CenturyLink Reviews

A few months ago they canceled our service without warning because we'd gone over data limits - they gave us no option to have it re-connected without paying them even more money for a "Business Account." Since then my father passed away, and I'm now in the process of trying to get the account moved to my name, which I'm unable to do, because their bureaucracy was apparently never informed that they're strong-arming people into paying for business accounts, and are expecting things like Tax Identification Numbers that, as a private citizen, I don't have. Every attempt I've made to deal with them involves long hold times, multiple transfers and repeated disconnects. The day another ISP moves into my area is the day I joyfully move away from these criminals.

She explained my bill again, and said that in addition to all the fees and surcharges, my prorated amount for April was the full and not discounted price for the package because they don't discount prorated amounts. In addition, she told me to expect about $20 added to each month's bill for taxes, fees, and surcharges. I told her not to talk to me that way, and that I was never told any of this when I had signed up. She said all she could do about it was apologize. Still being extremely rude, I was sure to get her name and employee number. This business is a scam, they will charge you for services they never even performed. STAY AWAY!!!

THE GOOD: I called them to quit the service, but got a representative that was totally sympathetic to my situation. She removed all installation fees for the phone line, gave me a few more incentives etc. Now I'm waiting for them to arrive and see just how crappy a 6MB download speed can really be!

This time, they made plenty apologies, and even "so-called" refunded me all the one-time charges that they failed to mention in the first place. So I decided to stay for the contract (why bother if you solved the problems). Surprisingly, now I got the 2nd bill, there was no show of that $30 credit, and I only got $16 refund for my 1st bill. Now I totally missed the window to cancel their service without paying for $200 fine. They are the boss now, and I get stuck with their "terrific" service. It is a trap!

I have confirmation numbers of every monthly payment-yet apparently it's worthless... not to mention account statements from the bank- verifying my payments. But time is of the issue. I've spent way too long on the phone with this incompetent company. I paid them the DOUBLE BILLING, got my confirmation, and hung up. Gladly. 15 minutes later my services are disconnected. Are you kidding me? Yet another phone call to this company who shoots right into a berating of what I 'owe' them. I don't owe you a dime. Low life **. Turn my services back on. "It can take up to 24 hours for service to be restored." Um...no... I want you to restore my service immediately... or are YOU going to pay ME for the loss of my money since I cannot work from home without service?

Yeah as you know this company could care less and are outright thieves. For anyone reading this trust me never EVER do business with this company. Since the day I called them to start service in 2013, to this moment-I've NEVER been happy with their company. Find ANYBODY but this company to do business with. $260 plus dollars later (that's just for THIS month. I don't have enough energy to type this two year nightmare). Nearly 6 hours now on the phone and still no service. This company can go straight to hell.

First of all I want my $100 as promised and I don't' want to wait a additional 30 days. I suppose had I not called that I would have never received one at all. This is very sneaky and underhanded business and I am sure they hope people just forget about the gift card. This is one big scheme of a company and I will not be played by them. Give me what was promised to me and be a company of your word. Disappointed and saddened.

I seriously on my father’s soul (R.I.P.) can not get decent connection for more than 1 hour per day. I bought my dream home here last year and honestly I mean I'm from the city but that doesn't mean I DON'T want internet because of where I live now. Man I've smoked cigarettes over these people and have become so frustrated that earlier just like 5 mins ago. I even thought about selling my house. This is so ** ridiculous. And I won't even waste my time calling and getting all upset when I know right now they won't help and anybody they send will say there's nothing wrong but it'll be another 50.00 gone.

Trust me if there were anyone else on earth here I would roll with them so fast. Like I literally hate CenturyLink man... I haven't been able to hop on XBOX live the entire time and wasted my entire 1 year membership. Having no internet seriously can cramp YOUR LIFE forget your LIFESTYLE. Like I said I've thought about moving just to get rid of this problem but then I'd be smack in the city again which is why I moved to begin with... Seriously no winning here.

Then CenturyLink blames the account holders for their own pathetic security by randomly turning off your email account access and login with no explanation or warning. They will not turn it back on until you take the time to call them and hold for about 1/2 hour, while they repeatedly tell you they "don't know what's going on with your account" and can't figure out what's wrong? They act like a bunch of complete dummies who don't know the back end of a donkey from the head.

After holding for 30 minutes and then going round and round and finally asking for a supervisor, they admit that your account has been hacked by spammers and then they finally help you change your password. This is really frustrating after about the 5th or 6th time it occurs and yet they continue to DO NOTHING to prevent this from happening. I get random emails from around the world daily from domains like China that should be blocked by them, asking me for passwords and spamming me, selling me things, asking for personal information continuously, but they refuse to do ANYTHING about it.

I guess with all the $$ they are making from us captive users who don't want to change their emails, they are assured to still get plenty of $$ and not need to re-invest it in good software to protect their users from hacking and spamming! Disgusting! I'm putting this out on every site I can, and maybe, just maybe they will do something about this! A very disgruntled user in Houston.

Scam money. Yes, that's right. They sell you a deal for 29.99 per month, but you end up paying 40 or 45. When you want to know where the extra charges come from, you have to go through the whole phone process. They try to sell their stuff constantly. They don't tell you what you want to know. They just try to send a representative over to fix your problem, even though it could be solved within seconds. Of course that representative charges about 90 dollars for each visit, so you can imagine this company is pretty rich. We are looking for a different provider, because this one is terrible! Do yourself a favor and find a different one. It doesn't surprise me that there are already 1450 complaints about them on this website.

Worst billing and customer service ever… Just canceled almost two weeks ago, and they are trying to make me pay for the entire month instead of a prorated amount, which I should be able to pay since I pay for the month ahead. They said I had to pay the entire amount and wait for the credits to take effect on the next billing cycle, and I could dispute late charges later if I don't pay the full amount. They want me to pay for the full month and then get reimbursed. Like THAT will ever happen! With the billing issues I've had, I don't trust them to do that. I just want to pay the prorated amount by the due date! I refuse to pay for services that I have not had. And the service I did have was awful. My caller ID on my call-waiting NEVER worked. Internet cut out so much that it ran up my Sprint cell phone bill for data charges because it wouldn't connect with my wireless at home half the time.

I tried CenturyLink for 5 months. I gave them a chance month after month to correct the problems but could not get them to get my bills correct or give me the deal I was promised. So sorry that I will never get their services again. Now, I am just trying to pay the prorated amount I owe for the last half month of service so I can be done with them forever. It is worth it to pay more somewhere else to avoid the hassles.

I ask her will they cut me off if I don't pay, she said they probably will. I thought about that then said to myself it’s like taking a animal to be put down, it may be for the best because I won't have worry about it anymore. I can't cancel because they will charge me up to $200.00 to get rid of something that don't work. I am up a creek with no paddle. They have got me. I haven't even got the $300 they told me I would get if I signed up with them. The phone works.

All things considered, they make Cox Cable look GREAT. Wanna have some fun... just try to get someone on the phone... that's all. You will talk to a machine more than a human, and listen to endless recordings. When you DO get forwarded... it's to the wrong department, and they put you back on hold. Ingenious! I am done with them now. Headed back to Cox Cable with an apology, as they didn't suck as much as I thought they did. If you have a choice... STAY AWAY... THIS IS A HORRIBLE SERVICE.

I lived at Bellevue, WA when I signed up for 12 months Internet service from CenturyLink. In April, I moved to San Jose, CA and asked Centurylink to transfer my service to my new address. However they told me, they cannot provide the service in California and asked me to call another company for Internet service. I told Century to disconnect the service in my old address in Bellevue. A couple of weeks later, I receive the final bill, which includes $200 Early termination fee. I called customer service and told them it is not my problem to cancel the service, however they still want charge me. Today on 5/10, I found they charged me $200 from my credit card while I do not agree that I need to pay Early termination fee.

This has been going on for 5 months now. I have overpaid 3 months in a row just to keep my service turned on. The only other option in my locality (which I am thankful to have a choice) is Mediacom with even worse customer satisfaction than CenturyLink!!?!? I don't want to switch but they refuse to honor what they told me and I just absolutely cannot afford to pay that much more, so I guess now I get to deal with their refusing to cancel service that I've read about.

After having to reset their modem multiple times throughout the day while trying to use the internet, I called Comcast and set up service with them. I called CenturyLink to end my service and customer service representative began telling me I was going to owe them additional months. I explained they were not able to provide me with the service they offered and I was paying for, that the contract was void when they were not able to provide me with the equipment I needed to use their service, that I would not be paying for additional months. Representative kept insisting. I told her to try to get past that and just discontinue my service and hung up.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to manage my business for that weekend. So Monday came, they connected my service and everything was okay, until I receive my first bill for $430. I tried to call but of course they don't work on weekends. To make this long story short, I really regret that I switch providers. They are nothing but a liars. One thing that I noticed is that when I call, they say this call may be monitored or recorded, and when I asked to verify the recording so I can prove their lying, they say they have no access to those recordings. Please excuse my writing. I still working in my English.

