Century Link installer did not show up!
 

On June 23rd, I made an appointment to have television programming added to our existing internet service. The installation was scheduled for today between 8 a.m. and noon. At the time I placed the order, I asked for the installer to be here as early as possible. The same request was made yesterday.

At noon, I called CenturyLink to find out why the installer had not arrived or called. Of course, I got the run-around, got put on indefinite hold, etc., etc. I gave the installer 15 more minutes to arrive, and he did not. When he did call at 12:35, I told him to make sure the installation was cancelled.

I am not interested in having a satellite dish on my roof. So, should I just go with Brighthouse, who is more expensive by about $10/month, or should I try again with Century Link? Another provider (south of 466A)????? :undecided:

Any helpful suggestions are appreciated.

$10 is one pitcher of beer..................go for it!

The fact that they did not call is surprising. I have internet through CenturyLink and they arrived within the window they stated. I would be inclined to call again but I would certainly make sure they wave any (and all) installation fees, etc. as they failed to keep the first appointment.

If you decide to go with satellite, you might be able to go with a pole mount by the side of your house. I say this because I prefer not to have non-roofers putting holes in my roof.

I always have had good service from CenturyLink. Call it a bad day and give them another try but certainly express your concern. Make the aware this is the last try

You can get that same experience with any one of the installers for television. So an answer is near impossible

Frankly whether its Comcast, Century Link, BrightHouse Direct TV, etc I do not believe viewers are getting their money's worth

We have had experience with both Comcast and Brighthouse. For my money Brighthouse wins HANDSDOWN. Their products are good and their Customer Service from my experience has been excellent. However, just my experience. Good Luck

I have had an excellent experience with Century Link. They showed up on time and the install was quick and painless. When I have needed customer service, the phone was answered promptly, and by someone in the US. This is opposed to my long nightmare with DirecTV.

I also had a terrible time with Century Link/Direct TV installation in April 2012 when we first moved here. I ordered TV, internet and phone while we were still up North to be installed the week after we were scheduled to arrive in TV. On installation day a CL truck showed up within the scheduled window. A man got out of the truck, walked around our house, checked one of the utility boxes in the back yard, got back in his truck and drove away. When he didn't return, I called CL and was told the installer would be back within the hour. He never showed so I called again and was told there was some problem with the service in our new area and rescheduled the installation for 2 weeks later. The next day a Direct TV installer showed up to hook up the TV. I went back in the house and make a cup of coffee before going back outside to discover that he had mounted a dish on my roof! I was expecting all services to come through the phone line as our friends who were already here told me. Since the dish was already up there, I decided to give it a try. I had also ordered an additional TV jack to be installed where I wanted the TV, but the Direct TV guy said he couldn't do that and CL would have to put in the extra jack. A week later I called CL and confirmed the phone install for the following week. On the install day I called CL again to get a time and was told 8a to 5p. He never showed. I called CL again and was told there was a scheduling contract and he would be there tomorrow. The next day he actually showed up but said he couldn't do the install because the Direct TV installer had run the dish cable through the phone box on the side of our house. The phone installer was really understanding and I removed the offending TV cable so that I could get phone and internet service. So everything is now installed and all is well. Right? No! The Direct TV was terrible. I could only record 2 programs ( at that time ) and could not watch a 3rd at the same time. Also, it sometimes took 10 to 15 seconds to switch to a different channel. No surfing here! Before a month had passed I cancelled Direct TV and got Prism. The Prism install went great and I am very happy with it. So here is some advice for anyone getting these services installed. 1) Don't put a dish on your roof!! I spoke with a representative of the Home Warranty Department and he told me that a dish on your roof voids your roof warranty. I removed the dish myself and had the original roof installer repair my roof to restore my warranty. 2) If you have a CL problem, go to their office in Rolling Acres and talk to someone in person. When you call CL's customer service you get someone different and in a different state each time you call. The CL people in Rolling Acres are nice and I always got results right away. 3) Avoid Direct TV. Their customer service woman outright lied to me. I called them to have the dish removed from my roof. They installed it, I did not approve it, and finally she said she placed an order for the removal and gave me a date. When I called the day prior I was told there was no order in their system and they never do that anyway. This whole mess cost me $500 so be warned.

I've had Century Link internet and home phone since August 2011, never have any problems. I do remember initially the installer was late, but then when he arrived he said they'll be no modem, your internet connection plugs directly into the wall jack. He asked where would I like a double wall jack, one for phone and one for internet, I told him at the end of the bar. Never have any outages with either.

I would of gone with their Prism TV except for the fact I want my NFL Sunday Ticket, which only Directv owns the rights. My neighbor just switched to Prism and they actually have about 15 more channels in HD than Directv, but for now I'm staying with Directv until this season is over. Their contract with the NFL will expire, so I'll determine based on that.

Thanks, everyone, for your comments and suggestions.

I did contact CenturyLink again last night by chat. Their Customer Service agent was not able to tell me why the installer did not show up. He asked if I wanted to elevate my complaint to the Escalation Team. I did so. After hearing the team leader's many guesses, he was still not able to give me the real reason. He leaned toward the installer having an installation emergency. What could that be? He also said that if the installer were with another customer, he would not answer calls from the dispatcher. Really? He also said that perhaps the installer did not call to tell me he would be late because he could have been up a pole, under a house, etc. Again, really?????

I haven't decided on another provider yet, but it won't be CenturyLink.....not after those explanations or excuses.

Again, thank you!

You expected him to know the answer from his desk in India?:shrug:

Great suggestion about the pole mount for the dish! Thanks.

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.

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.

I shall do.

I am amazed at the different approaches to customer service between the various tech companies.

I used to have DirecTV and to get it "off vacation" I just called a toll-free number, said a few words to the automated system, and seconds later the TV channels sprang to life.

With CenturyLink it is like getting teeth pulled - and while they have you on the phone they take every opportunity to try to sell more services to you.

A shame because whoever they were before CenturyLink took them over had a great website where you could go on or off vacation at the click of a mouse.

So the technology is out there - it just depends how hard for you the companies want to make it to go on or off vacation.