CenturyLink / huge overcharges and fraudulent billing
I just want to add to the multiple complaints about gross overcharging by Centurylink.In simple terms, they are ripping us off.
When we moved to Montana 6 months ago we signed up for phone, internet, and satellite tv over the phone before we moved in.
Once we got here the phone and internet were turned on as promised, but the tv guys didn't show up until about a week late, and they weren't centurulink employees but instead some subcontractors who admitted not having liability insurance.Luckily we declined the satellite service.
Then we started getting our bills.
First of all the bills were incomprehensible and about 2 to 3 times what we had been told our service would cost. One fee was about $65 for delivery of a modem.Of course we never agreed to that and never would--who in their right mind would.
Plus our phone rang all day and night with telemarketing calls and bill collectors for whomever had our number previously and with blocked anonymous calls.
So after about 2 months we dropped the phone and told them we wanted the cheapest internet service available.The customer service person my wife spoke with said the service should cost a little under $50/month.
Of course, it was over $50/month.
After 1 1/2 months of this, we shut off service and went with Bresnan for internet, who is charging us just what they said they would, under $40/month.
So on our last bill--to top it off--Centurylink hits us with a $350 charge for unspecified services.
We have filed a complaint with the appropriate consumer agency and are looking into civil litigation.
Stay away from Centurylink.Our new neighbors--a number of them--warned us about Centurulink when we moved here. They were right.
Avoid Centurylink if you value truth, honesty, fair dealing--and your hard earned dollar.
More CenturyLink Complaints & Reviews
- Century Link Internet - extremely slow internet service [63]
- [Resolved] Century Link - century link rip off [133]
- Century Link/prism Tv - bad service [47]
- Century Link Dsl - misrepresentation of services and fees [35]
- CenturyLink - poor customer service/ $99 early term fee for service that never worked [40]
- CenturyLink - billing
- CenturyLink - rude driver
- Century Link - refusal to return overpayment
- CenturyLink - complaint
- CenturyLink - years of slow internet and poor customer service
Date
Cliff,
Sorry to read about the trouble you've had with CenturyLink. My team would be more than happy to investigate this issue for you. We've been helping customer's on Complaintsboard.com for over 2 years. You can email us at Reachout@CenturyLink.com. We would be more than happy to help you.
Thanks,
Joey H
CenturyLink Customer Outreach
Joey@CenturyLink.com
Personally.. if I were with a business and the customer couldnt read the English on the bill, I wouldnt bother with them anyway. Generally, its seen that alot of customers will try to to play offers one against the other, attempting to combine unrelated offers etc. Secondly, CenturyLink... Dish Network... now do those 2 names even look remotely similar? Nope, and they are clearly 2 different companies. One has a contract for the other to provide sales and billing for their service, BUT the company that owns the service (in this case Dish Network) still handles the operation of their service and installation. Of course, any reasonable chimpanzee should be able to figure that one out. Once again though, many attempt to avoid responsibility and create their own rules and policies by feigning complete ignorance and a lack of all common sense. They reason that if they go.." duhhhh.. huhhh??? What you mean you dont install their service?" and dont read all of the text on the bill that is provided... then they dont have to be responsible for anything. Top that off with feigning another level of ignorance by implying the need for an essay description of every charge that is already in plain English. Want more ignorance.. try this one... how can a person reason that a contract for DSL service is based on the quality of Satellite TV service? (Which isnt even provided by the same company.) On the same note, the contract for DISH service is owned exclusively by DISH Network and it not related to DSL service at all. Its the exact same contract that a DISH network only customer has, and DISH electronically sends that fee to whatever company is contracted to handle the printing of the combined bill for the customer. All for the convenience of a combined bill for a bone-headed customer. Whoever came up with the idea should have stayed in bed and let people pay seperate bills for every service they use... period. Its time for people to grow up and be adults.
I also used CenturyLink the have a charge that you will see on each months bill called Pure Solutions. This amount is not supported by the FCC's Truth in Billing Act. If you call you will have to fight to prove your point, at which time they will transfer you to their AR department, whom you will have to repeat your case with, then they will transfer you to the billing department, and so on and so on, until they finally come back and say there system is down and they cant help you - but you can be transferred to their Spanish speaking Department, and if you tell them you speak English then they will be able to help (Yeah, Right...). I waited anyway and guess what, the operator did speak English, but could not access my account. The service itself is pretty slow, and they only really market themselves in rural areas where people have no other choice. Overall, not a bad scam, it is really sad that it is easier for them to pay people to update comments on the blogs to try and save their image instead of not scamming the customer in the first place.
