AT&T Telephone Tech Support is useless

Let me begin by saying that I am a tech savvy individual. I've designed and installed my home theater with a JVC DLP projector and Denon A/V Receiver. I moved into my neighborhood 10 years ago and after years of contact with AT&T, we finally had fiber installed in the neighborhood. I have been a longtime fan of AT&T's technology and in particular: U-verse. My installer was very professional, knowledgeable and informative. The only glitch in our neighborhood installations has been the "burial" sub-contractors. On several occasions, they have, in one way or another, compromised the fiber running to the house requiring another visit from the installers to re-run the fiber.

The "main" DVR in my home theater, which serves as the "master", is "hard-wired" to the modem (Residential Gateway), via my personally installed Cat5E ethernet cable, and has been flawless. My living room receiver is one of 2 wireless receivers by Cisco and has been problematical since installation. The receiver finally died. Which brings me to my issue with the telephone tech people in the Philippines. They are horrible at best. The vast majority are working off of checklists with virtually no knowledge of the intricacies and conventions of the system.

I called to report the failure of my wireless receiver. After an hour of transfers and ridiculous questions, an order was finally placed for a replacement receiver. My receiver was a Cisco ISB7005 which, as your online guide states, must be paired with a Cisco Wireless Access Point. Your people sent a Motorola non-wireless receiver to replace it. When I called in to advise of the error, one of your "Techs" tried to have me install it anyway. A total waste of time. I finally convinced her to send the correct one. They sent me another identical receiver!  At that point, I finally convinced them to send out a service technician after their insulting admonition that if it was merely an installation error on my part, that there would be a service fee of $99. Well, it was not an error on my part. The technician was excellent, and the problem was resolved with a correct receiver which he had in the truck. He was also conversant with the technologies of the protocol differences between normal Wi-Fi and the WAP communication. And the importance of not having modems or Wi-Fi extenders in close proximity to the wireless receivers because of possible signal conflict/corruption, which I have experienced.

I worked for an airline, as a Jet Captain, for over 22 years. We understood that you could have the most modern and sophisticated airplanes piloted by the finest and most well -rained pilots and maintained by the best trained mechanics and technicians. But from the customer/passenger viewpoint it all boiled down to their experience with the reservationists, ticket agents, flight attendants and, of course, the landing. A bad experience with any of those entities poisons their entire view of the airline. The same is true for AT&T. Despite your outstanding products and nearly miraculous technologies, your image is sullied by your cost-cutting approach to customer service. You must do better!