Customer Service Scoreboard
I was on a auto with draw with my account! Second card with my ex expired! No bill in the mail or something to tell me I missed one payment, huge reconnection fee!! THE PERSON I TALKED to in the payment department, I couldn't understand at all ! Just wanted all the fees! Not at all happy with this company!!
Century Link has the worst customer service of any company I have ever done business with.My internet goes on and off all day, I pay through the century link bill pay on time and get late fee notices and charges, you have to deal with a bot for customer service, and spend hours trying to get help for your issues, I was on the phone with them today, and I am more frustrated than before. They don't have a real customer service dept.
It took almost 2 weeks for the tech to come out after my appointments kept getting canceled. That's after talking to the xare center then supervisor. The end result, the line is broke and they are unable to dig in here as it's a private park. NOT true. Called talked to another supervisor and after getting the same bull I was finally told it would cost too much money for them to come out and fix the Circuit!!!!! and bury the line. So sorry but your house is labeled unable to get service. I definatly will let others know.
I have been on the phone for about an hour trying to explain the issue that I am having with my wireless password and wireless in general. I requested a tech come out to rectify this situation and was told that I could not have someone out until all avenues with the outsourced employee had been exhausted. I pay for my service to be covered by a tech and I think that I should be able to ask for that service. What is going on?
Unbelievable! Absolutely the worst customer service I have ever experienced. They are dishonest or just incompetent. I called to cancel service. The person I spoke to said everything is done and taken care of. Three weeks later I get a bill for twice the amount. I called again. They said that was a mistake and they would fix it. Another month goes by and I get another bill for 3 times the amount. I call again. This time I spent over and hour and a half on the phone while they talk to the managers. She assured me it was a mistake and I would not be charged. She even gave me a confirmation number. One month later get another bill, this time for the same as the last. I call and they say they have no record of the first three calls and they can't do fix it because there is no history of the conversations.
I think it's terrible how CenturyLink treats their customers. We have been with them for over 20 years and still get treated bad. Wanted a copy of my bill sent to me as l haven't received my 1st one and they charge you $6. That's ridiculous. And if your payment ends up being late because you received your bill late they will charge you a late fee. Not everyone has a checking account. They really need to do better especially with long time customers.
Century link is crap, we called to discontinue our phone service but keep the internet, we were told that their technician would have to enter our residence, and we would have to be home . After making 2 different appointments century link failed to show up both times. Then two days after the second no show we received an email out of the blue stating that our service had been completed. That's the day our internet went down. After making another appointment and again failure to show on century link part I have came to one conclusion; CENTURYLINK YOU SUCK, the worst customer service I have ever seen.
Very difficult to get help.After many attempts to get help with phone service,we were transferred 3 times to "solutions" and every individual said we have to talk to the the solutions department 3 separate times. The first person was having a childrens party in their home and really did not seem to be paying attention to us. The second person needed to transfer us again to the the solutions department after already being transferred to the solution's department. I tried another phone number and was hung up on. It took over one week and many attempts to get help.
You guys suck. You never fix anything and you sent someone to work on my neighbors phone line and now I haven't had service since. You all You try and do is credit my bill with my time loss. That's not a credit you owe that to me.a credit would be if gave me something to make up for your mistakes. I know you don't give a shut about us because you don't even have a local office in my state. So I just wanted to let you know that your costumer service is bull
My mother-in-law is 67 years old, CenturyLink informed her that she would get her money back within 30 days. It is now over 60 days and money is still not refunded. She even had WellsFargo Bank to assist, Customer Service hung up the phone. Terrible, she is on fixed income and 300 dollars may not be a lot for them, but it is for her.
I was given email confirmation of a scheduled appointment date and time range. When technician didn't show up as scheduled I called customer service. 1 and 1/2 hours later I was told they had no record of the appointment and that the earliest they could arrive was two weeks out. I asked for a supervisor nine times and was told none were available. I asked for a supervisor to call me and recieved none. I will be looking for an alternative provider asap. Fyi, there is a moral difference between India and the US regarding customer service. Centurylink will find this out someday but I'm afraid it will be to late to save what's left of the company. Rate this company terrible.
The last two days have been as frustrating as I can remember. I got a new c4000 modem from Centurylink and had nothing but problems with it but the worst of it was the incredibly poor customer service I received from at least 3 different people two of whom were hell bent on trying to sell me a product I didn't want or ask for. Even worse than that was trying to get past the automated voice so that I could speak to a real person! I spent a good part of the day trying to get resolution to no avail, I will be jumping ship very soon. No wonder they are losing customers!
I waited one week for installation of 15 mbps internet, and what I have is 3 mdpa internet download speed and less than 1 mpbs uploaded speed. When I reported this, the quickest I could get someone out to look at it was another week. Today, June 14th, was the day. After taking a day off work, because someone over 18 has to be here, no one showed up, and no one called or messaged me to reschedule. If you have other options for providers in your area, I strongly advise considering them.
Century Link is one of the most difficult, un-user friendly companies to work with: Trying to reach a real person who is competent; communication between service technicians and customer; trying to make payments online, and constant service outages. Switcthing to another provider.
Our phones were dropping us, not able to call out and extremely poor voice quality over the last few days, both through our business phone system and directly wired land line phones. I had 2 employees on the cell phones for most of the morning with them getting transferred and lost by century link employees. After 3 hours and 10 minutes we were given a repair order ticket. This is for both commercial and private line failures. I rate them zero and will most likely end up giving Elon Musk our total communications packages.
I have tried to be patient when dealing with Lumen/Century Link. Now, I avoid it all costs, but at times it's unavoidable. I work for a School District, and once a year we have to order a POTS line (landline) for a summer camp for our students. This service needs to be active from March until June. I dread calling for activation and disconnect. I swear that every live person I am connected to tells me I've reached the wrong department and they will transfer me to the correct one. They will also give me a new toll free number (When I call these, I am also told that I called the wrong number). Of course, with each person I reach, I have to start over with explaining why I'm calling, the account number, order number, etc. I can count on sitting on the phone (much of which is on hold) for at least an hour each time. And after all that, when I called to have the line disconnected in June, it was deactivated the next day after I called in May. I had to call again to rectify that mistake, another hour on the phone.
