CenturyLink review: extremely frustrated and disappointed with the service 23

Both my wife(self-employed) and I(offsite employee) work from home, all internet based, with a small business account set up with Qwest. Many, many people depend on us to deliver product several times every day. One day we sat down to get to work, and we couldn't connect to the web. (This was my first week as a new employee). Do you know how embarrassing it was to have to call my home office and tell them our internet service was down? We called Qwest to find out what was going on, and we were told that our service was discontinued because we "were using it too much". What?
In the meantime, we had no notice, that they were just going to drop the service, cold turkey. Mind you, we still are unable to work-my wife is losing income as each hour passes...One thing led to another as we tried to get our service restored. We had promised call backs not be made, then we would call back, have to tell someone the story all over again. And then we got the ultimate, most ridiculous explanation-a new one-that another customer of theirs, with the same name as me, in another state, has the same email address, and that their software picked up on this, and the software was to blame for killing our account. We asked how long this other person had an account with them, and they said he had his account longer than we had ours. We had already had our account for a year and a half! We were told we had to come up with a totally new account, etc, change all our parameters. Well, in a nutshell, it took a full week, about 9 or 10 phone calls, even after we called the executives up and threatened them with a lawsuit-to have our service reinstated. And guess what-we still have our same account restored, that we had to begin with, go figure. We did get 6 months free internet service out of them, but all in all, it didn't come close to making up for the stress we were under, and for all the customers we couldn't deliver to. Everything had been okay thus far...hopefully nothing this awful will happen again...

My husband and I decided to change from a VOIP service to Qwest. I called Qwest and initially signed up for Home Choice Plus 2 line plan. We also got internet service with them. I was told that I could split the 10 features up between the 2 lines. From day one we had problaems so that I was calling them every day to address one issue or another. During one of the latter calls I was told that I could not split the options between the 2 lines and that I was being charged for all the options. I asked what my options were at that point and was changed to 2 1-line home plus plans. Well, I just got my phone bill today and it is for $313.29. First, it has me on the 2-line home plus package for a total charge of $84.44 for 8/28 - 9/27. There are charges for $35.00 and $17.50 for line installation charges that I was not told about. $28.53 for line charge from 8/11 - 28 and then $20.61 for line charge from 8/12 - 8/28 - for the same line!On the internet portion of the bill is a modem purchase charge of $40 I was not told about and a "S&H advanced modem charge" of $14.99. I have spent hours on the phone with various CS agents. I got different responses/suggestions from each person I talked to - but none of them ever mentioned any activation or purchase fees. Oh, how I would love to cancel this crappy service.

I've been with Qwest for roughly 10 years. When I moved into my current apartment, I noticed my second bill was extraordinarily high. I looked over it, and saw that I was being billed for internet service and a rented modem.
I contacted them immediately, and assured them that I never ordered the service. They told me that they would remove it, but that I would have to send back the modem.
I told them that I never received a modem, and would have watched out for it had I ordered the service.
I live in a secured building, but at the time I moved in, there were several unsavory characters living here that management was trying to evict.
The manager had even put up a notice at the mailboxes to the post man to not leave any packages there, that if the person were not home to deliver to personally, to leave a notice for redelivery or pickup.

I was told to wait for a while longer to receive the modem (they'd sent it out well over 2 months prior...) as well as to contact the manager and my neighbors to find out if they had it.

I called again a week later, and told them that no one had it, that I didn't receive it, that I didn't order it, and to remove the charges from my account.
I was told that they would remove all charges.

NOTE: I'm on autopay, so I couldn't only pay the part I felt I should, they took the entire amount for the bill from my checking account.

I received the bill for month 3. Still being billed for the service and equipment.
Phone calls again, repeating myself as I'd done previously.

I am meticulous in my record keeping, so I stated names and dates of people I'd spoken to, telling them what I'd been told. Again, I was promised it would be taken care of, all charges refunded to my account.

This repeated itself for another 4 months. I'd get a bill, I'd call in, they'd promise, and nothing.
I was transferred to service, where I was told they had removed it from my account, and they'd have to look into it to see why it keeps billing. They'd give me a service request confirmation number and say someone would call back.
When no one did, I'd call in, giving that number, and would be told "we're still working on it." nothing...ever.

