I’ll keep this post short & sweet…As a Internet Service Provider…CenturyLink SUCKS!
I know living in small town can have its drawbacks, but from my point of view, if a ISP..specifically CENTURYLINK, can service this area and wishes to bill the customers who use said service, than am I wrong to assume that whenever I wish to access the internet, which I’m paying a mighty price to do, I should be able to do so 24/7 and when I can’t, I should be compensated for the price I’m paying, even when beyond a shadow of a doubt, the technical issues that are not allowing that 24/7 experience to take place are NOT MY DOING?
Why is it when I go to use my phone, no matter what day/time it is, I’m able to successfully make a phone call without issue?
Why is it when I go to turn on my TV, no matter what day/time it is, I’m able to watch TV without issue?
Yet, when I want to get online and actually do some work…seeing as I work from home…that my internet just doesn’t seem to want to stay ‘on’ between the hours of 8am to 11am…3pm to 6pm…and 10pm to 2am…!
Why is it when I go to call CenturyLink Technical Support, they always say the “issue” is on my end…
* Faulty wiring outside the house!
* Faulty modem
* Faulty wiring within the walls of my apartment!
* Or my favorite..I have the modem and phone line coming out of the same wall jack with NO FILTER!
WTF?
All I want is someone to say is..
”I’m sorry Mr. Customer of the last 3 years…but unfortunately, even though we service your area, you live so far out in the fucking boondocks, that by the time the main feed out of Spokane hits your area, everyone and their mother is online either watching porn, playing World of WarCraft, or farming like a mad-man during the Great Depression that not everyone can have a consistent, reliable, always ‘on’…24/7 internet connection!”
That’s all I’m looking for!
But no!
It’s always the same bull-shit run-around….”have you cleared your cookies?” “Have you rebooted your modem?” “Do you have your modem and primary home phone on the same phone jack?”…are you kidding me?
And why is it I always talk to the same fricking ID-10-T when I call support, regardless of what time I call? Holly shit batman, do you ever go home?
For $75 dollars a month, you better give me 24/7 internet, otherwise, bill for the actual time your company can provide a consistent connection..much like cable companies should be allowing us to pay for the channels we ACTUALLY WATCH!
For all the sh** I’ve heard about how bad Comcast support is..I can tell you this…I CAN’T WAIT TO DROP CENTURYLINK AND BECOME A COMCAST CUSTOMER!
As a former customer of Comcast, I always had a 24/7 internet connection and rarely ever had to call support!
So in closing…these past 3 years and the sh**ty service I’ve received from CenturyLink and the ridiculous ‘support’ I’ve received and the countless hours I’ve wasted w/their technical support AND billing departments….trying to get this ordeal corrected and my plan adjusted to no avail…is why CENTURYLINK SUCKS…they suck so bad, I wouldn’t wish their service on my worst enemy!
It'z My Opinion! 
Working here is no picnic either… I can say this about CenturyStink, they treat customer and employees equally as bad. No discrimination here. Customer, employee… no matter, they will dick you around just the same.
So pissed of with the service they bait and switch and tell lie after lie
We have had soooo many problems with there customer service and when you call up to try sort it out they just straight out lie to the customers and bait you into a contract then without telling you before you even get your first bill the switch your service to something you did not agree to and said we could have the service we signed up for if we pay more money
That happened to me too. Both Century Link and Direct TV gave me a quote that I agreed to then increased my bill by about 50% over what I agreed to and told me that I it was my word against theirs!!
JC, I can’t believe how horrible this company treats their “marks” “shills” customers? I’m brand new. I signed up thru a Directv rep and was told I would get “high speed” internet thru this partner of theirs. When asked directly if I could stream video without constant buffering was assured that would happen. When I couldn’t even get a connection, several days later I got a marginal dsl connect. When I complained about this, I was able to get a wireless connect. When the “high speed wireless connect up to 40 mgps” turned out to be a whopping 1.38, I was told I only ordered 1.5 mgps and since they were hitting 80% of the 1.5, they were fulfilling a contract that I’ve never seen. Nonetheless, they told me they could offer me 3mgps. When I asked how much additional that was going to cost me, the reply was nothing, the speed upgrades were all the same price. Now, if you want to believe what their rep was saying, it meant that I was eligible for a higher speed at no additional cost, but refused and chose the snail plan even tho I could boost the available speed by 100% at no additional charge.
God damn these whores. I’ve had it. I’m 65 and won’t put up with this kind of fraud.
I truly believe there is a reason, above and beyond economy, why their CS personnel are in third world countries……………safety.
Looks like you got the same treatment I did back when I was a CL customer and complained about their ‘high speed internet!’…
Sorry to hear about your issues!
Hopefully sometime soon you’re able to get that HIGH SPEED you’re looking for!
Anyone who has had Comcast and CL before knows that the only people who complain about Comcast has never had CL before. It’s the only thing offered in my area. Speeds are throttled every night, usually around 7, multiple outtages all the time (we are talking 10 times a month) We have to own smartphones just so we can see if the Internet is out. I am typing this on my smartphone. Found the article when I googled “why does centurylink suck so bad”
You’re dead-on when it comes to folks who complain about Comcast, but have NEVER had the luxury of dealing with CenturyLink!
I’ve been with Comcast now for damn near 4 years and I’ve never had any issues w/service or even my monthly payments getting screwed up!
6 years with Century Link and problems are yearly, Henry County Missouri, phones go down once per year, always the same old same old, “IF its on your end you will be charged” we have never been charged once, but have been without reliable service time and again, Thanksgiving day this year, phones out until Dec 2nd, all they had to do is reset the system, none of the jerks could get up off their asses and go to the station and reset, latest, 4 days ago, net goes out, same crap, Not on my end, bad router, this one made it a whole 5 months, of course Century link equipment, Why arent they forced to upgrade what they own or sell to a legit reliable company ?
Using Century Link-Everyday is problematic,everyday!
Imagine Century Link in major urban centers (NYC,DC,LA……), from competition they would be out business within 6 months.Saddly,there are some good people that work there but the corporate drive for profit has overcome any interest in their customers and more shamefully-their own employees.Just another terrible corporate person !
I lived in rural southern Mexico for 12 years-internet service was faster,more consistant quality and they credited account pro rata for downtime and bandwidth drops !
