CenturyLink / Centurytel Consumer Reviews - Page 2

N/A, INDIANA -- Please, please, please DO NOT go with Internet Provider, you will be wasting your money! Horrible service and bad customer service! I signed up under the agreement of $69 a month for Internet and TV. Well after receiving bills over $160 a month. I contacted CenturyLink and was told "oh, that representative must have made a mistake. We will refer them to training."

Upon further review I found out that this is a common issue that happens. They tell you one price, sign you up, and you get charged whatever they decide and say “oops, the representative made a mistake, nothing we can do and might we remind you of your contract with us!” Well, it doesn't end there. If my internet actually worked that would be nice. It just stops and restarts about (no joking) 20 times a day. If you're in the middle of something well you just have to wait for it to reboot and hope it doesn't just stop.

I contacted customer support about that also, "oh, it must be the cord we sent not fitting properly. Sorry that is the only cord we have available for the WiFi." Really!? Well, I moved to a new home and was told that my service would be on the same day, as I had called a month before I was moving to ensure installation.

Nope, no internet. Called and was told "oh, something's wrong with the computer that has to update. Please wait until tomorrow morning. It will be on by 7:00 am." Nope, that didn't happen either. Called back and heard "sorry, it seems the computer hadn't updated. Everything is fine. The tech has been there and said you're good to go. Just waiting on this update."

Okay so three days later, still no internet. Well surprise here comes a tech. He tells me he is here to check my place out to make sure all is good. Huh? Thought the tech had already been here! Well seems he had to run all new lines as the ones I had weren't working. Funny, I was told all was good just waiting on a computer update!

The tech told me straight out the customer service people will lie right to you and gave me his number to call him personally if something happens. Great guy! My internet still sucks. Don't even have Internet half the time but I get the bill regularly. LOL. So...stay away. Don't put yourself through the stress of this company!

WARNING: do business with CenturyLink/Qwest at your OWN risk! As you're playing with a very LARGE, dumb, and dirty company. Don't be surprised if you LOSE. Our small business was solicited by Qwest to switch from standard copper lines to their T1 service, which is phone and internet service. This service was to be billed at $517 per month.

To my surprise for the first six months Qwest billed me $1,500 per month. Simple mistake? I don't think so. I was forced to spend countless resources and hours and hours of time to correct their billing errors. They'd never admit to the error but give the account a “credit” Really? Why don't they call it for what it is? It's a “correction”!

As a small business owner nothing is more important and critical to me than my phone and internet system. We live and die by the performance of our phones. So it's absolutely critical to me that we're provided good phone service as my livelihood along with my employee's livelihood's and clients depend on it. Because of this, I grew very tired and frustrated of their incorrect billing and the cost it created for our small business. So I did what any smart business owner would do, I switched carriers.

According to Qwest we switched 8 months early. Had we continued it'd been about 4k for the “service” but since I cancelled early, Qwest is demanding $12,000. THREE times what it would have cost to continue! WOW. Now I could understand that someone could make a claim for an actual loss because of an early termination but to charge three times as much? I believe this to be a punishment for quitting their “service” as they're using the wrong start date to figure the termination charges.

Now I deal with a lot of faceless and dumb corporations every day but Qwest is by the worst company I have ever dealt with. Period. They are so unorganized. It's an absolute nightmare to work with them. I would warn any business thinking of or currently doing business with CenturyLink Qwest to have a HUGE team of attorneys because you're going to need them to figure out the contract and to hold them to their end of the deal.

And it would help if you really enjoy getting transferred around through a huge mess of people that don't want to help you and are confused as to why you're interrupting them. So let this be a warning to all businesses everywhere when you do business with Qwest that you're playing with a VERY LARGE, DUMB, FACELESS, CORPORATION THAT WANTS YOU TO LOSE.

We've been signed up for Centurytel's 1.5 MBPS high speed internet for around 2 years now, I believe. When it first became available around here, it worked fairly decently. However, in the past year that has not been the case. Around the summer of last year, for around 3 months, my internet speed dropped from delivering 150-180kb/sec downloads to 70-80kb/sec speeds or lower. It stayed that way, constantly, for around 3 months. I put in a call to a Centurytel tech, only to have him come out, say there was nothing wrong, and leave.

Well, that didn't help my internet speed. I know for a fact that it was not my computer, for I keep my windows updates current, my anti-virus software updated, and I have 2 different spyware scanners. I run weekly/bi-weekly scans for viruses and spyware. I also know it was not my router, because I unplugged the router and tried plugging directly into the modem, to no effect. And according to the Centurytel tech, there's nothing wrong with the modem. We also have 2 computers in the household, both giving the same speeds.

Ever since the 3-month drop last summer, internet speed has been unreliable at best. I would have good days, where I would have no internet issues at all, then there would be horrible days where I would see drops to as low as 20-50 kb/sec. Not to mention that these are not peak internet surfing times, so it should not have anything to do with the ISP's servers getting too much traffic. These speeds will carry on into 12-4 A.M.

