CenturyLink
Reviews and Complaints

Sent back our faulty modem but still got billed for the cost of the modem! Tried talking with a chat rep and they affirmed we would be credited back for the modem on our next bill. Well the next bill arrived and we've officially been charged. Talked with a chat representative a second time and directed us to their billing department which was closed. Loyal customer for 3 years, definitely looking at other ISPs in our area tonight.

Where to begin... When I first signed up, the put two accounts in my name and sent me two modem/routers. After an hour on the phone - they realized the mistake was on their end and closed one of the accounts. Yay! They did something correctly! The rest of the story has no happy points. I signed up for the Mb download and Mb upload package. They promised me a discounted rate without install charges and waiving the activation charge - I got charged for both. For the first 30 days (you can exit your contract with no financial obligation within 30 days) everything worked well even though I was getting Mb down and Mb up (close enough for me not to complain). On day 33 - my internet went to crap completely. Since then 2 installers cannot figure it out, and I have to restart my modem/router 3, 4, 5 times a day as the signal is the more unstable than a free cricket phone on a 2G network. I'm lucky to get 20mb down at most and the signal is so unstable every web service times out (Netflix, PS Network, etc). Funny thing is - I work in IT and I build networks. I've told the installers how to fix the problem, but they don't have the hardware they need and refuse to replace infrastructure components that are necessary for everyone within a few blocks to have decent service. Moral of the story: Century Link is Qwest - nothing has changed. The same business model of getting people in a contract and screw them for the most money they can. I will also mention that in the last 5 months I have been with them, they increased my price twice. I still don't have a stable network or the speeds promised 5 months later. I live in Mesa, Arizona and all other Century Link users in my neighborhood have all said the same things as I have.

Getting tired of this problem. Have major problem with the line coming from centurylinks side of the internet service. Approximately, every 5 to 10 minutes. They drop the dsl connection. I can't even read my email! Worse yet. When I go to reset the modem as per tech. support telling me to do so. The modem locks up into a "walled garden" state. Meaning that a generic ip address has been automatically reassigned to the modem. As a result of this. You end up with no internet what so ever! Then have to make another call to tech. support so they can reassign your account info. to the modem. Then, 'whew!', you have to remove the old wifi network and create a new wifi network with a new password, etc, etc, etc.. For each device in your household. This is simply unexeptable! Clearly, CenturyLink IS AWARE of this problem, or they would not be giving customers these instructions to get their internet service back. I hope that enough customers complain or even drop their service and hit them in their wallets enough to get some action taken.

I keep receiving repetitive annoying phone calls, text messages and oddly enough even some type of downloads I am unable to even open being sent to my cellophane which I have had over a year, so it's not as though I am receiving calls for a previous customer who had this cell number and the latest call I received was today at 1:10 pm. The number is derived from a landmine in Enfield, CT [protected]) and by the looks of it after searching the Internet to verify the person or company that keeps directing these annoying phone calls, text messages and the ridiculous downloads to my cell number it seems as though Connecticut has a fraudulent Company going by the name of " Reward Redemption's" and aligned to another company possibly a parent company or money laundering type company called " Global Crossing Local Services, Inc." . Basically a representative calls or texts you to pull a scam on you about a bogus card worth between $25.00-$500.00 that you supposedly have won (by luck, lol) but it's a scam just to have you pay a S&H (shipping & handling fee) between $3.95-$12.95 that literally doesn't exist because there is no card to begin with. Do the math people, let's say for example they convince 75 people to honestly believe them; $3.95 x 75 =$296.25 or $12.95 x 75 =$971.25 and then they keep this scam going year round the numbers get enormous . $296.25 x 365 =$108, 131.25 $971.25 x 365 = $354, 506.25 and I merely only based the $3.95 on what I am used to paying for a minimum S&H for a online purchase until I read another complaint about the same phone number about that company where the person was victimized being charged $12.95 for a bogus charge on a card that didn't exist. This is bs and this entire company needs to be stopped in there tracks and any other company out there doing similar activities to innocent people. We never go searching for your company but you go looking for us by buying our phone numbers through a 3rd party listing shared sometimes via different companies. There should be federal and criminal charges brought against such entities. The point is if these companies can get over so many people to believe this is honestly true just imagine how much they will have ripped off from you and other innocent people. So I am writing this as a warning, so beware of the number and someone posing that you won a card and I am contacting a lawyer. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991 (47 USC §227) and other related laws prohibit businesses from advertising through unsolicited text messages or unwanted phone calls to your cellular phone. These advertisements are also known as "spam text, " "spam text messages, " "mobile spam, " "wireless spam, " "mspam, " "robo calls, " "nuisance calls" or "unsolicited call". The TCPA allows private actions by persons subjected to the prohibited conduct and authorizes recovery of up to $500 per violation or $1, 500 if the violation was willful or knowing. The TCPA makes it illegal for advertisers to send texts or to make calls using an automatic telephone dialing system or artificial or prerecorded voices to cellular phones without the prior express written consent of the recipient. 47 USC §227 (B) Restrictions on use of automated telephone equipment (1) Prohibitions It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States, or any person outside of the United States if the recipient is within the United States (A) to make any call (other than a call for emergency purposes or made within the prior express consent of the called party) using any automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice (iii) to any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged for the call.