The idea that there is competition in this industry (or any other) is simply BS. If there was real competition, Century Link would not be so crappy.
CenturyLink is good at 1 thing: Blaming others for their problems. In one call I have been told they had server problems, next I had Outlook problems, next I was told I had iphone problems, then I was told I was having settings problems. They mannaged to resolve the issue by being accidentally disconnected. Oh, by the way, CenturyLink, when at a loss, gets “disonected”. You are welcome to call back, but you have to start all over. You get the run around!!
I have had AT&T, then Qwest, now Century Link for years. I think I started with then about 40 years ago…. back in the 70’s any way. In the NW, we were logged as the worse phone service in the nation, but I stuck with them.
Loyalty counts for a lot with this company. I lost phone service (but internet still works) and they want me to call in for service. If i had a phone, why would I need them?
I called from work. Previous to their suggestion (cycle the modem) I had outward dialing. Afterwards, nothing. I got into chat with one of their customer service people tonight, after a 4 hour wait. After chatting, she basically told me to piss off.
Part of the problem is they opted me into online notification of bills, w/o my agreeing to this, and w/o me being able to log in. Accessing their service online apparently requires having a bill in front of you to get your customer number from it.
So, I guess my next option is to go with cell phone and cancel my service with them… or have 2 phones at twice the bill?
apparently…. no shit you need the bill dumbass do you expect them to know your acc number and make the acc 4 you and no they didn’t put u on online notifications without u ageeing because you have to request that to be done fucking retard stfu please cancel i hate dumb fucks like u calling in
Thats the attitude that says 6 figures in the near future. Go get em Jesse and don’t stop until you’re out of business.
Thank you jesse for clearly demonstrating the pathetic service that centuryLink employees provide to every customer.
CneturyLink customer support everybody!
Jesse you are the dumbass. You just proved what assholes work for century link. Not only are you rude and and try to blame the customers but you also raise your prices EVERY MONTH! The bill is never the same yet you neglect to tell people that their bill will be higher every month.. And the higher the bill, the worse the service. T.v. freezes all the time.. Internet freezes all the time or goes off for 30 minutes at a time. This company needs to go out of business or fix everything.. Stick to one price and hire people that are not so rude you want to go thru the phone and slap them up side the head!
Jesse you are a dick. Don’t need a bill. They use your phone number to look up you account. Looks like you went to the CenturyLink school of crap customer service! Don’t need dumb fucks like you in a customer service job!
Sure would be nice to ID you with working with Century Stinks, Im sure this comment would get you canned with NO chance with you ever working customer service or anything else customer related ever again, you are a TROLL you vile little slime and I hope when you need help it cant be reached anywhere !!!
Don’t work for that sorry a$$ company…sorry to burst your bubble! 🙂
Agree with everything you said. Totally on point about century link.
Business voicemail indicator not working. Called twice. “Problem not on their side”. Fine, time to get a new phone system. Spend hours researching for new office phone system. Purchase new system and installing new system. Voicemail indicator not working. Called CenturyLink and finally fixed on third try. All I get is “we are sorry” and credit for $10 for their mistake. Disgusting company
I’m using centurylink here in Las Vegas, NV, not exactly the sticks/ boondocks and the quality is so bad, I swear my old 56k connection was more reliable than this.
I’m in Vegas too and our connection is horrible. Just as I went to click on this article’s link my internet connection died so I had to wait a few minutes for it to decide to work again. At the same time, my cable is on the fritz too. Soooo disappointed with them. We are selling our home and will not sign up with them in the next house.
Sam..
Considering your location (Vegas), I’m really surprised that your service is pretty bad! Would have imagined a large city such as Vegas wouldn’t be as bad as some small town out in the ‘sticks’, as I was just over a year ago!
Good luck w/the move to the new house…and hopefully you’ll find a much better cable provider in the not-too-distant-future! 🙂
Billing and financial services is a hoot as well. I’ve spent more than 4 lengthy conversations (except in a conversation it is assumed there is some give and take) trying to get Centurylink to credit a charge for a modem returned months ago. I’ve been cheerfully paying the regular fee, less the modem and found my service cut off this morning for being late. What a great company! Now I’ve learned that the people who couldn’t or wouldn’t credit the account while I was on the line were full of ****. Now the account is credited properly, finally, (I think) and after waiting on my end for service to be restored it has become apparent that they simply do not care. Centurylink didn’t even offer to make it right somehow.
Even Comcast…the suckiest of the suckies…doesn’t get it screwed up as badly as this.
There….I feel so much better.
This is so spot on. I feel like I have relived the past 11 years in these comments. My favorite comeback when having internet problems, “how far is your modem from your wall jack? it can’t be over 3 feet.” I have cancelled all services with them including Direct TV (which I had complete success with) and now they are trying to bill me for 2 months of Direct TV I did not get . Not to mention after 6 calls to state that I was disconnecting the service they now show that it was disconnected for non payment.
Ill keep it short and sweet. Avoid Century link like a disease. It is the worst company that I’ve ever dealt with. Not only coverage and billing but the non customer service is unbearable!!!!!! Never ever use century link.
“like a disease”
Indeed. CenturyLink is the syphilis of the digital world.
Why is it that whenever I make a change to my phone service, I lose internet for up to a week?
Want to add call waiting? No internet for you!
Want to add call rejection? No internet for you!
Want to change your phone number? No internet for you, and we’ll give your number out to everybody, even though you want it unlisted. Twice.
Fed up with our service and want to cancel your voice line ? No internet for you!
Today will be a day of calling cable companies, to see what it is going to take to run a piece of cable down my street. They have 10 customers on this street who are begging for better internet, phone, and even TV service, and I am pretty sure they would have ten brand new customers in about 30 seconds.
I’ll be trying to get find the owner of what appears to be a brand new piece of fiber optic cable running under the end of my driveway. If I have to get a business license and wholesale network services from the county, it might be worthwhile to quit my day job and become an ISP.
CenturyLink has consistently fell down on the job for the last six years that they have been our provider. What I don’t understand is how they remain in business. A quick internet search for the phrase “CenturyLink Sucks” turns up THOUSANDS of dissatisfied customers.
