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I'm a student at Clemson and am moving off-campus this semester and am trying to decide what to do for internet/cable service. I haven't really heard any good things about Northland but also haven't heard anything in terms of AT&T's U-Verse service. Any opinions on who I should go with?
I'm a student at Clemson and am moving off-campus this semester and am trying to decide what to do for internet/cable service. I haven't really heard any good things about Northland but also haven't heard anything in terms of AT&T's U-Verse service. Any opinions on who I should go with?
If you go with AT&T expect them to mess up your bill and try to gouge you. Then allow at least 4 hours on the phone to allow enough time for them to figure out who in which department can actually help you get the problem remedied as they move you around from wrong department to wrong department. You probably pay the most for what you get with AT&T and it is a part time job keeping them honest. I have a land-line and Uverse for the internet. It took them weeks just to turn on the land line, if you can believe it, no exaggeration!
The lady across the street had her Uverse lines struck by lightening and repair trucks had to come out and dig up the street. She ended up switching her TV back to Satellite..
I wish there was another company that would provide reasonable customer service at reasonable rates. All Uverse is, is VOIP that companies exponentially over charge for and the phone reception is lousy I found. (When they first came out with it they charged about $7 a month). So that is why I have a land line. Plus I want to be able to call out if the power goes out. So I have to put up with the customer NO SERVICE that ATT provides.
The bad news is they are moving to VOIP. All VOIP has the same problem with dropped calls. I have friends who use VOIPO and like it. It does seem very stable compared to some of the others. VoIP Services by VOIPo
I'm in Greenville. I switched from Charter to U-verse after being solicited randomly one day (people knocking door-to-door). I have internet and tv service. I'm relatively happy. I did not have internet with charter so I can't compare those services, but the customer service I have gotten with AT&T so far is good. And that is the only reason I switched. (Charter constantly messed up my billing and dealing with their customer service was a nightmare for me. I had very few good interactions with anyone over the phone. Biggest problem= being told one thing, and then something else happening.)
Based on my experience- my parents switched to U-verse a few months later. My sister has Charter (her reasoning is that she cares about internet speed more than anything and she doesn't feel that any other company in our area can give that to her.)
That doesn't mean I haven't had any problems with U-verse so far, but the problems have been sorted out eventually and I am much happier with U-verse than I ever was with Charter. Also, the wait times on the phone weren't so bad if you needed help- generally twenty minutes or so. (Plus you can get help online- like a chat session). (I know nothing about Northland. Only wanted to let you know that U-verse wasn't terrible in my experience.)
I have had ATT Uverse for about 10 months. For the most part it has been a good experience. We have HD TV service on 3 TVs and internet. Everyone that I have come in contact with from ATT has been very professional.
My in-laws had Northland for tv, not Internet. No problems with them & their prices were very reasonable. Always got to talk to someone on the phone with no wait time for questions.
Had U-Verse for internet for about a year and had to drop. Didn't nearly get the speed I was paying for, and I should have known better, as the installer told me that we were at the end of the "node", and that there was no way I'd get that speed. They shouldn't offer it then. He was right. Switched to Charter three months ago and have been pleased, and I am no Charter fan at all due to past problems.
Emily is right about AT&T billing. Got rid of U-Verse 3 months ago and on Saturday received a bill in the mail for this month's service. Makes no sense at all.
Northland Cable seems expensive to me compared to a combo of DSL and DirecTV. Unfortunately, I'm just out of reach of Charter where I am, and Northland is about 10 bucks more per month for a connection speed comparable to my DSL. I'm lucky, though, that the telco node is less than two hundred feet from my dmarc.
I'm with ATT but never switched to Uverse. I must be the only one left in my area not on it. I get letters, calls, people coming by wanting to talk about it (kind reminds me of the Bible thumpers wanting to talk about IT). But I just ignore them. Figure if they want me to switch that much I must have a good thing.
I'm displeased with both AT&T and Northland and wish they were not the only choices in my area (Seneca). In fact, I am canceling my AT&T service tomorrow after being a customer for ONLY three days. The DSL service I ordered is not available in my area so they put me at the lowest level w/o notifying me. Dealing with AT&T tonight has been a colossal pain in the rear. I had to wait at least 20 minutes to speak to Customer Service. The CS rep initially couldn't tell me anything about my billing plan so I had to be put back on hold several times as he hunted to find that information. Finally he confirmed I'm at DSL Lite (download speed 768 Kbps), which I already knew from looking at my account online last night. DSL Extreme 6.0 isn't available in my area, he goes on, and he can't understand why it was offered to me. I asked about the plan at the highest level available in my area but because the promotion involves a 12 months term commitment, I'm not interested. I told him I want to cancel my service and he routed me over to the Retention Dept. to do so. I'm on hold for 15 more minutes before I get a rep in the Retention Dept. I re-explained the situation to him. He isn’t able to verify my account from what I gave him so he has to transfer me over to the Sales Dept. I responded customer service has already confirmed what plan I'm under. He gave me some spiel about AT&T internal practices and blah, blah, blah but I tuned him out b/c I now thoroughly frustrated. On hold again, this time for about 10 minutes. Once again, I re-explained, now to the Sales Dept. rep what has happened, tacking on my foray to the Retention dept. All she does is reconfirmed what has been confirmed of what I already knew. At least, she apologized to me for what has occurred. I asked to be transferred back to the Retention dept. to cancel my service. She did and lo and behold, they were now closed. I originally only intended to cancel AT&T DSL but now I'm planning to cancel the phone service tomorrow as well.
Now for Northland. I have had phone and Internet service with them since late February. It's a good thing I didn't cancel yet though I was switching to AT&T due to how much of a debacle that turned out to be. My main gripe with Northland is they don't honor the promotions they advertise online when you call in to order service, well at least not with me. I called them shortly after starting service with them when I noticed the "deal" I was given over the phone was not the same as what was online. I wanted to know more about the online promotions and compare them to the plan I had. If what I had was better, fine. But if not, I wanted to know why I wasn't offered the online promotions. The customer service rep I spoke with couldn't give me a straight answer and so I asked for her supervisor. The supervisor gave me the runaround, claiming the Internet service deal advertised online was no longer valid. I replied that it was still listed on the site. Miraculously after first not being able to see it on the site, she was able to find it and replied it was there in error, that the marketing dept in the corporate office often forget to take down deals that weren't current and that she would contact them to have them change it. I knew this was more than likely a bunch of crap but I let it go, telling myself I would check the website for a week or two and see if the promotions get taken down. They weren't and Northland has been advertising those same deals since. I'm kicking myself for not following up as I should and calling them on their bs. The actual phone and Internet service has been fine. I only had one time when I lost service; it was for a few days about two weeks ago. The after-hours technical support people have been great to deal with; very helpful and professional. But I dislike calling the local office. It took me three calls to the office for someone to finally return my call in regards to my bill being credited (next month as it turns out) for the days of no service.
So I suggest if you go with AT&T, call them to order service. Don't use the website because it is unreliable. If you go with Northland, pull up/print out the current promotions being advertised online and tell them you want to know about those. Don't go for some other "deals" they might offer unless they clearly explain to you how it is better.
Oh yeah, btw, I had to retype this because I lost it when I tried to post the first time because my DSL service has gone down.
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No great choice either way
