Since I posted here asking about Uverse AND posted about the problems with the scheduling of the installation, I thought it only fair to post some update info. There's really no need to read further unless you're considering getting it.
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Had it installed last Tuesday, six days ago.
I got all three services, TV, Phone and Internet.
Installation: It went better than expected as far as time and mess goes. There really was no mess and the install tech cleaned up what little there was. He didn't have to install any new lines although he did replace a couple. When it was all said and done he was here and gone in about 3 hours. Tech was friendly and did make sure all was working correctly before he left as well as gave me his cell phone number if I had any issues. He was well aware of what I might have to go through calling the toll free support number.
Services: So far I am extremely pleased with the services, granted it's only been 6 days. I have called the support line 3 times with general questions and each time I was pleased to get well mannered and well spoken English support agents who answered my questions quickly and easily. I have had two occasions the service went down for about 45 seconds- 1 minute and this was the day after install. Everything came back by itself. Their support website if very user friendly and has many nice features. The interactive features on the TV for viewing and making changes to my acct. are also very helpful and easy to use. I am getting just shy of the Internet speed I am supposed to. Close enough I have no complaints about it.
Digital reception on the phone(s) is crystal clear. The unlimited long distance calling and variety of other features are nice as well. Only time will tell if these are a price savings for me or not and only more time will tell if I continued to be satisfied with their services. At this time, I would give AT&T Uverse a 9 out of 10 overall. I of course am pleased to no longer be contributing to the Block's.
Side note: The truck that came to disconnect my Buckeye did not say "Buckeye Cable" on it. I think it said something like "Precision Cable", I'm not actually sure. Anyway, the guy was nice and asked right away, "So did you go with AT&T?" I advised I did. He laughed and said everyone was switching to them and that's why Buckeye is ruinning agressive advertising against them. He also said he thought is was REALLY dumb that they (Buckeye) would be raising rates just as they get new competition in town. He even had a remark about the Block's which I thought was really ironic.
So, there you have it, if you cared to begin with. Six days and so far so good.
I wish they offered service in 43560 (Sylvania).
We're preparing to get rid of DirecTV, and I'd give them a shot. Otherwise, looks like we're back to Buckeye. (We were way happier with Buckeye than we ever were with DirecTV. But I'd still try AT&T if I could.)
mom2-
I was close to getting Direct TV but chose AT&T because of no contract. What problems have you had that you're getting rid of it?
I had Direct TV for 15+ years prior to moving into Toledo and had very few problems with it in all that time. Just a few "weather" outages that only lasted a few minutes.
We're getting ready to move in a couple of weeks and were happy to find out that we won't have to bring the DirecTV and DSL with us as Buckeye is available at our future address. I know that many are very strongly against Buckeye, but honestly, I'm going to save a GOOD chunk of change by switching to one of the Buckeye 3 in 1 bundles! Even if I went with their top of the line one, it's still quite a bit cheaper than what I'm paying here for DirecTV as well as phone and DSL through my phone company!
justsimplyholly-
For myself I have never liked doing business with the Block's/Buckeye/The Blade. I won't go into the many reasons as it's pointless. If you're going to be saving money then it's a good deal for you. It was paying Buckeye $52.00 a month for BASIC cable that was the deciding factor for me. I realize most want more for their money...and that I'm the exception not the norm but I wanted LESS for my money. I'd be thrilled to pay 20.00 for maybe just 5-6 specific BASIC cable channels but none of them offer such a thing. So, by combining all 3 with the Uverse I'm at least getting more for my money even though I'll have more than I really want or need and NO contract. The lesser of the 3 evils is about the best way I can describe it for myself.
I will say one (and ONLY one) good thing about Buckeye Cable...........in the 3-4 years I had it, it was very dependable. The same can't be said about my experience with their internet and email and that's why I ditched those after my promotional contract was up. Supposedly they have improved on those since I left them.
That’s weird, I have Buckeye and pay 33 a month for internet and 20 channels of basic cable.
I once went to the Buckey location at Sylvania and Douglas to get some info. Another guy in line said everyone there was probably paying a different monthly charge, now I see why. I did however try to negotiate with htme several times to no avail. Their response was always that I had gotten my promotion when I initially signed up with them.
I guess that makes “sense”, timing, etc. But yea, that place at Deveaux is a JOKE! They let the girls dress in jeans and so they automatically have this VERY casual attitude about everything. I went through three modems in a short period of time and nobody could tell me why. The kicker was I would drive from Point Place to there and they would not even test the “new” one they gave me. Each time I would call and tell them I would want a credit for the days I was without service and they never did. But I am stuck with them I suppose.
I had AT&T for years. Last year or so my DSL service was getting annoyingly slow at times.
I switched to Buckeye VIP package and I pay basically the same total for phone, cable tv and highspeed internet as I did with AT&T.
Difference is, my cable internet connection is about 4 times as fast as my DSL was.
Good for you, angryconsumer! I am getting ready to switch, too. I can't stand giving another penny to the Blocks and their idiot attorney Fritz Byers. They have ruined northwest Ohio. I won't be a part of it. It is not an honest group. My friends and family feel the same way. They have not bought The Blade for years and they are looking for alternatives to Buckeye Cable. I have never known a newspaper like The Blade that has such a bad reputation in their community.
