CenturyLink
reviews and complaints

I have no choice but to use centurylink for my phone and internet sevices because they are the only company in the area. I have changed my service 4 times in the last 6 months because I am trying to save money and everyone promises, "This will be a lower package." By the time they prorate everything, I lose money. Every package is higher than the last. The most recent situation is I was paying $69/mo for basic phone and dsl. I had to call and ask a question and the rep told me that she could set me up with a better package for the same price. I told her it sounded too good to be true and she said that it would be this price for 1 yr and then I could change it if I still wanted to. That was 3 months ago. My first bill was almost $400 and when I called they fixed it. Second bill was almost $200;. I called again and they fixed it!. This month my bill is $115|. I call them and they said this is the correct amount for this service:. I was told that they could downgrade the phone service for me but I would get all these prorated charges which always end up being half of the previous package + the entire amount of the new package on my bill;. I do not want to pay this again". They don't want to help me|. Is there a law against a company having a monopoly on a town? I'm so tired of being screwed! Need someone to come in here so centurylink doesn't have a monopoly on my town! So ready for a different provider but no idea what I can do!

I have been a customer from the day I moved to this house, Nov 2007. I have all my billing statements going back to that date. I subscribe to the telephone service only due to the need of connecting to the Internet. In June 2010 after numerous phone solicitations from CenturyLink I agreed to up my Internet connection speed for another $5 more a month. I have been enjoying a 10Meg connection for the price of $39.95 ever since. Then this past June 8 I received another phone solicitation from the company and this time I was called by an associate by the name of Susie and she assured me that I can lower by bill by bundling the services. I explained to her what I was already paying but she assured me that she can lower my payment if I bundle. I finally agreed and she put in the order. Not a week later I started experiencing a much slower connection to the Internet. I kept calling to complain to no avail so finally I notified them that I wanted to revert back to the services I was paying for previous to the June 8 telephone conversation with Susie. The Internet connection did not improve and was even slower, so instead of calling I actually went to a local office of CenturyLink. There I had to explain all over again my dilemma and at the end I was told that if I wanted to get the 10Meg Internet connection it would cost me another $10 more a month to $49.95. I see this tactic that the company used on me by decreasing my speed connection thereby they can offer me the same speed I was paying for previously for a $10 more a month.

My fiancee and I subscribed to Century Link on May 1, 2011, purchasing their 10 mb/s high-speed internet package. After a good amount of back and forth, we had our service started on May 4, 2011. In the subsequent week, we never received a signal faster than 1.5 mb/s. After more than 30 phone calls in that week to Century Link, as well as three different technicians coming to our home, it was 'discovered' that Century Link does not have the infrastructure in our area to supply 10 mb/s internet speed. However, they continue to sell this service. Once we discovered that, we promptly canceled the service under Century Link's own '30-Day Satisfaction Guarantee.' There was a series of forms and phone calls to satisfy the company's own policy, but all of these were performed by myself and my fiancee to the letter. Additionally, both phone calls made to confirm the '30-Day Guarantee' was properly performed were recorded on my end, with consent and acknowledgment from both Century Link representatives.
In the following month and a half (from May 13 to June 20th, 2011), we received 2 bills from Century Link, the second of which included charges made after the May 13th cancellation date. Subsequent phone calls made to Century Link customer service stated that these bills were mistakes, and that the '30-Day Guarantee' takes up to 60 days to completely take effect. We were advised, again through recorded phone conversations, to ignore these bills, as the charges would be resolved naturally through the guarantee.
On June 28th, 2011, we received a letter from I.C. Systems, a debt collection agent from St. Paul, about our Century Link account. The letter stated that a total of $99.04 was due, and that Century Link had turned our account over to them, at some point prior to June 23rd, 2011 (the date on the I.C. Systems letter).
We have contacted I.C. Systems with all the printed proof we have, as well as contacted our lawyer. We will be filing notifications with the Florida Attorney General, as well as the Better Business Bureau.
PLEASE BE ADVISED - Century Link should be avoided as an internet and telephone provider. I cannot speak to their television service, but they sell internet service they cannot readily provide; they fail to provide adequate customer service when required, and, when their own customer guarantees are enacted, they ignore them, choosing instead to falsely and fraudulently send former customers to collection agencies.
My fiancee and I have no intention of caving to these strong-arm tactics. Anyone currently in a similar situation should also fight this soulless company.

