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What do americans think of At&t?

N

Nuckchooking

Newbie
Not sure if this is the right place to post this or not but anyways...

I'm Canadian but I recently took a job at a call center doing android tech support for At&t.

Since we don't have At&t in Canada I was just wondering what the general consensus is toward At&t in the states.

As far as I can tell people don't seem too happy but I only get the people having issues.

Any insight or stories related to the matter would be appreciated.
 
I suppose it all depends on the situation and the area in which you use AT&T. I've worked for the call center in Arkansas, USA and I also worked at a corporate store. As a customer service agent I received all the bad calls as well. However, as a sales agent at the store I was able to make people happy and see their immediate reaction. People are generally happier when they are getting a new phone or new features than if they are if they are already using the network. Also as both a former post paid customer/current pre-paid customer I have to say that the post paid is not near as economical as the pre-paid. All in all they have pretty good rural service and that's why I'm with them.
 
Moved to the AT&T forum. :)

Generally speaking phone (and internet) companies are not well liked, usually because of high cost or lack of coverage.

AT&T has the second best coverage behind Verizon.

I'd be surprised if anyone calls support only to compliment the service, so as you mentioned all you'll hear about is problems.
 
Verizon and AT&T are known infamously for having signed unlockable Bootloaders. In addition AT&T tends to not release official firmware packages, which can be used to save a soft-bricked device. For this reason, many hardcore Android enthusiasts avoid them like the plague.

AT&T Excuse

Personally this infuriates me. Unfortunately, as @kate mentioned they are the top two carriers in the nation, so I guess that gives them the right to tell you what you can or cannot do with your personal property.
 
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i was talking with a Verizon customer service rep a while back, and she said the only way I could do what i wanted to do was to root my phone... she said that Verizon does not care if it is rooted, they just like to keep them locked because it makes life easier for the CS reps. most of them are script readers.
 
Yes but if you're rooted with a locked bootloader, that means no custom recovery, no Nandroid backup, no safety blanket. Verizon, at least, is good about providing firmware for their main stream devices.
 
Bg260 said:
Yes but if you're rooted with a locked bootloader, that means no custom recovery, no Nandroid backup, no safety blanket. Verizon, at least, is good about providing firmware for their main stream devices.
Click to expand...

Well, have to admit I feel much more at ease these days now that i have a rooted phone, and able to make backup images of everything.
 
AZgl1500 said:
Well, have to admit I feel much more at ease these days now that i have a rooted phone, and able to make backup images of everything.
Click to expand...
It is good, but backup images will do you no good if the device is in a bootloop. :)

If this is your Samsung than you can make a backup with Flashfire. You would still need to Odin back to Stock, Re-root and then try to restore.
 
AT&T is the only one with coverage where I'm at, except for US Cellular. The rest just roam on them here. Verizon definitely doesn't have the best coverage. They have the best LTE coverage, but AT&T is basically equal to them in the calling & texting/2g/3g coverage, especially with their roaming agreements. I'd give AT&T a 5/10, could be a lot cheaper and have a lot more features, like T-Mobile, but what do you expect when they come out all this way, there's no competition.
 
yeah, AT&T and VZW stick it to us, but someone has to pay the freight to put up all of those cell towers and the heavy equipment investment under them.

the freeloaders, "the other carriers" just rent bandwidth from those two...

I have never used US Cellular, and don't know if they put up their own towers.
 
Honestly, if you are like me and you like to tweak your phones software, then AT&T and Verizon are the worst carriers to buy a phone from. Almost all of their device's have locked bootloaders and not many of their device's have root access to this day. For instance, the Galaxy Alpha AT&T variant only had root for about a month and a half, then Kingroot developers got jealous of the supersu-me developers and decided to pull support from it, meaning it can no longer be rooted. I think that any non-carrier branded Nexus device I would spend the money on. Their bootloaders are super easy to unlock and root access is super easy to obtain.

But if you want my opinion on them from a regular standpoint like calling, sms, data, etc, I think that AT&T is the best in the US right now. They have super fast data speeds and my personal favorite carrier in terms of everyday usage of a phone.
 
I have been on Verizon for 20 plus years, and stay with them because I must have their coverage map.


but, I have a good friend who is a OTR trucker and he is on AT&T, and I am jealous of his ability to talk and surf the Internet at the same time, all day long.

I can't unless I am using WiFi...
 
I really don't have any issues. I live around the Boston area and have the same coverage as most carriers here (they're all jammed pretty well in Massachusetts) I was just walking the cape cod canal today and ran a speed test and got 142.7mbps down for a download speed. I can't complain about that.
 
Bg260 said:
Verizon and AT&T are known infamously for having signed unlockable Bootloaders. In addition AT&T tends to not release official firmware packages, which can be used to save a soft-bricked device. For this reason, many hardcore Android enthusiasts avoid them like the plague.

AT&T Excuse

Personally this infuriates me. Unfortunately, as @kate mentioned they are the top two carriers in the nation, so I guess that gives them the right to tell you what you can or cannot do with your personal property.
Click to expand...
The hardware might be your personal property, but with locked and carrier subsidized devices, the firmware in them very much theirs, and they want to ensure it stays that way as well.
 
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