CenturyLink
Reviews and Complaints

CenturyLink has some suspicious language on their advertisement for the $19.95/mo. for 5 year plan. "CenturyLink may change, cancel, or substitute offers and services, including Locked-in Offer, or vary them by service area, at its sole discretion without notice." It sounds like they can do just about anything they want. Definitely deceptive advertising.

I have exactly the same problems. I have to reboot my modem every evening at least once to get it to work, and it's one that I'm "renting" from Century link. Te last modem just quit completely and had to be replaced. I'm wondering if it's time to do that again.

Doug, the first step CL needs to take is called being accountable. Customers hate the excuses CL routinely gives, and hearing that CL is never at fault for our poor connections. Mine was great with QWEST, now I have drop outs all the time, they are not on my end. I just wasted a hour trying to get help from CL. Is CL's time more valuable than mine? I can see by the thousands of posts that CL needs to make some big changes. CL can't fix their connections speed until they are accountable for the problems they have. I will be one of thousands who switch to an honest ISP.

I've been a Century Link customer for almost 12 years and this year is the last. My bill went from 184. a month to 299. for prism, phone, and internet. I called as soon as I realized it was charged. The billing rep told me that my "specials had run out" and now this was the pricing. I called her on 3/3. With her help we got the bill back down after taking off channels to 175 a month starting on the next billing cycle. The billing cycle started on 3/4, then I get charged again for 299. I called and talked to rep, she said it added up wrong. I ended up speaking to an escalation service rep and he sure escalated me. He said I missed the billing cycle and it would go into effect next month and they were giving me a credit of 75, which doesn't add up. I'm switching my service.

I agree, I have had centrylink for awhile now. My problem is the bill keeps going up every month. The internet always cuts out and is never stable. I'm on the phone with their customer service and have been transferred six times now all to the wrong department! I'm so done with this company when ever I do get through you can bet that all of my services are being shut off as of today. That is if I can ever get to the right department. Horrible customer service all around and I would advise everyone to stay far away from their internet and phone service they are giving direct TV a bad name!

I looked forward to when the service was going to be available in my area. When we saw the service trucks prepping the neighborhood I anxiously wait for to opportunity to sign up. At last a rep showed up at my door and we set up everything even having a call recorded as proof of the conversation. I had service in three days and enjoyed TV signal, internet and phone services. No problems at all. Then my first bill came which they had said would be high because of set up and other things I knew of but this was double what I expected. I contacted customer service and after more hen an hour I finally had someone tell me to pay what I thought was right and they would start an investigation and get back to me. I received my bill the following month for more then double what I was quoted plus late charge and what I had shorted them the previous month. Spent more then an hour on the phone but finally got the similar answer that I would pay what I quoted and they would check on the investigation. Two weeks later I received a disconnect notice. I spent a couple hours on the phone and using the web site before again getting a person to assure me we would not be disconnected because I have been making payments and the investigation was still in process. THREE DAYS LATE I WAS DISCONECTED. Again spent a couple of hours on the phone and our services were turned back on and the disconnect few was waved because of the communication I had been doing since I received my first bill. I was instructed to contact a customer loyalty number and they would clear up everything. This is the best part. I called the loyalty line and spent time with someone who didn't want to transfer me to them but eventually did. I spoke to a lady who said that they couldn't confirm what I was saying because that recorded conversation that was the proof of the quoted price and service was only held for forty-five days. No investigation was on record and that if I wanted she would sign me up again but at a much higher monthly rate and all the back payments were my responsibility because they don't keep any records that they could refer to and that I could be lying. I had the name of the person who came to my house, the name of the person that recorded the original quote. The service was great but the company is run by a bunch of idiots.

Prism is horrible! Since having it installed in December 2014 I have had multiple weel
Kay issues with phone, Internet and tv service. Techs are here at least twice a week which disrupts my schedule. I constantly have to unplug, reboot! The tv streaming stutters and freezes, Internet and phone were down for a week. Do not switch to Prism!

