Century Link Qwest Rip Off Artist, Unreliable Service, Customer Service is a Mystery, Rude Tech's and on an on an on Internet

I signed up for Century Link service (formerly Qwest) in the first week on November of 2011. I signed up for auto turn on where they just send me the Router and I hook it up myself. The signal was supposed to be turned on on the 10th of November. The directions very explicitly said to wait until 5pm before hooking it up. On the 10th I waited until 7pm that night to connect it and there was no service.

I didn't think much of it, so I called their tech support and they seemed at the time to try to be helpful. They ran their "diagnostic" and said everything should be up and running. It wasn't so we did the whole router restart thing and nothing.  At 9pm I finally said I'm done and went to bed.

The next day I talked to someone in their Tech support team again and they said they would have to get a technician out to see what is going on and that they would waive the $80 for sending a tech out. I found that to be acceptable. They scheduled it for Monday the 14th between 11-4. 

Monday the 14th shows up and I am anxiously waiting for my tech to show up as we have had no internet since the 10th. At around 4:15 pm I called and asked where my tech was and they said they could have him give me a call. He called me 5 minutes later and said that he would not be able to make it out today. I'm pissed at this point and asked him if he could have at least called me to let me know. After all I did take the day off to do this. He said he was busy and my reply was You are going to come out today and hook this up. I wouldn't take no for an answer at this point.

 About 45 minutes later he shows up and acts like he did us this big favor with TONS of attitude. He got out of his truck, looked at my house, walked right past me ignoring me, got back into his truck and left. I was irate to say the very least.

Then to add insult to injury, he called me 5 minutes later and said that we do not have a Century Link line to our house and that they would have to come out and bury a new line. I asked how long that would be and he said around a week.

I called Tech support the next day and they said they had no information about any line having to be buried. So they set the appointment up for November 22. 11am-4pm again.

Now it is the 22nd and needless to say I took the day off again, and needless to say at 4:30 I was on the phone with them asking where my tech was. He called me back and told me he was extremely busy. I said that was bullshit and he was going to get his a*s out here and hook up our phone and Internet. he said he can make it there on the 23'rd and I said no way, I cannot take another day off of work to get blown off by you again. He showed up 45 minutes later and hooked our service line up. That is where the nightmare begins.

The junction box that he has to use is across the alley from our house next to our local convenience store. He did not come equipped to bury the line instead just "laid it across the alley". Now I live up north and the snow flies here pretty early. I inquired about this and the tech said they will be back in about two weeks to bury the line. I called the next day and nothing was scheduled. So I scheduled for the line to be buried Dec 1, in the mean time the alley I live by is right next to a lumber yard, so traffic running over my line is high. But at least I have service at this time. 

December 1 rolls around and guess what, I should have learned by now, I took the day off and the crew that was supposed to bury the cable was a no show again. I was infuriated So I called everyone and their dog in Century Link. I finally got to a man named Doug, out of St. Paul Mn. And he was the first one that was truly helpful. He was a bit higher up in the ranks and he asked me for the best number to call me at and said he would investigate and find out whats going on. In the mean time he explained that the techs do not bury lines, they only connect them and repair them. They have independent contractors that bury the lines.

Doug actually called me back the next day and was very apologetic when he told me that the crew will not be able to bury the line because the frost is deep in the ground now. To his credit I understand that as I have worked on farms my whole life. He said the next best thing we can do is have the tech come out and hang the line so it does not keep getting run over by traffic. I was ok with that. Mad that if they would have done it when they said they would have in the first place, it would be over by now.

Long story short, the tech came out, said he needs to see if the convenience store will let him hang it from their store and I have never heard back from them again. The line is still in my alley and strewn across my yard. The first time a snow plow comes through our alley, we are out of service. 
I just wanted to post this up as a warning to anyone thinking about going with Century link. They have the worst customer service in the industry and the most lackadaisical attitudes I have EVER seen.

On a side note, they told me that they will be able to come out this spring and bury the cable, and if a snow plow tears the line out, I am supposed to call them and they will send our friendly tech out to repair it. Its not a matter of "if" the snow plow comes, its a matter of when.

And on a final thought, I just received a bill from them saying that I was past due and I owed them $190 for just phone and internet. I never even got a first bill from them. I called and they credited me $48 for the time I had gone without the internet. What a joke! Their $49.99 a month bundle fee for phone and Internet turned out to be $80 a month. Good luck with these scam artist. 

The saddest part is a couple of years ago, we used to have Qwest and the service was great and reliable. . . . .
Century Link = EPIC FAIL