Currently, and for the past 2-3 weeks, I've been getting drops again into the 80-100kb/sec range. That's not as bad as last summer, but it still makes playing games online/watching videos very frustrating. If there was another ISP choice in my area to switch to that wasn't dial-up, I would have taken it long ago; early termination fee or not. I find it interesting to note that as of right now, Centurytel's rating on speedtest.net is a 2.4/5, which is more than I would give them at this point.

I usually don't look at my bill, since all the taxes and fees drive me crazy. We only have our landline since our cell reception inside the house is inconsistent at best. Today I decided to look at our bill, since it's now CentryLink, and found that there was a $5 charge on our plan that we didn't ask for.

Turns out the last time I called in fall of 2008 to get rid of the junk we had on our service that we didn't need, our service was switched to the basic (that we wanted) but added on was selective call rejection (that we don't want). Now they're telling me someone from our home added it, although my husband and I did not, and our 6-year-old wouldn't know how to even dial the company.

The "service" has been removed from our bill, with a $5 credit--gee, thanks--but no way to adjust for the year of erroneous charges. THE LESSON is to read your bills every month, since even the people and companies you think are allies are not, everyone is out to get money in any way possible, even and especially behind your back. The killing of an optimist; sad, isn't it?

THE OTHER ISSUE IS INTERNET: We've been here for 11 years now, and although we're only 2 miles from the county seat and have been promised internet "next year" every year for 10 years, we still don't have it. Our friends who live in the middle of chicken farms for miles around have it, but we don't. AAAAAAAARGHHHHH! We like Verizon's broadband, but in this day and age would like DSL to access and provide information & uploads for work & pleasure.

I'm not into violence or drugs, so what is a frustrated, wronged person to do? Makes me want to scrap everything, buy a horse & sheep and go live on our back 90, unfettered by "technology". Or meditate...Ohhhmmmmm. Or realize that while this situation is as aggravating as all get out, in the grand scheme of things it's insignificant. I'm grateful to have a good brain, body and home, with a good job and loving family. I'm counting my blessings on this Thanksgiving Eve and cursing the ruthless companies underneath.

ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO -- FRAUDULENT BILLING CenturyLink. My Recommendation to other consumers: NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH CenturyLink. After 20+ years of satisfied service with Qwest Communications that was later bought by CenturyLink I became a very dissatisfied customer!

On March 10, 2012 I dropped ALL services (phone and internet) with CenturyLink communications and switched my service to Comcast (phone, internet and cable). Comcast assured me verbally that they port the service. I went through a detailed legal process of authorizing the change by phone.

After canceling my service, I received a paper bill from CenturyLink for $96.87 for an account number, which was NOT my former CenturyLink account number. I called CenturyLink multiple times and they informed me that a new account was established for Internet service. At no time after dropping my service with them on March 10, 2012 did I authorize or utilize their Internet service. This is fraudulent billing. I requested to be transferred to the manager and multiple agents refused to transfer my call saying the charges were sustained. The agent notified me that if I did not pay, I would be turned over to a collection agency.

August 17, 2012 I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. October 29, 2012 I received a collection notice from Convergent Outsourcing. February 13, 2013 I received a collection notice from EOS CCA collection agency with itemized list of charges:

QWEST LONG DISTANCE $17.43.
QWEST HIGH SPEED INTERNET $67.39.
QWEST UNREGULATED $2.05.
QWEST REGULATED $0.00.
TOTAL DUE $96.87.

My Requested Resolution:

1. The fraudulent charges for unauthorized internet services be dropped.
2. The unauthorized account set up in my name should be retrieved by CenturyLink from the collection agency.
3. I do not want to receive any bills from CenturyLink
4. I want an apology letter for the pain and anguish and wasted time they have caused me.

I have received no resolution and it has been nearly one year since I canceled my service with CenturyLink. My recommendation to other consumers: NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH CenturyLink.

LONGMONT, COLORADO -- I have had service with this company at this address for a year. The entire year, my phone didn't work the way it should. When it rained or snowed or early in the morning when there is dew, there would be horrible static in the line. I had them come over maybe 8 times to try to repair whatever this was and was never charged a repair fee. I even asked them to come early in the morning when the problem was there which they did not do.

They came when they had time so of course the problem was not as obvious when they got here. After the last attempt at a repair, I found a card on my door telling me that my phone was fixed which it wasn't. I decided at this time to do something different for my home phone. I got the phone # ported and started my new service only to find that CenturyLink had tacked on an $85.00 repair charge for their last feeble attempt at a repair. I have called several times to find out what the fee was for only to be argued with, lied to, insulted and treated like complete and total crap.

They put me on hold to do some research and didn't come back on more than one occasion. The little that I did find out was that because I finally had enough of their BS and went with another company, they are now saying that the problem is in my house which is why they are charging me the $85.00. The problem isn't in my house because you go outside and plug a phone in the box. You can hear the static out there. This company is a bunch of thieves. I wouldn't recommend them for anything.

I just signed up with CenturyTel for internet service that I thought was a great deal. I get my first bill and it's 4X what it should have been (yes 4 times more than what I signed up for). Here's why: They declined to inform me about a $15 equipment shipping charge. Granted I didn't specifically ask "will there be a shipping charge" but I did ask about installation related fees, of which they assured me there were none. The representative also noted on her report that she notified me of the $15 shipping fee, which she most certainly did not.