On the 8th month, I called in and asked to be transferred to the cancellation department, that I wanted to close my account. The representative said, "I can do that for you, but first, could I ask why you want to close?"
Uh...sure...

I explained, in detail, the last several months. I told her that for 10 years, I've been a loyal customer, my account on autopay, so I've NEVER once been late.
I told her that it's becoming too much, being billed for something that I didn't order, that I didn't want, and being promised it would be fixed, but never having it done.

We went over the account and the dates of ordering didn't match up. She looked at the date that I called in and switched my services and the date that I called in next. The date that it was ordered was in between those two, with NO record of me calling...
From what we could ascertain (she didn't outright say it, or she'd get into trouble) someone at Qwest (they know who, but wouldn't tell me) went into my account and added the services, I can only assume to get the commission and hope it wouldn't be noticed?

So she asked if this was the only reason I wanted to close my account... Ummm...Yes

She then went into my account, and step by step, told me what she was doing. She said that several people had noted my account, but no one actually went in and changed EACH page that needed to be done. They can't just fill out a form and fix it, it had to be done several places.
She gave me a direct number to reach her. She said that it MIGHT show on the next bill, but the one after would be fixed. If it didn't, or there were any other problems, to call her directly.

Sure enough, the second month, I saw it removed from my account. Some of the months of charges were refunded, but not all of them. Apparently they can only refund for a few months.

I called the number she gave, and explained that the entire amount was not refunded.
She had to do it manually, but eventually everything was fixed. Nearly a YEAR later.

We moved and decided to go with qwest, mainly for Sunday ticket. It took numerous phone call just to get the three services ordered, phone, internet, and DirectTV. After finally getting all services ordered, it took three weeks just to get our phone number ported over. Finally we had all services ordered and working and then the first bill came. That was a nightmare in it self. I had to call after receiving a bill every month for seven months to get the bill right. The phone service was changed numerous times in order to find the best option and cheapest service possible.

Later we had to move and were still in contract with DirectTV and qwest for the three services. We would have moved our services to our new residence, yet they did not provide internet at our new location. We decided to cancel the three services. Qwest did not charge a cancellation fee, because they do not provide the service(discussed many time with customer service), yet we have to pay $75.oo to cancel with DirectTV, even though we had the three together to save money. We have received many calls from DirectTV about equipment that they are charging us for, even though they received it all ready. Now we got a bill from qwest about canceling our service. I called many, many times to make sure that this would not be a problem. Customer service is absolutely terrible and only open when everyone is working. I will get this all resolved, but the amount of time that I have spent dealing with qwest makes me feel more knowledgeable about them than their reps. I am so glad to be out from under their services. If you are even thinking of switching to qwest, I would recommend doing anything but that, even if it may cost a little more. I hate qwest.

I am posting this on every "I hate qwest" blog so if you've already seen it my appologies

I also am going around the phone tree/transfer/call back loop with qwest.

Find it interesting that employees say they are mistreated by their supervisors, yet when you ask to speak to a supervisor, it is as if they don’t exist.

Finally got a callback from a customer service supervisor after 6 days! I thought their call back time was 72 hours. She said they are behind on their call backs. Well no wonder, with the bad service and constant transfers, probably everyone wants a supervisor call back.

Get it together qwest!

No wonder most of your plans require a 3 year committment. It’s the only way you have to keep customers for 3 years because it is certainly not your customer service abilities!

I am so dissatisfied I called their corporate office and get this……. I had to leave a message on a machine! Are you kidding me!?! Not even a real person to answer the call? What the heck is it with this company!?!

This is a telcom and I can’t even find an email address to contact the CEO or assistant or anyone on the board. I was advised by a VERY HELPFUL TalktoQwest on Twitter rep that I could send a letter.

I will send a letter but find it absolutely ridiculous that a telcom CEO doesn’t even have a public email address, I mean even if they were screened by his admin assistant or another group of employees at least I’d be getting my message to the Corp Office.

What a bummer! Believe me, if I wasn’t committed with my contract I’d be gone. But in the mean time I’m going to keep calling writing and emailing tweeting blogging etc about my experiences with Qwest.