I really believe that this company is way too compartmentalized and they have way too many phone numbers. It also appears to be an environment where the employees are probably not happy and are stressed, this is why it seems that they are passing the buck and blaming and not getting the work done. If it's not already too late, smart administrators would scale back the amount of incoming phone numbers (New Service, Repair, Customer Service, etc.)_and have these calls fielded to qualified techs and allow them the time to resolve issues (no passing the buck!!! you get the call, you deal with it.)
Also, all of the customer info associated with any line or issue should appear on the screen of each company tech and rep that is handling a call.
I'm out of ideas.
Good Heavens, Thee Finest Service/customer Relations Technician That We Have Experienced In 61 Years Of Marriage.. Michael H. Is The Very Finest Of Tech And Customer Relations Person We Have Ever Had In Our Home. All Issuss Fixed. Perfect Results. And He Laughed And Smiled!!!!!
Our Congratulations To Hr For Hiring Michael!!!
Thomas Brodek
I do not mind that Century Link covers my e-mail when it is not in use. BUT do they have to use horrible news items. I do not want to read about murderers and other horrible news. Just put flowers or something
Also trying to get a human at CenturyLink is almost impossible. The answering machine keeps hanging up on me if it does not like my response. This company should realize that good customer service will pay off in the long run. Use humans not machines.
judy
I've been having issues with my internet for 10 days. I was ready to switch companies due to the lack of online support! I finally got intouch with a local technician that entirely saved my business with CenturyLink!!! His name is Trevor Cantrell. (TCANTRE)
I have my service back and my faith back in your company only because of the extremely professional experience that he showed me!
I live in a rural area, Crooked River Ranch Oregon. My technicians name is Zack. I have 20 years in retail service. This Saint that you have working for you didn't just do his job... Zack went well above every expectation of and exceeded. He was the most polite, respectful, and understanding individual I've ever had the privilege to deal with. I don't know Zacks last name, but I'm in central Oregon. If I can sum up the experience; This man went well above and set the bar for customer service and he is outstanding in his profession. I can honestly say, he has a true passion for what he does. I hope this can actually reach him because this person deserves to be recognized! If I ever see him outside of a professional setting, I'd buy him a beer. 12 out of 10. Best experience I've ever had.
recently came to our address twice. Once to our home and once to our family unit on our property for our sons internet. The very first people that came out here to set up the account we're so horribly rude we almost cancelled our service and our son did cancel..But Ody who has been here twice has been so professional and courteous. You definitely need to hire more people like this man to get your ratings up. Although we had to wait a few days until someone came he did an outstanding job and should be rewarded for it.
Ody rates 10 on everything but I didn't rate the other people..about a 5 but I didn't know how to separate the phone call versus the person who did the job.
I just set up internet service with centurylink and I have not had it installed yet but so far I am pleased with the customer service and prices. Actually spoke with two people, the first guy was very good but I felt a little pressured and uncomfortable going into a firm decision. My phone died in the middle of talking to him and I'm kind of glad because it gave me a few minutes to think over everything and I did not have that luxury while I was on the phone with him; having 50 different prices thrown at me. So I called back and spoke to a different representative named Parker and he was great. I felt more comfortable and free to my own decisions and price ranges. He set me up with something more affordable and beneficial anyway. I wanted to leave a comment that he was a great asset to the company and I'm satisfied thus far as a brand new customer.
Love the service a little slow at times but when I called in to extend my payment that was due for just 1 more day lady named aisa or iasia was very rude and impatient didn't let me speak, I just couldn't understand because of her thick accent and I repeated to her the information she was giving me and was very rude I I didn't understand her mind you English is my 2nd language and she got very upset by the tone of her voice by the way the word was possession but I heard a different word when I asjed her to explain what she ment she got really angry. Im not the type to give reviews this is actually my 1st type ever giving a review and I wouldn't even bother but I felt like she needs to work on her customer service. Thanks I do love century link don't get me wrong and usually I get someone very happy to help because I can feel it over the phone. By the way she did extend it eventually.
SUPER RUDE LADY!!!
I initially acquired my internet service in Denver though a wonderful company Called Quest Internet. this was over 6 years ago and i had very reliable and pleasant quality service with them for about 2 years. However, at some point Quest was acquired by CenturyLink which was a shock to me as i was under the impression Quest was doing really well.
Sense switching to CenturyLink and even moving once during the 4 years my service has been with them, my connection has been consistent and only rarely, due to outages or when ever my device overheats and things of that nature, have i ever had any disconnects.
Tonight i had one of those rare issues where windows suddenly forgot my router information which has occurred only once before about 2 years ago and as i am a tech myself and former SATCOM engineer i quickly rectified the situation. However, a thought did cross my mind that i havnt checked on on the status of CenturyLink as a company in some time and i find it a good practice to do so as businesses often evolve over time in capability and service.
In my research to get a grasp on the service i am getting i found this site and i am shocked that so many people are receiving such poor standards of service. I will admit that waiting for a service rep is rather time consuming and i too wish for faster service, but i have never had any issue with the representatives once i got hold of one. Also, my service connection has never given me an issue.
I am expected to move soon and after reading reviews by people that have moved service to a new residence, i have prepared a list of things to take note of when i choose to contact CenturyLink about my continued service with them at my new residence.
First, acquire a phone recording device. After the representative states that he/she is recording the call for quality purposes... you MUST inform them that you are also recording the call for your own records.
