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  1. #1
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    Time Warner vs. AT&T U-verse

    As the title indicates, I am moving soon and looking to set up cable at my new apartment. The apartment is wired for both, so I am more so wondering if anyone here has bad experiences with either company, possibly lives in the area and can comment, or just had any general advice to me on which to pick.

    I've only ever had Charter and FiOS.

    I'm not really stuck on a budget, since they're both going to be around 50 bucks month to month anyway.

    Thanks.

  2. #2
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    We don't have Time Warner up here, it's just AT&T and Comcast. My dad used to have U-verse but had nothing with issues, and trying to get someone down there was like pulling teeth. It was at the point where they would no show and claim they rang/knocked and no one answered on multiple visits. Experiences though seem to vary from region to region. Service wise I've had no issues with comcast for example, but the customer service blows. I've had friends who have comcast in other area's and are at the point where they would sacrifice a first born to get google fios due to the issues with service.

  3. #3
    It's all dicks and airplanes
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    Was with AT&T for a while..

    The service is supposed to be rock solid, should it be installed properly. Sadly, their techs rarely know how to do the install properly. When we first installed it took them 3 trips to my house to function. That said after that I might disconnect 3 times in a year. Chances are if you get someone they've outsourced installation to, it won't be done right the first time.

    As for customer service, bills were steady and consistent, I always got what I was expecting. Phone support is lackluster, the usual shit you get from an ISP. Power cycle that shit. I hope you never need a modem replacement, etc. It was a pain in my dick both times. Shipping was slow, wasn't the problem to begin with, sending it back it took me months to get the modem taken off my bill. Should anything break inside, it's 100 bucks for a tech visit, or at least it is here.

    They're also in a transitional phase with changing the remainder of their services over to U-verse in some states, not sure how much maintenance or how many outages you'll get, or if that's even a thing in your area.

    Another thing that got me was just how slow it is compared to the others. Though that's slowly changing, speeds vary pretty much everywhere you check. The fastest for them here was 6mb on u-verse, when the fastest from others is around 105mb. They had plans as low as 320kb/s here..

    But beyond all of that I was actually forced to drop my service due to a problem they refused to resolve with the switch over to u-verse lines in my area. I am now with Comcast, which is more or less TWC now I think?

    Not experienced with TWC, so can't comment on theirs. All I know is they were acquired by Comcast, who tend to have some of the lowest customer service standards.

    tl;dr AT&T would be a more steady choice should the service function as it's supposed to, if the service there is anything like it was here, then I'd take it over the rest. Especially given their "new" capacities for download/upload. Everything I mention about them happened over the course of seven or so years. Those were the only problematic experiences.

    TWC would probably be a bit more volatile, but faster. Probably more CS issues.

  4. #4
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    I can tell you Uverse is..spotty in some places. We got it, and had to call out two techs (One was supposed to do a 'check' to see if we could get it, and he messed things up so bad we had to call another tech to get it installed! And the first tech was so unprofessional I wanted to gag, he didn't even bring in a ladder when he needed one, he used a chair in my middle brother's room to climb up to pull at some wires in the ceiling down in the basement, ugh.)

    Other than "make sure if you have any problems, that you know how to bop the tech in the HEAD so he won't send you a new modem" (My biggest complaint has been the tech support. Their standard response to any internet problem is to try to send you a new modem, which 99% of the time isn't needed and you have to send back!) our service has been pretty good, but we're by a router box for the service. My married brother on the other hand tried Uverse, had nothing but issues, and ended up going with Comcrap (the other big isp in our area). Said brother lives 3-4 miles away from us too, I think?

    Make sure you know how good the signal strength is for both before you make your decision is what I'd say. If you're by, say, a Uverse box, go with Uverse, if you're not don't even bother. And if you do go with Uverse, be prepared for some unprofessionalism and some baaaad tech support if you got problems, and make sure you can deal with that.

  5. #5
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    Never had Time Warner, but I've had AT&T for about 5 years. When it works it's decent -- nothing spectacular, but when it starts to go out enjoy at least 3-4 months of fighting with technicians, people over the phone, and line repairmen. I've had to put up with their shit 3 times to get my connection fixed and stable when I had them and it was an absolute nightmare.

  6. #6
    It's sooo veiny
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    Problem with U-verse is the conditioning of the copper and fiber optics has to be perfect, any bonding issues bad splices etc will cause everyone on that feed to be down. In best of conditions its mediocre.

  7. #7
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    I see. Thanks for the advice and experiences. After talking with family/friends and reading a bunch of online testimonials from various customers of both I think I'm gonna go with TWC. Seems to be a lot more hit than miss, whereas U-verse seems like it's a shit show unless you're living next to the VRAD for your area.

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