This company has no integrity - they do NOT honor their verbal agreements and hide their unethical practices inside loopholes and semantics. By saying the increases are related to something other than internet connection they are able to continue to increase the monthly payment although at the end of the day, it is CenturyLink who gets the money for the modem rental and the internet maintenance. This is a shameful tactic that while legal, leaves the customer with a very bad taste in their mouth.

Needless to say the customer cannot suddenly decrease what they are paying without late fees and penalties and signs in good faith that what is verbally told to them will be honored. I look forward to someone filing a class action lawsuit against them. When my 12 months is up I will be looking for another provider. I hope the few extra dollars they were able to squeeze out of me were worth what they lost in customer faith, goodwill, reputation and word of mouth. I will make sure every new neighbor I have knows about their practices and how they increase rates just as soon as they get you signed up - regardless of what they tell you.

Called customer service. Not sure what happened, order wasn't placed correctly. Made sure to stress I needed a jack installed. We work from home. Need printer plugged directly to the internet and our only jack is in the kitchen. New order placed for 05/06. Technician shows up out of the blue on 05/05. Just an external technician. Doesn't put jacks in. Doesn't matter anyways, we don't yet have our modem. Called CenturyLink again to speak with supervisor. What a fool that guy was. He should be fired. Tried finding out why technician arrived a day early and couldn't do what was ordered. New order placed for 05/09. Finally got modem via UPS. Wrong modem, needs to be hooked up directly to the computer and has no wireless capability. Moved computer to KITCHEN to see if the service works just for fun. Service doesn't work. These guys have no apologies, no business acumen, nothing for all of these troubles.

Tried having install fees waived as I have missed an entire week of work due to the incompetency of this organization. They told me they can't do that because of the time and equipment costs. What about my time and my costs that have been lost this last week? I have lost WAY more than the $100.00 they charge for install. I am willing to bet the technician doesn't show up on Saturday, and if he does, he doesn't know how to install jack and brings the wrong modem. Don't get CenturyLink. Not worth the time. They may make their money, but they don't know a thing about good customer service. DirecTV may be expensive, but at least they know how to treat their customers, show up as scheduled, and will admit and fix their mistakes.

I was told this was free for years but now there is a charge. My point... I never asked for this, yet once again I have an additional charge. He refuses to refund me for the charges that I have already paid since March - because it is a "free" service??? When I asked for his supervisor he has NO Supervisor, No extension number and I guess he makes all the decisions for Century Link??? MIGHT I ADD, THIS PHONE HAS BEEN IN SERVICE OVER 20 YEARS! BEING A LONG TIME CUSTOMER MEANS NOTHING TO CENTURYLINK.

I called the next day and discovered they had Comcast ed me. Doubled my bill for the past two months. But if I bundled with DirecTV, they could cut it back down, but I have a 2 year contract. I said I don't watch TV and didn't want it. He said I didn't have to watch but get the service. I said no and I wanted to schedule a disconnect for the last day I paid through. He huffed and puffed but agreed. My server was scheduled for disconnect on 5-16. I get home today and C disconnected me 10 days early with the attitude of 'Oh well'. As of today I am a Comcast customer.

I immediately contacted CenturyLink but of course no one would answer my email or return my calls. When the tech showed up the next day he of course, knew nothing about it. I continued to attempt to contact both Century Link and Direct to clarify the conditions of my contract. When I was able to speak with a rep days later, I was told "you should have known that was too good to be true" (so it was MY fault the rep lied?) and that they didn't even have a one year contract as the rep indicated. I knew the phone call was recorded and demanded they pull it and listen. After taking it all the way to corporate office, literally dozens of calls and three months into the contract, I was told they didn't have time to listen to the phone call but would honor what I was promised. (Obviously they had listened to the call and knew I was right.)

They did pay the difference... for the first year. At the end of that time I received a bill for over $140 a month for my service. I called Century Link and was told I no longer had a contract with them (even though I was told I had a 2 year contract) but I DID still have a two year contract with Direct! I asked to speak with the individuals that told me they would honor the original agreement and was told neither worked for the company any longer. After filing a complaint with the BBB and FCC Century Link admitted that BOTH still worked there but I was unable to speak with them. In fact, I was unable to speak with ANYONE at corporate. I am stuck paying FOUR times the amount I was promised for the remainder of my contract. I have been repeatedly lied to, deceived and generally screwed over by CenturyLink. I have never experienced such poor customer service and deception in my life. They will say anything to get your business then hang you out to dry.

I tried for a week beforehand throughout the day and I just got the impression they weren't ready to take my call as a customer. They removed the charge- so they admitted they were wrong after wasting a good chunk of my time. Now, about four months later, here I am again on hold listening the repeating message, "We value your business and appreciate your patience" as I dispute another surprise to my bill. So I thought I'd write a review while I wait. A review I wish I had read before choosing CenturyLink. I don't want an attorney to contact me about my complaint- I just want nothing to do with CenturyLink ever again.

So we did - when I called to transfer our service to the new address I was treated like complete and total crap. I was told that they would not talk to me or send me to a manager because I couldn't provide an account number for an account that was just set up. I hadn't even received a bill yet. They refused to transfer my service. I had to call again the next day to beg - the gal I spoke to this time was nice enough to make the switch. THEN, about two weeks down the road, again before I even see a bill - probably because of the move, but regardless, they terminate our service due to non payment.

I call them to pay the bill and get the service reinstated and after an hour and a half on the phone they take my payment and tell me that it will be on in 24 hours. It was a Thursday- Friday, our internet was still not on. I called them back and they said that the previous representative credited the wrong account and stated that I needed to make ANOTHER payment! Oh and, they stated that I would not be refunded the previous payment for 5-10 business days, so I make another payment. 6 hours later- still no internet. I call back and was told that because it was after business hours on a Friday that I would not be able to talk to anyone about getting my service back on until Monday.

On Monday I call back and was told it would be on for sure be on within 24 hours. Tuesday, still not internet. We called for the 6th time- again spending another 2 hours on the phone before we were told that it would be another 48 hours before we could have internet. I called another internet company while my husband was on the phone with CenturyLink and got another company to agree to be out tomorrow morning to have us set up. We cancelled and they are threatening to enforce a $200 early cancellation fee. After double charging us and not providing internet service for over 5 days. STAY FAR AWAY FROM CENTURYLINK!!!

The call today with ** was terrible. She didn't listen to my frustration, kept talking over me and didn't look back far enough in my account to see when the troubles started. She told me she has identified the problem and that it will be fixed going forward, but what I was credited last month was too much so she is going to apply it to the incorrect bill this month. There was a reason that I was credited that amount last month. It wasn't intended to be used to correct the next months bill because the issue was supposed to have been resolved. Dealing with Centurylink has been a very painful and frustrating experience.

Subsequently, a serviceman was sent to remove the cable. Up to that point, I would have rated CenturyLink's customer service quite good, but obviously not their field sales training. Had the field sellers accurately informed me of the available upload speed, I would never have signed up for the trial. I was billed $56.34 for the service period and installation, which under normal circumstances I would have considered quite reasonable, had I not been directly mislead by CenturyLink sales staff. When the bill arrived, I was travelling, and my wife spoke to CenturyLink billing. She was told the charges would be corrected. Last Friday we received a final notice for the amount due. I called CenturyLink Monday when their offices reopened. I could get no satisfaction from billing or the management at CenturyLink.

We have issued the payment to avoid a hit on our credit rating, but I find both the initial sales activity and the subsequent treatment by CenturyLink billing to be unacceptable business practice. In an environment where CenturyLink is trying to claw out a foothold against a very entrenched Comcast, I have difficulty understanding their behavior. When I had the trial disconnected, I asked the customer service representative to keep me informed of when faster service would be available in my area, and that I would be interested in the service at that time. Given the subsequent treatment by CenturyLink billing and management, I have had to rethink my interest.

The speed at times is ridiculously slow on the internet. Your techs even tell us, "Well, there are probably a lot of people using it at certain times that slow it down"?? WHAT DOES THAT have to do with my service that I pay for? What they use should NOT have any bearing on my internet service/speed. When I pay for 10 mbps, I expect a consistent speed. My neighbor don't pay my bill nor do they use my service. That is inexcusable.

We finally gave up on phone service for what it cost when we had it because we felt we weren't getting what we paid for and we had to call day and night to get the service fixed over and over. They would make us go through the same routines over and over with both the phone and the internet, even though we told them this happens nearly every time we get a rain. IT'S NOT in our house, it's at the box. It finally got to the point we had to do it so often, staying on the phone for hours at a time, that I just stopped checking it and told them we did.

