[Newbeginnings]

We currently have Centurylink internet service. I have been charged for a router which we do not have, I have my own I use for the service. I have called customer service that past 3 months being promised it would be credited, it never is. They were also charging me for over a year of leased equipment which I never had also, the bill never changes except increases that I never authorize. I have submitted a complain to the FCC and written the customer relations dept. Has anyone submitted to the FCC about CenturyLink charges? I did it with AT&T a few years ago and got immediate resolution. I am now quoting brighthouse to change service, biggest mistake I have made was turning onto Centurylink, buyer beware!

[John_W]

Have you gone in person to their office in front of Target next to Jim's Golf Shop? I have CL for internet and phone since July 2011 and have had the same bill since the first month. We signed up originally in person at that same office. Fortunately our connection doesn't require a modem, we plug the computer or router directly into a internet wall jack.

As far as the service goes, we've only had one outage that we know of. It was about a year ago and was caused by a lightning strike and was fixed the same day I called to report. We have a backup battery in the garage in case of a power failure, however the lightning fried the battery. We have been happy with their service for the 5+ years, fortunately we have never had to call customer service other than that one incident. I would make at least one in-person contact with them before giving up the service. I hear Comcast is no joy and Brighthouse has their faults.

[biker1]

My experience is the same as John Ws (see the 2nd post). I did use their router for a bit but eventually bought my own. I took their router back to the CenturyLink store on 441/27 and the monthly router lease charge was gone on my next bill. CenturyLink has been very reliable and I haven't had any billing issues.

Originally Posted by Newbeginnings

We currently have Centurylink internet service. I have been charged for a router which we do not have, I have my own I use for the service. I have called customer service that past 3 months being promised it would be credited, it never is. They were also charging me for over a year of leased equipment which I never had also, the bill never changes except increases that I never authorize. I have submitted a complain to the FCC and written the customer relations dept. Has anyone submitted to the FCC about CenturyLink charges? I did it with AT&T a few years ago and got immediate resolution. I am now quoting brighthouse to change service, biggest mistake I have made was turning onto Centurylink, buyer beware!

[Newbeginnings]

I did go the office, they said they could do no billing adjustments. I also have had my own router since day 1, but they keep charging me for one.

[biker1]

When you say "billing adjustments" at their 441/27office, are you referring to retroactively crediting you for past months? If you are instead referring to changing your level of service so as to not charge you a lease fee for the router, they will do this at their 441/27 office as that is where I returned my router and they changed my service to exclude the lease fee on their router.

Originally Posted by Newbeginnings

I did go the office, they said they could do no billing adjustments. I also have had my own router since day 1, but they keep charging me for one.

[Newbeginnings]

I am entitled to a credit, which they promise every month and no changes on the bill, not changing service level. I am not returning equipment. I am being charged for a router that I have never leased or owned from them.

[JCMSr]

Several months ago I signed up with Centurylink for my internet service. So far I have been very satisfied with the service but their customer service is bad, bad, bad. Took three months of calling before they got the monthly bills to match what I had been originally quoted. Two months ago I added their Prism television service and went through the same process. Each time I called I was given immediate credit on my monthly bill however it always takes more than one phone call to get things corrected permanently. Hopefully things will be OK provided I do not make any more changes to my service.

[Daddymac]

How much is the Service for television and Internet, and phone

[KathyW]

My year contract with CenturyLink ended on August 3, and I immediately changed to DirectTV and Brighthouse for internet. The sales agent wrote down that I would only pay $189 a month for one year, and by august 3 we were paying $240. I made many, many calls to CenturyLink but they said "nothing they could do about it". Also, two of my boxes had to be rebooted at least 2x week, signal kept cutting out for a second or so, and the internet was poor. My computer repair person told me they are the worst for internet. Never again.

[outahere]

Our experience has been pretty good.......

