I just want fucking DSL! Is that so fucking hard? I have a gateway already! I own one! No, I don’t need YOUR specific one to make the Internet work! It is all the SAME Internet. I don’t need the gateway!!! Why can’t I just not order it?!
Seven, yes count them, seven different agents I talked to today all told me a different story, all ending in stupidity. ( Why seven you ask? Well after the first two, I just kept going… I kept getting a different story. I was somewhere between incredulous and doggedly determined to find an intelligent agent)
Why would I order something, just to send it right back? Why did two of the seven actually tell me that the specific Internet from AT&T would not work through any other gateway??? Why then if that is their truth, when I called bullshit they both backed off. Why did three tell me there was an option to not order, and when I told them there, in fact, was not… they told me that you have to order it, it is AT&T policy. It is policy??? Then why the fuck did you tell me to check the “no equipment” box!!!
DSL is finally available here! Why the FUCK can I not just order it!!!
I feel like I am in an episode of the Twilight Zone. I am going to go lie down, pretend this never happened and phone AT&T in the morning. Maybe this was all a bad dream.
Because they don’t want to have to deal with idiot customers complaining that “the internet is broken!” because the cheap six-year-old piece of shit modem/gateway that they insisted on using has flaked out.
Not saying you would be one of those customers, but look at it from their perspective. Just take whatever they want you to use and forget about it.
Wait, when you say “gateway” are you referring to the modem or to a router? I can only assume you mean a router, because I can’t hardly imagine you are talking about a modem.
So you just happen to have a DSL modem laying around the house, right? And you’re quite sure it’s a newer and better modem than the one AT&T is planning on sending you, right? And you’re quite, quite sure about this?
If all of the above is an affirmative, why are you sweating this? Just take their modem, consider it a backup for the day when yours shits the bed and get on with it…
I feel your pain.
We went through that when we moved here from San Diego. We had a brand new Actiontech DSL modem/gateway and so had declined the AT&T/Yahoo “welcome” package of $80 gateway and heaven knows what prepackaged software. Except, without that all that prepackaging and adware, you also miss out on the install dummy that walks you through going to AT&T’s site and starting up an internet account with sbc e-mail address and password, just so you can access the rest of the internet. You’d think that they would send out a sheet of paper with the “welcome to AT&T, here’s your bill” that details setting up your DSL account. Since it wasn’t hard, in the end.
But I had the exact same experience–I think we spent something like five hours bouncing back and forth between techs, explaining the situation over and over, waiting on hold and getting nowhere because “we don’t support that modem” (well of course not, if you sell your own with a setup disc stuffed with adware why would you?) and claiming it must have been the problem of the modem.
It wasn’t.
I was this -->…<-- close to just saying fuck it and choking down buying redundant hardware and hoping that would at least buy us one step closer to a solution when I called again, and got a tech who actually listened and knew right away what the problem was and how to fix it.
So, keep calling. Keep explaining that you’ve just moved, you don’t have the setup wizard disc and you’d like to set up your DSL line, to setup the account and password for internet access. And hopefully that will do the trick and get them to get you to the right place.
I fully agree that AT&T sucks, but we didn’t think we had many options. Now that we’re in the area and now we know better, and we won’t make that mistake again.
I don’t think I made it clear enough. All I remember having to do, after all that, was just type in an IP address. Then I was at the magical site, the only site I could access on the internet until after setting up the e-mail address I didn’t need and would never check again and password, but after I did that, the rest of the internet worked just fine.
So, I hope you get a tech who can tell you that magical site address the next time you call. Good luck.
I’d link to the site but
a) it’s probably changed or might be different for wherever you are and
b) I can’t find the sheet of paper I wrote my frustrated waiting for tech support and all the useless “reboot” “hit the reset button” “unplug” “defecate on cat” “go wpconfig” bullcrap on but that ultimately held the actual solution. Sorry.
So good luck. Seriously, AT&T really, really sucks.
It turned out to be such a simple thing; it certainly shouldn’t have taken five hours and countless techs to figure out. It would have taken just a line on the “welcome to AT&T!” bill: “Go to ‘http://sbc.comorwhateveritturnedouttobe’ to set up your internet access.” Would that have been so fucking hard to print on there? No.
Instead, everybody’s supposed to buy a redundant hunk of plastic they don’t need just for the idiot disc with the setup instructions and fuckall adware, and heaven help them if they don’t because the tech support doesn’t have a fucking clue how to set up either (or rather, 7 out of 8 didn’t).
Assholes.
We had an AT&T modem/router combo that was less than a year old when we cancled service. Now, almost 9 months after we cancled the service, we have AT&T again, and had no problems using the old one. Now getting AT&T to find my apartment on their service map was another problem. And it’s not like I live in a rural area, I live in the most populated area of the county, and I knew they had service out here, out neighbor had it.
Ok, first of all it isn’t an old piece of crap, it is brand fucking new! I got it from a friend that has AT&T and didn’t need it. It is still in the box!
I don’t want to take their equipment because, unlike some people, 80$ is a lot of money to me. I don’t want to pay for something that I don’t need. Besides, if I NEED
Ok, first of all it isn’t an old piece of crap, it is brand fucking new! It is still in the box!
I don’t want to take their equipment because, unlike some people, 80$ is a lot of money to me. I don’t want to pay for something that I don’t need.
Really I am more frustrated by the fact that I keep getting a different story, and they seem to think that the only way the internet will work is on their overpriced terms. If I had any other options I would take them. At the moment though, AT&T is the only available service in this area.
Tortuga, I am going to try the disc thing and see how that goes. Thanks.
Holy shit, that IS worse. Jeez… why is tech stuff so freaking difficult for people that are HIRED for it???
I called AT&T, and I recant my earlier statement. AT&T ONLINE fucking sucks, over the phone they are decent and understanding! Even somewhat helpful! I called them, and I don’t even need the disc or the gateway! I can use my own! They can walk me through it over the phone and I will end up paying about the same as I already was because the phone plan I have has been discounted! Why was that so hard stupid AT&T online support tech people?
AT&T online tech support agents can rot in hell, babbling to each other about unnecessary equipment options. They are still fucking idiots!
I may be wrong, but I think you weren’t getting to the internet at all… it sounds to me as if you typed in your gateway IP address and logged in to the settings of your modem in order to enter your e-mail address and password. This would allow the modem to authenticate you to the ISP (which is how DSL works).
That was what I had to do with my gateway after going to their previously undisclosed sbc.com or whatever specific site to set up an e-mail address and password. Basically, it was the great tech support of the Architec gateway guys who told me what information I’d have to ask for and say to get to the right support person, and doing that got me to the guy who was like “oh, you have to type in this address and setup an e-mail account and password, and then you open up your gateway and put it in there and here’s the rest of that info you asked for that you will need.” Seriously, it was farcical. After five hours, finally, and really it wasn’t actually AT&T’s tech support that fixed it, it was Architec, arming me with exactly the right buzzwords to say to trigger the correct response.
Sorry, I did leave that step out.
It was a while back, and this, thankfully, isn’t something I have to go through regularly.
Bottom line is, it shouldn’t have taken five hours and lots of different calls to find a tech who actually listened, instead of going through the generic problem solving flow chart and always blaming it on the modem they didn’t support and trying to sell an $80 piece of plastic that wasn’t needed.
