another and when I get home after work customer service is closed. Nobody can help...  Anytime I need to call customer service or tech support I have to have to be prepared for a difficult experience and put aside an hour.

I will let everyone know how my deduction of the startup costs with the new provider goes.  It's not a lot of money but I would not have had to incur this expense had U-Verse been honest with me in the beginning.  I am motivated for a battle.  Stay tuned for reports as necessary.

[mibrnsurg ACE - Geek]

They were not dishonest w/you, it was known and seen by everyone if you read anything and some small print that the most you could get was 2 HD and the warning included language that you may only get 1HD, so they were not dishonest, you didn't investigate as thoroughly as you should have.

Chris

---

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-800-983-2811 to avoid Mr. Voice Recognition
YRMV IMHO

[yarbz]

That still does not change the fact that it is intentionally obscured. It's the same type of thing that the current administration is going after credit card issuers for... I get your point though, especially with the sarcastic little yellow guy at the end of your post.  -Cheers.

[donatom3]

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yarbz wrote:

That still does not change the fact that it is intentionally obscured. It's the same type of thing that the current administration is going after credit card issuers for... I get your point though, especially with the sarcastic little yellow guy at the end of your post.  -Cheers.

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While I'll agree that they didn't lie to you, I can also say I wouldn't expect the average person to even think to ask about a HD stream limit.

[mibrnsurg ACE - Geek]

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donatom3 wrote:

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yarbz wrote:

That still does not change the fact that it is intentionally obscured. It's the same type of thing that the current administration is going after credit card issuers for... I get your point though, especially with the sarcastic little yellow guy at the end of your post.  -Cheers.

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While I'll agree that they didn't lie to you, I can also say I wouldn't expect the average person to even think to ask about a HD stream limit.

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In the first place, yarbz is not the average person, he came in thinking about the HD stream limit w/3 HD TVs.  This is the line on the Uverse website exploring television: "*Four channels can be recorded to the DVR or viewed simultaneously, up to 2 can be HD based on geographic restrictions."  Basically the same line was under receiver features since I signed up last June 29th.  Every mailing I've gotten from ATT, and there are many, this same idea has been conveyed in every piece.  Ever hear of 'buyer beware', it means you better look at all the small print before signing up.  I clicked on the terms and conditions and read every portion that applied to me and kept the website that proved valuable in getting my $200 reward later.  I still think yarbz did not do enough due diligence on Uverse to see if it fit his lifestyle, then complains Uverse deceived him.  Sorry, no sympathy from these quarters.

Chris

---

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-800-983-2811 to avoid Mr. Voice Recognition
YRMV IMHO

[fl_cyclist]

I agree with Chris any level of looking at forums would have made it appearent that UV only offers 2 HD streams. I guess I have been around too long (old) but I never really bother reading much of the marketing literature. I always go to the forums first and see what is being said. If there are any issues no matter how small there will be tons of threads discussing them. As for having 3 or more HD TVs this is really irrelevent to the installer since you can certainly watch HD or SD on those sets. We have three in my house and if we have 2 HD streams in use you either watch something recorded or watch it on SD. 

[yarbz]

When I signed up for U-Verse I have never heard of HD streams. I had no reason to think that they wouldn't be as good or better than DirectTV or Comcast cable as U-Verse touted themselves at superior fiber optics... The marketing of their services is such that they lower your defenses to a certain extent...

I never even heard about this forum until I felt the need to vent... Anyway, a limit of two streams is a BIG issue for certain customers and it IS something they should not hide in the terms...

Nonetheless, I owe them some money but not every penny. I will continue to advise...

[donatom3]

I don't think you can rely on people going to forums for every service they are giong to buy.  That being said, AT&T made you sign no contract, did not do anything to mislead you and from your responses looks like they eventually made good on the $200 in rebates.  So yes everything has been fixed but the 2HD/2SD streams.  I have 3 HDTV's in the house and have been able to make it work myself.  The lower price and $350 I got off at install was worth it for me, for you the $200 rebate and lower price vs. your new service wasn't worth not having that extra 1 or 2 HD streams.  You gotta go with what works for you, and unlike everyone else, I'm going to say hopefully the next service provider is what you need, instead of making a sarcastic remark about them.   I've used practically every provider except comcast and cox, and I'll say they all have their ups and downs.  They all had problems when new technology came out.  In fact much of their equipment was more unstable than anything I've experienced with UVerse.

[mesrep]

I hate to start yet another thread about the rebate so forgive me in advance if this is off topic a little.. 

I have my 200 check processing but I could have sworn up and down it was either 225 or 250 but they say no. I have Uverse tv 300 and I ordered online. does anyone remember what the deal was?  

[donatom3]

Supposed to be two $100 items and one $50 item if you ordered the triple pack.  I got the online sales girl to committ to an extra $100. They had to redo my order because of my number porting request.  So the new sales rep said I'd get $200 in rebates and the extra $150 they'd do as a credit on my account.  Both $100 items were on my rewardscenter account and one has been mailed.  The $150 is already showing as a credit on my account.

[Uniblurb3 ACE - Guru]

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mesrep wrote:

I hate to start yet another thread about the rebate so forgive me in advance if this is off topic a little.. 

I have my 200 check processing but I could have sworn up and down it was either 225 or 250 but they say no. I have Uverse tv 300 and I ordered online. does anyone remember what the deal was?  

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Every deal is different. Even though it maybe advertised as a certain deal/package prices can vary. $225 in rebates sounds like an odd amount. Would guess either $200 or $250. Also instead of rebates they can give you more off of your discounted promotional price depending on what you and sales works out. Did you order any other services along with U300 and what would they be?

Donatom3 hit the jackpot  so I would not gauge what you received compared to his massive rebates/credits.  

[mesrep]

The thing is.... before I sign anything, order anything install anything etc I read the fine print. The problem is my memory is crap and I can't remember what that fine print said! but I know I would not have signed up if it wasn't anything but a check back. So my guess is it's 250 but somehow didn't receive the 50.00 I also signed up for Uverse Internet as well. 

[mibrnsurg ACE - Geek]

In the future, don't be afraid to save the website for later reference, it could come in very handy as they do change the terms w/each change in promos, etc.

Chris

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Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-800-983-2811 to avoid Mr. Voice Recognition
YRMV IMHO