ATT Yahoo DSL Horrible New Service Experience

June 19th - Ordered new phone & DSL service. I'm offered a new wireless modem/router for $80 with an $80 rebate and I decline it, since I already have a modem from when I had SBC/Yahoo before. Agent tells me the phone line will be active next day Friday June 20th, but DSL won't be active till Monday June 23rd. Ok.

June 23rd - late night, 10pm or so, and DSL is not working. Call tech support, and he says DSL went live on Saturday. His opinion is that the modem is too old, so we end the phone call on that.

June 24th - I call up ATT support to order a new modem and get the rebate, but I want to buy it from the store so I can immediately troubleshoot. Support person's computer is totally slow, she gets frustrated. She tells me I can't get the rebate if I buy it in-store, so I go ahead and order it even though it's going to take 2-3 days to get here. Then I get off the phone. (This is where, in hindsight, I think my order got reset for service to go live several days later - LAME!).

Well, I change my mind, and I don't want to wait that long, so I go to an ATT store and buy a modem for $55, call up ATT and cancel the wireless modem order, get home, hook up the new modem, and STILL no DSL service. I then call tech support back again and they say there is a service outtage in my area, and it will be back online after 1:30pm. I come home after 5pm and it doesn't work. It doesn't work the rest of the night. I call tech support AGAIN and now they say my service was never active but it's scheduled to be turned on Thursday June 26th. WOW - this sucks. I tell her to escalate this, and she says she will, but nobody is around until the morning. Ok.

June 25th - I call up again and support says nothing has been escalated, and service is slated to be turned on Thursday and there's nothing else she can do. She says maybe it might be turned on early but no guarantee. Lose. So late night, I test and it's still not working, and out of interest I call support again. This time a guy tells me that service was turned on Tuesday June 24th and it should be working. We go through the troubleshoot procedure and he says it's time to open a service repair ticket.

June 26th - Still not working in the morning. Internet support says there's no status on open ticket, and that I have to call 1-877-722-3755. Call the number and "real" tech support says they have been needing to actual physical work, and the line will be active by 8pm tonight, but I can call before 7pm and they will still be there. 8pm - still NOT working. Oh and by the way, they sent me the wireless modem anyway even after I cancelled the order. It arrived today at my front door. Now I'll have to try to return it and get the charge off my bill.

June 27th - Still NOT working. Call support and 3 people later, I get through to provisioning tech support, and she says that they have to do physical work to the line, and the order is officially open, but nobody will get to it today, but I will receive a phone call when it's done. So no DSL all weekend, and maybe something next Monday or Tuesday! NOT COOL!! I ask her what I am supposed to do Monday when it still doesn't work!? She says it will, but if it doesn't, then call back. Oh. Great!! Not! So I get off the phone having wasted a full 45 minutes on the phone over this round.

Well I'm a believer of being a squeeky wheel, and I do NOT believe anything of what ATT tells me now, so I call again on the way to work. This time I take a different route with the voice prompt system, through new service, tech support, technician visit requested, status, not working, etc.. And... I get through to THE most competent person so far. Thank god! He tells me the exact hardware that was needed to be installed, because the hardware installed for my phone line had been used for someone else! He then said that the order for work WAS initiated, but it had no due date set, so it could have taken FOREVER!!

He entered a due date for today, and within 2 hours, he called me back to tell me the work had been completed. I checked and FINALLY I got a solid green DSL light on the modem. SUCCESS!!

Dear ATT, you need to tighten and clean up your act. This has been a horrible experience.