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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

#181

Post by FlyMoreRockets »

freeopinion wrote: post #135
JohnFen wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"So, the fault here lies with the politician." No. The fault lies with CenturyLink. They're the ones who decided to implement this in the most repulsive way allowed by law. The law only required notification using normal communications methods, not disruption of services. CenturyLink is the one who chose disruption of services.

A big portion of fault lies with the consumer. If 20% of CenturyLink customers canceled their service for a week in a very publicized way, CenturyLink would scramble. For example, they could all wear yellow vests and block the entrance to the CenturyLink parking lot.

Not a whole lot of broadband competition in the areas where CentruryLink operate, such as Utah. In some states, it's a sanctioned monopoly in exchange for rolling out subsidized rural broadband (which somehow never gets built...).

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

#182

Post by freeopinion »

iad wrote: post #157
freeopinion wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A big portion of fault lies with the consumer. If 20% of CenturyLink customers canceled their service for a week in a very publicized way, CenturyLink would scramble. For example, they could all wear yellow vests and block the entrance to the CenturyLink parking lot.

> If 20% of CenturyLink customers canceled their service for a week in a very publicized way, CenturyLink would scramble. Their customers can't do that without incurring ridiculous early termination fees. And many of them don't have any other option for broadband anyway. Further, I suspect boycotts very rarely work even against companies that aren't quasi-monopolies.

First, you need to substantiate your claim about early termination fees.

Second, most of them do have other options for broadband and in fact use an alternative provider every day.

Third, well organized boycotts commonly work well. Even a 10% drop in revenue really gets the attention.

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

#183

Post by freeopinion »

eridius wrote: post #148
freeopinion wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A big portion of fault lies with the consumer. If 20% of CenturyLink customers canceled their service for a week in a very publicized way, CenturyLink would scramble. For example, they could all wear yellow vests and block the entrance to the CenturyLink parking lot.

Given that most consumers don't have any reasonable choice in their ISP, it's counterproductive to blame the consumer.

Most consumers do have a choice. "Reasonable" is a pretty squishy word often used to kill discussion.

If a consumer is abused by their vendor and continues to fund their abuser, who should be blamed? Obviously the abuser is to blame for the abuse. But shouldn't the person funding the abuser also get some blame? Or is it all the government's fault? Blame the police.

It seems to be a common response to consumer abuse to blame the government while continuing to fund the abuser. That strategy has made Wells Fargo number one. And Century Link number one. And Facebook number one. And the list goes on.

If you can't live without their service for one week, maybe their service isn't so bad. If you're not willing to lift even the smallest finger the smallest amount, just keep belly aching to the wind. That will fix the problem.

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

#184

Post by walrus01 »

markovbot wrote: post #23
WorldMaker wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My ISP (Time Warner/Charter/Spectrum) DNS hijacked bing.com [0] and non-existent domains for their own "search page" [1]. Since then I've been sure to always configure my own DNS in my router. (Used Google's 8s for a while, now on Cloudflare's 1s.) It's unfortunate that I have to treat my ISP as hostile, but they are the only high speed provider to my address. I sadly can't even assume that there is anyone in managem…

That's horrible, did you call them up and ask why their DNS servers are fraudulently lying about IP addresses of certain high traffic domains?

Beyond a certain size of ISP (several tens of thousands of customers or more), there is literally no point in wasting your time or the phone representative's time. They'll have no clue what you're talking about and little or no power to escalate you to the people responsible for their internal network engineering decisions.

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

#185

Post by mholt »

Google Fiber just sent a nice email with some links to resources for families. And it was totally sufficient to satisfy the law. (Source: am in Utah)

So there are two problems at play here:

- Laws are technically ambiguous

- CenturyLink and most other large ISPs are awful, incompetent companies

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

#186

Post by tracker1 »

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…

Many states also have a Corporation Commission or similar that you can make a complaint to, in a similar way.

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

#187

Post by carapace »

justwalt wrote: post #134
craftyguy wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that's why I'm asking... Not every question on the internet is a thinly veiled attempt to make a statement!

I find this unique trait of the Internet tiresome at times. I’d prefer not to feel like I have to include a disclaimer on a question comment to avoid coming off hostile.

C'mon man, there's no voice-tone in text!

;-)

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

#188

Post by lotsofpulp »

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.

Thats how everyone prices everything, including the pay you’re willing to accept from your employer.

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

#189

Post by normalfaults »

tech4all wrote: post #169
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…

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 ?

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

#190

Post by pixl97 »

xur17 wrote: post #161
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…

I recently ran into an issue with Spectrum where an agent signed me up for a new plan with lower pricing and shipped me a new modem, but the pricing didn't actually update in their system. Called back a few days later to correct this, and no one could find anything about the plan I signed up for, claimed I was lying, etc. After escalating several times and getting no where I emailed the first person from this list [0…

Yea, spectrum is scamming people with that. Got an online quote for 400Mbps internet (no modem) for price X. Signed up for service. Billing price was $X + $15. Called service. Oh, we don't offer that pricing, you could not possibly have a quote for that. I was like I do, and I will hold you to it. So they sent me to the local store. Even the store was like "We don't offer that price" and I replied "So you are illegally baiting and switching on customers and committing mail fraud?". After that they adjusted our rate to the quoted price.
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