 Mr Matt
join:2008-01-29
Eustis, FL
 ·Comcast
 ·Embarq
| To bad Florida already signed off.  Embarq's poor service has gotten worse. I frequently eat at a restaurant in downtown Eustis. All of their lines, including the one that was used for credit card verification, failed on the Friday Evening, before Memorial Day Weekend. Embarq management refused to and did not repair their lines until Tuesday. When the restaurant owner spoke to other business owners in the area he found that they too had no telephone service over the weekend. It turned out to be an area outage caused by a wet cable, which Embarq was derelict in not repairing immediately. I recommended that the restaurant owner file a complaint with the Florida PSC and advise the other business owners whose lines were out of service to do the same.
This weekend I attempted to activate a feature on my land line and found it was not working. I called Embarq repair service and was advised that they could not repair the problem and I would have to wait until Monday Morning to call Customer Service. I was told that Customer service would have to determine why the feature was not activated on my line.
I wonder if a complaint to the Florida PSC, would throw a stick in their spokes. | |
|  | 
redhat1968
join:2000-10-17
Appleton, WI
clubs:
| Re: To bad Florida already signed off. said by Mr Matt  : I wonder if a complaint to the Florida PSC, would throw a stick in their spokes. I work for a telephone company and it really does hurt when the PSC calls us. It can be a trivial complaint, but it does get placed in front of everything else when they (PSC) gets involved!!
--
I cried because I had no shoes, until I saw a man who had no feet..
»www.mnrstudio.com
»www.lostsoulscollection.com
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| | | campinfool
join:2006-02-24
Austin, TX | Re: To bad Florida already signed off. I'm not sure about FLA, but Texas PUC says OOS reports must be cleared within 23h 59m, but it excludes weekends and holidays. So while that is a long time for a business to be out, it is probably well within the guidelines of the regulators. | |
| | 
BillRoland
Premium
join:2001-01-21
Ocala, FL
clubs: | Threatening to call the PSC on them will usually get very quick results, I know it did in my case a couple of years ago.
--
"Don't steal. The government hates competition."
Beyond AM. Beyond FM. XM | |
| | | hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH | Re: To bad Florida already signed off. Tell that to ATT and they'll tell you to stop threatening them and hang up on you LoL. | |
| 
Cheese
Premium
join:2003-10-26
Naples, FL
clubs: | Let's hope..... This fixes some of the issues they had down here in Florida! | |
| | 
Hazy Arc
join:2006-04-10
Greenwood, SC
1 edit | Re: Let's hope..... You do realize that besides the name of the company, there will be no noticeable change to the consumer, right? | |
| | |
Cheese
Premium
join:2003-10-26
Naples, FL
clubs:
1 edit | Re: Let's hope..... said by Hazy Arc :You do realize that besides the name of the company, there will be no noticeable change to the consumer, right? It won't be Embarq anymore! Maybe, as I said in my earlier post, they will FIX some of the issues they have here, I had them for 6 months years ago, had nothing but latency issues and they said unless the tracert, was 400ms or higher across the board, the engineers wouldn't even touch it, that's piss poor service IMO. It took them almost 2 months to tell me this as well after going back and forth on the phone, finally, after they stated this, they cancelled my service with 2 months chargeback and they didn't charge me the ETF since they weren't really helping the issue.
Edit : Not that I would leave Comcast at this point.... | |
| | | | | | | rabeatz
Premium
join:2009-03-21
Apopka, FL
·Embarq
| Re: My experience with CenturyTel With any company - you will see poor reviews and good reviews. I don't believe a bad review is something that you can actually use to get an opinion of a company, as everything is on a case by case basis. The 2 negative reviews of Embarq are two specific incidents... Perhaps the repair office was closed for memorial day? Some of the technicians are part of labor unions that require them to have holidays off. If you browse the forum you will probably see just as many good reviews of Embarq and their service representatives as you will see for CenturyTel. And just like Hazy Arc said, it essentially is a name change and combining of the two companies. The end user is really not going to see a difference besides the new name on their bill. Sure there are probably going to be improvements in the core network, and some features offered by one company and not the other may be offered or available with the new company, but none of that would take place immediately. | |
| 
JamesLevinworth
@embarqhsd.net
|  What will this mean to Embarq customers?
The merger website offers nothing but PR, and their information per state only offers that they've merged and to check back for more information.
Ok, so what could this all mean?
At first I thought this could be a good thing. CenturyTel's market, although also centered on the small town/rural market elsewhere in the U.S., it's bigger even pre-merger - so maybe the better, right?
Comparing their services offerings, and more specific, broadband, I'm not happy. While this is not a determining factor of what the post-merger, post-existing contract expiration prices will be (if any - and for me, no), I can't be optimistic that the larger CenturyTel plans on lowering the prices to match those of Embarq's.
Embarq ___________________________ CenturyTel________________
Up to Speed ______ Price _________ Up to Speed _______ Price
N/A ______________ - ________ 512 _______________ $31.20
768k _____________ $29.95 ________ N/A _______________ -
1.5M _____________ $34.95 ________ 1.5M ______________ $41.20
3.0M _____________ $39.95 ________ N/A _______________ -
5.0M _____________ $49.95 ________ N/A _______________ -
N/A ______________ - ________ 20M(?)*____________ $51.20
»www.embarq.com/Residential/Inter···Internet
»www.centurytel.com/Pages/Persona···lans.jsp
To note:
• CentruyTel's 1.5M plan is $6.25 more expensive presently than Embarq's.
