CenturyLink Store

I would like to share my 3 months experience with Centurylink internet service at Columbia, MO. Overall, the internet service was good; however, the billing was a mess, very bad.
Before moving to Columbia, MO, I checked the rating of ISP in that area; both Centurylink and its competitor
(cable) got terrible customer reviews. However, Centurylink is the exclusive internet service provider in the apartment complex I lived, I had no other choice.
(1) Appointments for service:
The customer service person told me that my apartment is pre-​wired (address verified); however, this was not the case. The technician came and spent very long time coming and going out the apartment for wiring. The technician explained that it was because it was that I ordered for very high speed (30M/​2M) and it used fiber optics, and it is not pre-​wired (?!). By the way, the speed was not even that fast as the customer service person claimed; it turned out to be 25M/​2M. Not a big problem but just did not feel happy.
(2) Pricing:
Very expensive. Centurylink charged me over 70 bucks per month. They said if I chose no-​contract, it would be 20 dollars more. I think this is very expensive compared to what I had Time Warner Cable back in San Diego, CA. I am not saying TWC was good, but Centurylink was even worse. The reason I chose this speed was that I would like to do Skype video calling with my parents far away. Centurylink did provide slower download speed but the upload speed was slower as well. OMG, Why can’t you offer more than 1M upload speed at a reasonable price? Also, I think the price/​speed availability in the mid west is more expensive than the east coast and west coast. I may be wrong; this was based on my experience in these years.
(3) Quality of internet service:
I have to say I was satisfied. The connection was very reliable and fast (download). This may have something to do with the new fiber optic wiring in the newly built apartment complex but I do not have proof.
(4) Billing:
Can’t be worse. I had experiences with many ISP in the past few years, including TWC, Comcast, ATT etc. The accuracy of the bill Century was the worst! At the 1^st bill, I was over charged: Centurylink charged me even before my service was really successfully activated (The technicians came to my apartment twice and the two appointments were one week apart). I complained and finally they admitted the error. However, there was another thing which really made me angry about: I moved out of town and returned the modem to the local Centurylink store and gave them my new address in NYC. I was waiting for the final bill for maybe 3 weeks and got nothing. Finally, the bill came and I tried to pay the bill over the phone (about 46 dollars); I was very amazed to hear that I owed 112 dollars. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? The lady said that I missed the last month bill and it was overdue. I told the lady that I had never received the bill, and I just got a bill after I terminated the service for 3 weeks, and the amount on the bill was about 46 dollars. Why it was not 112 dollars on the 1^st bill? How come it increased to 112 dollars in a few days and you told me that it was overdue if I did not make the payment in time there would be bad for my credit. I felt very angry. This is the worst billing system that I had experience for all kinds of services, not just ISP. It is a shame. The monthly rate is very high at the first place, secondly, there were always problems with the billing. Hey, I just used 3 months and it came out with so many problems, not once! Now I am at NYC, I pay roughly the same amount of money and I am having 50M/​50M internet service. Yes, the upload speed is 25X faster. For people living in the mid west, you are very unfortunate to have not many choices. Even if there had more than one company, you would get very slow speed and very high monthly bill. I am glad that I am out of Centurylink vampire kingdom territory. NYC living cost is very high; however, when it comes to internet, TV, home phone services, you have much more better choices to choose from.