OT: AT&T U-Verse
For those of you who live in Ann Arbor, i am looking into AT&T U-Verse for my house next year for both Internet and TV. From a sports fan and college student perspective, what would you recommend? I'm thinking of picking only the U100, but I can't find the channel lineups. As long as it has BTN and ESPN I am golden. I want to hear more about experiences with this, since apparently Comcast sucks.
Also...there IS a topic about this a couple pages down...I KNOW! However that one is mostly comparing other services and what not. This one is narrowed down so I can gauge what the general opinion is on just this one company so I can see what I'll be picking in a couple of weeks.
Thanks, all!
The actual cable/internet from Comcast isn't terrible...just overpriced and customer service can be a pain to deal with sometimes. I'm also interested to hear what people think about U-verse.
I have U200, there are ALOT of sports channels: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, BTN, CBS college sports, FSD....Plus DVR capabilities on 4 receivers. Customer service is really good. Less than a week after they installed, there were some signal issues and technicians had to come out twice, I called them and bitched and AT&T boosted to the U400 package free for 6 months. Had it for a month now and so far so good. MUCH better than comcast.
Also offered by U-Verse for 10 extra dollars (espn 3d only on directv, comcast, and uverse). Watched the wc and hr derby on there, totally worth it if u can afford the tv, x-games is next.
I'm looking at U-Verse as well. From what I saw, It's an extra $15 monthly to add an HD-DVR to a bundle with U 100, but if you upgrade to the U-200 (which is something like $14 more), you get an HD-DVR included. The way I looked at it was for the cost of an HD-DVR with U-100, you can get another hundred channels and save a dollar by just going with the U-200. Hope this helps.
After that it was fine. You do get those channels with the basic package.
Under Explore/Shop/Support there are four links. Click on the one most to the right, "Complete Channel Lineup" and you can see what your lineup will look like.
For me personally, when I got it, it was cheaper for me to get the U200 package because of the cash back deal. There was no contract when I got it, and the cash back divided by 12 made the package actually less expensive than the U100. I have had problems once, but they came the next day and fixed it. They will jerk you around sometimes, but from my experience it isn't as bad as Comcast.
Also, DVR is awesome, but being a movie nerd and having TCM, IFC, FMC, and Sundance my DVR gets filled up quickly.
I have U100, it's fine. It has BTN and the ESPNs. Only sports channel I sometimes wish I got (besides FSD which I assume you'll have in Ann Arbor) is Versus. The internet has always been pretty reliable.
One thing that kind of irritates me about it is that in the channel guide they show *all* the channels, not just the ones that I get with the U100. So to get from the standard network stations to the sports stations I have to scroll through a hundred or so stations that I don't get. Also they're not clearly differentiated so often when glancing over the channels I'll see something that looks interesting only to switch to it and realize I don't get that channel. Neither of these things are big deals, just irritating.
Edit: Oh, and the installation took a couple hours for me. Longer than I expected, but not too bad.
just set up the "favorites" list with the channels you get and browse that
I have U-verse fully loaded internet and it works perfectly fine. I agree with larsonio. It took them a total of 12 hours over two days and three workers to install it into my home and you have to be there for it all. I had to bribe friends to come over when I had to go to work/school so they didn't have to leave.
But after that, great!
I had comcast and the u-verse HD smokes it with HDMI on 1080. It just looks way better. I have the 200 pack but I'm pretty sure the 100 will cover everything you need for sports. Plus comcast is evil.
I just switched from Time Warner to AT&T U-Verse about a week ago, with internet and U-100, and I'm really liking it. My installation went fine (a couple of hours), and everything works fine. Plus, as someone living outside the Big Ten footprint, getting BTN is a huge plus. I'd say if you're on the fence, go ahead and get it.
Do any of you guys who have U-Verse actually live in Ann Arbor?
I do, and I've been checking their website for months on end, and it continues to tell me it's not available in my area. I live in the old west side near dowtown A2. Just curious to hear from people in Ann Arbor who DO have it, and maybe if it's just not in my part of town. (Does that even make any sense, given my central location??).
And we can't get U-Verse, either, at least not where I live. If we want cable, we get to choose from Comcast, Comcast or Comcast. If we don't want Comcast, we can get DirecTV or DishNetwork. Its like living in the Soviet Union and being told, "You like cola? You get only Coke. No Pepsi."
Speaking of DirecTV, I believe they are the only network offering the NFL Sunday package. If you are an NFL junkie, like I am, DirecTV should be considered as their sports programming is probably the best of all networks. The only downside is that your internet link needs to be with someone else and you lose a few bucks a month by not having a package deal.
One of my best friends lives in Lake Orion and has had U-verse for probably about 8-10 months now.
My wife and I have some friends that live on Broadway in Ann Arbor that have UVerse. They love it. I also know the old west side in Ann Arbor has it. That was the area that first got uverse capability in the city of Ann Arbor. You may have to go to a att store personally or call them.
Thanks, I will give them a call or something. I'm no fan of AT&T, but I've been looking to stick it to Comcast for years. I have had some horrible customer service experiences with them, but my place is surrounded by big old trees which completely block the view of the sky needed for satellite, so DirecTV and Dish have not been an option for me.
