We've been Uverse internet subscribers for years and were mostly very satisfied. Then came the 'data caps'. When I was first notified that they would be doing this I asked if my families data usage would cause us to go over, and the man on the phone told me it would only be a problem for people who were gaming online and downloading massive amounts of data. Ok. Fine. Fast forward to this past bill in which we were over our limit...but wouldn't be charged for it until we went over 2 more times. Worrisome, but I thought that may be because the kids were home all day long due to summer vacation. What was worse was that our internet speeds suddenly slowed down to a crawl. I couldn't stream Hulu or Netflix at night in my bedroom, and if I wanted to check Facebook in the morning, I was having to use the data on my phone to do it. So, I decided to chat online with customer service and see if our internet was slow because we had gone over our limit. I'm just going to assume that English wasn't the customer representative's first language because if it was then this person was incredibly rude. I printed out a copy of the conversation because I was so floored by his answers. When I asked if my internet was slow due to going over my limit, and his response was this:
"I would say, here you are so lucky. But in future you will be charged for overage charges." When I repeated that I was only wondering if it slows after you go over usage, he responded:
"So I kindly request you to use the usage correctly to avoid any additional charges.
Yes, the services will be slow."
He then went on to repeat how 'lucky' I was that I hadn't been charged $20 extra this month. The entire conversation was ridiculous and went in circles. At one point he told me that the fact I had gone over hadn't been a factor in my slow internet and tried to get me to sign up for some sort of ipad service that I didn't want. When I asked why I was paying so much for slow service when new customers could get the same thing for half the cost he said this:
"Anne, let me be very honest with you. I would like to inform you that, $40.00+takes is pricing available only for new customer with 12 months contract. If customer is canceling the services before 12 months, customer will be charged $180.00 ETF charges on customer. As you are existing customer, this plan is not covered for you account."
Basically, I felt like this dude was trying to pat me on the head and say, "Sucks to be you, but you'll just have to deal with our high prices and crappy service or else you're gonna have to pay a HUGE fee.".
My response was this: "I'm not under contract anymore."
And after I pointed out that the local cable company would provide me with 2x as many mbps for less money with no contract, he decided to transfer me to his supervisor - who offered me the new customer pricing. However, at this point, I was very annoyed at the way I had been treated and didn't want to get into another year-long contract with this company. Which turned out to be a good thing! I decided to check out our internet usage (using tech support) and that guy said my family was using a normal amount of data. Which meant I'd be going over their caps every month unless I bundled with tv (which I didn't want) or paid $100 a month for the unlimited data package. And considering how slow it was and how horrible the customer service was...? Ha! Not a chance. I'm now with the local cable company for internet and so far it's fantastic. read more