AT&T, Thanks for Nothing!

As I type, Nelson is on the phone, yet again, trying to straighten out our installation of AT&T's Uverse - something we were VERY excited to get. Being the hopeless TV addicts that we are, when we heard we could get all the same channels as we were getting on Time Warner Cable, along with Starz, and DVR that can record up to 4 programs at a time, and all for the same price, we were pretty excited. And, this all happened quite coincidentally at the same time as our local NBC affiliate, KXAN, and Time Warner were having some ridiculous dispute over paying for NBC's signal. Since they couldn't resolve it, Time Warner pulled KXAN off the air. All the signs pointed towards Uverse.

So, we waited patiently for WEEKS to have it installed, and on our scheduled day, this past Saturday, we got up early and were prepared for the nice installation person who showed up around 8:30am. Cancelling all other plans, we stuck around all morning while she was doing her thing. Half-way through, she announced that she couldn't get the phone line up and working. After calling the office, she found out that somehow that portion of our order didn't make it through, and if we didn't mind not having a phone for 2 weeks, she could reschedule the phone hookup, and we could get the cable and internet part done that day. No problem, we said, we have cell phones. We can live a couple of weeks with no pesky calls from telemarketers, who are about the only people who use our land line anyway.

After another hour or so, she informed us that she had more bad news - now she couldn't get a signal on any of the hookups - phone, cable or internet. Seems AT&T scheduled our hookup for November 28th. Which is kind of baffling, since SHE showed up November 1st to hook it up. Which is the date they told us on the phone. Soooooo....I'm not sure how she would have known to show up or where to show up if the appointment wasn't really scheduled until later in the month. It appeared to be just as baffling to her and everyone she talked to at AT&T, because they couldn't provide an explanation that made sense. Something about our order getting "lost" in the system, and that it was stuck somewhere along the way....whatever. She was kind enough, however, to reschedule it for us on Wednesday, as an evening appointment, between 6 and 9pm.

Unfortunately, I had an appointment for that night, but I gladly moved it so that one of us could be home for the installation. (We only have one car - so if I have an appointment after work, Nelson has an appointment after work)

Today Nelson gets a message saying that the install is all set for Wednesday between 12pm and 2pm. HUH????? When he calls to let them know that's not what we were told, the friendly customer service rep tells him that because it's a new install, there's no way they can do an evening appointment. Despite the fact that all the equipment is in our apartment, our furniture pulled apart, in anticipation of just getting a signal. He then tells Nelson that our appointment was actually scheduled for November 28th.

So, it's now 7:50pm, and Nelson's been on the phone since about 7pm trying to straighten it out. After they had an initial "bad connection" on their end (big surprise, right?) and had to call him back. Then he had to call yet another department - I believe the third or fourth he's spoken to since this morning.

What's really annoying is that when the nice installation girl hooked our Time Warner back up, she didn't route it correctly, so we don't have the ability to tape one show while watching another.

The good news? I got a full workout in tonight, since the DVD seems to work just fine.

The REALLY bad news? We now have to pay for a month of Time Warner AND AT&T since we didn't disconnect Time Warner by the first of the month, as planned.

Will we get AT&T Uverse? Will we stick with Time Warner Cable? Will we blow up our TV's and swear off all television? Stay tuned.....