I would caution anyone considering the phony so called Cop. To shop else where and don't even get them as a last resort. They refused to let me cancel service / They lied and said I was on a which I am not and they forced me to have there lousy service and horrible customer dis-service.service.When I stopped paying their ridiculous bills the interrupted my service so I had contact them. I believe they are responsible for deliberately destroying my computer. And. I have changes ISPs and these creeps are still tring to scam me for services I didn't order hat they forced me to have. If you want have a total waste of time don't even consider the fly by night operaTION THAT CARES LESS ABOUT ITs CUSTOMERS. aS far as I'm concerned they are the buggiest Fraud I have ever experience. They are not an accredited member of the BBB. I can see why. In one thing I saw on the Internet they have 17 bad customer reviews, one good and one neutral. If that doesn't say they are the worst what does? Just don't waste your time with this so called Co, I have not heard anyone say onward good about they..They are full of lies and apologies and billing and ripping people off for lousy service not ordered

I was contracted for two years for the Internet and prism TV with Century Link. I was told that my monthly bill including all modem, HD and DVR costs will be $89 plus taxes. Now when I receive the bill it is double that amount and my calls to Century Link has been unsuccessful. I was told that Sales person made an error and I am now stuck with two years contract. This is considered a highway robbery. Please consider this while doing any business with this company.

I was told that my monthly bill would be 20 dollars a month, I added caller ID, for 10.00 more a month which should have been 33.33, but now was told that my bill is 45, 87. I was told that the federal charges would be 10.87. Taxes and Federal. Seriously? 10.87?

I had literally the worst customer service experience I have ever had from the Century Link team. I have been a faithful customer since 2002. I paid my bill on time every month. I received a bill stating I had not paid my bill for several months. I created an investigation and provided all of my bank statements showing I had paid the bill. I was assured by the representative that my service would not be disturbed. I came home last night to my service being cut off. When I called, I was transferred to 4 different agents and finally after an hour on the phone told to call back in the morning. I have just called them and after being transferred three times--I was told to pay it or they would not restore my service. I have been lied to and have now paid twice for the same service. The person on the other line ended the call by saying, "Century Link appreciates their customers." Another lie! I will be finding a new service for my residential contract. In addition, I own a business that uses Century Link--we will be looking for a new ISP--the contract value is large and they simply did not service a customer appropriately.

I hate this company. 1/4 to half of my bill is taxes. My bill for my landline is $17. Taxes are $13. My internet is $65. Taxes are $16. If I use my landline for long distance, they tax that too! It's a racket and their days are numbered. Ride that wave while you can CenturyLink because I'm done with you. My bill was $125 and $35 of it was taxes! They say the states "force" that on them but I never experienced this with AT&T Uverse. Their customer service is non-existent and when you do deal with them, they're rude. I'm canceling as soon as I find replacement.

