Suddenlink Communications Customer NonService, Dishonest, Poor Billing, Overpriced Tyler, Texas

I became a Suddenlink customer in September 2008. I had trouble from the very start. The installation fee that was supposed to be waived was not. When I called, they said I had been given false information. For the next couple of months, I had to call to have my bill straightened out because of billing errors.

I also had Vonage phone service at the time. About the time I got the billing errors straightened out, my service reliability went in the toilet. I personally think they didn't like that I was using Vonage on their internet since they also offer phone, but I couldn't prove it. It took many phone calls and about a month of no reliable service (internet or phone) to get things straightened out.

In about March of 2009, I called to see if they would offer me any kind of discount on my service (a la carte is about 60 a month including taxes). I was locked in to the promotional rate (38.53) for 12 months. Nice!

A couple of months ago, I decided (stupidly) I would change phone service to Suddenlink to save about 10 bucks a month. They DO tell you voicemail and caller ID are available. They DON'T tell you that you'll have to pay if you want more than a dial tone. I kept the service less than a month and had them come get the phone modem and put me back to just internet.

The bill following the phone service disconnect was a little higher than normal, but I assumed it was a partial month of phone service. However, this month's bill was back to 60 dollars, and I had been charged full rate for the internet, even though I technically still had 2 months on my promotional rate. When I called customer service I was told that I couldn't get the promotional rate unless my service was bundled with something else. I told the lady I'd had the promotional rate with internet only for nearly the past year. There was much arguing back and forth, and she wouldn't relent that I had indeed had the promotional rate. After being connected with a supervisor (that I had to ask for 3 times), I found out I should have never been on the promotional rate. And even though they could see in the account notes that I had been offered the rate for 12 months, they wouldn't switch me back.

I will not be a Suddenlink customer as of the 22nd of this month. I wanted to leave it on long enough to make arrangements with another provider, and post this. :)