I have no idea how they’ve been in business this long as well…the only thing I can think of is the old saying…”there’s a sucker born every minute!”…
Am now with Comcast for the last 6 months and LOVE IT…speeds are up over 50mbps..and even my UPLOAD speed is 10X faster than what I had from CL for ‘download speed’… 🙂
“I have no idea how they’ve been in business this long”
Because they have a monopoly in many areas. With there huge profits I wonder how much they donate to political campaigns.
Let me know what your trick was to get Comcast to serve your area! Right now, CL is the only provider here. 😦
I Moved from that small town just outside of Spokane…to the west side of Washington where Comcast services the area alongside CL! 🙂
I am a master agent. I sell Century Link, Comcast, DirecTv and Dish Network. Feel free to email me your address at acampbell@cascadetvandinternet.com and I will see if I can submit a build order for Comcast to service you.
Thanks….but I’ve moved to a better service provider since the orIginla post was made….
yes, they do suck! i only have 1.5mbs service and pay $35/mo, but i can’t download anything without getting ‘failed: network error’. damned if i’m going to pay for more speed to a company that sucks so bad! i’m camcelling in a few days before next month billing starts and going without internet access. hell, we pay verizon $200/mo for data/phone anyway.
I had been with Qwest/Centurylink for the previous 9 years. I had no problems what so ever when they were Qwest, but it was one thing after another since they were taken over by CenturyLink. I called qwest a few times for various problems, some caused by my own “know enough to be dangerous” attempts at doing something and they were able to always walk me through steps to get my service working again. When I had to start dealing with Centurylink, it was a maddening experience. I kept holding out hopes that the local cable/internet provider would work their way into our neighborhood as they were working a few blocks down a couple years ago….but that did not happen.
My internet speeds were slow to begin with 1556 kb/s or something like that, according to the modem status when it was running correctly. Then, I started noticing videos buffering more frequently and things taking a little longer than normal. I check the modem and it showed my speed cut in half. I restart the modem, but that didn’t get me back to full speed. I call and was told they have this thing that if it detects issues, it will put a cap on my line. after a few calls, getting nowhere I find the email address of the VP. I get a call from the VP office right away.
From that point, they had techs out redoing lines, doing work at the service box and whatnot. They did tell me that where I was on their run, it was impossible to get faster speeds on my line. The techs left, and the capping continued. Instead of calling the customer service, I called the regional manager (I was given his number and was told to call him with any more issues). He tried explaining to me how great this system was that capped speeds if it detected issues. I said it would be great if they alerted somebody to actually address the issue because anytime i notice my speed is cut in half and I have to call in, it just pisses me off. They finally disabled whatever it was that was capping my speeds and I had no issues since (amazing!)
I recently became a “cord cutter” and switched to cable internet..I called CenturyLink and Directv to cancel my service and both companies said I would be getting a credit. Get a notice from century link, and I get a bill for $100 (after century link applied the credit I was supposed to get from them). I was trying to figure out in what world do you get billed when you were told you were actually getting credit as I hear “credit” and I am expecting to receive something in the mail to take to the bank. ..so I call centurylink. He said something about paying directv (which the date they said they paid was after i already cancelled) so I owed them. After going back and forth I heard the rep do this big heavy *sigh* (kind of sounded like what my 7 year old does when you tell him to do something he doesn’t want to). When I heard that I instantly went into “get me your manager” mode. (the only thing I can assume is that this “credit” is for the unused portion of the month of service and that I still owed for the partial month—but if that is the case…just bill me for that and when I cancel, say my final bill will be $XX)
I assume this credit I am supposedly getting wont end up being a credit and I will actually owe…it just seems how big corporations role nowadays. I am just glad that I am no longer with CenturyLink..it has been one issue after another.
Sorry to hear about your issues Rob…I can assure you, what you went through is the SAME EXACT sh** I went through while a customer of “ShittyLink”…
Glad you were able to find a new provider and that you never have to deal with these types of issues ever again!
ItzMyOpinion
My new provider is the old provider that caused me to give Qwest and Directv a look in the first place. We had service from Mediacom at our residence, were moving to a new residence and wanted us to pay $160 to transfer existing service to the new place. The internet went down everyday, if you had issues you were on hold for 45 minutes.
The service has been alright so far this time around….but the account is still young. Like I said, I was really hoping the local company would have worked their way into our neighborhood.
I am enjoying the cord cutting experience also. Directv and our local ABC affiliate have been fighting so far for four months. The antenna we have picks up all of our local channels. Hulu and Netflix and Prime on the Amazon Fire Stick are awesome. There are a couple sites I go to to watch live sports (i do have a family members login for the stuff like Watch ESPN (which I get ESPN and ESPN2) and the Watch Disney for little man. I am waiting for the day when I can subscribe to one teams games for a season for a lower cost alternative to the season packages on directv or the mlb at bat online subscription (with no blackout restrictions). When that happens, I think cable and satellite tv will go the way of newspapers.
I too have Netflix and don’t really watch TV anymore….unless for specific shows or a few specific sporting events! I should really look into Hulu & Amazon Prime, but for now, I have a side project that I’m starting here shortly and don’t need the distractions…! LOL!
we had Prime before we cut the cord. the money saved on shipping from amazon pays for itself. Hulu is good for a lot of current shows.
Will most definitely look into Hulu+ over the next few days, as well as Amazon Prime, as I’m sure that alone would help on the purchases my fiance’ makes via Amazon!
Now, if eBay would just offer something similar, life would be grand! LOL!
Cheers!
I signed up for Centurylink about three weeks ago. I would normally opt for Comcast (cable) but I’m now in a po-dunk town that only CL services. Okay, I’ve had slower DSL (5mbps AT&T) before and lived with it, it can’t be that bad, can it? With CL, YES!
So the service is supposed to be 12Mbps, fairly fast in the world of DSL.. Well only if it works! I opted to use my old modem (I’m an IT professional and can set my own stuff up) which is ADSL2+ compatible. Clearly CL would rather you pay the $10 a month lease, because on my first call to them (to get my PPPoE username / password), they wouldn’t give me one IOTA of help, because I didn’t have one of their modems. Excuse me? I tell the lady that without a username / password, I cannot use their service, no matter which modem I have. She doesn’t care and essentially hangs up on me.
