AT&T Broadband is EVIL and all their employees should be knawed on by jackles

[sunstruck]

For the last 7 months I have been battling with them over porn ($70-$90 A MONTH) on my bill that we DID NOT order. I have filled out Pay-per-view dispute forms (4 times) and not received ONE response or acknowledgement and no matter how many supervisors I talk to they all spew forth the same BS line.

"We can't credit you for pay-per-view movies unless you call us durning the movie to tell us there is a problem"

BUT I'M NOT ORDERING THE MOTHER FUCKING MOVIES!!!!!

I've had it. I was in tears today.

Does anyone know the draw backs if any to satelite? Apparently I have to take Broadband to court.

I need a drink.

 

[lavender]

 

[Nora]

Have a lawyer send a letter. It might not help, but it never hurts.

 

[sunstruck]

I'm so angry I went into my basement and screamed for 10 minutes. I never get this angry.

You want to know what it is? I feel small and helpless and I HATE that!

 

[lavender]

 

[sunstruck]

I called my lawyer when I got home and left a message.

The worst part is I live in an historic district, so the odds of me being able to get a salelite dish are slim (unless I have my father pull some major strings and I'd hate to do that). So I would have to fight them too because there is only ONE cable company for my town and most of Cape Cod.

How fucked up is that?

 

[lavender]

 

[lovetoread]

The sats do that too.

We cancelled the Direct Tv service,they came and picked it all up,and then 2 months later we get a bill saying we owed 200 in movies that we supposedly watched after they took it all away.

Since they make you sign papers proving you turned in the equipment,there was the proof needed to show them that we didnt do it.

They never admitted that they were wrong,but a year...thats right, a year later,we got a letter saying we may not have to pay it after all,and then nothing.

Not a peep out of them.

 

[Lancecastor]

I used to work for the DeathStar aka SuperHappyMegaCorp and once you are in their billing computer, you are....now this is a technical term, so write this down: fucked.

"Thank you for choosing AT&T. Please continue to hold....."

 

[sunstruck]

Lance, you actually worked for AT & T Broadband?

 

[Lancecastor]

Lance, you actually worked for AT & T Broadband?

Not for Broadband, no...AT&T yes...different division, same evil plot.

 

[peachykeen]

I just knew you were a stormtrooper.

 

[sunstruck]

Ahhh. Thanks anyway. I was hoping you'd know if they were lying to me when they said there was no possible way these movies were NOT ordered through my remote control.

I KNOW they are lying. I just wanted confirmation. lol

 

[FunJohnny]

Not all that uncommon, actually.

Two things:

lavender: love the AV... that is hilarious and sexy at the same time... is that you, and will I find more pics posted on Lit?

sunstruck: I live in "the Largest Town in Indiana"... considered part of Chicagoland. It's a town, not a city, mind you... but it is larger (both in square miles and population) than probably at least 25% of the cities in the state. Anyways... the only reasonable internet access I can get is dial-up. This SUCKS. Neither Cable NOR DSL are available to my home. The only other alternative would be Satellite Internet. I checked the pricing on that one day, just to see what it would cost, annually:

$300 installation
$350 equipment
$69.95/month, 12-month commitment minimum

Totaled, that comes to $1489.40... for basically the same services as cable/dsl... I'm not going to pay that... so here I am, dialing-up every day. :-/

I sincerely wish you good luck in your quest.... Make the bastards pay.

FJ

 

[Lancecastor]

The remote control is neither a direct path to the billing db nor the only way entries can be made to the db.

Go to the website and find out who the VP of CS is and call his/her Asst , get their fax number for him/her and write a letter explaining in 1 page or less your concern and ask he/she reply in writing pointing you to the person you can call to fix this mistake. Say please and how much you love AT&T. Be nice and they'll fix it.

Ahhh. Thanks anyway. I was hoping you'd know if they were lying to me when they said there was no possible way these movies were NOT ordered through my remote control.

I KNOW they are lying. I just wanted confirmation. lol

 

[Lancecastor]

I just knew you were a stormtrooper.

You know...you look a bit like Princess Lay-a yourself, PK...

