Billing run around

7/19/2010

Never have I wasted so much time trying to straighten out billing as I have with Qwest.
They will lie to you, and tell you anything you want to hear about how they will lower your bill,
but it will never be reflected on your future statements. When you call back and ask why?, you're back to square one. If I ran my business in this manner I would be out of business in a week.

Stay Away From Qwest!!!!

6/26/2010

We have been a customer of Qwest since 2007. When we first moved into our apartment we were told we had to use Qwest. No big deal, right? Wow, if I would have known how horrible it would be to deal with Qwest there is no way I would have signed a lease to move in the first place. They are absolutey unresponsive, rude and terrible. To begin, we first used Qwest internet in our home office. The internet was constantly down, and it would take forever to get someone on the phone, and if you could sit through the 20-30 minute wait you would typically get transferred around to several representatives that "were sorry for any inconvience" but couldn't help you with any solutions.

Further, we also bundled my business phone line through Qwest. Since then we have discontinued the phone service because of the terrible representatives. We continuously had billing errors. And when I did finally disconnect the service, they tried billing me twice. Thank goodness I kept good notes.

They also decided in 2009 to provide our complex with a "complimentary internet upgrade", but what they didn't tell us was that it would take 5 visits to get it right, and that you didn't have a choice. Our internet was down for several days, which they said they would reimburse us for (still haven't seen that credit), and I had to take 2 days off of work to sit at home for a 4 hour period waiting for them to show up. The first appointment of which they showed up an hour and a half late to, but tried to justify by saying "they were with other customers".

Not too long ago my husband bought at HD TV. Since we utilized Direct TV for our television services this wasn't an issue. Come to find out that for HD TV there were centralized dishes around our apartment community that we had to use. Oh no, call Qwest for TV too. Well, unfortunatley we didn't have a choice and now our TV is through Qwest as well. We had never before had a problem with Direct TV, until now. Qwest yesterday provided our complex with a "complimentary upgrade" and needless to say our TV isn't working today and the quickest they can get someone out is on Tuesday of next week, and we have to be home between 8-12. So once again I get to take time off of work so Qwest can fix another problem. The first representative I spoke with this morning was rude, wouldn't give her name, and hung up on me. I spoke with our leasing office who also called Qwest and told me that she faired no better. She was also a product of the Qwest solution of "I don't know what to do and I don't want to deal with this, even if it is my job, so I will just hang up on you".

I called back a second time and spoke with a gentleman, Curtis, who was pleasant and put me in touch with his manager Tony. Tony assured me he would look into it and would get back to me. He did call back to say that they had to switch out the boxes at our home (which we have had less than 2 months), but he didn't know when they would be doing that and that he would call me back later. However, it has now been 3 hrs without a call back. Tony has left for the day, and there is no manager on duty. I spoke with another rep, Jeff T. in Boise, ID who was absolutely worthless, and kept trying to tell me my problem was with Qwest not with him and not to take it out on him. Someone really should explain to him that he works for Qwest and is a representative and all the customer is asking for is solutions. I didn't raise my voice, but did repetatively ask "what they were going to do to make this right" and all he kept telling me was that he wasn't authorized to do anything, and there was no one working at that time that was authorized. Fortunately, we are moving into a house in less than a month. There is no way I will use Qwest for internet, phone or TV. I can't wait to go back to cox for internet and phone service and Direct TV for TV. I can't wait to get away from this terrible company, with their terrible customer service. If you have a choice... stay away from this company. They will give you nothing but headaches, and cost you money.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Surly representatives

6/21/2010

This is the second time I have had to call about a problem that was not corrected (as promised). It is also the second time I've had to deal with rude, nasty service reps who give only their first names (Chuck, Melissa and Jennie). Jennie did try and comfort me and promised to make the necessary adjustments to my bill; however, she lied and the errors were still showing up. I then had to speak to Chuck who did not satisfy me and when I asked to speak to the supervisor, he informed me that she could not tell me anything more than he could. I had to constantly threaten him to get him off the phone. He then kept me hanging for at least 7 minutes, but to his surprise, I hung in there. He even asked me "do you want me to hang up?"

I don't know where Qwest gets these people from but they are in dire need of a customer relation seminar. Obviously, they do not fear any recrimination as a result of their rudeness, as I have gotten this attitude from more than one person while trying to clear up the mess they made of my account. I am now in the process of seeking a company that has courteous, helpful reps. Obviously, Qwest is "too big to fail" so they don't insist that their employees be helpful and nice to their customers when they have a problem.

I guess I'm too old fashion with my expectations that I would be treated with courtesy when I call with a problem.

Qwest Sucks

4/26/2010 CO

Qwest renewed my 2year contract without my knowledge. I recently moved to another address, when I asked Qwest to move my service they gladly obliged. After which I found out they just renewed my account to a new two year account. I aked to be removed from this contract and of course they said it will be done. It never happened, according to them I asked to be put on this contract.
When we moved I was dredding the call to Qwest because they always pull something underhanded like this.
Sounds just like AOL (America Online) when they were king of the internet. I can't wait for Qwest to go down too just like AOL.

Convenience Fee

2/11/2010

I too recently went to pay my bill via phone, as I have done for years now, only to find out that without warning I now had to pay a $4 fee, or a $1 fee to do so online. I never received notice of this change or I gladly would have mailed off payment due via mail.
Customer service was completely unwilling to assist me, would not reverse fee as a courtesy for non-advisement of this new plan to charge me extra to pay a bill, and no sup was able to take my call within a reasonable time frame.
Per a previous review that said their sarcastic representative from Qwest said notice was given on bill...I looked mine over for a third time and do not see any such notification.
I've emailed the company my complaint, and left a mssg with Corporate regarding the underhanded, unethical, and unprofessional manner in which this fee has been issued. I also plan to change services from Qwest.
This is not a convenience fee...Its greed, plain and simple.
Fine, whatever, but at least notify people of such changes.
I'm sick and tired of bad business practices, rude customer service, and the every day person getting the short end of the stick. You work hard for your money, and your time is limited at best...Its time we stood up to corporations and just said "No thanks, I deserve better".

Qwest Disconnected My Service Because of Mis-keyed SSN

2/8/2010

Qwest disconnected without notice my service because one of their employees "miskeyed" my social security number into their system and I became a "suspicious" person to them. In order for them to reconnect my service they wanted me to send them proof of my identity via a copy of my social security card and drivers license. They disconnected it at 11:00 A.M. on a Friday and I could only speak to the Investigator to get it turned back on. I discovered it at about 1:00 p. m., waited on the phone with customer service and then began calling the investigator. Never got a return phone call. At 5:00 P.M. I started calling all over only to find out the investigator had left at noon for the week-end. After 1 1/2 hours on the phone Monday morning I got my service restored. Too bad there isn't another company where I live - I would have dumped them!

Horrible Customer Service and I just wanted to pay my bill!

1/4/2010

Be aware of people obtaining your Social Security number. I called to pay my bill and they told me they needed to obtain my credit card number; I was reluctant and asked why they needed it and the woman told me she did. I gave it to her and then she proceeded to tell me that she needed to transfer me somewhere else.

After I was transferred the next lady told me that I did not need to give out my Social Security Number and I asked her to talk to a manager so that I could try to find out who had just taken my number. The lady I was now talking to hung up on me. I called back and waited on hold for 42 minutes and nobody answered so I will try again and I am sure again and again.

I would advise going with Cox or another carrier. It is not worth having to worry about identity theft, etc. Also, it is plain to see that this compnay does not really care about the people that pay for their services...again I was simply calling to pay my bill and this is what happened to me. Imagine if you are calling to complain about service.

Great customer service

9/17/2009 Omaha NE

My husband and I are in the process of moving to Louisiana, out of Qwest's service area. I've been avoiding the call to Qwest to cancel our service because I thought for sure we would be charged an early termination fee since we just signed up in February this year. The man I spoke to (I forgot his name unfortunately) was very pleasant and waived the early termination fee. He took care of my order in about five minutes. I am just so relieved because this is one less expense we need to worry about. Although we've only had Qwest service (phone, internet, DirecTV) for less than a year, our problems have been minimal compared with Cox...We have had about 3 internet outages, but this was only due to construction in our area. When we had Cox we had problem after problem. If it wasn't the TV, it was the internet, if it wasn't the internet, it was the phone. Honestly, if you live in the Omaha area, go for Qwest.

Further on my post of yesterday

9/16/2009 Portland OR

After I wrote the review yesterday, I called the main number and got some guy in accounting. He was sorry to hear (like he hasn't heard it before) that Qwest provided rotten service and he sent me to the DSL repair where he assured me someone would take care of me. I got some MEAN guy named Kelly (badge DIX) who said he would give my message to a manager named Tony Ober who would contact me first thing this morning. Guess what? No word from said manager or anyone else.

Updating now on 9/18 - No word from Tony Ober yet, so I sent him an email. He did call me. He said their customer service was bad. He said sorry. He hung up. No word of following up, tracing my complaint, nothing. I told him in the conversation that I was posting online amongs dozens of other complaints. Maybe they are all robots, they sure don't act human. The shape of things to come I fear.....