On my third try, someone finally does give me a username, password, encapsulation and all the various settings I need to configure my modem. But when I plug my modem in, I notice the DSL Sync light won’t become solid- so no synchronization = no workie, even with my username, password and various info configured in the modem. Again, I know a thing or two about IT and DSL (hell, I’ve had it before), so I try outside my house at the NID (network interface device, the telephone box outside). Plug it into the test port to eliminate my house wiring as a possible cause, and still doesn’t work. Try my modem at a friend’s house… Works fine.
So over three weeks I try calling CL in the afternoons after work. Spend 45+ minutes on hold each time, and when I finally get ahold of someone, they pretend like they can’t hear me. “Hello? Hello? Sorry, can’t hear you, please call us again at 888-blah-blah-blah.” My cellphone works fine at home, so it’s not a phone issue, rather their incompetent customer service.
Got my first bill and realize I better call and raise hell as now I’m being charged for something I can’t use. I try calling at work and when I finally get someone they tell me my modem is too old and not supported. BS! It works at my buddies house. Then they tell me my house wiring is at fault. BS! I tried at the test port of your own telephone box before it enters my home. She continues to deny fault and says they’ll send someone out for $85 because the problem is on my end. No it’s not!!!
GRRRR, I’m livid at this point. What’s most frustrating is that because of lack of competition I’m forced to use these incompetent jerks. It’s too bad I moved out of the city, because Comcast was nothing short of amazing! 12+ months and never had to call in once, other than to get them to extend my promotional rate, which they gladly did to keep me as a customer.
If you proved that it had no service to the demark, then there is no charge for tech dispatch. They quote the hypothetical charge if trouble is beyond the NI. A big problem I frequently see is that assignments were wrong. If your service wasn’t activated via a tech coming inside and installing your service; the service may have gotten assigned to the wrong address. Remote/non-dispatchable service is unlikely to work. The system that does remote activations isn’t very accurate. A tech is always recommended for initial install to make sure it lands at the correct pair. Your request for service at your address may have activated service at your neighbors.
“their incompetent customer service”
I respectfully disagree. For their service to be fairly called incompetent they would need to improve by about 4000%. At CenturyLink their fondest dream is to one day reach the horizon of incompetence. it’s well beyond their ability.
I agree. Centurylink is the worst company to ever exist, and it’s funny how tech support says the same bullshit to us
Passing the buck is an understatement. I work at Centurylink for the last 6 years. I’d say the biggest issue is our process analysts, trainers and coaches. They write and communicate the processes employees are to follow to serve customers needs. Not one in the 6 years of them have ever done the job in which they train and “support.” All processes are written wrong, you get put on discipline if you do things in a way that does work. Many written processes violate PUC tariffs, make service impossible to provision and make items bill incorrectly. You are more likely to get good support calling I to customer service than repair for certain repair issues. NEVER ask for a manager. That is asking for the least qualified person in the center. As I stated, none of them I’ve met have ever done the job and usually get hired in per manager experience at an unrelated company. The average tenure of experience in my department is around 10 years. Managers role is to play the new hire even if they have several years. Ive serviced nearly every FORTUNE 500 telecom carrying company in the world based on referral per the people in the appropriate telecom channels have such a narrow understanding of telecom and data transmission. To get the appropriate support, you need a knowledgable telecom analyst, which isn’t always economically feasible for a home operation.
Mike…thanks for the reply and sharing your knowledge!
I’ve had to ask for a manager only once w/CenturyLink, but have done it w/other companies as well and can confirm that’s not always the brightest idea because, as you’ve stated, doesn’t confirm you’ll get someone more qualified or even more knowledgeable!
I’ve had their shitty service for years. I’ve been told lies, had my bill increased – then some guy brings a fiber optic cable to my town and they send me a nice letter telling me that the $80 a month I’ve been paying for 3 MB internet service can now be lowered to $39.95 a month for 10 MB internet service. WOW! Really?!?! And all that had to happen was someone bring a high-speed fiber optic cable to my town and start hooking up houses? I settled for their offer of $39.95 for 10 MB internet and it has been shit since then. They recently increased my bill by $10 a month without telling me anything and when I do a speed test, it is rarely anything close to 10 MB – its usually between 3 and 5 MB.
I’m going to pay the $100 connect fee to these fiber optic guys who offer 30 MB internet for less than what I’m paying now and CenturyLink can lick my balls.
I forgot to mention that they forced me to pay for telephone service the entire time I was with them. They kindly let me know that I no longer had to pay for telephone service to use their internet service. Jackasses.
That’s BS! I’d complain to the FCC that ‘broadband’ is defined as 4mbps and higher, therefore, your ISP (CenturySucks) is NOT providing that but they’re charging for it!
There’s technicalities that are used for customers paying for 1-2MBPS “High speed internet” instead of broadband. The legal department makes sure the term “broadband” does not show up on any term agreements or invoices; only the words, “high speed internet.” This allows for FCC compliance. Same thing with using “term agreement” instead of “contract.” A term agreement is a verbally agreed to term length, with written disclosures only in order confirmation and on the bill. A “contract” is a signed term. Century link doesn’t do “contracts” on smaller amounts of service such as a simple internet connection, only “term agreements.” Contracts are regulated through the FCC, “term agreements” are not. This means there is more leniency to dispute “term agreements” but it requires escalating the matter to get adjusted for any “termination liability adjustments” (TLA’s). The term “TLA” is used for term agreement cancellations instead of “contract liability fees” or “cancellation fees” to meet FCC compliance. TLA’s are hard to adjust still though as they are regulated by the PUC, just not the FCC. If the PUC determines the fee was waived without just cause, Centurylink can face fines; usually in the neighborhood of around $10k. There’s objective guidelines when waiving “TLA’s” and not providing the advertised speed is one of the objective reasons.