I recorded and saved lots of shows so that i would have something to watch over the next 2 weeks, because of the holidays there's not much on TV to watch until Jan 4th. Now all i have is a BIG RED X. First reboot was an X13 and now an X10. All those saved recordings GONE! It's a Saturday night so they can't schedule me until Monday late afternoon or early evening. I've had the freezes and the sluggish reaction time when using the remote and oh, when you do a search you feel like you're looking at a computer from when computers had dial-up modems watching swirly circles and waiting for your search to finally process. I'm a pro at resets, unplugging and rebooting. I am disgusted with prisms' DVR. Movies GONE, weeks of my favorite shows GONE, live TV GONE and my patience GONE. What am i paying for?

Prism is the absolute worst TV experience I have ever had. An antenna would be better. We switched from Direct TV to Prism. Ever since the switch, we have had TVs freeze up temporarily then resume at a later point in the show. A tech came out to the house, screwed around with some wires in the junction box outside and said it should be OK now. Channels were still freezing up all the time. Now the HD channels are all unavailable...CenturyLink says they know about the problem and are trying to fix it. No estimate on when repairs will be complete, or information as to what the problem is.
Going to switch back to DISH. They provided the best service we've ever had. The only time we ever lost a signal was during a torrential downpour.
If you're thinking of switching to Prism...think again. It's not worth the few pennies you'll save.

Centurylink prism is the worst service I've ever had. Everything interfere with my internet service, the microwave, the dryer, etc. My tv channels keep going blank saying"protected by tv 14". Centurylink has tried to talk me thru this and nothing happens when I go by their instructions. I've had prism about 1-1/2yr now, & have had several promises to come fix, and no one calls or shows up when they say they will. I'm currently looking for another service that's better and has better customer service. I'm paying too much money to not have internet & tv service working.

I am new to century link prism... installed yesterday...TV froze last nite... I had to call 3 times today as it keeps freezing...told they will send a tech on Monday as tech do not work in this area on Saturday...yet I saw a century link van drive right by my door... after reading above replies and complaints I am glad they offer 30 month trial...because I am going back to direct TV...
I don't like it always freezing and then to wait 30 minutes to even speak to someone is absolutely ridiculous!
I guess I will be doing a lot of swearing tomorrow when my Patriots game freezes... NEVER had this problem with direct TV

Another thing. even my families noticed it when they come to visit and we all watch a movies together. You think they would want to switch to prism after seeing how bad the pictures on my tv? Now when i go to there house, some of them has dtv and cox, the pictures are far better. id wish i had wait it out to see other customers with prism before i switch. Why dont you have direct connection? I hope this gets resolved. until then, i will let everyone knows how bad the picture quality is. Tried calling in, im tired of the hold, transfers, and get nowhere. Now im stuck with this contract for 2 years. ?

I also have prism tv. Its horrible service and bad pictures. I had cox hd before and the pictures are far better. prism hd sucks. they have my rooms on wireless. all wireless cannot produce the same picture quality. you can see grains and blurs. its worse on regular channels. I have led flat screens Samsung 60 inch. makes my tv looks like ###. Not happy. I want out from prism and go back to Cox.

Good rule of thumb is to never let your current provider know you are moving. Start the request from the other side (the porting to side) and let them submit the port request for you. This way it should go smooth. At least it has worked better for me...

I was told that they would send a modem. They charged me three months internet, without a modem, and now they tell me it is my fault.

I was charged 150.00 for 1 month's internet.I wrote them that I thought this was outragious! Did no good.They lied to me and told me my internet would be 60.00, what can you do? They already sent my bill to a collection agency.I have to pay it so they don't ruin my credit! I hope they get sued for their crooked business practices!