To add to this in case anyone wonders…. I’ve not once raised my voice or gotten angry with any rep I’ve spoken too. I have been respectful as I know how it works and everyone is compartmentalized. It’s no fault of the employees it is a problem with the corporation!

It's sad, but true. The Qwest Customer Service is a combination of Sales and Customer Service. As a former employee, let me tell you, it is 99% Sales. Qwest does have good products at competitive prices. The problem is the managment puts unreal sales quotas for the reps to achieve. If they don't hit the numbers, their gone. It's called Slamming or Cramming, adding products and services on a customers account without either 1. the cust knowing about it, or 2. not disclosing the terms, ie shipping charges, contract length, early termination fee's, etc. It's a major problem for qwest, because if you call in, and you're not buying anything, they keep you on hold or transfer you, however they don't want to get rid of you right away, as the clock meters their call times, and a quick solution without a sale will screw up the sales to call ratio. It''s all about sales, they don't care to help, the max credit a rep can make to an account is $40, otherwise it has to go to the upper management, and they will genereally reject credits, they think ALL customers are cheats and deadbeats that try to squirm out of paying for a service or a fee. Anyway, hope all is well for you, as a general rule, if you call in, NEVER say a word while you are on hold, THEY CAN HEAR YOU, while you hear the background commercials. It's eavesdropping to give the rep an advantage for his approach, as it's very common for the person on hold to make comments out loud, or speaking to a realative in the same room, they can hear all you say. The best thing a Qwest customer can do, is never call them to add or change service. Only call when you are ready to cancell completely. Otherwise if you call in, it can set off a chain reaction, and when you have to call in to correct a problem, the call will go to one of SEVERAL call centers. Better chances hitting the lottery than getting the same rep on a call, and you WILL need to call more than once. I had customers tell me they have called 3 times in the same day! Big rewards if you sell, for me, I was more customer service, so I didn't make my numbers, so I was let go. Car dealerships have MUCH more honesty and integrity than Qwest.

I am also experiencing a not only frustrating but scray situation with Qwest. I cancelled my services with them and recieved 3 additional bills after termination. I paid one because I thought it to be a late payment or oversight on my part. I am currently being contacted daily by debt collectors. I say scary situation because I am in the processing of obtaining a mortgage to buy a home and this issue with the collections agency has the potential to devestate my credit and elimiate me from the option of homeowner.

What did you all do to get this issue resolved? I cannot get through to qwest, I cannot get through to the collections agency. Do I need a lawyer? What do I do?

About two years ago I got a call from QWest about their Broadband Internet service. At the time I was a Netzero 3G( DSL ) customer I paid 24.95 a month for that service.Since my land line( which I paid 25.00 a month for) was with QWest already I listened to the offer they were making.They told me how fast their Broadband was and how much more Id be getting by using their internet service along with my phone service. I beleived it all and when I was told it would cost me about the same as what I was already paying I said ok lets do it. I wont even go into the pain in the ### it was getting the right modem (they sent me two of them neither of which was the right one) had to have a tech come and get it all working. After all the headache of getting hooked up and on line, it wasnt any faster then my Netzero DSL. But the real surprise came when I got my first bill. After the big pitch about how much better it would be to go with QWest and their service I was totally pissed when I opened my bill to find the amount due was $ 217.00! I was on the phone! For a week I sat on the phone trying to straighten all that out. Didnt help I got jacked and now my monthly bill is $15.00 a month more then what I was paying with Netzero. Go figure. QWest is a rip off and every time I get a letter or bill from them and they refer to me as " Dear Valued Customer", I want to go postal on them.

Hi this Specialist kingsley inyang, yesterday i received information about my credit report from my bank saying that i owning the following company or firm the sum of $405.00. And this account according to their data base it was open january 2010. I have no idea who this people are and i have no business with them, and am currently serving in Army station in Germany since 2007 dec. please if you need any prove of my residency i will be glad to prove that. but mean time i want this mess to be out of my credit report. I will be glad if you contack me on this issued, my contack number is +[protected]. E-mail is jeffkci@yahoo.com.

Thank you.

