If CenturyLink Had Competent Web Developers, They Could Have My Money

Daniel has had it with his ISP, CenturyLink. If you don’t live in their service area, you may still recognize the company’s name, since they were a contender for Worst Company in America 2012, knocked out in the first round. But not going all the way in the tournament doesn’t mean that CenturyLink/Qwest customers are all satisfied. Daniel, for one, couldn’t pay his bill online because the company’s website wouldn’t work. Isn’t everyone trying to push customers toward online bill pay, not away from it?

He wrote the company a letter, offering his humble advice as a web developer himself.

Century Link,

I have about had it up to here with your website.

I have tried to pay my bill twice and even though the site says my payment was submitted,
my payments have not shown up anywhere. I have screen shots to prove that I tried to submit my payment on time. DO NOT disconnect my internet service because I have proof that I submitted my payment on time, even if your system does not. Please contact me to receive the proof.

I am a web developer and noticed this error repeated 10 times on the Payment Submitted page:

“Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property ‘style’ of null”

That’s a CSS property and that SHOULD NOT cause an entire page to fail to load payment details. The Loading throbber spun continually and would not receive any information.

Customer Service is unavailable on the weekends. Not sure if that is a good idea for customers who cannot pay their bill.

I received a pop up chat message asking if I needed any help. I was surprised and thought I could chat with someone. I clicked the chat window only to be informed that Customer Service is unavailable. That is purely unprofessional.

This reminds me of another problem I had earlier last month. When I tried to sign up for an account online, I was required to input my security code. All I had was a 3 digit security code, but it required a 4 character code. There was no way to find that code until I received my first bill. Also, in the form above where it asks for my customer information, it only needs 3 digits for the customer code! Why is there so much inconsistency?

The century link facebook page shows other unhappy customers. I see I am not alone. Also, you may want to check out this site.

May I humbly submit my congratulations for qualifying as one of the semifinalists in the “Worst Company In America” poll on Consumerist.

Your company image is EXTREMELY poor. Get on a new system fast, and win back the confidence of your customers. Inform your customers of the changes you will be making. DO NOT discard this message. Forward this message to all of the people who make decisions in Century Link. I hope they are doing something to rectify the situation.

Sincerely,

A disgruntled century link customer

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