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Review by jood 
member for 6.8 years, 59 visits, last login: 4.9 years ago
lodged 4.9 years ago
 Pine Prairie,Evangeline,LA
 $59 per month- (24 month contract)
 about 4 days CenturyTel "None" "Absolutely horrendous service. Massive packetloss. Overloading of badnwith. Price is horrible for the speed offered." "Not even worth being called a broadband connection/internet provider."
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First off, I'll start with I've been a CenturyTel customer for over 6 years now. I live in a small village called Pine Prairie, Louisiana, which basically has a population maxing at 1,000 due to a large prison facility being within the town limits. We have no other options here for phone service/internet service other than CenturyTel. 59.99 a month package for 1.5mb/256up.
Well, the first year that we got it, it was fantastic! I had 56k for 1 year before getting broadband, and I was absolutely amazed.. Boy was I happy.. then, about 6 months later.. it was like I was playing on a 56k again. I am an avid gamer, who depends on quality of the service... packetloss being my main factor, secondary comes speed.
Well, repair ticket after repair ticket, my problem has never been solved and they always tell me it is fixed. As of about 4 years now, I've been getting packetloss of 4-5% from the hours of 6-11pm. On top of that, the speed slows to about 700kbps down (which isnt that bad). 4 years I have called and talked to technician after technician about the problem.. them telling me it's something wrong with the lines, they check my lines and everything is fine on my end.. Then the other day I finally had it. My packetloss had sky-rocketed up to 39%. It stayed like this for a solid week. Well, the night it happened, I called the hotline and talked to a tech. They set up a repair ticket and when they couldn't figure out what the problem was, they told me "Sorry we don't know what's wrong. But to tell you the truth, we only offer internet service. We don't guarantee quality."
This has to be truely one of the worst internet providers out there. Don't even waste your time bothering with this company. You are better off settling with 56K from another company.
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 Review by grunt9800
member for 10.9 years, 3648 visits, last login: 1 days ago
lodged 4.9 years ago
- Fort Rucker,Dale,AL
- $92 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 7 days
- CenturyTel
- "Stays connected when good weather"
- "Intermittent connection during bad weather/Speed not as advertised"
- "Good when connected"
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Get disconnected for a minute or so whenever there's thunder and lightning. Currently only 3 Mbps of the advertised 6 Mbps (waiting on resolution)
Price is bundled with landline
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 Review by SpookyTx
member for 5.2 years, 1 visits, last login: 5.2 years ago
lodged 5.2 years ago
- Gilman,Taylor,WI
- $60 per month
- about 18 days
- CenturyTel
- "When it works, it works."
- "It RARELY works."
- "Better internet than carrier pidgeon."
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First, let me state that there IS no choice; it's CenturyTel or nothing in this area. That being said, you really do feel like you're being held at gun-point for anything remotely close to data services. My cel phone doesn't even work until I drive 20 minutes, and I can't honestly complain about my POTS line service.
I ordered my modem and service once I moved to Gilman. I had recently moved from D/FW where I had Verizon FIOS, so I will capitulate that I could be viewed as spoiled. I received the modem a day earlier than I was told, and the phone service had been activated earlier that day, so I was pleasantly surprised. Being an IT pro, I eschewed the start-up disc, and entered my PPPoE info directly into the modem (which was provided me 3-4 days previous by phone-jockey). The modem was a Westell Versalink 327W; I've used those extensively while working for Verizon doing DSL and FIOS support. The modem behaved normally, service began, and had no issues until the next day. I live 500 feet from my CO, well within CT's loop-length limitations.
Inside the following 3 days, I had to request a new modem. Mine began resetting itself sporadically. Out here at the corner of No and Where, they had 1 tech in-town, and another in Thorp (20-30 mins away). The local tech came by to replace my modem, since it was obviously fritzy. The local tech had never even seen a 327w, and did not have a replacement. Instead, I was given a Dual-Connect 6100. I've had plenty of good experience with these from a support stand-point also, so I chocked it off to a bad 327w, and went about configuring my shiny new 6100. After 3 hours, it began resetting itself sporadically. When I was able to connect, I had speeds worse than dial-up. I found the chances of two modems in 1 week being bad to be highly unlikely, so I called tech support again to request a line-check. I was hoping to see if they could tell if there was a problem with attenuation or interference from a cross-connect or something to explain the lousy service I was getting and the modem resets. After a conversation with the local tech, I was referred to the other technician, who was based in Thorp. The tech made a visit, and it was deduced my pc was having issues due to lsass and csrss causing CPU usage spikes. I corrected this issue by simply nuking windows and installing Debian. I wasn't pleased about losing 20GB of data just to prove a point. Since when does Windows' being a virus in and of itself make your modem flip out? At worst, my service speed would be poor, but a hardware reset?