Every time they finally sent someone out to work on it, it was at one of their boxes along our road. We complained about it and told them over and over probably a 1000 times in the last 14 years that it wasn't in the house. When they finally sent a truck, we would see it go down to the end of our road and usually within an hour (if we were lucky and it wasn't something major) they would have it fixed. We have outages so much in the last 4 years or so it has gotten to the point we won't even call, we just let it stay off for hours or days until someone else complains. I feel like I know these people's routine better than their own employees do at this point, having had to deal with the problems so much...

THEN it gets even worse. The billing issues are freaking NIGHTMARE. You have to call in every year to get the "promotional discount" they will over-bill you. You have to argue with them for weeks on end to get it corrected and when they finally do fix it, it won't stay that way. They will bill you one thing. One representative will tell you one thing, then another will tell you something else. We have to call them about our bill because something seems to change on it nearly every other month or so. I've never seen anything like it. YOU WOULD THINK that there would be a process that they follow for all employees and ALL CUSTOMERS would receives the same courtesy and the billing would be the same and stay the same. It doesn't. It's a NIGHTMARE and the thing of it is, the only thing we have with them now is internet.

I haven't paid my bill in 3 months because I have repeatedly told them to turn it off because we weren't going to pay 60.00 a month for internet that is so unreliable. That story is so long I couldn't even BEGIN to tell you in this box but the gist of it is, they told us one price and did something else and my sister is going through the exact same thing right now. Her service sucks just like ours and they have began over-billing her once again and/or changing it every single time she calls, not doing what they said. Their employees apparently have little to no training.

Another thing is, they have so many different pricing plans / discounts / area stipulations, I doubt anybody could understand it. All I can tell you is, if we had another choice we would never use them and as we told them this last time, "TURN IT OFF." We are sick of it after 14 years of this nightmare. I told them I wasn't calling again. If they weren't going to charge me what I agreed to when I initially called them this last time, which was around 40.00, then I'm not paying it. I've refused to pay the bill for 3 months and it's about time for the 4th month. I'm not paying late charges. I'm not paying this bill because it was NOT what I agreed to. I will pay the bill when they correct it and do what they said.

They are liars. They don't know what they are doing and they change their "stipulations" with the drop of a dime. You can't get 2 of them on the phone and get the same answer most of the time. And even if you do, within 2 to 3 months your bill WILL CHANGE AGAIN. It's unbelievable. I guarantee you, if their employees log their records, they will tell you that they have been out on my road in the 2 boxes near my home at least a thousand times in the last 10 years or so having to fix my or the neighbor's service.

We just don't bother calling any more. FED UP with it. I am fed up with the billing, the lies. I THINK THERE SHOULD BE A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT against this company that ranges up into the billions of dollars because we pay for things we don't agree to most of the time and we also pay for service that is OUT for hours and days at a time. They really should give us free service for a while to make up for all the down time and over-billing / billing issues caused by their own incompetent (or ill-trained) employees.

WHEN YOU CORRECT MY BILL and charge me what I told you and we agreed to, when I had to spend that last hour and a half on the phone only to be hung up on, I will pay my bill but I'm NOT paying all those late fees and other mess you have on my bill that wasn't what I agreed to and you are not going to blackmail me into paying it. Send me a BILL FOR THE CORRECT AMOUNT and I will pay it. You charge me the SAME PRICE every single month as agreed and I will pay it.

If you can't do those 2 simple things then you TURN IT OFF because I have told you to turn it off several times via emails / your message service. If you leave it on, that's up to you. I will use it until you turn it off because you probably owe me WAYYYYY more than this in restitution for all the hours I've spent on the phone calling you to fix the service / down time AND over-billing. I just don't get how having phone and internet service has turned into such a freaking nightmare! It's just unbelievable.

I call the repair line constantly to be hung up on during transfer, or for them not to do their paperwork. I just talked to a ** on the phone, the internet repair line you call. He was so clueless, couldn't help me. When I asked to let me talk to his supervisor, he refused! This is such bad service all the way around! The only good time was a repair guy came out and fixed everything all the way down two blocks. He said he felt sorry for us that the other tech cut the wires too short and he had to redo the whole block. I would never recommend this service. ABC and other sites won't even accept it to watch TV shows online. I don't like COX either. They threw a carpet over my coax cable down the middle of my living room instead of tacking it along the wall -- why I switched, but COX :( might be the better of two evils.

The reason for this is you are required to sign up for autopay to get the extra $10. But I could not sign up for it until a bill was generated. Once a bill is generated it already has billed for a month, and a prorated month. Then your first bill will only have a one time $19.00 promotional discount, when it should be $19.00 per month. (Two months) Basically if I get what they promised, I should have received $60.00 off my first bill. Because the standard price for this package is $63.95 per month. They charged me for two months at $63.95 and only took off $19.00 total (one time). Then they tell you that even though you are paying for a prorated month, they do not take off the extra $10, even though I signed up for autopay the very night the bill was actually generated.

I'll be watching my next month's bill. He said it would be normal. I felt like if it's not it constitutes a clear breach of contract on their end (oh that's right, these contracts are made to protect THEM), but it doesn't matter anyway. In Damascus VA, there is no other choice for high speed. Unless you want to go with Zito and pay $50 per month anyway for an average speed of 0.05mbps. Oh, and it took 1 hour and 25 minutes on the phone (mostly on hold) to score this extra $19.00 taken off my bill. When it should be have been $39.00 off the bill. So I got screwed out of a good amount of time and money.

This company just charges you what they want and when you complain and try to get things right they go in and double your bill. We only get 6mbps on good days and nothing if it rains. For this my bill is over 63 dollars and they say we get discounts so my bill should be 45.00 (mind you we were quoted 29.95). This company could care less about its company and it should be taken to court! It should be made to return all the money it has stolen from its customers for the overcharges for crap internet. But mostly for the rude customer service and the constant lying!

Then to top things off it is the only company in the area. How do we get Time Warner into our neighborhood because honestly we have no other choice and they know this so they do whatever they want. Competition is needed to get these guys a kick in the behind! If I can get Time Warner here I would switch in an instant.

I contacted CenturyLink to transfer my service and they stated that I would have to be transferred to their Qwest "affiliate" or the Qwest section of CenturyLink (bill looks the same, box is the same, website is the same, it is all still CenturyLink to me). The initial rep I spoke to hung up on me as he transferred me to Qwest so I called back to start the process again and this new rep said that he could get me all set up with no problem, I was excited at the convenience. Well here were the things that he promised: 1) I wouldn't have to switch internet boxes. 2) I wouldn't have any set up fees in WA. 3) I wouldn't have any termination fees in Vegas. 4) My service would be disconnected as of Feb. 17 (my move out date from Vegas). 5) My WA service would connected as of Feb. 18 (my move-in date into WA).

Well, 1) was a lie, I was charged for keeping my box from Vegas (I still have it because I was going to be charged for having a box in WA anyway, but I was pissed because I was paying 7.99 per month to lease the box. So after having paid 7.99 for about 5 months, I still had to pay another $100 to keep it). 2) Also a lie, I had to pay an activation fee in WA and I also had to pay a 19.95 service fee because they couldn't remotely set up my internet over the phone.

3) The worst possible lie, not only did they charge me a termination fee, but they even said that they had no record of anyone saying that I wouldn't have any termination fees. After being transferred about 6 times I finally got someone to acknowledge that I shouldn't have termination fees since I'm still staying with CenturyLink (keep in mind I didn't discover this until April when I got a disconnection letter). Even better, they said that it would take them 5 days to review my account to see if I qualified for no early termination fees (even for staying the same damn company - regrettably).

4) My service was never disconnected from Vegas until March 25 (ETF was charged on Feb. 25) so they basically charged me a monthly fee even after they charged me the $200 that I was supposed to never be charged. 5) Legacy did absolutely nothing to even start the process of getting my WA account connected and WA had no idea I wanted to set up service out there. So I called them and they got me all set-up, but it took them a few days to come out and get me going (very minor, but it got done.)

Well even after all of my issues with them moving I figured I was all done and it all left my mind - well not quite. I got an e-mail saying that I had a bill for 252.99 (kind of high, but I figured it was the activation fees, plus DirecTV, service fees, my box, etc) so I paid the 252.99 online using my CenturyLink login information that I had been using since Day 1 and paid my bill. About a week later I logged into the internet and got a popup that said my account was past due and was going to be shut off. I call CenturyLink to let them know that there must be a mistake because they took my money out of my account and I paid from the e-mail I got.

They said they had no record of it and I faxed over a copy of my online payment approval and they said I paid the amount to Legacy, not Qwest (keep in mind that they ALL use CenturyLink.com, there are no separate websites). Qwest stated that they have no access to Legacy's information and I would have to contact Legacy. **To not bore with how bad it really got I'll keep it short & sweet**. Basically after all of the hullabaloo dealing with Legacy stating that I owed termination fees that were never approved, they finally said that they could waive the termination fee. I informed them I should have never been billed for March since I cancelled on Feb 17 which they wouldn't credit, & so after about a month they finally said I had a credit balance of 229.20 (keep in mind Qwest still wants their 252.99+ late fees and still threatening to shut off my internet).