They cause their own problems

8/13/2009

I had phone service with Qwest for about 7 years and basically had no real complaints. I then decided to drop my land line and keep my DSL service. I had always used online bill-pay through my bank to pay my monthly bill. Well to my surprise, when I dropped my land line, Qwest decided to change my account number. With my original account number programmed into bill-pay, my monthly payments were being credited to someone elses account. Meanwhile, my account accumulated late fees on top of missed payments. After a few phone calls, Qwest couldn't figure it out but I finally did. Another thing I found out was that if you have a billing issue, the customer is not allowed to actually talk to the Billing Error Complaint Department. I had to prepare all my evidence and fax it to a number connected to some office in Seattle. It was Seattle one day and then Phoenix the next. Qwest couldn't seem to keep track of where the office was. I prepared my evidence with an elementary school student in mind and used small words, arrows, big red lines and circles around numbers. I was able to prove that I paid Qwest every month for the past 3 years (as far back as my bill-pay went). Every month showed a payment. After three phone calls, three faxes, and 5 months later I get a call from Qwest stating that I was using the wrong account number. Well DUH. Qwest changed it not me. They never read my fax messages and never were able to understand their mistakes. And worse, I was never able to actually talk to the billing error group. Today, after 10 years of being a customer I have finally reached the end of my last multi-year commitment. I phoned Qwest and asked to have my service canceled and my account closed. Guess what they did. Yup, they hung up on me. I called back and was transferred to "Loyalty" where I was threatened with a $200 termination fee. When I stated that my commitment was up and my account paid up, I was transferred and left on hold until my cell phone battery died. I plan to cut my phone line that is inside my house.

What's Going On Here?

5/22/2009 Logan UT

Here is a copy of the email messages between me and Qwest and I wonder why it has esclated this far.

RE: Qwest.com Customer Support (Phone)‏
From: ****** ****** (******_******@msn.com)
Sent: Fri 5/22/09 1:25 AM
To: corresp@qwest.com

Sue,

Thank you for your prompt reply of only waiting ten days before providing contact of any sort. A Qwest technician already came to my apartment complex and repaired whatever was wrong by fixing something in the box outside of the building.

If an email address is john_doe@msn.com then you should be able to figure out that the person's name is John Doe and if your system will not allow you to find a phone number and other contact information by referencing a name then Qwest is in more trouble than I thought. If you are to thick to figure this out then you shouldn't be working in customer service and if you're just being obnoxious through procrastination then you shouldn't be working in customer service either. Maybe another career might fit better. Can you say "Do you want fries with that"?

******_******@msn.com



> From: corresp@qwest.com
> To: ******_******@msn.com
> Date: Thu, 21 May 2009 14:25:38 -0500
> Subject: RE: Qwest.com Customer Support (Phone)
>
> ******
> Thank you for your recent e-mail inquiry to Qwest. I apologize for the delay in responding to your e-mail. Please provide your telephone number plus the 3 digit customer code and I will be glad to help you.
> Sue
> Qwest Customer Care
> Consumer Markets
> www.Qwest.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ****** ******[mailto:******_******@msn.com]
> Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 4:41 PM
> To: Qwest Support
> Subject: Qwest.com Customer Support (Phone)
>
> ----------------------------------------
> First Name: ******
>
> Last Name: ******
>
> Primary Phone Number: --
>
> Am I a Qwest Customer? Yes
>
> 3 Digit Qwest Account Number:
>
> E-Mail Address: ******_******@msn.com
>
> Contact Preference: Phone
>
> Description: 5/11/2009
>
> Customer service representative:
>
> Last Friday night I noticed my internet connection was slow and my land line telephone had static so today I called the customer service department for Qwest and it turned out to be a real headache.
> Getting past the automatic phone reception system, the static on the phone lines, giving your representative the wrong number, being transferred and put on hold numerous times, and finally being disconnected when I was trying to talk with a representative who had a strong accent was a little too much for me. I called back on my T Mobile cell (which has always worked fine) and was transferred again until I talked with someone at the ****** office.
>
> Now I could be wrong because of the communication difficulty but think I was told that an eighty-five dollar fee is applied if the technician has to come into my apartment for repair. That's understandable but think I was also told that it couldn't be determined if that fee would be assessed or not at the time the request was made. What I don't understand is why a check can't be done to your equipment outside at your expense without charging me. I had this same problem before and it was repaired by Qwest without charging me. After asking to have my telephone disconnected I was told that would increase my internet service bill by five dollars a month because of a discount. Great discount! It's more of a customer service return guarantee for you than a discount for me.
>
> I'm not responsible for the phone bill now so the least expensive and best option for me is not to use Qwest except for contracted internet service. I'll be ending my telephone and internet service as soon as my contract expires and referring everyone to any company but Qwest. T Mobile has been good for me so I think I'll refer everyone to them.
> Land lines are becoming dinosaurs and soon will be extinct as will your
> business with me and probably many other current Qwest customers.
>
> I hope your day is as bad as mine has been.
>
>

Bad news and moderately good news

5/19/2009 Seattle

I had a bad/somewhat good experience with Qwest today. A bit of back story: called on behalf of a Qwest internet customer whose internet was accidently cancelled (I'm authorized to speak to Qwest on the account holder's behalf). So I called to get a status report, their interest was scheduled to be re-installed on a specific date and this failed to occur. I called broadband support and was transferred to a tech who told me that when the service dept pushed up the reinstall date to last Friday (it was originally scheduled for installation yesterday), it was cancelled. According to the tech I spoke with, when a date is re-scheduled it gets cancelled instead of re-scheduled. This didn't make sense to me and I attempted to clarify with the tech, but when I asked my question he proceeded to talk over me, raising his voice as would a child. When said, "excuse me sir, may I finish?" he replied with, "Stop talking." This is social rudeness and has no place in a professional setting. I would be fired so fast it would make my head spin if I spoke to clients this way.

The somewhat good news is, I asked to speak to a manager who was helpful and did explain the sitution in a calm, professional demeanor. I also filed a complaint against the other tech, which may not amount to anything, but made me feel better. Moral of the story-try asking for a manager if level one techs are giving you a problem. It may not work for everyone, this is only my personal experience, but it's worth a try. Bottom line: I'm glad I'm not a Qwest customer, it's dispicable the way they treat acount holders. I'm not even a customer and look at how I was treated!! Buyer beware.

Customer Service

5/14/2009 Bonney Lake WA

I am writing to tell you my experience with telephone fraud and trying to get assistance from Qwest.

I was on the receiving end of a phone scam from a company in Nevada Consumer Telecom and from a sales representative named Dave - first, if you get one of these calls - hang up - they are trying to con you into switching long distance provider - stay away from there 'good to be true' deal.

I received a telephone call from Dave who identified himself as a representative from Consumer Telecom and that he was going to reduce my phone bill. He said he was doing this so that I would not cancel my local service - the pitch he made sounded like he was acting on behalf of Qwest albeit he was very clever and never stated it in so many words. What I did was to Google 'Consumer Telecom' and at the top of the list was an article about telephone fraud and this company. Needless to say when I confronted Dave with this information he terminated the phone call.

I next went to the Qwest home page to see if I could report this action and was disappointed not to be able to find any information about this nefarious practice. My next attempt was to try to contact Qwest customer service and see if I could notify Qwest that this company, by its actions, is casting a dark cloud over the reputation of Qwest. I was bounced around until directed to someone with a thick accent that made it difficult to communicate which is even more frustrating because you then put that poor person in a position to fail. She was very nice but in the end little was accomplished - so here I was trying to help others from getting sucked into this scam and I foolishly thought Qwest cared - they don't.

It matters not - I did lock my account so that companies like these would not engage in slamming. However, I am most disappointed in Qwest and this experience has just set my resolve to move quickly away from ever having to do business with Qwest. If my experience is unique then Qwest has nothing to worry about but from what I read on the web, Qwest is in trouble and I will not be surprised if I see the company follow the same path as GM and Chrysler. I will add my voice to the web community in the hopes that maybe someone will listen (enough American companies have been mismanaged into failure) - if the reader of this review is employed by Qwest, I would recommend seeking another job

Can't Get Any Help!

4/19/2009 Burien WA

When I realized that I was not getting the speed I was paying for, a tech came out to fix it. He fixed it, but disconnected one of our phone lines and our HOUSE ALARM!! I called again and after talking to numerous people, they sent someone else out, but they were not given the right information, so he could do nothing. Called again, talked to someone I could not understand, got someone else, said they would be out next day. NO SHOW!! I sat here all day for nothing. They are not at all concerned with their customers needs, but GOD FORBID you don't pay them on time. I am ready to cancel all my services with qwest as they have the worst customer service I have ever seen. OH, and they send most of their tech support calls to INDIA at night, so you can't understand a word they say.

The tech told me they tried keeping in in the US, but it's cheaper to outsource. WAY TO GO QWEST!!!!

Qwest RipOffs

4/15/2009 lewis county WA

I"m mad as Hell at these guys and will never again be a customer of theres. There very good at taking your credit card and running it through however many times they feel they want, Then try getting your money back! You will talk to somebody who can"t help you, but will try to sell you more service"s and then put you on hold till your cut off. You will never talk with anyone that can return the money that they just stole from you! Recently they helped themselves to $587.00 when the bill was $387.00. They are crooks, high priced and could care less bout you as a customer. They also didn't credit me my deposits and still sending me bills for service for months long after my service was turned off!

You can always get a real person on the line if your interested to more features or services, but you will never get a real person on the phone if your calling to discontinue or complain about something, you will be transferred to HOLD again until your disconnected 20 minutes later I will never give them one flat dime I hope they go belly up they deserve it.

Shocking Experience

3/27/2009 Tucson AZ

I have encountered a similar shocking experience with the Qwest service as the writer of another review!

After I had ordered a bundle for HD TV, Internet and Phone service from Direct TV (who had no problem with my request!), I had to call Qwest to inform them of the installation date - Qwest had to come for the internet part of the bundle. I already had Qwest telephone service but, with the bundle, my cost would not have been as much.

All I was seeking was an alternative service to replace the expensive Comcast that I was signed up with.

When I called Qwest, the associate told me that Qwest could offer me the same package at a lower cost. I was told that it was because Qwest had better promotions than Direct TV and therefor I should order the package from Qwest. This meant that I had to cancel the order with Direct TV (will not get into that conversation!!!!!!!!!) and needless to say, they wanted to convince me to stay with their order. After a conversation of almost 90 minutes, the associate cancelled my order.

When the technician arrived, he walked in with a problem. Only 4 receivers instead of 5 like my order was! I had to call Qwest to check their order but, the phone number that was left on my message, was not the right number. I had to talk to the Business Office. They could not talk to me for at least another 30 minutes because of other customers who was calling in! (most probably more complaints!) The request to me from Qwest "please call back in at least 30 minutes!" How ridiculous to have the Technician hang around for 30 minutes!????

