TL;DR Fiber internet might be highly tempting especially for the $80/month price, sadly AT&Ts departmental seams and poor customer service make it impossible to get AT&T fiber from the AT&T box to my apartment 30 feet away.

Full story:

I have been using Comcast as my ISP ever since I moved to the Bay Area 5 years ago. It is 50Mbps cable internet and it has been the best thing I could get for the price ($75/month). It was OK, but that’s just it. In early November, I received a door-to-door salesman telling me that AT&T now offers fiber internet in my neighborhood and that I could get 1Gbps for $80/month. This sounded like a sweet deal and luckily my Comcast contract was about to expire in December.

On 11/30/2017 I went to att.com, I checked my home address and I found it was ready for fiber. I pulled the trigger and signed up for AT&T Fiber. I requested 12/14/2017 11am-1pm install date so it lines up with the end of my Comcast service. I was assured that everything is ready to go and that the install will only take around 4 hours once the tech arrives. I was psyched and eagerly awaited their arrival!

12/14/2017 was a Thursday, so I had to work from home to greet the technicians. The first AT&T tech person arrived at 10:30am, he told me that he was part of the AT&T outside installation team, his job was to run the fiber from the AT&T hub in the box inside the sidewalk to the outside of my house, then run the fiber through the wall into the inside of my house. Finally, inside my house he was going to install the ONT. He noted that there are three issues that will prevent him from getting it done that day: 1. AT&T Engineering (a separate department) has not completed the wiring up of the AT&T box in the sidewalk next to my house. 2. I needed a written permission from my landlord so the tech person can drill my wall. 3. My house did not have the 30 feet conduit pipe from the sidewalk to the house to run the fiber under the ground. For the first issue, he called up the dispatch and told me that someone will come out and wire up the box in the sidewalk, for the second issue I had to contact my landlord, for the third, I was confused as all the resources online were saying that AT&T just does a bury of fiber cables for you. All of this was disappointing as nobody told me about the permit and AT&T should have really fixed the outside box in the 15 days they had between my sign up and install date, but hey s**t happens. At noon on the same day, I received another AT&T technician (Inside install department) to install the modem, but I had to tell them the outside job was not complete (how did they not see that on their ticket?). Once they left I hustled, reached out to my landlord and by the end of the day I had a piece of paper with my landlord’s permission to proceed with the install. I also reached out to AT&T customer support to ask about the requirement for the conduit pipe. In the chat they assured me that the AT&T tech I met was wrong and they told me that they just scheduled a contractor to install the conduit pipe within 2 days at no cost to me.

On 12/17/2017 two days have passed, but I had no-one come by to do any work. I reached out to AT&T customer support again and they told me that there was a mix up and nothing got scheduled, so they went ahead and set up another appointment for me on 12/20/2017 that should take care of all the things and I would get internet that day.

On 12/20/2017 I worked from home again to be present for the install. I had a new outside install tech come and tell me the same thing as that first that I need a conduit pipe before he can proceed. I told them that customer service assured me that AT&T would install conduit for me, he laughed and told me that AT&T never does that and that it is my landlord’s or my responsibility. He left. I reached out to the AT&T customer service right away and told them what just happened. They told me that I should get the tech person to mark the grass of where the pipe needs to go and that the support person will schedule the dig, I told them the field tech left already. Customer service representative scheduled me for the day after and assured that marking, digging, pipe install, outside install, and inside install all will happen on 12/21/2017 at no cost to me.

On 12/21/2017 I worked from home once again. In the afternoon, I got a tech from the inside install department. They told me they are here to install the modem (deja-vu!). I told them that I am yet to receive anyone else. I asked them to contact the outside install team and ask if they are coming, however I was told that they don’t have their phone number as AT&T does not share it between departments (grrrr). I explained to them all the issues I’ve been having so far about the conduit and the AT&T box in the sidewalk not being ready, they told me the same thing again that AT&T never installs conduit pipes, then went on saying that the box in the sidewalk is not wired up still by the AT&T engineering team (???). Finally, they ended up mentioning that if it was an aerial install from the other side of the street that had the AT&T fiber on poles, it would be just a matter of a hours and I would be up and running. I got all excited and again and I asked how can I change it to be an aerial install, sadly they told me that AT&T engineering department decides it and that I cannot change it. The tech left. I reach out to AT&T customer support once again, they went on with the same tune that conduit will be installed for me and scheduled me for 12/30/2017.

12/30/2017 was a Saturday and my birthday, but hey since I will get 1Gbps it is all worth it. I got an outside install tech come in and repeat all the things I have heard a number of times now: I need to install a conduit, AT&T box in the sidewalk is not yet ready. At this point I was losing it. In the last hopes I asked if he could reach out to his manager and put in a request to change my install to be aerial type. He said he would and left. I reach out to AT&T customer service, told them about all that was going on. I also asked to change my install type to aerial type. They assured me that they put in a request and that I will receive a call in a few days with an update.

On 1/1/2018 I reached out again to AT&T customer service asking to see if there has been any updates. The representative told me that they had good news saying that I was approved for an aerial install — I was ecstatic. They told me that I should wait on and I will receive a call to schedule an appointment in a few days.

On 1/4/2018 I reach out to AT&T customer services as I received no calls. They told me that there is some pending outside work by AT&T engineering still and that I should receive someone on 1/6/2018 to do an install.

1/6/2018 was the last straw. I waited all day and nobody showed up. I contacted AT&T support asking what has happened. They told me there was a mistake and asked me if I wanted to make another appointment. I felt played around. There were 36 days, 6 scheduled appointments (of which only 4 that happened), 3 days working from home, and 10 customer service conversations and I was no closer to having AT&T fiber as than I was back in November, so I told them to close my account as I was done. They kept asking me questions and pushing me to schedule another appointment, but I was determined to stop wasting my time. My AT&T account was closed.

In conclusion, here are the things I have learned:

AT&T treated me really poorly as if they did not want me as their customer

AT&T has at least 4 different departments that deal with a single fiber install and none of these departments is able to each other

AT&T customer service is OK with lying to you just as long as they can get you off their back.

On the plus side, over all the hours spent on the research I did learn a thing or two about how fiber internet works.