Common Complaints Against CenturyLink

Have you gone weeks without CenturyLink internet service?  Did customer support promise to send a technician out to fix the problem, but no one showed up?  Do you get the feeling that customer service isn’t taking your complaint seriously? These are common problems that CenturyLink customers face.  Not only have customers filed 7,157 grievances with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) over the past three years, the company have a special alert on its BBB page warning customers about continued complaints against CenturyLink.

Most common customer complaints against CenturyLink

1. Questionable sales practices
2. Poor speed and quality of service
3. Unresponsive customer service

Questionable sales practices

Customers frequently complain CenturyLink charged more money than expected. Other common complaints include customers being signed up for services that they didn’t agree to sign up for and customer service representatives failing to tell them when additional fees were added to a bill. Customers report when they dispute the extra charges or cancelled their service, they were not given credit and sent to collections for refusing to pay.

Cases of questionable sales practices have gotten so bad with CenturyLink, there are even a number of lawsuits against the company.

• A class-action lawsuit filed against CenturyLink in 2018 alleged the company engaged in fraudulent business practices by signing customers up for services they didn’t agree to or charging them more than was promised.
• And in July 2017, the Minnesota Attorney General sued CenturyLink for charging customers amounts that were different than advertised.  In October 2017, the company was ordered to pay restitution to customers that were billed improperly and to improve its disclosure practices.

Poor speed and quality of service

When customers complain about their internet service going down, they say that it can take days, even weeks before it is restored.  They sit on hold with customer service for several minutes before a representative picks up. When they do speak to customer service, customers are given vague answers. Customers that cancel their accounts due to the poor service report they continue to be billed for months, and they are sent to collections when they refuse to pay.

Customers also complain their internet speeds are far slower than advertised.  Customers with landline phones report continued noise on the lines.

Unresponsive customer service

Poor customer service is a common complaint.  Customers report they can’t resolve billing issues without making several calls to customer service.  There are long wait times and they get disconnected. Other customers report poor and unhelpful customer service when they need technical help.

If you have tried unsuccessfully to resolve billing and connection problems with CenturyLink, there is another option. FairShake works with consumers to resolve their issues with CenturyLink through a process called consumer arbitration.