Complaint Review: AT&T

I have had DSL internet and telephone service from AT&T for years and never had a problem until I was contacted by the company several months ago when I received calls and emails from the company telling me I had to "upgrade" to "Uverse."  I sgreed to allow the company to "upgrade" my service only because I was repeatedly promised that I would not be charged any more than the $87 I had been paying.

From the start, the new service did not work with my Microsoft Outlook email but I could live with the almost daily problems I encountered that took hours to resolve using the AT&T troubleshhooting program.  Then I started getting 2 bills from AT&T, one for $90 for my Uverse internet servive and another for more then $50  for my telephone service.    I tried to find a way to complain about the more than $53 increase in my monthly bill but gave up after several hours using resources provided by AT&T. 

It was not difficult to find a better deal - I signed up with the local cable company today because it offered 2 years of much higher speed internet service, unlimited telephone calls in the US and cable television for a guaranteed price of $99 per month.  This is $50 less than AT&T charges for lower speed internet and telephone service and includes cable television service that is not included in the deal AT&T offered. 

I signed up for the better deal the local cable company offered and then tried to pay the balance I owed for internet and telephone service.  I had no problem logging on to my account with AT&T and paying my internet bill, but could not pay my telephone bill no matter what I tried.  Instead of making things easier, it seems that I now have have 2 different accounts and passwords I have to remember to pay my internet and telephone bill.

AT&T ripped me off when they promised that my internet and phone bill would not increase if I signed on to get Uverse and then raised my bill by 160%.  I could live with that and would have changed my service without protest if the company had not made it impossible for me to pay my outstanding bills without wasting several hours of my time trying to figure out if I had to log on usimg my old AT&T account number and password or my new Uverse account number or passwrord or some combination. 

I am not looking for any refund from AT&T and am sending this complaint in the hope that it will prevent other consumers from being ripped off by AT&T.  Uverse never worked properly for me or any of my neighbors and friends who signed up and now regret it, but this is another, much longer story.  Consumers should not believe anything AT&T promises and should find any other service provider