I worked for Centurylink in customer care for almost 2 years it’s truly a terrible company. Centurylink does not have a dedicated customer care department it’s a sales department. Centurylink looks at the calls to customer care as $$$$ signs. They looked the other way when top sales associates slam accounts with products and services. If you weren’t top in sales you are treaded like dirt and always threatened to be fired if you didn’t meet sales quota. People would get fired on a weekly basis and the training classes which we called our replacements were constantly churning out new agents. I’m shocked they don’t get giant fines for over billing. To give a couple examples for the state of Florida during the full year of 2011 when a customer went on vacation mode they didn’t get the discount unless the customer called in every month for it and when they came back from vacation the system would charge them a $53.00 connection fee. Another example when a customer calls in to add a call feature the system auto charge the account a $53.00 connection fee as if it is new service. Centurylink was aware of these over billing problems and never fixed them. I would give thousands of dollars a month in credits because of the dishonest over billing. These are just a couple examples of many! You know you work for a bad company if you won’t even subscribe to their service. I started to look for a better job when I received my first write-up for falling short meeting quota I had 89.10% and I need 90.00% to goal to meet quota. I’m happy to report I no longer work for Centurylink as they are paying for me to look for another job via unemployment. Two weeks after being fired Centurylink is downsizing because sales are bad and the call center I worked at in Altamonte Springs Florida is closing on June 1 2012 and everyone is being fired. I can’t say I feel bad for the supervisors! You should stay away from this company at all cost!

Not surprised. Problem is, they will learn nothing from it. I just got hooked up with CL a few months ago, and their $35 internet/phone offer is in reality, $50. They don't know the meaning of the word honesty. And their service is horrible. The internet cuts out several times a week. And now the phone has gone out--2 weeks after burying the cable! They say we must agree to an indoor service fee of $90 even if they don't have to go indoors!

Qwest is run by incompetent fools and criminals, and in no way deserves to be in business, but Xfinity is way to expensive. --AGF

They call repeatedly and leave no message.

Hi Doug:

Thanks so much for the reply back. I called Directv the other day and they were actually happy to help me out, in all of two seconds, via the phone. I think if people are in areas (like Colorado) where Century Link is a Directv re-seller it would be not only helpful but beneficial for Century Link customer service to just re-direct inquiries like mine back to Directv (ie: just let the customer know at the start of the call that Directv would be the one to help them directly) vs running the person around in circles for 2 hours only to come back and tell them that they are wrong and will be charged to have a new receiver brought out to them.

AND, if Century Link is going to be a re-seller, especially at the point of sale for a new customer, it would help if all of your sales folks and customer service people had the same information. Clearly they do not because I was never given consistent info on anything -from pricing to packages to explanation of services. Even during my most recent call with Directv about the DVR receiver swap out (just the other day) I was given insight into their OnDemand product that was never explained to me during any of my calls with Century Link during my investigation phase or at the point of sale.

Just some food for thought for Century Link

Thanks so much

As a new customer I was under the impression that I was getting the DVR service and also On Demand capabilities. I went through 5 calls prior to ordering and stated what I was looking for and what I had with Comcast. I won't even go through all of the conflicting information I received via those 5 calls. When my receiver was delivered it was a standard receiver - which I had agreed to because I thought that meant it was NOT HD (since I had been asked if I had HDTV about 20 times). The installer called in to his office when he arrived at my house to ask about my DVR and was told that "the promo code entered for the order had expired" and that I should call and someone would be able to bring me the DVR for no additional charge. (I heard that being said to him via his mobile and it was, in fact, what he told me when he hung up). I called Century Link (was re-routed there from Directv) and after 3 hours on the phone was told by a supervisor that I was wrong and I would have to pay to have someone come out with the DVR receiver. - there was nothing they could or would do for me and there was no such thing as a promo code for the DVR receiver.

I literally just now realized that I also do not have On Demand capability without that receiver (which was something I had expressed was important to me since I had On Demand with Comcast) so I called Directv. I spoke with Mario who told me that since I was within the 90 day window I should absolutely be able to get the DVR receiver I had anticipated without an additional charge - but I would need to call Century Link. I am not sure why I had to spend 3 hours post delivery with Century Link only to be treated so rudely and told that I was out of luck. Naturally I was frustrated by the end of that 3 hour call. I had been with Comcast for 15 years and only switched over due to what I was told I could receive via the 5 calls prior to my official order and sadly the experience I have had with Century Link is now affecting my feelings about Directv. In a time when loyal customers are tough to come by and retention rates are of utmost importance you would think that Century Link would be cognizant of the fact that they have the opportunity to retain a person who had been with Comcast for 15 years.