 

[peachykeen]

You know...you look a bit like Princess Lay-a yourself, PK...

damn I am too drunk and sleepy to figure out if I should be insulted, flattered, or turned on by this, or all three.

 

[Lancecastor]

damn I am too drunk and sleepy to figure out if I should be insulted, flattered, or turned on by this, or all three.

It wasn't an insult....

 

[peachykeen]

Oh how nice for me, then.

funny, I was looking at my shadow earlier today and thinking it was leia... laya, whatever the fuck... ish, cuz I had my hair incurly pigtials on wither side of my head today and a long skirt on and I pointed it out to my husband and said "help me obi wan". What a cowinkidink.

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

Does anyone know the draw backs if any to satelite?

The main drawbacks to satellite TV are:

1) Depending on where you are, you may not get local channels at all. I am with Direct TV and they only carry local channels in the bit city markets. So if you are in a small enough community, you might only get local coverage for some very large city hundreds of miles away. I get Seattle channels, and that is what I want, but there are still holes in the local coverage. For me that is okay as the local channels suck for the most part, and I only want them for the Fox and UPN coverage (Futurama, Simpsons and Enterprise) and for PBS. Unfortunately the PBS feed here sucks.

2) You might see some interference from heavy rain - the cat and dog kind. In the winter I have to keep the dish clear of snow, but that only happens two or three times a year.

3) You absolutely need a good view to the satellite. This cannot be faked and anything can interfere with this from a chain link fence to a tree. It must be line of sight and it must be clear. For most people the line of sight is to the southeast, but it varies a bit depending on where you are. Be aware of possible obstructions - people have bought the system and had it work fine in the winter, only to have a tree in the way in the summer sprout leaves and cutoff their reception.

4) You probably will need to drill a hole in your wall to bring the cable in, although there are adapters to bring the cable in through a window sill (I use one). The cable is not typical RG 58U cable, but a different cable for satellite dishes only and this cannot be substituted.

The best way is to mount the dish is to put it on a pole in cement in the ground, but you can also put it almost anywhere else. I recommend a dual LNB system, and I recommend the systems that have a little LED on the LNB for aiming the dish - it makes it a lot easier to aim it.

5) Make sure they have the channels you want - DTV, who is the main player in the US (and who is buying out Echostar/Dish) doesn't carry every channel. For the longest time I couldn't get UPN. Channel selection has improved and you can now get just about every HBO/Showtime/etc. channel. They really push the pay per view, but that can easily be turned off. If you don't hook it into the phone line then you won't be able to use Pay per view unless you go to the web site or call them. I don't use pay per view at all and have had no problems at all in this regard. Be careful about buying a used system - some have unpaid PPV events still on the card, and to get them activated you will have to pay for those PPV events.

6) On my system, I can only go about 36 hours into the future to see what is on. I can program 10 events for any date and time, but to look at what is showing then I can only see 36 hours into the future unless I go to the website, and that is not a very good interface. I want an Ultimate TV system (digital video recorder) which gives you two sat. receivers, instant playback, etc. - like Tivo. I imagine this would be a better system for finding out what is on in the future too.

You probably will want to decide if you want HDTV from your sat. receiver before you buy it, and what kind of HDTV you want (progressive, interlaced, etc.), and you will probably need both LNBs to feed the HDTV, and/or a special dish - definitely a special receiver. Do a lot research if you want to go this route.

What do I like about sat. TV?

1) 99.9% of the time the reception is excellent.

2) I get about 100 channels of CD quality stereo music (which I am listening to right now).

3) The ability to look and see what is on in the future, who is staring in it, when it was filmed, and sometimes even who directed the film, is great. You don't get all of that all of the time - and sometime the info is wrong or missing, but most of the time it is great.

4) I get pretty much what I want, HBO, educational/science/history/discovery channels, lots of news channels, Speedvision, some assorted movie channels, music, etc. all for $50. They only have too erotic channels, Playboy and that other one that Playboy just bought, and those are mostly PPV, so I don't view them. If you or your SO is into sports (I'm not) then there are hundreds of sports channels.

5) I can program the system to come on or switch to whatever show I want to watch, so I rarely miss anything. Combined with something like Tivo or UTV, it would almost be video on demand. I even use it for an alarm clock in the morning on that rare morning when I need it to wake me up; I just leave the stereo on low, and program the sat. RX to come on with a soft music channel at the particular time I want to wake up. Works great and does jar me out of sleep.

