Customers complain of AT&T U-verse outages
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(Updated 4:28 p.m.) AT&T U-verse customers in Atlanta and other parts of the network blasted the company on social media Tuesday with complaints of outages to their high-speed Internet, digital TV and home phone services.
The company said problem, blamed on a computer server, is believed to have affected fewer than 6,000 of its millions of customers in the Southeast and Southwest.
In addition to complaints in metro Atlanta, problems were reported as far west as Texas and Oklahoma, and south as Florida. Customers vented on Twitter and Facebook about being without U-verse service for hours. They were also angry about long waits on the phone with AT&T customer service.
Tweeted @GSUAmanda: “@Uverse We’ve been patient, we know your “techs/engineers” are working, we know you’re sorry. Give us something we DON’T know. #uverse”
Some customers reported that problems with U-verse began Monday, although AT&T said it was difficult to say exactly when the problems began.
Customer Tamara Robison of Duncanville, Texas, complained Monday on Facebook: “This was my day off and no TV or internet for 9 hours now. No explanation and no expected time for it to be fixed. This is unacceptable. No inauguration for me.”
Asked @EricRitchie on Twtter, “@ATT Will I be receiving a credit for the inconvenience? @uverse is far too expensive to be shorted service availability.”
AT&T spokesman Lance Skelly told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution no plan had been worked out so far about credits to accounts. He also said AT&T doesn’t know when the “complicated fix” to a server that supports the U-verse system will be completed.
“We have been working around the clock and are making progress on resolving the issue,” Skelly said. “We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers.”
The spokesman said only “a limited number of AT&T customers in some markets” were affected.
That was little consolation to customers who took to Twitter to complain. “It’s been over 24 hours without TV thanks to #Uverse #at&t so annoyed!!” tweeted @nancyozon
On Facebook, Courtney Crawford posted: “I live in NC and I’ve been without Internet for 24 hours possibly more, I was told it would be back up in 6 hours but obviously not, I have a fiancé overseas and I can’t even talk to him!!!!”
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179 comments Add your comment
PEACHES
January 22nd, 2013
1:16 pm
the only time my service goes out is when i fail to pay my bill:)!!!
Richard
January 22nd, 2013
1:18 pm
12 hour outage starting with intermittent TV outage around 10PM last night. Tethered to 4g but no VPN and intermittent drop of net. Work from home not very good day. Was working at 2am and just finished submitting a job when router reset itself. I hate uVerse, nothing but trouble from day one. My only other choice is comcast….no way. And just opened email my ATT bill is ready for viewing.
Bobsie
January 22nd, 2013
1:18 pm
Why is it when their is a legitimate operational problem whether public or private under discussion, the rubes have to jump in with their irrelevant political jabs.
Randall Stephenson
January 22nd, 2013
1:18 pm
Don’t blame me, i only get 26 million a year in pay
LydiasDad
January 22nd, 2013
1:19 pm
When you go with AT&T, you can expect notoriously bad customer service, whether it’s phone, internet, TV, or credit card.
Tech Man
January 22nd, 2013
1:20 pm
Uverse has been fine for me.
Mitt
January 22nd, 2013
1:22 pm
Getting a taste how a republican CEO runs his company..
Uverse veteran
January 22nd, 2013
1:22 pm
What company has never had a customer care complaint? I will have been a Uverse customer 5 years in April. They have resolved every issue in a reasonalbe time frame. With Comcast I prayed that when I scheduled service the guy would show up just because they did not actually schedule the call. Or, have my neighbor stand up Comcast, not actually schedule me and the guy stood in my yard for an hour waiting on dispatch, but couldn’t help me. With Uverse I have been sent across the ocean for help and then been hung up on being transferred back to Tier 2 in the states. But I called back, pressed 0 and got a live person and asked to be sent to Tier 2 – no problem. Every TIer 2 person has been helpful and sincere. Tier 1 acrros the ocean knows as much as me, but takes 4 times as much time to figure out the problem while they read from a script. As if there is a Randy in a call center in India…
amy
January 22nd, 2013
1:27 pm
My uverse internet/home phone have been out over 24 hrs. Stayed on the line for 30 min last night and 45 today begging for an appt with a technivcian just in case mine was do to remodeling. ATT won’t even allow me to make a flipping appt with a tech b/c i’m in the outage area. So, if it all comes back on and I’m still out of service I have to place a 3rd call (another 45 min?) to request an appt which will take at least 24 to fill. Did I mention I work from home? Come on ATT come up with something more efficient for small business owners….
