Centurylink

all I can say is that I am writing this from my phone right now using Verizon’s network. Internet has been out for the entire day.

Dear Centurylink,
Today you charged me a new monthly «Convenience Fee» of $ 3.50 to pay my bill
via credit or debit card. I wasn’t able to find out how much the «Convenience Fee»
was until I agreed to it.
Really?
Would it be more «convenient» for you to have me mail the check in, and have you need
to have actual human employees open the envelope and apply the check?
You suck.
A customer of many years~

I’ll keep it short. Besides, we all know this is the country’s second most despised company.
1. CenturyLink does not honor their initial quote for services.
2. CenturyLink offers packages of channels most of which we don’t want but cannot buy individual channels a la carte.
3. CenturyLink charges monthly fees for all their hardware. If you try to buy your own modem/​router it messes everything up.
4. etc etc.
The real issue isn’t even CenturyLink. It’s the spineless local, state and federal government agencies that are supposed to work on behalf of the buying public. Even the FCC and BBB are spineless and have no effect on the outcome. The only way we the people can overcome these greedy corporations is to rise up and boycott all of them. Of course it means we have to give up internet, TV putting ourselves at a serious information disadvantage compared to our neighbors.
It’s good that we can vent on Unilocal.At the very least this is an outlet.
Argh. Argh.

I pay $ 50 a month for wireless that’s as slow and spotty as 1995 dial-​up. If there were ANY OTHER OPTIONS in my area, I’d gladly change service providers.

Horrible in so many ways. Canceling my service was one of the worst experiences I ever had. The customer service agent was clueless. It took over an hour and he kept putting me on hold. They tried to charge me $ 200 for early cancellation of contract even though I’m moving to area they don’t offer service. Also, their Internet was extremely slow and would go out intermittently. What a horrible company. I can seem them going out of business in the next few years.

If I had zero stars…
The building I moved into in August 2014 had only CenturyLink as an option for internet. I entered a contract on August 11, 2014.
After attempting to transfer service in February when moving to a new building, it took over a week and 7 – 10 phone calls to the company to get my service transferred.
When my modem (a new one because the old one was apparently outdated) didn’t arrive on the day she claimed it would, I called to find out that she never actually placed the order. So I had to wait another week for it.
I had to return my old modem, and though I did, they still charged me for it. I contacted the company, and eventually they confirmed they had it and took away the charges.
I then confirmed with the person I was emailing that I wanted to end my service as soon as my contract was over. He said I just had to call during the month of August and inform them that I didn’t want my contract to continue.
At first glance that representative thought my contract would end in February, but after realizing I had started my contract in August, he made a note of it on my account.
After emailing to confirm the end of my contract, the woman over email said I have two accounts and neither of them end for another year, which I knew was incorrect. I got pretty annoyed.
I called the company, and the representative on the phone (who I finally reached after being transferred around numerous times) confirmed that my contract would end August 11 and that I had to call on that day to cancel it or it would auto renew.
I said forget it, I just wanted to end it right then because I was tired of the run-​around. Sometimes I couldn’t even get someone on the phone, so I didn’t want to take the chance of it auto-​renewing because I could get through to someone.
She told me my early termination fee would be around $ 9.00, and she wrote that in my notes.
I got a final bill for $ 180+ dollars.
Upon calling (again), I was transferred to a man and inquired about why my bill was so high.
He told me there was a glitch in the system, and I really only owed ~$ 20. I had 60 days to return the modem before being charged and it had only been 10 days. I asked him if I could pay it right then and there and get it over with, and he said «Yes, but it will be a $ 4 convenience fee for me to do it, or I can transfer you to our autopay.»
I said, «You are literally the only helpful person I’ve spoken to in the past year, I’ll pay the $ 4 fee,» and I gave him my VISA credit card number. He told me he would process it for ~$ 24.
My credit card was charged $ 194. I did not give consent for my credit card to be charged this amount.
I got confirmation numbers for everything, but there was no way to prove what amount he *said* he was running my card for vs what he actually ran it for.
Many phone calls followed…
Reasons why my bill was the way it was, according to CenturyLink:
First Lady: It’s because we haven’t received the modem! (Though the service was only cancelled a week previous.)
Second guy: oh, there was a glitch in the system, you actually only owe us ~$ 19… With a service charge it will be ~$ 24. (Runs my card and charges me $ 189)
Third guy: we decided your contract ends in February. (Except no, it ends August 11^th, as confirmed by numerous phone calls and an email confirmation)
Fourth woman: the early termination fee is $ 200. The last lady seriously argued with me saying that the cancellation fee was $ 200 despite the *company policy* that I found, copied, and pasted into a reply to her.
Eventually I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General of Washington. I also was given the email to someone at CL after posting my story on reddit, and he seemed to expedite the process of finally getting me a refund (while also trying to convince me to keep CL. Haha yea right buddy).
Absolutely the most disorganized, horrible company I’ve ever dealt with. I don’t care how fast their new internet is. They couldn’t pay me enough to order from them again.
If CL screws you over (and they will) don’t give up. They get away with things because people stop trying.