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I like to use this forum to vent my daily frustrations as an employee. I just got off a call where I had to run through 12 CSR’s to get one that knew how to do their job. In fact the 13th CSR still didn’t know how to do their job, so I to quickly explain process how to accommodate the customers request. I still received push-back. I had a chain of emails spanning back 5 years with our software development team and process analysts to fix broken processes. These broken process cause around 80% of our services to not function or over bill. Our employees are not trained on processes since all trainers have never done the job. This was after another few years of similar emails with our”leadership” team. I provided around 500 examples. They noted it as a problem violating both FCC and PUC regulations, then referred me back to our “leadership” team. 8 years of them acknowledging broken processes, and still the run-around. Another co-worker has a chain of acknowledgement going back since the introduction of our broken systems 10 years long and no fix. Every update, several more corrupt systems over time are introduced that make services over bill and/or not function. I even spent two days and programmed a system that was FCC and PUC compliant and fixed ALL issues that our current systems have had for a decade, but they would not upload it into our server. There’s a team of around 1000 people @ a salary on average of 80k per year (80m) whose job is to fix and implement what a college dropout can do in two days. AND they failed over at least the the last 10 years. Job security I suppose for them. If no problems exist..neither does their job.
I need a place to bitch about centurylink of Colorado (centurylink.com). I signed up for internet but had a 30 day window to setup autopay.. I forgot I had only 30 days. And of course it is in the small print. They never emailed me saying your 30 days to set auto pay will expire and your price will go up and you will pay an extra $160 a year. No, they just sent me a bill for the extra fees. They wouldn’t let me talk to a manager and said it was in my original contract and I needed to follow through on my end. I admitted my wrong but wasn’t trying to screw them. I always pay my bills on-time. Big corporations SUCK!!!! What happen to customer service, and small businesses.
What you have gone through is terrible. My experience you wouldn’t believe. Direct TV was charged to my account by mistake. I have been dealing with them since March. They recognized it was a mistake then and put a hold on the amount do ($690) and told me that service would not be interrupted and that DirectTV would provide them with the credit. I since have been disconnected 6 times. Each time a billing cycle comes up the amount is reapplied to the bill and they promptly disconnect my service. Each time I call in to get my service reconnected and they tell me that I will not be disconnected in the future. I have probably lost a good week of service over this time and probably 6 hours on the phone. I can’t once remember anyone I have talked to apologizing for all this. I have not been reimbursed one cent for all my hours on the phone and internet time lost. This company is the most inept and pathetic outfit I have ever come across.
Sean: Sorry to hear about your ordeal….Can only imagine the level of stress this has caused…I know if this had been done to me, I’d be livid, that’s for sure!
Hope there’s a fast resolution for you around the corner!
Century Link is the worst ISP. Customer Support sucks too… They always try to trick you into spending more on there crappy service (3 download and a .3 upload… its so slow my dialup on my computer tries to turn on… forget watching hulu or netflixs). Got a bill for an extra 100 dollars couple of months ago because they said i agreed to a verbal contract on the phone.. no. Turns out I couldnt even get there prison tv because there shit was to slow… oh and it was my fault and they hung up on me a couple of times. Shit service all around. Cant wait to move so I can get comcast( 50 download 10 upload for 30 dollars cheaper.
Nikki:
Can’t agree w/you more…CenturyLink Sucks!
Am currently with Comcast myself and have their ‘blast’ package, which provides over 50mbps DOWN and over 10mbps UP…might even go to their 100+mbps here in the next month or so…
Good luck w/your move/migration to Comcast!
Cheers!
Who is in charge at Century Link that cares about the customers, new or old. I would like to think there is one person that stays awake at night trying to come up with a better way to bring on new customers and keep the ones they have happy, does that exist? I ordered a full package including Internet from Century Link 3 weeks ago which was suppose to be installed on the 9th of Sept. I only have two options in the town I live in and I was becoming so unhappy with one that I had that I had no choice but to try Century Link. After dealing with customer service for 35 minutes and making the appointment between 10-2pm only they were suppose to install the internet and prism TV package for 5 TVs, this is like a 2-3 hour job depending on how hard the installer wants to work I guess. I received no phone calls or email or anything in the mail before the install date but I stayed the course. The installer called at 1:30 the day the install was suppose to be done and he was still a half hour away. I stated I would not be home so he told me he would call the office and have someone reschedule with me. After a couple of days of not hearing anything I decided to call and low and behold they had no record of me after giving them my phone, address, first and last name and shoe size. I got frustrated and hung up. The next day I received a welcome package in the mail, it had an order number and account number so I tried calling back again with that information plus the other information and nothing, no record. The customer service never once offered to correct the situation or if at all start a new order, they acted as if it was a one time deal and they were just not in the business of getting new customers so I ended the conversation the second time. I tried calling one more time when I received an email with all my information asking me to confirm my order and that went worse than the other two calls so I ask, who is the one person at Century Link laying awake at night worried about how to get new customers and keep the ones happy that they currently have. That position does not exist and there is no one but if there was do you think they should still have a job. I am not in the business of begging for something and I bet they would not allow me to be late on a payment.
This is really upsetting as I cancelled my previous provider and returned two boxes in order to prepare for the new service. I had two DVR’s with Orbitel Communications of which I had two deposits for the amount of $200 on them which should have been refunded to me and they also screwed me by putting the money to my account rather than issue me a check. That to me makes no sense, to hold my money in lieu of future services that wont be used. So they stole $200 dollars from me and I have yet to get the refund.
I used to be with Dish, I really liked there system and had no problems at all right up until I had to move. Dish has what they called dish mover and I would be able to transfer my equipment to my new home, right across the street I might ad and after I moved they sent me a bill for $150.00 for moving even after I called to confirm it was free. The only free thing was I walked all the equipment across the street to the new house. I spent weeks with Dish trying to get that taken off but apparently they also do not like customers that pay on time and so they lost a customer for life, I broke the contract and sent them back the equipment. One would think that there is one guy at Dish who laid awake at night trying to come up with ways to get new customers and keep the ones they had would have done the math. Dish decided that it was best to try and screw me rather than take my $130 a month for any length of time. They tried to collect a cancellation fee but I kept issuing the same letter with the person I spoke to and they gave up. What a shame we live in a time where the consumer gets raked continually by incompetence and greed.