In the meantime, Mr Tech called Direct TV and they were kind enough to let me have the fifth receiver installed for free. Mr Tech could proceed.

After 4 hours of installations, he explained to me how to operate the remotes. I asked hom about the extra sport channel that I ordered and, (was I surprised?) it was not on the order! Another Qwest mistake. Also, the sport channel that the Qwest associate recommended (with rugby and cricket, that is why I want it!) did not have either of the two sports! He told me what to order.

I asked him about the internet service and he said that UPS or FedEx would most probably deliver a modem within the next day or two. However, my gut feeling told me to call Qwest and check with them what the next step would be to have the internet service in place so that I could cancel Comcast. Again, first call was to the wrong phone number (provided by Qwest!) and eventually I spoke to the next "wrong" associate/department for my inquiry. He did however tell me that there was no order for internet service on my phone number! (another Qwest mistake!!!!) He got the Business Office on the phone who then told me that internet service was not available at all!!!!!!! This was what she said: "How do you expect us to give you a service that we do not have and does not exist?" I told her that it did exist a week ago when I spoke to an associate who gave me a confirmation number for the order of all three services! At this stage the Qwest problem was made my problem because now, I was the one that was stuck with a 24 month contract with Direct TV without internet service - this I had to get from Comcast and then, my monthly cost for the three services, would have been more than my cost with Comcast! After another conversation of at least 30 minutes, I was put on hold while she was going to find out if they could find a solution. In that time (waiting) I had time to take a shower, get dressed and do my make-up!!!! I was still listening to the advertisement recording! She eventually came back and suggested that they would (mind you!!! the voice tone made it sound like a favor!!!) ask Direct TV to remove the equipment without any cancellation cost to me!!!!

Before I could ask her to please call me back with the rest of the information, she put me back on hold and that is exactly where I was when I had to leave for my appointment. In total my hours spent on telephone conversations amounts up to at least 5 hours and the installation this morning was from 11am until 3pm.

Please just take a hint from my experience and be extremely careful when you deal with sales people that work for companies without being fully informed about what they can offer potential customers. I have had it! Enough is enough! I will definitely change my telephone provider. I would be surprised if I end up without any cost for the disastrous incident!

Seems as though, "The customer is ALWAYS WRONG" is the motto!

Qwest Is A Nightmare Company With Divisions That Don'T Talk To One Another!

3/20/2009 CO

In March of 2007 a customer service agent called my home while I was at work. They caught my husband while he was home for lunch. Our phone is under my name, and I am the only person who can make decisions about what is allowed (step son once purchased long distance without talking to me) the customer service representative informed my husband that qwest would be bundling all my services together! Later that night, I called qwest and told them no! I had a long standing relationship with direcTV, great credit, and didn't want to bundle. They said sorry and promised it was canceled. Of course, they never canceled the bundling!!! Instead qwest started billing me this obscene amount of money every month and every month I would call customer service and explain and they would say sorry and promise me it was canceled. Now they have turned over my so-called account to a collection agency because they double billed me for direcTV...I paid direcTV and so, supposedly, did they. I canceled my account with qwest and have been fighting with them ever since. Beware! They lie, cheat and steal and have no compunction about screwing people who just want phone or internet service.

Unfair Business Practices

2/26/2009 Bellevue WA

I was advised in Dec. 2008 that Qwest will no longer be providing cell phone service and all Qwest customers needed to migrate service to either the Verizon (who Qwest chose to sell their business to) or another cell phone provider. I was informed that I had 90 days to switch to a new carrier. I was assured by the Qwest Rep that I would NOT incur a contract termination fee since Qwest was terminating their cell phone service. (Apparently their service contract with Verizon was not getting renewed or something like that.)

Qwest recommended Verizon but they were too expensive and my Qwest phone would not work with Verizon and I would have to buy their phone. So I went with AT&T.

NOW Qwest is telling me since I terminated my contract early they are going to charge me $250. penalty fees. They are the ones who told me that I had to switch carriers within that 90 day period. When I call them I stay on hold for about 35 minutes listening to their endless recorded commercial before I have to hang up. I visited the Bellevue WA Qwest store and they had the nerve to tell me that not only could they not handle billing problems but that there was no physical address I could contact for customer service. (Honest to God they did say that to me, believe it or not.)

I recently found out that their service negotiations with Verizon were reinstated sometime in January so they are telling their customers that the switch over was not necessary after all. I do not want to pay them out of principle because I feel they are cheating me and many other long-time customers. This is a deliberate and calculated business practice that is unfair and unethical.

The other important thing was that if I had an outstanding balance with them I would not have been able to 'port' (migrate) my Qwest phone number to a new carrier. They have no answer to this apparent contradiction. I had cell phone service with Qwest for 15 years for 4 phones and always paid on time. They are not the same company we all knew years ago.

If you have been cheated by Qwest within the last 90 days, i. e., Dec 2008-Feb 2009 I would like to hear from you. Together we can make some noise that the Washington State Attorney General's office would hear.

Thanks for tuning in. RM

They Just Like To Screw You

2/23/2009 Bisbee AZ

We ordered the bundle package. Never received Direct TV. We got our bill and it was $138.00. They charged us for long distance that they had a cap on. Charge us for other services that we never received. We called and they told us we would have to pay anyways. Didn't care who we had talked to before, or who had told us what.

Always seemed to keep hearing "sorry there's nothing we can do." And I think that's bull.

Horrible

2/6/2009 WA

Very frustrated. I started back in 07 when I had phone/direct/internet. I decided to switch to a different company in 08 for phone and internet, leaving my account Direct TV with Qwest. I called back on August , to request that I be unbundled with Qwest. I actually had Direct TV representative conference me in. Direct documented the call, Qwest did not. I was told it would be done and received a confirmation number. October called Qwest to pay bill and inquired if my prior request had been put in, Well to my surprise it hadn't. I then had Direct TV conference me with Qwest again to request this. I received a confirmation number. Again Direct TV documented this, Qwest did not. Well its Feb and I am still bundled. Called into today about it and Direct TV said they would conference me in but they needed the number they no longer had access. Really? You guys do business together and you don't have a contact phone number in case there is an issue. Ok Dan(Direct TV Rep) I will give you the number. We get wonderful James from Idaho call center who puts in another request. I asked speak to a supervisor and he tried for 15 minutes to sway me. Telling me that the supervisor would do the same thing, or that he can do everything for me, its not his job, it is his supervisors job to tell him how he is doing.

Oh really so I am supposed to take your word for it that's its actually going to happen? This is my 3rd time. The reason I asked for a supervisor is because he flat out told me I couldn't have one w/ Direct TV still online. I normally let bad customer service go but I'm very frustrated. I worked as a Escalations representative for 5 years, so I know what to say when a customer wants to speak to supervisor, He didn't get it. This why I will never deal with Qwest again. They have horrible customer service. Just horrible.

It was my fault for going back to them when I knew better. I recorded the last several minutes of the conversation and reporting them to better business bureau

My Fruitless Qwest

2/3/2009 Los Angeles CA

I have been battling Qwest Communications for seven months over a $6000 bill they sent despite my not being their customer. To cut a long story short, Qwest takes the cake for obtuse and greedy customer "service".

The problem started when my local phone provider (not Qwest) moved my service to a new address and phone number. Through a comedy of errors that no-one can explain, Qwest became my preferred long-distance carrier despite my specifying a different carrier. Six weeks after the move, Qwest's bill arrived - more than $6000 for calls that my specified carrier would have charged about $220 for.

Despite my thoroughly documenting the mistake - and despite hours on the phone with Qwest - and despite FCC rulings that the consumer is not responsible for costs when switched without authority - and despite my paying Qwest the amount my preferred carrier would have charged - Qwest called me every day for weeks demanding payment, and then referred my account to a collections agency (who - guess what? - calls every day).

Ironically, Qwest's own collections agency advised me to get Qwest to agree to accept payment for what my preferred carrier would have charged for the calls in question. I made that offer months ago, paid accordingly, and Qwest cashed my check - but continues to demand money that I do not owe.

Based on my experience, Qwest has no ability to resolve problems based on the circumstances of each case. "You owe the money" is the only attitude they apepar capable of, whatever the facts and whatever the law says. Only rarely will two reps will give you the same version of what Qwest's own records show about the history of the case.

Obviously this is a warning to avoid Qwest if you have a choice. If you get switched to Qwest through an error you don't even know about (as I was) - heaven help you.

California's PUC is investigating this case. I will update when (in 2011? maybe 2012?) the PUC makes a ruling.

Less Then Thrilled

1/30/2009 Denver CO

I was advised that Qwest will no longer be providing cell service and all Qwest customers needed to migrate service to either the Verizon (who Qwest chose to sell their business to) or another cell phone provider. After numerous phone calls to Qwest reps. and numerous hours of hassle, I was informed that the migration needed to take place immediately. So I did. NOW Qwest is telling me since I terminated my contract early they are going to charge me $400 penalty fees. They are the ones who told me to witch right away, and there will be no penalties because Qwest is terminating the contracts, not the consumer. I've tried contacting managers, supervisors and the CEO of Qwest and no one will return my calls, when I call them I stay on hold for no less then 45 minutes.

I don't know what to do, how can they advise their customers of one thing and then do the complete opposite? They are STEALING our money!!!!