Satellite internet access is a whole different can of worms - I have that too.

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

The only other alternative would be Satellite Internet. I checked the pricing on that one day, just to see what it would cost, annually:

$300 installation
$350 equipment
$69.95/month, 12-month commitment minimum

Totaled, that comes to $1489.40... for basically the same services as cable/dsl... I'm not going to pay that... so here I am, dialing-up every day. :-/

Yes, but it is so much better than dialup. I have Starband, and so far I like it - but if you want to go with them you should be aware that they have filed in bankruptcy court. It looks like they might survive, but it is something to know before you buy.

Also, it is not as good as either cable or DSL. If I could get either of those I would, and not only are they better, but they are cheaper too. Finally, upload speed pretty much sucks. That is no big deal for me, but forget about file sharing, hosting a website on your machine, or VPN.

Still, it is a lot better than dialup. Starband may be in financial trouble, but their competitor, Direct PC, has a Fair Use Policy, where they cut you back after downloading/uploading so many megabytes. At least with SB I can download to my hearts content.

 

[freakygirl]

Ummm

STG beat me to everything I was going to say.

I had sat hooked up a little over a month ago. I will NEVER go back to AT & T Broadband. If the dish doesn't work out there will never be tv in my house again.

I cancelled cable on 9-3-02 but on 9-15-02 I got a bill. I called AT&T about it, they had no record of me calling and cancelling. The woman was nice enough to go back and make the disconnect date the 3rd so I didn't have to pay for Septembers cable.

I have a $22 credit.. it's now mid October and I have yet to see my money. I don't expect to ever see it. And at this point I don't care.

They did call the other day and offered me $300 for sat dish. I thought about it.. because I didn't pay for the system. I got the dish, 3 recievers, installation and the first 4 months.. All free. And the place is still running the offer. I thought of selling the system to AT&T then calling the company that installed the dish and having them reinstall another system. I'd be up $300. But then I remembered the contract I signed.

 

[Bob Peale]

Ummm

STG beat me to everything I was going to say.

I had sat hooked up a little over a month ago. I will NEVER go back to AT & T Broadband. If the dish doesn't work out there will never be tv in my house again.

I cancelled cable on 9-3-02 but on 9-15-02 I got a bill. I called AT&T about it, they had no record of me calling and cancelling. The woman was nice enough to go back and make the disconnect date the 3rd so I didn't have to pay for Septembers cable.

I have a $22 credit.. it's now mid October and I have yet to see my money. I don't expect to ever see it. And at this point I don't care.

They did call the other day and offered me $300 for sat dish. I thought about it.. because I didn't pay for the system. I got the dish, 3 recievers, installation and the first 4 months.. All free. And the place is still running the offer. I thought of selling the system to AT&T then calling the company that installed the dish and having them reinstall another system. I'd be up $300. But then I remembered the contract I signed.

Whoa! Really? Dish or DirectTV?

 

[freakygirl]

Direct TV

 

[sunstruck]

I WON I WON I WON!!! Yay!

Ok, after 7 months I finally found someone at AT&T who actually has a work ethic and a drop of compassion.

Not only did she credit my account $342.43, she is having someone come out and put a "trap" on my line to make sure no adult movies can be ordered from my home, which means, if they ever show up on my bill again, the cable company will know immediately that it is their mistake.

The fucked up thing is I asked 7 months ago if such a thing were possible and the rep said nothing like that existed. According to the loverly Barbara, it has been available for years.

This is my problem with companies that expand too quickly. No one in their customer service department is properly trained because they need to get people on the phones ASAP to handle the load of calls. It's rediculous.

My husband worked CS for Gateway, back when they were MUCH smaller, and even then, people are trained more in call turnover, than actual customer service or technical assistance. There are specific phrases they are trained to repeat until the caller becomes frustrated enough to give up. How fucked up is that?

Ugh. Well, at least I got my money back and I don't have to go through the hell of fighting to get a satelite dish that probably wouldn't get great reception in my tree heavy homeland. lol

Yay Barbara!