Good old AT&T

[elgrecomac]

This afternoon I had lunch with my brother in downtown San Francisco at a small deli at 2nd Street and Folsom. I wanted to show him something on my iPad that required Internet connectivity so I tried to tether my pad to my (AT&T) iPhone but I could not get a signal. Not even a hint of a bar. Being at 2nd and Folsom in downtown SF is important because across the street... and I literally mean across a 2 lane city street, is AT&Ts main building for operations for the west coast of the USA. But no bars. Not on my phone, not on my brother's iPhone and not on the guy at the next table's iPhone. Dead, Dead and Dead.... And we were close to the door and by a window. Dead.

I have bitched and moaned about AT&Ts network in San Diego where I live and here I go with the same issue in San Fran right next to AT&Ts west coast hub.

I thought AT&Ts network was supposed to be getting better but, alas, I am mistaken because even right out side their own front doors, they have crappy service.

My plan expires in July so when the iPhone 5 comes out later this year, I am heading to Verizon. It CAN'T bet worse that AT&Ts performance, can it?

 

[normanbates]

I once had a similar issue in the UK with Vodafone. I had really poor signal and went into one of their stores with it to explain it.

The guy was perplexed by it because their stores in the UK have something called SureSignal, which transmits 3G signals via a broadband connection and he compared my iPhone to one of the ones in store that was showing FULL service and mine was struggling to get GPRS let alone EDGE or 3G

He booked it in for service and gave me this crappy (I mean crappy) Panasonic thing that didn't even like texting.

A week later I get my phone back andnthisnwhole report about what they did, a software upgrade (even though it was on the latest software and I a lady tried that) and a clean up of the cellular antenna connections on the board.

I immediately turned it on and the same problem was STILL there, even though it had been field tested (apparently) by the tech guys at the service centre.

It was a different customer service rep that I dealt with in store and he was like 'there's nothing wrong with your phone, I don't even know why it was booked in for repair' I questioned this and he gave me the biggest load of bull I have ever heard. He said that I was TOO CLOSE to a base station to receive proper signal because it sends it out in an umbrella shape and you have to be quite a way from it to pick up its signal. Needles to say I wasn't havi any of his rubbish excuse so I contacted them on their customer service number and they arranged for me to go to a different store and have it sent away for repair again.

Got another crappy phone whilst I waited, then three weeks later (one full week after it should have been back with me) I got a phone call to say that it was in fact screwed and that they were sending me a new one. I also demanded a refund for the months line rental seeing as I was paying an over inflated price for the privilege of having an iPhone. They didn't even quibble and even paid half towards my next month too!