I asked Legacy to send my credit to Qwest and I'll pay the difference. I am just sick of going back on forth with them - well Legacy said it will take 90 days to process the refund. I told them that I wasn't even 30 days late on my payment and they're threatening to turn off my service and charging my late fees, but they owe me over $200 and it'll take 90 days for me to receive it??

Well today I FINALLY got a hold of a reasonable woman on the Qwest side who called Legacy and got the same crap information that I got, so what she was able to do for me was put that $250 in a "neutral" status until Legacy sends me my refund check (that I still haven't received yet) so I won't get any more late fees for that amount and I can continue paying for my service as usual moving forward. Needless to say that after this year I will NEVER EVER EVERRRRR come back to CenturyLink and bless you if you ever decide to start.

In my confusion I called customer service, what a joke. The representative stated they had no idea why someone would tell me that I would get a month free of service, as he scoffs, "no one gets free service". In addition I asked if I had a contractual agreement with CenturyLink or could cancel services. They stated indeed I did have a contract.

At this point I had been transferred to three different representatives. Each telling me I did have a contract, then no I did not have a contract, to once again I did have a contract, also, that my second bill would be almost $80 more a month than what I was originally quoted. Mind you, the quote for my monthly bill varied per representative, each giving a different monthly bill quote. At this point I was irate. I was transferred to the "escalation department". They were spot on with escalation at this point. The end resolution, they would allow me not to have a contract but it would cost me much more monthly or I could keep the contract and pay $200 to cancel it at a later date.

Fast forward two months down the road when I was moving. I called to set up the cancellation of my services and asked where I could drop off the equipment. They informed me that I would not be able to drop off the equipment, but rather they would send me boxes to return my equipment. When I had not received those so called boxes three weeks after my cancellation, I called customer services. I was routed to three different departments, each after explaining my issues and reexplaining my issues stated that I had been routed to the wrong department. One hour later and one dropped call I continued to be put on hold. I specifically informed the operator that at this point I was very frustrated with the customer service experience and I just wanted to rectify my issue, "Yes ma'am I will inform the next representative. Please hold to be transferred". I was on hold for another 10 plus minutes.

In addition, I came to find that they had my last name spelled incorrectly on my account the entire time. So, the refund check they sent me I couldn't deposit/cash. This was an issue for a whole other Department. I wanted my money back given they had screwed me in every other which way. In order to confront this issue, I once again had to welcome the wait and disappointment.

In short, CenturyLink representatives are nowhere near anything that can be defined as helpful. No one that I have interacted with at the company has any sense of what is going on, but rather passes the buck to the next person to only then tell the customer they too can be of no help. If one chooses to utilize CenturyLink, I suggest you practice patience and perseverance. It's as if they are testing you to see if you can hang in there long enough to get anything done or will you give up in your feelings of futility. I can sum up my experience with CenturyLink in three words: FRUSTRATION, MADNESS, and IGNORANCE.

So I contacted CenturyLink again to confirm I was getting the bundle price I signed up for. No I wasn't. He informed me I was supposed to have been getting 5.00 $ off a month. I asked him if I would be credited for the past months I was overcharged and he immediately replied "no." As for the cost of my bill I received a flyer in the mail saying CenturyLink bundle with DirecTV is being offered for 55 $ a month. As I'm looking at the flyer the CenturyLink person **, told me there was no bundle they offered for 55 $ a month. Also I'm being charged 36-39.00 $ in taxes every month. Some of the taxes appear four five and six times at different rates. When I complained the first time my next bill was not itemized like the first bill.

After three months I started getting the itemized bills again and yes the multiple tax charges continued. When I asked ** about these multiple charges for the exact same tax/fee, he claimed it was Washington State's taxing policy not them. I have since Googled Washington's policy and nowhere does it say anything about charging the same tax/fee multiple times at multiple rates. ** asked if he could help me with anything else and I asked if he could recommend a better service provider than CenturyLink… He said no and hung up on me.

Then we started to get mail and email warnings about not paying our bill and that they will shut off the service. We called blaa blaa blaa they said not to worry. Finally they cut off our service. We called again blaa… but there was no one able to help us because it was the weekend. We call Monday, they said they were sorry and that our service should be back in two hours. I asked if I could discontinue the service, they said that I will be charged $200 early termination fee.

Finally we move to a new house. They say they don't have the higher speed where we are moving to but we could not break the contract because they still had some service at the new place, but we still have to pay the same price because we are under contract for two years blaa blaa or pay $200 early termination fee. I feel pretty frustrated at this point, but I agree to have the slower speed. The guy comes out to connect our service. He asks me "why do you want the slower speed when I connect you with the higher speed." I told him "that is because customer service said that CenturyLink does not have higher speed in this new area." He says "this none sense" and makes some phone calls and asks if he could my phone and come into the house.

Finally I got a $60 installation fee the I have a written proof of that they are not going to charge me for installation. Made more phone calls. I am told not to worry that it will come off next bill. Then I get a confirmation that the charge is valid and that I must pay the $60. I don't know what to do with this company, it feels like dealing with 3rd world governments bureaucracies.

I paid $54.99 service for that month. I was told I would get it for $29.99. I got 1 month at $29.99 by signing into paperless billing and it's on my bill, states that I have signed into paperless. The next month I get a bill with a late charge and a charge of 46.94 and the bill states I'm not paperless anymore. I'm charged a late fee and charge regular bill cause it's not paperless. I was not told of anything about this and I called once again to talk about the bill, why I'm charged. Again well you see it was a promotion for 1 month and you didn't sign up for it so we charge the regular amount so I paid it.

Since I wasn't on promotion anymore, I found another internet provider and left CenturyLink. I called them to cancel the account and I asked them is there any more charges after the 4/15/15 'cause my new bill would come out in 4/22/15 - they said no. I find myself now with a bill of $179.03 due to early termination fee, which by then I never had signed into the paperless billing. It was just promotional. I entered into it but yet since you didn't go paperless, you now are charged a different fee which I never heard of until this day 4/28/15. There are 2 charges for that and you did receive a discount so you now owe the early termination.

All the bills I have has nothing of a early termination fee but the one I received 4/28/15 has a $200 charge. How convenient for CenturyLink to print that on the last bill. During the posting of this, someone has called - representative of CenturyLink - and taped me as I spoke on the phone trying to verify who I am. I gave them no information but said I'm who I am and hung up. I'm angry the way I've been treated. I was not given all the information until a month later when billed. This is the reason I have left after so many years of service, the lies that are told and are not carried through on the account I had. I hope everyone takes caution when dealing with this company.

DirecTV. I called to see if they could reduce my bill. The rep told me if I added their TV service the cost would be the same if I agreed to another year commitment. I agreed. When the tech came to my house he said it was a two year commitment. Immediately I called CenturyLink and told them I didn't agree to a two year contract and please disconnect the TV, and take me back to my original plan. Thinking I took care of the problem, I was surprise to see that I still had TV service 3 days later. I called them back and they transferred me to a DirecTV rep who told me I never contacted them to cancel within their 24 hours "grace" period and that was stuck with them for the next 2 years!

I never contacted DirecTV to install the service, so why did they expect me to call them to cancel? As far as I knew it was one and same company. To be fair CenturyLink did convince DirecTV to cancel my contract with them with no penalty, but only after many, many hours with many different reps (all telling me something different), and a lot of rudeness on CenturyLink's part.

On Vacation. I should have known better, but after that experience, I called CenturyLink asking if I could suspend (not cancelled) my service while I was gone for month. The rep said they did have it; at a reduced rate (like $9) my service would be suspended (not cancelled), and would be restored automatically in 4 weeks. Upon returning home my internet/phone were not working, even though returned 5 weeks later. So I contacted them and wouldn't you know? They didn't suspend my service, THEY CANCELLED MY SERVICE!!! So, again on the phone many hours trying to get my phone number back, and have them restart my service. They said they had NO RECORD that I requested the service to be suspended, but claimed I requested it to be cancelled!

After more hours and more reps I finally got the service restored. The rep asked if I needed a modem, and I said I did not, "I have my own that I've purchased from CL that I've been using." Again surprise: They sent me one in the mail anyway! And charged me for it, even after I sent it back! The rep also assured me I wouldn't be charged any new customer fees, and of course my bill today has all those charges. What should have been a $60 fee was over $130! Outrageous! And that just for phone and internet!

