Wednesday, December 24, 2008

AT&T U-Verse TV SUCKS!

AT&T U-verse TV is defective by design. Normally when you hear the phrase Defective By Design, it means DRM. However that is not the case this time.

As I said the other day
AT&T has a problem with the tuner box shutting itself off.

I called before I left for work today. I spoke to a nice lady at the tech line, but all she could tell me was, the magic number is 6 hours. Its to protect the tv screen from "Image Burn In" in case the system crashes. The time is burnt into the firm ware, and can not be changed. I don't care what ever way you try to cut it, that is a system that is Defective By Design. The defect is in the Set Top Box (STB), not the residential gate way.

So here are my options:
- Cancel AT&T U-Verse tv, and get Comcast (the only other provider in my complex).
- Cancel U-Verse and get rabbit ears and a HD Converter box.
- Keep U-verse, get an HD Converter box, rabbit ears and a signal switch box.
- Build a new DVR / Media Center from a pc. But that means finding out if there are any tv capture cards for the AT&T system (which uses cat 5 instead of Coax)
- Buy a bird sitting DVD or two (which the guys at the bird store said could be set to loop.

Right now, I'm thinking the last 3 options, although considering how little I watch tv, canceling is still way up there.

A NOTE TO AT&T's ENGINEERS: YOU FAIL SIRS
A NOTE TO AT&T: Until you're boxes are fixed and people can opt out of the ENGERGY STAR Stuff, or at least change the timers YOUR TV SERVICE SUCKS

1 comment:

Bryon said...

Yikes! That is terrible customer service. Some people don’t have a choice who their internet provider is and I hope that’s not the case with you but I am glad that we have a choice for TV service. If I was treated that way I would look for a new TV provider at least. Now I’m happy with my provider but I wasn’t convinced it was the best provider for me until recently when I came across a website called besttvforme.com which compared a lot of different providers but U-verse ended up being more expensive for packages and fees. I was relieved to find out my DISH Network employee account is still cheaper in fees than U-verse and the packages are cheaper all the time. Nice to know for peace of mind, you know?