My husband & I have had CenturyLink (formerly CenturyTel) for nearly 10 years. My husband called in March of 2011 to see if they had any deals for DSL & landline phone since we had been loyal customers for so long. They told him they could reduce our bill to about $60/month with no change in service. The bill was incorrect in April; they assured him it was taken care of and told him the amount to pay. Same thing happened again in May, and again in June only this time the bill is now $170 because of late fees. Apparently, no one made a note in their computer about any of the conversations with us. No record of employees telling us the "correct" amount to pay. No record that we ever contacted them. Simply put, they are deceptive, dishonest, and unethical. They are also very rude and nasty. And the DSL service is worthless. We have continuously called tech support because our internet connect keeps dropping. They offered to reduce the speed, but of course, not the bill.

03/29/2010
My husband had been a customer of Qwest for the last 8 (eight) years and we've always paid our bill on time and we have never missed a payment.

Problem: We are being charged for a $200 fee as part of a "2-year internet plan" that we NEVERsigned up for or agreed upon. We called in to disconnect service and it was WAIVED by an employee named EMMA, but it seemed like that fact was totally ignored and then they're still charging us $200 the early termination fee.

Details: On Monday, February 15, 2010; at 11:50a PST, my husband, Ryan, spoke on the phone with one of Qwest' Customer Service employees, Emma, to let her know we were moving out and needed to disconnect our phone and internet service. She mentioned the $200 fee as a penalty of early disconnection, he told her he never agreed to such a contract. She spoke with her manager, who AGREED to WAIVE the erroneous fee. Emma then told him an updated bill would be sent to us reflecting the correct final charge. We never received it. (If they are a reputable and such a reliable company they can access the recording of this call, it will prove that she WAIVED the fee for us.)

After emailing them again a couple weeks later, we received a reply from "Nancy"on 03/04/10 apologizing and informing me that the revised final bill would be sent immediately. We finally received the bill for $248, still incorrect! We chatted online with Customer Service again with "Juan" at the "Idaho office". After explaining everything to him, he informed us that no one there could help me, and that we would have to wait until the next morning to speak with the billing department.

On March 16, 2010 @ 9:38a, Ryan contacted the billing office and asked for the manager. Darren at the Boiseoffice answered. Once again, Ryan explained everything to him, including his conversation with Emma. The manager argued with him about this $200 fee for about ten minutes, insisting that it was valid and justified, even though we have NEVER signed up for any yearly plan! The manager then continued to say that we were sent information about this multiple times, which we were NOT! Ryan told him this a number of times, but the manager wouldn't listen and continued to insist that Ryan just doesn't remember, and treated him like he was either making it all up or didn't know what he was talking about. The fact is, Emma had already waived the fee!

We are completely furious and frustrated with this company! The $200 charge is unfair and UNWARRANTED! He has been a customer of Qwest for years, but if this is how we are going to be treated by them, we will have no hesitation to look elsewhere for professionalism, competence and decent customer service.

Reply #1 from Qwest:

Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:59:38 -0500
From: Qwest.[protected]@qwest.com
Subject: Re: Qwest.com Customer Support (KMM16888259I15977L0KM)

Dear Ryan,
Thank you for your recent e-mail inquiry to Qwest in regards to the 200.00 early disconnection fee. There is not a paper agreement you would have signed to set this up. It's done as a verbal agreement. At the time the service is ordered we send you a thank you letter confirming the changes that have been made to your account. In this letter it explains that you've entered into a 2 year agreement and it provides you the terms of the agreement. We also remind you every month when the bill prints that you are receiving a reduced monthly rate becuase of your 24 month term agreement and the date the agreement expires.

