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CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

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Re: CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

#171

Post by bitsnbytes »

illumin8 wrote: post #141
xahrepap wrote: post #94

CenturyLink is totally shady. My wife just yesterday spent a significant amount of time fixing our phone bill. She decided a couple months ago to upgrade to a "fixed" bill plan (apparently they've been raising our prices $10/mo every year for the last few years). This plan price won't change until we change the plan. It's bundled with their internet though, but my wife told them to not send the modem because we weren…

The quickest way to resolve all of these billing shenanigans: file a consumer complaint with the FCC. Magically, you'll almost immediately get a phone call from someone fairly high up in the company (typically executive relations or similar) that has the power to fix things and will make it right. The sad truth is that these telcos will systematically screw millions of customers with shady fees and fraudulent billing…

"The quickest way to resolve all of these billing shenanigans: file a consumer complaint with the FCC"

This , I had to do this with Comcast because of their craptastic service ,BS, and invalid billing. Trying to cancel them I kept being passed around to ALL the wrong people and departments, hung up on, refusal to give confirmation that the service was actually cancelled. Finally figured the only way they would cancel my service was to write a complaint to the FCC.

Sure enough just a few days later comcast called and apologized and cancelled my service as requested and fixed the hundreds of dollars of wrongful billing.

Re: CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

#172

Post by SamuelAdams »

jedberg wrote: post #15
pwg wrote: post #4

And here we see the disconnect between what politicians say, and what they write into law. The bill's sponsor's response to the blog authors query: SB134 did not require that ...They were only required to notify customers of options via email or with an invoice. And here is the text of the statute that was written: (ii) A service provider may provide the notice described in Subsection (2)(b)(i): (A) by electronic com…

It is generally bad practice to write laws with specific technologies listed as solutions, because then the law is easy to skirt by using another technology, or the law becomes stale as technology changes. That being said, this law already had a specific expiration date, and there was little fear that email would be an old technology by the end of this month. They should have written a better law.

>It is generally bad practice to write laws with specific technologies listed

Exactly right. This is why fax machines still exist today. There are some laws that _require_ certain documents be faxed (not emailed) to healthcare providers. If the law was worded more abstractly, they could be using email or a smartphone app now. So to me this new language makes sense, but it can open up risk to being abused.

If the law is abused, the company should have it's day in court, and the courts can decide what to do.

Re: CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

#173

Post by ezoe »

> I would switch ISPs but I have no other options where I live. Hopefully making this issue more public will help CenturyLink make better decisions,

Seriously? I won't trust such ISP to send/receive even one bit of information if I were him. Even if they changed their mind because of this, Don't trust them until all the boards resigned, all the employees implemented this be fired, lost the massive lawsuit from all the customers, and then, after acquired by other sane ISP.

Re: CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

#174

Post by c22 »

xahrepap wrote: post #94

CenturyLink is totally shady. My wife just yesterday spent a significant amount of time fixing our phone bill. She decided a couple months ago to upgrade to a "fixed" bill plan (apparently they've been raising our prices $10/mo every year for the last few years). This plan price won't change until we change the plan. It's bundled with their internet though, but my wife told them to not send the modem because we weren…

Heh. I've mailed my modem back (twice) and I still get billed for two modems (!) at least once every year.

Re: CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

#175

Post by xahrepap »

krupan wrote: post #142
xahrepap wrote: post #94

CenturyLink is totally shady. My wife just yesterday spent a significant amount of time fixing our phone bill. She decided a couple months ago to upgrade to a "fixed" bill plan (apparently they've been raising our prices $10/mo every year for the last few years). This plan price won't change until we change the plan. It's bundled with their internet though, but my wife told them to not send the modem because we weren…

"My wife wants something independent for emergencies." Have you considered ham radio?

I haven't thought of that. That's a good idea!

Re: CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

#176

Post by xahrepap »

Jach wrote: post #147
xahrepap wrote: post #94

CenturyLink is totally shady. My wife just yesterday spent a significant amount of time fixing our phone bill. She decided a couple months ago to upgrade to a "fixed" bill plan (apparently they've been raising our prices $10/mo every year for the last few years). This plan price won't change until we change the plan. It's bundled with their internet though, but my wife told them to not send the modem because we weren…

Might getting a ham radio and learning how to operate it (getting a technician's license together) be an alternative to a landline for having something in emergencies?

I'm going to have to look into that. Thanks for the suggestion!

Re: CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

#177

Post by datavirtue »

xahrepap wrote: post #94

CenturyLink is totally shady. My wife just yesterday spent a significant amount of time fixing our phone bill. She decided a couple months ago to upgrade to a "fixed" bill plan (apparently they've been raising our prices $10/mo every year for the last few years). This plan price won't change until we change the plan. It's bundled with their internet though, but my wife told them to not send the modem because we weren…

This seems to happen with other ISPs and telcos as well. Most notably, Verizon.

My theory is that the sales person gets commission on the sale so they just tell you what you want to hear on the phone and enroll you in whatever makes them the most money. I also think that the sales person that knocks it down or fixes it gets penalized since they often don't fix the issue even when they said they did.

With Verizon we had to start holding on the phone with the reps while refreshing the website to make sure the correct plan changes were actually implemented. Then we took screenshots for proof. That cleared up the persistent mistakes.

Re: CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

#178

Post by xahrepap »

aviv wrote: post #164
xahrepap wrote: post #94

CenturyLink is totally shady. My wife just yesterday spent a significant amount of time fixing our phone bill. She decided a couple months ago to upgrade to a "fixed" bill plan (apparently they've been raising our prices $10/mo every year for the last few years). This plan price won't change until we change the plan. It's bundled with their internet though, but my wife told them to not send the modem because we weren…

Among other things, we run residential VOIP networks for large ISPs and other operators, and it's ridicilous to see the prices CenturyLink, AT&T and others charge their home customers for just phone service... I regularly come across LOAs and phone bills for $60 to $120 single home phone lines - for absolutely no reason other than that they can get away with it.

Yeah, we're paying $60. When we signed up it was $15/mo. Been creeping up ever since. It's a huge pain.

Re: CenturyLink is blocking customer internet, saying Utah legislators told them to

#179

Post by eridius »

rosser wrote: post #150
eridius wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is definitely not true if they sent it to you by accident.

You'll have to clarify what "by accident" means. The FTC's rules on "unordered merchandise", linked else-thread, seem pretty unambiguous.

If they meant to send it to someone else but put your address on it, that's an accident. Which is to say, if the package has your address on it but someone else's name, you can't keep it (in fact, if it's delivered by the USPS then I believe even just opening it is a crime as it's someone else's mail).

If they intended for you to receive it but believed you were expecting it (and understood that you'd have to pay for it), then I expect that would also qualify.

In order to count as "unordered merchandise" it seems reasonable that the sender must be aware that it was unordered.

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