Our CenturyLink contract ended this past January and the monthly charge shot up to almost $250 (Prism TV, internet and phone). I called and spoke with a very nice, friendly agent and after discussing what my options were, the monthly charge was reduced to $160, and they even upped my internet speed to 40Mbps at no additional charge. I did return one remote TV box, that we weren't using, to the office on 441/27 and the rental charge for that was gone from the bill the next month. I have not done it yet, but the rep did tell me that if you sign up for direct billing to a credit card that you can save $10 a month, and if you sign up for direct debit to a checking/savings account you can save $20 a month. We've had them for almost three years and have only had to reboot the main box a few times to get an internet connection back. Much better than Charter that we had in Massachusetts.

[biker1]

The opinion of your computer repair person doesn't reflect other people's experiences. I have had broadband internet access for 20 years from a couple of different providers and the CenturyLink service in The Villages is as good or better than the other vendors. If you live in an area that is not serviced by fiber optic to the home (i.e. you have the older copper-based DSL) then your bandwidth is limited by the distance to the switching station. I have fiber optic to the house and the service is very reliable and they offer speeds up to 1000 megabits/second. I suspect you are not serviced by fiber optic to the home and have the older copper based DSL, in which case selecting CenturyLink may not have been a good choice.

Your pricing issues sound like they are no different than other people's experiences with Comcast, etc. I personally have never had that problem as the prices CenturyLink quoted me were always honored on my bills. You need to escalate to a supervisor when you have billing issues. Good luck with your new providers.

Originally Posted by KathyW

My year contract with CenturyLink ended on August 3, and I immediately changed to DirectTV and Brighthouse for internet. The sales agent wrote down that I would only pay $189 a month for one year, and by august 3 we were paying $240. I made many, many calls to CenturyLink but they said "nothing they could do about it". Also, two of my boxes had to be rebooted at least 2x week, signal kept cutting out for a second or so, and the internet was poor. My computer repair person told me they are the worst for internet. Never again.

[John_W]

Thinking back, I did make contact with CL customer service about pricing back in 2011 after I received my first statement. I was told by the rep at the 441/27 office when I was signing up, that my first internet/phone bill would be a little higher, about $100 and afterwards my rate would be $59.99 a month plus tax.

When my first bill arrived it was $250. I called customer service and explained the situation, the rep said they were in Orlando and the person to fix the problem was in Charlotte, NC, he called it the 'save desk'. After they switched me to Charlotte, the new rep within 10 seconds of talking said, your bill is now $100, you can write that on the statement and he gave me his name. Also at the time I was only suppose to have just 1.5 mbps and he said, you now have 10 mbps and we'll make the switch on Monday. I got his name and mailed in $100 with that statement, and everything else was true and service has been great since.

So next time when calling, you might say that I'm switching to a new company, I'm not happy with this poor service, and see if they switch you to the 'save desk' or say that you've heard others have gotten better results after talking to someone in the Charlotte office.

[Nucky]

Most calls to these providers now start with me saying give me the manage please or the cancellation department. It works like a charm. If you play nice it doesn't work. New Policy here, no more Mr Nice guy. Let them put in the notes whatever they must so if I ever have to call back they won't play around with me. I want to use my Internet, DirecTv and Verizon Wireless not about it to them.

[New York Transplant]

We will be moving to our new home soon, and signed up with CL. We ordered just the internet service and bought their router for $99 as we decided not to lease it. Sounds like they are charging you for the lease. But I must say that it was kind of hard to understand the customer service rep when we signed on due to the broken English however other than that I hope we don't have the same kind of problem when we arrive

[shumbapie]

Originally Posted by KathyW

My year contract with CenturyLink ended on August 3, and I immediately changed to DirectTV and Brighthouse for internet. The sales agent wrote down that I would only pay $189 a month for one year, and by august 3 we were paying $240. I made many, many calls to CenturyLink but they said "nothing they could do about it". Also, two of my boxes had to be rebooted at least 2x week, signal kept cutting out for a second or so, and the internet was poor. My computer repair person told me they are the worst for internet. Never again.

I had a similar problem with Centurylink. They promised me a fixed price for a two year period and after 4 months they started raising it. I cancelled after my 1 year commitment. I had an antenna installed in the attic and will add Roku and likely Sling TV when I get back in TV this fall.