Be Careful with Century Link

[stormchaser]

If you "think" you signed up for a "lifetime" $65/mo deal Century Link was promoting last year for their fiber optic service, chances are you didn't.

My first year was up last month and I looked at my bill and it was increasing from $65 to $95/mo. When I contacted customer support because that made no sense with a lifetime deal, they told me what I had actually signed up for wasn't the "lifetime" plan even though I was told over and over by the sales person it was a lifetime plan and my price would never change as long as I didn't change my plan.

In other words, they pulled the old "bait and switch".

Looking at the "Next Door" app, it appears they did this same thing to NUMEROUS other people in the Omaha area.

Terrible way of doing business and extremely illegal though I don't have any proof since everything was handled in-person and ultimately it was my responsibility to read what I was signing (all 20 pages worth). Still complete BS. I fought with their customer support to at least get a $65 per month deal for the next 12 months though my confidence that it won't change in a month or 2 isn't very high.

Regardless, I will be cancelling as soon as Google Fiber (or something else) is available in my area (Cox is equally as terrible IMO).

[Louie]

I was seeing that in our neighborhood groups. Really shady |expletive|.

[riceweb]

> my price would never change as long as I didn't change my plan.

Surely they have a record of changes that you made? And if they can't produce that, they should honor the $65/month price?

[Habits76]

I'm using Quantum Fiber which is owned by Century Link but my bill has remained the same price for the last year and few months. I'm currently locked in at a flat $60/mo but I wouldn't be surprised if they jack my bill up too.

The good thing lately is that there seems to be a lot more competition coming to the local market for fiber. I dumped Cox as soon as I could last year and never looked back, constant outages and working from home was a major annoyance.

[djc311]

I'm using Quantum Fiber which is owned by Century Link but my bill has remained the same price for the last year and few months. I'm currently locked in at a flat $60/mo but I wouldn't be surprised if they jack my bill up too.

The good thing lately is that there seems to be a lot more competition coming to the local market for fiber. I dumped Cox as soon as I could last year and never looked back, constant outages and working from that was a major annoyance.

Our Cox network went down in my neighborhood about 2 months ago for two weeks straight - it only affected one block of houses and there were Cox trucks out here everyday trying to fix it. Funny thing was we'd call Cox daily and I'd say 80% of the time they'd say there wasn't an outage.

I got so fed up with them that I ended up getting the Verizon 5G home box. It works "OK"... it's only $35/month, but it definitely isn't Cox fiber speed. Sucks because I'd love to dump Cox as well - but not for Century Link. My understanding is they don't share fiber networks so each company has to come in and install their own lines (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).

It's surprising to me that some things (ie, high speed internet) is still such a monopoly and/or challenge to work around. I ended up keeping the Verizon box because I figured three things: 1.) it's $35/month 2.) I can use it as a backup when Cox goes down (which is likely inevitable) & 3.) I ended up getting the NFL Sunday Ticket for "free" by signing up to it.

I figure if I keep it for a year (Verizon's service) it's somewhat of a wash given the football package.

[stormchaser]

> my price would never change as long as I didn't change my plan.

Surely they have a record of changes that you made? And if they can't produce that, they should honor the $65/month price?

Yeah, that's the problem though. I never changed my plan and they know it. What they did was tell me (multiple times) was that I was signing up for a "$65/mo lifetime plan" but what they actually had me sign up for with the contract I signed was a $65/mo for 1 YEAR plan (in other words, the wrong contract) - and since they conveniently don't offer the lifetime plan any longer, "there is nothing they can do about it".

[stormchaser]

...and since this same issue happened to so many other people, it obviously wasn't unintentional. They were clearly baiting and switching people knowing nobody would thoroughly read the contract they were signing and would just assume they were signing up for what they were being told they were signing up for.

[Greg S]

Centurylink has the absolute customer service. We had them at work and it was just too undependable. Our company then had a hard time getting them to cancel our service. It was brutal.

[Renovator2559]

I have the 1Gbps fiber service, never had a single cent raised on me; I also monitor the latency and uptime as my servers depend on reliable connections. Bandwidth is obviously not affected by other customers like cable tends to be.

[stormchaser]

I have the 1Gbps fiber service, never had a single cent raised on me; I also monitor the latency and uptime as my servers depend on reliable connections. Bandwidth is obviously not affected by other customers like cable tends to be.

I have the 1Gbps fiber too. Hopefully they don't raise it for you but how long have you had them for? For me, the price stayed the same until I reached my one year mark. Then they played dumb and claimed I didn't sign up for the "lifetime plan" (when clearly I was told that's what I was signing up for).

[Renovator2559]

For CenturyLink I have had my service for 5 years now, not a dime or hidden fees raised.

Maybe these price increases that you got, were because of a policy change for newer more recent customers.

