CenturyLink
reviews and complaints

I originally complained via email to CenturyLink in 2013 for poor, substandard internet service. I've followed up several times via 'chat' and the telephone which has been to no avail. I get the bait and switch... oh, you need to talk to 'so and so' then boom I've been transferred or my personal favorite...they drop me from the 'chat' line because the internet service is too slow. No kidding. Of course, they are full of apologies. Now 2017 I spoke with Julius last Friday night. Took me 3.5 hours to watch an hour lecture from a local university. He gasped when he finally found the problem...the answer very congested service box. CenturyLink told me four years ago they were working on the problem and would be upgrading soon. Julius continued to tell me to go to the chat box on their website to help troubleshoot my problem. Suspiciously, there is not a chat box available on the web address he gave me. Selective availability for our area because I know that I'm not the only un-happy customer here? Is this how they weed out complaints? Turn off our access to the chat option? And finally, I pay $49.00 per month for 1.5 Mbps and yet they advertise on all of their web sites 40 Mbps for $34.95/mo. CenturyLink's business model is inferior and disappointing. Be cautious if you decide to enroll with them. My experience has been absolutely, unequivocally below professional expectations and horrific service.

My husband passes away August 25, 2017. At that time I had a century link bundle with internet, home phone, and dish network. I called century link on September 2 and told the rep that without my husband I couldn't afford that, that I only needed internet. He told me I had to have a tv package to get internet and the cheapest he could get me was direct tv. He sent them out that day and installed. He did not tell me to cancel dish. I assumed that was done. Still getting billed for both I called dish today to get that stopped and they informed me that they could have given me a package for 19.99 plus my internet. Now I am stuck as it would cost me 460 dollars to cancel direct tv. I am very upset that he would take advantage of me during my grief to sell a package. I, 've been with century link for many years, and as soon as this contract is up I will find a new provider.

I have waited for days to get a new jack, because I work from home I have wasted 3 days of pay being lied to by the customer sevice agents of century link. One I dont know who trained the agents that work there. I have been lied to by multiple agents I waited all wednesday for a tech that an agent by the name of belinda told me was coming no one ever showed up and one she never put the order in so when it go to be about 5;30 I called to see what was going on then I spoke another young lady very rude so I ask to her supervisor he told me it would cost to put a jack in. So that I can use this service you have to pay for the install and the monthly charge. I just shake my head. So anyway the supervisor gets on the phone and tell me to go to the store and buy a long cord. I was like really after ive waited for 8 hours and missed money for 3 days. I work from home I understand century link can care less about how I feed my family so today I got an email saying a tech will be here between noon an 4 pm. Guess what time it is and guess who is not here. This is the most liing company I have ever dealt wih in my life. The lies so freely I feel this company is a scam. I feel you should pull all these calls and listen to your agents lie to customers and the century condone it... It blows my mind. Something I have submitted 2 consumer reports and feel like the better bussiness bureau need to be involved for real.

My wife and I have been your customers for the last 18 years, straight.
No worthy complaints until the last 3 years. The area we live in has old lines, and our internet speed LAG suffers greatly. Two great frustrations are as follows; The neighborhood junction box is at the end of my property. Your service technicians are there as much as twice a month. Lately they sit in their truck for as long as 5 hours on Sundays, WITHOUT even getting out. which in turn costs ME money. Which leads to my second problem, my bill. Our plan was $65 -ish per month as of august 2017, then in September it went to $86.44, now in October it is $114.84. We changed nothing. Do you care?

Where we live. We’ve been their 9 years. We have nothing but problems with our phone and internet connection. I’m calling at least 5 or 6 times a year. Usually it’s when i’m tired of dealing with it. That’s mainly the internet. It’s either one or both that goes out. Or poor connection. According to a supervisor tect that came out a couple of years ago the phone line are very old. I believe it because even most of your outside service boxes up and down the road are busted open exposing it to the elements. Now about 2 years ago y’all ran fiber optic cable. You stopped about a mile from my house. With no intel on finishing the run. Now on the other direction from y’all is cable comcast.

