Centurylink Qwest can't keep the phone working or figure out their billing system, Internet

We had an electrical storm in our area that resulted in my home phone going dead.  After two days I used my cell phone to call Centurylink and ask what was wrong and when I could expect it to be working again.  What I was told was that they could send out a technician but it would cost $85 if the problem had something to do with the wiring in our house.  I was 95% sure it was on their end and not ours but in an electrical storm it is hard to know what might be damaged.

So after being with the phone company that is currently called Centurylink for all but one year of my entire life I called Charter cable and talked to them about transferring my services.  Charter actually offered me a better deal, and they take care of all of the wiring, inside the house and out.  So I switched my service.

Then I received a bill from Centurylink.  I thought I would just take care of it by paying online so I logged onto my account and discovered that it listed my balance as $0.00.  I was confused so I called the customer service and asked the Centurylink representative if I could pay by phone.  She said she wasn't sure why I had gotten a bill, but my account really did have a $0 balance.  As she was explaining I thought it made sense because I had cancelled in the middle of the month and my payment was for the next month.  

If anything they probably owed me money since I paid for a part of a month I didn't have service from Centurylink.  Nevertheless I pursued the issue with the Centurylink representative asking her if there was any thing else I might be billed for or if these charges would show up later.  She assured me that my account showed as canceled with a $0.00 balance. She went on to tell me that there was no way that she could take a payment on an account that showed a $0 balance and since the account was canceled there would not be any more bills for it.

Now I have a letter from a collections agency for the amount I was not allowed to pay because the Centurylink representative was sure it did not exist and could not occur in the future because the account was canceled.  Warn your friends that this is a company to get away from as fast as possible.  They can neither keep their service operation nor can they be trusted to give accurate information.