Review by Hazy Arc - Location: Greenwood, Greenwood, SC, USA
- Cost: $46 per month
Connection is ok during the day Connection slows considerably during evening, no forseeable speed increases on the horizon If there was a viable alternative, I'd be gone in a heartbeat.
| Pre Sales information: Install Co-ordination: Connection reliability: Tech Support: Services: Value for money:
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I've been a Centurylink (previously Embarq) customer since 2007. I'd like to sit here and tell you it's been fun and games since I became a customer, but sadly that is not the case. In the 5 years I've been a customer, I'd say my connection has been flawless less than 20% of the time I've had it. In fact, in 2008, I had scheduled a cable install after dealing with a high latency/slow speed problem for over 5 months. Only after I was personally contacted by an employee of then-Embarq asking me to allow them to help did I stick around. It turns out our area had been placed on bandwidth exhaust (big surprise there), and the problem was fixed another 2 months later. Since 2007, I haven't sniffed a speed upgrade - I had 3Mbps then, and that's where I'm stuck. 5 years and no upgrades? Come on! Nowadays, I rarely get my advertised speeds, and I am experiencing high latency and slow speeds during the evening. I know, I know - why not go to cable? The answer is two-fold: First, my local mom-and-pop cable provider (Northland Cable » User reviews - Northland Cable Television) is notoriously bad, even worse than Centurylink (if that's possible). I have to laugh when I see folks complaining about Comcast/Charter/etc. - I'd give anything to be serviced by them. The other reason I haven't dumped Centurylink is because I have been a true dry loop DSL customer since I started, so I literally pay $39 a month for 3Mbps internet, no bogus taxes or fees that are tacked on like with their insulting "Pure DSL" offering. Since they no longer offer true dry loop DSL, I'm hesitant to drop them - especially if Northland didn't work out. If Centurylink ever removes my grandfather status, I'm outta here. Ultimately, like many other smaller towns in the United States, the problem is lack of competition. Well, let me rephrase - Centurylink and Northland are certainly in "competition" in Greenwood, South Carolina - but it's a contest of who can provide the worst value for the most money. member for 17.9 years, 4483 visits, last login: 1.1 years ago updated 10.1 years ago
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Sandy
Anon
2011-Feb-12 10:32 am
Centurylink Internet ServiceBundled services (CenturyLine called with offer). Accepted. Was to be upgraded from l.5 to l0 mgs along with 5 yr contract, price lock, etc. Guess what. Got shuffled to another bundle which did not have the 5 yr (was one yr), price was different from one quoted and it took two weeks, numerous calls, several hours hold time to even speak with anyone. Has been a horrible mess. May have gotten a little better but internet speed is always below 5 mgs of the 10mgs that I am supposed to have. Like others, the afternoon, evening hours are the worst. Sometimes, the internet light on the modem goes off and I have to turn off and back on after three to five minutes to get it to come back up. Not too happy with the whole thing. | |
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Sorry to hear that.This is not good news since Centurylink just took over Qwest here in Arizona. Qwest was terrible before though so I guess nothing will change. | |
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UpNort
Anon
2011-May-30 5:38 pm
Re: Sorry to hear thatI've had Qwest for years in MN and have been VERY happy with them. I nervous about the switch to CenturyLink. I hope they provide the same good, reliable service we've been getting from Qwest. | |
| | | BigC23 join:2011-06-01 Rustburg, VA |
BigC23
Member
2011-Jun-14 6:18 pm
Re: Sorry to hear thatPersonally I would start looking to see what your other options are. They're pretty horrible. | |
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Re: Sorry to hear thatI agree they do suck. | |
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linicxCaveat Emptor Premium Member join:2002-12-03 United State |
linicx
Premium Member
2014-Jan-15 7:58 am
So sadI've never heard of 'bandwidth exhaust' but I have heard of being oversold, and of needing to upgrade equipment in the plant to meet customer demand, bad card, and various other plausible reasons.
If you have eliminated all possible wiring issues inside your house, the problem is then moved between box on the outside the house and the nearest POP. You should have a later model router, and best modem for your area system from CL. (I have an ASUS PnP for pc that is flawless as CL does not support non-pc products and I use Mac).
The other issue could be distance from the plant and/or your card in the local plant. If it is all 100%, the chances are the bottom line is the plant needs to be updated. It may come this summer. I remember about 3 -4 months when all was perfectly erratic; I rebooted modern 12 times daily. That mess disappeared, the speed increased and all was wonderful. I am in the middle of nowhere and isolated. I think 10/1 is wonderful -- most of the time. Be patient. The squeaky wheel gets the most grease th quickest. | |
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momof4
Anon
2014-Jan-16 8:19 am
Internet speeds getting worse and worse especially at night My letter to Centurylink tonight: This has been going on far too long, with many many phone calls to tech help!!! We get most EVERY NIGHT Download speed 0.42 mbps and upload 0.25mbps. We are paying you $75-80 per month for HORRIBLE AWFUL SERVICE IN EVERY WAY!! You finally sent a real tech out to the house who is nice(Frank) but he cannot fix the problem inside or outside. WE have had HORRIBLE SERVICE FOR YEARS, It fluctuates terribly and now that I have been trying to do home business work for over a yea, I feel you owe me/us a HUGE CREDIT!!!!!! we have been keeping track of speeds and I have filed a complaint in a possible class action lawsuit. I have never done that before even when a hospital did a bad surgery and was afraid of us suing but we never did, we are not that type of people. BUT! we DON'T DESERVE YEARS OF OVER PAYING FOR A SERVICE THAT ISN'T legally giving us even near the minimum required. | |
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