August 16, 2017
I was told by your rep. Aurora on 8/1/2017, when I asked for our change of location to be processed, that there would be NO CHARGE for the modem or the tech fee when our service was turned on again at our new address. I have talked with your customer service people 3 times now and have been told that they will not credit my account. They say there is a credit on my account...however, there is NO credit anywhere on my bill for the modem that was installed and that I was charged for on 8/18/2017 on my latest bill. Today, 10/5/17 I have spoken with Derek at 2:35pm - he let me go thru my whole story and then transferred me without telling me he would transfer me and then suddenly I'm speaking to Toni (female) at 2:40pm, she starts out the conversation nicely but when I begin to disagree with her about me having NO credit on my bill for the $99.99 charge for the modem she becomes rude. Toni does not let me talk, she runs over me when I try to say anything and tells me that I've already received a credit. I've never known any company to credit someone for a charge that has yet to be billed for. I asked Toni for a Supervisor to speak with...she is extremely belligerent by now and tells me she will DEFINITELY be GLAD to transfer me to a supervisor as soon as she completes her notes to tell the supervisor EXACTLY what is going on. So I get transferred finally (after Toni puts me on hold...saying nothing else) and I stay on hold not knowing if someone is coming on or not and eventually I get someone who says his name is Zach after I asked his name but I get the feeling he did not give me his real name. He listens to me but rarely responds when I'm speaking, so much so that I continually ask if he is there. He tells me I have a credit, I will not be given a credit for the modem and when I ask for his supervisor to speak with, he tells me there isn't one. SO...today, at 2:35 I called your Customer Service line [protected] and I did not encounter ONE person in your system (including your automated system that disconnected me the first 3 times I tried to get a Customer Service Rep) that was courteous and helpful. I have copies of both my bills and I have nothing on either of those bills showing me that I have a credit for the modem that I was TOLD I WOULD NOT HAVE TO PAY FOR. The charge for the modem is $99.99 and nowhere on either bill do I have a credit for $99.99. I was also told by Toni that for the period of time between my old location and the second billing for September that I was charged at a higher rate than my account should be. We have been your customer since living at 2402 NW XXXX Street, Ankeny Iowa in 1998. then 2326 NW XXXXXX St, ANkeny, IA 50023 and now 301 NE XXXXXXX Dr, Ankeny IA 50021...so many people have told me to cancel our home phone because THEY HAVE but we keep it because my husband has had 2 serious health issues and should I have to call 911 I want that direct link to the 911 system here in Polk County Iowa. We have been good customers and have always paid but your representative tells me that I don't have to pay for a $99.99 modem and yet you charge me for it, so I call to have the error corrected and your customer service people are rude and don't care. More and more people tell me they refuse to have a home phone anymore because it's just too much of a hassle to deal with Century Link. I'm so disappointed and hurt. I've always done right by you...yet your people are nasty to me. Toni, the 2nd person I spoke with told me that she would give me a $40 credit because I was overcharged for the end of August and first 2 weeks of September but I'm pretty sure I will never see that on my bill because none of what your customer service representative's promise comes to pass. It's up to you folks to let me know if you will do right by us and credit us or will you lose yet another customer?

I called Century Link in mid August 2017 to schedule internet service and gave them the date of my move of Sept 23rd. I received a call from them 2 weeks later stating they were coming out on the 12th of Sept. I told them I hadn’t moved yet and it wouldn’t be til the 23rd. They replied and said that now they would have to reschedule my install date because it was listed wrong and now it wouldn’t be until mid October. After several calls to Century Link we agreed that was not an appropriate date of install and then had me scheduled for October 3rd from 8-5. After spending the entire day home and taking off work, no one called me or showed up. I made several calls to find out and the only response I received was that the tech was aware and will call you when on the way. It is now the following day and I called Customer service to find out what happened. They tell me sorry but we have a tech scheduled for today now. We made sure dispatch and Field Supervisor was notified and assure you will have a tech out today between 8-5. Again, I took the day off and waited. Still not tech no call. So today I’m out in the neighborhood and I see a Century Link installer and asked him if head me on the list. He said no. I asked him how far back did these customers have to wait in order to get service, he said they called a week ago. I am so fed up with the lack of communication and transparency between customer service and the field techs. The absolute worst experience I have ever dealt with and guess what? Still no device, no tech!