I received information about my credit report from my bank saying that i owning the following company or firm the sum of $405.00. And this account according to their data base it was open january 2010. I have no idea who this people are and i have no business with them

Qwest bisiness partners signed my business (proteam marketing) up on a new 3 year phone service contract. There product was better than our past suppier, Integra.Proteam marketing saved @ 30% by making the switch. Qwest then contacted us is November, increasing our rates (line charges) not honoring the 3 year contract of there business partners, who where authorized to make the original deal. Qwests position is final they say. Increasing our monthly by @35% for a net loss of 5% or, to a small business of $1200 a year

Here is a complaint regarding Qwest, and their bad business practices! Such as price gouging, hidden fees and threats of disconnection of services, even if we paid them and then add insult, claim we would have to pay
an activation fee! For a services we have had more than a year!
over billing claiming they only charge once a month. Then how come between the 2 of us we have
paid them almost $500.00! We are on a fixed income receiving only 1 check a month, yet they want
us to give most of it to them! Not caring that we have other priorities besides them! That more important
their greed! They have even had the nerve to ask if we wanted extra perks, we can't afford so they can
charge us more money!

Sincerelly
Angry consumer in Spokane

I have been a Qwest customer for a few years. I have Phone and Internet bundled. I recently requested to port a number from another carrier to replace my existing phone number. This process was crazy but I went along with it. My phone was disconnected, then my internet after the tech left. I called Friday and they said they would send someone out Sunday. Fine even though I was unhappy. Today i find out they have changed that to Monday. I will be out of town Monday. No one will help me or knows what the heck is going on. Qwest You Suck!

No customer service, no return calls or follow thru. Qwest refuses to take any responsibility and resolve this issue.

After 15 years of paying my phone bill, I decided to switch carriers, I closed my account with Qwest in good standing, but when I asked that they refund my initial cash deposit, the company refuses, saying they have no records past 7 years, and that deposits are automatically reimbursed after a year of new service.

I keep all my receipts and invoices. Upon their request, I fax them a copy of my deposit receipt (made in cash thru a local bank) and I fax them copies of my billing statements showing no deposit ever being refunded/applied. I have spoken to several rep's over the phone, each time they promise to "look into the matter" and to get back with me, but no, Qwest has blown me off.

I feel taken. Don't they have the responsibility to prove that my deposit has been refunded? Open to suggestions on how to handle this.

I am a 36 year old person who is already compleatly fed up with crap im sick of legal extortion these companys rippoff the poor who cant fight in court set people up for failure making it impossable to pay there bills then they charge the consumer hundres of dollars in breach of contract for not being able to pay the phony bill and after it gets sent to collection it just becomes part of our gross debt and then other tax payers ultimatly get ripped off some more and scam is going full bore im done with phone/cabl/internet/bundles all i wanty is my airwave tv basic phone service/ and lousy dial up connection they can keep the 6000 channels the 25 calling features and highspeed crap hitting the fan.

Our phone/internet bill has been slowly creeping up despite the "BUNDLE" with Qwest. Since I pay the bills monthly I track the cost per month and noticed an increase starting on my November bill. The Oct. bill for phone/internet: $66.67. Dec. bill for same: $83.65 I called Qwest to cancel service. Suddenly the cost dropped to October level. New bill for this January for phone/internet: $98.70. GOODBYE Qwest! I hope you go bankrupt. To the employees of Qwest - Good luck finding a job in this economy. Lost customer cost: $32.03. More people need to drop them or they will not get the message.

Unbelievable that they are still in business! 6 months about one hour on the phone with Qwest to make sure that as their of customer for 30 years will get to keep my basic services around $50-60 for the next year 6 months. I received a bill last month for $30 more. I called they explained that I am one of their loyal customer for 30 years and of course they are giving me the best deal, but I did not call them to make sure. (I think I must be just really stupid still dealing with them this 30 years has been nothing but pain) What alternative do I have for a home phone line? Anyhow, I was re insured that after I pay this higher bill next bill will be back to my lower rate.
I just received my new bill is $50 dollars more that my previous bill.
I am exhausted and I know that is what they coning on. Disgusting operation. nothing is straight.
It is too exhausting to list all the various violation, scamming I have already experienced with them and I have hoped to be being us, one point they seemed to make an effort as they were on the top for hated company. Now my disappointment just got reinforced.
What other options do I have for home services I live in Colorado in the mountains, cell phone which I have does no work in my house.
Thanks!