Second, always be sure that the Name of the representative and Office information are clearly named in your recording and require after each dealing with your representative, (before ending the call) that they email you a receipt of service that lists the representative's name, their supervisor, and the corresponding office information, along with the details of your business for that call.
Finally, As accidents do happen with companies and due to the complexity of internet service corporations, when a mix-up does occur, understand that often the individual you are speaking with only has one tiny job. That is to answer the phone. Rarely do they have the technical knowledge to provide service for every detail you may be dealing with that day. Because of this and due to orders given them by their higher-ups, they will likely try to send you to whom they feel would provide you the best service(often another office or outsourced provider). DONT LET THEM DO THAT!
If your Rep gives you the impression they are planning on transferring you. Ask for their supervisor to come to your Rep's line(dont let them transfer you through the wait que to speak with the supervisor). Then get a direct call-back-number to the supervisor before they send you to the next office. if the next office tries to send you someplace else. contact the first supervisor directly and inform them of the issue. Also each time you meet a new representative, always inform them they are being recorded for your records.
I personally have never found any need for this level of scrutiny with CenturyLink. However, it may be that my great experience with my provider has been an anomaly and in consideration of this, for those that feel you may require such detail in your dealings with CenturyLink or any other provider, do note that everything i have listed is perfectly legal and the things i stated you request of your representative is able to be carried out by any ISP representative no matter what company. It also is excellent evidence should you choose to take your ISP to court over wrongful service.
First call August 17- the worst! The wait was long! My package was sent to the wrong billing address and I was furious. I had to pick up my own package. It took and long time and the lady was rude. The tech guy was nice, but the next lady who help had a ugly attitude.
Second call August 27th- I was on the phone with two people for 58 minutes, that is waiting and helping together. Although the wait was long, they gentlemen who helped me was very helpful and was able to help me get credit for the un-service time. The second lady was Misty, she's a St. Paul Financial service. Misty went far and beyond to help me, not just with my billing; bill went to another account, but she also was able to help me enrolled. I was having difficulty and she manage to help. I really appreciate her help. Thank you Misty.
Thank you for a real-person option! Carrie and Mark were very helpful, as was the tech representative whose name I did not get. I have been deeply frustrated with this comåpany, yet because of my desire for a land-line, have seen no other alternatives for my area. Can't tell you how much I loathe monopolies.... At any rate, their customer service gave me hope, so thanks.
After reading through this. Its hard to believe you are talking about the same company! maybe you need to spend some time with (1) COMCAST then you will appreciate these reps. lol
okay but seriously... I have had to deal with them a lot this month because i was over charged and I had absolutely no problem resolving the issue. nor have I had any problem getting a hold of them. I think the longest wait was 6 minutes. revert back to (1). I said I have had to deal with them a lot, because I was trying to upgrade ... Then later found out from a friend they had a promotional that I could save 10.00 on my bill per a month. Is their internet as good as (1)? NO will I stay with them. Hell ya... its good enough to do everything I need to do. Would I recomend them? definitely anyone leaving COMCAST will enjoy the friendly reps at century link it does not getting any better then the service I have received.
Centurylink has usually been a pretty good provider of cable programming until a new developement. It has just changed their software so the TV may not be left on while the customer is away to make others think someone is home. I can't fathom why they would make such a change, but they have done it and there is no way to opt out of this. If 10 hours go by with no input to the cable box, the programming goes to blue screen. I guess they feel the customer isn't the one to decide how long the TV is left running. If they don't change it back by the time I go out of town again, I will probably need to change providers.
I had the pleasure of talking to Tiffany (I dont know her location) & Nick (in Boise ID) on Friday 2/27/2015. Both were very helpful & proffessional. Tiffany helped me with my bill & services. Very nice informative person!! Nick was in the internet dept He directed me to a video on my wifi. Very nice & pleasant. Very pleased with your csrs!! Thank You for a good experience!
OK, they are hard to get through to like everyone else, but once through, their customer service is amazing. Plus, the only reason I had to get through was because was Direct TV bundled in and the billing came through Century Link. It was not a Century Link issue, they've been great.
We have a CenturyLink office in our county. I have had good customer service on the call-in line and in-person with CenturyLink. I know others haven't. I like to say a good word when it is warranted. I'm more satisfied with CenturyLink than I have been with so many other customer services desks.
I couldn't be happier with the service I have received from Century Link. I have had more consistent internet speeds and better picture quality with Prism than I ever had with COX. I would STRONGLY recommend to all my friends and Family.. In fact in laws are probably going to change service to Century Link soon. Customer Service was amazing, Grace was more helpful than anyone I have ever had on the phone!
I was unable to sign onto the internet wirelessly from my laptop. Centurylink Customer Service representative, Claire, was so patient and helpful in assisting me with resetting my network name and password, since it had been somehow changed without my knowledge. Thanks for the great customer service!
I've been using their business services since the third week of January and while the first 3-4 weeks went very well, it has been a nightmare ever since then. Customer service reps are very personable but that doesn't change the fact that no one seems to understand billing, customer service. Technicians that come out to the house are outstanding, very knowledgable.
4/15/13-Re:Public Easement- lines in back yard (underground)-troublesome- as a resident, there should be more option, by your company to relocate the lines in resident back yard; with lines underneath in back yard it creates problem and disturbance, when one or more houses are involved; so if one house has a problem, that means that Century Link will need access to come onto the property and try to correct the problem for another house, which has the connector, which is very, very disturbing; I have own several dogs in the past; it may create problems without ownership. There should be more option then relying on that particular property to come in at any time, to corect or check another house problem. I was told that it is up to Century Link and that they can relocate those wires where they can come out from people back yards; as they have it with the new residents, who is not under that old code. It is my understanding that some of the older houses have this type of issues here in this location,in certain area of Glendale, Az, being as there are no allies. Surely, you can re-adress this issue. City of Glendae does not determine as to where the lines are located, it is the developer gets the permit, however, Century Link can relocate if they wanted too, from my understanding; again, please reconsider to relocate the wires, from in the back yards...too inconvienent. It is very imposing on ones privateness as how troublesome, when you have a problems with one line, and involve another house per say,all because that line is connected to one connector, something can be done by your company
Thank you.
