How to Navigate Century Links Horrible Customer Service

For most people contacting Century Link might be a once every 3+ years event that is easily resolved. However for others contacting Century Link becomes a living nightmare of constant frustration. The solution is to file a consumer complaint with the FCC, State Utility commission, and last resource is the State Attorney General Consumer Affairs Divison.

I was experiencing slow internet speeds of less than 0.76mbps download speeds and complete loss of connection on a daily basis. I looked at my GUI modem systems which all indicated that the issue was on the Century Link service end.

So despite the century link system showing connected status for internet and century link services I was 100% cut off.

Century Link Employees

The problem begins with the Century Link call center employees training. These employees are trained in the art of communication evasive tactics. When asking century link employees either via chat or on the phone any type of question you may find yourself feeling unanswered, unheard, or like you are getting no where!

Employees are trained to keep the calls as short as possible and will do everything they can to get off the call as quickly as possible even if this means nothing is accomplished by the call. They are trained in the art of deception and denial.

First and foremost customers are denied the most basic of human decencies which is continuity and consistency of a point of contact. This is achieved on several levels but begins by denying customers the consistency of being assigned a case manager. Someone they can work with until their issue is resolved so that customers do not need to constantly explain themselves and repeatedly verify their identity when calling in to report the continuation of the repair issue or to get updates.

Let’s say you come across a Century link employee who finallly talks to you as a person and not as if they are following a script. You cannot call back and ask to speak with that person because there is no way for Century Link call centers to request connecting you to a specific employee.

Issue

In my case I had interrupted and complete loss of internet service that was most prevalent in the evening hours and eventually became an all out complete loss of service. Century Link employees tend to only look at the present situation. So if the internet is experiencing intermittent issues in the evening but the phone agent or the residential repair technician is only looking at the modem during daytime hours then they are usually not trained to look at the previous evenings logs which show the evidence of the problem.

Example:

Call Century Link:

Customer: so my internet is still having dropped intermittent service in the evening.

Agent: ok let’s begin by trying to reboot your modem.

Customer: no this is not a modem issue this is an ongoing problem please review my account notes.

Agent: well if you won’t reboot the modem then I can’t help you, goodbye.

Customer: I don’t see how rebooting my modem is going to prove anything if in fact it will make it worse because rebooting the modem actually erases the event logs that track outage issues.

Agent: I am sorry but your internet is showing as stable and connected.

Customer: that is because the issue only happens at night time. So you need to go into the account and look at the evening time log files to see the problem.

Agent: There currently isn’t a problem as your internet is showing as connected and stable.

FCC Solution

The only way to avoid the nightmare never ending incompetency that is Century Link and I assume Xfinity customer service is to file an online complaint with the FCC as soon as possible. The FCC to business response time can be upwards of 30 days. By filing a complaint with the FCC against Century Link or other ISP is that you will be assigned a Century Link Customer Advocate who can be your consistent point of contact. This person can communicate most effectively with you and the local department management for the repair technicians until either a resolution is found or you are informed no resolution is possible.

Outcome

It is important to understand that major ISP companies like Century Link are abandoning DSL service lines and if your home experiences loss of service due to a mainline defect Century Link will not make repairs but instead will encourage customers to find an alternative ISP, such as their predatory satellite ISP partner hughesnet.

At this point it is important to visit the FCC broadband locator website and search your address. There will be an option for “challenge service” that allows customers to notify the FCC when an ISP provider no longer provides services to an area or of many more infractions such as if fraudulent t advertising is being made. for example Century Link is abandoning services in my area, when doing an address search via Century Link web site it shows 6Mbps as being available to my home.

The nest option is to file a complaint with your State Utilities Commission. Lastly file a complaint with your State attorney General consumer affairs division. All of these services can be accessed free of charge.