Disgruntled AT&T customer...

[OuTpaTienT]

...that's me! And I've been running into lots of people that feel the same.

Truth is, not many people have sympathy for us...to them I say All I know is that I'm paying the exact same monthly fee for a much degraded and severely limited service. If they would've cut my bill by the same percentage that they cut my throughput then I wouldn't be so upset.

But they didn't do that...so I am upset...and need to vent. This is how I am venting:

http://home.attbi.com/~out/

Oh I'm torn on the issue.
You know you were getting Rockin' connection times with Charter (?) er at home?
Better than anyone else offered. But I agree that it sux that ATT and all the other providers put "governors" (sp.) on the connections! Just so they can sell higher bandwidth for more money.
I say. I'm proud of you for standing up. I also say take it a step further. Get your page to search engines. Lead the charge OuT!
You could change the way we get ripped off for our Internet connections.

Akkk don't get me going on my conspiracy theories!
From the beginning it's been entrapment for higher speed connections.
Look at how fast 56k was when it came out.
It was the price of DSL now, but lots of folx didn't bite, we didn't need it as much because the systems and software wasn't as bloated and cumbersome as it is today.
Course we didn't need 1 gig machines either.

I think they are all in cahoots!

Moi? Paranoid??


hey, gotta go someone is at the window..I think maybe


Hmmm think about it.

[Aaron_J]

Also, notice the average speed "Before" is over 500 KiloBytes per second, and "After" it's under 100 KiloBytes per second. So, obviously it's now one fifth of the previous service...

(bold added by me for emphasis)

You gotta be kidding me.. Your complaining because you no longer have your own personal T3 line for $50 a month??? (or whatever you pay)

Hmmmm, strange that nowhere on that site do you say that you were guaranteed those speeds in the first place. You were guaranteed those speeds right? Otherwise, how could you complain about your service being degraded? Would you complain if your cable tv service was accidentally giving you more channels then you paid for and after realizing their error removed them? Would you complain if your telephone company was mistakenly giving you free long distance and later corrected their error?

I don't see the difference here. You were never promised those speeds before and now that it has been cut to normal cable speeds you want your bill reduced to less than what dial up users pay (1/5 of $50= $10) for 800 kilobit service? (which is a decent speed)

I suppose the real reason you are angry is because you know you won't be able to find another company willing to turn that "T3" back on for what you are paying now. If you could find one you would switch to them wouldn't you? But I suspect you know damned well that no company could afford to do that.

Anyway, I'm not flaming you dude. I figure since you posted this on a open forum you should expect a little critism. Just wanted to clear that up before anyone gets the wrong ideas.

[AzKidd69]

I wouldn't complain.... You are still over my DSL... But then hey.. You got spoiled by the speed..

I think there should be somethin about Quality Of Service that you can look into because your speeds have dropped significantly.

[OuTpaTienT]

You gotta be kidding me.. Your complaining because you no longer have your own personal T3 line for $50 a month???

Hell yes!!! Wouldn't you complain if someone took away your $50/mo. T3-line? You know darn well you would.

(BTW, my example of approx. 500KB/sec. was more on the slow side...closer to 1MB/sec. would more closely represent off-peak hours. )

OuT

Why not post your page URL in the AT&T forum at http://www.dslreports.com/forums - you'll get even more exposure and prolly find others with related issues...

Hmmm.. looks like someone else has a petition going there

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/attbi

[Mntsnow]

Well I say...

Be grateful that AT&T just didnt kill your access and tell you to look somewhere else. You still get faster speeds than most people get for the same cost.

Bleed them dry for another couple of months and then they go bankrupt? Then you will be back to 56K?

What your saying is kinda like saying....Well I used to pay only 50 cents for a gallon of gas...now you only get .30 gals for the same 50 cents. You realized that cost have gone up ..alright we all complained for a while BUT...You deal with it or dont drive...

In short I guess what I'm saying is... Get real. Bandwidth costs!

[OuTpaTienT]

Reality is what I'd like to see happen to this biz.

Bandwidth cost are falling dramatically...daily. There is no reason to buck that trend and actually raise the cost of bandwidth per bit and on top of that put a cap on the data stream that limits it to about 20% of what it used to be.

That is ludicrous! And IMO verging on criminal. Especially since many of AT&T's customers don't have the option of other broadband or high-speed services. In many neighborhoods the cable company is a monopoly, and they know that all too well.

Screw'em! That's what they're doing to us.

Do me a favor, read this thread and pay special attention to the points neuronix brings up. Bandwidth itself is not such a huge cost....especially over a cable network which has a HUGE pipe.

[Mntsnow]

while I agree costs are dropping on bandwidth they are NO WHERE near the cost you were paying. Be glad you got and rode the fast train while it lasted. AT&T has to support it's people and shareholders too.

[Ed_S]

I don't have a broadband connection at all, just 56K.

But I'd like to say that I've been a cable TV customer for years, and wouldn't even consider any further dealings with any cable company!!

I mean really, if you've ever dealt with them previously, just what did you expect??

Thieves & liars, IMO. Had my way I'd cut their line down, but the wife...

What you're experiencing sounds amazingly like what they're doing with the TV signal. They've been pushing "digital cable" hot & heavy, saying how much better it is. Meanwhile, I'm convinced they're turning down the strength of the non-digital signal. Keeps getting worse, but very slowly over time. Much worse now than a year ago.

And this is far from the first time they've done something like that. Get folks hooked, then change the deal, eliminate features, etc.



So it's no surprise they attempt the same stuff with broadband. After all, if you had no scruples, AND you had a proven business tactic which had served profitably for decades, what would you do???

If I were you I'd cancel service immediately. Complaints will fall on deaf ears, trust me.
Frankly, if I had to choose between cable internet and NO connection, well... I hope I'd have time to say goodbye & get some folks snail-mail addresses!!!

Ed