Centurylink Internet: Just say NO

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KneeGusto

Well-Known Member
May 13, 2006
964
384
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S̶q̶u̶a̶w̶ Ioway Creek
I had Centurylink DSL in West Ames IA for 2 1/2 years and endured the daily outages, 10 M down and 1 M up speeds, and frequent 1 minute outages throughout the prime time hours. At 58 bucks a month I just figured I was getting the best they offered, being just blocks from their hub on West Lincoln Way.

I dealt with all of that. I knew what I was getting into and what poor service they provided.

What I did not not know is their predatory billing program they signed me up for. I cancelled my service in April and was billed for May at $57.86 even though the service was already shut off. I had my bank repel their payment at a cost to myself less than their fraudulent auto-withdrawl (30 bucks).

A month later, now in May, they sent me an email saying they would bill me for the amount owed from the previous month and for June 2017. The service was terminated in April under *NO* contract. I tried to change my account information on their website but their website says I cannot change info because the account has no current services because they were cancelled two months ago.

If you go with Centurylink - beware! They keep billing you until you take legal action. Their billing system is archaic and you will be auto-billed into submission months after you end their service.

Just some info to help those in Ames who even consider Centurylink as a valid internet provider.

Don't do it.
 

matclone

Well-Known Member
Nov 13, 2016
9,054
8,334
113
I, too, had major problems with Century Link after I ended my service last fall (I moved). First, after calling to end my service, and well after I had unplugged and moved, they tried to say I had not actually cancelled. Then, after I thought I had resolved that problem, I would periodically get bills with no rhyme, reason, or explanation. I paid one, thinking it would go away. Now I have another from a month ago. Again, no explanation. Earlier, I mailed in what I thought was all the equipment, but neglected to include the power cord (I thought it was mine). They charged me $150 for that. I will never do business with them again.
 

cdface

Well-Known Member
Oct 28, 2014
4,479
5,011
113
Behind Enemy Lines (IC)
Personally, I've happily had Qwest/CenturyLink for the past ten years. I haven't had to terminate my service yet so I can't speak to that, but when I did have an issue with a poor CS rep while trying to upgrade my service, the "customer retention team" (or whatever they call it) stepped in and gave me a reasonably sweetheart deal for a year that they've actually stuck to -- $20 for 12Mbps down. And we very rarely have blips in our service. Other than the 1 minute drops we occasionally see (noticeable maybe once per month), we've only had maybe 4 real outages in that 10 years that lasted longer than a few minutes. Contrast that with Mediacom, which has ISP issues ALL THE TIME in eastern Iowa, and I know because I work in IT and support a lot of remote users.

If I was going to bundle services or if I needed higher top-end download and much better upload, I would still use Mediacom, but I haven't experienced anything horrible myself with CenturyLink.
 

ISUAlum2002

Well-Known Member
Apr 11, 2006
22,428
4,732
113
Toon Town, IA
My biggest issue with CLink was that they sold me 7mbps service with a 2 year contract and when they hooked it up the max I could get was 3mbps. When I complained they basically told me to pound sand and I was stuck with turtle slow service for 2 years because they hadn't built the infrastructure in my area even though they had told me they had when I was signing up. This was only 5 years ago, btw, wasn't 20 years ago or anything like that.
 

MeanDean

Well-Known Member
SuperFanatic
Jan 5, 2009
13,202
17,808
113
Blue Grass IA-Jensen Beach FL
Funny too, in all my years of dealing with cable/internet providers I've YET to encounter a single incident where they've made an error in my favor.

Yet dozens of times they've "regrettably" made multiple errors in their favor. And they're always "very sorry" when I catch them at it and demand the correction.

It's shady practices, obviously.
 

Mr Janny

Welcome to the Office of Secret Intelligence
Staff member
Bookie
SuperFanatic
Mar 27, 2006
40,895
28,533
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Huh, I've had CenturyLink for 2 years now, after having mafiacom for many years, and I couldn't be happier. Nowhere near the same number of outages, better price and good speed.
 

