AT&T U-verse vs Cox Cable. (San Diego: buy, movies)

[Clevelandgal]

Originally Posted by moved

Two of my neighbors have ATT U-Verse, but they don't have computers. They say it's ok, but customer service is terrible. I have Cox, and have no problems with it. I have hi-speed internet and basic cable, which runs me $65.07 per month.

If you have Cox Road Runner, you have a problem. Road Runner is through Time Warner.

whaaaa? we have COX basic cable (basic in my mind being tcm,history, discovery and what not but not HBO and all those sport and entertainment chanels)and wireless internet and are paying about $120.00. We barely even watch tv! The owner of our condo left a large screen HD TV...which we only watch the morning news on. I wonder if we are paying extra for HD? Please advise

[moved]

My bill is just under $77 per month. That's for basic cable $17.99), high speed internet ($45.99) and a landline ($6.84). With taxes and fees, my monthly bill is $76.96.

Basic cable doesn't include TCM, Discovery and History. That's called expanded basic, and I think it's about $39.99 per month.

Log into your Cox account and check your bill to see what you're paying for.

[AADAD]

I am very happy with U Verse. Super hi speed wireless works well. TV/DVR/ yada yada 300 channels. $107/mo. In addition when I call I get a real person within 2 clicks...solve the problems. Installation is on time and precise. No issues. Their introductory specials are good and you can bundle which also saves $$.

[whiteboyslo]

Super happy UVerse customer here. What I like over the cable companies ( Time Warner or Cox).

DVR can handle 4 recordings at once and has a way bigger hard drive.
I can control the DVR from any TV
Way nicer user interface
Never have internet issues. Not once.


Customer service has actually been pretty good imo. Yes, the waits can be forever, but no worse than the cable company. The people are always nice enough, and it seems like every time I call they have a new deal that gets me more stuff at a cheaper price. Love that!

Mike

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by whiteboyslo

Super happy UVerse customer here. What I like over the cable companies ( Time Warner or Cox).

DVR can handle 4 recordings at once and has a way bigger hard drive.
I can control the DVR from any TV
Way nicer user interface
Never have internet issues. Not once.


Customer service has actually been pretty good imo. Yes, the waits can be forever, but no worse than the cable company. The people are always nice enough, and it seems like every time I call they have a new deal that gets me more stuff at a cheaper price. Love that!

Mike

I'll never use ATT again. Some idiot with a huge moving truck plowed down our street ripping everyone's lines out. I called ATT and my phone comp even though the provider I used at the time only leased the lines. I told them you have lines down all up and down the street. My neighbor who is elderly was freaking out at what happened and thought someone might get hurt. All the service reps and sups could screech at me is that they would hook me back up for around 100 bucks as I was liable for the line from the house to the pole. I explained that I know my rights and I had better have 911 service shortly. This was to both providers yet both wanted me to shell out a hundred bucks to get hooked back up.

I was fuming at this point. Within one hour a TW truck was out front hooking up damaged lines. I talked to him about the mess and he said he'd hook me up and wave the install fees. Done deal and now I have unlimited long distance calling at a reasonable price especially since I could now bundle services.

The irony is that within 48 hours ATT and the other isp were trying to contact me every way possible to get me back as a customer. I told them the same thing, "I wouldn't use you again if it was free".

[jarfykk]

Most people think U-Verse is DSL because for most people, it is DSL. For over 90% of their installation, AT&T runs fiber to the node (FTTN)--those green junction boxes you see on the street, and then goes over copper (i.e. old phone wire) for the last few hundred feet to your house. There are instances where you get fiber to the home (FTTH), like the person below says they have. But for the vast majority, it is running over copper wires in either ADSL2+ or VDSL configurations. Much different than your grandma's DSL from a decade (or even 3-4 years) ago, but certainly still DSL.

That said, it is still a fine service from a technical point of view (good box, good speed, stable) coupled with typical AT&T customer service. Had zero issues with my service other than price increases that I didn't consider worth it. Just compare your options and realize that once it is setup and working, and the bill is correct, your interaction with customer service *should* be minimal.

Originally Posted by Coto

Most of the answers I see posted when people want to compare AT&T U-verse to anything are INACCURATE.

It seems most people think U-verse is DSL.

Here is the TRUTH. Depending upon where you live, you may have AT&T's older DSL service which used your homes copper phone lines. Most new areas where U-verse has recently become available is cable. Exactly like Cox and others. They use fiber in the street right to your home. In fact, where I live in So. Cal. Cox laid fiber in the streets and began offering broadband cable in 1996. AT&T U-Verse only became available in my area in 2011. I switched from Cox to U-verse after being with Cox since 1993. I stood and watched when my U-Verse was connected outside to my home. I even had to guide the installer. They took the Cox fiber from the street to my Cox utility closet and merely disconnected it from the Cox junction box and hooked the same cable to run U-verse. As for TV and the cable boxes, AT&T has a much better picture quality and much better quad tuner box with a 500 GB drive. You won't fill it. Cox uses terrible Motorola boxes with bad picture and the DVR's don't Lways work. Odd since my U-verse box is also Motorola. Cox also uses a 160gb drive which you could fill in 2 days. As for Internet, Cox wins because you can use a current Docsis 2 or 3 Modem. AT&T use a 2Wire router/modem. A piece of junk. I have concluded, get U-verse TV with Cox Internet. Phone service, if you even want it is a toss up. Both are now digital. So everyone stop thinking U-verse is only DSL. It's now fiber cable in most areas that just got it.