After slagging Windows, and moving to Linux just to prove a point, my service was still VERY poor, and the modem began resetting on me randomly. Some times it would work fine for an hour, then all the lights would go out, DSL would lose sync, and the OS would report my 100MB connection to the modem was severed. I contacted Tech Support again, and they send me a 2nd 6100. After 3 hours, it began behaving identically to the first 2: random resets, poor service when it wasn't resetting. By this point, I'd had the service for a week, and gotten 5 hours usage out of it. I called tech support again, and was shipped ANOTHER 6100. The resets began again within 2-3 huors, but became less sporadic after day 3 of modem #3.
Now here's where I find failures :
When dealing with DSL circuits, tech support should have a mapping tool or testing app for checking the conditions on a given circuit. According to CenturyTel, their Tier 1 and Tier 2 technicians have no tool for this diagnostic. I have tried several times, but apparently there is either no Tier 3, or they are equally unable to help. I understand that you get what you pay for when it comes to support personnel; I don't expect network engineers, CCNAs, or MCSEs for 8-10 an hour. However, after dealing with technical support for an average of 20 mins per call, 3 calls a day for the first week of service for 3-4 days, and 2nd week consisting of 8 calls over 3 days (I was frankly depressed about the lack of support) I have gotten to know their support apparatus.
I would sooner trust a Taco John's employee to support my connectivity. I have nothing but contempt and loathing for my DSL provider. At 500 feet loop length, and having disconnected every single jack in my home to eliminate possible sources of cross-connects or 'interference' and properly filtering every device (1 POTS phone), I still had a slew of bad modems (even Westell's aren't THAT bad), and I get decent service from 11pm-2am. My modem SAYS it's connecting 1792/128. My speed tests however, bear witness to speeds ranging from 5600 (yes, HUNDRED) bits per second to 1792, while real thoughput is around 1.5k down.
In conclusion, if CenturyTel HAD competition, they'd lose. They'd shut their doors, lay off employees, and the guys at the top would sell their shares, and find other work running other companies into the ground.
The way this company can redeem itself : aggressive expansion of infrastructure making the value of the brand WORTH paying for. I would gladly pay in excess of 100 a month for low-tier Fiber Optic. I'm certain that many in my area would agree and gladly do the same. There are 490 people in this town, and about 6-7k in surrounding area. It would be worth it for them to do so, and make the quality of the service something consumers are happy to have. And CenturyTel would profit.
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Review by douglas_c17
member for 9 years, 29 visits, last login: 5.2 years ago
updated 5.3 years ago
- Winfield,Lincoln,MO
- $59 per month
- (18 month contract)
- about 11 days
- "6mb service in a rural area"
- "frequently drops connection, never get close to the speed you pay for, expensive"
- "Not bad at all for rural DSL, however, reliability and price are questionable."
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Overall, It isn't all bad, but I would definitely switch to cable if there were out here. I have the 6/512 package. Typically, I top out at 4/650...upload is always nice, download...not so much. I wouldn't really recommend Centurytel, but like I said, if it is your only choice... go with it. I tried calling them a couple times asking why I never come close to the DL speeds I pay for, to which they replied "speed is an estimate, not a guarantee". Makes sense, I guess, but I figure if I get 4mb on a good day, I should be paying for the 4meg package, and not the 6. Only other problems is line quality. I frequently drop connection for 5-30 seconds (sometimes a lot longer) anywhere from 2-10 times a day. I called them and they said they sent someone out (while I was at work), and they found no issues. Blah.
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Review by lbarn
member for 8.4 years, 73 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
updated 5.7 years ago
- Brownsville,Linn,OR
- $39 per month
- (12 month contract)
- "Good until I went to 6.0"
- "Speeds as low as 212k down during peak hours"
- "This is just 6.0 (the last 2weeks)"
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Support is bad called 5 times never a call back and chat 3+ !!,They try and tell you that you have to buy a package to get higher speed for the same price your paying don't buy the lie!!
They said I needed to up grade my modem to westell E90-6100 took two tries before they shipped it and they didn't tell me about the 14:99 s/h!!
History look at PM hours 7to11
»/testhistory/1143275/16baa
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Review by schuck6566
member for 5.7 years, 0 visits, last login: 5.7 years ago
lodged 5.7 years ago
- Olla,La Salle,LA
- $39 per month
- about 2 days
- CenturyTel
- "The good point is I have high speed. Not what's advertised by far, but high speed."
