CenturyLink
reviews and complaints

After experiencing outage for over a week, CenturyLink failed to visit my home for two scheduled repairs. I used an entire vacation day to accommodate their 5 hour appointment window and nobody showed up. I called and spent 2 hours on the phone. I entered my personal information over and over; They transferred me to several departments of varying incompetence. CenturyLink failed to show up to our second rescheduled repair appointment. I spent another 2 hours on the phone and was given a pitiful $20 credit on my bill.

Now that the damaged cable box has been repaired, my partner and I continue to enjoy the blazing fast max speed of 5 mbps (the best bandwidth they offer in our city of over 215, 400 people). Nevertheless, their website marketing advertises a minimum speed of 20 mbps.

CenturyLink and MediaCom are the primary high speed internet providers in Des Moines, IA. The internet is a modern day necessity and it's sad that one can't find a quality provider. It's a situation I hope will improve once enough people speak up about this obvious industry monopoly and savage customer abuse!

I have had a repair ticket for a very very long time to connect a new buried underground cable and have had a pair of temporary cables across my lawn across my driveway down the street in the ditch about a quarter of a mile to another service box...well not only has my internet been in and out for months and I have to move a cable to mow my property, now I am paying for no internet that they say is functioning just fine...just sent an email to disconnect service because I refuse to pay for poor service and even worse customer service...I have been with this company for many years with no problems but this past few years has been the worst experience ever and I have never been this unhappy.

I ordered an upgrade from 5GB of @ease to 50GB on 7-25-17. It was installed after several phone calls and attempts on Friday 7-28-17, backup ran all night until the next day, 7-29-17, backup completed with errors, the upgrade was uninstalled and reinstalled 4 times which took all day Saturday into the night. 7-28-the during the day a gentlemen from century link came to my house unannounced and said he came to upgrade my modem, I asked him who sent him and he said he just had a ticket, when he left my voice mail had been emptied and I had to reset it up. on 8-2-17 called in again no Wi-Fi, tech fixed it, on the phone again. century link came back on 8-3-17 to install modem upgrade from 10mg to 25 mg, when he left no Wi-Fi, no phone, only static and can't hear phone ring inside house. Today is 8-4-17, no Wi-Fi, no phone, only static and still can't hear phone ring inside house. I have called and chatted at least 12 to 15 times since 7-28-17. Very frustrated nothing is working and no credits have been offered for anything. Thinking about leaving Century link, been with them for 30+ years. enough is enough

I've been on this chat session for over 45 minutes and obtained absolutely no solution to my question - and very little actual dialogue. The provider did not provide a solution of their own but copy/pasted a solution someone else provided them and that solution was not related to the requested information I needed assistance with. In short - it was a total fail on the part of the technician to resolve the problem - which when asked he was clear about being able to provide a solution.
Hello! You have reached Internet Repair.

If you have questions about changes to your service or getting your service turned back on, follow this link. To verify the status of your Internet connection, check the Service Troubleshooter to test your service for a known outage while you wait.
To check the status of a tech dispatch, please check the ‘where's my tech?’ tool. Our repair agents are assisting other customers. The current estimated wait time will be more than 10 minute(s). Thank you for your patience.
Info at 16:25, Aug 3:
All our repair agents continue to assist other customers. We do apologize for the delay. The current minimum wait time is 8 minute(s) and 4 seconds. Thank you for waiting. If you are having issues with a slow internet connection, consider looking at either our wireless troubleshooter or our Ethernet troubleshooter. These steps may assist you to resolve the problem you are having.
Info at 16:27, Aug 3:
All our repair agents continue to assist other customers. We do apologize for the delay. The current minimum wait time is 0 minute(s) and 28 seconds. Thank you for waiting. If you are having issues with a slow internet connection, consider looking at either our wireless troubleshooter or our Ethernet troubleshooter. These steps may assist you to resolve the problem you are having.
Info at 16:27, Aug 3:
All technical support chats may be recorded and used for training purposes. Welcome to CenturyLink! My name is Julius Jem, it's my pleasure to assist you today.
Julius Jem at 16:27, Aug 3:
Hi there!
How do you do?
Mark at 16:27, Aug 3:
fine thanks.
Julius Jem at 16:28, Aug 3:
what do you mean to port 2?
Mark at 16:28, Aug 3:
Are you able to assist with setting a separate vlan for my zyxel c1000z? I'd like traffic on ehternet port 2 to be on a separate vlan from other traffic
Mark at 16:35, Aug 3:
?
Julius Jem at 16:35, Aug 3:
just a sec
Julius Jem at 16:40, Aug 3:

just a sec
Mark at 16:41, Aug 3:
Are you going to be able to help me or not? A simple yes or no is a great start.
Julius Jem at 16:42, Aug 3:
yes
Mark at 16:43, Aug 3:
thank you
Mark at 16:47, Aug 3:
Don't mean to seem impatient - but its been 20 min
Julius Jem at 16:48, Aug 3:
This can also be done with a VLAN-capable switch and router. If you set up two VLANs, one for guest access and one for "wired" access, and tag those VLANs into the router's ethernet port, you have the same solution. Prolly a little more expensive than what Anav  is proposing (I know Cisco gears will do this, but...they are pricey). However, you can sometimes pick up some cheap Cisco gear on eBay and get it working from there. I am not sure if any of the "enterprise grade" stuff from Linksys, Netgear, or DLink will perform the same thing.
Mark at 16:50, Aug 3:
You clearly copied that from someone or somewhere else. IT did not answer my question. Can the c1000Z be configured with a different vlan on ehernet port #2
Julius Jem at 16:52, Aug 3:
yes
Mark at 16:52, Aug 3:
how
Julius Jem at 16:56, Aug 3:
just a sec
Mark at 17:05, Aug 3:
It has been over 30 minutes and you still have not provided the requested information.
Mark at 17:16, Aug 3:
It is now 45 minutes and you have not assisted me

I find this type of service/performance to be far short of the expectation when the phone support indicates the online support is supposed to be faster.

I have Internet service from the only available DSL line in my service area. No other faster service is available. I called in Billing Customer Service about a charge being billed - Internet Cost Recovery fee.
It took me about 10 minutes to get hold of someone. The first time after talking about 2 minutes, he disconnected me. I called back again, again waited about 10 minutes and connected with a person. I ask what this Internet Cost Recovery fee is about. After they explained to me. I mentioned that on several occasions, I had my internet service slowed down considerably or not existent. I had to disconnect the line. Power down the modem router (paid to get this from century link), etc. and hope for the best. Sometimes it may take 10 to 15 minutes. At times, I had to wait for a while. Basically what I was trying to allude was that I had to do my own recovery.
My concern is that I do not paying a fee charged but I expect the recovery to be 24/7. When I became irate, they put me on to a Supervisor that gave me the same song and dance about the fee that is a must pay fee. When I further explained my issue and was not happy with her answer, I was put on hold and transferred to a gentleman - Escalation Manager. He was not a nice person to talk with. Extremely rude. Always running ahead with his view points and not giving up his voicing opinions. Interrupting me many times when I am speaking and most ardently rude trying to play the same song and dance about the fee and that it cannot be touched. When I told him that he should have better PR and that he should not interrupt me and rattle on when I am voicing my opinion, he hang up on me.
This so wrong in so many ways. The account in question is [protected]. As I mentioned I should not be forced to pay for a fee that I am not benefiting. According my lawyer, this fee is illegal and forced upon if there is no recourse to challenge it to make sure a service is being provided. I am rather disappointed by this turn of events and would expect better from Century Link. Could you believe it, he hung up on me.

Kevin Hill

I would like to thank CenturyLink for the worst interaction I've ever had with a utility service. I can't understand how a person renting a home can be punished for a previous tenants actions. CenturyLink refused to activate an account for me, a 21 year old that has never had service with them and never will after this experience. Because I share the same last name with someone that lived in the same rental property in a very small town, CENTURYLINK REFUSED ME SERVICE UNLESS I PAY SOMEONE ELSE'S PAST DUE BILL! Since CenturyLink is such a family oriented company, I will be making sure my whole family knows of this. I have a large family, many of which have multiple homes and businesses that use CenturyLink. But with this type service and mistreatment of a new customer, I'm sure the majority of my family will be happy to transfer service to Spectrum Cable. It is infuriating to be treated like this for something that has nothing to do with me an I will make sure as many people as possible know how I was treated by CenturyLink!

