Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am in Wake Forest and currently have Time Warner internet and use Vonage for phone. Took a year or so and many different TW techs(only 1 good one), but finally got reliable internet and have had it for many years. Only problem now is cost.
Talked to CenturyLink at the Wake Forest Expo, and their price and 5 yr price guarantee seem too good not to investigate. Just curious if anyone here is using CenturyLink for internet and phone? What kind of service and performance are you receiving?
I called up Embarq/Century Link to inquire about DSL. They told me they couldn't tell me if it was available because I didn't have phone service. So I told them nevermind. 2 days later I came home and there was a phone link run over my lawn and an embarq box on my house. I had ordered NOTHING. So I called up and asked what the heck was going on ? Basically the order person signed me up for service without my consent. But they told me I could get DSL so I agreed to move forward.
3 months go by, then I started getting charges from a 3rd party on my phone bill for like 16 dollars a month. I called their billing dept to report this as fraid. Billing basically said it was my issue to work out with the 3rd party and basically assigned all blame / responsibility to be to resolve it. I told them that I didn't sign up for this and it was fraud, basically all some ********* had to do is GUESS my phone number to start billing me.
Thanks for the report. Searching the internet, I have seen similar stories from other areas of the country so didn't know if it was a company wide problem or not. Looks like it is, and don't think I will take the chance.
Thanks for the info. We're moving from Raleigh to Wake Forest at the end of this month and we're researching internet connectivity options. Its nice to have a heads up re. the telephone billing scam. We're with Time Warner here in Raleigh and I think their racket/scam has made us a little sensitive. We will probably stay away from CenturyLink due to the billing issues. It looks like DSL without bundling phone service is not an option, at least not at a decent price. Does anyone know anything about ATT U-Verse? I can't tell if its available or not...
As far as I know, U-Verse is not available anywhere in Wake Forest and haven't heard of any plans to bring it here. Clear is available if you are close to Capital Blvd in Wake Forest, but I don't know how good it is. I had hopes for CenturyLink, but haven't seen any good reports about it. Unfortunately, TW still seems to be the best of a lot of bad options. You might check Earthlink which supposedly just resells TW service, but people say it costs less.
Thanks for the info. We're moving from Raleigh to Wake Forest at the end of this month and we're researching internet connectivity options. Its nice to have a heads up re. the telephone billing scam. We're with Time Warner here in Raleigh and I think their racket/scam has made us a little sensitive. We will probably stay away from CenturyLink due to the billing issues. It looks like DSL without bundling phone service is not an option, at least not at a decent price. Does anyone know anything about ATT U-Verse? I can't tell if its available or not...
If your local phone/DSL provider is Century at your new address then I doubt you'll ever see U-verse. If its ATT then you'll need to wait for a deployment. The local telephone carriers almost never cross into each others territory due to infrastructure, etc. The "overlay" providers are typically TW (or TW via Earthlink) and a wireless alternative - Clear, VzW, etc.
I have also wondered what the $13. charge every month for "Wireline" is for. That's in addition to the $25.00 house phone charges. We have no added extras. The total bill for phone, internet and Dish all on one bill is $155./mo. Not sure if that's good or not but would still like to know what that $13. charge is for.
There seems to be little options within Wake Forest for phone & internet. Century link if you want an honest to goodness Alexander Gram Bell wire hookup. Or Time Warner 'Mine!, 'Mine!', Mine!' cable wire that enters ones home.
I managed to save a few buck from the introductory Time Warner pay me now and 4-ever pricing plans but starting with Earthlink. I have earthlink internet but my wire, bllls, cable box, and troubles all come from Time Warner.
I also have Vonage for phone service as its was the least expensive option if I wanted some sort of home phone. Century-Link was far to expensive for basic local phone service. It would be $50 per month and than I could chose a long distance plan. In their case I chose the longest distance plan I could get 'away' from them with! Didn't choose them at 'tall'! ...and that is the long of it!
The short of it is I have internet via Earthlink, which is a pseudo front from Time Warner, as all my wires, modem, and bills are from Time Warner and I have Vonage phone.