10/04/2017, 11:45am [protected] Minute Phone Call), I spoke with a representative regarding my account that I closed 09/12/2017 and wanted to know why I still had a Balance after I paid the last bill in Full on 09/24/2017 ($153.61), she said it was for an Early Termination fee on my 3 Year Core Connect Contract, I then asked to be transferred to a Supervisor which took over 20 Minutes till I spoke with a Supervisor Named George and I asked him to help me will my billing as I was still receiving a Bill for an Early Termination charge and that I wanted him to look at the Contract which I attached to this Complaint that I signed and agreed on 06/19/2014. George repeatedly ignored my request to view that Contract with me to show that there was a discrepancy in my Billing and that I was in fact out of Contract when I cancelled my service, George was very Abrupt and kept saying that he was going to end the call because I refused to look at my current bill, which I already looked at, Thats why I was calling and speaking with him. He never once looked at the Contract I asked him numerous times to look at and go over with me, he then after numerous attempts with no avail. HUNG up on me and I would like for him to be given a written reprimand for hanging up on me and I would like for this Early termination fee to be removed from my bill. Thanks for Listening to me.

Good evening, I am writhing to you today to state a complaint that I have. About a month ago I requested to transfer my services from my original location to a temporary one while we installed a new mobile home into our property where the services where originally located. My previous account number is [protected]. The representative I spoke with the first time told me that everything on my account would stay the same except for the address. When the technician came, he stated that he could not complete the installation due to faulty and damaged lines underground. Since the park management refused to fix them, the technician told me to call technical support and have them cancel the transfer and to instead put my account on hold.

When I called, the representative told me that my original account had been cancelled altogether. I had never been informed that transferring my services would cancel my account. On the contrary I was told everything would stay the same. I was under a 12 month contract where I would pay 45$ for 40 megs of high speed internet. So there is no reason for my account to have been terminated. So the representative offered to create another's account with the same services and that I could activate it once we completed our move. She never mentioned that a technician would go to my original address to install the services. I had clearly stated that at that address, 394-c los pinos rd Santa Fe N.M, the house had been disconnected. That means it had no electricity, no water, etc.., she also said that account, [protected] would be on hold. That the first 6 months where free then I'd have to pay 10$ after that.

I tried to contact the technician, which I was unaware of until they left an invoice, that had gone to ask why he had been sent. I got an order confirmation through the mail that I was going to be charged 119.98$ for a technician I hadn't requested and services that could not be installed.

I called again to inquire about this and was told that the account [protected] didn't exist. I asked what had happened to my account, but after being transferred seven times and hung up on once, they only told me that I wouldn't have to worry about that bill.

Still I was confused about what had happened to my original account ([protected]) they could not provide an explanation and instead set me up with another account. They refused to put my services the way they were under the contract. Instead they gave me the price for life with no contract, this only gives me 20megs for 45$. The mistakes they made where not my fault. I demand that my contract be respected, which means I want my 40megs for the price of 45$ a month. I don't care if that puts me in another contract I just want the services that I'm entitled to by law and by contract. I would appreciate it if you could please contact me in order to resolve this issue.

This is the content of my complaint email written to Century link Management : CEO Glen Post, Vice President Clay Bailey, Marketing Head Maxine Moreau

—
Good Morning Mr. Glen,

My Name is Dee and have been a loyal customer of Century Link from last 4 yrs.

I want to take few minutes of your and bring to your attention how a loyal customer is been treated and cheated on behalf of Century Link retention department.