I asked about equipment rental fees, again the representative told me there were no rental fees. Then what the heck is the "$4.49 equipment fee" a month on my bill? "Oh, that's a "warranty fee" that I have to pay in case something happens... I guess I should have been a mind reader so I'd know specifically to ask if there is going to be a warranty fee because I've never heard of that before and the only way to opt out of paying a warranty on their equip is to buy your own. I wouldn't want to ship the equipment back though because I'll probably have to pay return shipping.

My first month was pro-rated and not counted as a "full month" so the discount I signed up for does not apply... What!? yeah, instead of starting your service the day it's installed, they designate a day that your service officially starts so when you sign up with a special offer that's for 12 months, it means 12 full months, starting whenever they feel like starting it (in my case, just short of a full month so I paid almost the entire service fee for my first month).

Finally taxes and misc fees, which I completely understand you have to pay but some of the fees were things from CenturyTel/CenturyLink like $1.25 internet access fee... isn't that part of what I'm paying for to begin with and not an extra expense? I get that $1.25 or $4.49 aren't' much but with all the hidden fees put together I am still paying twice what I should be paying for internet this month. I won't be continuing service with Centurytel/link when I'm done with my contract, I can tell you that much.

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA -- I just moved to Tallahassee, FL and needed to connect local phone service. I originally went into the Embarq store to see how much they would cost to have both DSL and home phone service. The rep I spoke to said that "dial tone" service with no "bells and whistles" would cost $15 a month and the DSL would be $24.95. He then added that for "$4 more I could have voicemail, caller id, line protection, etc." I said, sure and he then stated that my bill per month would be $62. I may not have taken too many math classes in college, but if memory serves me $15 + $24.95 + $4 = 43.95, not 62. I told the rep that I changed my mind and only wanted the $15 dial tone service.

After trying to give me the DSL package with a free month and other things I didn't need...I finally convinced the rep (or so I thought) to give me just dial tone. I left the store with a massive receipt with cryptic codes on it and a date that my service was to be connected. Unsure of the rep's skills, I called Embarq after my service was turned on and was informed that my account had DSL, Voicemail, Caller ID, and all the other features I didn't request. I told the agent on the phone that I did not request any of those features and that I JUST wanted dial tone for $15 a month. She said she would take care of that and credit back my account.

The next month I receive a bill higher than expected and I noticed that unlimited *69 was placed on my account. I then called Embarq again explaining the situation. The first agent I spoke to said he could take *69 off my account, but that he would not credit my account because I "probably used it" I explained that I never requested anything on my account and that refusal to credit my account constituted "cramming" (the telephone term similar to bait and switch). The agent said I was being hostile and disconnected the call. I called back an hour later and had a credit applied to my account by speaking to a supervisor.

I thought everything was finally solved with Embarq, but this month I never received a bill and was almost late in paying. I was smart enough to go online and pay by electronic check before they charged me another fee. If this were 10 years ago, there wouldn't be anything I could do. However, I decided that enough was enough and I'm switching to VOIP for $9.95 a month and disconnecting my land line. LECs can't afford to treat their customers like AT&T did years ago.

My mother has a small business in Delafield, WI and was a CenturyTel / Centurylink customer for 19 years because there was no other provider in the area. With the advent of VoIP she decided to port her 3 numbers to Vonage and was informed by Vonage that CenturyTel would not let them port the numbers because there was no "agreement".

Mind you, she was being charged each month for "number portablity". A call to CenturyTel revealed that they would not port to Vonage because they were not a cable provider even though in federal court rulings Vonage has been determined to be in the same class as Time Warner's VoIP. We filed a complaint to the FCC and called Time Warner to have the numbers ported to them. Time Warner was hesitant to try to port because of issues they have had with CentruyTel ports in the past but finally agreed to try.

It took 3 months to get the numbers ported because of CenturyTel not cooperating with Time Warner but it finally got done. My mother was paying over $300 per month plus per minute charges for each call, local or not, with no internet. Now she is paying less than $100 per month for all 3 lines and internet and couldn't be happier. Also, about a month after the FCC complaint was filed they stopped charging the "number portability" charge.

The day that CenturyTel / Centurylink goes out of business will be great day for the American consumer. Their fees are outrageous and customer service is horrible and they will do anything to keep you from switching to another company, even violating federal law, and yet not give you a price break. If you have a choice, stay away from this company.

CASA GRANDE, ARIZONA -- I have direct TV through CenturyLink. My monthly bill has been $93 until this month when it was $158. I talked to CenturyLink for 3 days going through 9 people and using up a lot of cell phone minutes. CenturyLink told me that DirecTV had double billed them. DirecTV told me that is not true. CenturyLink told me I had to pay the full amount anyway.

I asked if my next month bill would be a $0 balance and was told I will receive a full bill next month. How can they bill me for 3 months and supply 2 months of service? I will wait until next month to see if I get a credit and if not, I will go to the BBB and AZ attorney general's office.