The discount you have recieved every month based on this agreement is 10.00. In some cases when an agreement is being disputed we will remove the 200.00 fee but go back and bill you for the months you received the 10.00 discount in error. In your case you had the service for 20 months and received a 10.00 discount per month. Unfortunately the amount of discount you received totals the amount you are being billed for with the early disconnection.

I can go ahead and remove the 200.00 early disconnection fee but we will need to go back and bill you for the 10.00 discount you were receiving monthly because of the agreement you did not sign up for.

Regards,

Michele
eService Supervisor
Qwest Customer Care
Consumer Markets

Our reply:

Michele,

As I've stated many times before, I never agreed to any such contract - verbal or physical - nor have I ever received any letter about being in such a contract. As for the $10/month discount on my bill, that was from packaging two services - phone and internet - NOT because of a 2-year contract I had supposedly signed up for. So yes, you can go ahead and get rid of the $200 fee since I was never in that agreement in the first place (as you stated). I was told it was already waived anyway.

---Ryan Bollman

Reply #2 from Qwest:

Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2010 10:16:55 -0500
From: Qwest.[protected]@qwest.com
To: [protected]@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: Qwest.com Customer Support

Dear Ryan,
I understand your frustration with this issue, howerver both You and Qwest are responsible for making sure you are getting the services you requested at the price you agreed to. We provide you a detailed bill each month in case there was an error made on our part. Up until you disconnected your account there were no calls questioning the discounts you were getting or why your bill stated you were in an agreement that expires in 2010.
I can meet you half way on this as you have been an excellent customer with Qwest and adjust 100.00 of the 200.00 fee. You may not have received the thank you letter that was sent but the information has been provided on your bill every month since the service was connected.
You were receiving 2 different discounts on your phone bill for the Internet service. You were getting a 5.00 bundle savings discount and a 10.00 Promotional Discount.
It appeared on your bill each month as follows:
Your savings this month
Thank you for being a valued Qwest customer with Savings for Bundling.-Internet Service. Bundle Savings based on the 1 product(s) you currently have is $5 per month. This bill includes a Bundle Savings of $5.00.
You are receiving a reduced monthly rate for your Qwest Connect service because of your 24 month term commitment. Your agreement expires on 06-19-2010.
________________________________________

Bundle Savings Discount
Qwest Connect SLVR w MSFT (01/17 - 02/16) $5.00

Total Bundle Savings $5.00
________________________________________

Promotional Discounts Discount
Qwest Connect (01/17 - 02/16) $10.00

Total Promotional Discounts $10.00
________________________________________
Total savings this month $15.00

Regards,
Michele
eService Supervisor
Qwest Customer Care
Consumer Markets

Update (06/22/2011):
My husband is still receiving letters from the collection company saying that he still owed Qwest $175 and his credit is completely ruined because of this fraudulent and unlawful fee. Years and years of good credit down the drain because of this. I feel like there should be a civil lawsuit against this company.

First our best friends signed up for a bundle deal and were told they would recieve a $150 Visa card for signing up and that if they referred someone that the people referred would also get the $150 if they signed up. We both signed up and did as requested sent copies of final bill from other phone company. They said it would take about 6 weeks that was in Sept. (for other couple) and Oct for us and it is now June and still nothing I have spoken several times and they said I needed to send the request to the e-mail they gave me I did so and cc: myself and nothing. This is ridiculous that a company can get by with this as soon as my contract is up I will switch back to the other company at least they never promised something and never came through with it

So the Century Link customer representative says that "they" always do this: turn final bills over to collections before issuing the final bill. That's right. We moved out of their service area, notified the company, and received both the final bill and the collection agency statement on the same day from Century Link and there was a difference of $50 between the bills that Century Link could not explain. We were told that this is how Century Link conducts business and if you choose to pay your bill. it might take up to 30 days to get it corrected with the collection agency. Well this is how I do business; report this fraud to everyone I can including the FCC. Not sure anyone really cares but it sounds like our final bill was already sold to collections before we had a chance to pay it.