I have more horror stories with CenturyLink, but I think anyone reading this will get the idea: Avoid CenturyLink! Never call their customer service. If you thoroughly document EVERYTHING! The rep name, the time, the agreement. Then call back in a few hours to confirm. Even then you can't be sure they'll get it right. Life's too short to spend it talking to CenturyLink's so-called "customer service." Soon I will abandon CenturyLink and never go back. If you're considering CenturyLink, DON'T DO IT!

At no point during my requesting internet service was I made aware of setup fees, lease fees, activation fees, fees for equipment, installation fees, recovery fees for broadband and/or paying for services not even rendered for future use. My first bill after only 15 days of prorated service was $176.91. Attached is a copy of the bill. Thank you for your time and consideration. Please respond and let me know what further actions must be taken." I am awaiting on feedback from CenturyLink and this office. I will be sure to update.

After a long (I mean 1+ hour wait), I was "helped" by a lady who could not figure out how to fix the billing issue I was having (even though she acknowledged it was a mistake on the part of CenturyLink). She then was on call with their Customer Service hotline for another 30 minutes before she came back and said she could not help me fix it since she had not received the proper training for that and the person on the phone could not figure it out either. And that I would need to talk to someone in their "Retention" department to get the billing credit back (I suppose they need to have a "Retention" department to counteract the lousy "regular" call center service department they have).

All in all, they were not able to "retain" me, I switched to Comcast (another company I don't like either, but at least their customer service is better than CenturyLink). Comcast was able to give me a great rate and great service + a new connection, within 2 hours of talking to them. Since there is no option for 0-starts or negative-stars here, I suppose 1-star is the only consolation the dense, nincompoops at CenturyLink deserve! Adios **!!

I am a retired employee and will never give a good word to anyone about CenturyLink. In talking to other people that have had extremely poor service we have all concluded that unless the person on the other end is getting concession there will be no attempt to work you to get your issue corrected. The consequences for both the company and myself is that something that is not complex (customer service) has been severely corrupted. No one gets the training they need to complete anything correctly. Good service is not an issue or concern for CenturyLink.

Not only did they not cancel my account and disconnect my internet but then they charge me double what I have been charged for phone service I have not ever had. I've been a loyal customer for a combined seven years between three properties. Will never do business with this company again!!! Please save yourself the tears, money, time, & headache. Look elsewhere it just might save you from a nervous breakdown!

This person was not only rude he stated that if I would fax a copy of the death certificate, we might be able to reduce the charges. I explained I did not have a fax and asked him if I could scan it and email the death certificate. He said, "No it has to be faxed, that's all I can do for you!" I asked him to disconnect the service and asked him what the final bill was...He shared an estimate and gave me a confirmation number. He then told me to have a great day! At this point, I was extremely agitated, so I thanked him for his condolences. He had already hung up on me. Compassion is a necessity when dealing in customer service, this person had NONE! I will not recommend Century Link to any one.

Now I opened my bill this month and the rate jumped $25 for no reason other than my discount had again expired. I called and had it reinstated again, but they are still insisting I pay the full amount because I didn't call them until the middle of the billing cycle. I asked them how I was supposed to know when the billing cycle is and how I could call prior to it when I didn't know they were raising my bill?! No response. The first lady I spoke with was quite rude and I actually hung up on her. That was the first time in my life I have ever done that to anyone! Next, I tried using the chat function on the website and after answering 15 questions got disconnected.

The last thing I did was to email their complaint department. I received an email back stating that they strive for excellent customer service and they are sorry, but that department doesn't handle pricing and I needed to call customer service. I responded and told them it is a joke and I am reporting them to the better business bureau. Unfortunately for me, they are the only phone service available in my area or I would have dropped them a long time ago. I will end up paying the additional $25 so they don't turn me to collections even though I think it is wrong.

Maybe this is common practice for residential setups but I would have thought CenturyLink would prioritize business (after all, they charge businesses more) and would understand that businesses value TIME. 8 days of not being able to operate is crippling! I explained our needs from the beginning and I tried working with that rep to change it and find some way around it. But her hands were tied and she still could only offer that distant date. I think this is CenturyLink's #1 problem: they have out of state call centers with willing employees that cannot do their customer service jobs because of their limited allowances using the scheduling system they must abide by.

I would not allow the rep helping me to schedule that date 8 days out because my business literally could not accept it. I had to ask for higher up help a couple times before I was transferred. Why should I have to demand speaking with someone who could help? Two hours later, I was able to get the date changed to three days out, which was not ideal but much more doable for my company. But amazingly, CenturyLink called me back a couple hours later to tell me that they were rescheduling. I was again stunned. I could do nothing about keeping their promised date. I am very concerned because they moved it to a Friday.

A year ago we set up their Internet and phone services at a different office on a Friday. The internet worked for two hours, then the phone and internet cut out. We called CenturyLink immediately, three times that day in fact. They kept assuring us that it would turn back on, would not or could not contact our technician to verify what had happened that disconnected the service, requested that we wait until 5 pm because that's when it should be active and gave us a phone number to call if it still didn't work after five pm. Five came and went.

When we called the emergency number they gave us, they said that our issue required a technician to come on site to correct it. They could do nothing until Monday sometime between 8-5 pm! This was detrimental to our company that weekend! We had hired a team to work overnight and through the weekend to do a full software transfer. And NONE of it could be done without our Internet connection. It was the worst customer care at the absolute worst moment for our business! We were unable to do the transfer until that Monday evening. We could not operate on our system that Monday so our customers felt it when we were unable to access their accounts. Our customers had to bear the effects of CenturyLink's poor business practices. And I felt humiliated because that is not how our company operates. We vowed to never use CenturyLink again if at all possible and NEVER set up service on a Friday. Yet here we are again.

The worst part is that I already know that if something goes wrong with the setup, a technician will not be asked to return to fix the problem, repair will be delayed until the weekend hours hit and Monday becomes their only offering. I honestly feel bad for anyone working the weekend calls at CenturyLink. I can only imagine the distressed callers they have to work with and the inability to offer any immediate solutions. I hope I'm not one of them this weekend.

Original Review: April 21, 2015

After we moved, we had multiple dropped calls on a daily basis. The tech was unable to locate the problem after 5 attempts and 9 months of dropped calls. We cancelled our service with CenturyLink due to poor service. I called them to tell them of our intentions. I was told there would be a $300 cancellation fee. A month later, I was shocked when the cancellation fee on my bill was actually $600. After 3 hours of getting shuffled around on hold and two dropped calls to customer service, I was told it has been too long since our move. There is nothing they can do for me. I have to pay the full bill. Please learn from my mistake. We now have phone service through Cable One. No dropped calls, much better customer service and no contract!

A tech did come out for the phone, found an unplugged line but reception didn't improve. I've gotten several service numbers for my Internet but that's as far as it's gone. I haven't gotten a bill but did get an automated call from CenturyLink. They want to continue providing excellent service and asking that I call. When I do, it's to say my payment is overdue. I can't check my account online without a security code but I can be called with one.

The Caller ID said I was getting a call from CenturyLink, however when I answered, the call is dropped. I call customer service and get a rather rude woman who couldn't give me any billing information because my "social security number isn't in the account." I set up the account, for crying out loud! She transferred me to "billing." A nice young man, **, was helpful, broke down all the charges for me over the phone and requested my paper bills be mailed. And I definitely need them, because some charges don't match what I recall ordering.

On 4/10/15 I received a bill for 60.04. I paid that then on 4/17/15 I received a bill for 54.41 and then noticed it was for internet only. Looking at the first bill for 60.04 it was for TV only. I called right away to find out what was wrong. I was told by first person that it could have been a computer glitch and he said he fixed it but I would have to pay the extra amount and might get credit next month. I said I would not pay. He transferred me to someone else who transferred me to someone else who told me they would not take off any money because it was not a new connect. I told him it was last month and I was not given the correct rate that I was told.

When I called to get the service he argued this with me, put me on hold for quite a while while he said he was checking with his supervisor then came back and told me I could not have gotten that rate because it was for online sign up only. I did become very upset with him. By this point I had been on the phone for an hour most of that on hold. He said I would have to pay the full amount.. in the end nothing was resolved. I don't even know if the bundle I should have will be on my next bill or not. Also my name on the account for internet is wrong and the account number which should be my phone number is some strange number that I have no idea where they could have gotten it from - it is not even remotely close to mine.

After holding for 30 minutes, and then going round and round and finally asking for a supervisor, they admit that your account has been hacked by spammers and then they finally help you change your password. This is really frustrating after about the 5th or 6th time it occurs and yet they continue to DO NOTHING to prevent this from happening. I get random emails from around the world daily from domains like China that should be blocked by them, asking me for passwords and spamming me, selling me things, asking for personal information continuously, but they refuse to do ANYTHING about it.

I guess with all the $$ they are making from us captive users who don't want to change their emails, they are assured to still get plenty of $$ and not need to re-invest it in good software to protect their users from hacking and spamming! Disgusting! I'm putting this out on every site I can, and maybe, just maybe they will do something about this! A very disgruntled user in Houston.