Cox and CenturyLink are going to have to get their act together. There are new fiber competitors soon, Google Fiber, Allo Communications and Great Plains Communications.

[stormchaser]

For CenturyLink I have had my service for 5 years now, not a dime or hidden fees raised.

Maybe these price increases that you got, were because of a policy change for newer more recent customers.

Cox and CenturyLink are going to have to get their act together. There are new fiber competitors soon, Google Fiber, Allo Communications and Great Plains Communications.

Yeah, it seems that way with most (if not all) of the people having a similar experience from what I've seen were new Century Link customers.

And I 100% agree. Those companies will be in real trouble soon with other competition coming in.

[GenX]

Cox and CenturyLink are going to have to get their act together. There are new fiber competitors soon, Google Fiber, Allo Communications and Great Plains Communications.

That being said, this goes for everyone: If a company laying fiber offers to connect dedicated fiber to your home for free, especially without a contract, do it.

It’s the modern day equivalent of having a phone line run to your home.

Allo did this for free with no contract in Lincoln and I absolutely loved it.

[Athomsfere]

When we went bought the condo, I thought about going with CL.

But, there sales people even rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe I've just work with and had to deal with vendors enough that I am paranoid. But the sales guy was obviously under pressure to sell, and ignoring basic instructions and requirements I had.

The final straw for me was I knew the place had active service, confirmed it with the rep, and said I needed service today and would get a modem. Sales said it would take several days for the modem to be provisioned on their end.

IMO: If I have a bad feeling from the sales guys, and the best case scenario of changing a configuration can take days: There is no way a real issue will be addressed quickly.

Went with Verizon's 5g Home Internet instead. So far, it's fine. And priced locked at $35 for 2 years.

I personally never had problems with Cox. I provide my own modems and home networks. The only gripes I really have are I have to call every year to tweak my bill.

[advcomp2019]

I have been with CenturyLink even before it was Qwest. I kinda gave up on CenturyLink for Verizon 5G Home Internet too.

CenturyLink was still stuck at 12Mbps/.7Mbps for me, and I seen the need for faster speeds. With Verizon 5G Home Internet, I get way better speeds.

[Doctor Fate]

For CenturyLink I have had my service for 5 years now, not a dime or hidden fees raised.

Maybe these price increases that you got, were because of a policy change for newer more recent customers.

Cox and CenturyLink are going to have to get their act together. There are new fiber competitors soon, Google Fiber, Allo Communications and Great Plains Communications.

I have had CenturyLink too, for about 3 years and never had any price changes, fees, or literally even a service outage. My wife and I have both been on Zoom calls and been streaming Netflix and there was no lagging. Our network speed is usually around 350 mbps. My neighbors all have Xfinity and have an outage a month, it seems.

Their customer service could be quite a bit better though.

[Renovator2559]

For CenturyLink I have had my service for 5 years now, not a dime or hidden fees raised.

Maybe these price increases that you got, were because of a policy change for newer more recent customers.

Cox and CenturyLink are going to have to get their act together. There are new fiber competitors soon, Google Fiber, Allo Communications and Great Plains Communications.

I have had CenturyLink too, for about 3 years and never had any price changes, fees, or literally even a service outage. My wife and I have both been on Zoom calls and been streaming Netflix and there was no lagging. Our network speed is usually around 350 mbps. My neighbors all have Xfinity and have an outage a month, it seems.

Their customer service could be quite a bit better though.

Wait its 350mbps? I thought there was just one speed at 1Gbps for Centurilink? Still that is more ample enough speed
In my opinion cable, whichever cable monopoly company you are part of, tends to be unreliable as you say and not only that; bandwidth tends to be shared among surrounding neiighbors.

[Doctor Fate]

For CenturyLink I have had my service for 5 years now, not a dime or hidden fees raised.

Maybe these price increases that you got, were because of a policy change for newer more recent customers.

Cox and CenturyLink are going to have to get their act together. There are new fiber competitors soon, Google Fiber, Allo Communications and Great Plains Communications.

I have had CenturyLink too, for about 3 years and never had any price changes, fees, or literally even a service outage. My wife and I have both been on Zoom calls and been streaming Netflix and there was no lagging. Our network speed is usually around 350 mbps. My neighbors all have Xfinity and have an outage a month, it seems.

Their customer service could be quite a bit better though.

Wait its 350mbps? I thought there was just one speed at 1Gbps for Centurilink? Still that is more ample enough speed
In my opinion cable, whichever cable monopoly company you are part of, tends to be unreliable as you say and not only that; bandwidth tends to be shared among surrounding neiighbors.

It is supposed to be 1 gbps. But we never get more than 650 where we are. They say in the fine print that not all areas will get that speed.

[Renovator2559]

So they are impacted by area, I thought that wasn't the case because I get consistent 950mbps+, and I have active monitoring on my service line