You can also file a complaint with the FCC: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/policy/truthinbill.html
We also had this problem, We were told that we would be charged 34$ a month for internet, they were giving us a special deal because we told them before we got it hooked up to forget it. You see they sent a truck over, but no one ever came and rang our bell or knocked on our door. My mom and sister saw the truck leaving our apartment complex. We then called to see why the truck was there (we were supposed to get the internet hooked up that day), they claimed we were not scheduled to get it hooked up for another week. But yet, no one (of course we got sent around to everyone) knew why the truck was there, We did not get a single answer until my husband threatened to call the police and report a suspicious vehicle. They promised us we wouldn't be under any contract, and that they were giving us a higher speed internet at a lower cost due to all the problems we had. We were told we could buy our own modem/router. So We did rather than pay 5$ a month for theirs. Well when we didn't get internet through that router/modem we'd call they'd say since it's not their modem/router they can't help us. So we returned our modem/router and they were to send us a free one, next day shipping, with no charge to us, except the 5$ a month. When THAT router finally came (about 5days later). The Internet STILL wouldn't work. They finally sent someone over to take a look at it, and the guy who came said that no one had ever climbed the phone pole and hooked it up to the apartment!!! He helped us get the router set up, but because I have a macbook they couldn't (for whatever reason, never had this problem when I was at my parents house with cable internet through the local cable company) make a wireless password that worked with my Mac so we had to go with an unsecured network. On top of that, when we received our first bill, it was well over 100$ they claimed they were billing us a month and half in advance, no one EVER told us that they would do that. AND there were the installation charges we were PROMISED we wouldn't have. They said they'd fix our bill, we never received a corrected bill. So we didn't pay it. Now, our internet is turned off, They tell us we are Under a contract that we NEVER SIGNED or agreed to OR saw any paperwork saying we were under one. If we break this contract, that once again we never agreed to, its 200$!! AND we have to pay what we still owe (which they are now saying is 50$ a month) on top of that, and if we don't pay it all at once they will send us to collections. They inferred that my husband and I are idiots because we said since we never received a corrected bill we didn't pay because we did not know WHAT to pay, they said 'so you just decided Not to pay your bills?!' Not to mention we were told a bunch of different things, such as if we pay 65$ we can get it turned back on, then someone else said it would not be turned on till everything we owe is paid. So We're told conflicting things that we do not know which is true. We were talked down to, we were lied to about the price we were supposed to pay, and about the contract we were originally told we would not have, which in turn apparently unknown to us until we called to cancel we are under. And now we are stuck until after September in this contract. As Soon as it is up we are CERTAINLY switching over to the local cable company, at least there we won't be cheated and lied to. Also we are telling all of our family and friends of our TERRIBLE experience with Century link.
I am a new customer. The on-line bill does not show the detail of the paper bill, so it is useless. And the paper bill is incomprehensible. Minuses and Pluses all over the place. It does no good to talk to a rep (after 12 minutes on hold) as they have trouble figuring it out also. I have 5 lines of "Minimum billing charges for services I never signed up for. The service itself is very good. It's a shame the accounting does not come close to matching.
jimwest,
I'll also be glad to help out with your issues. Just email me at Joey@CenturyLink.com. Please include your name, account number and reference your post here on ComplaintsBoard.com. Thanks.
Joey H
CenturyLink Customer Outreach
Reachout@CenturyLink.com
My bill with centurylink should be $64.00 a month. By the time they add all the unheard of taxes and fee it comes to $115.00 a month. Please check on the back of your bill and see how many times you are charged for directory assistance. I have never used directory assistance since google was created. Those directory assistance charges is on every single bill for the last year. When I call customer service the person always says the same thing, someone in your hose is using it. I live alone. In my area there's only 2 internet and home phone providers, the other one I can't make outgoing calls. Beat that one! Here in Florida.