August 2010 I ended service with century link because they charged me 85 dollars more than they told me. when I asked they told me I had agreed which I had not. I paid my bill in full and canceled the service. Since then until now, June 2011, I continue to get bills. I have spoken withat least a dozen customer service reps (I have names and dates on each). I have emailed. I have ignored it and been sent to their collection services. Every time I get a bill I call, they say sorry, oops, we will fix it...yet they bill continue to come. I am beginning to feel like I am being harrassed. any suggestions

WOW what a horrible company. I never signed or agreed to a contract but when I tried to cancel my service after less than 60 days of bad service they charged me a $200 early cancellation fee. The problems conveniently started after the 30 day trial period. I had no issues with the Internet except for slowness in the first month. The first problem what with my initial bill. They charged me over $150 for an install that we opted to install ourselves but the guy who installed the outside line knocked on the door and handed my wife a splitter and said to plug this into the home line and then the modem into that. we did not need a splitter since we don't have a phone line. they charged us a install fee and a rental fee of $14.95 per month for the splitter. I could purchase one for less than $5 at any radio shack. after arguing with the CSR for over a half an hour they finally agreed to let me file a formal dispute. That has not been resolved as of yet. After the 30 days I had to reset my modem approx every 10 days or so to get Internet access. this past Monday my Internet was out completely that was the final straw. I called to cancel my service and that is when they informed me i have a "verbal" contract and they would be charging me $200. After speaking with several supervisors and over 2 hours of my time I was able to get a call back 2 days later from someone who claimed to be higher than a supervisor and they finally took off $180 of the $200 early term fee. DO NOT EVER USE THIS COMPANY FOR ANYTHING! If you are with them now cancel if you are thinking about using them DONT! you will regret it.

Recently, after many years of paid service, i switched home phone companies. Century Link sent me what i thought was my last month's bill. Instead it was for the following month, the month where i would not be using their service. Sadly i paid this. 30 days later they send me a credit invoice. Not a refund, just a credit invoice. So i called and requested they send me my money back immediately. I was surprised to hear that CL gives themselves a nice, long cushy 90 DAYS to refund any overpayments. What? I paid this bill believing it was money due. I was not late. I sent it on time. And yet 30 days later they tell me i have a credit and i have to wait up to another 90 days to get it back. How incredibly rude and insulting. Had i been late at any time I would have immediately been slapped with a late fee. Yet they are graciously allowing themselves, what adds up to 120 days, to refund me a lousy $43. REally no where in those huge coffers can they find $43 and refund me my money? For shame, what a horrible, despicable practice to keep my money, earn interest off if it and then at some later date, return it. Honestly what would happen if all of America decided to conduct business this way? There would be a total collapse. Much worse than anything we've seen in recent history.

Century Link is the worst company I have ever worked with! Poor customer service, Techs have no idea what they are doing (They even degrade each others work), WORST service ever, Outdated equipment (router included, which you pay rent on and its 6 years old) and last by not least Rude managers, last one told me "you know, you also can get cell phones for your business." after I told him they were the WORST MONOPOLY ever!

I was out of phone service for 2 weeks and internet 2.5 weeks! After $10, 000 of advertising I had NO PHONE, NO FAX, NO INTERNET, NO PRINTING, NO CREDIT CARD MACHINE - NOTHING! What did Century Link do for me? There wasn't even a storm for their excuse... after paying $100 a month for service, countless hours waiting on technicians who never showed, weeks of lost work, advertising down the drain and lost customers... I GOT $18.

AWESOME... AGAIN... I SAY WORST COMPANY EVER! IF I COULD CHANGE I WOULD! NO OTHER COMPANY I CAN SERVICE MY AREA! THEY ARE AN MONOPOLY!

I called EVERY company that is humanly possible to service my area! If anyone knows of a way to get phones and internet LET ME KNOW PLEASE!