After few months, I noticed they have been charging me without giving any service too. And they charged for not returning the modem. They have deducted my amount without taking the service. I talked to them for 2 hours.. and they did not waived the money as well as they asked me to return the modem or they will charge money for the modem. I have searched the modem and sent them back, and I did not received any letters later from them. So I thought the issue was solved. But after few months now I got a letter from central credit service saying that if I don't pay 106$ it will be sent to credit bureau.

They are making Blood Pressure raise. Is there no way to stop these cheaters.. I am afraid of my credit history. This is the first time I am to collections. I have good payment history till now. It's very bad such a big company is cheating and collecting money unnecessarily and irritating their customers.

I requested service to be activated and I informed them that I was perfectly capable of setting my own modem up in my home and I was assured that there would be no charge for that. I honestly didn't want to pay $100 for a new modem or $8 a month to lease one. They send out a tech to turn on my service as I wasn't home, which is fine, and he puts a letter in my mailbox telling me to text him if I have any problems. I think, "Awesome, he's being personal AND helpful. How refreshing," but little did I know this was one of the rudest men I have ever spoken to.

As I get home and test out the internet for the first time, I find that it isn't working. I know for a fact that I set my modem and router up correctly as I have had years of experience with networking and I live by the rule "measure twice, cut once." So after seeing that I do not have service I call CenturyLink and let them know. They say that they can see on their end that I do not have a full connection and that they will send out another technician. The very next day I get a call from the same technician who tells me, and I quote, "Is your modem light green? It is? Well then it's your laptop."

"Sir, I do not even own a laptop and if it were my fault, why did CenturyLink customer service say that I wasn't getting a full connection between them and my modem?" Regardless, he comes to my home anyway and runs a few tests. He then proceeds to tell me that there is no problem and that he didn't need to come out. THEN he starts unscrewing the socket cover and pulls wires out of the wall like he is fixing something. Roughly 20 minutes later he tells me that it is fixed and leaves before I can ask what the problem was in the first place.

My thoughts were, "If nothing was wrong, what did you fix?" So I hook all of my equipment back up and still the same problem persists. This gets me second guessing myself and believing that my equipment has magically become faulty overnight. So I go to OfficeMax and buy a new modem (Netgear) that specifically says on the front of the box "COMPATIBLE WITH CENTURYLINK", and a new router. I come home, get the new equipment up and running and STILL THE SAME PROBLEM.

I call CenturyLink's customer support once more and try to get this sorted out. It turns out that neither of my modems were compatible with their service. I can understand that being the issue with my old modem, but my new one that specifically says it IS compatible? They suggest I buy their $100 modem (that they shipped to me anyway after I requested them not to) to solve my problem. I had already rejected the modem at the UPS store like they told me to if I received it in the mail anyway. Oh, they also assured me that I would not be charged for the modem I rejected, but I will get to that momentarily.

Back to where I was. As I was on the phone with the service rep, I was told that my modem was incompatible. This infuriated me as this was a clear-as-day example of false advertising. I told the customer service rep that I wanted to cancel my service and she tried to talk me out of it for a good half hour. After a... unpleasant discussion with her she agreed to transfer me to their deactivation department. It turns out that particular department was closed for the day and that I had to call them back the next day. So I did just that.

The next day (this is one week exactly after my service was turned on) I called the deactivation department informing them on what I wanted to do. I was asked by a very polite and persuasive man to just hear what he had to offer and if I still wanted to cancel after he would assist me. He offered me the following: $100 prepaid visa gift card, $50 bill credit to my account, free RISK FREE 30 day trial of their best PRISM TV package, a new technician to come out and a FREE modem, their best modem. I asked if I would have to pay for the modem and I was told that it would be free.

I asked that if I canceled PRISM would I be charged anything and would I have to send the modem back. I was told there would be no cancellation charge and I would be able to keep the modem free of charge FOREVER. Well this deal just sounded too good to be true!...because it was. With this deal I was offered, they had me back. I was informed that it was going to take exactly one more week, the next Tuesday, before a PRISM technician could be out to my home. Ok fine, I can wait seven days for $100 visa and a $50 bill credit.

Fast forward to seven days later. The PRISM tech comes out and is surprisingly competent and kind. He gets everything hooked up in a timely manner and answers all of my questions. Everything seems good now, right? No, it's not. A few hours after he leaves I see that my connection (by the way, this is the first time I get to use my two week old service) is dropping every few seconds and then reconnection. So, once more I contact customer service and they schedule another tech to come out the next morning. He comes out and is also quite nice and competent. Though neither of us could figure out the problem. He asks me to wait a moment as he goes to check out the hardwired connection in front of my apartment complex. It turns out that there was a loose cable that the very first technician "connected". So now it seems that I have two problems fixed and everything is great. Still, no.

A few days later I get my first bill in the mail. I was informed that my first bill would be right under $30 and that I was to receive a $50 bill credit. Basic math tells us that my first bill would be free and that I would have $20 credited towards my next bill. After opening the envelope I see that my bill is $145. It turns out that I was charged for a modem AND shipping and handling. I was outraged. I called CenturyLink immediately and asked what was going on and to speak to a supervisor. I was first asked what my issue was and that I would be in touch with a supervisor if my problem could not be solved by the customer service rep. I explained everything to him from the beginning to the end including the offers I was promised. Note that never was I put in touch with a supervisor.

I was told that the rep contacted his supervisor and that they escalated my issue and that a supervisor would be looking into the phone call between the rep that promised me all of the wonderful things and myself. I thought, "Wonderful! Something is finally getting done." I was then told that I would be contacted within 24-48 hours by a supervisor. This was over four days ago. My bill is $145... it should be free for the first month as I was promised. I have yet to receive a call from any supervisor and due date of my bill is coming up on the 25th of this month. I refuse to pay $145 after I was promised this and that. I believe I have been scammed and strong armed. I will switch to Comcast as soon as this gets sorted out. If Consumer Affairs would like to look into this, I would be greatly appreciative.

This place flat out sucks and trust me I'm a brother, a straight from the hood, so for me to sit and take all this time to write a complaint that literally thousands others have done about some internet **...IT'S GOTTA BE BAD! Stop throttling and take me to court if that's what you wanna do. I ain't paying for no movies or shows or no music. As far as I'm concerned, America owes me BIG TIME. I'm just getting what's mine...ya smell me?

On Saturday, 4/4 DirecTV called to confirm the install and I said "No, I have cancelled." On Tuesday 4/7 I received a modem in the mail but figured it was a mistake since I already cancelled. On Saturday, the install date, my phone line had been turned off (because Comcast received an order from CL to transfer our phone #) AND a direcTV technician arrived to install direcTV!!!! So, today, Monday 4/13 - I called CL - got transferred 3 different times, got "cut off/disconnected" 2 times and FINALLY someone was able to cancel the order (of the 2 other times I was called and cancelled, it still was not done). Now, we'll see how long it takes to get back the $236.00 I paid on 4/1.

Federal Access Charge $6.43 per access line; Federal Excise at 3%; Local 911 at $1.00 per access line; Access Recovery Charge $.38 per access line; Internet Cost Recovery Fee $.99; Facility Relocation Cost Recovery Fee at $.59 per access line; Federal Universal Service fund 17.5776%; Federal Universal Service fund (II) 16.8%; Federal Regulatory Recovery $3.55; Federal Telecom Relay Service $.02; Idaho Universal Service Fund $.98; Telephone Assistance Program $.03 per access line; Broadband 7M (Speed calculated as the inverse proportion during the second new moon each month) $70; Office Plus (Plus what? ) $25; Plan Feature Charges $8.97; Current Service Charges $2.99; Non-telecom Service Charge $1.99; Unlimited business Voice $35 per access line.

Who but a Jeopardy champion could possibly understand all these fees? Bundle these services with a Satellite TV and you need a Ph.D. just to understand the bill. Being customers since 1999 and opting for the convenience of auto-pay we never read the average 6 pages of largely indecipherable charges. Good thing there is a help number on every bill you say? Try four numbers each of which should include a warning "never call this number if you suffer from any stress exacerbated ailment from high blood pressure to hives". In our last convolution of countless connections we were identified first as a residential customer, then business and finally actually received a call back from a business representative saying they could not help us because we were wholesale customers. You would have to be Stephen King to make this stuff up.

Our telecommunication needs are simple. Every few years we add new nonprofit consulting client and the commensurate phone number. Last year we supposedly suffered some form of head injury completely ignoring the fact that all our clients are short term in nature and signed a three-year contract. Fact one: My wife handles all our bills and has an almost photographic memory. She KNOWS she agreed to no such contract. Every time I have ever been asked to agree to any long term contract a third party is required to verify and record the terms of that contract.