Centurylink is horrible. I ordered internet service one month ago and it has not worked correctly. Can not keep a wifi connection for more than 1 to 2 minutes. I called and they tried to blame all of my devices and that something must be wrong with them. The customer service is not knowledgeable. I think centurylink must hire them with no training and put them on the phones. So sad really. I finally got to a supervisor and he could not even fulfill the promises that he made me to send me another modem that was supposed to be here three days ago. When I called to check status I find out the order was never placed. I know one thing I will not pay my bill. When I asked for executive escalations the customer service representative told me he did not know if there was a department like that for centurylink. Really upset as they are the only provider in my apartment complex.
Kristi,
I feel your pain, as I was stuck with CL in a small town over a year ago and was forced to pay for their “high speed internet”, when in fact, my speed was NEVER over 1.5mbps!
Hopefully sometime soon, another provider comes into your area to take away CenturyLink’s current customers, such as yourself!
Man, I could have written this myself. I was fuming and just put in my google bar. “Why does Centurylink suck” and I got to this page. Reading your rant and identifying with it helped me vent too. Thanks. Now I need to find some other ISP.
Mike,
Good luck in your search for a new ISP and may the separation from CenturyLink be a speedy one!
A year ago they promised us 20 mbs if we sign a contract with them. After hookup we realized we were getting less than 5 mbs and when we called them they told us “sorry we can’t get those speeds in your area”. They flat out lied to us but we were stuck in our contract.
WOW…Sorry to hear that Kavika6…
You might want to consider going through that contract again and see if there’s anything you can do about it!
If not, I’d go to the FCC and file a complaint…that is just total BS if you ask me!
Hope everything works out for you in the end!
I did not think it was possible for a company to be worse then Comcast but have found it. Centurylink . You get the award..
It’s funny…for as long as I’ve been a Comcast customer, I’ve NEVER had to deal w/their customer support team/dept!
Guess I’m one of the lucky ones! 😉
And what is this award I get? 😉
Centurylink Internet blows. Internet has been out for 5 days now, and their joke of a call center keeps saying that everything is fine and there’s no outage in our area; it must be our modem or house wiring. My husband is an engineer who tests electronic flight systems ail day long. He’s tested that brand new modem, the NI test port, the wiring – and they’re all fine. DSL works, but our modem is not receiving anything from Centurylink. There’s a while bunch of people complaining about a service outage in the area – did all their modems fail at once? Do they all have faulty wiring or settings? Give me a frigging break. This is completely unacceptable, especially when you depend on the Internet for your job. Just notified our attorney general, after many hours of bullshit and no resolution from Centurylink.
Sorry to hear about your troubles w/CenturyLink!
Yes! Their ‘support center’ blows chunks…but that’s CenturyLink for ya!
Have you tried obtaining a new modem and seeing if that helps to resolve your issue?
Short of finding a new Internet provider…good luck!
I have to agree here. I’m paying 46.99 a month for “8 mbps” but whenever I do a speed test it comes back as 2.5. That was not too big of deal, I don’t eat up a lot of bandwidth, just youtube and some webmaster stuff. Lately though I can’t even watch youtube without it buffering every 10 seconds, web pages load (like this one) incredibly slow, like 90-120 seconds slow. tried to do a speed test the other night and the site wouldnt even load to do said test. I’m sick of paying for something I’m not getting. I live smack dab in the center of a decent size city (Missoula MT) and still having issues. Time to switch to charter, Almost 8 times faster than “8 mbps” and 7 dollars cheaper.
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!
Really appreciate it!
As far as what you’ve said…I can feel your pain when it comes to having simple websites take minutes to load…Good luck w/your switch in ISP..and hey, $7 dollars in savings is better than nothing! 😉
I literally read through this post and all the comments while I waited for a YouTube video to load, and by the time I did I still had that annoying little circle that essentially says, “You have CenturyLink? I guess you really fucked up, huh?”
Taylor,
Sorry to hear about your issues…as that is something that I’m very, VERY familiar with when I was a CenturyLink customer!
sometimes, you have no choice, my option is Charter, they make CenturyLink look like heroes.
CenturyLink is a Big Corporate US MAFIA Company.
They make “False Advertising” to their customers.
They “Threaten” existing customers if you leave you won’t ever have service again.
They pull the “Switch and Bait” on their customers.
They have very poor/rude “Customers Service”. not to mention 45min – 1hr 30min “wait/on hold”
They find a way to “Charge” you for everything and can’t own up to their mistake. They call it following “Protocol”.
This company is very FUCKED UP on how they conduct business and I’m so fed up to the MAX! and so are many hundreds and thousands of their customers from city and rural area.
If there “Customer Service” says anything on the phone to you don’t believe it till it actually happens. From my years of dealing with CenturyLink everything is your fault, from your phone lines to your phone jacks, filters, bad wiring (New or Old Home) the list goes on. I own many homes and rent them out i had the same issue with these homes when CenturyLink moved into our area. 1 of the homes can not have any internet service because according to CenturyLink they have “Exhausted” there service in the area. The funniest part about that is my Brand New Home just build is less then one block down the street i could have service there.
Americans how do we allow such company which takes our money but can’t give us services which they advertise about? That same company which you pay your hard earned money to who give you nothing but headaches.
CenturyLink is a terrible company. I live in a rural area where the max speed available is only 3mbps, as shown on their website, but for some reason I only get 1.5Mbps down .4Mbps up.
This is not enough to do much of anything. Youtube barely works in 360p. Centurylink is also the only service available to me, and since I live on the county line my residence is always the last to be serviced when there is some kind of problem. What really irks me is that my neighbors have 20Mbps cable from Wave, but I can’t get that due to not being in the service area by 200 feet.
There just isn’t any money in it for Centurylink to expand their infrastructure, and from a business perspective I understand that, but it still pisses me off since I am the one always getting screwed. We pay the same price as their advertised 20Mbps service for only 1.5Mbps. It is outrageous and they should release this area to another isp that already has the infrastructure in place
/rant
Oat..
I feel your pain!
Sorry to hear that CL is the only game in town!
I’d say move like I did to where there is competition, but that’s not probably NOT in the cards for yah! 🙂
Hang in there!
I have CenturyLink and it SUCKS! Whenever I’m done doing yardwork, I just want to relax and watch some YouTube, but no! CenturyLink (my internet provider) gives me slow internet. I live in the suburbs of a big city, and I expect fast internet, ESPECIALLY, if I’m paying $70 a month! Every single day, I always see that tiny little circle (for Google Chrome) which indicates how fast it will take to get to your website, moving super slow. I hate CenturyLink and I should switch, but they won’t let me! Honestly, I regret choosing CenturyLink.