Oh yeah, I forgot....There has been one VERY huge drawback to switching to Uverse.....
I no longer can watch my 2 episodes of Two and a Half Men every night. No CW Channel.
:-(
re: angryconsumer's question to me...
Our "problem" with getting rid of DirecTV was that we had to wait until our contract was over with them. Financially, it seemed silly to pay an early termination fee to save some money on our monthly bill.
It was a year longer than we thought we had agreed to when we signed up for the service, but unfortunately I couldn't find any documentation to dispute that. (Normally I keep all agreements/receipts/contracts filed away, but for some reason our installation paperwork disappeared. I still think that DirecTV extended our initial contract for an extra year for some arbitrary reason, b/c I've heard that it has happened to other people. But, since I couldn't find the original documentation I signed, I couldn't argue with them.)
If it hadn't been for that, we would have switched from DirecTV a long time ago. Our service with them has been very poor - the HD channels go out with the slightest breeze, and the standard channels don't take much more than that to go out either.
I think I vented about their service in your initial post about AT&T, so I won't bore everyone by rehashing all of our satellite issues again. lol
ryan - what speed internet do you have bundled with your $33 rate? Just curious.
I suppose the 20 channel package doesn't come with ESPN? (I'd be happy with a very simple package, but my husband would never agree to paying for cable without at least ESPN. lol)
I have no idea. Faster than dialup, but slower than at work. LOL! For everyday use it's great - but if you are heavy into porn it's probably not fo ryou. (I kid) No ESPN either, but I get BCSN. You could always tell the hubs they changed the call letters and everybody got realy young.
Actually - I am thinking of upgrading to the real cable package for 66 bucks. I just don;t want to become a couch potato.
I like Buckeye for their customer support - more often than not they've been able to help with my internet or cable issues, any time of day. I also like the idea of keeping money local.
However (and this probably isn't a big sticking point for most people, but...) A couple years ago Buckeye switched digital music services from Music Choice to Urge Radio. I used to listen to Music Choice all the time and their playlists were top notch. In comparison, Urge Radio is not even close.
I called (& emailed) several times to voice my support for switching back, but apparently Buckeye is 'under contract' and has no plans to do so. They're probably saving money with Urge Radio and want to stay cheapskates.
I found out that AT&T offers Music Choice so now that is definitely on my mind.
housebeats-
Uverse has Urge...........
Wow! Right you are angryconsumer... just checked their website. I called AT&T about my cell phone a few weeks ago, and they tried giving me the hard sell to do a bundle. I swear the rep said they had Music Choice. Maybe just another sales tactic?
Anyone have any additional insight on uverse? I want to go away from buckeye.
Holy ancient thread!
We swapped from Direct TV to UVerse 2 years ago and haven't looked back. Don't have the phone service but do have TV and Internet. Love it.
I've had U-verse since it first became available. We had no installation problems whatsoever. We did have the wireless router fail and had to have it replaced. It took a few phone calls to get that done. We have phone, internet and tv. Three receivers and three tv's. No problems since. We're quite happy with it.
We've had the Dish and Direct TV. Stay away from Dish. Direct TV isnt terrible, but we had equipment service issues too often for our taste. The equipment kept failing. It was reconditioned junk according to the last service rep. Direct TV actually has a slight edge over U-verse in ease of use. Their stuff just kept failing time and again.
i'm done w/ buckeye and i can't wait to tell them.
it sounds like Uverse will be it and we'll go w/ a bundle. besides some of your posts (thanks for the new posts), i just found out a friend of mine made the change about a year ago. she has been very happy w/ it.
my only concern was internet speed. my friend, though, has said there isn't any noticeable difference from when she had buckeye.
I would drop buckeye, since I really only watch local news and a couple of network things. But I am afraid that I will miss the next reality show, which will either be Amish Moonshiners or Alaskan Storage Wars.
The company I work for allows some of its employees to work from home with a remote connection. When I was working in the office I can't tell you how many of our remotes were coming into the office to work when their Buckeye connections failed. When I started working from home this past summer I knew I had to get rid of Buckeye. I switched to AT&T for all my service and am completely happy. I've neve had an issue. AT&T has been 100% reliable.
^^you had me at Alaskan Storage Wars...
CABLE
With a bill that high it can't survive. You're not gonna pay your wireless bill and your cable bill. And you can see the shows you want online. Cable is the music business in 2000, it just doesn't know it yet.
At a corporate level, AT&T's DNS issues have been a pain in my ass the last few months. I work from home a few days per month and I've never had issues with BEX.
I have a couple of friends with AT&T and once swears by it and one swears at ityour mileage may vary.
I switched from u-verse a couple of years ago to Buckeye and am very happy. U-verse kept dropping channbels and internet was ver7ey slow. Years ago I had Dish network and it was very good.
It will not be long till we can stream live TV - See https://aereo.com/home - only available in New York City so far, with that and Hulu, Netflix and Amazon, where will be no need for cable TV, now watch Buckeye start charging a lot more for cable internet, they already have put streaming caps on.