Really
January 22nd, 2013
1:31 pm
It’s hard to get a problem solved when your customer service reps. are located in the Phillipines. They have no clue what is going on in the US. AT&T, can you get some real help?
Wallstreeter
January 22nd, 2013
1:35 pm
No problems here! Have had UVerse for over 3 years and been very pleased. Cannot recall more than one or two small problems and they were fixed in a few hours. If they could bring the cost of their voip phone service down to a more competitive level I would switch in a minute.
DP
January 22nd, 2013
1:37 pm
amy brings up another point on how these telecommunications oligopolies (and the giant companies in many other industries) do business. Simply calling and getting to talk to a live body is typically a 15-20 minute exercise at a minimum and more often 30 minutes to an hour or more; you have to figure out your way through a series of menus that are apparently designed to make it as hard as possible to reach an actual person, then you generally get to listen to elevator music for awhile, periodically interrupted by a computer voice telling you how many others are waiting in front of you to talk to a near minimum wage employee.
And then if you’re really unlucky, you get somebody in India who knows little other than how to repeat back everything you say to them.
“My internet service is out.”
“So if I understand you, your internet service is out. Is that correct?”
In other news today, ATT is buying the assets of Alltel. Consumers, you may try to run from ATT or Comcast but you can’t hide.
TheAmish1
January 22nd, 2013
1:42 pm
1st, for the mouth breather complaining about union labor, the uverse side of the house is mostly non-union. 2nd, people need to understand there is a difference between real internet and phone service as opposed to de-regulated broadband internet and phone service. Broadband is the entity that is failed and that is why some people are working and others are not. If you think it’s bad now, wait until it’s all move to de-regulated IP services
Paul
January 22nd, 2013
1:44 pm
A hearty AMEN to the useless AT&T sentiment. I am now entering my sixth year of reliably having ZERO Internet service (often accompanied by no phone) when it rains. A couple of years ago I sent President / CEO Randall Stephenson a “Christmas Card” at his home in Dallas noting our ongoing substandard service. Pretty much they are clueless on the best of days, from top to bottom. Well, except for BILLING – always prompt and efficient, but actual service not so much. Our service is all underground and our options are only the two worst providers on the planet. AT&T deserves first place on the incompetent list, however. Recently they told me that they do not support the use of Microsoft products – DUH? Nice try on the excuses. On the bright side, I get refunds any month that it rains, and lately we’ve been quite dry.
Pearl
January 22nd, 2013
1:46 pm
people who are switching…..are you going to switch every time service goes out…sheesh such cry babies….
BUFF007
January 22nd, 2013
2:00 pm
I had to call the Public Service Commission on them 2 times. I also called the FCC in Washington about uverse. It was the worst experience that i have ever had with a cable/satelite provider. Do yourself a favor and get them out of your home.
Don Coyote
January 22nd, 2013
2:18 pm
“We know that a limited number of AT&T customers in some markets are experiencing issues with U-verse service,”
I’m calling BS on this one. At 2am their tech told me that the bulk of 13 states were out and portions of other states as well. Mine was out from 12:30am until 11:00 am. ATT is not being forthcoming here as something major was going on for that many subnets to be down. That was enough to involve tens of thousands of switches and routers.
Alan Barnes
January 22nd, 2013
2:19 pm
This is typical of U verse, Very undependable. Customer service always takes at least an hour to reach on the phone. Will be looking at Charter for an alternative.
dough
January 22nd, 2013
2:22 pm
U-verse is terrible
Cassandra
January 22nd, 2013
2:29 pm
I live in the Austell area and my Cable, Internet and phone have been down going on two weeks now. They said it’s an outage in my area and that they are waiting on parts to come in to repair it. I think this bull, it does not take this long to fix an outage. We have to
12 yard bucket
January 22nd, 2013
2:32 pm
if you ain’t with Directv, you are wasting your time and money…easily the best option for television…
ELS
January 22nd, 2013
2:37 pm
When we called early Monday, and they ran their tests that they run, they said it had to be a problem on our end. A service technician was supposed to be here, but never showed or called. I guess now I know why. We’ve been out for 36 hours here at my house. I have to give them credit, though, because We’ve had U-verse almost 2 years now, and this has never happened more than 1 hour once or twice a year before now.