ISUCubswin

Well-Known Member
Mar 3, 2011
23,218
6,268
113
My Playhouse
Mediacom vs. Centurylink:

Mediacom goes out once a month for a long time, and won't come on until you become a douche to customer service about getting it on or it'll take 3 weeks before they're willing to fix it

Centurylink goes out quite literally at least once an hour, for just a minute, and then will come back on.

Taking online classes, I have to leave my damn house because my internet will cut out during an online test.
 

ISUCubswin

Well-Known Member
Mar 3, 2011
23,218
6,268
113
My Playhouse
Also, I have contacted Centurylink about getting faster speeds at my parents house, and they say they currently have the fastest speeds they can offer in Ames. When I told them we're getting half the speed they're paying for, they said there is nothing they can do about it.

I live in a rinky dink town in southwest Iowa of 150 people. There's a guy who runs an internet company and he's the only one who works for his business. For $50, I get four times the speeds I do when in Ames.
 
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Clonehomer

Well-Known Member
Apr 11, 2006
21,896
17,567
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Also, I have contacted Centurylink about getting faster speeds at my parents house, and they say they currently have the fastest speeds they can offer in Ames. When I told them we're getting half the speed they're paying for, they said there is nothing they can do about it.

I live in a rinky dink town in southwest Iowa of 150 people. There's a guy who runs an internet company and he's the only one who works for his business. For $50, I get four times the speeds I do when in Ames.

Internet through the public utility is one of the big perks of living in Cedar Falls. It's not super cheap, but it is fast and reliable.
 

Buster28

Well-Known Member
Dec 3, 2011
4,508
3,588
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Ames
Also, I have contacted Centurylink about getting faster speeds at my parents house, and they say they currently have the fastest speeds they can offer in Ames. When I told them we're getting half the speed they're paying for, they said there is nothing they can do about it.

I live in a rinky dink town in southwest Iowa of 150 people. There's a guy who runs an internet company and he's the only one who works for his business. For $50, I get four times the speeds I do when in Ames.

We dumped them for the same reason a number of years ago. The speed was painfully slow and we initially thought it was the older desktop we'd been using. Then we found out it was literally their lines, which couldn't hold all the data. They had said there were "no plans" to upgrade our neighborhood (in Ames) for at least 5 years. Guess who called Mediacom for internet the next day. We fortunately didn't have any billing problems and Mediacom has been surprisingly ok (we had them for cable in Nevada nearly 20 years ago and it sucked - went out all the time). We canceled our land line with Centurylink not long after that also. I would never recommend them to anyone if there are options.
 

aauummm

January is National Soup Month
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Mar 29, 2007
6,654
3,203
113
I get around
Altoona Mediacom-I have 100 Mps that clocks at 132 Mps. Faster speeds are available. Hardly ever goes down.
 

Cyclone.TV

Well-Known Member
Sep 3, 2016
3,750
2,354
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Cities get sued by Mediacom and CL here when they try that.

Wow - that's no fun. i wonder if it's the same sort of contract that they do to customers. **** that you sign not thinking you'll need to get out of it and then you are stuck.
 

cyclone87

Well-Known Member
Apr 6, 2011
2,980
1,006
113
Ames, IA
Mediacom has been fine for me in Ames. Haven't had any major issues with it going out frequently or anything and close to the speed that was advertised. I live in the NE side of town. Early on had some billing issues, but nothing in the past couple years.
 

Judoka

Well-Known Member
Jun 16, 2010
17,542
2,645
113
Timbuktu
I had the same thing happen to me as the several years ago. I cancelled but they still charged me for the next month. I called in and they promised a refund but it never came.
 

heyguy85

Well-Known Member
Nov 9, 2007
1,061
139
48
Iowa
It sucks that OP is having so many problems and I can't say I blame you for being upset. I vowed never to go back to Mediacom for how awful, terrible, and horrible their service was therefore my only option where I live is CenturyLink. Haven't tried to cancel and have had good internet for $52/month.