[fritzy]

Tuesday, Sept 27: I call CenturyLink and order triple-play: TV, phone, and Internet service. I am given install appt for Thursday, Oct. 6, their earliest appointment available. They will be here between 1-5PM.

Monday, Oct. 3: I call and confirm my appt. for Oct. 6.:They confirm.
Thursday, Oct.6th: Century Link never shows up! I call at 5:10 PM to see where they are? They're not coming. Problem with the "spot check."
I cancel the order for service since I am angry. They didn't show up after waiting 9 days and 5 hours., they never even called to tell me they weren't coming.

Thursday, Oct. 14: I call Direct-TV and order their triple-play. They explain they do the TV, but CenturyLink must do phone and internet. I figure its worth a 2nd attempt. Direct-tv connects me to CenturyLink and I schedule install date: earliest available is Thursday, Oct. 20. (Direct-tv installs TV satellite the day after I called-great job-love their tv service)

Monday, Oct 17: I call CenturyLink to confirm my appt for Thursday, Oct 20.
They confirm.
Wednesday, Oct 19: I find voicemail on my cellphone from CenturyLink saying they have to delay installation until Tuesday, Oct 25.
Thursday, Oct 20: I call CenturyLink to question the delay. They tell me they had a problem with the "spot check" but will be here on Tuesday, Oct 25

Tuesday, Oct 25: I call CenturyLink at 12:30pm to make sure they are coming. They tell me "yes, the spot check was completed" and they will be here by 5PM for install.
At 5PM, I call CenturyLink to see why they have not arrived. They tell me there was a problem with the "spot check" and will not be coming. I need to set a new appointment date. I cancel order.

So there you have it. That is my experience with CenturyLink. I plan to contact Florida's Attorney General to register a complaint. But thought people of The Villages should be forewarned.

[Moderator]

Bump...here it is fritzy. A quirky "feature" in the system that selectively puts some posts by newer members into a moderation status. The admin or a Moderator has to then approve it so it is visible to all.

Sorry for the delay...

[memason]

Originally Posted by fritzy

Tuesday, Sept 27: I call CenturyLink and order triple-play: TV, phone, and Internet service. I am given install appt for Thursday, Oct. 6, their earliest appointment available. They will be here between 1-5PM.

Monday, Oct. 3: I call and confirm my appt. for Oct. 6.:They confirm.
Thursday, Oct.6th: Century Link never shows up! I call at 5:10 PM to see where they are? They're not coming. Problem with the "spot check."
I cancel the order for service since I am angry. They didn't show up after waiting 9 days and 5 hours., they never even called to tell me they weren't coming.

Thursday, Oct. 14: I call Direct-TV and order their triple-play. They explain they do the TV, but CenturyLink must do phone and internet. I figure its worth a 2nd attempt. Direct-tv connects me to CenturyLink and I schedule install date: earliest available is Thursday, Oct. 20. (Direct-tv installs TV satellite the day after I called-great job-love their tv service)

Monday, Oct 17: I call CenturyLink to confirm my appt for Thursday, Oct 20.
They confirm.
Wednesday, Oct 19: I find voicemail on my cellphone from CenturyLink saying they have to delay installation until Tuesday, Oct 25.
Thursday, Oct 20: I call CenturyLink to question the delay. They tell me they had a problem with the "spot check" but will be here on Tuesday, Oct 25

Tuesday, Oct 25: I call CenturyLink at 12:30pm to make sure they are coming. They tell me "yes, the spot check was completed" and they will be here by 5PM for install.
At 5PM, I call CenturyLink to see why they have not arrived. They tell me there was a problem with the "spot check" and will not be coming. I need to set a new appointment date. I cancel order.

So there you have it. That is my experience with CenturyLink. I plan to contact Florida's Attorney General to register a complaint. But thought people of The Villages should be forewarned.

What is a "spot check" ?

[Hancle704]

Guess you could still get High Speed Internet and unlimited phone service in a bundled package from Comcast. Still waiting to hear what a "spot check" is.

[fritzy]

As near as I can figure, a "spot check" is when CenrturyLink sends someone out to verify the location of the house and that is it accessible to connect services. Since I am in The Villages and have seen CenturyLink trucks in my neighborhood, I don't know why it was an issue. The service-reps you talk to are not technicians so my explanation of a spot check is what she told me.

[pooh]

Mike and I though of you this late afternoon when the power went out in our area. We hoped that you finally had your service installed. It would have been awful to have your installer show up, around 5 today and then have the power go out...yikes!

