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Review by zevus See Profile

  • Location: Chandler, Henderson, TX, USA
  • Cost: $54 per month
  • Install: about 4 days
  • Telco party CenturyTel
Low price, generous with providing refunds for crap service
Has a history of being unreliable during prime usage hours, we have moved to crap service now
Dirt cheap, considering it primarily services rural areas. Maybe they should charge more and upgrade their infrastructure.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

02-06-12 - from around 10-05 til mid-jan, link was flaky, on and off thing. since mid-jan, it's always been crap in the evenings. lately it has also been crap during lunch hour and all day on sunday

Note the escalation of crap, February 2013:

»i.imgur.com/LX4lNBX.png

10-05-12 - on approx. 9-15-12 link begin to experience same type of conditions as I saw during bandwidth exhaust from a few years prior. seemed a bit odd as it occurred all of a sudden, instead of gradually as before (one of their links went down?). as of 10-05, it's still ongoing. i've received a month free, but instead of waiting for a year like before, i'm downgrading my service from the $54/mo bonded to ~$20/mo nonbonded 10mbit/1mbit plan, starting approx. 3 weeks from now. if the line is fixed before then, i can cancel that downgrade, if it's not fixed by then, it's all ready to go. (will come back in a few days w/ smokeping image)

06-29-12 - still no problems. bandwidth not oversold, only one extended outage in the last 3 months (lasted about 12hrs) & low latency. (also changed price to bonded DSL price *includes modem rental)

03-27-12 - well, no bandwidth caps. still get the speeds I'm supposed to (25/2). one outage that lasted about 8 hrs, nothing else that lasted over 10 minutes. i'm starting to wonder how much longer this can last though. maybe til summer break?

01-14-12 - on bonded DSL now. regularly get within 95% of 25Mbps downstream and within 90% of 2Mbit upstream... no problems, really... well, except for the incoming bandwidth caps... I'll edit review then, hah

11-11-11, yeah, $23 per month for 10Mbps/896kbps

11-13-11, there was a ~2hr outage a few days ago that seems to have fixed the bandwidth exhaust issue in the area. i've updated ratings accordingly... if it stays like this another month, i'll bump the reliability up to 5

11-15-11, getting 25Mbps installed next Tuesday, 11-22, lol. might as well get it while the getting is good. be oversold again in 6 months.

Here are the conditions that caused me to cancel in January, 2011:

»i53.tinypic.com/f2igky.jpg

At that point, they were stating that there wasn't going to be a fix until April, so I terminated the service.

Had it reinstalled on 6-27 (yeah, they sold me the 10mbit, 896kbps package, even w/ the ongoing bandwidth exhaust). I got a steady 32-34ms ping to first hop, next to no jitter.... but when trying to transfer over 100k/s or so, start getting tons of packetloss + extremely high latency. It's a bit different from before, where you'd even get the 500ms+ to first hop @ prime time.

8/7 update:

Typical performance during prime-time hours:

»www.speedtest.net/result ··· 1075.png

Seems to be getting a bit worse with each passing week (used to start improving at 11PM, now it's midnight, etc.)

The one good thing is that it's still not like it was in late '10, where you'd have 500ms latency w/ just a ping running. Gaming is possible as long as the game you're playing doesn't transfer more than ~75k/s.

Just a few days ago they also changed something & I get 17-18ms ping times to my first hop now, instead of the 32-34 like before.

Oh, I was also told that this problem would be fixed in late July (maybe it was July 23rd or something) when I called them the day after installing (6-28). I called again today and was told by the tech support person that the ETA for fix was still listed as July.

member for 13.3 years, 153 visits, last login: 2.4 years ago
updated 11.1 years ago

crescentdave
join:2009-01-20
Eastsound, WA

crescentdave

Member

Off-hours observation absolutely correct

In our area, (San Juan County, Washington), Centurylink has a monopoly. It has no need to compete and does not do so. Consequently, demand outstrips supply, as the infrastructure is inadequate. They sell 2 tiers in our county, one at "up to 10 MB/s" and another at "1.5 MB/s." I have the 10 MB/s tier and I "consistently" get sub-1 MB/sec connect speeds. It's quite pathetic and irritating. Come 1 am, I get close to 10 MB/s. The speeds are completely inadequate from around 5 pm to midnight during the week. I'd rather not talk about the weekends. And tonight at 8 pm? What do I get for my top tier "up to 10 MB/s" connect speeds? .94 MB/s. Not even 1 out of 10. Not even 10% of the "up to" advertised speeds. Let me do what centurylink cannot- prove my claims: »www.crescentbeachcompute ··· Fail.jpg
zevus
join:2010-11-29
Chandler, TX

zevus

Member

Re: Off-hours observation absolutely correct

Yup. Generally I'll get from .75 MB/s to 2 MB/s during primetime, but on occasion I can run multiple tests in a row @ below .5 MB/s.