Never Do Business With Qwest Again

1/27/2009

I have been a loyal customer of Qwest for over 20 years - but NO MORE! For the last eighteen months Qwest has screwed up my bill OVER AND OVER again! I tried to bundle, but after six months of asking them to do it over and over I gave up on that. Then I tried to do price for life on DSL from August of 07 to January of 08, no dice. Fine, whatever... Every month they screw up my bill, over bill me time and again. Finally this month I have had enough. I cancel my home phone because I got a smoking deal on VOIP, they tell me it will be shut off on the 20th. 20th comes, I go back to Qwest to make SURE it is done after so many disappointments and lack of follow thru by Qwest and GUESS WHAT??? They CLAIM that I TOLD THEM NOT TO SHUT IT OFF!!! What the heck? I have to report them to the PUC to keep from having to pay additional days. That spurned me to find a different internet provider. Well, Qwest has a monopoly in the small town I live in so I end up going with Cable One. Call to have my DSL disconnect because I am SO done with Qwest and mad as HELL at them, and I get told they won't turn it off AND that supposedly NOW I have price for life! Uh, NO, you guys never followed thru on that and I am NOT paying for it! Second complaint to the PUC in a week, and suddenly Qwest decides to comply.

TO ANYONE CONSIDERING GETTING QWEST DO NOT DO IT! THEY ARE AN ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE COMPANY TO DEAL WITH THEY HAVE ZERO CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! I will NEVER have Qwest again, and now my mission in life is to change ALL my friends over to Cable One and DUMP Qwest! They SUCK! I hope they realize that I will tell everyone about their HORRIBLE service, and the incredibly disgusting way they treat customers!

Qwest DSL very frustrating service

1/9/2009 seattle WA

I have Qwest Connect Platinum ( supposedly up to 7Mbps). I started to notice the speed was down. But, thought it was a computer related problem. Then the service kept degrading day by day.

When I called technical support, I was told that it is due to the glitch on the Qwest side and the line is overloaded. The speed test by the technician (http://speedtest.qwest.net/) showed that I was getting close to 2.3 Mbps. But, I’m paying for 7Mbps.

Even though I was told my line was switched to a different route and I wouldn’t encounter this problem, I am having the exact same problem and the test shows a download speed 2.7 and upload 0.699.

Calling customer service, I was informed that the manager refused to speak to me to discuss an under-delivered service by Qwest and I was told to contact the DSL technical support.

I'm very disappointed by the unprofessional ism of the Qwest response. it is very frustration the lack of accountability and responsiveness even in this economically down times.

Trying To Cancel My Service

12/30/2008 Loveland CO

Never get Qwest! It has taken me 2 months to cancel my service, which I was forced to get in the first place because of my apartment complex (I had to have internet because I worked from home and was not informed that Qwest was the only provider)! The service was very slow the entire year I had it. I have talked to 6 of the biggest jerks I have ever encountered in my entire life. They talked to me like I was 10 and were rude to me and made cancelling my service ridiculously hard. I'm not one to be rude ever on the phone and they made my blood boil.

DON'T EVER GET QWEST OR DIRECT TV.

Promised, Billed, And No Delivery... Qwest And Follow Through...

12/12/2008 Grants Pass OR

I live in an geographic area with limited to no cell phone reception to my home... And the only DSL carrier and landline provider in the area is Qwest...

About two months ago, in response to advertisements to save money via bundling services, I made my first mistake: I called Qwest to ask about their bundled services. And, I ended up bundling, supposedly getting three features bundled -- saving me money, of course -- plus 300 minutes free long distance per month -- and we canceled my out-of-state long distance carrier while we were at it (me being assured multiple times by the person doing that, that I needed to do nothing further -- he did ALL the canceling). Well, not much really happened after that phone call... Caller ID, a new bundled feature, never worked. The old long distance company continued to bill me. I continued to be billed by Qwest for in-state long distance. I am not sure if the over-all cost of my phone bill was reduced at all...

In the meantime, thinking positive, I called Qwest to get the caller ID working. Well, again, supposedly someone worked on that but not successfully. Qwest blamed the lack of caller ID on my equipment -- some of it new within the last year, having and certainly capable of caller ID... ( i.e. good equipment from a reliable company).

Having not learned my lesson, I decided to complain to a Qwest customer service representative who, again, tried to save me money by making some changes to, this time, my internet service. To my complete satisfaction, the next bill from Qwest was lower but not for long: This month the bill doubled...

Again, thinking this matter could be fixed, I immediately called Qwest. The representative I spoke with tried to fix things -- I think. I'm not sure. I was having grave doubts about Qwest by this time. After being placed on hold for the third time while she tried to "dot all my 'i's, and cross all my 't's", I disconnected the call. This woman was beginning to sound like the first woman with whom I spoke -- the one who bundled the first set of services two months ago with little result. Who knew what I would really get and how much I would be charged this time around? I wasn't going to chance it.

After hanging up and (a) considering the situation for some time, (b) getting connected to Qwest Internet service where I could study my bill and change services myself if need be, (c) investigating other possible phone and fast speed Internet carriers in my area (no solid options there), and (d) finally finding this site and learning that, indeed, I am not alone, I realized I was being charged for a change in Internet service THAT I NEVER GOT. And what's new with that... I didn't get the other promised services either; however, I also didn't get a big bill paying for services that didn't exist unlike this time.

So this morning, I phoned Qwest. When the automated service answered my call, I relentlessly pushed 000000s until I was put through to an actual person. When that person wanted to assist me, I gave him no information despite his persistence other than "Connect me to the billing department." Of course, he did not transfer me to the billing department -- I expected this boggled response.... after-all this was Qwest where boggling is standard practice and the customer never gets what she wants. I KNEW what I was dealing with: Perfection in service is NOT what they are building their reputations on...
But, the next person did connect me to the billing department. I explained my case to the billing department. I was being charged (since Nov. 1) for a service I had not received. The billing representative looked. He saw. And he actually verified that "she" had, indeed, disconnected one set of services but never connected the new services (par for Qwest), that I was being charged for a change that had never happened and, in fact, I should not have been charged for even if it had happened... So, the billing representative indicated that he would credit my account, change things back, not charge me next month, and even save me some money on-going every month, AND give me some confirmation numbers that, indeed, these changes were taking place.

Well, of course, promises are promises... And we all know Qwest. Promises are their stock in trade; it's follow through that's iffy.... well, maybe even.... rare. So its wait and see for me (and I will check out my account on the internet, too, to see if any changes were made.... charges dropped, etc., etc.) before I know what actually took place this morning. Perhaps I will actually pay Qwest less and get at least what I used to get before I bundled... and got nothing, anyway. In the meantime, there may be hope coming in the form of a new broadband service to my area... connecting phone and internet... And perhaps I can finally bail on Qwest... I know the technology is out there... I am dreaming of one of those small satellite dishes attached to the house with a flow of signals connecting me to the internet.... talking through the computer... I know this can be done... It's out there somewhere... and for a reasonable price!

Here's An Email Address To Contact Qwest

11/26/2008 Phoneix AZ

As you may know, Qwest has stopped using email for customer support. There was a link included in one of my chats with a Qwest representative regarding my services being turned off. It works as off 11/26. Here is the address and the signature on the bottom indicates it goes to the following department:

qwestcfs@qwest.com
Qwest Credit Management Center
Consumer Markets

The Worst Customer Service

10/8/2008 Colorado Springs

There is no company that frustrates me as much as Qwest. Every representative tells you something different and they are never right. Twice I have put my service on vacation hold and each time it has taken me 6 months to straighten out the billing. I am now stuck with a very high billing because Qwest tried to change me to a different internet plan which did not work but of course I have to pay for the time I was on it.

I have now learned that the Qwest cell phone, one number service and associated long distance is all being done away with. Customer service is the absolute worse. I am very discouraged with this company.

Setting Up Service/First Bill

9/8/2008 Fort Collins CO

My husband and I decided to change from a VOIP service to Qwest. I called Qwest and initially signed up for Home Choice Plus 2 line plan. We also got internet service with them. I was told that I could split the 10 features up between the 2 lines. From day one we had problems so that I was calling them every day to address one issue or another. During one of the latter calls I was told that I could not split the options between the 2 lines and that I was being charged for all the options. I asked what my options were at that point and was changed to 2 1-line home plus plans. Well, I just got my phone bill today and it is for $313.29.

First, it has me on the 2-line home plus package for a total charge of $84.44 for 8/28 - 9/27. There are charges for $35.00 and $17.50 for line installation charges that I was not told about. $28.53 for line charge from 8/11 - 28 and then $20.61 for line charge from 8/12 - 8/28 - for the same line!On the internet portion of the bill is a modem purchase charge of $40 I was not told about and a "S&H advanced modem charge" of $14.99. I have spent hours on the phone with various CS agents.

I got different responses/suggestions from each person I talked to - but none of them ever mentioned any activation or purchase fees. Oh, how I would love to cancel this crappy service.

Qwest's customer service: Awful!

8/28/2008 Phoenix AZ

[solicitation snip]

Qwest no longer makes for customers to contact any representative in North America. No e-mail is available; no address is published anywhere; no telephone number reaches a human being. If and when you finally do get past the robot voices, you reach a drone in Manila. Few of these underpaid workers speak English well enough to do anything other than go through a rote script.

Misleading Info On Bundling And Horrible Customer Service

8/12/2008 Canon City CO

Below, is a letter to the CEO of Qwest about my experiences with Qwest. To this day(Aug 12, 2008), I continue to get bills and promotional fliers from them, as if I were still a customer! This is a very poorly run company with horrible customer service!


June 26, 2008

Mr. Richard Notebaert, CEO
Qwest
1801 California Street
Denver, CO 80202

Sir:

I thought you might like to know why you have lost my business.

Two months ago, after seeing and hearing many ads offering better pricing through “bundling”, I called your sales representatives to see if I could save, since I had your phone service, premium DSL, and DirecTV.

I was offered a bundling package that totaled $135.00 per month.

I was shocked when I got my first bill in May for $210.00! I called and was not able to get a satisfactory answer, other than that I was being billed a month in advance, pro-rated. It took three days, and several hours on the phone, a lot of that on hold. During that time I spoke with someone named Cara who gave me a voice mail number of 1-877-892-7181. She said she would investigate the issue but she never returned my calls when I did not hear back from her.

