We’ve lived lots of places and dealt with lots of service providers with results running the gamut from awesome to acceptable to downright shit. When we moved to Dayton we just signed up with Time Warner and all was well – a little pricey, but fine.
Last Summer we got our HDTV and were less than impressed with Time Warner’s lineup. Not many HD offerings and some glaring omissions – like NBC in HD. Still we stuck with it mostly out of convenience and partially because of the standard promises of more to come. So over the past 15 months we see channels being dropped and replaced with ridiculous shit no one watches, still no more HD, not a lot to like, more price increases – but still we stick with them.
Then a week or two ago news break on how Time Warner and WDTN (our local NBC affiliate) can’t come to an agreement on a contract renewal and that on October 2nd we’d be potentially losing NBC too. Now I know this is unlikely (I’m not sure TW is dumb enough to let their customers go without NBC. But then again, they let us go without a basic network HD signal, so maybe they are that stupid…we’ll see.)
In the meantime I’ve been keeping my eye on AT&T U-verse. It looks like a solid service for a decent price using some fun technology and they were slowly getting it rolling in our area.
Cut to last week and things fell into place and we were placing our order with AT&T.
The installer dude showed up right on time this past Wednesday morning. He took a look at our place and the layout of things and was going to need access to the cable box on the side of the building – which was locked by Time Warner. So while he began, I got hold of TW and explained how they sucked and need to get here to open the box for the AT&T guy. After a long fight, they relented and said someone would be out, but they couldn’t guarantee when.
The AT&T dude got the big TV up and running and the internet as well, but couldn’t do any of the upstairs TVs because he was going to backfeed using the coax and needed into the box (locked by TW) to do it. So he hung around a bit and finally bailed for his afternoon appointment and I agreed to call him after TW has come and unlocked the box. He assured me that it’d be just 10 or 15 minutes to get the other TV’s working once we had access.
TW showed up late in the afternoon and I gave him a call and we agreed to finish Thursday morning. Cool.
Thursday morning he shows up, we get everything connected and…
…
…nothing.
He puts a call in to the level 2 support and does the whole thing on speakerphone so I heard it all. Basically the connections were all correct. There was no reason we should be getting service. After a while the support guy notices that no one put into the system that we should have 3 additional boxes. It should just be a matter of entering the info and letting it make it’s way though the system and then booting the set-top boxes. Cool again. The support guy says he’ll take all the necessary step to expidite it and it should be 2 or 3 hours. At that time he’d give the installer dude a ring, who in turn would be back to boot the boxes. After he hung up I informed him that I was more than capable of booting them (read: plugging them in) and the installer dude agreed to give me a call when he got his call…blah blah blah.
So a few hours pass. Nothing. Then a few more. Finally I cal the installer dude. He says he still hasn’t heard anyhting, but surely we’d be good to go. I booted the boxes. Nothing.
The installer dude said he’d get ahold of support and let me know. I never heard anything.
Late last night I said fuck it and tried again. The TV’s in the kids rooms booted, but the lock up after a few seconds and the TV in our room still won’t make a connection. Sigh.
So this morning I call the installer dude. He said he hadn’t heard anything back and was currently on an install. He asked what I had tried and I told him the deal. He seemed even more confused than before. He told me he’d stop by after his installs this evening if he finished early enough or tomorrow at the latest.
And that’s where things stand. I put my patience hat on and understand that shit happens, but it’s been 2 days since my ‘installation’ and I still only have 1 working TV and no real answers as to when or how the issues with the others will be resolved.
My patience hat ony has a few threads left…
The thing is, I really like the service. The picture is as good as or better than Time Warner’s in all cases and since it’s essentially a network, there’s lots of fun things you can do – like watch recorded shows from any TV with 1 DVR and customize weather, sports, stocks and traffic info to display on the TV and access the system from my desktop (or any PC) and set recordings or change things. Entry-level geek stuff that amuses me. I want the service. I like what I’ve seen so far. The channel offerings are superior to TW, the internet cnnection is faster and the price is about 25% less.
I’ll keep y’all updated.
So any update on your U-verse service?? I thought about getting it, but when I looked into it (admittedly about a year ago, so maybe things have changed?) I was told you were only allowed 4 TV signals per account, and only ONE of which was HD?!?
Now while I guess you could get multiple accounts (which presumably would cost a lot more), since I have 3 TV’s (two of which are HD) and 3 DVR’s, that would mean my 6 signals with Comcast (up to 4 being HD) wouldn’t quite equal the mere 4 offered with U-verse and only 1 being HD, so I passed.
But the set up you’re describing sounds like more than 4 signals (of course, the DVR being a separate signal if you’re recording, but watching something else). So does U-verse now offer more than 4 signals?? If I didn’t live in an apartment I’d totally get DirecTV, and I’m a little surprised you didn’t opt for that!?
I’ll have the final results later this afternoon.
Didn’t go with DirecTV for the same reasons as you. We live in a condo and it’s not the most practical option with the dish and all.
It’s now 8 TV’s per account. They claim you can record 4 things at once. Not sure how that translates to signals or bandwidth. No one mentioned any limit on HD. You get one DVR box (on the main TV) and since your TV setup is essentially a network, all TV’s can watch recordings from the main DVR.
Check back later and I’ll have the rest of the story shortly after it all finishes unfolding.
8 TV’s=8 signals for sure. When I was looking into U-verse I was told they’d be increasing the number of signals, but at the time people on various tech forums were claiming it hadn’t changed from 4 for a while.
But either way, 8 signals is pretty good, although I believe if your DVR is recording 4 things that will mean only 4 other TV’s can be used at once…still a deal considering 3 Comcast DVR’s (which can record 6 things at once) is $42!! My guess is you have at least 4 HD signals if not even 8 if you wanted given how common HD is now. Good luck!!
I so envy people who can get ‘real’ TV / Internet service.
I am stuck with Dish and DSL because I live in an unincorporated part of town and as far as I understand, in Illinois, the providers make deals with the companies for infrastructure upgrades. THey do not make deals with the county – only towns. SO I am hosed….no cable TV, cable internet… :P
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