So today (January 4^th, 2016) was supposed to be the day. TLDR we didn’t get Gigabit Ethernet, staying with Comcast.
Back in mid October a couple guys happened to be canvasing our neighborhood to let everyone know that Gigabit Ethernet was available. Centurylink stated they could offer my current download bandwidth at roughly 66% below my current Comcast price and Gigabit was about $ 10 less than our current bill. So I happily signed up.
It was a long drawn out process with several forms but eventually they had me on the phone with someone who was responsible for scheduling appointments that told us the next available install date was something like December 29^th (sometime in the last week of the year). I knew we would be out of town so I asked for the next date after that which happened to be ¼/​2016. Almost 2 months later was supposed to be our appointment. I hesitated briefly but still thought that in the end it would probably worth it to get the bandwidth increase and our Comcast wasn’t that awful so what was another few months?
Despite our phone preference for our account on
being my mobile number, instead we received a message on our home voice mail yesterday that our install window was between 8 and 1pm. Around 9:15 this morning I called to ask customer service whether or not it would be possible to have them call my cellphone a little before they were going to come over. 20 minutes of hold music later I got a rep. He replied that if I could give the last 4 of my SSN he could look at the exact schedule and page the technician and get the exact time planned. A little more holding and he returned stating he had paged the actual technician and the time was going to be 1:00pm. He stated that the technician would call roughly 30 minutes prior to arrival. I reconfirmed whether it would be fine for my wife to quickly walk the dog and I could run down to the office and he reassured me that they would call my cellphone 30 minutes before arrival and it would be fine.
So I headed down to work and my wife left to quickly walk our dog. When she returned roughly 20 – 30 minutes later she found that around 10:00am the technician had arrived and left a piece of paper that said no one was there to let them in so to call and reschedule. She immediately called customer service, 40 minutes of their hold music combined with an interruption every 15 – 20 seconds to inform you that you can go to
and chat and do all sorts of things, she got a person. The message informs you that they really value you and they had extremely high call volumes blah blah blah (gee I wonder why?) in the most obnoxiously happy sounding voice. The customer service rep said that they couldn’t come back on the same day as they have moved on to the next customer. However they would be happy to reschedule for two weeks from now. She immediately called me on our daughters cellphone as she didn’t want to have to call back. The customer service rep kept telling her that there was nothing he could do.
I thought I should call and try to use some of my charm. About 20 minutes of hold music later I got a rep. She was apparently «having some trouble getting the details of my account pulled up on her computer» so she said she would patch in a technical person. Well, not exactly. She had transferred to a dumbfounded technical support agent who had no idea of the current situation or our conversation. I recounted the details and she said she really had no connection to installation services and would need to transfer me to some other group. A couple rings later and poof. Call ended.
I’m tenacious so I thought I’d try again. 40 minutes later Cameron answered and I kind of quickly blurted out that I had been on hold listening to their really obnoxious music/​hold voice for the last hour been transferred from one agent to another and/​or just dropped and I just wanted to talk to a supervisor or manager. His nonchalant reply was «dude, try listening to it all day long.» More of the same line that there were only so many slots and they had moved on to the next customer. I queried and was told my job would probably take a few hours. I then questioned how could spending something vastly less than 15 minutes use up the time allotted to my slot? He repeated his line and said that I would have to reschedule. I told him I didn’t want to reschedule that I had waited since October 15 for this install and my appointment was today. He insisted that there was nothing he could do other than to transfer me to someone who might be able to help. Well, what do I have to lose. Go for it. But then I realized I had fallen for it. He transferred to… call ended.

I feel sorry for the people who work at CenturyLink. Their software and their processes are horrible. I had to switch after Sprint bought Clearwire. I’ve always assumed that if I was clear and pleasant, I’d have a fine experience with customer service. Wow, no. Overcharged, things not refunded, payments never applied, their «chat» service does not work. And this is all in the first 30 days of service.

Never in a million years would I say a company was as bad as Comcast. Boy was I dead wrong! After Clearwire was bought by Sprint, I was forced to get another internet service in my building and Comcast was not available to us. I made the switch to Centurylink. Oh my gosh, from the first day I had extremely slow loading times when streaming. 12mbps should not be this slow! I mean there are faster mbps out there, but it was the only speed available to our building. They sent someone out to help fix it which he was helpful (only positive point), but the next day, it got worse! I ran a stream test and my internet was running at 6mpbs! What the heck??? My streaming pauses every 8 seconds and now it’s after my 30-​day grace period. Oh, not to mention that someone was supposed to come out a week before the grace period, but I got a call saying it would be delayed until Dec 5^th (a DAY before the grace period ended). Now to upgrade to their only option for the building of 20 mbps, they want to charge me $ 59 to send someone out here. What the heck? It’s not my problem you have terrible service!
Now I am stuck with this awful internet with absolutely no help at all. People, please steer clear from this internet service. Mind you, like I said before, I would have never expected to say Comcast is a better choice and it pains me to say, but for the price you pay for crappy Centurylink service, at least you get a ton more mbps from Comcast. I am actually sad they are not available here in my apartment. Ugh, this whole thing leaves a terrible taste in my mouth.