There are many other companies that offer home phone service. I enjoy using Qwest for my internet, but I don't use their phone services.

Dear lestat32: Sue them, false advertisement. I have a current complaint with them for the same issues. We fired them, paid them in full then they sent us to collections. I was a loyal Qwest customer for over 5 years (hint was). I can honestly say firing them was the best decision! I now enjoy faster internet at a lower cost to me. And I receive my bills on time and don't have the headache of deciphering the bill. lestat32, make the leap and kick Qwest to the curb.

I have been compelled to write this letter to explain the unfair and horrific treatment I have received from the Qwest Communications.

We had contracted to build a new location at 1100 Eagleridge, Pueblo, CO. 81008. During the construction process I had alerted Qwest of my approximate move dates and concerns with moving the service. “Mark” told me that he had looked at the new address and everything was good. I was instructed to call back one week ahead of the move to schedule the technician.

I placed the move order on 04/1/2011 for the move date of 04/08/2011. I received a phone call on 04/07/2011 stating that the engineer had not returned the phone call of the person doing the work on the building.

I was told nothing was going to change until the engineer called back and that my cell phone would be called as soon as more was known. Nothing happened the rest of the day.

I came to the office on 04/08/2011 to find I had no phones or internet. It took Qwest about one hour to get the phones forwarded to my cell phone so I could receive business calls.

Three hours later they called me to let me know that my service would not be able to be moved until April 29, 2011. In the meantime, I went without any service at both locations.

I found a service provider that would move my service in four days. I had not planned to move my service nor did I want to, but Qwest was unable to meet my needs as a provider. I called to cancel my service with them only to be informed that I was going to be responsible for a $975 termination agreement.

I was told that they thought I was treated unfairly, however there was nothing they could do to remove the early termination fee. I have been a loyal Qwest client since 2003 and I was shocked at the inability for them to satisfy a customer that they dropped the ball on.

I just want other consumers to know before they make the choice to go with such a terrible company. Hopefully others can avoid falling into the pitfall I did with this pathetic company.

RUUUUUNNNNN, OMG do NOT LOOK BACK! I've had probably 5 different ISPs over the last 20 years and Qwest is by far the WORST in terms of customer service and overall competence.

Thier email system @q.com has been down for about 10 DAYS now! Lol What kind of ISP has an email system outage for 10 days?! I've called every day to complain about it and they say "it's a known issue". They never created a support ticket for me until day 10 when I demamnded one.

Two young salespeople for Qwest arrived at my door when I had just had a huge increase in my Comcast monthly bill and absurd problems porting over my home phone #. They assured me that Qwest had new fiber optic lines up to my house and would be much faster than the Comcast Internet cable connection I had, as well as cheaper. So I switched to Qwest. I found the fiber optic line ends a block away and it is only DSL to my house. The speeds I now get are 15MB down and .7 MB up. With Comcast cable I had 20MB down and 1.5MB up. Plus every other day the connection is down for part of the day; Comcast was reliable. I cannot operate my web-based business this way so am forced to return to Comcast and pay $25 more a month plus $7 for a new cable modem lease. Both Internet providers are impossible but they are all we have for now.

I had been a loyal customer of Qwest for over 18 years, but in the last few months I have become totally frustrated with them and their greed. I called about the "other charges" that appeared on my bill and asked what it was. They said it was a tax paid to the FCC. That information is a lie. The "other charges" is used to maintain the land lines and goes directly into the Qwest bank account and is not a tax paid to the FCC. I make very few calls and hardly use my phone at all, yet I pay more in taxes for a land line than I do for the service itself. As a disabled individual on a fixed income, I once received a discount for a program called "life line." but 2 years ago I was declared ineligible to receive this discount any more. I have struggled to pay this outrageous bill since that time. I asked to make changes to lower it as much as possible, yet they still had caller id blocking on my service and still had me listed an an unlisted number after I asked them to change all that many times to lower my rate, but to no avail. I was fed up and decided to have my service disconnected and will no longer do business with the unreasonable and greedy Qwest. I hope they go bankrupt.