I have been dealing with a billing issue since June 2015. It has taken as long as 2 hours to get through to customer service. Because I have never missed a payment with this company, I am in their "Loyalty Program". Apparently, being a good paying, loyal customer means we get lied to over and over and left on hold. My bill increased from $142 to $177. They frequently have "discounts" but make the customer call every 5 months to check to see what they are, rather than implementing it for their good customers. I first called on June 13, 2015 and they said they would adjust the bill. The next bill was about $7 higher but I just let it go. I then called again on August 14th. They promised to reduce the bill of $177.37 by $30 in discounts. In Sept. I received yet another bill but for $166.36. I called again and spent the entire morning on the line (9-15-15). They issued a case number for me in August so I had them refer to that and I was very angry for the treatment and failure to follow through. I was told that it took an additional 30 days for the discounts to post but I was assured that my bill would be reduced to about $142. My October bill has arrived and no adjustments have been made. I want the adjustments to be made and applied retro-actively. The customer service here is some of the worst I've ever experienced. It is impossible to complain any further than the service rep. So you must sit on hold for hours to re-hash the same issues.

Scam!

Yesterday, I made a call to what I thought was Centurylink support. The number listed off Google was [protected]. I gave the guy the OK to come into my computer to track the problem…Which was not getting mail. Ive had this done before so was OK, until he showed me some screen with some sort of intruder that had invaded my husbands computer … For 249.00 he would set me up correcting it with a new driver? I must say, I had a bad feeling, but continued…I was to take check to the bank get a tracking #, then call [protected]. Well guess what? I fell for the scam, but the end result turned around, after making contact with a REAL CenturyLink employee, by the name of Bob Weber {robert.[protected]@centurylink.com. His ID AB13348. The best customer service representative I’ve dealt with in a very long time. His patience was what I needed, knowing I had done what I’m very aware of that goes on out there. My husband was able to retrieve from the PO the check, so we felt much safer.

I know this happens much to frequent, but wanted to report anyway.

Thank you
Please let Bob know how much he saved my day!

this company is engaging in deceptive practices! They never mention contract when you call them and in fact they ADVERTISE no commitment service but when you try to disconnect they pull the "verbal contract" BS! They cannot produce a call, a date or a written notice of terms where a customer agreed to be committed (or under contract), but will still bill you for a deactivation (contact termination) fee each month!

Their customer service is HORRIBLE, I've waited at least 15 minutes on hold each and every time I've called and then got someone hard to understand, and not informed. Not to mention their service is beyond SLOW AND UNRELIABLE, do not use Centurylink PERIOD,

Horrific customer "service." Rude, unprofessional onshore, offshore, language. Missed installation appointment by technician and cannot get charges removed. Hours on phone being transferred, hung up on, "chatting" and emailing. If you need a landline for work and Century link your only choice, I am truly sorry for what you are about to experience.

If your job requires you to have a landline in your home and CenturyLink is your only option, I'm sorry. You will spend many many hours on the phone with customer "service." You will be transferred all over the globe, eventually hung up on and treated horribly. You will be overcharged, incorrectly charged, your pleas ignored. An ongoing nightmare.

I have tried several times to send an email (below error) to Tech Support and received this error:
I
Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, [protected]@selfservice.centurytel.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

I ordered 10 mpb of high speed internet on the 20th of August. There is a pattern that is causing our speed to continue to drop to 1.49 upload/.25 download every couple of days. You should have several repair tickets on file for this issue, of which none have solved the problem permanently, even after a Tech Lead rebuilt my account at least twice. The last call for repair was on Sept 7th. This time the Rep had us log in to our modem to check the DSL Power an DSL Status then submitted another provision request, stating "they may have to move my account to a different port". The speed came back up to 7.18 upload/.79 download that evening, fluctuating between this speed and 6.96 download/.78 upload until 2:06 AM this morning on 9-10. It is now back down to 1.50 download/.26 upload. Each time this happens, rebooting the modem does not resolve the issue. I would really like to get our internet speed corrected to 10 mpb permanently. I should not have to make a call to Tech support every couple of days for this service. Please reply when you have corrected the problem and let me know if this is going to be permanent. Thank you!

