Baxter County, AR: A letter to the editor [telecom]

Wants to hang up with CenturyLink

I have had it!

I am not the one who writes - that would be my sweet dad, Shirrell Hipp, who passed away last year. But I am sick of these huge companies who do what they want and not what they should - or what they promise consumers. And we have no recourse to change things.

My phone service with CenturyLink has been out for the past 5 weeks. It was a crapshoot when you pick up the receiver as to whether there would be a dial tone or not. Mostly not.

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Reply to
Bill Horne
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I agree with you. A rule I follow when referring to them...

People are "who". Companies are property. They are owned by share holders. Companies don't have a moral compass. Don't personify them. You should refer to them as "it" or "that":

I am sick of these huge companies that do what they want and not what they should

Jeff

***** Moderator's Note *****

Jeff,

No offense, but your reply would probably have more chance of being read by the original author if you send it to the same editor at the same newspaper.

But, whatever, I'll assume (s)he reads the Telecom Digest. ;-)

Bill Horne Moderator

Reply to
Jeffrey Walton

Here is something I would really like to know.

The RBOCs span a spectrum. On one end, you have Verizon, who fires employees if their (sic) repair copper or just rips (sic) it out of the ground.

On the other end, you have CenturyLink, the only RBOC to prominently display its PHONE services on its website. On AT&T's website, finding their POTS pages involves digging through layers of menus and hidden links.

Furthermore, CenturyLink actually publicly touts the advantages of home phones, 2 clicks away from their homepage:

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5 Great Reasons To Have a Home Phone
  1. Safety First

In an emergency, landline phones identify your exact location, so first responders can send help.

  1. Quality Counts

Landline phone service gets crystal clear, reliable connections with virtually no delays or lag time.

  1. Excellent Coverage

Home landline phones always provide excellent coverage because they rely on phone networks not towers with spotty coverage.

  1. Security System

Many security systems require a home phone line because landline monitoring is a more reliable method of sending alarms signals.

  1. Great Home Phone Plans

There are home phone plans available to talk to family and friends as much as you like - across the country and internationally.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

That's why all these reports of how much everyone hates CenturyLink strike me as odd. It's the only RBOC that actually puts on a show of caring about what they do, as the other RBOCs just clearly want out and don't pretend to hide that fact.

Personally, I have more respect for CenturyLink than any other RBOC, since, at least if only on their website, they show that they care.

And, maybe this is atypical, but I have never received good customer service from AT&T or Verizon. I have always received excellent service from CenturyLink, from Americans working in US call centers.

If someone wants to clarify this or set me straight, please do.

NA

Reply to
Naveen Albert

I can't speak to the other vendors, but in my area, CenturyLink provided erratic service and outages (for ADSL) at poor prices (once I had ADSL, VoIP was the obvious choice, at far less cost than landline). CL craft workers told me that some of the problems were because CL was using outside contractors (I had one crew from 1000 miles away) who weren't competent.

Of course there's worker turf beefs there (union vs. nonunion, local vs. outside) but it was convincing ("the card was falling out of the socket in the pedestal, we had to wedge it in place"). And CL didn't notify me about cheaper better service until after I left them (for Comcast, whose contractors weren't competent either). Fortunately, next year a local outfit should have me wired with fiber.

Reply to
Dave Garland

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