I have been a customer for over 5 years of CenturyLink, previously Embarq, previously Sprint DSL. I've been paying for 5mb service since I signed up. I did get the speeds I was paying for to begin with but in the past year the speed has steadily been declining. I'm now getting around 1.5mb to 2mb. I called to complain about the speeds and CenturyLink was so kind to offer their new 10mb service so I agreed and had them do the switch. Then did have to change something at the CO and I was down for a day or so before it was completed. Now I have 10mb service, but continue to see 1.5mb up to 3mb at off peak times. I called today and was basically told that they know of the issue and are planning to fix it. I asked when, they said no idea. Could be 1 month, could be 2 years was what I was told. This is the third time I've called in since the "upgrade" to 10mb speeds. The previous 2 times I was told that I had an issue in the area and it would be fixed in a day or two. I'm tired of getting lied to and tired of them charging for service they can't deliver. I've even tried testing the service at 4am to see if it was a peak/off peak issue with no better speeds.

Thanks for listening.
Randy

We received a call 2 weeks ago from Century link Customer Service Rep, he said after reviewing our acct, he could reduce our monthy charge for our home and internet service. All services would remain the same. Our service was around $109 a month, he cut cut the cost down to $69. We got the bill yesterday, $148, I've been on the phone this am, for 30 minutes with a CSR at Century link, for her to tell me, they had to charge for a partial month for my old service a full charge for my new service, and there were FEE's for the change, she told me to keep in mind NEXT month it would go back down to $69. Guess I paid the CSR's commission on the sale of this new service!

They don’t listen, they cut you off, and frankly they don’t care.
11 April 2011 I called century link requesting that my service be transferred to them from Comcast. As I heard the person in the background fast a furiously typing (I guess on facebook since my order wasent processed)He was told that service would be transferred within 10 days. He said the order had been placed and depending on how fast my current company responded they would get me switched over. Two days later I called back to verify they had my request and things were in the works. Century Link confirmed and Comcast said they didn’t have anything yet. On the 19th I called again Comcast still had nothing. When I attempted to call century link; no one wanted to talk to me. I got transferred from department to department for 3 hours. I consider myself a pretty easygoing patient kind of guy; but this is ridiculous. Most century link people could not even find my account. Those that could would transfer me to someone who couldn’t. The worst was being put on hold for 35 minutes twice. After the second time I tried calling back and they were closed. The staff was argumentative, apathetic, and overall unprofessional. If you value your time and what’s in your wallet don’t even bother calling them. I wish the folks from Qwest could come out here and teach these folks the value of the customer. I guess they are still somewhat monopolized out here so they don’t have to worry about customer service. I am not going into all the details (they seem more like side issues of the overwhelming major concern which is “If you can avoid it stay away from Century Link!
Chow

Centurylink offered to upgrade my internet speed to 10 gb from 1.5 for ten dollars per month more in January. Since then, I have spent somewhere near 25 hours on the phone with them pluggin in and unplugging my modem and running various tests to determine why the speed is acceptable in the morning but then decreases as the day progresses down to under 1 gb (sometimes even lower). I have frequent outages and I must reboot my modem to revive service during all times of day. They have sent three technicians to my home (one of whom seemed more interested in my wife than my connection issues and did not even run a test until I pressed him to.) They have had tickets open and told me numerous times they would call me when resolved, but the only calls I receive from them are when they call to try to get me to sign up for their new TV service, PRISM. I must continuously call them to verify the status of my ongoing tickets, but to no avail. Every representative has a different and conflicting explanation for my issues, and nobody has been able to resolve. The last technician who came to the house told me that he had heard from another technician that the wires in my area simply cannot support the speed they boast about. My neighbor also does not receive the speed he has paid for. I was a customer service rep myself, once, so I do not treat them poorly, but am always very civil despite my frustrations, but sometimes I do not even hear an apology from them. Yesterday, two sales representatives came to my door. One of them helped himself to a seat on my outdoor furniture and was swearing profusely: very discourteous. In fact, when my wife and I refused the additional service, they were extremely pushy, one of them even saying, "it's a no-brainer!" (indicating that we were idiots). We felt very threatened by them. Yesterday we also received a bill from them for 112.75, out of the blue. (We were paying 75 dollars a month, and then it would have been 10 more for the supposed additional speed we have not been receiving.) Today, a representative called to offer the TV service again, and I explained that I had received this strange bill. He was baffled. When I requested that he instead downgrade my internet service to 3 gb, I have been on hold now for 45 minutes and 07 seconds while he performs this task due to computer issues. He is friendly, but unfortunately their systems are horrible. I feel sorry for their reps, who clearly do not have adequate training. I cannot believe the incompetence of this company. I suspect some of it has to do with the recent merger of Embarq and Centurytel, but who knows. If I had any choice in the matter, I would not use any of their services, but unfortunately they have a monopoly in the phone and internet service business here and I work at home and require the service. I wish I had the number to the CEO so that I could make him aware that the company is in shambles. (Oh, and ps. My phone conversation with this most recent sales person is over and his system was so messed up that he could not put back my included national long distance so he had to send it to another department. So naturally I won't be making any long distance calls until I have confirmation that it is back in lest I receive an even larger surprise bill...)