I live in an area where CenturyLink has a monopoly and where there is no cell phone coverage. I have to call CenturyLink almost every month to correct their errors on my bill. Twice I even received bills of over $3000! My bills go up a few dollars every month for the same services. The phone service goes out regularly and when I call to complain, they tell me that the problem is not with them but with all the people who are trying to call me. I also run a business out of my home and I often get complaints from my customers that they couldn't contact me. They are the worst phone company ever, but I have no choice living where I do.
So, Qwest DSL where I live was not the greatest but stable. Switch to CentruyLink and we have to reset the modem daily. Yes that does work when the internet sucks at the moment. So the wife calls CentruyLink and they tell her it is the modem not the service, because our modem is an outdated model and 3 years old. So we buy what they recommend for $89. Guess what? Still the same crappy DSL, thanks for nothing CenturyLink...jerks Hire reps with some real tech experience instead of checklist reading flunkies.
I wish I would have found this website BEFORE switching my services to Centurylink. They have overcharged me over $100 on my first bill and the worst part is they can't even tell you what their bill is for or give you an address to send your complaint to! I sent a complaint to their registerd agent, gave them plenty of time to respond (to which I have heard nothing) and today filed a complaint with my attorney general's office. CenturyLink obviously believes it can treat people any way it wishes without consequences, I certainly hope one day it is put in its place and its fraudulent billing practices are retired!!
The services centurylink provided and their customer service weren't That bad when we were using them. It was just when we discontinued services where the bills started coming in. We paid off out internet expenses and discontinued our television services which were through direct tv. We paid an extra of +$360.00 just to bail out of the contract for TV. 6 months later I get a collections notice from Integrity Solutions saying I owe CenturyLink $168.00. We had never received anything before them about final bills or anything. No letters no call no emails. So after bouncing back and forth for 3 WEEKS between Direct tv, Centurylink and Collections no one will give us a straight answer about these charges that I have already squared off with Direct tv. One customer service employee said I probably owe Centurylink for the payments that They had made on my behalf to Direct TV? ALL my payments have been made to Direct TV, so why would I double pay century link for a service they don't provide?? i.e television. Also looks like my name is linked to an address in a state I have NEVER even been in. I give them the address and they tell me they can't help me with why that is. PLEASE STAY AWAY from CenturyLink and DirectTV, it is their prerogative to keep you on hold and not help you for as long as they can till you give up and pay a fraudulent fee.
We have had the same phone service in
the same house with the same phone number address in the same phone
book for 35 years. No problems with previous phone companies. Century
link does not have a local address listed in the phone book for this
area that I can find. They are a multinational corporation. In our
Situation we simply discontinued a Verizon cell phone service and number in June
2014 that we had purchased as a part of Century Link service for our daughter.
We used the phone for over a year and the contract was over. Century link
Continues to bill for the phone and tells us we need to call Verizon
in order to solve the situation. a company search revels that Century
link now owns a part of Verizon. My wife continues to call Century
Link and Verizon being switched around on the phone in the same exact way that others are reporting here. Promises of
resolving the problem are made however Century link continues to bill
for the discontinued phone. 10/7/2014
Blanks L Estes
Lee_Estes@yahoo.com
10/7/14
I have just got off the phone with century link in regards to their internet service. We upgraded to the 25 mb and had the service for 1 month with 2 outages lasting 10 days. This company is a mess, and when you call no one cares. It is virtually impossible to get credit for service you pay for AND DO NOT GET. If you escalate and ask them to pull your calls the tell you basically to mind your own business and stop barking orders top them. Every time I get off the phone with them I am in tears and it severely upsets me for hours. They talk to me and treat me as if I am high maintenance, and crazy. They can not explain charges, credits, nor do they care to do so. We have taken time off work to wait on technicians, who never show. STAY AWAY! You will spend more time on the phone begging them to help you then you will ever want to. I have advised I will report them to the Ohio attorney General, they say go ahead. They might look cheaper, but you will pay in other ways...and will get no customer respect.