I also spoke to someone named Ashleigh who gave me a reference number of “2408155”, and email address of Ashleigh.Ward@qwest.com. She did not respond to my email asking if she had found the answer to the problem.

I continued to pursue the issue and the result was that I was told by Beth at your “Customer Loyalty Center” on May 28, 2008 at 11:10 a.m. that my next bill in June, would be $135.00, tax total as I had been promised originally.

When I got that bill, it was $157.60!

I was discouraged, and angry to the point that I decided to stop using your service. However, I thought I would try one last time to resolve the issue. I called and spoke to someone named Eric at customer service at 10:47 a.m. on June 23, 2008. I was put on hold again for a while. He came back on and said the reason my bill was not $135.00 as promised, was because DirecTV was not giving me an $18.00 credit because when I “bundled”, I was not a new DirecTV customer.

I told Eric that no one at Qwest told me I had to be a new customer of DirecTV in order to take advantage of the bundling discounts. He was curt to the point of being rude and basically told me I was “stuck” and that my bill would always be $157.00. I told him in that case, I would discontinue my phone and DSL service with Qwest.

Eric then said that I would have to pay a $200.00 early termination fee. I told him I would not pay that fee, because I feel like I was lied to and that Qwest had broken the "contract".

His response was that Qwest had done everything they were supposed to do, and that the fault was with DirecTV.

I told him that my bundling package was sold to me by Qwest and I was not told the truth about what my bill would be. He then said that Qwest would just “send me to collections” for the fee. I terminated the call at that point.

As a result, I have signed up for cell phone service, through another company and will get my TV and internet through cable.

I “Googled” problems with Qwest bundling and was amazed to see the number of people who have had similar problems.

I am sure that loss of my business will not affect you, and I’m sorry it had to come to that, but I feel like I had no alternative.

Sincerely,

Ronald L Rhoades

Shockingly Horrible Service

7/22/2008 Denver CO

The level of incompetence at this company is staggering. I was overcharged by 400 dollars, and even though I have spent countless hours trying to fix the situation, the issue is still yet to be resolved. I have spoken to over 20 useless customer service reps, most of whom are 18 and condescending, have been disconnected more times than I can count, have been repeatedly lied to, have spent hours on hold waiting to re-tell my saga. There is no follow-through, no concern for my time, money or satisfaction. No one appears to have the authority to fix anything. I have been waiting for a call back from various "supervisors" for weeks.

I advise everyone I speak with to avoid this company at all costs. Honestly, I have never been more frustrated in my life. My only recourse is to write a review on a website Qwest execs would never read.

Incredibly Poor Service

7/18/2008 Phoenix AZ

On May 23rd I spoke to the Qwest Multi Unit Dwelling Representative for Citi on Camelback. He took my information for my apartment on Citi on Camelback. At that time I told him I had 4 DVR units that I would need installed for my DIRECTV service.

I would also need telephone service and internet service.

On May 27th he telephoned to inform me that he had run into a problem with an outstanding balance of $400 with Qwest and I told him that I believed that had be resolved and could prove it. He stated that he would look into. I never heard from him again.

We moved in on May 31st without any services, no telephone, internet or DIRECTV. We found out that these services were not scheduled to be installed until June 4th.

I called Qwest on Monday and the Customer Service Representative confirmed that we were not to have service until Wednesday however she stated that Qwest did not install DIRECTV and transferred me to DIRECTV.

That customer service assured her and me that she was wrong. Because it was a multi-dwelling unit with a contract with Qwest only Qwest could install the satellite service. The Qwest rep continued to argue with him until he just ignored her and told me that he would transfer to the Multi-Dwelling unit department at Qwest and they could sort this out.

Indeed they confirmed that all of my services would be installed on Wednesday. They also told me that if I had any problems I could contact the dedicated technician for this apartment complex. I told them I had multiple times and he was not returning my telephone calls.

Wednesday arrives, the Qwest technician arrives (not the one I had spoken to on May 23rd) but he informs me he is there to ONLY install the telephone service. He knows nothing about internet service or DIRECTV. I call the "dedicated" representative; get his voice mail, as usual, leave a message.

Coincidently a representative from Arizona Broadband contacts me to tell me he will be there between 2 and 4 to install the DIRECTV service. Sure enough he shows up, five minutes after getting there, he informs us that due to limited technology of the cabling in the building we can only have two of our four DVR's installed. He stated that the only way we could have 4 DVR's was to have our own satellite installed on our porch.

I called the Qwest rep, left a voice mail, call the apartment management office at Citi on Camelback and was told that DIRECTV problems were my problems. They were out of it.

I called DIRECTV who assured me; again, that Qwest would never let them in that property. He transferred me to the multi dwelling unit department at Qwest, staying on the line the entire time, while the customer representative at Qwest, confirmed that there wasn't any reason why would could not have all 4 DVR's installed. He rescheduled the install for Friday.

The "dedicated" technician called twice promising to resolve all issues. I should note that my telephone service was not right, I did not have caller ID, call forwarding or call waiting. I had to call Qwest and work with a rep for nearly an hour to get this resolved. She said that the outstanding $400 balance was this issue. Instructed me to fax my paperwork in and meanwhile she was able to resolve all of the telephone issues except long distance. She was the only rep in this Qwest nightmare that did anything right.

And we still did not have internet access. Once again that $400 bill came back to haunt me. Which no one seemed willing to resolve.

I had also enlisted the assistant of one of the apartment representatives, I thought. He called the rep, who assured him he was working on it.

On Friday, the dedicated rep's supervisor called me, she promised to look into it as well. On Friday after about an hour before they were supposed to show up, Arizona Broadband, called the apartment and informed us that they would not come out and that nothing had changed, we could only have 2 DVR's, which by the way, only one was working.

The supervisor called me to confirm this and could only offer the very poor substitute of two regular receivers. And for the first time that week she mentioned the outstanding $400 bill that was holding up our internet access.

The next rep I heard from was someone else who reported to the supervisor, who had also stopped returning telephone calls. She promised to research the outstanding bill. She called me back and left a voice mail informing me that they, Qwest, felt the charges were valid and if I wanted internet access and long distance service (we had given up DIRECTV service) I would have to pay up.

By now, we had entirely new problems, by Tuesday the following; we had water running down our living room and hallway walls. We had leaks from several locations in the ceiling, so much water that at one point it shorted the electrical circuit in the living room wall, we moved out that Friday.

We haven't heard from anyone at Qwest. None of our issues were resolved. This is a quick summary with multiple and lengthy conversations with Qwest shortened or eliminated. I cannot stress enough how incredibly awful this experience was.

Do not move into Citi on Camelback. Do not move into any apartment complex where Qwest has a strangle-hold over the services. Trust me you will regret it.

Worst Experience Ever

7/17/2008 Castle Rock CO

I recently moved to Colorado and needed TV and internet service. I ordered DSL internet from QWEST. This is where the nightmare begins.

They needed a deposit which I gave them via my debit card. We scheduled an install date. They asked for more ID information which I sent to them three times. The customer service people were rude, un-educated, and just did not seem to care. I finally gave up and cancelled the order, When I asked for my deposit back they told me they had never taken the deposit. I told the guy that I was looking at my bank statement on line and that they had taken it.

He basically called me a liar. I have now emailed to QWEST corporate ethics dept. and to the CEO and have not had any response. I have contacted my bank and reported the incident with the deposit and they are contacting QWEST.

COMCAST has been a pleasure to deal with!

A lack of customer service or customer respect

4/1/2008 Phoenix AZ

I have had Qwest for internet and DirecTV for about a year now, as my apartment complex has an exclusivity arrangement with Qwest. After a year of problems, I would not recommend having Qwest for any service, and never moving into the Retreat at the Raven in Phoenix for bundling themselves together with this awful company. Here's a breakdown of what happened in the past year.

I was told by my sales representative Carmen Cavner, who had been working at this company for 20 years I later found out, completely wrong information regarding my purchase. I was told that I would be receiving hi-def equipment and the package was exactly what I wanted when I signed up. I called back again before I moved in to discuss the install date and she stated that I had called months before and she did not remember what we discussed. I told her what we discussed and she said none of that was available at my location. I was told however, that since my equipment would be owned by Qwest, that I could upgrade at anytime without problem or additional cost. I signed up for a year, because I had no other option and I trusted this information to be true.

Before long problems arose as they always seem to do with Qwest. I was receiving three bills a month, and no one was able to merge my accounts. I was being charged $3.99 a month for use of the dish on top of the apartment complex, which could not be waived. Apparently this $3.99 is mandatory if you use "Qwest owned equipment". So I'm overpaying compared to the same package offered by DirecTV without even starting service. On top of that, since I live in an apartment complex, anytime I call in I have to convince the CSR that I even have DirecTV through Qwest because none of them can find me. They keep asking for my account number and then tell me it's the phone number for Verizon.

Once the upgrade to Hi-Def starts to happen to my complex I look into the upgraded equipment as Carmen Cavner told me to. Here I come to find out that she told me a complete lie and that I will have to sign a two year contract, pay $150 for equipment and pay $100 for Qwest to install new wiring at my apartment. None of this was mentioned at the time I purchased my system. After hours and days on the phone with CSR's, I decided to go to the BBB. I spoke to a very nice woman named Sandy Pacheco who was more than willing to help and apologized for the lack of service I received and the illegitimate selling done by Ms. Cavner.

At this point I think I'm doing okay. Until Qwest decides to move everyone onto the new HD equipment. Here's my letter to Louis Armenta to help explain what happened next.

-

Louis, this issue I have brought to your attention began in December of last year with the letter that is attached signed by Arizona Broadband, LLC. This is a company that is used locally by Qwest to service its DirecTV customers, especially those in Multi-Dwelling Units (MDUs). I have talked to this company in the past, and they have acknowledged that I am unable to contact them directly with any issues, as Qwest needs to request any service that they are able to perform. Therefore, this issue could not be resolved by asking their company what was going on with my service. Their representatives taped this letter to my front door on a day in late December, and I met this person outside to discover what I would need to do. This person stated that I would need to be at home on January 14, or tell Qwest that I would give their techs permission to enter my premises and leave a key at the front desk. I thanked him for his help.

