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Cable without wifi
My 84 year old Mother called to have cable installed at her apartment and the salesperson told her she also MUST subscribe to wifi service. She does not want or need wifi but has been told by AT&T that it's mandatory to bundle and pay a higher fee.
This is an outrageous case of elder abuse and deceptive sales practices. Unless you fix the problem and refund all overcharges, I'll be reaching out to the state attorney general's office.
What a shameful thing foe you all to do.
Constructive
Employee
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34K Messages
2 years ago
Like they know how old she is? They have packages you can sign up for and the price is the price.
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Juniper
ACE - Expert
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23K Messages
2 years ago
@cearbhill
Providing age is not a requirement of starting service. Unless your mother volunteered such info, they have no idea how old she is.
Nobody subscribes to WiFi service. My computer and phone can connect to my printer by WiFi as that is just a wireless connection, which of course I don't pay for. I believe you mean internet service.
Bundling is optional. It might be required for certain promotions, but you can get just a single service (for TV or internet).
You've posted in the U-Verse TV forum. That is a grandfathered service that has not been accepting new customers. Sounds like she at least has AT&T Internet, which would be a different section of the forum.
Your demands and threats mean nothing. If your mother accepted everything as shown on the order confirmation than that was her decision. Nobody knows who you or your mother is, or the associated account, as this is a public forum of other customers. Even if you call AT&T for official support, you cannot discuss the account unless your mother adds you as an authorized user (or have been added through a Power of Attorney process). Same as any other company, regardless of your relationship with the account owner.
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my thoughts
Employee
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3.4K Messages
2 years ago
I suspect she was sold DirecTv Streaming service… this requires an internet connection to work.
DirecTv SATELLITE TV service with a dish mount would not require internet, but would the apartment owner allow for a dish to be mounted and coax cabling to be ran to the unit?
Uverse IPTV was discontinued for new customers March 2020, thus not an option…but it did not require internet for tv service.
If not wanting to pay the extra for bundle internet, then the options would be your local cable company or a satellite service such as DirecTv or Dish.
(edited)
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skeeterintexas
ACE - Expert
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28.3K Messages
2 years ago
AS a senior and long time UverseTV customer I will add the following:
AT&T does not sell "cable TV". Uverse TV was discontinued a few years ago. Your mom was sold DirecTV Streaming. This is the only TV service that AT&T has any involvement in. DirecTV Streaming does require "wi-fi", aka internet service because it is a streaming service like Netflix or Hulu or Prime Video.
There is no elder abuse here. It was just a matter of your mom being sold on something she does not understand. Deceptive trade practices? Again, this does not meet that criteria.
If you cannot get satisfaction cancelling the account, contact the BBB. You can also contact your local elder abuse agency and see if they will work on your mother's behalf to get this situation rectified even though AT&T did nothing illegal.
Since this is a DirecTV Streaming issue I will point you to that forum HERE. Feel free to post there.
Thread closed.
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