We been residing in Waukee Iowa and have an high speed internet with century link at Waukee Iowa 50263 for more then 3 Yrs. (Acct No : 515987XXXX).

My wife served in US Army as Captain and recently been posted to Durhum NC. This deployment made us to request century link on Aug 15 2017 to move the internet services in Raleigh area as we are planning to reside there.

We were informed that Raleigh area is not in century link network and that led to cancellation of services from Aug 21st 2017. Recently I received a bill of $150.00 approx from century link. When I inquired about the bill, I was informed that we are charged early termination fee.

I requested to talk to escalation manager (First Name : Hayley ; Employee ID : AB70121), She told me she cannot waive the fee as I am in verbal contract with century link and also I acknowledge the contract when I used internet services first time.

I was surprised and astonished that living in US, greatest country of world, still you can be cheated, harassed and left to mercy of Telecommunication companies like Century link.

My argument with Hayley was that I been charged wrongly for following reasons :

1) First I have requested Century link to move my services to new address which Century link is unable to do. Its not my own fault that we have to move to different state for job obligations.

2) I have not entered into any written binding contract with Century link that states I will be forced to pay for cancellation.

3) No one from customer service have explained to me what are the consequence if services are cancelled, at the time of giving promotion or at the time my services were terminated.

I want to know from highest management is this right ethical way to make money and treat your royal customers.

I have no way other then writing you to settle this issue. I want to talk to the someone from management face to face, but Hayley informed me that there is no office in Raleigh I can visit. If you and your management feels I am obliged to pay then I will be do so.

But if you guys feel keeping customer in dark and exploiting their vulnerability that cannot be justified is right approach then you lose your royal customers.

I have the internet with CL for 3 yrs in same place, already I have given my dues pertaining to installation and promotions been offered. Finding new pretext to charge me even I want to stay with CL is wrong in my view.

Please do reply and provide a resolution if at all possible.

The account number is [protected]. Both my son and I are on the account. His last 4 of his social security number is 4768 and mine is 0988. I have listed my phone number but his is [protected]. That should give you all the information you need to find my account. I am sending this email to every source I can find for Century Link. I will then wait 2-3 business days and send the following information to the FCC, BBB and anyone else I can find to get assistance.
We have internet through your company. Since the first day of getting the internet, the speeds were no where near what was promised. The download speed was promised as 1.5 mbps. It has never been over 800 kbps, but the average is 300-500 kbps. It is frequently not enough to load a web page. That is with the ethernet cable plugged directly into the source and with nothing else running. After many times of trying to solve the problem, with tech support at the [protected] number, we finally surrendered that we would never get what we were promised, with speeds, and no one was going to do anything about it. Occasionally they would say they do see a problem on their end, they fixed it and it's miraculously solved. Nothing was ever solved.
In the past month, the internet has been totally non functional intermittently. We have called many times and each time we are told they would cycle the modem and that the problem would be better now. We then began just unplugging the modem and cycling it ourselves. This would solve the no connection problem temporarily. It then progressed to us having to cycle the modem every 10 minutes to keep service going. When I called AGAIN, I was told there might be a line problem and they could come and check. They did so and said there was no line problem. So they said they would send a replacement modem/router combo as we rent that from you. The representative I spoke to that day said she would wave the shipping fee for the replacement. She came back on the line, said she had some difficulty removing the shipping fee and she actually removed $6 too much. She said she would leave it as is, with the $6 credit being for all our troubles. When I checked the bill, online, a week later, our bill is double the normal price. No credit of $6 and DOUBLE the normal bill.
I called yesterday, 9/5, to get answers to everything. We had received and replaced the modem/router with the exact same result as before the replacement. I was treated very poorly so I asked for a supervisor. I eventually got to the customer care department and, after a very long call, was told that, actually, they sent the wrong guy out to check the lines. So he was going to set me up with a correct guy to check the outside lines. At this point I see this as stalling tactics. I asked the customer care representative for a number and email to the Century Link home office. He provided me with care.[protected]@centurylink.com and [protected]. Through my investigations today, I do not see that information relating to a corporate office. I will be sending this email to the email he provided, however, as I'll be sending it many places.
I need an answer and solution regarding the speeds, an answer and solution regarding the almost non existent internet service, an answer and solution regarding my bill (that was supposed to have a $6 credit but is actually double) and a solution as to what is going to be done, regarding a large credit or compensation, for all of these troubles.
Lastly, I am not emailing this from home. There is no chance my connection would last long enough.
You can email me at [protected]@hotmail.com or call me at [protected]

