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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

#261

Post by dragonwriter »

eridius wrote: post #223
dragonwriter wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you receive a package that was not intended for you, that's an accident, and you are not entitled to that package. That's my core point. If it was addressed to you, whether intended or not, the law expressly states it is yours; the relevant code section has no mental state precondition.

That's simply not true. An accidental package is not "unordered merchandise". If it's got your address on it, but someone else's name, it's not your package and you're not entitled to it (in fact, you can't even open it). If it's got your name and address on it, but the company meant to send it to someone else named dragonwriter instead of you, it's also not your package and you're not entitled to it. If you order it…

> An accidental package is not "unordered merchandise"

I'm not sure what you mean by “accidental package”; specifically what kind of accident is involved.

> If it's got your address on it, but someone else's name

Then it isn't addressed to you (the verb address and noun address are related, but not in the use directly corresponding), and isn't what I was talking about.

> If it's got your name and address on it, but the company meant to send it to someone else named dragonwriter instead of you, it's also not your package

This is both generally incorrect and objectively unworkable (it would require an inquiry into the mental state of the sender before one could decide what to do with a package.) There are special cases where things would be different (e.g., there actually is another dragonwriter at the address, who actually did order the merchandise, in which case it is, obviously, not unordered merchandise that they have caused to be delivered to the first dragonwriter. But that's not even an accident or mistake on the sender's part.)

As well as the statute referenced above, the FTC provides clear and explicit guidance: if you receive it, and you didn't order it, it's yours and you may keep it. Intent of the sender is not an issue.

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0181-unordered-merchan...

“Q. Am I obligated to return or pay for merchandise I never ordered?

“A. No. If you receive merchandise that you didn’t order, you have a legal right to keep it as a free gift.”

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

#262

Post by nhumrich »

bogomipz wrote: post #165

Wow this is a new low. Can someone say is CenturyLink a monopoly is most of the state? Can these customers vote with their wallet and go elsewhere for Internet? I really hope.

Really depends on the city and area. In some places, there is a plethora of options. But I currently cant vote with my wallet. They are the only provider in my neighborhood.

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

#263

Post by PSZD »

Applejinx wrote: post #242
rdtsc wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 w…

> more of a Yelp-like entity

Yelp would also work, if the business concerned cared a ridiculous amount about resolving complaints there. That's the only value - that these particular companies care an awful lot about resolving complaints left with the BBB.

Got bullshitted by Comcast phone rep, skipped straight to BBB complaint since I didn't want to deal with Comcast for hours/days, less than a week later I had their VIP Customer Service department calling/emailing daily until they (not me) got the issue resolved.

Perhaps an FCC complaint results in the same result, but it worked out perfectly for me.

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

#264

Post by rdtsc »

Applejinx wrote: post #242
rdtsc wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 w…

> For that reason I'm less trusting of anything that is touting BBB support

What is important is that those companies care about BBB and are quick to fix the issue. If they didn't care about BBB I wouldn't have gone that route.

Same with Twitter. Some companies can be shamed into helping by posting on Twitter. If they didn't care about Twitter, it doesn't nothing using that medium to get help.

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

#265

Post by anticensor »

patrickg_zill wrote: post #260
scarface74 wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 overc…

A friend who is in telecom told me that when talking to a prepaid calling card software company, one of the features was the ability to change by how much the prepaid calling card would overbill. For instance, you make a 12 minute, 5 second call (12.1 minutes with 6-second billing which means 60 seconds is billed in tenths of a minute) - the software records it as say, 12.6 minutes.

Do they not have call termination logs? I am saying that because service logs have to be accurate by law.

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

#266

Post by Drdrdrq »

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…

Free market only works when there is a choice. If there is only one provider available then regulation is necessary to avoid exorbitant fees.

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

#267

Post by baloki »

normalfaults wrote: post #189
tech4all wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely agree! Taking the time to pull in the regulatory body that sits on top of a misbehaving behemoth absolutely works! I've done this with PHH Mortgage who "lost" a payment when they took over the mortgage from another company, and also with Enterprise Car Rental when they tried to scam me in Chicago during a drop-off. In both cases I received 100% satisfaction very quickly. Other tips: * Take the time to find…

Is there a website you can type a company name in and address and find all relevant regulators ?

Don’t know if it’s the same in the US as the UK, but the regulators details are generally on the bill under the complaints section for each company/utility.

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

#268

Post by Broken_Hippo »

gmjosack wrote: post #215
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…

Some states require carriers to maintain service for 911 on inactive lines. You could check if this works in your area. https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2009/05/update-abou...

One word of caution: I worked for a large phone company (GTE then Verizon) back in 99-01. I was in the call center for disconnections.

Inactive lines are not equal to lines with no telephone service. IF there is no telephone service, 911 probably won't work. If your phone is temporarily disconnected (say for non-payment of a phone bill or the disconnect they do for folks that live in FLorida for the winter and up north for the summer), 911 will work for you.

This was definitely true for some of the states on the list provided.

I've long thought this was a sad state of affairs. Anyone with a physical phone to plug into a jack should, theoretically, be able to dial 911. I'm happy that cell phones generally allow this.

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

#269

Post by auslander »

Always on VPN on all your devices is pretty much a must today. Added benefit when using commercial VPNs is hiding your IP address, a key feature for tracking you by Adtech industry.

Finding good VPN provider is tricky though. Definitely avoid free ones. Look for ones providing configuration for native VPN clients, like profile.mobileconfig file for the native iOS / MacOS IKEv2 client. Using native (OS supplied) clients lets you avoid installing third party VPN apps.

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

#270

Post by gmac »

auslander wrote: post #269

Always on VPN on all your devices is pretty much a must today. Added benefit when using commercial VPNs is hiding your IP address, a key feature for tracking you by Adtech industry. Finding good VPN provider is tricky though. Definitely avoid free ones. Look for ones providing configuration for native VPN clients, like profile.mobileconfig file for the native iOS / MacOS IKEv2 client. Using native (OS supplied) clien…

Depending on what you're trying to achieve, running your own can be a good and simple option:

https://github.com/jawj/IKEv2-setup

https://github.com/trailofbits/algo

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