When I asked for a copy of that audio agreement it was somehow mysteriously unavailable. Instead of any signed or recorded agreement the company policy was that the payment of any three bills was considered acceptance of the agreement. Do you know of any company that is allowed to simply add a three year agreement to your bill simply by adding one more paragraph of indecipherable fine print? The Uniform Commercial Code is supposed to provide some protection for consumers requiring that all contractual changes be "conspicuous" in nature. Although that law does not define conspicuous, the Uniform Commercial Code generally requires all capital letters and boldface type be used.

CenturyLink secret contract clause: You can see from the attached scan of page three of our six-page billing that the early cancellation clause was defined under the bold, large type disingenuous heading of Savings followed by italicized small print delineating their deception. I have not found the Idaho Statute but Cal. Civ. Code 1624 clearly requires written substantiation of oral agreement. The last time I am aware that these type of deceptive sales tactics were allowed in the telecommunications industry was twenty years ago when MCI was essentially fined out of existence for their pursuit of this level of egregious deceit. Lastly I would ask the reasonableness of the assertion that we would ever consent to such a long-term agreement when we are absolutely certain to only need the service for a limited period of time. These services are not new to us. We have been providing these same services to nonprofit associations for sixteen years.

What is new is the audacity of CenturyLink to hide their underhanded sales tactics in fine print while BOLDLY asserting their absence of liability for any service without expressed written consent by the appropriate authorities.

WHAT CAN YOU DO? If you think these practices are appropriate and you provide a renewable service start adding a bonus clause of your own to your billing. If CenturyLink can do it why can't you? If you think the practice is both immoral and illegal then write to those who can change these deceptive dealings. So far I have reached out to Roger Goldblatt, Consumer and Governmental Affairs; Price Administrator Div. Of Info. Tech; Kris Monteith, Acting Bureau Chief, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, Phone: (888) CALL-FCC. You can also file a complaint directly with the FCC.

The best CenturyLink contacts I can find are: CenturyLink's own Integrity Line, IntegrityLine@CenturyLink.com; Matthew Linn, CenturyLink Customer Advocacy; Karen A. Puckett, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; Jerolyn Ochs, Executive Off management at Qwest Communications.

Utility monopolies were supposed to be a thing of the past but recent consolidations have decimated the competitive market and allowed malignant monarchies to impose obligation without representation. When is the last time you read the U.S. Declaration of Independence? If your rights can be usurped by an unrestricted utility what's next? ACT NOW or you may be the next victim of CenturyLink's cowardly coercion.

Received the 4th bill and lo and behold no changes! So after 2 hours (2 hours!!!) they tell me that promotion is no longer available and whoever I had talked to gave me the wrong information (again not my fault) Horrible, horrible customer service and the wait time is completely ridiculous! You call that customer service?????? I don't know how they are still in business!!!I Will find a way to predict their bad, bad name and reputation around!!! Thank you for NOTHING Century Link!

My bill is outstanding, but CenturyLink said they would help lower the payment for my low income. My bill is over $101! They neglected everything I needed help with. I have been yelled at, too! They failed to take the payment out by auto pay, 3 different times and they shut down my WiFi today! This is unfair and it's their problem they neglected to take the money out on the set date given to me. Now my bill is outstanding and I have no WiFi for my son's learning apps! It's stressing me out and drained me!

I was told that the problem would be fixed by early afternoon on a Thursday, as of late that night it was not, and the new message said early afternoon Friday, which was pushed back an hour, the till 6 pm. Was fixed around that time, I was told it was a switching problem "at the far end" or "other end", what ever that means. One of the other 3 CenturyLink customers who called in for me had an operator who still maintained that there was nothing wrong as they could call the 386 number. Of course they could, they didn't have the 246 prefix. This no doubt caused a loss of business to where I had been trying to call, the last girl I spoke to said that they should let them know what loss of business they may have had and an adjustment would be made, that remains to be seen. I have no idea how long the problem might have been going on before I found it, I only know it went on 3 weeks longer than it should have.

I have in the past had problems with CenturyLink since going to underground lines, static, roaring and sometimes no service when it rains, being told at times that there was nothing wrong with my line or that it had to be in my house (hasn't been yet). I had long thought that their repair calls went out of the country, despite one girl maintaining that everything was in the US, I did have one girl say she was in the Philippines. I also don't thinks that major American countries should contract out.

We finally decided to cancel and were given a confirmation number and told that to cancel they would send a postage paid return box to send all of the equipment back. After a week of no box in the mail we called them back and were told the account was never canceled. When we asked if the days in between "canceling" and today would be off of our bill we were told there were no guarantees. Unfortunately the rep couldn't cancel the service while we were on the phone as canceling can only be done between 8-5. Both calls have been approximately 40 minutes between holding and talking to a rep, so it looks like I'll need to waste a lunch break talking to these morons.

I was warned others trying to cancel service that they have been going through this for literally months, each month they get a bill and need to sit on the phone explaining that the service has been canceled. My advice - stay far away from CenturyLink and don't sign up, even if the promo pricing sounds great. After the promo period ended we were paying more than Cox anyway.

We are less than TWO months into our Internet service "contract" with CenturyLink and here are the numbers: seven pages of computer written notes, chronicling; over 25 separate customer service transactions (that I have had to initiate) equaling; over 5 hours (a conservative estimate - their phone tree is a maze) of my time spent on those transactions; no equipment for a SELF installation for over 10 days; five service outages due to their equipment failure or field technician errors that, so far have not been successfully credited to our account; three separate admissions from CenturyLink staff that their service is antiquated; two near shut-offs of our service because of inaccurate and documented disputed charges of nearly $200 on our first TWO bills; one "Welcome to CenturyLink" computer generated email from a ** Senior Vice President - Customer Care CenturyLink.

If these numbers seem fair and agreeable to you; if they seem to indicate the willingness of a company to serve their customers; then sign up to a service offered by CenturyLink because the likelihood is quite high that you will amass your very own "set of numbers." If you are an existing customer and have a similar set of numbers, then I say: we either read the reviews and then shame on us; we didn't read the reviews because we trusted a big company to do right by their customers, again, shame on us.

First thing I ask this CS person is if he's going to hang up on me. He said, 'I don't hang up on people'. Then I asked for his name and his emp # in case he did. I asked him why it would take three months for my acct to show the lower price. He said it shouldn't!! It should only take ONE month!! He was more than nice and transferred me to their 'Loyalty Dept' regarding my billing error. So, I go through the whole thing, different plan, still being charged higher amt. She looks at my acct and actually says, 'well your acct. shows you've been paying $58 for the last three months' and I lost it and said 'YES, that's the problem!!! My plan was changed on 1/7!! Well, I was told they couldn't give me a credit for those months just because I said it was changed, puts me on hold to talk to her supervisor.

Then she tells me they can give me a $20 credit!!! Then, I really, really lost it and said, 'NO, that is absolutely NOT acceptable! Why could other CS reps see my plan was changed on 1/7 and now she couldn't?? Was she telling me that NOW she couldn't see my plan had changed?? So, then she goes through my records and ONLY then sees that yes, my plan was changed on 1/7. She hadn't even looked through my records!! ALL the way back to January 7th??? A whole two and a half months??? She hadn't even looked through my records, only my billings!!! Seriously? She then tells me this will have to go to the accounting dept. to make the necessary adjustments. Then I'm told if if I have the bills automatically deducted from my acct. it will lower my bills.

I asked when it take effect and she says not for a couple months and I asked her SEVERAL times if she was ABSOLUTELY sure if it wouldn't happen for several months because I was only going to pay $20 this month because at this point the company OWED ME MONEY and I was so angry about the whole thing I could spit!!! So, she guarantees me the automatic deductions won't happen for several months. I just went online to pay my bill ($20, MORE than I owe them at this point) and they've already automatically deducted the full $58 from my acct!!! I was GUARANTEED the automatic deductions wouldn't be taken from my account for several months and it went into effect in less than two weeks!!!

I don't know exactly what I need to do to bring all these issues/problems/indifference/ineptitude to the forefront, to hold this company responsible for acceptable, knowledgeable customer service and billing issues to be handled in a reasonable period of time but I have the time and the anger to find out. This is my David versus Goliath, but this is not my first issue w/ Century Link and something has got to be done. This is NOT just about me, but hundreds and hundreds (thousands?) of customers who have had to deal with a company, most of which only have a choice between CL and Comcast so they don't CARE whether you get good customer service or not, because you have no other choices.

There is absolutely NO incentive for them to change, their only priority is profit, plain and simple, nothing else. Until that changes, they will NOT change the way they do business. Customer service isn't a priority and NEVER will be until we do something to make it change. I realize Century Link is a oligopoly and that's not going to change for now but certainly there must be something we can do to make them more responsive and accountable to their customers.