My name is Donald Master and I am a retiree from CenturyLink , I retired on Dec 5th of 2014 and received a severance payment in January of 2015 . I have not recieved a W2 from CenturyLink for the severance check as of today . If I remember correctly these are supposed to be in the hands of the employees ( or retired) employees by Jan 31.
My address is 16007 16C rd , Culver ,Indiana, please let me what what is going on before I take other measures to get this resolved .
Thank you ,
Donald Master
i worked for centurylink for over a year in a call center contracted by them to handle their calls, and i can tell you some things about the way they operate that will make you have a clearer understanding of their general M.O. first of all, they did have 5 weeks of training, which consisted of drawing a "centurylink superhero" doing other arts and crafts, and setting up new accounts. it reminded me of being in kindergarten, we made so many posters and stupid art projects and took multiple 25-30 minute breaks a day. i worked in the retention department (cancelling accts.) but most of the training revolved around sales. in training, they heavily pushed on us the idea that we cannot do bill adjustments, everything is a valid charge, even if it's something you didn't order. but in reality, we are able to adjust up to 250.00 per acct. on our own discretion. when i started, however, being in retention, they told us we can make five $25 dollar adjustments total per month to keep people from cancelling, so if you had already used all five $25 adjustments, just let them disconnect, basically. which is not even centurylink's own mandate, and thankfully they stopped limiting us like that about 3 months in to my tenure. keep in mind too that all of the people you are talking to on the phone were trained at call centers exactly like mine, because unless you escalate to a supervisor, no one really works for centurylink directly. they are all "vendors" for centurylink. and the supervisors are extremely hit or miss. i have had supervisors be rude to me, so there is no telling how rude they can be to the customer. they are often not willing to waive early term fees when you didn't know you were in a contract or adjust bills when you didn't even want phone service, because they will say "well, they HAD the service. it's not centurylink's fault they never used it, and because they HAD it, even if they didn't want it, they have to pay." like i said, i worked in retention, so most of the people were calling in to disconnect their products. i still had to try and sell them something on every call and i had to make sales goals for phone, internet, and tv. sales is a part of our quality assurance scoring. if we don't offer, we lose points on QA and can get fired. if we don't meet our sales quota we get fired, even in cancellations. i was part time so it was not quite this bad for me, but most of my colleagues work 10 hour days with two 10 minute breaks and one 30 minute lunch. we get written up for going to the bathroom outside of our specified break times. and they are always scheduled strangely, for example, say you are working 8-6, your first break will be at 8:50, second break at 11:30 and lunch at 4. and if you don't go when it's scheduled you get written up. they say this is because of call volume at certain times of the day. if you are sick and call in, expect a call back from your boss ranting at you and demanding to know why you aren't coming in. by the way, when you call in, you don't talk to your actual job, because they have outsourced that, so you talk to a person in a foreign country that you can't even understand and they email your boss who then calls you ranting. our QA scoring is even outsourced. i have gotten low QA scores because the foreigner who was listening to my call thought i was being rude when he just did not understand the american dialect. they really push for sales hard and they will instruct us to tell people they can't upgrade their internet speed unless they add a phone or TV or that we can't renew someone's discount without them adding another product, which is COMPLETELY UNTRUE and also puts ME, the retention agent at a disadvantage, because once someone has spent 15 minutes listening to a hard sell for directv while being told there's nothing i can do for you, it makes my job a lot harder because now you just want to disconnect, you don't want directv, and you don't want to pay $80 a month for internet. so when they transfer you to me, you're already upset and you don't even want to talk to me. and there is an 11 minute handle time for retention, so at the 12 minute mark, your manager or someone floorwalking will come stand by you and hassle you until you get off that call and on the next one. i promise, we are not trying to rush you off the phone, it's just annoying when somebody just comes and stands by you. it doesn't matter what the issue or questions the customer has, get them off the phone. we are not allowed to quote tax, so please don't ask. if we say 61.90 expect 85. i had people all the time that thought their bill should be the exact quote and it doesn't work that way. one little piece of advice i have is just be nice. i can't even tell you how many times i have adjusted a nice person's bill, because they are nice. when you come on the phone calling me a stupid b**** and raising your voice at me i am much less likely to make an adjustment or even want to help you, because frankly, i haven't been to the bathroom in 4 hours and i know if i keep saying no to you, and you ask for a supervisor not only do i get rid of you, but i know the supervisor is definately not going to adjust your bill, and that provides me with just a bit of vindictive happiness. oh, and here's another little tidbit, i am not asking for the last 4 of your social to steal your identity. we have it on file, so please don't insult me by saying "i'm not giving you that" or arguing with me when as an alternative i ask for the billing address and exact amount of your last bill. not asking those questions on every call is grounds for immediate termination. and i was definately not willing to lose my job for some yelling, over-talking me idiot. also, the reason why you keep randomly getting disconnected is actually two-fold. a convoluted phone system we receive no training on and laziness. some people just do not know the proper way to conference a call because they were not trained and some, while not being trained want to hang out on the line to avoid taking other calls, so they conference you and then just sit there for 15 or 20 minutes, wait for the other rep to pick up and then release the call, not realizing they are also disconnecting the customer.
