DISH - CenturyLink Nightmare

[hvarma2008]

Perhaps I should not have done this in the first place, but I had phone internet and TV bundled through DISH.
In my areas internet and phone is provided through CenturyLink in partnership with DISHNet Wireline. I have had the internet service and phone service for about 1 year. I finally decided to cancel my phone service so I first ported the number to a wireless service so that I don't lose the number and that effectively cancels service on CenturyLink. The nice folks at CenturyLink canceled my entire service including internet along with the phone service. I must have spent a total of 6 hours on the phone getting shuttled between technical support and customer service from last Friday when the service was interrupted until yesterday, when I finally got a guy that said the only way to "fix" it is to order new service which would take 2 weeks from now, although they messed up in the first place, imagine a household without internet? I will now move to my local cable company for internet, unfortunately they are no better than CenturyLink!

 

[AZ.]

No surprise......People love to complain about government bureaucracy, and its just as bad if not worse in corporate America...
Talk about putting you in a trick bag....Mention the fact you cant dial 911?...Hope they get it straightened out faster for you!

 

[MitchDeerfield]

If that is your worst nightmare, you have led a charmed life so far.

 

[richyrich]

Just remember; if most of the channels you watch are free ota; but the internet is not and if you get bundled and it has the internet in it; they take the internet 2; kinda like back to the future 2. Not unlike the rest of them ; but you sound like you need a

Perhaps I should not have done this in the first place, but I had phone internet and TV bundled through DISH.
In my areas internet and phone is provided through CenturyLink in partnership with DISHNet Wireline. I have had the internet service and phone service for about 1 year. I finally decided to cancel my phone service so I first ported the number to a wireless service so that I don't lose the number and that effectively cancels service on CenturyLink. The nice folks at CenturyLink canceled my entire service including internet along with the phone service. I must have spent a total of 6 hours on the phone getting shuttled between technical support and customer service from last Friday when the service was interrupted until yesterday, when I finally got a guy that said the only way to "fix" it is to order new service which would take 2 weeks from now, although they messed up in the first place, imagine a household without internet? I will now move to my local cable company for internet, unfortunately they are no better than CenturyLink!

I have done it before myself. The phone number is only "everything" today in this menagery. If you own your own equipment to do everything else other than the internet; all by itself is the paid device; and anything else you have works with it; AND EVERY CHANNEL OF TV IS FREE; what would you say? It is what I do today; to watch my "Rabbitear" HDTV. But I buy my cellphone and plan; pay for internet separately (2 times); and it cost me 150 per month (100 ea.) no matter how i do it. And i never go without the internet no matter where i am! I bought a Lolli[pop android and pre-pay internet and phone @ 49.95 to get it even close to the bundle price, however. If you live inthe boonies however; rabbitear tv is harder to get; as is the internet or cable. Then I go to the bar on Monday Night to watch football; have a drink on me was the smile I tried to say in the first place. And on Sunday; I went over to my buddies house to watch his dish net NFL Network; and they cancelled the game! THE PLAYERS/NFLCommish THOUGHT THE FIELD was too dangerous. Makes me wonder why they even play the game LIVING!

 

[hvarma2008]

If that is your worst nightmare, you have led a charmed life so far.

I did not mean to say it was my worst nightmare, but it was emblematic of a company not taking responsibility for their actions

 

[Tampa8]

I'm not so certain it was a mistake at all. I had regular hardline phone service along with Internet bundled through Verizon. When I ported out my phone the bundle ended along with the internet. Worked well for me because I was switching to Brighthouse internet.

 

[stardust3]

Centurylink is a joke of a company.

 

[AZ.]

I did not mean to say it was my worst nightmare, but it was emblematic of a company not taking responsibility for their actions

With out a doubt!! ....Its what 2016????

 

[STDog]

Lesson learned. Always contact the company first before making changes. This is especially true when services are bundled.
Tell them what you are doing and see what that means.

Porting out a phone number generally cancels the phone service, that true of practically all phone providers.
Since your account was a bundle that cancelled the whole account.

Had you contacted them first they could have prevented the termination of the account.
Probably by splitting the phone out of the bundle (leaving you with just a 2 item bundle) to a separate account so that you could then port out.