It happened again today, July 27, 2017, in southeast Portland Oregon. Although I have a "NO SOLICITORS" sign posted at eye level on my front door, different professional CenturyLink solicitors keep showing up every 3-4 weeks knocking on my door until I or my son answers. We politely tell them that we are satisfied Comcast customers and do not want to change to CenturyLink. Then they aggressively start asking personal questions about how many TV's are in my house and refuse to acknowledge that I do not want their business. They will not turn away until after I have to close the door in their faces. CenturyLink solicitors do not respect our privacy or our rights. I feel this is bordering on harassment, but the police tell me that so far they have done nothing "illegal" for which I could file a police complaint. This repeated disregard of our "NO SOLICITORS" sign is becoming stressful.

I just got done talking to Century Link, yet again. This time they added $50 to my monthly bill. I talked to two representatives who were unable to help (common problem at Century Link), then I was sent to the "loyalty" dept. where they try to sell you their tv service, as a way to lower your bill? But as soon as I stated (respectfully) the problem, I was disconnected. There was nothing wrong with the connection - their reps (talking from experience) often disconnect when they don't want to handle your problem.

I've been dealing with Century Link for about 2 years now and have often had to call to get them to take off some mystery charge. During the first 6 months with them they overcharged me consistently each month, it added up to more than $150. I was able to figure out where they were adding it in on their incomprehensible statement, and they finally paid it back. After that things were fine for awhile. But now this new charge. I've had it with their "customer service" and am definitely looking for a different company for phone and internet.

Reported that internet/tv was out on Thurs. 7/20. Technician was to come Sat. 8-5. No call and did not show up. Called several times Sat. and Sun. Was told they would come. Called again Mon. and appt. was "escalated" and rescheduled to Tues. at 10. I was told I had a choice of 8-12 or pick a time. The tech was to call prior to coming to make sure someone was home. He showed up at 9. A neighbor asked him to wait. He did not call ahead and lied to HQ when he arrived and how long he waited. Called again and spoke to supr. Appt. was "escalated " again for them to come out on Wed. Now almost a week w/o internet/tv service. Is someone to be at home and wait 5 days for someone to show up? Unacceptable. CL does not seem to care about its customers. It's Wed. am and no one has showed up yet.

Worst Company in America, basically a monopoly. Just take your money, and never help you when something goes wrong. The worst customer service EVER, basically none. All recordings when you call, and if your lucky enough to get a person who works for them, they tell you they need to transfer you to someone else. Then you are back to a recording and then cut off. I will be leaving this horrible service, (whom I've been with for 10+ years) well no more - DISH here I come. By the way CenturyLink is being sued by the State of Minnesota. I hope they get what is coming to them. Enough is Enough.

Horrible company, always trying to scam you and charge you more then what you're told. Ive had to call in so many times to have them adjust my bill for charging more then what the contract was. I've used them for 4 years and not once has anything gone smothely. Always a waste of time and money. Never a quick easy fix, expect the worst of the worst. I will NEVER use them again or recommend them to someone. They are scammers and don't care about their costumes just their money. They make me sick to my stomach. I've never been so upset and frustrated with a company this much before.

So it's easy enough to snatch 85.00 out of our account prior to installation, but we are told 3 different time frames as to when our tech would arrive they day they are supposedly arriving. 8-12, 8-5 and now 12-4. This is absolutely ridiculous. You insisted on this specific day being the soonest available day, days after we pay for it, I have to come home pregnant from work, and sit around on someone who can't make up their mind as to when they will be arriving. Haven't even used the service yet and i'm pissed off with this company.

Signed up earlier in the week after going through the sales talk for an hour. Paid the deposit and was told From July 14th between 8am and 5pm a tech would be out to do install. Took off from work unpaid. No tech shows. I call and stay on hold for at least 45 minutes and get told I'm sorry all our ports are full. Nothing we can do. We will hold deposit and call when a line is available. Seriously? You sold me for bout 1.5hrs total.. give me a date. I lose $160 missing work and waiting and don't even get a call that your ports are full.. not to mention there's no notice on the website and people can still sign up right now. Put me in tuff situation as I do alot of remote work. Ok my options after losing this time is satelite since I'm in n. cape. Thanks centurylink for the non existent advanced call .. now I'm out a day's pay and still now internet to do work.