I currently work for a call center that contracts with CL, and I'd guess that over half the people you may talk to representing CL don't actually work for CL but for outside vendors. The company is a joke, the customer is just a cash cow opportunity. There is little to no real customer service and no matter what you call in about you will be hammered with sales pitch after sales pitch. If you're not in the market for anything you'll likely be transferred to someone else, and half the time it won't even be to the correct department. Don't fall for the reward card come on to get you to sign up for service. Way too often the salesperson will promise you a card that either doesn't exist or that you won't qualify for anyway. Speaking of call centers, they employ mostly poorly educated kids just out of high school who think that customer service is not spitting in your hamburger at McD's. It's a building full of overly tattooed losers who don't really give a damn about you. Pay is $9-10/hr and the only way to make a buck is to make a sale. Supervisors will push you to make sales and accuracy is NOT important, the sale IS. My advise is to stay as far away from CL as you can. The top 5 people in the corporation make almost $19 million a year combined, all they care about is more money and use misleading and confusing pricing and promotions to keep their 1% lifestyle.
During one of many customer service calls, I had a young lady accuse me of becoming hostile on the phone. I was anything but hostile! I maintained a steady, pleasant tone to my voice and she interrupted me several times and spoke right over me. i finally decided that the only way I was going to end the misery was to disconnect the call; how sad :(
I up until recently worked for CenturyLink on the business side of things and I can tell all of you readers that CL does not care about you unless you are buying something from them. It's not the fault of the agents you are speaking to on the line either most generally. The problem lies that CL places extremely high sales quotas on their reps. The rep is forced to sell you something or get rid of you asap so that he or she can get someone on the line that wants new services, or face being let go. Please people bear in mind that everytime you call into the customer service you are speaking with someone who has a quota. Reps may also deliberately slam you. I have personally seen this on multiple occasions. For some it gets to the point of either slam services on the customers account and be fired or be fired for not making their sales numbers. I would advise that all of you keep these things in mind when having any dealing with CL.
I worked in the sales and care department for a year while saving money for school. I will echo many of the sentiments posted by other employees regarding being in "customer service." I learned quickly that my job security depended almost entirely on my sales numbers. So when someone called in to the sales and care department, I only CARED if you were getting me a SALE. Clink does not have any incentive for me to resolve your issue or credit you account for minor discrepancies(In fact, I get in trouble for issuing too many credits). Moreover, a caller's satisfaction with company has nothing to do with my job. Even if I wanted to help, the tools available to me are very limited. I would probably need to transfer the caller out to a different department anyway. Clink makes things for employees just as convoluted as they do for their customers.
The two main issues people I often talk to people about are price misquotes and billing issues. Price misquotes are also a direct result of Clink changing it's focus from customer service to sales. The "trick" is giving out enough truthful information without getting into too many details. For example, Prism TV(HD and DVR free for 3 months) 39.99 and HSI 29.99 double play would be quoted at 69.98. Now if someone wanted to provide great customer service (AND LOSE THE SALE), first they would also need to explain pro-rated charges thoroughly. Then, they would need to advise the customer they would have to call back in 3 months to cancel HD and DVR or the price will jump 11.99 and 8.99 respectively. Then they would need to advise after the 6 months the price would go up 20.00. Finally, after a year the price would go again another 30.00. Essentially, after a year your price will go from 69.98 to 140.96 if we never hear from you again. Of course, if you call in after those price increases to cancel service Clink will re-apply those discounts (except for the HD and DVR), but remember if you don't get sales you don't have a job.
Billing issues are not unique to any company, but in general 98% of the bills I go over are correct and the decision on whether or not to issue credit is discretionary. With that said, throwing a temper tantrum will get you absolutely nowhere. Since most of the callers into Clink are 50+, I assume there was a time when it was acceptable to do this. As stated earlier, Clink employees really have no incentive to help unless you are buying something. Save the long sob story and accusatory remarks. Example "I noticed this charge on my bill and was wondering if I could please get a one time courtesy credit?" vs "You screwed up my bill I never did this and I won't pay for it(include yelling rant for 5-10min repeating yourself)." Prorated charges are the most popular by far. Clink does an awful job of clearing labeling what charges are for what time period. The regular bills themselves border on being inexplicable, so a bill for 1 1/2 months of service make things even that much more frustrating (for both employee and customer). The bill alone was enough to convince me that I would never have Clink service. I tell everyone to stay away from this company.
I am former Centurylink employees who worked in the escalation department and have been working in the telecom industry for over 10 years. In my tenure with the company I can say that the majority of our complaints stemmed from 2 main issues: 1) Billing- Incorrect or misunderstood bills because the services requested were not adequately explained or simply set up wrong. In researching these issues I found the majority of them can from a lack of through explanations and experience. While frustrating to both the customer AND the employee these discrepancies were not malicious in intent they were due to a lack of training and constant pressure on the reps to sell, sell, sell! The idea of a true “customer service center” does not exist in this company. They are simply fighting to raise their average revenue per customer so they can remain competitive in a market were land lines are becoming obsolete. What they have failed to realize is that by putting constant pressure on the reps to make their sales quota or be fired is that the overall “customer experience” is suffering, therefore driving customers even further away. Additionally by acting on their not so idol threats they have created large turnover rate in their centers, thus perpetuating the problems even further. Of course there will always be a few bad apples in the bunch but the majority of the reps are dedicated, so much so that they feel the need to work through their lunch and breaks, without pay, which is a violation of the FLSSA act. Issue: 2) On time delivery of products and services. When an order for new products and services are ordered a dated and approximate time of installation is given and an alternate contact number is asked for so the technician can reach out to the customer to let them know if they will be late or if an appointment needs to be rescheduled. This almost NEVER happens and I have seen many instances where the tech will close an order and never even attempt to contact the customer. I was told there were protocols in place for late or missed appointments but I never saw any results or indications they were remotely effective. The only response to late or missed appointments I was aware of was for the reps to instructed the customers that the tech has until 5 local time to complete the order and if they haven’t come by then to call back. The only problem with that is that unless there is an emergency techs don’t start new installations past 5, meaning the appointment is put off till the next day. I don’t think that math needs much explaining. While these 2 issues are quite substantial, they are merely symptoms and not the cause. The cause lies within the senior leadership who, and I’m not sure which it is, fails to recognize these issues, address them or even if the senior leadership is even aware of the problems they have on their hands. Generally speaking the intentions and actions of the reps 99% of the time are to be helpful, but they face a myriad of obstacles put in place by the senior leadership of the company. I am one of the lucky who can and did jump ship not wishing to have my name associated with the company nor will I ever recommend or use their services, but I do respect the front line folks doing their best with the tools they have not been given.