 

[hvarma2008]

As a customer, I have no idea how the process works on the end of the service provider.
Here are the alternate scenarios that could have played out.
1) When I called about losing the internet service, the technical support staff at DishNet Wireline could have told me that it happened because I asked to port my phone number and could have immediately ask me to submit a fresh request to re-start the service, that should have taken 10 minutes and that would be fine.
2) As I am a long time customer, DISH Net Wireline should have attempted to contact me after they got my number port request alerting me that this would result in internet service interruption.


The first one is probably a logical one, I should not have to be on the phone for 3 days and 6 to 7 hours total only to find out what my next steps are.
The second one might be a stretch,as customer service is an old fashioned idea, even if you have a long time customer with a huge lifetime value considering a monthly bill close to $200 with all the bundled services.

-Hemant

 

[STDog]

As a customer, I have no idea how the process works on the end of the service provider.

Which is why you call before you do something. I call before I do much of anything with "important" accounts because I don't know how things work internally and I don't want problems. Assuming seldom works out.

In this case I benefit from the experience of others, having read where others found out that porting out the number is considered a service cancellation. If you want to port out a number and get a new number assigned to the account it takes extra steps and planning to make it happen.

It certainly should not have taken 3 days or hours to figure out the problem, and should not take more than a short phone call to correct.

As for #2, I disagree. If I initiate an action I don't want them second guessing/pestering me about it. Too many examples of people trying to cancel services and getting the runaround to prevent it.

 

[hvarma2008]

I am guessing I am in minority expecting any kind of service for long time customers. This is the world we live in, what a shame. Now they tell me they can't get the service active before August 19th.

 

[STDog]

I am guessing I am in minority expecting any kind of service for long time customers. This is the world we live in, what a shame. Now they tell me they can't get the service active before August 19th.

I thought I was clear.

It certainly should not have taken 3 days or hours to figure out the problem, and should not take more than a short phone call to correct.

I expect competent service. 3 days to figure it out doesn't meet that.

Not re-enabling the account immediately doesn't meet it either.

It should have taken no more the 10 minutes to figure out what was wrong and correct it.
2 weeks is ridiculous.

I'll add, I left CenturyLink a few years ago. I had great DSL from them for a year. Then a tornado came through. Power outage for a week. But the DSL service never recovered. Long outages at all times of day, all weather conditions. After a year of that I left. I gave them time to things and they didn't/wouldn't do it.

My previous house never has a cable line to it and in 40 years I'd never directly given any cable company a dime. But now I get internet from one. I wouldn't go back to CenturyLink if they gave me free service.

 

[hvarma2008]

This is turning into an interesting dysfunction. Dish has now sent me a total of 2 new dsl routers in addition to the one I already have and one 'return' kit. Looks like some sort of meltdown of broken processes. Still no internet service. Gotta wait till August 19th.

 

[AZ.]

This is turning into an interesting dysfunction. Dish has now sent me a total of 2 new dsl routers in addition to the one I already have and one 'return' kit. Looks like some sort of meltdown of broken processes. Still no internet service. Gotta wait till August 19th.

Wow.....Breath....lol.....what an off the wall story, and it just keeps giving.....hang in there

 

[Claude Greiner]

I hope when they made you order new service they gave you promotional rates again

 

[hvarma2008]

I hope when they made you order new service they gave you promotional rates again

They gave me new promo pricing, but I will likely go with my local cable company Mediacom. Not that much better company but they are offering 100 Mbps speeds compared to 20 Mbps for the same price.

 

[STDog]

Since I was dumb enough to ipen my mouth, my internet (through Charter) went down ~midnight Thursday night. Still not back up after newrly 40 hours. No info on when it might be back.

Loking online it apoears they are having some big problems.

 

[hvarma2008]

Since I was dumb enough to ipen my mouth, my internet (through Charter) went down ~midnight Thursday night. Still not back up after newrly 40 hours. No info on when it might be back.

Loking online it apoears they are having some big problems.

Can't wait for Google to put all of these nuts out of business!

 

[STDog]

Can't wait for Google to put all of these nuts out of business!

Not sure why you think Google will be any different.

ISPs have local problems. Always. Some dope with a backhoe cuts the fiber feeding you place and you are down until they repair it.
A drunk hits a box somewhere and you're down. Availability for repair parts is an unknown.
(That was the issue with power after the tornado. Too out many HV towers and they didn't have enough parts available to replace that many, they had to be manufactured)


Now Charter is saying I should have service, but the "modem" isn't connecting.
Of course they never called me as promised when the earlier outage was corrected.