I called today, 9/16/17 and spoke with Kaylee to ask as to what option I would have to discontinue or cancel my service due to having to move out of my apartment on the 13th of this month. I signed up for a year contract which isn't due until March of 2018. I understand the termination fee and was asked if there was any option about financial hardship to possibly waive the fee. This is the reason I was going to move out of my place anyway. She comes to tell me that my ETF would be 179.70 PLUS the final bill. It's ridiculous how they can scam people like that. I asked for a copy of the contract letter I agreed with and has not yet come in my inbox. She's saying that the ETF would range from 25-200.00. When asked how she determined what my ETF cost would- I was just flat out told that it's just is. I have 6 months still of my contract and $179.70 seems a bit too high! Century Link is the worst!

I called up there about a week ago and I was trying to discontinue my services with you guys and I got denied because you let my aunt call and say she was me. Before that I called to switch addresses, twice, and you guys were in the process of moving out to my new residence and you guys let my aunt call up there AGAIN and turn it back on. You won't even let me call up, the persons name the account is in, and get it discontinued.

I filled out the online form on 6-12-17, as instructed, for the $150 pre-paid VISA card I was supposed to receive as part of my new service bundle. Received a notification email that my card had shipped on 7-25-17 and to allow 7-10 business days. On 8-11-17 I contacted through their chat and was told I needed to call. Called on 8-15-17 and spent more than 30 minutes on the phone to learn that the card had not actually been mailed. They said they would mail another. Today, 8-31-17, I contacted again through chat and was told that my report of not receiving the card had been "escalated, " that the escalation usually takes no more than 7-10 business days, but the escalation had not been completed. I was told to "allow a few more days and contact us on Monday" (today is Thursday, and Monday is a holiday). I pointed out Monday is a holiday and she said to call Tuesday. I asked if this program was a scam, because this process is feeling very much like a scam.

Internet service is 'very very' slow.
Internet service only reaches one-half of the house.
I have DIRECTV and "NONE" of the special services work on DIRECTV. They
fail with 'internet speed too slow for play back'. It is to slow to even buffer,
screen freezes.
The internet service drops in over 'half' the areas of the house.
I have called CenturyLink twice but there was no improvement.

I would like to place a complain on one of your drivers. I live in New Hope MN. I was driving on 169 N at about 1:30. The driver of vehicle 1373126 was driving erratically. This driver was driving at a high rate of speed. This driver tailgates me and was as close as one foot from my vehicle. What I switched lanes to let him pass, I felt he was going to hit me. I was driving 60 mph. In order to catch him to get his vehicle I speed up to 80 and could not catch him. The only reason I was able to get his vehicle numbers was because a semi got in front of him and slowed him.

We had our above wiring changed with excel and made an appointment to follow up after Century Link dropped off their wiring. The appointment has been on the books for more than two weeks (Xcel finished July 25th and today is August 10th).

The appointment was for 8 am this morning. No one showed up. My wife stayed home from work to be here. She ended up waiting 8 hours and no one came; she called and Century Link put on hold, cut her off, called back once, said some one was coming, no one came, she called again and again, and finally was told that the time was cancelled by one of your agents. So, a lot of mis information, running around, and wasting of time and poor service. Finally, now there is another appointment made at the end of the day when she was told no one was coming today. This is after wasting 8 hours of time which we strongly believe we should be compensated for. This is not right to treat customers this way and seemingly to be mixed up with your records and different associates giving different misinformation.