Jennifer
Ohio
I tried over and over to get someone there to help me. They do not care, and cant explain charges or credits on your bill. I even went to second level escalation, and was patronized. Stay Away!!! Pick someone else
So my Gf walked into a Costco store and was talked into getting Centurylink internet, tv and security service package.When I found out about her HUGE mistake, I told her to cancel the service ASAP! I had heard about their rep and did not want to deal with them. She said, 'they gave me 30 days to cancel if I am not satisfied, why are you so worried. I told her, babe you just made a deal with the devil. She than called CenturyLink and tried to cancel only to be transferred from rep to rep and than was rudely hang up on. She was frustrated and decided to keep it for a while and give them a shot. The installer installed the router and security punch pad on the second floor when she wanted on the 1st floor and damaged her wall while installing cables. The internet service is worst than dial up and half the time could not even connect without restarting the modem. One night she called me crying because she could not connect to the wifi or go online to do work online and had called Centurylink for help only to be treated with much disrespect. I was very angry and at her for not listening to me and not canceling. I myself called them and talked to a very helpful person who apologized and explained to me that my girl had picked the wrong modem that could only handle 10ms and not 25. I told the rep it was the companies reps to inform the consumer of this and give the consumer the best options. But the rep pretty much kept saying. 'well it was she chose'. I could just not believe her. She than apologize and said she would she would send a rep to change out modem at a $50 dollar fee. I said No WAY!! i know how to do that and I have extra modems I can install mysel[censored] No way she said, only our modems work with out system and only our reps can make changes. I told her it was stupid and asked how much to cancel the damn service. She said it would be 1500 bucks. I Said WHAT THE *** you must be kidding. The equipment is not even 200 bucks. My girl said don't fight anymore lets just have them make the changes and pay the fee. Well when the rep changed the internet speed she left my girl without inter for 10 days because her modem could not handle the new 25ms speed and it took them about 10 days to get out to her house to make the changes. No we do not like in a remote area, we live in Las Vegas NV. She was pissed and took out on me instead of them Lol. The internet service was a little faster and her tv service was ok. A month after while I was spending the night I heard a strange noise downstairs. I told her, I think someone is trying to get in, she laugh and said no way the alarm system would have gone off and we would know. Its ok stay in bed its just your ptsd kicking in. I laughed and I still checked things out. I saw someone trying to open the window to get in. As soon as I turned the light on he turned and ran. My girl could not believe the alarm did not warn us at all, we checked it and it was armed. I slept downstairs with my revolver by my side and told her we would find out in the morning. Morning came and I inspected the perimeter and found out they had only installed sensors on the doors and not the windows. I thought it was the stupidest thing to say and advertise to customers of selling a security system that only covers your doors and not your windows. its like buying a dress that only covers your ### lol. I called to complain only to hear that it was my girls fault for not knowing what was installed. Hell how many people out there know about this, every customer places trust on the companies reps to inform us about what is available and give us that knowledge. Nothing I said really matter to them. So she stopped making the payments after 4 months of HORRIBLE service. They sent us the $1300 cancellation fee which we refuse to pay. Not because we cannot pay it but because we feel they broke the contract by no providing us with safety and fast internet as they advertise. Does anyone want to form a group and go after these **** put in a group law suit like they did to AT&T for stealing peoples minutes?Any lawyers? I have listen to my girl cry too much over this and has cause me a lot of pain and suffering. CENTURYLINK is the worst company I have ever dealt with. Please let everyone know!!!
The over charge me all the time. They are doing it again. i am sick of it
Hi, my name is Brittany I am a new century link customer like many of you my first bill was $100 more than what they told me it would be. When I called in to talk to someone about my bill I was hung up on several times I was laughed at given false information on how to contact a supervisors they wouldn't let me speak with a supervisor they were so rude to me I've never been so mistreated and lied to by any company the way century link has now there telling me I have to go online enter into auto-pay to get the package they set me up with I want something done if anyone knows who can help me please let me know! I had to wait two weeks for my service but you better believe I got charged for those two weeks...
Overcharging is what they do. Say you have 100, 000 customers and you charge 10% of them an extra $100 per month, randomly. That's $1, 000, 000 dollars. Now think of the interest that a million dollars generates.
Couple that with their policy regarding overcharges. You call Century Link. You say, "My bill is $100 more than it should be". They say, "Oh, we're sorry. Go ahead and pay the full amount that it says you owe, we'll credit you on next month's bill". Which is exactly what they do.
In the meantime, they're generating interest on your money and everyone else that they overcharged. Nice scam!!!
Today i talked with a woman from century link over my billing also. Was suppose to be $19.95 a month. I got my bill was almost $85.00 i
Was gave a line of bull crap of why my bill was so high. Wanted to cancel service and was threaten with a big early termination fee. I've only had service with this company for i week and i'm so done with them. They will lie and do anything to get business.