[tuccillo]

I have only had one service issue with CenturyLink: lost the internet connection after some close lightning strikes. I called customer service and the fellow I talk to was able to "kick" something remotely from his desk that restored the connection. This fellow was very polite and very competent. I do technical work, I can tell when someone is clueless. Not all techs are created equal. Most customer service organizations are eager for feedback - let them know of your experience.

Originally Posted by Arctic Fox

I stayed in all day yesterday for the CenturyLink repairman. They gave me a window of "8am to 7pm" - they didn't even narrow it down to the morning or the afternoon - but even then he failed to show.

I knew the problem with outside with them, not my modem or computer, but I also knew from past experience that they would use any excuse just to leave without doing anything, so I wanted to be here. Of course, when he finally did arrive - gone noon today - the first thing he wanted to check was my set-up. He picked up my modem and said, in a disparaging tone, "oh, one that you've bought". I felt like telling him that only a fool would pay $5 a month to CenturyLink for one of their modems when buying one pays for itself in under a year, but decided to bite my tongue. He then looked at the wire leading from the modem to the telephone jack, which is some distance away, and made a suitably disparaging noise about that, too. Then he actually decided to test the signal, of which there was none - as I had already told them.

Finding nothing, he relented and went outside to look at their end of things. I don't know what he did - reset a trip switch probably - but he was back in five minutes and it was all working again.

Amazing, if he'd done that first he would have been all done in five minutes rather than having me hang around all day yesterday and half of today, and then take half an hour to check out things that were working okay.

Sadly, I have no choice other than CenturyLink and Comcast here - and I have heard nothing good about Comcast, either.