I have had DSL at my address for the past 3 years. I started out with CenturyTel. CenturTel was bought out by CenturyLink (CL). Since the acquisition, I have had nothing but problems. We have had somewhere in the neighborhood of a dozen calls in to tech support over the past two years. It's getting completely and totally out of hand and ridiculous. The speeds with CenturyTel were consistently 1.5 Mb. The one instance when I did have an issue, CenturyTel sent someone out right away to examine things and work their magic. Service was great afterward.

Enter CL. Service started out ok at best. There seemed to be a lot of fluctuation in DL speeds. The situation worsened to the point where a simple web page like Gmail was taking 5-10 minutes to open. I checked everything over on my end, ran a couple of speed tests, and reluctantly called tech support. My fear was that since I own my modem, I was going to be fed the line "It's not our equipment, so you're on your own." I was not given that line. I was directed to complete a couple of speedtests and modem checks, then put on hold. The result was that a tech would be out to check things out.

Now, we're getting to the part that I absolutely love. I am given a window of time when the tech will arrive. I take off of work to be there. I am told that the tech will call prior to showing up. Three full hours after the eight hour window had come and gone, and as we leaving the house to go have dinner, guess who pulls into the driveway? Mr. CL tech, sans courtesy phone call. We reservedly cancel our dinner plans.

The tech replicates the issues that I was experiencing earlier. He says he needs to call in to the corporate office for further corrective actions. Then, he leaves. I assume that things are being handled. For the next week, the service is ok. Not quite what I was sold (1.5 Mb), but ok (1.2 Mb). Everything is downhill from here...

I assume that CL sold a couple of my neighbors on the service as the quality and consistency has been steadily declining for two years. My most recent call into tech support resulted in CL sending out a tech. The tech stood in my house, and showed me that he was getting the same results. He traveled to the end of the road where the "device", as he referred to it, was located and performed further testing. The tech returned and, again standing in my house, told me that the results he got at the end of the road were the same as at the house and unacceptable. He then proceeded to tell me that he would have to put in a call to have the "device" at the end of the road repaired. After all this, he left.

A week goes by and nothing seems to have changed with the slow speeds (200-400 kb). So, I called CL to check on the status of the ticket. The person on the other end of the phone says, and I'm quoting him directly here, "Everything looks good on our end, so we went ahead and closed the ticket." He said this as though eh was doing me some sort of personal favor.

What?!? Do you think that I called because I enjoy donating my time to your teleprompt system? I ask about the ticket. He says that the tech who was at my house had in his notes that everything looked fine. After two years of being jerked around over this, being upsold to service that apparently is unavailable here, and now being flat out lied to in my own house, I went nuclear on this poor kid. "Are you kidding me? You or your technician are lying to me. Perhaps both. Completely and totally unacceptable."

I was told that CL would send someone out right away to take care of the issue. It's been two months. I think that at this point, simply as a matter of personal satisfaction, litigation will ensue. Someone there needs to be held responsible, as I get the impression that corporate protocol is to pass the responsibility like some sort of hot potato.

If someone from CL is reading this, please do feel free to explain yourself. I simply do not understand how a company gets to be that large and still operate in an envelope of complete and utter incompetence in one of their areas of core competence. It simply makes no sense.

Oh, and if you're so inclined, could you please tell me when lying to a customer is the best policy? I must have glazed over that subject in college.