Life is good until I make a call or get a call while traversing the internet to google that single point in time useful information and have the phone cut me off or my internet connection go down because I am on the phone! My electrons don't play well together I guess!
Several calls to Vonage and a IP address change here and a DCL address option here and walaaa I still have the same issue. Now it may appear to be something in the Time Warner cable line!
As soon as my introductory rate expires I shall punt! It will be 4th and out for me!
Hoping by then some of someone finds better service in Wake Forest for internet and phone!
I called up Embarq/Century Link to inquire about DSL. They told me they couldn't tell me if it was available because I didn't have phone service. So I told them nevermind. 2 days later I came home and there was a phone link run over my lawn and an embarq box on my house. I had ordered NOTHING. So I called up and asked what the heck was going on ? Basically the order person signed me up for service without my consent. But they told me I could get DSL so I agreed to move forward.
3 months go by, then I started getting charges from a 3rd party on my phone bill for like 16 dollars a month. I called their billing dept to report this as fraid. Billing basically said it was my issue to work out with the 3rd party and basically assigned all blame / responsibility to be to resolve it. I told them that I didn't sign up for this and it was fraud, basically all some ********* had to do is GUESS my phone number to start billing me.
So I resolved it by canceling their service.
Shady company.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gman976
Thanks for the info. We're moving from Raleigh to Wake Forest at the end of this month and we're researching internet connectivity options. Its nice to have a heads up re. the telephone billing scam. We're with Time Warner here in Raleigh and I think their racket/scam has made us a little sensitive. We will probably stay away from CenturyLink due to the billing issues. It looks like DSL without bundling phone service is not an option, at least not at a decent price. Does anyone know anything about ATT U-Verse? I can't tell if its available or not...
We have encoutered similar billing problems after several years of trouble free service, once Embarq became Century Link it started. We have a bundle from Embarq with Dish included. Paid about $170/mo. Our unlimited long distance was $15, and since we use our cell phones we called to cancel the long distance. They offered us free long distance, with no other charges so I said, OK. We also got a reduction from Dish by talking to their Customer Retention department. The next month Century charged us for $99 for some kind of "service upgrade". Called Century, they said it's a charge from Dish and we'll get the credit when they get the credit from Dish. Called Dish, and the credit had already been issued to Century. Called Century, they said to subtract the $99 from the bill and send the balance. We did. The next bill had the $99 as "prior balance" plus a late charge was added. They said not to worry, just to pay the difference. Well, you guessed it. This bill still carries the past due. We tried to work it with them again, and each time we get a phone rep in a different state who doesn't see our bill because they see a different the scren, so there's no comprehension on their part. Were told we could go to the Wake Forest office of Century to resolve it. Did so, but they "aren't authorized to do anything about it." We're back to square one. We did manage to get the $99 reduced to $70, but it's still money Century got from Dish and will not pass on to us. I think they're hoping we get tired and just pay it. I'm inclined to take it to small claims. (Hmmm...wonder if I can?)
If there was another option, we'd switch in a minute. As it is, we're going to unbundle everything and separate Dish out of the package just to avoid any similar problem in the future.
So...here's my story with this....I had TWC for about 4 years and once my pricelock expired this past Fall, they were not willing to come down on the monthly price. It was around a $50 increase and I just couldn't get past that. That's per month...not on the year.
I ditched TWC and got Directv with Centurylink, and we've had it for about 6 months now and its done fine with the exception of one of the snow storms-- too much snow built up on the dish and I had to hose it down to get reception, but other than that everything is working fine. Our bill is lower than the pricelock with TWC, and all the phone jacks in our house work. I do like having phone when the power goes out. My daughter has a cool old school phone that she loves (remember the square style AT&T punch button?). I can't tell a difference in channels, we still have a ton of movies. They now have the pay channel on demands (HBO, showtime) which they didn't offer in recent history. I'm going to see how it goes over then next year and then decide what to do-- keep it or consider (not definite!) going back. Funny, I get TWC mailings all the time offering me huge discounts and free things. If they had done that when I asked for my next pricelock, I would probably still have TWC!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
