Saturday, January 15, 2011

Never do business with Century Telephone--they are dishonest

I am writing this entry today from a sense of desperation. I signed up for Century Tel [landline phone] in Oct 2009 at their 'special' price of $19.95. the first month they charged my card 199.00 and they have consistently over-billed and fraudulently billed. They charged my card that fee before I ever moved in or made one phone call and AFTER I had paid the account deposits separately beforehand [two deposits--one for telephone and one for internet], and they refused to refund it or make it right--they pocketed the money. They have charged/billed me for ONE internet service THREE times every month since. They bill for it in the so-called 'package' of services that includes local, long distance and internet; and they bill for it again in another section calling it 'subscriber line' and then they bill for it a third time [every month] in another section by calling it 'internet services'. And they bill for local telephone services in the so-called 'package' and again on same bill by calling it 'local services'.
And they tax these separate components four times for ONE internet-telephone package in ONE apt for ONE person. They add 28 dollars in padded fees every month, fees that they generate and call it tax or as defined above so they jack my bill from 59.00 which is supposed to be my 'package' fee to $106 this past month. I have never paid them late or missed a payment. When I ask their billing dept about the fraudulent charges they read back a canned script to me.
Additionally, it seems they have routinely allowed persons who do not live in my apt and who are not in any way related to me or authorized by me, to use my telephone line and my voice mail. I discovered that today when I called my own number and heard the Century Tel recording giving callers the option of press 1 to leave a message for person on recording [me] and press 2 to leave a message for someone else. I am furious.
They are headquartered in Loiusiana. They say that they cannot tell when their customers call from their Centuy Tel number. A telephone company that does not have caller id is about 20 yrs behind the times. They do not ask for any verification from callers except to ask information that the entire world knows. They are not secure. Their emails are not secure. They disrupt your service and then tell you if you want it repaired you will have to add a $4.95 monthly fee to your acct to keep your phone working. They cross the telephone wires to allow interception of your phone calls. They set up a so-called 'password' on my dsl account that is similar to abc123 and when the customer wants the password changed to complex [my experience] they argue that complex passwords are not necessary. And they bill for and receive money for added on features that they never enable no matter how many times I ask them too and how many months they have been paid for the add-ons.
Their email system is based on alta-vista which is defunct as far as I know since thie email have no features and try to prevent me from reading my emails by setting it to 'time-out' after 80 seconds and browser closes. And the one email in that time is opened up by Century Tel software OUTSIDE the email and outside the browser to make sure cybercriminals can read it too.
And last but not least, they route your phone calls through Latin America [in partnership with Embarq?? reason--don't know]. And their off-hours staff in customer service is rude, and does not follow even the simplest guidelines for securing an account.
I am posting this here as a preliminary to what might become a lawsuit against them as it seems they are allowing my second ex-husband to stalk me through my paid for service with Century Tel. I have told them I might sue them for these reasons but I also want the public to know what sort of company they are--crooked and dishonorable. And unsafe as your confidential bank info is no safe with them as they do not require security questions when someone calls in to get my info or tries to control my acct.
Gloria Poole;@home in Missouri; 9:40am;15/Jan/2011

Happy Easter #sketch by #Gloria and see Republic MO photos-by-gloriapoole

#Watercolor #sketch drawn and painted by me Gloria Poole,Registered Nurse, artist of Republic Missouri and I signed it and put the date and...