OT: AT&T vs Charter

[EDJFA]

I've been a long time AT&T customer. My dad worked for SBC for over 30 years, actually retiring from AT&T when SBC was bought out. So, I've got some loyalty to them.

However, as we have moved, I've got to re-evaluate my options. I've always had AT&T internet. Most recently U-Verse. It caps out at 24mbps at the new house. We home school, I do some gaming, we stream a lot of TV, and we might be doing all of those things at the same time.

Charter advertises that they can come in as high at 100mbps. Obviously, that's a huge advantage to Charter.

That's the internet, there's also TV to consider. I had U-Verse TV for about 7 years before switching to DirectTV this summer. I hated DirectTV, so when I called to ask them how to move it and they started with, well, it's going to cost you $150 just to move it, I said no and cancelled the contract.

I hated DirectTV because anytime it rained a little bit it seemed like I was losing the signal. I know it seems silly, but it seems to me that when a storm is coming in might be the time I really ought to be able to see the weather reports on TV. How am I supposed to know when to ignore the TV dude when he says it's time to go to my basement?

I think I'd be pretty happy for awhile just letting the TV go and trying something like Playstation Vue or Hulu Plus for the TV we normally watch.

Have any of you had both Charter and AT&T? Anyone have opinions one way or the other?

 

[kegogut]

I have Uverse and honestly the only reason I keep them is because of the wireless cable boxes . During the warmer months I have a small TV I like to take outside and watch the ball game. This might change when I get my new deck though!

Ive never had charter but have heard some horror stories about customer service.

 

[rams]

I've had Direct for years and have never had a problem with what you are stating. Maybe when a really good storm finally hits with the towering cells. First big downpour do I lose signal. But never longer than a couple of minutes. I use weather apps for storm information. But I do storm spotting and usually never retreat to below ground level or would be the last too. If you know it is coming you should be prepared anyway. Not wait for good ol weather Dave to tell you to take cover. Directv you can get on your phone or tablet if you have their wireless service.

I can't get AT&T broadband where I am at. I've tried Charter but man. Their customer service was horrible. Only when you finally call to disconnect do they say. "If only you let us know we could have done something to save you money." Sorry guy. I waited till your competitor installed first before you cut my cord. You said you couldn't do anything the past two times I called about my $65 bill just for internet. 100M is cool on the DOWN. But the best they can do on the UP is 4M. Blah Blah

I can't stand Charter's TV interface. I guess its what you get use to.

 

[bhbell]

Ok, not pertinent but I hate your choices. I've got a choice of dial up, Dishnet satellite, or Verizon 3g. They all really suck, just to varying levels.

Sent from my VK815 using Tapatalk

 

[Schplitter]

I hate how much I pay for ATT Uverse but it's just better. The DVR, menu layout options, free TV on my iPad and customer service are great. Price sucks.

Charter used to go in and out all the time and then you spend 2 hours on the phone trouble shooting it with them to find out they don't know what they want you to do. Only the last (of 6) level of help is able to actually trouble shoot and if you get lucky help. If I wanted something I needed to troubleshoot once a week I would just get Internet and watch tv over the internet.

 

[jlabeaume]

I haven't had charter at my house but I did at work for a long time. it was fast when it worked, service was terrible. No phones tv or internet for hours at a time. Randomly shut off would need to be reset. One day we had nothing for almost 10 hours. Customer service was pretty much useless. We have switched to att and had our cable cut by contractors working next door. Att was out in 1 hour and fixed in 4. That was digging out the cable and patching it.

I have had att at my house for 4 years and haven't lost service for more than 5 mins ever. I will never give charter any business ever again.

 

[mpgrant77]

We released all of them back to the wild. We were tired of paying for tv that we never watched and when we did watch it, it was full of crappy programs. We only keep charter for the internet. All our tv is now through Netflix and Hulu with the occasional amazon prime. I added a small HDTV antenna which was like 20 bucks and we get all the local channels. So much cheaper, we pick what we want to watch when we want to watch it. The kid has all his favorite cartoons on Netflix so he is happy also. We did not watch enough TV to justify paying for cable or satellite. Now we pick a show to watch and just start at season 1 and watch through the series until we are done. Then we find another show to watch. I actually really like watching tv like that.

 

[Nanook]

Charter for 20 years, we've had our ups and downs, but our internet and TV have been really dependable. They don't haggle any more which ticks me off, but it's been more convenient to keep everything as is while Ann was in her Masters Program. Now that she is done, I plan to haggle because we are paying way too much every month.

 

[Mr D smack]

I streamline so no cable etc... Charter is the only high speed available in my area, that I'm aware of. I've not had any issues other than I don't like the higher bill.

 

[Lance A. Lot]

I have charter and I do hate their customer service. I call once a quarter to threaten cancellation. This being said its still the best option for internet in my area. I don't do cable because we just use a slingbox and RoKu for that. $40 a month isn't terrible but I have to complain a lot to maintain that bill at that level.

 

[EDJFA]

Thanks for the info. We have had zero problems with our AT&T internet. We may end up going back with them. At least with them I know what I'm getting, even though I end up paying a little more for it.

The one thing that might tip me back towards Charter is their DirectTV contract buyout program. I will have paid $400 to leave DTV, so maybe I can recoup some of that cost by using Charter. But I'm sure there are some catches to that process.

I have a phone call scheduled this afternoon, so we'll see how it goes.

Thanks for the info. I knew you guys would have honest opinions.

 

[Scubareefman]

I use charter's higher bandwidth package. For my Tv's, Gaming, and tank all are running off 1200 gigabit powerLine links while my wifi is supporting my phones, tablets, echo's, watches, steam link. My router is set to give priority to all powerLine items first then each system is ranked on the wifi for bandwidth, it's very rare to get lag or buffering. However charter is constantly flooding my mail box, and email accounts asking me to upgrade yada yada yada.

 

[South City]

I have regular DirecTV and have been happy with it. I gave up on Charter TV years ago. Just too many issues with billing and their horrible customer service. I did stick with the Charter Internet though since I didn't have any other high speed options. It is reliable and seems less prone to billing issues compared to their TV service.

DirecTV just started a streaming service this past week. It's getting pretty good reviews in that you get a lot of channels(100+) for only $35 a month, good interface, et. From what I heard, you can tack on premiums like HBO for only another $5 a month.

https://directvnow.com/

 

[pdt7361]

I have been using Charter for years. I work from home and my kids & I are gamers - we always have a solid, fast connection. Most days I average around 50Mbps download and 8-9Mbps upload. For me, their internet connection can't be beat around here (at least in the residential market).
For their TV service, I'm happy with what we have but it's expensive. I've been thinking about moving off of it and going to a streaming service - possibly a combination of a Fire Stick and DirecTV streaming.