Has anyone had AT&T come and dig up your yard? (San Antonio: house, landscaping)

[tberryrocks]

Hello San Antonio CDers. I have been reading your posts since moving here several months ago and have enjoyed the forum but this is my first post, so please go easy on me .

AT&T (or a sub/contractor for AT&T) notified us that they needed to dig up our yard to repair line(s) that ran beneath our property. It has been over a week since they have done the repair but no one has come to return our yard (sod/grass) back to the condition it was before they dug. We live in a new neighborhood and had a beautiful yard with healthy grass and now there is dirt and no grass in 20% of our front lawn. When I called AT&T's toll free customer service number this evening, I kept getting passed around and no one seemed to be able or willing to direct me in the right direction since I am not a customer.

Has anyone had a similar experience with AT&T? If so, what was the outcome? Or, does anyone work for (or have an in at) AT&T and can advise the correct department/contact info to lodge an inquiry or complaint about this type of issue?

Thanks in advanced for your input!

[2DMaxx]

If they came and buried fiber from the street to my house I would be willing to do the finish work. (j/k) I envy newer neighborhoods that have fiber to the house. Why did they dig?? I have ATT&T U-verse and they just use the existing cable network from the street.

[TX_AGGIE13]

Do you have service with them? They are not a govt. entity therefore do not have iminent domain over your property. If they dug my yard up and didn't fix it I'd go take a few of their poles down..... Landscaping isn't cheap.

[catriona]

Call the repair number and try to get through to a live body. Tell them the problem and see if you can pin them down to when they will come out and finish the job. Speak to a supervisor if you can or ask them to call you back. You just have to keep after them to come complete the job. Same would go for CPS or TWC. Document everything you do. If you can't get it resolved, call the TV stations! They always seem to get action!

[mojokitty]

Yes, they have dug up our yard. If we didn't love Uverse so much, we SO wouldn't be using ATT! They "fixed" our phone when we first moved in, it wasn't actually fixed, they dug our yard up, it took them a couple of weeks to come back and repair it. Really, all they do is bury the line. they take this little stick thing and bury the line with it.

Since our phone didn't work we had to use our cell phones for everything, it ran us about $100 or so over what we normally pay for our cell phones (since we were calling all types of places trying to set things up being just moved in and all). THEN ATT charged us our monthly fee which we didn't even use because they didn't provide the service! We should have fought it more, but at that time...our move was very stressful and we were just glad to have a phone. Good luck! They will be back...eventually.

[Bowie]

Originally Posted by TX_AGGIE13

Do you have service with them? They are not a govt. entity therefore do not have iminent domain over your property. If they dug my yard up and didn't fix it I'd go take a few of their poles down..... Landscaping isn't cheap.

That's really bad advice. If AT&T has a utility easement and underground lines, they have the right to dig. In neighborhoods with buried utilities, how would they get to their underground cables if they couldn't dig?

[sarahdsmom]

Yes, they should have left a card or notice with a number to call. They were quick to come out and fix our huge hole and put sod down where needed. They even did a portion they didn't dig, it was just a bare spot where the grass had died!

[wCat]

Look up the Public Utilities Commission online or call them. Ask them what your rights are and how to respond to this problem if you can't get through to AT&T.
I had to call them concerning AT&T (when it was SBC) and they responded quickly by email.

[cr1039]

They dug up my yard a few months ago.

I told them there was no way I was letting them in unless they told me in advnaced when they would re sod.

They did in fact re sod about a week after the digging - that late becuase of weather problems.

[hadleyzoo]

Grrrr...I had this happen to me 4 years ago. I came home to find my recently sodded yard all tore up. I called AT&T because their contractor left me a note, I called them, and they said AT&T requested them to dig. I said that I understood they had work to do, but whatever happened to common courteousy? They said because I live on an easement they are not required to call me to tell me they are coming to dig or get my permission. I told them I realize they don't need my permission nor are REQUIRED, but would expect that SOME amount of common courteousy would be given to at least let me know so when I come home I don't have a heart attack with what they did to my yard. AT&T got really ugly with me...so I canceled my service (phone) with them. You can't afford me some common courteousy, then I'm not going to afford you with my business. The contractor did come back a few days later though and did an excellent job in picking up all the rocks that were dug up and putting all my sod back neatly.