I have internet service for more than 4 years with this company. Last year I had problems with the router and at the end I decide to get my own and sent back the ones I had from the company. I call the company to let them know that I sent back the routers (2 routers). I didn't notice until recently that my bill include every month the 10 dollars for the router rent. I call and the person on the costumer service told me that I need the tracking number or she couldn't do anything about it. I didn't have the information on hand and I said to call back. On my holyday break I decide to call and the person at the costumer service told me that he can see the routers been returned, when I ask about what are they going to do? if I will get a credit for that, he said he can only make a credit for 3 moths. I have been paid for more than a year! $130.00 now, and they only going to return me $30.00?! I feel robed, I feel like they take advantage of a good costumer. I want my money back, and cancel the contract that "I suppose" to have, because I never sign anything, that is another complain that I have!

Your company is the only one available for device at Schriever AFB CO. Over the past two years, I've been charged for a modem that does not exist. All housing out there is equipped with fiber cable. I was told that was part of the package, however, my neighbor is being charged for the same speed for half the price without a modem charge. I have disputed this service after hours on the phone only to be transferred 6 -9 different times. I was promised a refund of over 300 dollars and when I moved to cancel services, they continues to bill me. I still had a credit of overpayment that I still have yet to receive.

Called on June 5, 17 in late evening hours requested an my internet speed increased as I was already being billed $50 per month and only getting 5 Mbps, but I could get more Mbps. So June 5, 17 I spoke to a representative and was told it could be bumped up but would take 24 hours the next day late evening nothing was done. Called service again was told that was a mistake it would not be bumped up until Thursday June 8, 17. On June 8 nothing happen. Called again late that evening and was told a service technician would have to come out and install a new cable and there would be no charge. The service tech was scheduled to come out on Wednesday June 14, 2017. The tech came out my daughter was there and she said he was there for only for a few minutes and said there was no way he could install upgrade to allow more Mbps. I think Century Link just does not want to bump up speed or just does not care. Service tech and customer service is terrible never had this problem with Embarq or Sprint. I even had 10 Mbps for a while with Embarq and no technician had to come out. It was bumped from Embarq location SO I THINK YOU GUYS ARE THE WORST SERVICE AND I AM ALREADY WORKING ON GETTING XFINITY AS SOON AS I DO I WILL BE GONE... I HAD A LAND PHONE FOREVER YOU WOULD HAVE THOUGHT CENTURY LINK WOULD HAVE OFFERED ME A DISCOUNT ON MY LAND PHONE AS I WAS PAYING $45 PLUS AND ONLY FOR LOCAL CALLS...

Starting after this Friday, June 23rd, CenturyLink has been blocking my access to certain public websites.
They are blocking port 80 affecting many sites that I've been going to for years. They are ignoring my attempts to get this resolved. I can get to these websites from my 3G on cell services, but not on the CenturyLink DSL.

TCP route trace to freerepublic.com on port 80 (HTTP):
Tracing the path to freerepublic.com (209.157.64.200) on TCP port 80 (http), 30 hops max
1 192.168.1.1 0.496 ms 0.326 ms 0.320 ms
2 fl-[protected].dhcp.embarqhsd.net (71.48.224.1) 18.501 ms 18.108 ms 18.155 ms
3 orlf-agw1.inet.qwest.net (75.160.222.145) 20.859 ms 18.134 ms 18.362 ms
4 * * *
5 * * * etc

I can ping the site, but I cannot load the home page.