This is the most disgustingly horrible utility company I’ve ever had to deal with and their level of customer service is the worst I’ve ever experienced. It started to become such a hassle trying to get service hooked up I canceled my order. After reading some of these other reviews, it looks like I dodged a bullet.

Absolutely the worst service we have ever received. Hold time is an hour plus. Once we reach someone there is absolutely no supervisor to speak with. Once someone is reached they say they have no decision making authority. We have been overcharged $ 211.00 according to their records. They still continue to overcharge. We have called multiple times to resolve this and no one seems to know what they are doing. Highly dissatisfied.

Century LinK internet provider is the company from hell. They put me on a contract even though in my initial call to them I said I did not want a contract. After many. many calls and hours on hold, I was finally taKen off the contract. Someone finally told me to call and asK to speak to the Retention Department. Century LinK internet provider is the company from hell. They put me on a contract even though in my initial call to them I said I did not want a contract. After many. many calls and hours on hold, I was finally taKen off the contract. They do not intend to give me a credit for the month I had a contract against my wishes. And, my new rate does not begin for two days («because their computer cannot do that»). Century LinK charged me a shipping/​handling fee of almost $ 20 and an activation fee/​programming fee of almost $ 20.00 without telling me of those fees when I called to set up service on January 2, 2015. I have called them since January 21 to get this all cleared up (received my first bill where I was overcharged). Century LinK is unethical, employees have lied to me, I have been placed on hold several times for over one hour. I have called to resolve my issues with Century LinK daily for a period of two weeKs. Now I am referred to the complaint department. I will follow-​up with my complaint. This ordeal has cost me hours in time and money. I will NEVER use Century LinK again. I thought I hated the (unnamed) alternative. I will use them before I ever again use Century LinK. Use Century LinK at your own peril. They are OK if you don’t mind being overcharged, your instructions regarding service ignored, lied to & placed on hold for hours. They asKed for my contact # everytime I called. No one ever called me bacK when the phone dropped the call. I always had to start completely over with my issues. One or two of their representatives even had the nerve to asK me if I would liKe to sign on for additional services. How ludicrous-​cannot get one service right & you want me to get more services? They do not intend to give me a credit for the month I had a contract against my wishes. And, my new rate does not begin for two days («because their computer cannot do that»). Century LinK charged me a shipping/​handling fee of almost $ 20 and an activation fee/​programming fee of almost $ 20.00 without telling me of those fees when I called to set up service on January 2, 2015. I have called them since January 21 to get this all cleared up (received my first bill where I was overcharged). Century LinK is unethical, employees have lied to me, and I have been placed on hold several times for over one hour. I have called to resolve my issues with Century LinK daily for a period of two weeKs. Now I am referred to the complaint department. I will follow-​up with my complaint. This ordeal has cost me hours in time and money. I will NEVER use Century LinK again. I thought I hated the (unnamed) alternative. I will use them before I ever again use Century LinK. Use Century LinK at your own peril. They are OK if you don’t mind being overcharged, your instructions regarding service ignored, lied to & placed on hold for hours. They asKed for my contact phone everytime I called. No one ever called me bacK when the phone dropped the call. I always had to start completely over with my issues. One or two of their representatives even had the nerve to asK me if I would liKe to sign on for additional services. How ludicrous-​cannot get one service right & you want me to get more services? Never again! I want the world to Know what they may be facing as a Century LinK customer.

«This is policy» «This is policy» «This is policy» «This is policy» «This is policy» «This is policy» «This is policy» «This is policy» «This is policy» «This is policy» «This is policy» «This is policy» «This is policy» «This is policy» «This is policy» «This is policy» «This is policy»
They tricked us, fooled us, sold us product we don’t need, and then when we found out that they could just fix it for free, they want to charge us full cancellation fee without a single dollar off.
Spoke to about 10 people for about 5 hours combined. Everyone is trained to be a robot like, angry, team of imbeciles.

Absolutely the worst internet service we have ever had. We live in Redmond, WA, near carnation. We added them on and they said no contract. The internet didn’t work, we canceled and they are charging us $ 200 for having a contract. If you search all over the internet, there are others with the same problems. We aren’t the only ones. I wish I would have done a little more research. We are with Wave Broadband and we love it.

Responsiveness of Century Link?
Do-​Not-​Call Registry gets no support from CL.
I maintain a landline phone for when the cell dies and I want to think, Century Link cares about illegal activity along that line. I wonder!
My experience was indifference to the concern: I called Century Link Customer Service to find out how CL addresses the pre-​recorded calls (illegal according to the Do-​Not-​Call Registry). After going through 6 people, supervisor Trevor didn’t know whether CL is looking at the problem. Instead he assured me of things I didn’t ask about. His repetition was aggravating (full of anticipating & void of asking what I wanted).
Finally he announced the company can’t address this concern at all and, as a customer, I can not communicate in any form with that level of management. Probably true: a consumer-​driven business, Century Link is not.