CenturyLink: No Fraud, Wrongdoing Found as Alleged in Class-Action Lawsuits
CenturyLink has concluded its independent committee investigation into allegations of overbilling and overcharging for services, and found no evidence of fraud or wrongdoing by any member of management.
However, the findings do acknowledge mistakes and lack of sufficient monitoring.
Class-action suits have been filed against CenturyLink in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, in addition to a suit filed by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson and numerous investor class-action suits. They accuse CenturyLink of cramming or stuffing fees that customers never agreed to for services.
During the past six months, the committee with independent counsel from O’Melveny and Myers and forensic data analysts, collected and searched more than 9.7 million documents as well as 4.3 terabytes of billing data consisting of more than 32 billion billing records, according to CenturyLink. They also interviewed more than 200 current and former employees, it said.
Mark Molzen, CenturyLink spokesman, tells Channel Partners his company is “pleased that the investigation confirmed there was no fraud or wrongdoing … and that cramming was neither widespread nor condoned.”
“We remain committed to maintaining an ethical business culture based on our unifying principles, which include honesty and integrity and a commitment to excellence,” he said. “Our principles are at the core of who we are as a company and we want our customers and partners to feel that in every interaction with us. Our focus is, and will continue to be, providing quality products and a positive customer experience. We intend to vigorously defend ourselves in the pending lawsuits.”
In addition to finding no evidence of fraud or wrongdoing, the committee’s findings were:
* Company management did not condone or encourage cramming, and the evidence did not show that cramming was common at the company; and when instances of cramming were found to have occurred, the company took “reasonable actions to discipline employees.” However, the company’s investment in consumer sales monitoring was not “sufficiently effective” in proactively detecting and quantifying potential cramming.
* Some of CenturyLink’s products, pricing and promotions were “complex and caused confusion, and the resulting bills sometimes failed to meet customer expectations.” Also, limitations in ordering and billing software made it difficult to provide customers with estimates of their bills and confirmation of service letters that reflected all discounts, prorated charges, taxes and fees.
* Systems and human errors led to certain customers not receiving an offered point-of-sale discount, and CenturyLink did not fully address this issue in a timely manner for some customers.
“The investigation confirmed my long-held belief that there was no fraud or wrongdoing at the company and that cramming was neither widespread nor condoned,” said Glen Post, CenturyLink’s CEO. “However, we know there have been times when we haven’t provided our customers the experience they deserve. We have identified a number of areas where we can improve the customer experience and have already made significant progress in addressing those areas.”
I joined up for low cost Internet service with direct billing, I tried to severl times to sign up but could never get it to work, I called in for help and was told what I needed to do. Nothing worked and I was getting billed full amount. I never received the prepaid card or as I learned later vaucher for in the mail. Frustrated I sent full payment due and router back to Century Link Nov. 1st, router was received Nov. 2nd. I felt that they were blocking me from signing up to keep my billing higher and there for chose to terminate any ties with them. I kept getting bills stating that my service would be shut off if not paid in full, I found out that is not so, they only suspened the service and still bill. I was also told that I would be charged an early termination fee. Due to the fact that they were not helpful nor did I receive the prepaid card that was part of the promotion I signed up for that any contract between Century Link and my self was void for failure to fulfill their agreement.
Bill never stops going up. my internet and phone went up to 142.00 per month. I discontinued the service , dropped the phone service and hooked back up with internet service only for 36.00 mo. now after about 7 months my internet is approaching 80.00 a month. don,t they ever stop? My internet is also down two or three weeks at a time.
Century Link tried to accuse I didnt pay my bill last month when I had. Their archaic system takes so long for pymt to process. Now this month suddenly trying to bill me more then twice the monthly amount I’ve been paying! I refused, offered less but wouldn’t apply to current bill so I hung up. Received email today thsg my order was received. What order? I didn’t agree to order anything! FRAUD and HARASSMENT!
We are in a rural area and that didn’t stop CenturyLink from promising fast internet and phone service combined. We are regularly without a phone and internet is terrible because of so much static on the line. Calling them for service is a nightmare and last month we without a phone for 3 weeks + and we had to argue with them several times to get the bill adjusted. Well, the jokes on us because they took only $16 off of a $ 120 +/-. What a crap service. We live in a dead zone so cellphone is useless here. This is why our government was supposed to break up monopolies. They could care less about rural customers.
My names Phillip Denton and I agree about the whole internet problem I’m paying $80.00 for almost 0 to 1.8 internet service and I also had a problem with my upload it also said 0 they came replaced my modem nothing worked.But that’s not the crazy part check this. When my wife called CenturyLink and telling them again that nothing changed they did nothing Hello if this isn’t ripping people off I don’t fully understand and clearly they no. For 1.8 service that’s max they should only be charging around 5 to 10.00 a month. Tell me if say you were gonna get a car & or a house wouldn’t you like to ride or live in it. Not pay for something your not getting.