Beginning the next week I started calling the number on the sheet of paper to find out what needed to be done via Qwest, and to give them permission to enter. The number on the sheet of paper (877)-288-2888 was called repeatedly and I was transferred several times to DirecTV themselves, who was unable to do anything but transfer me back to Qwest. Finally I was told to call 800-244-1111 which is written on the sheet of paper in pen, and they kept transferring me again, and telling me that they did not know what I was talking about. I decided I better just be home on January 14 to save any further hassles from the Qwest customer service department. As an MDU, most customer service people were not able to even find me as a customer of Qwest DirecTV service. They were easily able to find my broadband service, but I had to convince them that I was actually a customer of DirecTV. At one point in time I actually got a hold of someone in the “MDU Customer Service Dept.” who told me that I should have been credited for past payment of $5.00 per month because I did not receive the benefit from combined billing that I should have. After several arguments with her co-workers that she actually told me this, I was finally credited. But, my account was not successfully merged.

The day of January 14 came and I realized there was no Arizona Broadband, LLC trucks outside which meant that no one was going to come and ‘upgrade my service’. I called the front desk of my apartment which has an exclusivity arrangement with Qwest for TV and internet, who said they knew nothing of this letter. They contacted their exclusive salesperson, Carmen Cavner, who told them to tell me that I should disregard any letter I receive. Ms. Cavner no longer returns my phone calls or emails after she fraudulently signed me up for a year service of DirecTV based on misinformation that she gave. This matter had been cleared up by Sandra Pacheco at an earlier date. I did not take the message of “disregard any letter” very lightly as I had already taken a day off of work to sit home and wait for whatever was going to happen. Ms. Cavner also told the manager at my apartment that it was probably some solicitation and that I did not know what I was talking about. I quickly called my office and had a copy of the letter (attached) faxed to Ms. Cavner and the front desk. Both of them told me they would work on it and get back to me with some results.

As you could have guessed, no one ever got back to me. I had to call the front desk several times only to be told that “many people are calling with complaints about Qwest service and our rep is unable to do anything about it.” I understood after dealing with her in the past, but I was very unhappy and still tried to get something done about it through Qwest customer service. Finally, my TV service no longer worked on a day several weeks later. I called Qwest immediately only to be transferred again to DirecTV. DirecTV went through all of their troubleshooting methods and told me I would have to deal with Qwest. After calling Qwest back, and apprising them of the situation about the HD upgrade and everything else I knew, they stated they would be able to send somebody out if I was able to stay home from work. This is where I got upset. I had already stayed home from work for this reason, and nothing came of it. During this series of phone calls over the course of the week I had discovered a very helpful customer service person who was finally able to merge my accounts, something that at least 5 customer service specialists in the past had been unable to complete.

Although the merge was complete, I was still without service and needed to wait for a Saturday appointment when I had visitors at my house, to regain service. The person from Arizona Broadband came to my house and was in and out within two minutes, and I again had service. During this week of outage, everybody lost service in my complex and had to deal with the same dilemma. This is the reason I brought that up during our phone conversation this morning. The customer service reps at Qwest repeatedly told me that I was the only person who called to complain about a service issue from my apartment complex, which was a complete lie. Obviously, somebody knew the situation that my complex was going through, but I could not find them on the phone. Again I spoke with the front desk in regards to this situation, and the front desk told me that they are now telling their residents to complain directly to the managing company of my complex so that they will end the exclusivity arrangement. The front desk had been bombarded with complaints and problems stemming from the Qwest situation and they were unable to offer any assistance as they only have Carmen Cavner as a representative, and she is not interested in handling her customer’s problems.

Recently since this problem occurred I have been trying to recoup my week of lost service from DirecTV and my professionally time lost by a disorganized company and their poor customer service. The first CSR I talked with told me he would have my credit put on my account in no time at all, but if I did not see it on my next bill (March) I should call him back. The credit did not appear, so I called back to be told that the notes on my account do not reflect that, but they would be happy to escalate my claim. They told me the claim would be settled in 5 days and that I would receive a callback, which did not come. I called back, only to be told that it would probably take more like 10 days to get any resolution, and that I should call back then. I then called back approximately a week and a half ago, and I had a CSR who did not seem to know what was going on at all. She told me that I had just received an account credit of $160 the day before. I asked several questions to try and check the validity of this statement but I figured I would see if it came on my next bill (April) and it of course, did not.

Today on the phone with Mr. Armenta I had the pleasure of voicing all of this to him. He was not interested in hearing any other side of the picture besides what happened most recently. The other issues are that every problem I have with Qwest I am unable to receive any type of assistance for a number of reasons that date back to my initial purchase of their system. My salesperson flat out lied to me and once she was called out on her lie, neither she nor her supervisor return any of my phone calls or emails. Until recently, Qwest could not even find me as a DirecTV customer which left me hanging on the phone for way longer than I should have been before I was given to the mysterious MDU department that only a handful of non MDU CSR’s even know of. Lastly, no two CSR’s at Qwest ever tell the same story. I have questions as simple as “when I stop my service, what do I do with my DirecTV equipment?” and I have been told everything from, it’s mine to keep, I send it to Arizona Broadband, somebody will pick it up, or that I have to mail it back to Qwest. A resolution to this question is also requested.

-

Louis Armenta called me the day after I left a message for Ms. Pacheco because she was on vacation. He was incredibly rude and insulting on the phone during our conversation. Apparently he's one of the top customer service specialists employed by Qwest by title anyway. After forwarding the letter requiring my presence at home on 1/14, and this letter highlighting the lack of service I received by his company, he told me that I had already received credit and may not be eligible for any more. What type of company employs the philosophy of "we will no longer pay you back for services we didn't provide, because you have already been reimbursed for services we didn't provide enough." Never use this company for anything.

Perma-Hold

3/1/2008 Portland

Over the last week, I have spent easily six hours on hold with Qwest. This might now seem like a lot, but it is in addition to the 12 ore more hours I've spent on the phone with them over the course of perhaps 25 phone calls.

I ordered DSL and they shipped what was supposed to be a free modem to me. Unfortunately, I never received it.

They were nice enough to say they would overnight one to me at my work address. No such luck. Two days later, I called to get the tracking number which turned out to be nonexistent because they never sent it.

So, they again offered to overnight one to me and call me back later in the afternoon to give me the tracking number. The next day, I still had neither a tracking number nor a modem so I called again.

Again, this third modem had not been sent. I talked to four different people, including the girl who said she would call me with the tracking number. She finally admitted that it had not been sent. I suggested that a field tech in the area might be able to bring me a modem. No can do.

After talking to three other supervisors (I truly believe they all think they're supervisors though none of them can get anything done), one of them finally admitted that they probably could get a field tech to bring me the modem, but they could only bring it to me at home. I was at work at the time and tired of screwing around. They then offered that the could bring it to me at home on Saturday. Well, I suggested, if you're going to bring it to me at home, you should install it. Nope. They require a THREE DAY WINDOW for installation.

If I'd ordered the installation, at a price of nearly a $100, in the first place, I would have had my service three weeks ago. I feel as though Qwest doesn't give a rats ass whether they keep their loyal customers or not. I'm changing to some other company as soon as my contract is up.

Oh! And the free modem? They tried to charge me $60 for it.

Worst company ever.

2/17/2008

I signed up for internet with Qwest because of a good deal. Do NOT be fooled by this. After a month of no problems, my internet started working when it felt like it. It would be out for weeks at a time and I was constantly on the phone with technical support. Wait, I take that back, because I am a mac user, they would immediately turn me away due to "legal reasons". I finally became fed up paying for internet that never worked and decided to cancel my services. After being on hold and dealing with VERY rude customer service agents, I was told everything was cancelled. That is until I received a full bill in the mail. When I called, I was bounced back and forth between departments, without being told why, and spent 15 minutes on hold. I found out my services were never disconnected and I was told that they would do it and backdate my account. I have just received ANOTHER bill for services I did not authorize to be added for over 60 dollars.

I have never been angrier or more dissatisfied with a company in my life. It has given me more headaches and frustrations that I should deal with. All for internet.

Do not, under ANY circumstances, sign up for any services through Qwest. You will only spend time on hold with the company trying to figure out why they keep screwing up.

Recent Trainee for Qwest

2/10/2008 Des Moines IA

I recently worked for Qwest, went through the 5 of the 6 months of training and all these complaints I'm reading are all to common at Qwest.

Hmm, where to start..

Let's start with the actual training. It's 6 weeks in the classroom and while in the classroom we learn of the 20 different computer programs needed to do this job, most of them in Dos like format.. it's a nightmare navigating through them and on most phone calls we access anywhere from at least 3 to 10 of them.. be prepared when calling Qwest, you will be on the phone with the rep for awhile. Also while in the training the trainers focus so much on the sales aspect of the job.. it's all about the almighty dollar at Qwest and we'll get into that a little more later on.

Once done with the classroom training we must pass a test to continue on.. again a lot of the test is testing you on your ability to sell, sell, sell. Next we have 6 weeks of training on the phones. This is where we started losing our class members, at least one a week. We talk to customers and to be honest not one of us really knew what we were doing. It is a hands on job and with so many different computer programs and so many different products Qwest offers no one really knew what they were talking about with the customers either. So during these 6 weeks on the phone we have goals that we MUST meet in order to "graduate" from training.. yes we have to "graduate" and meet these numbers if we want to keep our job. The numbers are ridiculous too.. it depended on how many phone calls we took a day in how high our numbers were. When I quit I had to sell over 600.00 a day while in training.. (I guess I can see why they focused so much on the sales part of the classroom training) I'm sure you can imagine how hard it is to sell something to someone who is already upset having to call in about other billing issues.. and most of the time those issues don't get resolved. It's next to impossible to meet those goals, unless you get a lot of calls that dropped in your lap.

