I am currently an ATT/Yahoo customer. As soon as I am able I am discontinuing my service, saying, so long, see ya...wouldnt wanna be ya! In my opinion this is the MOST HORRIBLE service I have EVER delt with! If possible refrain from using this service/company.
My story...I have had internet for years...even played on the old bulletin board systems. Have had several providers over the years. NEVER had issues besides a line down, cable down, box out....Have also had SEVERAL security suites, parental controls, etc....Again...NO problems with them.
Two months ago I moved - established service with AT&T. Have had nothing but problems ever since. Virus software updating 2/3x's a day..bogging down system...parental controls updating 2/3x's a day...bogging down system. Parental controls "losing password" and problems with modem. Having to log in repeatedly to get parental controls to "take"...Called customer service, tech support regarding issues....got same as above posting...the "passing of the buck", "we dont know how to help you", we'll have someone call you...(NEVER RECEIVED A CALL BACK...), uninstalling and reinstalling several items - "oh that didnt work...lets have level II contact you....", several times, waiting on hold, 16 minutes, 26 minutes...once for as long as ONE HOUR AND 34 MINUTES...YES...93 minutes!!! Never to no avail and no answers...oh and absoutley no call backs....
Got sick of it a few nights ago and called to "shake the roof down". Norton has updated AFTER I had switched it to have to manually update. I was plain tired of the continuous problems! Spent 2 1/2 hours with level I tech support SUPERVISOR who actually made my problems WORSE!!! AFTER he was done working his "magic" uninstalled Norton, uninstalled parental controls - promised me pratically a miracle product with the McAfee virus protection/security suite and new fancy schmancy parental controls...went and installed and every time I tried to load IE it would crash and disappear. Tried adding the parental controls THREE times! They wouldnt take!! Had me install a program called aace because he "thought" that might be the right one...Lost ALL add-on's and java. After 2.5 hours SUPERVISOR told me...oh sorry...theres nothing else I can do...I'll have level II tech support call you in the morning. I asked "what time!!" - He PROMISED 8:00 am - Well guess what...just as in the past...(typical behavior of ATT)...NO CALL BACK! I waited until 12:15ish to call them...after 1.5 hours (waiting on hold...having to call back....transfering me all over the place...passing the buck...) finally reached level II supervisor. Supervisor was unable to help me in the time alloted (as NOW I had to go to work!!!) So she assured me that tech support (level II - supervisor) WOULD call me at 8pm....HA!!!!! ATT played their typical joke on their customers and never botherd to call me regarding all the problems I had....8:45 pm called them. Spent from 8:45 until MIDNIGHT being bounced around, put on hold...got a real level II rep at NINE FIFTY ONE - OVER AN HOUR after I had originally called!!!! He proceeded to tell me (after hours on the phone) that I would have to live without my java in internet explorer and use firefox but for anything else (that didnt need java) I could/would use internet explorer!!! At this point I had/have NO parental controls, NO virus protection, because a LEVEL II Supervisor can not get it installed and working properly!!!
I could only WISH this was all a joke!!!
So at midnight - he gave up and said if I had further problems/concerns to call back the next day...(like we were just "finished"!!!) More then likely he was tired of "dealing" with me and figured since I could access java pages through firefox and anything else with IE I was "just fine!!!"
So.....YES this DOES get worse!!! Because this was NOT fixed properly and because what the other reps had done and screwed up my WHOLE computer system and caused me more problems then I even started with I called back! Mind you...in the previous 48 hours I had spent...SEVEN + HOURS already with tech support!!!
Called back and 2nd level support was able to return my java to my IE (we'll give him a gold star for that) BUT kept insuinating that it was my system that had caused the problems....and why we could not get mcAfee nor the parental controls to work! I DIDNT HAVE THESE PROBLEMS BEFORE INSTALLING ATT / YAHOO SOFTWARE AND USING THE ATT INTERNET SERVICE!!!!! He also told me and I quote "I usually do not go through this much, spend this much time and go to this extent with customers"...NOW WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!!!?? Oh were sorry we screwed up everything on your computer...sorry we made the problems worse...but we just dont have time nor do we care if we even fix what WE broke! THATS what it tells me!!!
So...Whatever they have to run the internet, parental controls, virus protection is CONFLICTING!!!!!! But of course...this is typical ATT pratice...blame it on the user/customer and their computer, THEN screw things up and say "oh well!! we dont have time to deal with you!"
What is funny is that we have another computer - a laptop which runs BEAUTIFULLY!! EVERY program running on both computers is the SAME EXCEPT...The ATT / YAHOO software!!! (Go figure...but it's not their fault right??)
So after spending over 10 HOURS in THREE days on the phone with tech support I still have NO virus protection, NO parental controls, and was given a whopping $50.00 credit for my inconvenience. (WHOOPIE!!!)I have been accused of being the one to have the issue. I have been lied to. I have been promised call backs yet received none, I have been put on hold for more time that I'd even like to imagine, It makes me SICK to think of the time that I've wasted!
Oh and one last thing I just thought of...my wonderful tech support agents (several of them) said...NO ONE has had the problems you have....Well I guess the jokes on them...because I'm NOT the only one!!
I WILL be switching internet providers. At this point I would rather have excellerated dial up then deal with ATT another month. The author of the original post is right ... AT&T / Yahoo DSL UN-SUPPORT