It doesn't always clear up totally by 1AM but by 2AM I'll be getting close to 10 MB/s. This has been going on in this area for over 6 months now.... on the bright side, I have been able to get full credit for 2 of those 6 months. Last month (December) and now this month (January). As long as I'm "between" online games and they give me internet for free, I'll probably stick with them..
hallg
join:2011-02-16

hallg to crescentdave

Member

to crescentdave
I am also in San Juan County (on San Juan Island), but don't have any options faster than 1.5 Mbps, and CenturyLink appears to have no plans to increase availability of higher speeds. I have not been able to get 1.5 for months. Most recently, at 10:45 a.m., am clocking about .8. From what you describe buying a premium service if it was available wouldn't be worthwhile, anyway.
ChandlerTX6
join:2011-01-15

ChandlerTX6

Member

response to CenturyLink outages

I have just got off the phone with Centurylink after a resulting speed test of .28 KPBS on my 5.0 speed. Bottom line here according to my DSL TechSupport Rep is that there has been a speed outage in this area since September 1st. ETA to be corrected is by 7:00pm May 1. Niiiiice. Result is that they credited my account the cost difference over the past few months and dropped my pricing/service down to the basic speed until this is resolved. Now question here is, can I handle running slower than dial up until this gets corrected? Outside of CenturyLink I also know of several AT&T customers who are experiencing the same issues here so is this a blanket effect and not just a single provider issue? On top of this, any complaints that I have received or heard of only affected DSL-Direct. Does anyone have these issues or know of anyone with them who is on Line-Share or Dsl with an active phone line?
zevus
join:2010-11-29
Chandler, TX

zevus

Member

Re: response to CenturyLink outages

They always quote me that Sep 1st date... but the problems for me actually started in July. Maybe Sep is when they finally admitted it there at home office.

I suspect it's a good thing they're actually giving dates now... since for the last 6 months it was always 'there's no ETA' (i.e. they arent even trying to fix it). But even if I knew 100% sure it'd be fixed in May, I wouldn't wait that long. February, maybe...
texasmmo
join:2010-12-20
Kaufman, TX

texasmmo

Member

Re: response to CenturyLink outages

Well it was publicly said mid Feb. but guess what?!!?? Its Feb. 24th and i've seen one decent week which was last week of being able to do anything. I reported them to the BBB which they have a great score somehow. They responded back that the problem would be fixed within the next 30 days. When you call tech support to get your monthly credit, they say May 1st. Ultimate runaround. Is it really that hard to add more trunks in or whatever? Is this some multimillion dollar task that is not worth doing? Why did they even let it get this far in the first place do they not have people watch for over selling? So many questions and not one truthful answer.

Al GOUGED
@embarqhsd.net

Al GOUGED

Anon

Centurylink extended service after 5 years of nothing

Well I am now off dial up in aug 2011 after 5 years of complaining that my doctor Neighbor has has Hs internet for 5 years!Time after time i was told your area is too far from the "Switch". actually about 2 miles.Well they have me on EXTENDED SERVICE 512k plan I am getting max 512/130 on any speed test but i am paying 39.95 with a one year 10 Dollar Credit so 29.95. I is just good enough to check e-mail or browse Ebay . It will not play Video which is really why i wanted it in the fist place .Youtube. While my Neighbor enjoys his 1.5 Meg service for the same price i feel i am getting Ripped off .centurylink now calling themsevles centuryTel SUCKs!!I guess i asked for it something better than dial up but in reality it's only Slightly Better
What gets me is nothing has changed in the System . No new "Box" and it was here all this time . It took Letters to the Attorney General and Signed petitions threats of disconnecting ,Years of it with promises of installing a dsl compressor for going on three years and finally saying that it will cost too much(1/4 million)to install that "Box"and they were not going to do it for 200 houses in a 5 mile strip that someone decided to bypass when running the "Wire"Actually there is cable and roadrunner less than half a mile from my House for over 8 years. They won't run it the rest of the way.

Al feels Gouged

trash
@rylinkservices.net

trash

Anon

Hillarious.

The CenturyLink connection to my PlayStation 3 is pathetic. Employees come to my house once a month to "fix" the connection but it always seems to get worse, at the same time during the evening. A funny thing is, Century Link also provides me a home phone line. My mom called Century Link one day to get them to come to my house and fix the connection.

The phone lost connection.
zevus
join:2010-11-29
Chandler, TX

zevus

Member

Re: Hillarious.

Yeah, that was a problem for me when I moved in w/ a roommate. He already had centurylink phone service, and they won't allow you to get the internet separately... so, he just had to trust that I'd pay the bill, because in the end it was his responsibility. Kinda lame.

HVAC Company
@comcast.net

HVAC Company

Anon

Do Not Use!

HORRIBLE, never ever call them for anything. They called up saying they could save our company money with their phone service, they came out hooked up to their service and then the problems began. Two out of our six phone lines would randomly drop calls and were constantly static so we could not talk to customers. After months of this we finally called Comcast and dropped century link. Comcast has been great and less expensive. Century link then charged us a $2,500 termination fee for breaking our "contract".

Now if there is a contract I understand its my fault if I cancel, we never signed anything with them and they said they are unable to provide acceptance of their terms. We disputed the charges requesting to see a contract or agreement which they said they did not have with us but they are still charging a $2,500 termination fee. After we disputed it a person called back to "read us a statement word for word from her executive team". She had no authority beyond reading us a letter and said I was not accepting that. She said I was "not allowed" to even speak with the "executive team" that wrote the statement and thats it.

NEVER EVER WORK WITH CENTURY LINK!

tutifruity
@meridiantelekoms.com

tutifruity

Anon

Re: Do Not Use!

Well if you took time to read the contract then at the very first place you should have been aware of it the problem is you just sign a contract without even bothering to review it's terms and agreements and the boundaries of your service providers as well

johnverizon
@mycingular.net

johnverizon

Anon

Re: Do Not Use!

All double talk for (Screw the customer, our investors demand 10%.
I hope one day I find you needing something...