At&t Home Entertainment ripoff, lack of customer support, threats of legal action, threats to cut off non-existent service Dallas Texas

Hello,

I completely feel your pain and maybe this little bit of information will help others in their fight against AT&T Home Entertainment.

I am a resident of The View at Encino Commons in San Antonio, Texas located in Stone Oak. When I first moved here, I thought it was cool that AT&T was offering Direct TV - that is until I started talking to them and looked at the prices. In short, AT&T Home Entertainment comes along to new apartment communities and pre-wires their cable for a satellite provider like Dish or Direct TV, and then holds a monopoly much like the cable company over the service that can be provided to the entire complex. What qualifies this for the Ripoff Report is that AT&T Home Entertainment charges a premium for these services. They don't own the wiring, the dish or the actual signal but slap on a hefty fee to bring you "Direct TV" or "Dish Network".

If you are good friends with you apartment community manager, I've sort of discovered a way to get them to GO! Direct TV has commercial accounts with apartment complexes, what they define as Multi-Dwelling Units (MDU). Each MDU is assigned a network provider depending on region. In some places, there's only one. In other places, particularly growing metros, there are definitely more than one. Each network provider has a contract WITH THE PROPERTY for a set amount of time. Our contract is coming up and I am lobbying out management like crazy to get them to search for a different network provider. The only think AT&T Home Entertainment owns are the satellite receiver boxes that sit in your units, and in actuality,they don't even own those - they come from Direct TV/Dish Network and guess who is paying a premium to have them? That's right, you!

If you can help your apartment communities out by trying to research who the MDU network provider is in your area. It may take some determination because DTV doesn't like to give that information out. After multiple calls, I finally got through and gave that information to the property manager.

Anything is better than the ripoff tyranny of AT&T Home Entertainment.

Good luck consumers!

Sid

I finally had to give in before they put a black mark on our credit. Sent to AT&T via contact email on their website

"I closed my account with you in January 2006, but nobody seemed to notice. I returned your equipment to you via UPS, Tracking #1Z V96 569 06 0123 7877. Nobody seemed to notice. Late charges were applied to my account in the amount of $15 because nobody seemed to notice that I no longer had service and had returned your equipment. Now I'm being hounded by your collection agency for that $15 because nobody seemed to notice. I am paying off the lousy $15 and this time I hope somebody notices and that your company no longer hounds me. AT&T is pathetic."