Uverser Cust
January 22nd, 2013
2:43 pm
10per keep pushing the fast forward button and it gets faster and faster. Watch the forward arrows on the bottom, they go from 2 to 3, 4 or more arrows as it gets faster.
Uverser Cust
January 22nd, 2013
2:46 pm
10 per – keep pushing the forward button and it gets faster and faster. Watch the arrows on the bottom go from 2 to 3 or more.
add14jazz
January 22nd, 2013
2:48 pm
I was in Sandy Springs, watching the Falcons game Sunday with friends when one of the outages occurred! Sunday! And then at home this morning in Sandy Springs, another outage. What’s going on , ATT&T????
Suber
January 22nd, 2013
2:48 pm
My UVerse never gives me any issues but of all days I really to be working. Hate going to the office. I NEED MY UVERSE back uo and working–Lithonia
markie mark
January 22nd, 2013
2:57 pm
Auntie Christ, as always, you are a liberal’s liberal….and I would take that risk if the govt would quit taxing me and let me hire my own fire and police protection. I am not stupid enough to not pay the bill (and yes, I know you are referring to the township that let the house burn down because the homeowner thought they could not pay the bill and still get service – thats called they gambled and lost.)
MB
January 22nd, 2013
2:58 pm
I have had issues with U-Verse from the very beginning which is why i switched my TV back to Directv. If I had another option for internet I would change that too but since I live out in the country, they are my only option unless i decide to go with satellite.
AT&T not only has the worst service of any provider… Their customer service is even worst. I can not wait until I have no products from AT&T.
Atlantarama
January 22nd, 2013
2:59 pm
Any cable company will have problems now and then. I’ve had no problems with U-Verse myself, and have never regretted switching away from Comcast.
no mo
January 22nd, 2013
2:59 pm
ATT / Uverse—absolutely the worst customer service of any big company I have ever dealt with. Clueless people on the phone, a bunch of morons who come to your house for “repairs” — they have n idea what they are doing. I dropped them last year and went with satellite TV and internet–better and cheaper.
Don
January 22nd, 2013
3:07 pm
Should have built a digital antenna like I did. Free TV 24/7!
Gerry Simmons
January 22nd, 2013
3:26 pm
Wow – you guys have no idea how lucky you are – you should have Windstream!
Me
January 22nd, 2013
3:33 pm
I love AT&T Uverse and have never had a problem in the year that I’ve had it. It has never gone out. Hmmm – maybe if these people had JOBS they wouldn’t know their service was out and would come home to it working about you would NEVER know.
Stuart
January 22nd, 2013
3:38 pm
Have had satelite INTERNET and both DirectTV and Dish and everytime the weather brought rain clouds I lost service and nothing could be done. I was out many times with all three. HughesNet was terrible as anytime you used more than a certain amount of service it shut you down and you had to wait 24 hours before it returned or pay to have it restored immediately. Only problem was that in complaining and following I found out their record keeping was incorrect and I should not have lost service. I have had U-verse for 1 1/2 years and this is the second outage I have had. Everyone I work with, we all work from home, that has a different service has been out many times in that 1 1/2. U-verse has been great. DirectTV told us that our contract was over and when we tried to leave they said we had two years on it because we got a new DVR. This was not the truth as the DVR we received was a used and was verified used by a tech. If they send a used DVR they cannot extend the contract. This has been an issue with DirecTV for many years. I have switched between DirecTV and Dish when contracts expired because of customer service. U-verse has given the best service of all.
Suzy
January 22nd, 2013
3:42 pm
To Me, I happen to have a “JOB” which requires me to work from home therefore I am reliant on AT&T to be up and running at all times.
renee
January 22nd, 2013
3:45 pm
I wonder how many of these ‘happy customer’ posts are real? I work for a large company in cobb county and several coworkers have Uverse and every one of them hate it. They all have several issues, constantly. My neighborhood was ‘test’ site for this product about 2 years when it was being rolled and we are one of the few that refused to join the cattle call. None of our neighbors are happy with AT&T. The service techs have stolen good cabling and replaced it with crappy cables, service is slow and inconsistents, remotes don’t work, etc…. Not to mention that if you have AT&T cell service in our neighbor, those in the ‘valley’ section can’t get cell reception, but I can on my Verizon phone !!!