On my 5th call to Centurylink, I was told that the corrections were denied and I owed $277.29 (Jeremy 3/9). Since I have yet to sign up for autopay, 5 months of my 12-month deal of $29.99 is lost because of their mistakes. I have yet to receive a single accurate bill. Filing with BBB and am seriously interested in class action suit if this is a common practice by Centurylink.

On top of all of this, I have continued to have slow speed, dropped connections, or no connection at all for the last 6 months. I have also called to have this resolved numerous times. The customer service representatives are clearly outsourced and have very little training. The help they have to offer are clearly coached phrases and telling you to unplug your modem and then plug it back in to reset it. Even after I have called to complain several times it has not been resolved. Actually, I called a few days ago and the man who helped me told me that the internet I had was not fair for what I was paying, stating I am paying too much.

Once again, the technical support have no clue how to do their jobs and he offers to have a tech come to my home to check my lines. It seems things might possibly get resolved up until he says if the connection is a problem with the wiring within my residence it will cost me $85+ to fix it. Still upset after this phone call, I contacted the CenturyLink website and sent an email expressing the above statements. I got a generic automatic response sent to my inbox this evening offering absolutely no sympathy, help, or even acknowledgement. That's right everyone, if you want to get tricked, taken for massive amounts of money, and pay for services you don't want. It's a good gamble though, if you're feeling lucky. You might end up paying to have no internet connection at all.

I finally emailed the company and another customer rep told me that I also need to sign up for paperless billing, then I will get the last couple overpaid money back but not sure I will get the original promised contract. I need the clarification so I requested the management to contact me since nothing that the rep can do at that point and I have been waiting for several days, but I still haven't heard anything from anyone since I made the request. NO one is willing to solve this problem from the management level.

In spite of all parties agreeing on causation, after dozens of calls over the last two months and more than 100 days after causation, we are still waiting for recourse. The final straw came when I contacted CenturyLink earlier in the week and reached their Executive Office. More than three times during the conversation, the CenturyLink Executive Office told me that they were not liable because another party actually installed the line. No apologies or recognition of our damage and inconvenience. No offer to assist us with the process. It's 100% clear: But for the CenturyLink fiber optic line destroying our home's water line, our home would not have been damaged.

Irony #1: When we first connected the flooding in my home to CenturyLink (a process that took over a month and thousands of dollars), we reached out to the involved parties (CenturyLink, contractor Pauley Construction, and subcontractor Cooley Construction), we were told that damage to the home is an unfortunate cost of doing business (e.g., installing fiber optic lines) and that we would be taken care of. Months after the damage, the only party that has incurred this "cost of doing business" is the damaged party (my family).

Irony #2: No one from CenturyLink wants to help us with the damage caused by their fiber optic line. Yet, we receive mailers almost everyday about CenturyLink's new fast speed internet service. We are greatly disappointed in CenturyLink's refusal to assist us with recourse to my home's damage.

I called right away and after about an hour of fighting with her she finally came back and said she saw the problem and fixed it. It's been 4 months and every month it is the same. My bill is over $200 and I have to fight to get it down. I also have not received anything for the gift card and I ask every month and am told I should receive a post card shortly. They lie to get customers and continue their lies every month. BEWARE!!! Don't trust nothing they tell you!!!

Well this month they sent us the usual disconnection notice due by 3/19/15. Then a day later, they send the bill due 4/4/15. On 3/26/15, they disconnected our internet service even though the bill is not due until 4/4/15. We called them and paid the bill on the phone. The customer service person was happy to take our payment but hurriedly hung up the phone without telling us when the service will be restored. As soon as our contract expires, we are getting rid of CenturyLink. They are very frustrating to deal with.

Thinking I had finally settled the issue, I forgot about it until in March, I received ANOTHER bill ($111.00). When I called Customer Service, they indicated they were billing my dad until March 6, 2015. When I indicated I had faxed them all the items they requested back on February 27, they explained they could not cancel the service until the request went through the system (a week later). I asked what would have happened if both my parents had died at the same time, they indicated they would continue to bill until they disconnected!!! So, beware of this company my friends. I sent them what dad owed, but they lost so much more. I work for an insurance company selling home insurance, and I will definitely steer all people from their service. They have very poor ethics to demand money for service not rendered to an elderly Vet with Alzheimer's.

Here's the kicker: when I asked for a credit for the money we should've been credited due to the bundle for the past 5 months, they only refunded for 3 months which was $15. I asked if we could get the additional $10 someway and they absolutely refused - even when speaking with a supervisor! I told them that since I was such a "valued customer" I thought that they could grant the lousy ten dollar credit in another fashion in order to make it right, but nope! Sad when a huge company like that won't grant a ten dollar credit and puts it in their pocket. I will be switching when contract is up. Internet service should not be a headache.

Facts: a. From July 2014 to Dec 2014 CL billed me $8.75/month for a modem rental fee which I had bought outright. They overbilled me $52.50 so I complained on 12/26/14, 12/29/14 and Jan 14/2015 to correct it. The Rep. claimed that they "had no record" of the Dec. calls. A verbal credit of only $48.01 was granted and an adjusted balance of $68.95 was now due. The taxes were not credited which it should be as the charge should not have been posted in the first place -- Is this not theft? b. I received emails that I still owed the full $122.28 for the Jan 9 - Feb 10, 2015 billing cycle, with no credit being reflected. So I am confused as to what I owe. c. On Jan 23, 2015 I spoke with ** who said that she will cancel services. d. Continued to receive emails/statements online reflecting no credit or cancellation.

e. On 2/13/15 I called and the rep. said, "There is "no record" of your cancellation so you still owe for services to Feb 10/2015." The rep. ** said that only $15 may be due and that he will retroactively post the disconnection back to Jan. 23 and reverse any fees. He will send out a revised FINAL BILL. f. 3/18/15, received a bill for $61.05! How did it jump from $15 to $61.05? g. 3/24/15, I call the 1 877-493-4864 (**) and 800-788-3500 (Mr **) who both state that I owe the amount but it was now $89.95! A $28.90 late fee on top of a fraudulent billing!

Where is my credit for the taxes assessed on the router? How many other months have they been billing me for a router which I own? Why isn't the cancellation of my services reflected retroactively to the date of my request vs that they can only cancel at the end of a billing cycle? I hope that the FTC files a class action suit to recover the excess billings and late fees that this company assesses unilaterally.

I called customer service and was assured they would fix the issue, to send in the regular payment and my "case" would be escalated, so no late fees would accrue. Well, that never happened, so late fees were piled on my next bill, which was over $70, even though I made the regular payment/fee I was promised. I called again, and was once again told the same, although I had to pay the late fee or accrue more fees. Now, 5 months later, the issue was still not resolved. I finally contacted my state attorney general's office and was advised to file a complaint. I decided to give CenturyLink ONE more chance to fix my issue. I was passed from one woman, who had a serious attitude with me over my complaint of being overcharged. She seriously said, "Is this $13 extra dollars per month all you're complaining about, really?"

I informed her that if this company had pulled a bait and switch sale on her mother she may feel differently. She then became humbled and passed me to her "supervisor", after nearly an hour of her insisting there was "nothing we can do" about your being lied to and sold a product under false pretenses by our sales reps. Her supervisor only continued to repeat, "there's nothing we can do about that." That's when I took off the gloves and informed him that bait and switch was indeed illegal, along with unethical; I was advised by state attorney general to file a complaint AND I knew the calls were recorded, so there IS a record of the conversation I had with the sales rep. And if he could not deal with my issue, he needed to forward my call to somebody who could.

I was then transferred to a guy who held the key to adjustments and refunds. I explained my issues, I advised him that I knew my rights as a consumer and I knew the phone calls were recorded. Would he like to resolve this issue with me now, or should I file a complaint with attorney general for bait and switch sales techniques? He agreed to fix all my issues. Problem solved. I was refunded what I was overcharged over the past 3 months, my bills were adjusted and they NOW reflect the monthly service charges I agreed to in the first place, only 2 hours and 45 minutes of my time on my third call.

I guarantee my issue would not have been resolved if I did not use some keywords and phrases: "bait and switch", "illegal", "attorney general", "dishonest sales practices"... It only took 5 months to resolve. This company seems to have internal problems, in the sales department. The sales reps are given a "commission" if they sell you a package, although it's a flat rate for each person they sign up. They will promise the moon and stars, while they may know or not? it will be adjusted later unknowingly to the consumer.

Either way, bait and switch is ILLEGAL and that's what attorney general is there to help consumers out with. I hope this advice helps anybody who is going through the motions with this company. The company will be forced to change their dishonest sales techniques ONLY if people file complaints AND know their rights as a consumer! Good luck! FYI, their current BBB rating is D-. How they continue to be a member is beyond me?

I DO NOT recommend CenturySucks!!! They are absolutely the worst company on the planet!!!