Prism TV experience…….First the billing; to sign up was offered great promotions for a year. At 7 months promotions dropped off and for the month prior I was peppered with emails and mailer cards pushing me to auto-pay, curious? Of course I called C.S. to ask why my bill jumped so dramatically, I was told the price went up. I was looking at my bill online and knew why it went up so I asked the rep the date of the Prism TV install, she gave a date 7 months ago. I asked if she was sure it was a price increase, she said absolutely. She then told me if I signed up for auto-pay she could take $15.00 per month off my bill, I went along with her on it and was given conformation #. She didn't know I knew the discount was only $5.00. I then asked for a supervisor. I asked him why my bill went up, he couldn't figure it out, I told him the rep said the price went up and asked him when it was installed, he then saw the issue. I told him about the $15.00 off for auto-pay, he said there is no record of it being added. I was given a new bill amount and told it would be that much every month. For the next 3 months it was much higher in different amounts. I called each month and was apologized to and given a new promotion off the bill ongoing which would disappear the next month. 4/17/15 I called and was given a guarantee of a set amount for 24 months along with another apology, 5/15/15 received bill that was $40.00 more than promised. I called and was told I've received too many promotions, I told the rep all promotions were offered, I didn't ask for them. I was told the $40.00 increase was a cancelation fee, I never cancelled anything. I was given a different amount it would be every month and was treated rudely. 7/25 my 1 year contract is up. NO MORE PRISM!
FINAL PRISM BILL $169.07; had $125.00 early cancel fee even though the year was up, it also had a mistaken charge for modem that had been returned. I had to go thru 3 C.S. reps to a manager before it was figured out, final bill total: $13.06.
As for picture; it was clear but it froze constantly. When you go to another channel, the one you're watching freezes for 3-5 seconds before it changes, it's supposed to be instant. I push the guide button it flashes on the screen and then disappears; it takes 2-3 times to make it stay on the screen. Scrolling thru the channel guide you'll let off the button at the channel you want and it keeps scrolling by itself. Called, they said reset the modem, did it but didn't do squat. I was hooked to their fiber optics system. Gone back to Dish Network where there's no B.S.
I do not recommend Prism TV with Century Link.

8/28/2015 My complaint with CenturyLink stems from the incorrect billing, overcharging, and fraudulent charges. Every month after receiving my bill online, I pay my bill directly online from my bank (CenturyLink wants my account number, which is never going to happen)...I assume they are making a killing from customers who do trust them with this information. Late charges have been added to my bill for the last three months even though my bill has been paid before I receive my paper bill in the mail. This results in a long, irritating phone call to CenturyLink to explain the situation and after much transferring they say it is cleared up and give me the amount to pay. The next month, same story. I am fed up and am waiting for the opportunity to have another option. My internet speed was increased from a speed of 1.5 mb to 3.0 mb...CenturyLink charges $5 a month for this huge increase in speed (joke). CenturyLink informed me that if I include long distance on my home phone it would save because I would be "bundling"...another joke...taxes and fees are also added to the long distance part of the bill in addition to the taxes and fees that are already part of the bill...I don't use my home phone for long distance so I informed them that I want to discontinue the long distance feature...they said, "Then your bill will increase because this is part of your bundle and the bill would go up dramatically...Sick of this company and their thieving ways.

We live in about 15 miles from Colorado Springs CO, in a small town called Peyton. The problem is that CenturyLink only offers 1.5mb internet here. I have called them many times, getting a variety of answers. One time they said that an upgrade was in the works, but the other 6-7 times that I have called they said that nothing is planned (just calling CenturyLink is an adventure - long hold times, dropped calls, snotty people).

I know that other in my development have the same issue - there are about 70-80 households (upscale houses) that have the same issue.

I have a friend who lives about 5 miles east of here in Black Forest CO, who has 25mb internet with CenturyLink.

What can we do? There are no other options except satellite internet, which in my experience is ... glacial. The local cable TV company isn't out here (and probably won't be because of the "lot size").