[oddstray]

We are forced to work with AT&T for my sister's account up in Woodland. She has mental health issues, and can only tolerate limited stress. Not too long ago, my DH sorted out her service (which had been out for months because she felt traumatized by trying, herself, to work with AT&T. By the time he managed to get things sorted out, he told her that trauma was in no way her mental health issues showing up ... he could barely tolerate it himself!!!

It may be unfair to judge local AT&T service by Woodland's, but it does make us decide to avoid AT&T as much as possible.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by Coto

Most of the answers I see posted when people want to compare AT&T U-verse to anything are INACCURATE.

It seems most people think U-verse is DSL.

Here is the TRUTH. Depending upon where you live, you may have AT&T's older DSL service which used your homes copper phone lines. Most new areas where U-verse has recently become available is cable. Exactly like Cox and others. They use fiber in the street right to your home. In fact, where I live in So. Cal. Cox laid fiber in the streets and began offering broadband cable in 1996. AT&T U-Verse only became available in my area in 2011. I switched from Cox to U-verse after being with Cox since 1993. I stood and watched when my U-Verse was connected outside to my home. I even had to guide the installer. They took the Cox fiber from the street to my Cox utility closet and merely disconnected it from the Cox junction box and hooked the same cable to run U-verse. As for TV and the cable boxes, AT&T has a much better picture quality and much better quad tuner box with a 500 GB drive. You won't fill it. Cox uses terrible Motorola boxes with bad picture and the DVR's don't Lways work. Odd since my U-verse box is also Motorola. Cox also uses a 160gb drive which you could fill in 2 days. As for Internet, Cox wins because you can use a current Docsis 2 or 3 Modem. AT&T use a 2Wire router/modem. A piece of junk. I have concluded, get U-verse TV with Cox Internet. Phone service, if you even want it is a toss up. Both are now digital. So everyone stop thinking U-verse is only DSL. It's now fiber cable in most areas that just got it.

San Diego, etc does NOT use Motorola. It's SA and Pioneer. I'm staring at one of each in my office downtown.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by attmaster

at&t uverse is by far the best tv service out there.
the service and products they give you is amazing
and the prices they are giving the **** practically free!

my buddy works for the company and i can guaranty you the best price
send me your email and ill pass it down to him for best pricing

typsandiego@gmail.com

Spam is against TOS

http://www.city-data.com/forumtos.html

[HelloGoodbye]

I had uverse a few years ago not long after it came out and it would disconnect a LOT! Very annoying because you would be without internet AND TV. They did make things right by compensating and giving discounts for so many months due to the outages. When I first called to sign up they ran a credit check and wanted a huge deposit, There are ways around it though I do not know if the reps get commission for each sign up/install, but I called back a few times and finally got a rep to get a supervisor on the phone who was able to set me up with no deposit or credit card on file. I wont say how they did it but it is possible.

The programming was just as good as the Time Warner service I had before and got almost the exact same channels with Uverse having a couple that Time Warner did not have including east and west coast feeds of TBS and TNT and Game Show network, which I think they wound up dropping the east coast feeds since it is kind of pointless now when most people just DVR shows instead of watching live.

The boxes was silver colored with a power button that lit up green when it was on, and I am pretty sure it was a Motorola box. The modem/router combo box for the computer was 2wire and a POS if you ask me. I prefer the modems cox and time warner use the little black Motorola Surfboard modems. Never had a problem with them. I dont know if it was my specific install (large apt complex with only 1 cable outlet in the apt) but all the TVs and computers had to be connected together maybe this was because only 1 outlet but the bedroom boxes had to all have a line run from the living room box and that box in the living room was hooked up to the router/modem. The cable line from the wall went into the router/modem instead of into the back of the cable box (or into a splitter) as you would with time warner/cox.

Also i hated how with 4 TVs if you dare recorded one thing then had the other TVs on, someone was always fighting over a feed. You could only get 3 feeds meaning if you were recording 2 things, and watching something live on one TV then someone in the bedroom turned on a TV it would come up on the screen saying all your feeds are used, watch something being recorded or cancel a recording to see live TV. I HATED this! I do not know if they have advanced it since then and you can get more feeds now,back when I had it you could not even watch DVR recordings on the bedroom TVs only the main box in living room you could watch recordings on and I see they have changed that from what I have read on here.

Oh one more thing, If you have someone in your house that likes to channel surf, it went really slow with uvese, it would take about 2 seconds for the channel to show up after pushing the + or - ch buttons. I could care less but it really annoyed people in my house that liked to channel surf.