Why a WEEK to provision replacement TV box?

Hi there, sculptorium! We understand that you have been waiting a week to activate a new U-Verse TV receiver. That is a long time to wait. Let's see what we can do to make that happen sooner. 

 

What we are going to do is move this interaction to a Direct Message. You will see a chat icon next to a bell icon at the top. The next message will appear there. Please reply to that message.  

 

Thank you for using the AT&T Community Forums.

 

Matthew, AT&T Community Specialist

Insult to Injury. How I wasted another hour with ATT on the chat.

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Hi! AT&T here. Our next step is to verify your account. We will be sending you a link that will prompt you to login to your account.  Once logged in, we here will get your account information transmitted to us via a secure channel. Then we can take a look at your replacement order to see if we can get that completed and that replacement U-Verse TV receiver activated. We are looking forward to hearing from you. 
7:51 am

OK what do you need?
Hello?
10:22 am

ATTHelp
Let’s verify your account to continue here in social media. Click this link and log in with your myAT&T User ID and password: http://sm.att.com/92992b01 
If you have any troubles logging in, please let me know.
10:23 am

Just use that link that I have sent you and log into your account.
Thanks for verifying your account.  Your case is now in line to be assigned to an expert who’s eager to help.

We appreciate your patience.  Wait times can vary, but your specialist will be with you as quickly as possible.
~AT&T Virtual Assistant
10:24 am

OK Thanks.
10:24 am

ATTHelp
You are so welcome. Please stand by as I am looking up your account information and checking for any recent orders. 
10:25 am

Hello?
10:33 am

Are you still there?
10:34 am

ATTHelp
Hi Jeff.  Matthew here from AT&T Community Forums Support. I have been looking over your account I see that an order was just placed yesterday 12/10/2021 for what looks like a replacement U-Verse TV receiver. Have you already received the replacement? 
10:34 am

The order for the receiver was placed on the 8th. It arrived.
10:35 am

There was supposed to be a remote included with the order. It did not arrive with the receiver.

I had to talk to two more people, and supposedly, the remote was finally ordered on the 10th.
10:36 am

They say the TV box will not be provisioned until the 16th of December.
10:37 am

That is the problem, like I said in the original post.
10:38 am

ATTHelp
Ok thank I am going to check with my, TV Back Office Chat team. To see if we can finish out the orders and have the  replacement TV Receiver activated.  Please be patience as this is the weekend and that team, bu not be avaialable for us. If they are not available, then we will have to put a pause on this until Monday. 
10:38 am

OK, we started this over half an hour ago. How long will this take?
10:55 am

Hello?
Are you still there?
11:04 am

Hello?
11:05 am

Hello? Are you there?
11:13 am

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At this point I finally just gave up. So glad I live in Austin, Texas and they are putting Google Fiber in our neighborhood as I write this. Our landline will cost $10 with Google versus around $50 with ATT. It's mind-numbing that it is going to take a week to provision a replacement TV box. Meanwhile we are paying $$$ for ATT service.

Did you try calling CS to get the STB provisioned?

Admittedly, it was a few years back but I got a replacement receiver and they provisioned it immediately when I called.

Thanks. Yes I called customer service a couple of times. It was only on the third try that they told me they couldn't activate it the replacement TV box until a week later.

How does that make sense? Of course, I had already removed the defective box and installed the replacement.

Other fun facts are that I was told on the phone that we would have to return the defective box, then we got an email from ATT that said we did not need to return it. After that a customer service person said we did need to return the old box.

On top of that, today we get another email from ATT saying we need to return a TV box, but they list the new replacement box as the equipment to be returned!

????

Worst. Service. Ever.