The main reason I quit was because of a number we had to meet that did not allow us to give good customer service.. availability. It's an inbound call center and we had to be available to take incoming phone calls. That means no follow up phone calls or no calling the customer back. It is really hard to give good customer service when you have to worry about your availability every day. Heck, running to the bathroom went against our availability!! It is important to me to go home at the end of the day feeling like I've done a good job and I just wasn't getting that at Qwest.

Now while we're in training our trainers will listen in on our calls from time to time and offer feedback on what we could have done different. Each and every feedback I got was all about how I could have made a sale! What I should have offered that customer and so on. On one call I was talking to a sweet little lady who told me she was 99 years old. All this lady wanted was to change her long distance carrier over to Qwest so that she would receive only one bill every month. My trainer was listening. She came over to me and asked me why I didn't offer to sell her anything. What did she expect me to do? Offer this 99 year old lady a cell phone?? My trainer then informed that once on the floor after I graduate that if my coach were to of listened in on that phone call they would make me call back and offer something.. wtf?? We are required to offer on every single phone call!!! Doesn't matter how upset you are about your bill, doesn't matter if you just want to know your balance, doesn't matter if you are disconnecting your services, it just doesn't matter at Qwest unless it involves $$$$.

In my class of 20 people not one person graduated. The few that did remain come time to graduate hadn't met their numbers and were let go. During my 5 months at Qwest they had hired another 120 people in our office. This was just in our city.. there are Qwest locations all over 14 states. So keep in mind when you call Qwest that it's most likely you are talking to someone in training.. When you call in for quotes on pricing.. call back and get them again. I guarantee you it will be different each time.

Another important thing I want to make people aware of is what is referred to at Qwest as "slamming and cramming" accounts. This is where a customer were to call in about something and the rep "slams" their account with products without the customers knowledge. I can't tell you how many times I dealt with this issue, it was just sickening. In a job that we're required to meet numbers and the reps work on commission you can only imagine how many filthy, dirty reps slammed accounts to meet those numbers or make a dollar themselves. Every time you call into Qwest you are opening your account to them.. you are giving them the access to slam your account with products you don't authorize.. you won't even know it's been done until you get your bill. Then when these people call in about it and state they never authorized this.. nothing can be done. Hope and pray when you call Qwest that you get an honest rep. What a nightmare that is getting a phone call on someone who states their account was slammed and there isn't one damn thing I could do about it.

No one to report it too. Even if there was some place to go and report it too I doubt it would get reported.. remember the reps must worry about their availability and get right to the next phone call.

Oh and when you request to talk to a supervisor the rep isn't lying when they tell you one isn't available. Sure we have our trainers and once out on the floor we get a coach who we can go to but they don't have the authority to do anything the reps can't do. There is no one to take a complaint to right there on the spot. We filled out a ticket and sent it out and let the customer know that a supervisor would contact them in the next 24-48 hours. However, I've seen all these tickets and I can tell you that there is no way Qwest has that many supervisors doing call backs.. don't expect to get called back.

I'm not a bitter disgruntled employee who worked at Qwest..There was just so much about that job I didn't agree with that I had to walk away. I wanted to help so many of the people who called me but there was nothing I could do to help them..It's a customer service job but I'm here to tell you there is nothing customer service about it.

Billing-Unbundling

1/24/2008 Portland OR

This is a letter I wrote Qwest about their horrible customer service......

To Whom It May Concern;

My name is NH and I was a reliable Qwest customer for two years in Portland, OR. I had a bundle package of phone, Internet and Direct TV services I was happy with my service while a customer. My frustrations with your company have come since I tried to cancel my service after moving to CA (where you do not provide service). I moved to CA in September 2007, and now in January 2008 I am still dealing with Qwest trying to resolve an issue that I have spent countless hours on the phone dealing with.

The story begins on September 17th, 2007 when I called to cancel my Qwest services. I had already moved to CA and no longer needed phone or Internet at my old address. I had already transferred my DirectTV service to CA through DirectTV and no longer needed Qwest to act as the billing “middleman”. I thought canceling my services would be sufficient. A month later, I received a final bill that included prorated phone/internet charges and another month of DirectTV. I paid it. The next month, I received another bill with only DirectTV charges. I was confused. I called and was told that DirectTV would continue to be billed though Qwest unless I told Qwest to stop billing me. I was surprised that my previous request to “cancel all services with Qwest” did not include DirectTV, but advised the CSR that I wanted to cancel my relationship with Qwest and just be billed by DirectTV. I was told this would be taken care of.

The next month I received another bill from Qwest for DirectTV with a new customer account number. I called and asked why I was still being billed through Qwest. They said there was no record of my asking for it to be canceled. I explained that I didn’t want to cancel DirectTV, just my account with Qwest (since I no longer had any Qwest services). I wanted to pay my bill directly to DirectTV. I was told that I had to call DirectTV and tell them that I wanted to cancel my relationship with Qwest. Together, the Qwest CSR and I called DirectTV on a three-way line. DirectTV explained that Qwest had to “let me go” as a customer, and then DirectTV could bill me directly. They had already issued me my own DirectTV account number. Qwest said that they would make this happen.

The next month, I received ANOTHER bill from Qwest for DirectTV. I called again and explained the situation to yet another CSR. His name was Dillan (ID 64444). It was now December 19th, 2007. I had been dealing with this problem for 3 months! Dillan again called DirectTV with me on the line, got the same answer, spoke with a supervisor, and then advised me that he had put through an “opt out” for me and my relationship with Qwest would be ended. I had to pay off the existing balance, which I did immediately with a credit card, about 7 days before the bill was even due…..just to get Qwest to go away.

It is now January 24, 2008 and I have received yet ANOTHER bill from Qwest. I am more than furious, frustrated and annoyed. I am ready to call the BBB and begin defaming Qwest to anyone who will listen.

Today I called customer service and again got Dillan (ID 64444) on the line. He looked at his notes, saw that he “opted me out” last month, and promptly put me on hold. I waited about 10 minutes as he ran up to the next floor (so he says) to talk to a supervisor. I was then told that I am “opted out” but it takes 3 billing cycles to end the relationship and I am to expect an additional 2 bills from Qwest. That means I have to deal with your company for 3 months after I have tried to end the relationship. I explained that this sounded absurd. What company makes you pay three bills with them after you end your service/relationship? Dillan explained that the three month wait period is a company-wide protocol. I asked Dillan for some kind of proof of this…..a letter or something in writing that states I am “opted out” and have to wait three months to be released from my bill enslavement. He replied that he has no way of doing this. I told him that I have no faith that what he says is accurate. At this point, can you blame me? I have been told since October that this problem has been solved, and yet here I am on the phone for the 5th time and about the 4th hour of my time. While on hold, Qwest’s recording stated repeatedly “thank you for holding…..we know your time is valuable”. At my current wages, Qwest owes me about $200!

At this point, I would like some kind of monetary compensation. I feel totally violated by Qwest, like I have been held hostage for months. I have wasted many hours on the phone with CSRs with no resolution. No one seemed to know how to handle the situation, and the one time I tried to involve a supervisor, I waited a while, then acquiesced to offers of resolution from the regular CSR. Failure reigns supreme!

So to date, I really have no solution to this problem. I have been promised that one will arrive in two months, but again, I am not hopeful. I have no faith in Qwest’s customer service at this point, but still wanted to tell my story as feedback so that no one else will have to endure the frustrating journey of unbundling services. I do not think I will ever voluntarily engage Qwest again in a business relationship. I believe that Qwest should change its policies about unbundling. It must also educate its CSRs about how customers can cancel Qwest services, but keep DirectTV (as I am sure it happens often with people moving all over the country). No one seemed to understand (until Dillan…..who was, by the way, polite, professional, calm and as helpful as he could be…. used the words “opt out”).

I hope this experience never happens to anyone else. I am frustrated enough to write a letter, which means a lot in this age of instant communication. I hope my feedback is taken seriously and leads to change. And $200 wouldn’t hurt either…….

Terrible Customer Service

1/14/2008 Tucson AZ

I have been with Qwest for 5 months now. I have had numerous problems with them, and I can honestly say of all companies I have dealt with, Qwest has the most terrible customer service yet. Not only are they not helpful, have ridiculous wait times, and crappy hours, they also pay so little attention as when I was getting online help through an instant message they misspelled my name 4 times, four different ways when it was right next to what I was typing.

Qwest also makes it IMPOSSIBLE to pay your bill online without spending a month in preparation. They don't use normal measures like verification of your last four of SSN or mother's maiden name. Instead, you have to get a code MAILED to you (No, Not EMAIL, that would be CONVENIENT) so you are screwed to pay your bill on time if you are like me and work nights.
So now I am stuck with either dealing with this terrible company or paying an early disconnection fee of $150.00.

Take my advice -if you have Comcast or Cox available -GO WITH THEM.

Avoid them if you can

12/4/2007 Edina MN

An order was filed for Qwest DSL that I did not want (see BuyTelCo review).

The order stated that Qwest would contact me to schedule connection so I figured I would just cancel when they contacted me. However, Qwest never contacted me. They simply sent a QuickConnect kit with an activation date. I then called to cancel the order last night. After being on the phone for 30 minutes (lots of it on hold), I was told that the only department that could cancel my order left at 7pm (this was after 3 attempts to transfer me to them). I then called back today, spent another half hour on the phone, and was told that the computer system was down in that department and I'd have to call back again to cancel the order.

So, I get to call back again, probably spend another half hour or more on the phone, and maybe get the DSL order canceled (which I never wanted in the first place (but that part isn't Qwest's fault)).

At this point, if there was any alternative to Qwest for local phone service in our area, I would cancel our entire account and be done with them for good. I suppose, in a way, I'm grateful for this experience - it shows me to never ever get Qwest DSL.

Update...

