So we're finally on our way to getting a new tv and we're finally on our way to getting rid of AT&T U-verse for good as well.
I can't remember if I mentioned before or not but our huge 70" tv started getting these little blue dots on it last spring. Over the months the amount has grown and grown, it started out with 3 and now they're hundreds of them if not thousands. We quit counting after we reached 175 because it seemed like they just exploded after that and we couldn't keep up with the amount. Most of the time I can ignore them but when watching a movie or show that's sort of dark or is dark I can't. HDT called Sony back at the end of July and found out that it's a defect and there had been a settlement but we came in too late to be a part of it. So they could only offer us a new tv at a deep discount. It could be fixed for around $800.00 but there's no guarantee it would last, in fact, more than likely it wouldn't.
We kept going back and forth on whether we should take the tv they were offering or not and by the time we decided to do so it was no longer available. But there were 2 others to choose from - a 55" for $775.00 or a 46" for $225.00. Yeah, as much as I really didn't want to go from 70" all the way down to 46" the fact that we could get a really nice tv for only $225.00 I caved. So today I have to mail to Sony a couple pictures showing the blue dots and information on the tv so once they get they'll process the new tv and we should have it in a couple weeks.
And as far as the U-verse goes, well, it doesn't. Blech. So yeah, some time in July I think it was there was a door to door sales rep for AT&T U-verse that caught HDT while he was outside. So they got to talking and HDT agreed to talk to me about signing up and told the guy to come back the next day (Sat.). We discussed all that they were offering us and sure sounded like a great deal. I was worried of course because it almost sounded "to good to be true." We would get tv, internet, phone altogether for under $200.00 a month along with a 30% discount on our iphones since they are with AT&T as well. This of course would be saving us a lot of money considering we had AT&T for our home phones as well, Comcast cable for our internet and DirectV for our tv. Those 3 together are over $200.00 a month. And a 30% discount on our iphones would be terrific as well.
So the only thing that made us hesitate was getting all the Saints games. The only reason we've stuck this long with DirectV is because of the NFL package. Our door to door rep told us that his supervisor told him they don't have an NFL package but they can guarantee all the games. He was trying to explain to us how they could do that but being brand new he couldn't quite remember what his supervisor had told him. So he got the guy on his cell phone and handed it to HDT so he could talk to him. He was on the phone for over 10 minutes with the guy and got off feeling satisfied that they could give us all the games. So we went ahead and signed our 2 year deal with them.
A week later a service guy came by to hook us all up. The speed of the internet that they said we'd have with the package we purchased wasn't quite right. I don't remember the details on that but I remember HDT and Scott talking about it during one of the UFC fight nights. It was slower than what we were supposed to be getting so that was strike #1.
Then when I went to pay our cell bill there wasn't a discount so I asked HDT when that was supposed to happen. He thought it was supposed to right away so he calls up AT&T wireless and finds out there is no discount offered for cell phones. They flat out lied to us about that so strike #2. But since they lied to us and we were expecting something they gave us a one time deal of a $70.00 discount on that months bill which was really nice!
Then because of the whole cell phone thing HDT and I start to worry about the games and it's now August and football is about to start. So he calls them up and sure enough, there is no way they can guarantee the games; they have no package and all the channels that the guy told HDT about that were supposed to be covering them all every Sunday weren't going to be. Only about half of those channels would be airing the games, the other half were slotted for college games on Saturday. So nope, no way to guarantee they'd be airing the Saints game, at least not in our location. So strike #3.
HDT asked to speak to a supervisor, someone that had the authority to be able to cancel our agreement. We were told no problem, we wouldn't be charged anything and the guy was putting in our cancellation notice right then.
Luckily he hadn't ever gotten around to canceling Comcast or DirectV. We had expected our tv to be defunct by the next day if not that night even but it wasn't. In fact for at least a week every day when I got home I'd turn on the tv to see and it'd still be there. At around a week's time he switched our cables back to the DirectV box and we went back to that. He had already switched his internet connection back to Comcast. And our home phone was still working.
Two weeks after canceling everything we get a message on our phone from some lady at AT&T saying that she has a cancellation notice for the phone and wanted to know if I wanted to go back to my normal AT&T account or not. Since nothing else was canceled yet I told HDT to give them a call to find out what was going on. In the meantime I got a bill for over $500.00 which of course included the installation and start up fees.
So Mr King of Procrastination never got around to calling them, then we go on vacation and during that time everything was finally shut off. We had a friend staying at our house to watch the dog and cats and one day he went to use the phone and it was dead. So yeah, finally!
We got a letter in the mail saying that we needed to return the equipment within 10 days of receipt and then everything would be taken care of. But I wanted HDT to make sure of that. He finally got around to calling them the other day and sure enough all we needed to do was take all the equipment to a UPS center and they'd package it up and send it back.
So we take the stuff to one of those UPS stores and the guy tells us they can't take the huge battery that was part of all the hardware. We didn't like that but he assured us that they can't take it, AT&T won't accept it. He says that he's returned "hundreds of these, even thousands." which I found quite amusing. He says they won't charge us for it, in fact the most they'd probably do is after awhile they'll call us and say they never received their stuff so we'll have to give them the tracking number to show them that yes, indeed they did get it. And after that we should be seeing the credit bill(s) coming in. Hope so, cause there's no way we're paying them.
So yeah, we cannot in good faith recommend getting the U-verse package. But the upside, we're getting all our Saints games so we're happy still.
Media quote of the day:
I'd say, 'You will miss our service, and I absolutely guarantee you'll come back' - Michael Scott - The Office
Yeah, not so much, there is no chance of us going back.
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