CenturyLink, I know you read this board. That's how we met. An open letter:

[HillWilliam]

Last edited Wed Aug 22, 2012, 09:38 PM - Edit history (1)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1299237781504204785

You haven't bothered to dignify any CenturyLink feedback link with a response though I have been unfailingly polite and completely factual. So far it has been between you and me. Since you apparently think you can hide behind bitbucket email addresses and do-nothing technicians who only run customers in circles, I have little compunction left in warning my fellows about your modus operandi. They deserve to know.

I depend on my Internet service for work, for news, and yes, to interact with my friends here on DU. For over three years you've totally failed to get one simple circuit working right. It has been one excuse after another, promises of credits for services not provided that never showed up in my account, mealy-mouthed "I don't knows", idiot first-level technicians in India who won't or can't read the account history and want to start with resetting the modem AGAIN when we both know the problem is NOT in this house, and this past Saturday one poor fellow who barely spoke English at all. I'm perfectly capable of capable of conversing in technical Spanish, but I'm not sure what your technician's native language was. Then there was the fatboy technician you sent out last year who hadn't bothered to update the maps in his laptop in over a year; the one who ran my old fatboy ass all over this hill pointing out the pedestals while he rode in his truck. He never did find the ped with my signal in it nor did he fix my problem.

Thank you for wasting that entire afternoon. Thanks for the insect bites and poison ivy. I could have done better with my own buttset and signal injector if you'd asked first. (Yes, I have worked in Outside Plant and I currently work as a Systems Engineer. I'm very familiar with networking and transports.)

I have had less that 50% uptime for the last six weeks. When I called in July your second-level technician said there was a cabling issue affecting my immediate area. He would issue a credit to my account for the inconvenience, especially in light of the chronic problem with this line. This Saturday when I called back and referenced the ticket number I was given (because I STILL had less than 50% service per day) I was told the ticket had long-since been closed.

Imagine my surprise.

Since Sunday I have had approximately 90% uptime, but with approximately 512Mb download speed. I am paying for over twice that speed. I have been paying for over twice that since incept yet I have never once received it. I'm getting constant connection resets, dropped packets, and errors. The noise margins are still high and so is the attenuation. You keep telling me that 17,800' is well within feasibility. It certainly has been everywhere else I've lived. Somehow in over three years you've never made it work.

You have some serious 'splainin' to do. You take the money but you don't give the service. There's a word for that; well, quite a few, actually, ranging from "contractual failure to perform" down to "fraud". The nicest is "lie".

I have read good things about Excede. While WildBlue was a wholly unsatisfactory connectivity solution, Excede will likely meet my needs. The reviews are good. I am a fairly low consumer of megabytes -- what I need is reliability. CenturyLink is clearly nothing more than the old, lying, price-rising, bait-and-switch, unreliable Embarq with a glossy new logo.

Within three weeks, color me a former customer.

[bahrbearian]

1. k&R

[HillWilliam]

2. Thank you!

And I'll add a shameless early morning kick by way of rejoinder. It did shock me when I got a DU PM a few years ago from a CL sales representative. I was very skeptical but so very over WildBlue.

So far the early reviews of Exede are very, very good. I'm not just talking about the consumer-level reviews -- I've been reading the technical reviews, the good, meaty geek stuff. The new technology is on a different band, a different set of birds, a different angle in the sky. I've got an awesome shot; an unobstructed southern view. That's the same view my Dish uses and my Dish never goes out unless there's a REALLY nasty storm under which I'd be foolish to be watching TV anyway. If it's that bad, I unplug everything anyway, so what would I be missing?

On average, the download speeds exceed DSL anywhere from 6 to 14 times. In my case that would be 12 to 28 times since I've rarely if ever gotten more than half of what I'm paying for in the first place.

If the thing is connected at all, that is.

So what if there is a 3-second latency? I got used to that very quickly on WildBlue. I don't use VOIP. I gave up on Vonage (after having it for 12 years) because I could never get decent connectivity. One gives up a few things to live out in the sticks, but good heavens it's peaceful and pretty out here. My partner and I have a nice piece of land and have adopted some rescued dogs, fenced in 2-1/2 acres for them to run and play in during the day (spoiled princesses).

I'm not asking for much. I'm only asking to get what I'm paying for and a little cooperation. A little honesty would be nice. If they can fix the problem, I with they would just go ahead and fix it. I they can't they should just go ahead, be grown up and admit it.

[HillWilliam]

3. Shameless mid-day kick

because I know they read DU. That's how the salesman got hold of me in the first place.

Don't think marketers don't comb through every forum looking for potential vict-, erm, pardon me, customers.

Don't be surprised if you get a PM from one. I sure the heck was. At the time I was suffering under WildBlue. I thought anything would be an improvement, so I jumped.

QED, not so much.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

5. K and R

That must be VERY frustrating.

They SHOULD give you a credit for unfulfilled promises.

I was at my mother-in-law's last year when she received, out of the blue, a check for about $500 bucks. They were flabbergasted. I think there were a few complaints over the years (mainly by me and the boy when we would visit) about slow connection. But none that rose to your level. They are Grandparents who just email and facebook to keep up with family. Not working online or anything.

Anyway, the check shows up with a letter explaining an audit was done and it was determined the connection speed wasn't up to what was promised so the company refunded a pro-rated amount.

I assumed they do this to... A) Head off a class action suit... or B) keep out of the sights of the State's utility/consumer protection people... or C) They are nice people ( I know, right?).

And yes, companies DO run google programs to monitor the web to see what's being done. I had the CEO of Lumber Liquidators post in a thread in DIY when I mentioned how they kinda screwed me when they wouldn't adjust an item that went on sale right after I purchased it.

The Lumber Liquidators CEO said to email him. I did but never heard back from him. So there's that.