- "Signed us up at 3.0 because they didn't think any faster was available, up to 10.0 is at same price."
- "I used my own modem, didn't buy another. Cust.service was good once they relized I knew what I wanted."
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They try to insist that a dsl modem they don't provide can't work. Go figure, guess they wanted to sell me one. Unfortunatly cable internet isn't available here.
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Review by myth_heart1
member for 5.8 years, 0 visits, last login: 5.8 years ago
lodged 5.8 years ago
- Lowry City,Saint Clair,MO
- $55 per month
- (month by month)
- CenturyTel
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CenturyTel is the only provider in the area for phones. When I first mved to this area, they only had Dial-Up... about 6 months later, they called and said DSL was now avaialble. YEAH!!!! NOT... CenturyTel has different pricing for their bandwidth, 256 is 29.99 (plus Tax), 39.99 for 512 and they sold me on the 1.5 MB for the 50 dollar price range.
After several months of extremely slow internet service, I finally found out the CO only had two T-1s installed to cover hundreds of extensions, so of course I can never get my speed as soon as anyone else logs in!
CenturyTle has now agreed to reduce my bill by 10.00 a month, leaving the line as is (if they lowered it at the switch, the bandwidth does slow even more!) but I have to call in every month, wait for the minimum time of 8 minutes, and usually closer to about 20 minutes, just to remind them to discount the bill. * Sigh *
Myth_Heart
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Review by hv3
member for 5.9 years, 1 visits, last login: 5.8 years ago
updated 5.8 years ago
- Kalispell,Flathead,MT
- $200 per month
- CenturyTel
- "cant think of any"
- "service is slow and unreliable"
- "they should not charge for this service"
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The phone company DSL saga continues Email vs Customer support Phone line
How does 622Kbps down and 22Kbps up get sold as broadband ? This happens when the service is provided to me by a monopoly phone company protected by the laws and regulations put forth by our government.
What does my bill say ? it says I need to pay $200 per month for the same bundle I pay $100 per month for at home, and at home I am suppose to get 3mbps down and 512kbits up, and my commercial DSL disguised as broadband is 1.5mps down and 512kps up. Is broadband different for businesses vs residential ? The fact is I use my home office more than I use my connection in the store. The fleecing of the public – but hey its just 100 per month.
I wish the story ended there – but the fact is I have been chasing this ridiculously slow DSL since they installed in back in November. They seem to get it working for a while, then for no apparent reason it denigrates back to the levels its at today. The last time I was able to get the problem resolved by emailing customer support. Magically in 2 days the service started performing closer to the promised speeds. 1.2mps down and 312kbps upload. Those speeds are still woefully slow compared to my LAN but hey – that’s the nature of the US broadband offering. The best I can hope for is DSL. A native LAN connection to the network is unattainable today for sure.
Back to the support issues. I started out last week emailing support – and this is the response I received
This was the email I received from customer service on July 23, 2007
Dear Henry, We are sorry to hear of your problems with your Internet service. There are several things that can cause a problem such as this. First we need to make sure the setup is correct. Make sure you have a filter on all phones, fax machines, security systems, satellites and credit card machines. Make sure all these devices are on the Phone side of the filter and not the DSL side of the filter. If you are not using the round phone cord we sent you, make sure you use a phone cord that is 10 feet or less in length. Make sure none of the phone cords are going through a surge protector or a phone splitter. If the modem is in a filter, plug the modem directly into a phone jack by itself without a filter. After this we need you to run a speed test. Go to »centurytel.myway.com and click Support at the bottom. Then click CenturyTel High-Speed Internet Speed Test. You can also follow this link to get to the speedtest: »support.centurytel.net/index.cfm···sl_speed Put your user id and password in. Click Log In. Click on your state. It should run a test and give your upload and download speed. If these numbers are less than 80% of what you should be getting call us at 1-800-809-1410 as we likely need to put in a repair ticket. If the speeds are within range then it is likely something on the computer slowing you down. Most often this is spyware. If you have a program to remove spyware, do so and make sure it is up to date. If you do not have a program to remove spyware you can go to »www.download.com/ and under Most Popular you will see Adaware SE. This is a free program you can use to remove spyware. Let us know if you have any other questions. If this does not help you or if you need to contact us for any reason you may contact us by phone at 1-800-809-1410, e-mail us here at support@centurytel.net or visit our online tech chat at »chat.centurytel.net and we will be happy to assist you. Thank you for your time, CenturyTel Support Team support@centurytel.net Support chat at »chat.centurytel.net Support number 1-800-809-1410 --------
Area: High-Speed Internet
Topic: Help Desk
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I have reported this issue many times before. MY DSL is very SLOW. The upload speed is 22Kb/s download is only 792Kb/s - My bill is 103.76 for the business assist package - 1.5M/512K speed. I am getting nothing close. I have reported this problem many times in the past. Your help getting it resolved would very much be appreciated.