So, I am going to attempt the nerve racking effort of calling - again- to try to receive the DVR receiver I thought I was getting from the start. I will mention what Directv has told me about the 90 day window and that there should be no issues with someone swapping out my receiver for no additional charge and if I am treated with the same awful attitude, I'll just have to report Century Link to the BBB, I guess.

"tricked her into getting Direct TV never did say you needed a dish"

Direct TV is SATELLITE TV. How do you think SATELLITE TV comes to your house?

And how can you be "tricked" into signing up for something? It is the salesman's job to sell you something, and it is the consumer's job to do their homework before signing.

"tech would not leave ended up calling the Sheriff's Dept and filled no trespassing charges on the tech, "

...as if the cops have nothing more important to do?

I wish I had another option. Centurylink is one of the only ISPs in my area. Service has slowly, steadily degraded and now our internet speed is barely above dial-up, yet we are billed for full internet service. We also have DISH internet, which is much faster, but is limited to 50 gbs per month. I operate a small business and need consistent internet, so I now pay for both ISPs. I have complained to Centurylink many times, only to be told that nothing can be done. They explained that all of the internet gets used up by other customers by the time it gets to me, and there are no plans to upgrade the system. Yet, the bill remains the same. I have been looking for a class action lawsuit to join. I'm so sick of seeing ads for Centurylink bragging about how much they care about rural customers. This is clearly a lie.

CenturyLink is the most deceptive companies I have ever encountered. The third party billing is the thing that broke the camels back for us. Every month third party billing would appear on our bill and every month we called CenturyLink who passed the buck to the third party. Now since CenturyLink controls the billing it would seem logical that they also control who the bill for when the disclose private information which they are suppose to protect and NOT share with their third party. We have no idea who these third party's or who gave them the authority to charge us with bills that ranged from 13.05 up to 79.00 every single month. When we told both CenturyLink and the third party that we did not authorize or use the third party and we would not pay the charges we were told that credits would be issued and that it might take 30 days, well you guessed it 30 days and more charges and yet another third party bill so we called again and this time we were told that there was no record of us calling and that we would not be given a credit so again we refused to pay any third party charges and went on CenturyLinks web page as instructed and blocked third party billing and like every month before we got a bill with two third party billing at 50-85.00 per month which doubled our bill which was a negotiated contract rate which was NEVER correct to begin with, after 17 months of this same ### day in day out month in month out I SNAPPED I terminated the service with CenturyLink and filed complaints with the FTC, BBB, CPFB, Utah Attorney General and in the process of filing a law suit against the CenturyLink and both third party deceptive business practicing FRAUD. The kicker for them is they all participated in fraud and that involved the IRS who is getting a long letter detailing the issues and itemized bills for the last 14 months which shows double triple and creative tax collecting which I doubt is ever sent to the IRS, The math errors is just a joke, my 6 year old grand child could out math these low life thieves and that is all they are THIEVES. See all of you in court and I guarantee that I will be the one walking out of the courthouse with Judgements against all of them. They deserve to have criminal charges brought up agsinst them and I hope that Utah's AG will hold them to the fire...Victoria Millward, just one more person screwed blued and ripped off by these con artists...I hope someone does the same thing to their parents or their children or anyone they love...

I too have a huge complaint against Century Link. Lost service on Wednesday, called technical support and was told that it was a known outage and there was no service person available until Sunday. The degree of sarcasm and total lack of concern or of and type of customer service was evident in the person's voice who handled my call. They do not care and to be correct they probably could care less whether you have phone service or not. I ask if I was going to be credited for the lost days and was told that after my next bill came I could call customer service and ask for a credit and then they would determine whether or not to issue a credit for lost days of service. TOTALLY unacceptable! Who out there can help me?