February 27, 2011

To CenturyLink

I have been a good and loyal customer for some time. I am writing this letter to discuss some concerns I have about the programming and other issues. First of all I am on Social Security disability which limits my monthly income. Being that I am on Social Security disability I watch a fair amount of television. In the past few months I have seen quality of your programming go downhill. There are so many stations that repeat the same shows which invariably are all runs Some examples are shows like Family Guy, Two and one half men, American dad, Simpson, House, the CSI series, the music channels, especially VH1. There are several other programs that fall into this category as well. I. liken this to going to the grocery store and putting items in my cart that I do not want. There are other programs that I do not watch still paperwork, such as sports channels and paid programming shows. They're also way too many reality shows that are simple senseless programs. I realize that they are cheap to produce but provide little in the way of quality programming.
I'm especially frustrated to be watching a show and see little graphics and commercials Pop ups at the bottom of the screen. This is very distracting while viewing the shows that I am watching. Some of the graphics at the bottom of the screen are reminders of shows to come. I have a guide button to find out what is coming up on future programming.
I think all of the above items mentioned result in a disservice to your custom. I believe that it lowers the quality of your product and the quality of your services. You have several levels of programming to choose from and I would like to see you allow customers to pick a level of service that they would like and allow them choose the types of programs they could get in that program level. I believe it is unfair for a customer to pay for items they do not use
As I alluded to earlier I am on Social Security disability so I have to watch my budget carefully. I have to cut costs wherever I can. There are certain necessities that I have to pay for each month but cable is not one of them. I need your help in helping me reduce my monthly bill. My last monthly bill was $194.21 which is at least $40.00 more than the previous months bill. I simply cannot afford those high bills.
I would appreciate for someone to contact me at 573 -814-1964 to see if we can come to some kind of agreement concerning these matters of interest.

Thank you,

Mike Martin

I have remote call forwarding on a business line. Every day the forwarding drops and when my customers call they receive a disconnected message. For four days CL has been unable to keep my service going for more than 4-5 hours. The people I speak to are all firendly but appear unequipped to do their jobs. I plan to find who within the state of Florida I can file an official complaint with or possibly begin a class action lawsuit. there are LOTS of complaints about them.

I have been having problems with my internet connection for about 3 weeks now and still have the very same issue after contacting tech support multiple times. The internet connection I pay for is supposed to be 5Mbs and as of my last speed test is only 1.99Mbs. I have done everything under the sun to troubleshoot the issue including removing my router and completely reseting my modem even rerunning my phone line to make sure it wasnt the line I was using. I am very computer literate and know a great deal about my home network and what to do to get it running correctly everything I have done still leaves my speeds very slow from the hours of 8pm to 12 am which leads me to believe the server they use is overrun with traffic on those hours. There have been 2 escalations on this issue as they call it and still no resolve. I am really tired of this issue as well as service outages which I can count at least 3 in the last 2 months here in my state. Century Link fix the issue or lose my business.

ive been with century link/embarq for about 16yrs have been waiting forever for internet service i call monthly well last week they the customer rep said yea we can get hsi i couldnt believe it thats all we wanted for xmas what a miracle well i called everyday just to verify my order everything was good tech would come out fri to install router well fri came we were so anxious and excited and guess what the tech called around noon and said the engineer said we could not get it what a let down still cant get an answer why, it is in the surrounding area they said we were on a list but no idea what yr we will get it their has been 4 new houses built here and they are selling lots i dont live in the boonies what is the problem if i were someone important i probably could get it .

Where to begin? The two weeks my DSL has run at speeds less than 0.90 bps or the bull concerning fixing the issue? We pay for 10 meg and can only get it in the wee hours of the morning when the broadband isn't overloaded. The service guy stated Century link has over sold and cannot handle the customer load. Well, at least one honest person works for century link... 11 hours on the phone pining, and hashing and ftping till my fingers are sore to be told, Gee mr. hendrick your DSL is slow and it's on our end. Well duh... I ask for a phone number to anyone in customer service that could help me and was told, "I'm sorry there isn't anyone." When Embarq owned us we never had issues like this, heck when sprint owned us it wasn't as poor as it is now. I wonder if I call the CEO of Century Link and give the list of names and employee ID's I've collected if it will make any difference in my problem?