As well me being a former "billing and sales" rep, the company cleary does not care about their customers. We received mainly all angry customers calling in about their bill which we where pushed to sell NEW SERVICE to! Every single call you had to offer each and every product ceturylink had avaible to the customer even though they just got way over billed or how their tv/phone/internet isn't working. We also had to keep a average call time of all are calls around 8 mintues,. We have to resolve your bill/ whatever your issue is and offer all products and sell service too with a 8 mintue average call time? Impossible being a BILLING and SALES office in 1. Centurylink basically dosn't want us talking to you if your not going to buying new service. If we had a high average call time or no sales, we constatly got threated to be fired or wrote up for not being able to do so and thats why he majority of customers calling in just get transfered to another rep if they didn't want new service, because centurylink dosn't give us the time to talk to you as a customer service office should be able to. Centurylink is just greedy and want us to take as many calls in a shift and sell on them calls being in a BILLING center. AND MAYBE THATS WHY THE CENTURYLINK REVIEWS ONLY HAVE 30 SOME POSITIVE FEEDBACK COMMENTS WITH LIKE OVER 800 NEGATIVE FEED BACK COMMENTS. Centurylink needs to have a seperate sales, and customer service/billing center like back when Qwest was its company and maybe they would have more positive feedback haha. It just dosn't make sence to me nor most of my fellow co workers having a billing and sales center. I personally will never do business with centurylink seeing how they even treat their own workers that sell their service..
hey guys i am a former customer service rep who was let go for being to "customer servicy" and helping to much...yes we are customer care but that statement is for your benefit only in reality the company lets it be well known internally that "sales is the name of the game" in order to keep your job at centurylink and keep food on the table for your family you MUST offer EVERY available product and overcome ATLEAST two objections yall throw at us...and MANAGEMENT also has the decency to let us kno "NO call is UNOFFERABLE" i do apologize to all of you but the company even tells the reps to cut a cust loose so we can get to the next call and sell something.
I worked for qwest for a short period of time over 6 years ago. I vowed after working for such a terrible company I would never do any kind of business with them again. A friend who works for the company still talked me into going back and giving them a shot with DirecTv and Internet service. I'm in school full time and work full time so having reliable internet service is something very important to me. Ever since I signed up with them in January I have had nothing but issues. I had an overcharge when I cancelled my movie channels after the 3 months were up I was still charged for the next month when I called in I was on hold for what seemed like an eternity and was transferred all over kingdom come. I finally got a girl to help me and she was RUDE. She told me that the credits were applied to my account and all I had to pay was my normal bill the next month. A couple days later I find all my services are disconnected because she didnt do anything to my account! Anytime I had to call I got nothing resolved except me wanting to rage! The last straw finally happened this week: I am attempting to bring up my schools website to submit a quiz that I had to do for that week. I wasn't even able to save the quiz my internet was so slow. I finally did a speed test to check the speed of my internet (I was paying for 1.5 Mbps) the speed test said I was getting between .4 & .5 Mbps. I called up and said I no longer wanted to be a part of this company. They didnt believe me that my internet was that slow. They told me it was impossible to get out of the contract. Finally a RUDE manager was in the process of getting me to a technician because they were going to charge me $200 to disconnect their CRAP service. He finally came on the phone and informed me they had been slowing my internet for repairs and he would cancel my service. And when I wanted proof he wouldnt be charging me the $200 he acted offended that I wouldnt trust the company. This company was terrible to work for 6+ years ago and its a terrible company to have service with all these years later. I will never had a good word to say about this company and I wouldn't take their service if it were free. STAY AWAY FROM CENTURYLINK they have to put customers in contracts or they would lose every last one of them. I gave a 2 for friendliness ONLY because I had ONE girl who helped me with everything I needed without transferring me just to get me off her line.
I was a Qwest employee for 31 years and retired 12 years ago prior to Century Link taking over. I will never, ever, ever do business with them again. I had telephone and internet service with them at my last residence and initiated a complete disconnect for the service 3 weeks prior to moving out. I repeatedly told them to make the disconnected effective NO LATER than the last day of my current billing cycle which was June 3. On June 4, after the service had been disconnected, I received notification that I was billed for the following month. After repeated assurances from their billing department that the payment would not go through, sure enough my checking account was debited the full amount on June 22. Now I will be forced to try and recoup these funds. Good luck with that. RUN...DON'T WALK AWAY FROM THIS LOUSY COMPANY. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THEM FOR ANYTHING.
I worked for Centurylink in customer care for almost 2 years it’s truly a terrible company. Centurylink does not have a dedicated customer care department it’s a sales department. Centurylink looks at the calls to customer care as $$$$ signs. They looked the other way when top sales associates slam accounts with products and services. If you weren’t top in sales you are treaded like dirt and always threatened to be fired if you didn’t meet sales quota. People would get fired on a weekly basis and the training classes which we called our replacements were constantly churning out new agents. I’m shocked they don’t get giant fines for over billing. To give a couple examples for the state of Florida during the full year of 2011 when a customer went on vacation mode they didn’t get the discount unless the customer called in every month for it and when they came back from vacation the system would charge them a $53.00 connection fee. Another example when a customer calls in to add a call feature the system auto charge the account a $53.00 connection fee as if it is new service. Centurylink was aware of these over billing problems and never fixed them. I would give thousands of dollars a month in credits because of the dishonest over billing. These are just a couple examples of many! You know you work for a bad company if you won’t even subscribe to their service. I started to look for a better job when I received my first write-up for falling short meeting quota I had 89.10% and I need 90.00% to goal to meet quota. I’m happy to report I no longer work for Centurylink as they are paying for me to look for another job via unemployment. Two weeks after being fired Centurylink is downsizing because sales are bad and the call center I worked at in Altamonte Springs Florida is closing on June 1 2012 and everyone is being fired. I can’t say I feel bad for the supervisors! You should stay away from this company at all cost!
