Comcast or AT&T?

[Drunk Monk]

...or something else? Verizon doesn't service Santa Cruz and we're considering bundling TV, phone & internet. If memory serves, CF had some issues with AT&T. I use that for my burner cell, but that doesn't really count.


tg - would really love your input on this.

[cranefly]

Headed to class, more later. But offhand, if you want a bundle, effing AT&T might be okay. But every time you talk to an AT&T rep, expect a whole new spiel on costs, etc. Like they each work for a different company altogether. Bastards.

[cranefly]

Okay, a few more comments. I don't have experience with Comcast, but my impression is that they're a bit more expensive.

AT&T is trying to force everyone to U-verse and away from phone lines. That's where I ran afoul of them. We had phone and DSL with AT&T, including long distance, etc., and they were happy to take our money. But then I found a way to get phone essentially free by using VOIP (voice over internet protocol), including long distance, so I called them to cancel all phone service and just go with DSL only (also called naked DSL). That's when the rep lied to me that I'd have to switch to U-verse, with $150 install, etc. And I've have further problems with their reps.

But I suspect I'd have problems with Comcast if I ever tried them. It's all about milking each customer for the max amount. And if you're not doing their bundle dance, you're small potatoes and they'll fuck with you just to fuck with you, the fuckers.

Yeah, I've got a bit of a phone rage problem, I admit it. Yesterday I had to sign back up with AT&T for phone service, the fuckers. I'd been using GoogleWifi, Mountain View's municipal service. I'd bought equipment (transceiver mounted on a tower) to be able to bring it indoors. The problem is, Google has a bad DRAM chip somewhere in their network, maybe more than one. Any download bigger than 1 or 2 MB is corrupt. That means we can't install updates to Windows, Flash, Adobe Reader, or anything else. And I can't use the TurboTax I bought because it keeps needing updates. And fucking Google doesn't give a fuck. Lots of residents have complained, and Google admits there's a problem and is looking into the matter, but it refuses to give a timeline for fixing things. Fuckers.

Which all means I have to do the AT&T dance again.

Hope this helps. It sure helps me, just talking about it.

There. Now I think I'll go eat a piece of pie. Coffee would go good with it -- except yesterday I broke the coffee pot.

[Drunk Monk]

There's a VOIP company there that's an indie (very SC) but they don't offer DSL and I'm not IT savvy enough to set that up by myself. So I'm looking at the borg, borg 1 (at&t) or borg 2 (comcast). We could avoid the bundle and just use one borg for TV & phone and keep earthlink for our web provider. But paying one bill is enticing. Santa Cruz has some limited service. For at&t cable, it's farmed out to Direct TV apparently. Maybe it's always so. The funny ting is that when S & I lived in SC previously, neither of us had TV. But now we have this nice big flat screen and it seems a shame not to have cable.

[cranefly]

Today in the mail I received competing offers from AT&T U-verse and Comcast Infinity. After careful perusal, I have no idea what their deals are.

Comcast includes a check for $200 visible through the window of the envelope. But upon opening, you see that it says down in the corner, "This is not a check." So-o-o-o Magritte, suitable for hanging, in my opinion. Also among Comcast's literature, there is this teaser: "Turn on the lights from your laptop!" No doubt they're throwing in a free lightbulb to screw into your butt. WTF? WTF! How do you make sense of any of this? Then there's that ever-popular phrase, "Starting as low as $99." Yeah, well, what is it for me? For what I want? Totally uninformative, designed merely to get you to call so they can give the big confusing spiel.

AT&T offers $300 back, clearly visible through the window of their envelope. Once inside, you see that this is predicated on qualifying bundles and via a promotion card. The two sheets of paper are packed with features and deals, but nowhere is a price ever mentioned. Here's their big spiel:

The ABCs of Switching:
A: Call <phone number>
B: Choose the package you want
C: Sit back and relax as it is all taken care of for you.

Something tells me they're leaving out the part where they empty your bank account.

Yes, the phone rage is back. I'm probably not the most stable person to get good advice from on this topic.

Here's what I did yesterday. I ordered AT&T's most basic phone service. Just an active phone line, that's it. And of course it has a phone number associated with it, but we won't hook a phone to it. BTW, it will be listed in the phone book because I'd have to pay AT&T to "not list" it. The fuckers! Unbelievable! So basic phone is $15/month, which is actually $20 after all their little extra charges. Then I ordered DSL from DSL Extreme for $15/month, which is more like $20/month after their extra charges. DSL Extreme needs a phone line to piggyback atop; that's the only reason I'm ordering anything from AT&T (they have a monopoly on the phone line). If I wanted, I could also order VOIP from another company for unlimited phone service for very little money, and it would piggyback on the DSL. Maybe $50/year.

But none of this addresses TV. And if you have a big HDTV, DM, you probably do want cable. And that's where my scheme wouldn't work for you. A bundle is likely your best bet. But nirvana help you in dealing with AT&T or Comcast, because they're wheeler-dealer wizards from the bowels of Cthulhu.

[Drunk Monk]

I'm probably not the most stable person to get good advice from on this topic.

Actually, I find your comments spot on. I'm still hoping to hear from tg as SC has it's own weird constraints.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

They're both ratbastards, but with Comcast you can negotiate your monthly rate now and again.

At my old place we went with no cable, just the antenna, and it was great. Being on the coast, though, that might not be an option. Maybe forget the cable and get streaming netflicks, then plug your computer into your TV?

[Drunk Monk]

No contract. No cable. Just phone and web.

It actually comes out cheaper than what we are paying now by $10. Go figure.

[El Dingo]

I have had both and much prefer ATT.

This is pretty much because the U-Verse phone app lets me set, change and delete recordings on the fly. The speed is acceptable and the few times we needed support were pleasant and speedy.

They are also rumored to be moving to a "pay for the channels you want" platform, not a tier-based platform.

They are inherently evil though (as are all large corporations) so I am speaking as an oppressed victim of the free market.

[Drunk Monk]

S spent a good chunk of the day getting AT&T set up. What a runaround. She had an outrageous tale of her encounter with the installation guy. But our phone and web works.