I have a special needs 2yo...
Work from home with my wife... Making it happen...moved to a new place, had a rep call me for 2 weeks after the initial inquiry about their service, set up a instalation on Thursday the 15th of June from 8am to 5pm! Ok so We moved on Monday. Waited whole day Thursday while my wife had a surgery at ORMC on Orange ave, I live 25 miles away, second surgery she had was Friday a more serious one, thank God all is good but we need service like air!
Parents stayed with her at hospital. I stayed at home unpacking waiting...
Obviously its a no show, went to hospital, called on Friday - first Philippines call center girl said srr idk why they didnt come i said make smbd come now! Or give me a supervisor- another girl in Philippines... Said i can make Tuesday happen - i said Tuesday make yourself happen))) no i didnt,
Said its unacceptable she gave me installation department number- americans)))) ok Jennifer from TX said she can send smbd Tuesday I said it is an 1 and 25 min I am on the phone with this s.it, i need inet- next lady named Tamy from escalation department said it is what it is I am sorry but cant do anything and wont try bla bla bla bla ... I said well lets switch places what would you say? No answer long story short I said you messed up and you will pay my first month! She turn on attitude and said Hell NO! I SAID HELL YES! She said well first of all it was scheduled for Tuesday! I said excuse me? She said thats right 20th of June! I said ok how come 4 peope from your company said they saw 15th you state you dont? Funny))) she said nope I dont see the 15th - liar liar pants on the head! WELL I SAID JUST TO LET YOU KNOW I DO RECORD ALL OF MY CONVERSATIONS WITH AN AUTO REC APP ON MY PHONE! THAT IS TRUE I HAVE ALL OF THE CALLS RECORDED I LISTENED TO THEM ALL READY AND SHE IS A LIAR!HORRIBLE I SAID GIVE ME SOMEBODY WHO IS BIGGER THAN SHE, SHE SAID I ALREADY ESCALATED IT TO THE CORPORATE TOP! I SAID THAT'S IT U R MY END - SHE SAID YES AND EAT IT! WHOLY S! THIS IS A BIG NATION WIDE CORP! I SAID WELL I USED TO RUN CONSUMER DEPARTMENT OF NORWEGIAN CRUSE LINE AND I KNOW HOW U HAVE TO TREAT PEOPLE!
ANY WAY STARTED TO HEAT ME UP SHE WAS AN ATTITUDE BI..H! CANT EVEN IMAGINE HOW THEY DO IT!anyway thats the story
PS I do have ALL RECORDINGS AVAILABLE IF I CAN GET ANY HELP ×WITH THIS! DEFINITELY WOULD SIGNED FOR SOME LAWYER ADVICE

Seems like double billing is a frequent problem with CenturyLink and Direct tv bundle packages. Is it feasible to consider a employee is skimming money and/or they could have been hacked?

I have been bundled 3 years, never missed a payment, and just received a bill $527.84 which is $206 more than usual (charged 2 months service on one bill). I have spent total of 3 hours on phone, ping ponged back and forth between phone service and Direct tv, without any resolution.

I was having intermittent DLS. It would not go down for long, usually 2-5 minutes at a time, but it would go down a few times an hour. I called on the 6/1/17 and they scheduled a tech for the next day, 1p-5p. I skip a water aerobics class I take in conjunction with Physical Therapy, and rescheduled another appointment so I would be home.
At 10:59 am on Friday I get an email saying my tech is on the way. Cool. I head out for my PT appointment.
At 2:00 pm I get an email: Reminder: Your CenturyLink Repair appointment is tomorrow. WTF?!?! I won't be home tomorrow!
I call Support again and speak to Jess, a nice young man. Apparently the techs are all busy and can't get to me today, and if I cancel my SATURDAY appointment, they can't get to me until TUESDAY because Monday is already booked.
Now, every time I call C-Link I'm asked for a good call back number, so why couldn't they CALL ME to tell me this and find out when would be a good time for ME?
Not 5 minutes after we hang-up, I get an email saying my repair is complete...and then my Internet goes down again. It goes down 8 more times that night.
Saturday morning when I let my dog out, I find a "We were Here" notice right in front of my door, showing 6/2 @ 11:30. Problem is not on my premises, and they are continuing to work on it.
On 6/3 they send another email stating tech is on the way...
On 6/[protected]@1p - reminding me of my 6/6 appt
On 6/[protected]@1:48 - a tech is on the way...
So they totally wasted my Friday afternoon, tried to hijack my pre-planned Saturday, and had NO clue as to who was doing what and suppose to be where on Monday or Tuesday.
I must admit, my Internet hasn't going down since late Friday night.