It sounds like you have a similar situation to my wife and I when we moved into an apartment in that area. Our landlord refused to let us get a satellite dish that was in any way attached to the building structure or grounds (even u-bolted to the metal railing on our balcony). He thought it would ruin the historic look of the house (it was a piece of crap place by the way, i don't know how it could be ruined anymore). I know Uverse became available the month we moved out. Good luck with at&t. The address check on their website is awful. My current complex sends out notices about at&t reps visiting our complex's clubhouse once a week, but their website still says it is not available at our address. I wouldn't put any stock into that address check.
Really appreciate the info. I hear ya about the landlord. Sometimes I think they say "no" just 'cuz they can.
I live behind Busch's on Main St./Ann Arbor-Saline Rd. I couldn't get it for a while but I asked them to contact me when it is available for my address and they did. I signed up the day it was available and had it hooked up within 4 days.
They have to do alot of work to get U-Verse where there isn't so I am sure they will have it in your neighborhood in the next year or so.
I wonder what the deal is with Old West Side?
It's in Ann Arbor, but whether you can get it or not is based on how far your house is from the crossbox (beige at&t box in your neighborhood)
They are easy to bargain with. Everytime I/my roomies signed up for comcast when moving we got a starterup deal. When the deal ran out we threatened to leave the service and they extended the deal until we moved again.
Just be thankful you don't live in the UP and have to deal with Charter...
Comcast is terrible. I had comcast in my last apartments. The cable television and internet went out constantly. Good luck getting them to fix it. If you ever drop service by moving, watch out for Comcast not switching off your service and or not recording that you turned in your receivers. When I moved to a new apartment, I had comcast calling me saying I was not paying my bill for cable television and internet at an apartment I didn't live at anymore even though I took the time to drive to the Comcast center in Ypsi and hand in both boxes to them personally. They even threatened to get a collections agency on me. I hope their business goes under. There is not a company I detest more than Comcast.
I switched to directv and have had only two outages during big snow storms when I get a ton of snow stuck on the dish. All I have to do is get a broom and sweep off the snow and I have my signal back. Directv's startup packages are much cheaper than comcasts. I got all of the channels (including the sports tier, HBO, Starz/Encore, Skinemax, and Showtime) for free just for picking up NFL sunday ticket. To extend that deal every fall all I have to do is call the retention center and tell them I want to drop down in packages. The only bad thing about directv is their installers. In the past couple years they have contracted outside firms to perform their installation and service. The installers can be very hit and miss. The HD/DVR was terrible when I first started with directv, but it has gotten great after the last few firmware updates.
I am moving again to a new apartment and I am looking at UVerse to save on television and internet. Right now with directv, I still have to buy internet from comcast. It appears from my initial research, that packaging both television and internet through att is cheaper than both directv and comcast. I can get uverse at my new place. I have already checked on this. I would like to know how is the HD-DVR? Also, how reliable and how much bandwidth do you get with the internet?
I have U-Verse and I have the U-200 package and I also added the Sports Package. The installer I had spent the entire 4 hours they told me it would take getting my U-Verse hooked up. They didn't have to come back either. After only 5 months my DVR kind of crapped out but I called AT&T and they were to my house and switched DVR boxes within 16 hrs of when I called. Comcast would have charged me for that or woudl have made me go to the Comcast office to switch.
I have yet to have a single issue with the internet.
One other note if you go with the U-200 I think that includes the DVR for free.
and agree with everything said. the install took a couple hours (3?) but it wasnt bad since i was in the apartment unpacking/moving in anyway.
I went with the U200, HDDVR, 2 receivers, HBO and internet (not too fast, but it works) and it's $130 a month
I'm on my second year of U200 with HD, the mid-level internet and phone. I love it. The customer service is fantastic! Unlike Comcast, they don't screw up my bill every other month, its easy to get through to a real person on the phone, and I've even talked to the tech guys, working at the neighbors' homes, about my service and they've been friendly! They've come out and updated my receivers for free, sent me new remotes, they've surpassed my expectations in every way possible.
att u-verse is very good i love it. it has a really good picture and hardly ever goes out.
package, and I'm quite happy. I bumped the internet up to 6 mbps, which was I believe an extra 5 bucks per month, so for right around 180 bucks I get every channel they offer with three boxes plus internet. Only thing that sucks is you can only pause and rewind live television on the main box. You can watch all your recorded stuff on any of the boxes however. As a bonus, they sent me 300 bucks ($150 dollar check, and $150 dollars worth of visa cards) when I signed on.
Though you cannont get the NFL package except on Direct TV like was mentioned earlier, ATT does offer a channel called NFL Red Zone, which is awesome. Shows EVERY game live once a team is in the red zone (even the Lions when they are blacked out.) Awesome for fantasy football! I find myself leaving that channel on all Sunday long.
We've got the U200 and we have all the sports channels you could ever want except for Comcast's little sports channel that sometimes has hockey games on. Of course, that's a Comcast channel though, so no channel package will give you that.
High Speed internet, 2 HD boxes and a regular box. I get the boxes free for 6 months then they are $7 a piece after. I get over 150 HD channels. I pay about $180 a month. I used to have charter, they have less DVR space and about 100 les HD channels, I paid $160 month for that. AT & T is the way to go. Go into a AT & T strore and they usually offer gift cards to sign up, mine was $200. Hope this helps
is the MLB forces all games to be blacked out unless you have the package.