On Fri, 3 Aug 2018 12:33:49 -0700 Russell Senior <[email protected]> dijo:
>Gigabit from CenturyLink is (afaik) currently $80. ... >You would find further information by calling and talking >to them, but don't be surprised if their billing department and their >sales department aren't on the same page. The billing department is >the more important one. When I got my CL Gigabit service they were having a big promotion - $50 or $100 credit (I forget the amount), but you got it only if you signed up at their office in Hollywood District, not if you signed up with one of their door-to-door salespersons. (I don't know if this is still going.) Needless to say, I went to their office, where I found the staff very helpful and nice. They assured me that there was no data cap and that they guaranteed 85% of what I am paying for. I told them that eventually I wanted to get my own equipment, but to start with I would use theirs, and then return theirs after I got mine. They had no problem with that plan. They made an appointment for their installer to come out at a convenient time for me. The installer also turned out to be very nice and he knew what he was doing. As he installed their 'modem' (really a router) he explained how to disconnect it when I returned it. He listened to my suggestions about how to route the fiber from the street to my office (yes, I have fiber right to the wall in my office), and he agreed with me as to the routing. To get the fiber from the box on the side of the house to my office meant stringing it through the attic, so I helped a bit by standing in the attic and pulling it in as he fed it in from the outside. Later Russell brought me a D-Link DIR-660L which he had flashed with open source software and set it up it work with CenturyLink fiber. He did that for me because he knows I am not clever enough with these things to do it myself. :) Later I went to their office and returned their router. The fellow who waited on me found that it had not been entered into their computers as installed, so he fixed that and printed me out a receipt. He cautioned me to be sure to save the receipt because it is not uncommon for customers to not get the credit they are due - returning their equipment meant I should get $10 off my monthly bill. But when the next bill arrived I didn't get the $10 off. So back to their office I went, and when I got there a nice lady agreed that the bill was wrong and corrected it. In the process she mentioned that their billing department is famous for screwing up and they spend a lot of time fixing peoples' bills. So what Russell says about their billing department and their sales department not being on the same page is correct. Later I was going some work on my house and suddenly my connection died. I called up and the next day their installer came out (same guy), and discovered that there was apparently a kink in the line between the box on the outside of the house and the wall in my office. He re-strung the line (again with my minor assistance) and got it all working again. It was probably my fault, but there was no charge. I think the installer just decided not to charge me. A couple months later I was continuing my house remodeling and needed a fiber patch cable and jack for the wall in my office. I was shopping online for what I might need and then, fortuitously, I was driving by a McDonalds and there in the parking lot was a CL van. I pulled in and parked right next to it. Just as I got out the CL guy came out of the restaurant (it was my same installer!) and I told him what I needed. He opened his van and rummaged around for a minute, and handed me all kinds of connecting devices. No charge. So I am pleased with my CL service. The billing department is a mess, but the rest of the organization works as it should, and their local people are great. Oh, and one more thing: During all this I learned that fiber is not as forgiving as copper. You can bend a copper wire to a 90 degree angle, but don't try that with fiber. _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