This was the email I received from customer service on July 22, 2007
Call us This is something we will have to look at in a little more detail and would be quite difficult to troubleshoot over email. If you can give us a call at 1-800-809-1410, we will try to get you back up and working the way you should be as quickly as possible. (We are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year). Thank you for your time, CenturyTel Support Team support@centurytel.net Support chat at »chat.centurytel.net Support number 1-800-809-1410 Support number 1-800-809-1410 --------
Area: High-Speed Internet
Topic: Help Desk
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Upload speed is only 21kbps. My download speed is 880kbps and I have latency of 109ms. This issue has occurred before.
You can tell clearly I was getting nowhere via email – so I picked up the phone and called the number on the web site listed under contact us – for business services. The lady was very nice, but she wanted to know why I was calling her, since that department handles residential services, would it be ok if I transfer you to business, and give you the number to call if you are disconnected. Sure give me the number to call – even though I am calling the number directly off your web site. Finally I get through to a DSL specialist for business customers. Guess what – she says I have a problem that requires a visit from a technician.
Do I mind holding while she created a trouble ticket and dispatches the technician. Of course I don’t mind waiting, I have nothing else to do except sit on hold to fix a problem that has been going on for almost 8 months, when I sent and email describing the problem. Why cant they create the trouble ticket based on my email ? How about testing the connection from their end ? Don’t they have access into the CPE ? They provide it ? OMG the state of broadband in the US is in very bad shape. Has anyone else had these kinds of issues ? Am I the only one ?
Is the Cable company – the other monopoly any better ?
Henry
.
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Review by kodouseks
member for 6 years, 6 visits, last login: 5.8 years ago
lodged 5.9 years ago
- Nashotah,Waukesha,WI
- $92 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 17 days
- CenturyTel
- "DSL"
- "Horrible Tech Support, Installers, Value, and Connection Reliability"
- "Dreadful Service"
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We have had CenturyTel as our ISP for the past 3 years, and enough is enough. There have been so many problems with our DSL service, it isn't tolorable anymore.
So far we have had 6 outages, each lasting for a day or more, 3 e-mail issues, and lots and lots of awful tech support reps on the phone. This service is crap, bar none.
We will be switching over to Road Runner ASAP, hopefully getting it installed within the next few months.
~Simon
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Review by oldmarine031
member for 6.5 years, 28 visits, last login: 5.4 years ago
updated 6 years ago
- Pilot Rock,Umatilla,OR
- $60 per month
- (12 month contract)
- about 6 days
- CenturyTel
- "local dsl/pots repair fixed issues that sales totally messed up on"
- "presales are idiots"
- "way spendy for the crap they sell"
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UPDATE --- CT tech support is a joke. a sad and unhumorus joke. connection issues, dead modem no lights, and of all the tecs (4 to be exact) and (4 managers) NONE and i mean NONE did a lick of tech support. all i was told is a new modem will be over nighted out to you, well a week later and still no new modem... I hade to rant and rave until they would call the local CO (centeral office) to have a tech sent to my home, and wow it was a bad eletrical plug in modem was fine, fixed in 5 minnutes. Now the sad thing is i work for another Telco and am a Custoimer service manager, we would can people for all of this no tech support
crap. guess when they call and gripe at us for the general tech support of power cycling and trying a different outlet i will fondly remember what good it does and laugh at what good CT isnt.. i cant wait until my contract is up 5 months to go and then i am off to a new ISP... for the worth of it, if your thinking of choosing CT then look at other providers of the same service in your area might be worth it to do more shopping around...
Presales gave me a service Ph# in a city 100 miles away, stretched out the order
and was caught by the P.O.T.s repair. He fixed the number issue and got my up and running correctly in one day. If you order services here, really check and recheck your services. Had Qwest DSL and I pay more now for less. Not that Qwest was great but it was way better than CenturyTel has been. Speed is no better and Company email is difficult to access. Not really happy with this new company. And the modem they sent for services is really basic, now I have to shell out more money for a wireless router that was standard for Qwest. Services work but just expensive.
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