I live in an area where CL is the only choice unless I want to go the cable route – which isn’t much better if reviews are to be believed. I’m paying for 10mbps but more often than not, I get kbps instead. AT&T has been laying fiber optic but they’re taking their sweet time getting to my immediate area. At this point, I’m actually considering unlimited data from them just to get a usable internet connection. Streaming is all but impossible. I don’t own a TV (and don’t want to) so streaming is my only option. Since CL is the only choice where I am, I don’t know how local businesses are managing with the way the internet is so unstable here.
I would consider upgrading when the time comes….fiber optic is worth the wait…unless it’s been longer than a year already…good luck with that and keep me posted when it happens….
My open letter to CenturyLink (because the reply I sent to them was to a dead address– the best way to avoid negative feedback):
I called the company, talked to “Joe” and was offered a fantastic deal that would cover the appx. $30 cost of my land line, give me a discount on my modem, cost nothing to have a tech install it, 40 Mbs Internet, fpr $54.95/month.
Then I received an e-mail from CenturyLink, purporting to be a confirmation “of your order”, saying that the price of the order we had just placed was another total entirely. It was now jumped to $50 for my land line (such a deal!) and no mention of all the other things promised.
I phoned, waited a VERY long time on hold, then spoke with Isaac, who told me that the order we had placed would not be honored, that the cost would actually be over twice what our original phone person who had called himself “Joe” had told me it would cost. There would be no discount, the tech would cost full price and the total would be pretty close to $70.
They tried pretending that they had no way of fiinding out who had made this great offer (right, the company LIVES on computers and has not yet figured out a way to code in which salesperson makes what deal, so their sellers could be playing Angry Birds all day and they would not have a clue), then they tried saying “Joe” probably just didn’t know he could not make this offer (right, half a dozen great items in the list and he didn’t know that he could do none of them), then they tried saying, oh, we can’t even bundle in your area (despite the flood of mailings we have been getting that offer it). The one and only thing in “Joe’s” list of promises that they “promised” to keep was that the (now atrocious) price would be locked in for 3 years.
So I pointed out that although I had been born in the morning, it was not YESTERDAY morning. Cancel my order. And I will make YOU a promise, which is that I will be filing a complaint with the Attorney General’s office for this bait and switch you have tried to pull on me.
And your attempts on the phone to pretend that this whole bait and switch was all an error were pathetic.
Signed, your so-called “long-time, valued customer”, (a quote from “Joe”), and I can get along fine without you by taking the laptop to a wireless cafe until Google comes up with a wireless service. Bruce
Thank you sir for saying what I have wanted to say for a long time. You nailed it.
“than am I wrong to assume that whenever I wish to access the internet, which I’m paying a mighty price to do, I should be able to do so 24/7 and when I can’t, I should be compensated for the price I’m paying, even when beyond a shadow of a doubt, the technical issues that are not allowing that 24/7 experience to take place are NOT MY DOING?”
Thank you sir. You nailed it. “than am I wrong to assume that whenever I wish to access the internet, which I’m paying a mighty price to do, I should be able to do so 24/7 and when I can’t, I should be compensated for the price I’m paying, even when beyond a shadow of a doubt, the technical issues that are not allowing that 24/7 experience to take place are NOT MY DOING?”
thank you for hitting it on the head.
“if a ISP..specifically CENTURYLINK, can service this area and wishes to bill the customers who use said service, than am I wrong to assume that whenever I wish to access the internet, which I’m paying a mighty price to do, I should be able to do so 24/7 and when I can’t, I should be compensated for the price I’m paying, even when beyond a shadow of a doubt, the technical issues that are not allowing that 24/7 experience to take place are NOT MY DOING?”
The essence of what i am writing them now
Do let us know what their response is *if/when* they decide to get back to you!
Thanks!
So get this. Centurylink screwed up setting up my auto pay. They input my account number incorrectly and their system didn’t figure out for 5 months that the account didn’t exist. When it finally caught up I owed about 600. I called them and had to hang up in frustration after talking with 3 techs and an alleged manager. I wrote them an email explaining the situation and 5 days later I finally got a reply admitting I was correct. They removed the late fees and said I still have to pay the balance. Fine I get that I used your service I have to pay for it that’s fair. But then the real nightmare started. Systematically every month since my service has been shut off due to my balance despite the fact that I have been paying well more than the monthly charges every month to get the balance back to 0. Some months I even paid twice and still my service is shut off. Every time this happens it becomes a 3 hour ordeal getting someone to understand what’s happening and then finally later in the day it comes back up. Today it happened again and this time has been by far the worst. I made an 80 dollar payment 2 weeks ago bringing my balance down to 120 total. Today I wake up and it’s off again so I called them and yet again dealt with a several hour long ordeal and got into a screaming match with one of their off shore techs because this lady kept trying to talk over me and insist that my balance is MY fault and I have to pay to have it restored. Finally I hang up call back and insist on an on shore tech. This guy understood and tried what he could bUT their financial dept wouldn’t give in. So despite my rent being due tomorrow I had to shell out the 120 to get it back on so I don’t miss work tonight. Here I sit, 30 minutes past my login time, still waiting for it to come back online, and if it doesnt tonight, that’s another 300 dollars I lose. So basically, this last 6 months my Internet has cost me well over 1000 dollars due to their complete incompetence and lack of general humanity and compassion. Fuck centurylink in their stupid greedy asses.
WOW!
That’s some seriously screwed up sh** right there!
So sad to hear about something like this…but then again, we’re talking about CenturyLink, so it’s really not!
Hopefully, at some point in the not-too-distant-future, something good happens for you to take your mind off this mess!
I may just switch to DISH internet since it is less per month AND I get to stop giving centurystink money for this pitiful crap.
Sounds like a good plan to me….as long as you’re happy with the *internet speed* you’d get from DISH! 🙂
Let me know how that transition goes!