We want to be compensated for a days wages lost and waiting in frustration while unable to do anything about the poor customer service on the part of your company, Century Link. Very unsatisfactory and disregard to the customers you claim to be serving. THIS IS THE WORST SERVICE EXPERIENCE WE HAVE EVER HAD WITH A COMPANY WE HAVE HAD BEEN DOING BUSINESS FOR MANY YEARS.

CENTURY IS NO BEING SUED BY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MINNESOTA FOR UNETHICAL BUSINESS PRACTICES AND CHEATING OF CUSTOMERS.

Eric Narvaez

8-9-17. When I called customer service they asked to verify my email address as ****KKK****@gmail.com. An employee had inserted "KKK" in my email intentionally, NOT accidentally as the CS rep responded. How does that get "accidentally inserted?" Based on my Customer Service experiences, you could not give me stock in CL. It has lost 30% of it's value in the last year despite a record stock market surge. Very poor service in each department. If I could change I would - in a minute.

Hello, I contacted the CenturyLink support team today via chat to resolve a billing issue. We transferred phone & internet services to another vendor in July. However, we received a CenturyLink bill for $44.19 for internet services for Jul 28 - Aug 27. The first person I spoke to transferred me to someone who "handles Utah". I was then transferred to a person in Bangladesh who I'm sure is a very sweet person, but it took me at least 10 minutes just to get her to understand the problem. At first she said I owed the amount on the bill. Then, when I persuaded her to contact someone else to see if I was correct, she noted that I should not be billed for August. CenturyLink bills internet services a month in advance. She assured me a credit would be issued.

I asked if I needed to pay since it would just be credited. She noted that the only way the system can accommodate this circumstance is for me to pay this bill and then they will give me a credit in the next billing cycle (send me a check, I suppose). What? Here's a solution - don't have the customer pay and the amount due will automatically be cancelled by the credit in the next billing cycle, or at a minimum there will only be a small amount due or a small credit to refund if the termination date of services doesn't line up exactly with the billing cycle. Even I could write a program that would do that--and I'm not a programmer. CenturyLink is essentially acknowledging that I don't owe anything, yet I must pay this bill because of your billing system. Yes, I'm scratching my head. You should be too.

So, I then asked the person if I could be assured the credit was entered in the system so that it would show up in the next billing cycle. She indicated that no, I had to contact CenturyLink again in the next billing cycle. She had no access to the system to enter the credit or even indicate one should be entered in the future.

It's as though you have a billing program written in COBOL in 1967. Are you really not able to take these simple steps for customers? It's just bizarre. My advice - fix the billing system for such cases.

Date of conversation - August 8, 2017
CenturyLink telephone number in question - [protected]
Customer name: Barry Dickerson

I have been with century link for a little over a year, and when I first signed up for the internet package it required auto bill pay to be set up, along with paperless billing. I was shocked to look at my billing on my checking account to see that my bill went from $38.44 to $78.99 and i was NOT notified at all of my contract ending as I have auto bill pay set up and paperless billing.

I decided to give Century Link to explain the situation and requesting to renew my contract or see of any new promotions they might have for a returning customer as well as to receive a credit for the overpriced difference as I was not notified or made aware of the price jump or even asked to renew a contract. I spoke with a rep by the name of Mary-beth on 8/8 around 12pm and explained the situation. Instead of Mary-beth assisting the issue at hand kept trying to sell me a home phone (in which I already advised i didn't need) and advising me century link can do NOTHING to assist this. I advised that i would like to keep my business with century link but felt that this is not correct business, and i would like to speak with a manger regarding the matter. She then proceeded to bring up who my cable provider is and "PRISM TV" is available in my area.

Terrible Customer service and a company that is always seeking a way to nickel and dime a customer, but is always quick to send you an email or mail you something once you leave that they miss your business...