Hopefully you will get satisfaction from the person who responded to this thread AND a refund for past years.

Edit to add:

I'll have to find out the name of the dsl/internet company my in-laws used. Century Link sounds damn familiar. It was down-state rural Illinois. Manito IL. to be exact. Century Link sounds familiar. I'll have to call to find out. They've since moved in to town - Pekin.

[HillWilliam]

8. About a year ago I got a Verizon home unit for my mom

on my plan. I have much minutes to burn on the plan I have and another $10/month for all-you-can-eat home phone service works for me. Mom never could figure out how to hook a walkaround home phone into the thing (give her break, she's 80) so she sent it back. I picked the box up at the post office this morning and had an interesting conversation with the nice lady behind the counter.

She also has CenturyLink. She related several anecdotes about how her grandkids were visiting and using her computer. They all remarked how slow and unreliable her service is, how they kept getting resets and disconnects, and how they couldn't play any of the games the could play in town. She and I commiserated over how rural Internet failed in General Assembly when the teafarts gained control a couple years ago. "Freep Enterprse" has left us with a single, shitty choice of CenturyLink and no alternative.

I hate to quote Liddy for anything, but his favorite saying applies here: "when you got 'em by the balls, the heart and mind will soon follow."

Well, CenturyLink didn't count on Exede succeeding. Clearly, they didn't count on 4G moving in on them in this county by the end of 2013. Now they're behind the eight-ball once again. They'll never expand their FIoS in time to catch up, something they could have done when they had in the area to accomplish the Reidsville-to-Oxford cross-connect. They got that done chop-chop. What the heck would another three miles and another ATM down my way have troubled them? The community I'm in has been underserved two to three times over since incept. I'm lucky I jumped in when it first opened up: the ATM I'm homed to filled within a month of turn-up and has had 100% occupancy ever since.

I'll also give you this: there are known bad ports in it that have never been changed until this summer. When a customer complains, the techs simply swapped cables between customers until the next customer complained. (It was admitted to me tacitly and I will never reveal the source.)

Ain't that some shit? That's how Embarq did business and when CenturyLink took over, that's exactly how they continued to do business.

I'm aware that both 4G mobile and Excede come with caps. That doesn't bother me because I'm a pretty low volume user. I can shift my laptop and tablet to a NetZero 4G hotspot for damncheap (or nothing), relieving the burden from my home Internet connection. That pretty much leaves email, a bit of websurfing, and the rare Netflix on Exede. I can schedule my rare Ubuntu and Fedora ISO image downloads for after midnight with an at- or cron wget so it doesn't come out of the 7gig package allowance.

Note: On Exede, between midnight and 5am local is a free-for-all. At average 12g download speeds, bursts between 14-17 an ISO dl will done before you can say "amen!". Try that on 750bps DSL. That's 6 hours minimum.

On all fronts CenturyLink loses and it's all due to arrogance and incompetence. I'll also share this: 99 times out of 99-1/4 that's upper management trying to be penny-wise and ending up dollar-foolish.

[CenturyLinkHelp]

4. We can help

Hi HillWilliam,

My name is Joey and I'm with CenturyLink. I'm sorry to hear about the ongoing trouble you've had with your connection over the past 3 years. I know you've spent alot of time dealing with this already, but our team would like the chance to look into this issue for you. All we ask is that you send your information and details on the issue to us at [e-mail]. We'll work with local management to find out why the problem has been going on for so long and make sure we take the necessary steps to resolve things to you. We look forward to hearing from you. Thanks.

Joey H
@CenturyLinkHelp Team
[e-mail]

[HillWilliam]

7. Thank you, Joey, and I appreciate your reply

If you will recall, you reached out to me for the initial sale. We have spoken at length. You probably have my my mobile number in your recall list (my surname is Farrell). I'm available today if you want to call and do a post-mortem.

I must say, though, CenturyLink have had over three years, many trouble tickets, many outcalls, and many opportunities to correct this problem. I have been extremely patient and unfailingly polite throughout the process. I have offered the use of my own equipment and have volunteered my own time and expertise. I have offered statistics and during the time or two I have been fortunate enough to speak with a second-tier technician I have (1) been able to describe the problems in complete technical details and received concurrence and agreement to correct the problems and (2) been promised credits on my account due to the lack of service.

To date, neither has occurred, except for one partial credit much earlier this year. One promised for near-complete lack of service for the last half of July and the first half of August did not.

I must say, there has been a rather, mm, how shall I say? mysterious occurrence since I posted this missive. For the first time since incept -- indeed, only since Tuesday of this week -- have I received full connectivity and bandwidth. For my fellow DUer's, may I recommend this link for testing downstream speed

This leads me to believe that CenturyLink could have done this at any time in the past 3+ years without having to have been shamed into it. This is obviously not the way a faithful customer should have to receive that for which s/he is paying.

Would you not agree?

I am disappointed to report that through many missed opportunities, this customer is fast becoming a "lost sale". It's not at all personal, Joey. You and I established a good rapport. Those who were supposed have your back, as it turns out, didn't.

[CenturyLinkHelp]

10. Thank you for your quick reply

Hi HillWilliam. Thank you for the quick reply to my post. I do not think that you and I have conversed directly regarding your account as our team is not involved in consumer sales. I'm unsure of whom you spoke with, but would still ask you to send us your information regarding your troubles so that we can investigate. Just send it to the email address I've referenced. Thanks.

Joey H
[e-mail]

[MADem]

6. Wow, I've never heard of them, but I'll be sure to avoid them like the plague! nt

[Egalitarian Thug]

9. Fortunately we are both old school geeks here and are able to teach their employees how to go about

doing their jobs. Our only other option here is Cox cable and that's much worse.