• CenturyTel offers no plan between 1.5M and their up to 20M Plan.
• Per CenturyTel's fine print, which as expected offers no speed guarantee, shows they also foist a securitysuit software on HighSpeed users for $3.95/month (free for the first 3) that you must cancel if you don't want it.
• Although CenturyTel's 20M plan is $3 less expensive than Embarq's 10M plan, 20M or any speed is never a guarantee, especially if the technology existing for Embarq's infrastructure is at max 10M presently.
•*Is it 20M or is it really 15M? Oddly, the above quoted pricing plans page, it says it's 20M. but the landing page for High Speed says it's 15M:
High Speed Internet
Blazing speeds up to 15.0 Mbps!
Think 200 times faster than dial-up Internet.
More speed to connect to unlimited news, music, shopping, movies and games.
Additionally, there is this: from thier merger website:
CenturyTel serves small-to-mid-size cities and rural areas in 25 states through its state-of-the-art, broadband networks. Its quality networks position the company to meet customers’ needs today and in the future as new broadband services emerge.
With more than 665,000 high-speed Internet subscribers currently, CenturyTel's broadband penetration of enabled lines is approximately 34 percent. The company offers compelling broadband services to meet customer demands whether it’s an up-to-15 Mbps DSL service to a residential customer or Metro Ethernet service to a business customer.
What's up with that CenturyTel?
Even their high speed description in their bundles don't strike high-speed confidence:
CenturyTel High-Speed Internet Get a consistently fast high-speed Internet connection on a fiber optic network that was designed for streaming video, music and playing games in real time. And unlike cable, our network gives you a connection that's 100% yours, 100% of the time. * Consistently fast with 512 Kbps speed * Private, direct connection to our fiber optic network * More speed to stream the latest videos on sites like HuluTM and YouTube® * A gamer's dream — eliminate lag for good » www.centurytel.com/bundlesDouble···ion=c1v1
The 'click here for details' brings you to their disclaimer page showing:
Simple Choice / Bundles Promotion - Offer and stated rates are available to residential customers only. Subscription to the Triple Savings bundle includes Unlimited Calling, 512Kbps High Speed Internet and DISH Family package from CenturyTel | DISH Network. Stated rate is valid for first twelve (12) months of service, after which standard rates will apply.
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| | 
dsldude08
Premium,VIP
join:2008-01-03
La Crosse, WI | Re: What will this mean to Embarq customers? There are multiple tiers...
512/128, 1.5/256, 3/512, 4-15/512 (8-15 768k upload), and 20/3 - these are priced as followed (same order) without discounts or promotions: 29.95, 39.95, 44.95, 49.95, 79.95. | |
| | |
JamesLevinworth
@embarqhsd.net
| Re: What will this mean to Embarq customers? said by dsldude08 :There are multiple tiers... 512/128, 1.5/256, 3/512, 4-15/512 (8-15 768k upload), and 20/3 - these are priced as followed (same order) without discounts or promotions: 29.95, 39.95, 44.95, 49.95, 79.95.
Embarq ___________________________ CenturyTel________________
Up to Speed ______ Price _________ Up to Speed _______ Price
N/A ______________ - ________ 512 _______________ $31.20 [29.95]
768k _____________ $29.95 ________ N/A _______________ -
1.5M _____________ $34.95 ________ 1.5M ______________ $41.20 [39.95]
3.0M _____________ $39.95 ________ N/A _______________ - [44.95]
N/A ______________ - ________ 4.0-15M ___________ $31.20 [49.95]
5.0M _____________ $49.95 ________ N/A _______________ -
N/A ______________ - ________ 20M(?)*____________ $51.20 [79.95]
Thanks for the reply. I put your answers in [brackets] above.
Where did you get these service offerings and price points from? That is not what is shown here: »www.centurytel.com/Pages/Persona···lans.jsp
Did I read you correctly that one tier is 4-15M? | |
| | | |
JamesLevinworth
@embarqhsd.net
| Re: What will this mean to Embarq customers? Corrected:
Embarq ___________________________ CenturyTel________________ [stated]
Up to Speed ______ Price _________ Up to Speed _______ Price
N/A ______________ - ________ 512 _______________ $31.20 [29.95]
768k _____________ $29.95 ________ N/A _______________ -
1.5M _____________ $34.95 ________ 1.5M ______________ $41.20 [39.95]
3.0M _____________ $39.95 ________ N/A _______________ - [44.95]
N/A ______________ - ________ 4.0-15M ___________ - [49.95]
5.0M _____________ $49.95 ________ N/A _______________ -
N/A ______________ - ________ 20M(?)*____________ $51.20 [79.95]
| |
| | | hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH
·Time Warner Cable
·buckeye cable
| Re: Hope that CentruryTel adopts Embarq DSL Pricing! Broadband has that catch called "upto" and i'm sure you don't want the gov't sticking their nose in the HSI market. You wouldn't like what would happen. After all look at Comcast, people cried about wanting a hard cap, well they got one, now its lower than what the soft cap was. It's great to get the Gov't in the middle huh? | |
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Embarq Deal All But Done
·
Hope that CentruryTel adopts Embarq DSL Pricing!
The one thing I like about the Embarq DSL Pricing is that the customer is not forced to pay for speed capability the company cannot deliver. In fact Embarq does not offer a customer a speed tier that they cannot deliver to that customer. What I do not like about Embarq's DSL service is that they require that the customer sign a contract to obtain service or pay a higher price.