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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

#241

Post by warent »

hopler wrote: post #233
warent wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could just take the CEO to small claims court for the maximum amount in your area (usually $5000-$10000) for the charge + punitive. Some states make it so you can't have a lawyer represent you in small claims court, and since Centurylink does business in your area then the person you served (i.e. the chief executive) would have to show up in person. That's basically what I did with a shady property management com…

That seems absurd 1. If you sue the company, any non lawyer rep can show up. 2. If you can sue the CEO over a corporate matter to force a settlement, why isn't everyone suing every rich person over everything?

1. That is true, but a sheriff can service an executive directly.

2. Your guess is as good as mine.

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

#242

Post by Applejinx »

rdtsc wrote: post #204
illumin8 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

BBB complaints also work sometimes. Was playing back and forth ball with Verizon FIOS's billing department for a few months. Got tired of it. Filed a BBB complaint. Then soon after got a call and magically the issue was solved.

BBB is also a kind of scam: they are not in any sense a government agency, more of a Yelp-like entity. In the age of the internet, they go after small businesses, and are eagerly sought out by scammers because you can just purchase their approval, and it can help allay people's suspicions. For that reason I'm less trusting of anything that is touting BBB support. It might be an old person who's not up to speed with what they've become, but it might be someone purchasing a high rating because they know they're going to try and rip people off, and need some cover.

At the time of writing this, they think I'm just dandy, because I didn't respond but didn't attack them when they tried to shake me down. It'll be interesting to find out if they respond to this post ;)

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

#243

Post by vorpalhex »

xahrepap wrote: post #176
Jach wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

I got my technician license and one of the things that surprised me was how helpful the community was and how much they want you to get your license. KB6NU has written a nice guide for the technician exam if you have a background in basic electronics, and there are several nice sites to take test exams on.

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

#244

Post by LeoPanthera »

beatgammit wrote: post #192
LeoPanthera wrote: post #149

I use Xfinity. (It’s my only option for internet.) They would routinely inject crap into unencrypted HTTP webpages, bill notifications, adverts for antivirus, stuff like that. In the end I configured my (pfSense) router to forward all data on port 80 (and a small selection of other commonly unencrypted ports) through a VPN to a local VPS. Port 443 HTTPS is still allowed to connect directly. Makes me feel a lot better…

I have a municipal fiber connection, but the bandwidth is atrocious and Comcast seems to be much better priced for faster speeds. What router do you have? Is it just something running OpenWRT, or something fancier? Also, how much do you pay beyond the listed service price (fees, taxes, etc), and can you waive the installation fee?

My router is a PC Engines APU2 running pfSense.

When I signed up there was no installtion fee, and no problem doing a self-install. But this was years so, so I have no idea if things have changed or not.

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

#245

Post by Scoundreller »

jxfreeman wrote: post #231
bitsnbytes wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

The best way to cancel any cable service is to simply unplug your equipment and drive to the service office and plunk it on the counter while announcing loudly that you’re canceling your service. It took all of 15 minutes and all the service rep said was “Sorry to see you go.” No retention techniques, nothing. It was the best customers service experience I ever had with Comcast.

I recall a similar experience after cancelling over the phone.

I went to the store to return the box and they said I'd have to take a number.

I said "Nope, here's the box I'm returning, we're done here". Took some pictures and got the F out.

Returning something shouldn't take more than 30 seconds. And it wasn't going to take more than that for me.

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

#246

Post by zmw »

vorpalhex wrote: post #243
xahrepap wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I got my technician license and one of the things that surprised me was how helpful the community was and how much they want you to get your license. KB6NU has written a nice guide for the technician exam if you have a background in basic electronics, and there are several nice sites to take test exams on.

The technician license exam is extremely easy, you just have to memorize a few hundred questions. Passing the exam and getting the license doesn't actually prepare you for real world operation at all... I think I spent a total of less than four hours going over the questions, and got full marks on the exam (which amazed everyone there... But I'm a physicist to begin with — just not very much into electronics).

By the way, back when I took the exam, I made a tiny web app to help me with the question pool: https://hamradio.zhimingwang.org/. It basically lets you quickly go over the questions, hide the ones you're confident with, then go over the rest again, rinse and repeat. The question pool might have been updated though.

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

#247

Post by zmw »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #149

I use Xfinity. (It’s my only option for internet.) They would routinely inject crap into unencrypted HTTP webpages, bill notifications, adverts for antivirus, stuff like that. In the end I configured my (pfSense) router to forward all data on port 80 (and a small selection of other commonly unencrypted ports) through a VPN to a local VPS. Port 443 HTTPS is still allowed to connect directly. Makes me feel a lot better…

I once had an ISP (non-U.S., won't name it here) that injects ads into plain HTTP. Didn't realize it was the ISP until I once accidentally loaded my personal website over plain HTTP.

Turns out to get rid of that, I just had to call them and complain about it; they pretended to be surprised and asked me for details, but after the phone call the injection stopped. Worked for other people too.

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

#248

Post by ajross »

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…

> So, the fault here lies with the politician.

I'm sorry, what kind of ethical nonsense is that? "Bad behavior is OK as long as some authority didn't expressly disallow it" ???

CenturyLink is simply a bad actor here. They're acting in an anti-customer and anti-consumer way. Sure, we should have regulations to prevent abuse where appropriate, but you certainly can't blame the government for failing to imagine how they'd behave when faced with (let's be honest here) a bleedingly obvious and common sense notification requirement.

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

#249

Post by anoncoward111 »

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…

I work customer service for a large heating oil company. The system we have really does just have horrible "bugs" like this that make charges to the account. Not fun when you are on Auto Pay either.

It's malicious. Some of us reps try to help you out and get it all reversed. Others don't give a shit at all.

The main thing you can consider is not paying, blasting them on social media, or just keep calling until you get a nice rep who will fix it, hopefully permanently.

Our system deliberately renews/adjusts prices per gallon and service contracts to pretty much whatever price the company feels like extorting. I've seen customers charged $4000 instead of $2000 countless times. Some even pay it.

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

#250

Post by scarface74 »

anoncoward111 wrote: post #249
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…

I work customer service for a large heating oil company. The system we have really does just have horrible "bugs" like this that make charges to the account. Not fun when you are on Auto Pay either. It's malicious. Some of us reps try to help you out and get it all reversed. Others don't give a shit at all. The main thing you can consider is not paying, blasting them on social media, or just keep calling until you ge…

Our system deliberately renews/adjusts prices per gallon and service contracts to pretty much whatever price the company feels like extorting. I've seen customers charged $4000 instead of $2000 countless times. Some even pay it.

While I’m the last person to trust big business, it’s hard for me to believe that whoever is over the developers who create the billing system would put that in a spec - to deliberately overcharge people.

I’m more inclined to believe incompetence and deprioritizing known bugs to create new features.

How does intentionally writing buggy software even get communicated to the front line developers?

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