Centurylink Fraudulent Billing / Bait & Switch They do not bill you for the services you ask for, but for much more expensive ones! South Bend Indiana

I have now had to deal with Centurylink on two separate accounts for two different people in two different states and with both accounts the EXACT SAME thing happened.   No matter what services I ask for, they sign me up for higher priced services.  I hooked up brand new service in WA state.  I asked for specific levels of phone & internet services and the operator told me what those services cost, I agreed and set it all up.  The first bill was more than $40 higher than it was supposed to be.  The operator had signed me up for all of the more costly services which I specifically told her I did not want.  It took me 4 months of calling every month after receiving my erroneous bill to get them to straighten it out.  

Move forward two years and now I call them to upgrade my Uncles' account in IN state.   Doing nothing but upgrading his 56k service to 1.5mbps DSL.   The bill was supposed to be $53.38 plus taxes (so roughly $60 per month).  The first bill comes for $142 because she signed him up for 3.0mbps DSL and added Unlimited long distance, Voice Mail, Caller ID, Call Waiting, etc. onto his phone line!  I called them and told them that the bill was wrong and they said they would take care of it.  But because he had his account set up on an autopay program, they just sucked that $142 out of his checking account when the bill due date came and never changed anything!  The situation got worse and worse, not better.  It is now 4 months later and I have had to call them 6 times, I have spent well over 4 hours total on the phone with this company to try to get them to fix his bill.   The thing that really disgusts me is that when I made the changes I told the operator that he was 82 years old and that he was currently undergoing daily cancer treatments and I was trying to make live a bit better for him by upgrading his service.  So what does she do?  She jacks him up with a bunch of crap and overbills him! 

If you have to deal with this company, take copious notes on EVERY conversation that you have with them.  Note the date, the name of the operator and the department they are in and everything they tell you so that you can refer back to exactly what was said later.   Also, if you make changes or sign up new service, I would suggest that you call back two days after the initial call and verify what they actually did to your account to make sure that it is what you asked for!