[DCPassehl]

In our case we were given an install date of Nov 7 between 8 and 5:00. Day goes by and no one calls to give us status. Get voice mail when we call. Finally get a call back who gives us an 800 number to call. They can not get ahold of the installer and can not tell us anything except the installer might still come today or may be there in the AM and to call back if no one shows up. Wish I would have read your post first. We had Direct TV installed and they referred us to Century Link for Phone and Internet (at a discount). I can feel we made a big mistake and my gut feel is usually accurate. Perhaps their phone system is down or they have lost their internet connection !?!?!? Seriously - no excuses for treating people like this. I doubt we are isolated cases. Interested to hear from anyone who had good service.

[CaliforniaGirl]

Originally Posted by DCPassehl

In our case we were given an install date of Nov 7 between 8 and 5:00. Day goes by and no one calls to give us status. Get voice mail when we call. Finally get a call back who gives us an 800 number to call. They can not get ahold of the installer and can not tell us anything except the installer might still come today or may be there in the AM and to call back if no one shows up. Wish I would have read your post first. We had Direct TV installed and they referred us to Century Link for Phone and Internet (at a discount). I can feel we made a big mistake and my gut feel is usually accurate. Perhaps their phone system is down or they have lost their internet connection !?!?!? Seriously - no excuses for treating people like this. I doubt we are isolated cases. Interested to hear from anyone who had good service.

I got good service! Two guys showed up the day before my scheduled install date and ran a cable from the green utility box to the side of my house - they never came to the door and I didn't question it. Maybe that was the "spot check." The next day, the installer was due between 9am-1pm; showed up at 9:30ish and was there about an hour. Labeled my remotes for me and explained how everything worked. I LOVE the Prism TV! I had DirecTV in CA and loved it, but you know it never rains in Southern California...and my sister here in TV has nothing but problems with her Dish TV, which is why I opted for Prism. No regrets here at all. Sounds like I got really, really lucky though.

[Gretch298]

Being as we will be moving down in Dec. this info was a great help. Thank You!!!

[wendyquat]

Had a very bad experience with service regarding a new install of prism and internet. The prism never worked properly. This could have been forgiven with proper service, but I too was promised a tech would come and after showing up twice without letting me know, did not show up on the agreed upon date. I called at 4 p.m. on the day he didn't show between 8 and 12 and was assured he would be there by 5. NOPE! Didn't come nor call and we didn't have a TV to watch. Internet worked fine. After fooling around with them for almost three weeks, we made the decision to go to Direct TV and ONLY because we could still keep the Centurylink internet. Direct TV came the very next day and installed 4 tvs in less than 2 hours. So far, so good! I took the 4 Prism "boxes" back to our local Centurylink office and after waiting over an hour was told that our service would be terminated November 7. I stressed that we wanted to keep the internet and that they should not discontinue THAT. Well, par for the course, we had NO internet today. I called in and the tech, a very nice guy, asked me if I had received my "new" modem. I had not. He said they give you a different modem with Prism and I had to have another modem to go with Direct TV and it would cost me another $5.50 per month rent for the modem. HELLO! It is my understanding that bundling Direct TV with Centurylink give me a $5 credit each month. SO, they are going to charge me $5.50 in addition to $29 per month for the Centurylink internet!!!!! I can not recommend Centurylink to ANYONE because of their service ethics if for no other reason.
The tech did make some adjustments and get me on the internet for tonight but asked me to take the modem back to the Centurylink office ASAP and trade in for the different modem. He did tell me I could go to Best Buy and buy my own modem for $50 which I will probably do.

I would like to point out that I am normally a very easy going, patient person but this experience has really "blown me away". I don't see how Centurylink stays in business.

[Skip]

Originally Posted by wendyquat

I don't see how Centurylink stays in business.

Same goes for Comcast, but they do.

Skip

[memason]

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones..... I had no troubles with CenturyLink [internet] or DirecTV installations/service. They arrived when they said they would and installed my service. So far, I've had no reason to call them [back] for any further service, outage, etc...

Let's hope it stays that way...

[villages07]

Just got my most recent Century Link land line phone bill and noted a price increase. $28.18/month for the most basic of basic services and we are minimal phone users. May be time to investigate other alternatives.....comcast voice, magic jack+, ooma, etc.

Any other suggestions?

[memason]

Originally Posted by villages07

Just got my most recent Century Link land line phone bill and noted a price increase. $28.18/month for the most basic of basic services and we are minimal phone users. May be time to investigate other alternatives.....comcast voice, magic jack+, ooma, etc.

Any other suggestions?

Just go cellphone only .... It's been much cheaper for us to just eliminate the home phone. We make international calls regularly on the cellphones too.

Been without a home phone since 2004....

[villages07]

mike...good suggestion but we are just not there yet; still not satisfied with sound quality on Cells and strength of signals here in TV.