If we, and I mean as a whole COMPANY don't start seeing the big picture; Customers are our future and if we don't have customers we won't have a COMPANY !!!! We all need to do the best job we can, GOD has given you the skills to do many things, now use them the way he has thought you. In a day when jobs are hard to find or keep, you should want to come to work and deliver your best. I thank GOD everyday that Centurylink came along and gave me this oppurtunity and greatful of them. LET'S ALL GO OUT THERE ON A DAILY BASIS AND GIVE OUR CUSTOMERS AND COMPANY TO BE PROUD OF!!!!!!! GOD BLESS
I worked over 35 years for this former phone co, once known as mountain states, mountain bell, U.S. West, then qwest and finally century link. I was proud of the job that I and many others like myself performed on behalf of our customers. As these companies were acquired by still larger corporations, the customer took a back seat to profits and our reason for being was to make a profit in spite of our customers who paid the bills! Or as one of our new managers once said in a meeting " we are no longer a phone company and any one who does not agree, there's the door, we don't need you". I saw in my career a regression from the then greatest communications company in the world to the sorry state of affairs that now pass as a communications company, even though they have so little of the afore mentioned quality. Now that I am retired, I have had several occasions to call century link to request repairs to my DSL service only to be told that the problem was my modem, which I had already tested myself and found that it was operational but lacked an internet signal due to a storm which knocked down the DSLAM at the pair gain system. In each case, a signal mysteriously reappeared and the modem would work until the next storm. Oh, and did I mention that I live in Arizona where storms don't occur very often.
my sincere apologies to all the customers!!
I AM CURRENTLY AN OUTSIDE TECHNICIAN WITH CENTURY LINK,I HEAR ON A DAILY BASIS THE GOOD AND BAD OF OUR AND MANY OTHER SERVICE PROVIDERS IN THE AREA IN WHICH I WORK, ON AN AVERAGE DAY I INSTALL 1 TO 3 MEDIA COM WINBACK ORDERS DUE TO LACK OF SERVICES,FEATURES AND LOCAL SUPPORT THEY(THE OTHER PROVIDERS) CANNOT OR CHOOSE NOT TO PROVIDE,I DO REALIZE WE AT CENTURY LINK HAVE SOME SERIOUS WORK TO DO IN ORDER TO REGAIN YOUR TRUST AS A MEDIA PROVIDER,I DO KNOW QWEST LEFT A BAD TASTE IN MOUTHS OF MANY BUT I CAN SPEAK FOR US,AS OUTSIDE TECHNICIANS WE ARE TRYING TO GET THINGS BACK ON TRACK,WE TOO GET DISCOURAGED BY THE THINGS THAT SEEM SO SIMPLE TO SOLVE,BUT IT MAY NOT ALWAYS BE AS EASY AS "JUST REPLACE THE CABLE IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD"WE TOO AS TECHS WOULD LOVE TO SEE THE CABLE FACILITIES NEW IN EVERY NEIGHBORHOOD! OR FLIP THE SWITCH IN THE OFFICE AND ALL IS BETTER,BUT THAT COST LOTS OF MONEY,MONEY THAT WOULD BE REFLECTED IN YOUR BILL EVERY MONTH! I TRULY HOPE OUR TECHNICIANS ARE DOING EVERYTHING THEY HAVE THE POWER TO DO (IT IS MORE LIMITED THAN YOU MAY REALIZE..) TO RESOLVE YOU FIELD ISSUES,IF NOT BY ALL MEANS ASK TO SPEAK TO A/THEIR SUPERVISOR,IF YOUR NOT HAPPY WITH THOSE RESULTS PLEASE CONTINUE YOU COMPLAINT UP THE LADDER UNTIL IT HAS BEEN ADDRESSED THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE IN THIS COMPANY THAT, LIKE YOU ARE WANTING TO GET YOUR ISSUE RESOLVED. WE ONLY ASK THAT YOU "DON'T SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER"(THE GUYS AND GALS STANDING IN THE RAIN/SNOW/MUD AND EXCESS HEAT EVERY DAY TO TRY AND BETTER YOUR SERVICE)THANKS...
Our DSL service was down on the morning of 11/05/11. I called century link repair for specials and was given the run-around by the service clerk who answered my call. Instead of a resolution to my problem I was read to from what was obviously a prepared format devised for reading to the customer. I told this person that I had performed all the required tests at my residence and was met with a condescending attitude and told that the problem was mine and not in the century link network! They told me the results of their tests were that my modem was bad and that I would need to buy another one(all this with out a trip to the pair gain cabinet) My response was that I had 35 years of experience with Qwest ,now retired, and that my tests indicated an absence of DSL signal, which fell on deaf ears. Lo and behold after being told that they did not have a DSLAM problem my signal reappeared mysteriously -2 hrs later!! This is the third time in the last year that this has happened and I now know the frustration that other telephone customers must feel! You will never build customer loyalty with this type of customer experience! I would hope that this will not fall on deaf ears- for I would like to see your company do well, but as you should know-that depends on what you do for the customers and how well you meet their needs.
sincerely, a thouroughly disatisfied ex-employee.
