Have spent tons of time trying to wade through various forums on this topic, and am hoping someone here might have some up-to-date info on how I could switch to U-verse elite ($42 base) and keep POTS (Consumer's Choice Basic for local calls - $6.03 base).
Why do I want to keep landline as long as possible?
Six dollar base price for local phone service is impossible to beat.
Alarm system uses landline, and I've been saying "No, or we'll cancel" each year for past 18 years whenever they try to increase the price.
Power outage advantages, 911 locating, etc...
Why do I want to switch to U-verse for internet?
AT&T only seemed interested in switching me to U-verse (for 2X the price), and not helping with ADSL issues, so I switched ISPs (Covad).
Not quite a year ago, AT&T messed something up at the CO, denied it, wouldn't play nice with Covad, and i was out DSL (and/or voice!) for a week. Same thing is happening again. I've been happy with the service my ISP has been TRYING to provide, but I need internet access for my job, so week-long outages are more than an inconvenience.
For the most part, the reviews I've read about U-verse have been good.
Poking around some more on att.com makes it appear that the $49 price is "Price for Internet after bill credit w/ purchase of U-verse Voice", so I guess it's $59 a month if I ignore yet another one of their incentives to force me off of POTS.
Proceeding further, I get another message: "...AT&T U-verse is not compatible with any other DSL high-speed Internet service. After you submit your order, but prior to the installation of U-verse service, you will need to contact your current Internet service provider to disconnect your DSL high-speed Internet service."
Of course I'd need to discontinue my Covad service, but I'm still not convinced that proceeding wouldn't mess up POTS.
And some other post I read somewhere mentioned a $150 installation fee for POTS+Uverse, which I definitely do not want to get sucked into. I want them to get everything hooked up (and working) outside, and I'll do the rest.
I suppose that if I call and ask, I might get someone helpful (and that the other 90 times I've called about something were just unfortunate anomalies).
OK - there were a handful of times I talked to someone who seemed like they genuinely wanted to help, and did as much as they could. But I'm not under the impression that those people are rewarded for sticking around.
For now, it seems like there's a lot of people on this forum that know more about what's going on than about 95% of the customer support people I've dealt with, so a huge "THANKS" in advance to anyone who can help me make my situation better!
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