They are so full of it… they make u sign up for their tv services and u should have access to login to tv apps … these idiots… won’t allow u to sign into tv apps unless u also sign up for thie internet … which when u are in a low up coming area it’s below par … that’s crap.. u should be able to access tv apps as long as u are paying didn’t tv service … internet service should hold no value over the tv that u are already paying for … direct tv here I come
If I wasn’t so pee’d off about being bounced for three hours from queue to queue, I’d have to laugh at the out-and-out misrepresentations they push on their on-hold propaganda. I am looking right at their support page that encourages the user to use their 24×7 chat service and just below that, the chat status says, “Closed”. I also took a little time while on hold with CL to read the comments above and it’s all true. I’ve never seen such incompetence!
John,
Sorry for the delay in responding to your post, as I’ve been a bit busy lately taking care of some personal issues…
I agree w/your comment about “incompetence”…CenturyStinks is the worse company I’ve ever had the displeasure of dealing with!
My CenturyLink nightmare started when i made the mistake to get CenturyLink “high speed” interface (3 mbps max if i’m lucky). From the start i knew the speed wasn’t going to be blazing fast, but then came the disconnection issues. I have a home office and my wife also has a home office, so we have two separate Century Link “high speed” disasters in the house. I connect to my corporate VPN, so i know the second my internet drops the connection, even if its for a second, because my VPN disconnects and knocks me off the company network. So of course i called for months and months, and had modems replaced twice with no solution. So finally when i decide enough was enough, i called to cancel one of the two lines. Of course this is when i was told of the 1 year commitment and the $200 disconnection fee. The online customer retention person i was working with (Rosilee L.) was rude and basically said since I received a promotional rate that i couldn’t cancel. My bill for both internet lines per month is $106.02 (for less than 3 mbps mind you) is hardly what i call promotional. I was told that all conversations were recorded and that i had agreed to this. First of all, I would never have agreed to this, as i have had CenturyLink in the past and was coming back in hopes they has better service, so I constantly told the person selling me the service, that if this was not better, I was going to cancel. When asked to hear the recorded conversation or confirmation that i signed something, they could not produce it. So now, instead of just wanting to cancel one line and leave the other in place, now I am pissed off and have to get into a pissing match to dispute the remaining 5 months of the contract with customer retention. Its too bad a company like this neglects to update their infrastructure in my area, and then can deliver an answer for my disconnects and then trying to cause an issue when i want to cancel. Poor business practice. Do yourself a favor, avoid CenturyLInk at all costs and take any other option available to you
Greg,
Sorry to hear about your unfortunate experience with CenturyStink!
Then again, this type of issue is common practice w/the company!
I hope you get the compensation you’re looking for!
Centurylink has terrible internet reliability and customer service. I have never dealt with a company that is so incompetent. I’m frustrated…..😡
this network is the biggest pile of steaming manure on internet I ever encountered and I have been administrating MIS for over 30 years.
Century-link is simply a joke.
Termites holding hands.
I am in small rancher town on West Coast, have no choice and they know that.
Now they are part of cable company, so ever since that happened I cannot even watch 480 res on youtube with no buffer. Sad we are no longer land of opportunity, but land of opportunists.
Century-link must be all in India now, cause no American can be so greedy and stupid.Nazi moron to other Americans.
I dont even live out far im on a highway but i have what 1.2 mb per second maybe. Its not cool but can’t switch cause my email with them and id prefer not to get locked. Not my fault the only provider out here is dialup or centurytel both of which are trash.
Constantly all day all night every 45 minutes the internet goes out for 30 minutes, download speed is fucking horrible, I understand why the guy in the commercial laughed when he talked about how fast they are. They were on the news the other day because over like 100000 people had complaints, hope this company comes down soon so we can get out of this shitty deal the best of all is we called and they said oh it must be your guys modem it’s just 70 for a new one, bitch the box is only 2 months old wtf yeah pay 70 for the same treatment, what a buisness!!!
Sorry to hear about your ordeal…but then again, we are talking about #CenturyLink….
I hope your wish comes true…that’s for sure!
Ive had Century Link for 8 years, because like many of you, they were the only game in my area. Things changed last summer when spectrum came in. I called on October 28 to cancel my account, and talked witha customer service rep who was obviously not happy that I was cancelling. I asked her to send me my final bill and she said they don’t do that. I called again on November 28 for my final bill. Never heard anything. I got a call today saying that I owe 700 dollars and it’s gone to collections. My total bill for Century Link service is $98.45. Why 700? Depends on which customer service rep you ask. One said because I had not returned equipment, which never came up once. Another said it was because I was still under contract 8 years later. And the 3rd said it was because they never cancelled my account in October. It wasn’t cancelled until February. What a scam
WOW! So sorry to hear about that Deb….$700 is OUTRAGEOUS…
I was trying to switch from another company for my internet and land line phone. I made an installation appointment for a 4 hour window and sat by the phone for 4 hours. Century Link was a no show when I could have been doing many other things with the time. They are not interested in customer relations and good service so I canceled whatever they were trying to do and went with another company. If they try to bill me I will take other measures.
How are these assholes still in business……fuck them
How are these assholes still in business……fuck them
I have no idea….guess when you have enough people who are desperate and need internet…and you’re the only game in town, which was the case for me a few short years ago, you’re going to get paid! 😉
I’ll join the centurylink sucks forum, over the past few years we have had so many problems with our land line I am considering legal action based on the money we pay for a service we rarely receive. It’s always the same problem, the trouble is never on our end, we always have no dial tone or we have a dial tone but cannot receive calls. When they do make a repair it rarely lasts for two weeks before it starts all over again. Check this out,right now we are unable to receive calls, but have a dial tone, I tried to call my cell and got through, however, we found out that someone at CL changed our #. I will be requesting service records for the last three years as evidence to present to legal counsel. Chuck.
Centrelink is the worst excuse for an internet provider ever created on the face if the earth. Seriously is it that hard for the internet not to randomly crash every day and go out for days at a time? I have to keep shows downloaded on prime because we never know when it will go. Also really we get 5 megs of internet for the same price as others pay for 50??
Samuel: I feel your pain!
When I was living outside of the Spokane some years ago, I was paying for their “high speed internet”..and was only getting 1.5mbps…even though “legally” anything over 3mbps is considered “high speed”.
And now I hear they’re having problems here in the Seattle Area with outages that are affecting 9-1-1 services!
OUCH!