MHS
January 22nd, 2013
3:50 pm
They spent their money on the inauguration versus customer service. Karma.
brockep
January 22nd, 2013
4:05 pm
I have had Uverse for about 1.5 yrs, and until today, zero problems. Mine was out from 7 to 9 this morning, and then I left for work. Came home at 330 and it’s back. Pretty minor compared to the previous frequent Dish weather outages.
And no, I’m not a paid shill, just an honest customer that only complains when it’s warranted.
jim
January 22nd, 2013
4:05 pm
I am on a 32 Meg per second ATT line and it has never ever gone down in 7 years. ATT customer service actually answers the phone- as opposed to Comtrash.
Rags5930
January 22nd, 2013
4:07 pm
Have had U-verse for about 3 – 4 years now – one of their “original” customers, I believe. In these 3 – 4 years, we have only had 2 outages of more than 2 hours – and, AT&T customer service was very prompt and good about walking me through the trouble-checking procedures. The first time, when they realized it was a problem with our line in our neighborhood, they sent technicians out who re-ran all of the lines in our neighborhood – it took them 2 days, but they constantly kept us up to date on when they would be done. Before U-verse, we had Charter (yucky#!*) – it was down at least 3 – 4 times PER WEEK!! And, we only had about 70 channels to surf, as opposed to the hundreds we have with U-verse! We have been VERY pleased with our service!
Native Atlantan
January 22nd, 2013
4:08 pm
Uverse is tolerable…quite expensive, and a pain when it goes out, but in our experience it’s a lot better than Comcast and DirecTV. Nothing’s worse than Comcrapstic.
JT
January 22nd, 2013
4:15 pm
All of my uverse services working in Athens but my neighbors on each side of me are out of service. Strange. I have had uverse for 2 1/2 years and have never had a problem.
Julie
January 22nd, 2013
4:23 pm
Not the least bit surprised. I’ve heard that AT&T is the worst at customer service. I left them years ago and it appears things haven’t changed
Kathy
January 22nd, 2013
4:25 pm
I live in Little Rock AR and we have no service!
ERM
January 22nd, 2013
4:36 pm
Never had a real problem with u-verse until last night after almost two years. Chatted online with customer care (who has always been helpful whenever I’ve talked with them for whatever reason) and they quickly told me what was going on. They even credited me $10.00 for the inconvenience.
Janet
January 22nd, 2013
4:42 pm
After years being a satisfied customer of Comcast here in Georgia we switched to AT&T because of rising cost of Comcast. My Comcast never went out in the 12 yrs I had it. I felt relieved knowing that in case of bad weather that we get here that my Comcast would be there. We switched to AT&T unfortunatly yesterday at 11:30 AM and loss TV/internet at 6:30pm and still did not have service at 10am when I left the house today. I read many posts here and hope I don’t regret the move, not a happy new customer right now.
BetterThanTheAlternative
January 22nd, 2013
4:45 pm
Auntie Christ – another imbecile Obama voter, probably.
You think nationalizing those businesses would somehow make them immune to occasional hardware failures? Have you seen how efficient the Post Office and DMV are?
The Italian national phone service was so atrocious that the moment cell phones were offered by private cell service companies, the majority of callers in the country switched over.
A monopoly provider is NEVER better than free market competition. If you disagree, feel free to move to North Korea and put your looney liberal idiot theories to the test.
ATT Lover
January 22nd, 2013
4:48 pm
U Verse BLOWS the competition away and I love them even IF there are periodic outages. Much better than Comcast or Direct for sure.
I know technology too and when I call, they are very pro active and responsive.
Madmax
January 22nd, 2013
4:50 pm
You want a real problem ISP try Charter, they are the bottom of the barrel! I wish I could get u-verse or comcast.
Pete
January 22nd, 2013
4:51 pm
Ronald Reagan posted on January 22nd, 2013 @ 11:36 am: “Welcome to the Liberal work force. Let the others pull the load & it pays the same!” What does this mean? This Uverse problem is neither liberal or conservative. Other posters here have complained about the service at AT&T or Comcast and then in the last sentence blamed it on Obama. These folks are examples of the all-too-prevalent herd-following individuals who infest the political landscape today!