I just want to say that I worked at CenturyLink's customer support center in Monroe for a little less than a year. The department I worked in was the "billing dispute" department, where we received customer complaints about billing, then were responsible for verifying correct or incorrect billing. More importantly, I was responsible for deciding whether to issue credit or deny credit to customers. This is a department of 15 or so people who literally handle every one of the customers' billing disputes. This is the only department within the whole company who handles this information. While working there, and dealing with customer complaints, I realized that A.) The system used (at least in that specific department) was very efficient, and we never were rude or unprofessional with our customers that we needed to contact. We didn't take incoming calls, obviously, only had to call customers to discuss their disputes. I realized B.) Any customer in any company will do/say ANYTHING to get out of paying for whatever services they are receiving. I won't say that all customers are like this, but the majority of the customers I handled outright lied about half of the stuff they said. I don't speak for the company, I have no loyalty to this company, I had this as a job in between undergrad and graduate school, so I am not just saying these things to protect the company. I'm saying it because you guys are on here talking about how terrible the customer service is, however, we all know that customers are not easy people to deal with and/or please in any business. I can't count how many times I had a customer who I had proof was lying, yet he/she insisted on lying, hoping I would give them .11 cents for a call to their grandmother they swear they never made. This is ridiculous. There are a lot of different departments within these huge corporations. It only makes sense that, somewhere down the line of people customers have to call, there will be communication error. Unfortunately, in order to make money in this kind of world, bigger is better. More customers means more money and also more employees to take care of these customers. It's impossible to try to have one person handle over a million customers by him or herself. So, unfortunately, there are many people you'll have to go through for help within a company. The best way to get positive results is to be nice to the person you're asking for help from. No one wants to help someone who is treating them badly. And you need to remember that to you, as customers, it seems like a company offering services should have no mistakes. This is also a ridiculous thought. Humans make mistakes. We all do, customers and employees. These are people working behind the scenes to get you the things you want. If you can't handle mistakes then don't rely on other people for services. I will never work in customer service again (thankfully), however there are people who can't get better jobs. Whatever happened to the golden rule? I think that the customer service with this company is exceptional compared to other telecommunication companies, especially ones like AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, SmartTalk, etc. These are people who will work with you and will not lie to you and give you the "run around". In my experience, I can tell that when I've gotten the "run around" it's because I'm demanding something of someone who isn't qualified to do what I'm asking. So when a rep tells you you'll have to contact another department, don't freaking complain! It's not their fault they aren't trained to handle your issue. Just be thankful they even gave you another number to contact...some companies don't even do that. Anytime you're dealing with people, you should be courteous, even if you think because they are in customer service they aren't as deserving of respect as you or anyone else.
I am also an employee for Centurylink. I work in the internet tech support department. I've read a lot of the comments by angry customers and I have a bit of advice for you. If you are having issues with speed and you've done a speed test at the website http://speedtest.centurylink.net and know what you're actually getting there is probably a bandwidth exhaust area in your outage which is basically and outage that causes slow speeds and latency. These outages pop up a lot..too much and they can last for months sometimes. Customer service doesn't know anything about the speed outages sometimes and they suggest upgrades in speed even though the customer is in an outage. So the customer ends up paying more for a faster speed and are unable to get it because they were not aware of the outage that should have been told to them previous to the upgrade in speed. Another issue that is causing a problem with our customers are the tech/customer service reps whom are not really helping the customers and are just transferring them on to the next person just to get the customer off there line. Now I am not saying that it's all the employees but I have witness this happen and I just want to put it out there because it is not fair to our paying customers who are paying there hard earned money to pay for this internet service. Technicians that go out to the residence are always getting backed up for whatever reason and will not make it out to the residence and will not call the can be reached number on the ticket to the customer. Techs often are late turning on new customers internet service too and I think this is the worse because the customer is new to the service and it's not a good experience for them to start off with. I believe the company needs to be more selective about whom they hire and this would probably prevent a lot of these problems that are occuring. Employees in customer service often offer upgrages for speed when there are outages or the speed is just not available for the area. Note to the customer:
1. Before you do any upgrades in speed ask to speak to 'tech' support and ask if there is any bandwidth exhaust outages in the area first. Customer service often are not aware of these outages before they sell the upgrade to you.
2. When you call and ask for a tech to come out always ask for a ticket number after the rep tells you that they have the ticket put in. They must give this to you!!! Without the ticket number you have no way of knowing the the tech actually made the ticket!
3. If possible don't get in a contract! Other offers are availble that don't require a contract. Outages are regular with the company so you should not get yourself in something you can't get out of like a contract.
I work for CenturyLink at a call center in the Voice Repair department. After reading the customer complaints, it's no small wonder most customers are frustrated by the time they get us!
Due to the merge, and a 65% turnover rate for this particular call center, we have a LOT of customers and hardly any reps to handle them. At any given time there are maybe 60 of us in Repair, and when the calls pile up to 138+ people in queue the wait times get ridiculous.
When a customer reaches us, if they explain their problem and it's a DSL issue, we have to transfer to DSL (which is usually an even LONGER hold!).
Also, our technicians are outsourced. This leads to a lot of discrepancies where the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing. There are cases where the technician never shows up but closes the ticket anyways. Also if they are running late, I have to contact a supervisor and keep myself (and the angry customer) on hold while we wait to find out what's going on; the answer is not always favorable.
Lastly, there seem to be many of my coworkers that don't know what they are doing. Also the system will malfunction sometimes and simply not enter a ticket, which is why we are SUPPOSED to give the customer a ticket confirmation number and notate the account that the customer did indeed call in.
There always has been and probably always will be a discrepancy between what the customer wants us to do, and what the company wants us to do. While we do suffer for it and catch the flak from both ends, ultimately it is our customers that get screwed.
We are proud to recognize the companies providing the best customer service each year within their industry.
Locate the CenturyLink corporate office headquarters phone number, address and more at CorporateOfficeOwl.com.
Find CenturyLink hours of operation for locations near you!. You can also find CenturyLink location phone numbers, driving directions and maps.
Get immediate support for your CenturyLink questions from HelpOwl.com.
View thousands of CenturyLink user reviews and customer ratings available at ReviewOwl.com.