It only took another half hour on the phone to get it canceled (at least they gave me an order number for the cancellation). However, since the order was "completed" (even though it wasn't scheduled to be active until 5pm today), I will be billed a pro-rated amount for the time the service is active (never mind that I'll never connect and don't even have a DSL modem). At this point, I'll happily pay a few dollars just to be done with it.

My Move With Qwest - It's still not over 4 months later

10/30/2007 Vancouver WA

Dear Qwest:

Please read this letter and know that it is a cry for your company to reorganize its billing practices and promises to the public, (your profit). Customers detest being lied to and treated as though we are uninformed.

I have been a client of Qwest for the last eight years. It is incredibly difficult for me to provide you with any piece of positive feedback. It can not be easy to read a letter that reeks with negativity, but that is what I am experiencing from your company. A lack of quality, broken promises and reliability. … And now you want to start offering cable as well. I sincerely recommend that you first put your house in good working order. It would make far more sense to make profit with respect from your users than to make profit and have them feel as though they were used.

In July this year I made what was to be a simple move from Portland, Oregon to Vancouver, Washington, just across the river. Same services, no change in what I currently had. A seamless transition. OK… with from for error, I would say a maximum of three phone calls for clarification would be sufficient.

We, (Qwest and I), are now going into the fourth month since my move. Collectively I have spent more than twenty five hours on the phone and made over fifty calls to Qwest to resolve the trouble and incredible inconvenience you have caused me. Each call ends with …”you should have no further problems”. It is hard to abbreviate the nightmare I have been through, but I will try. Imagine if I were including everything verbatim.

Having not received a bill for a while after my move, I called Qwest and was told to wait for a revised final bill. In this call there was discussion of several inaccuracies going toward my final bill as well as a review of bundling and services at my new address. Each service and charge was gone over in detail and the fees for my new address were itemized. A few days passed and I received a bill for my new phone number for sixty five dollars. I knew this could not be accurate, so I called customer service and found that there was no record of the previous phone call and the services to be bundled at my new address. Keep in mind. Nothing was changing from the services I had at the old address. My wireless was missing. Direct TV was missing, Broadband was missing. I was told that the charges would catch up and to wait and also, keep waiting for that revised final bill on the old number. Each call, the customer service representative would note an inaccuracy on that final bill and change it.

Great! Here we are on page two. There is no way to keep this to a one page business letter. It’s like a mini series with at least two episodes a week.

The next item to arrive in the mail was a disconnect notice on my new number. I called and spoke to the representative and said I wanted to make sure that the billing issues were straightened out before I paid it, but also did not want to lose service, so would pay it in hopes that the monies would be distributed appropriately when all the billing caught up with itself. He then told me that there were no other services attached to this bill and that he would be happy to set them up for me. Having gone through this horrible experience with Qwest on a move just over a year earlier, I had gotten the email from the person who set up my new service and he told me to contact him if anything went wrong, so I declined going over yet another new order with this representative and told him I would contact the original guy. I sent several emails. No response. Then I got response saying he would check my order between other customer service calls. No response for a couple days. I emailed again. I got an email stating that he had a disabled family member that took a lot of his time and he couldn’t pay attention to this problem like it should be handled.

I received a letter from Qwest Collections telling me that my credit status was in danger with Qwest. I’m thinking, how can this be, I don’t even have a final bill. So I called Qwest again. I was then told that the final bill was in progress and that my cell phone phone was not bundled. I then found out that it had been separated from my main bill, had a balance on it and was still being billed to the old address. They were going to disconnect service if it was not paid, even though I had no bill. The amount was ridiculous and somehow the charges were messed up from having been separated from the main account. At any rate, my services and rates were once again reviewed and once again I was assured that a revised final bill was being sent. The representative transferred me to the collection department where the agent told me that this was normal and that it is a form letter that is sent to every customer that is sent a final bill. I asked how I could be sent to collections when I didn’t even have a final bill. He told me that it sounded like I needed to talk to Billing and that he needed to transfer me back to them, but they were closed.

OK… we are now about half way through the story of my experience thus far and every time I call Qwest your “hold” voice says to me; “Your call is important to us.” “We want to hear from you.” “We know your time is valuable.” Do you think I believe any of this at this point?

A couple days later, I get a collection notice from an outside collection agency on my old Qwest phone number of which I still have not received a final bill. To say I was livid, would put it mildly. This was becoming common on nearly every day I would arrive home from work to race to contact Qwest before closing. Now I was calling from work and Qwest was eating up my time there. Promise after promise, only to have the nightmare continue. I called the collection agency and was treated rudely by the lady who was helping me. When I told her that I was asked to wait for a final bill, she said she was going to find that representative and “slap them up the side the head.” Then she instructed me to pay up because this is what I owed. I was outraged at the treatment she was giving me. Almost criminal. This is the one time in all the calls I have been on with Qwest, that I lost it and told her she was the straw that broke the camels back and began to recapitulate all that had happened thus far.

She said I was angry and she was turning the call over to a manager who just said; “I’m sorry.” “How would you like to pay for this?” “Do you want to make a payment arrangement?” No! I didn’t want to make a payment arrangement. I wanted to pay for it all right there and have the problem go away and never deal with Qwest again. I paid it and told the representative that I was certain my problems were still not over. He assured me that everything was fine now. Two days later I got the final bill on the old phone number.

In a few days I called to make payment on the old wireless bill and found that my wireless was still being billed separately. When I asked to have it put on the same bill as my home phone, the representative informed me I would have to change my cell phone number to a Washington number. I agreed to this and was transferred to a representative in Utah who spent over an hour on the phone with me and was unsuccessful at completing the order. I then agreed to have him call me back on my day off to complete the process. The wireless was associated successfully and a review was once again done on all five services that I have to qualify for the bundling discount rate.

I still had not gotten a bill with all of my services on the same bill when a disconnect notice arrived with an account number on it. Not a phone number, but an account number that made no sense. It was the Direct TV Portion of my bill that was not associated with any phone number. This was my first bill regarding it, and it was a disconnect notice from Qwest. Can you possibly begin to imagine what I felt like and how frustrated I am at this point?

Out of sheer desperation I went to my manager’s office at work and asked to close the door to her office and call Qwest, eating up more of my company time. I called and was in touch with a representative in the “Loyalty” department who began to sort through everything. She found that I was still being billed a monthly charge for long distance to my old phone number. She found that Direct TV’s billing was not associated with my new phone number and being billed correctly. I told her that at this point I was feeling that I needed to be compensated for my many hours on the phone with Qwest and these continuous problems. Or as Qwest states; “We know your time is valuable.” She said she would work through this problem, correct it and talk to me about an appropriate compensation for my trouble. I was given her email to provide her with some additional facts from one of my bills at home and a phone number to leave a message with her coach.

Three emails later and three calls to her coaches voice mail over the course of a week; no one either called me or responded to my emails. I was not surprised. I called again. This time I got a rather complacent individual who knew nothing of what I had been through. She said she knew how to reach the party I had been emailing and sent her a text message. Pause… then she says, obviously reading her response; “don’t give me attitude girl!” She tells me that the representative has turned my problem over to “Complex Billing”, another department and that they would be calling me in a couple of days. Now doesn’t it make sense that she would have needed to relay that information to me… the customer? During this phone call, I got an email from the representative in “Loyalty” telling me it should be taken care of. I told the girl that I was speaking with that this is not acceptable and that I would like a phone number or an email address for someone with authority in Customer Service or Quality control. She says; “Oh, I’m Retention.” I tried to explain what I was going through and told her that I had been told that I would be compensated. She said, “Like a personal check?” I told her no... I certainly didn’t expect that. I knew that would be impossible. But I said, “Something…. Like your best wireless phone at no charge.” She asked if she could place me on a “brief” hold. I accepted. Ten minutes later, I was still on hold. I wondered if she was just sick of the call and wasn’t coming back. She finally told me that she had gotten her manager and was explaining the problem to her. Her manager finally comes on the phone and tells me that this has been turned over to “Complex Billing” and that she is sure that I will hear from them within forty eight hours and that that is all she has to offer.

That is where it stands today and I have yet to be contacted by Qwest Complex Billing.

At this point, hearing the word “Qwest” just makes me cringe. No compensation can erase this from my mind, albeit God knows I have been put through enough to qualify for free services for life. Ha! But come on… show some loyalty to your paying and so very patient customer. Do something! Straighten this mess out and reward me to prove that “I am important to you.” “My time is valuable.”

Upon going to my mailbox today, I have yet another disconnect notice and charges for supposedly breaking my wireless contract with Qwest. I have the same cell phone with the same lame company, Qwest. Go figure.

It’s not over.

Do Not Do Business with Qwest Communications

10/1/2007 Puyallup WA

Before moving to a new residences I had called Qwest and asked if there was service in the area that we were moving and was told that yes there was, but we have had no service since we moved in. I started a communication thread with Qwest in March regarding the lack of coverage and was told the the engineers would have to make an assessment of the area, and that it would take some time. I called back every month to get an update and was told by the engineer department in Aug that yes there was a lack of coverage in my area even though I was within 5 miles of 3 towers and that there was a plan in place to put additional towers in the next year. At that point I told Qwest that because of the lack of coverage that the phone plan was doing me no good because I couldn't make call out or receive calls in within a block of my house and that I would like to be released form the contract. I was told that because they didn't have coverage that I still needed to pay 400 dollars to be released from the family plan. after many calls over 3 week with them and spending over 6 hours on hold within that time I was able to get out of the contract but it still cost me 150 dollars.

I find it appalling that after being a loyal Qwest customer for over 8 years that I was still given such a hard time getting released from a bad contract and being made to feel as if it was somehow my fault that the services was not working. The Qwest practice of charging the customer for their companies mistakes is appalling and I would like to advise other people to avoid the company at all costs.

Hideous customer service

9/13/2007 saint paul MN

I had used Qwest DSL for 5 years successfully without problems. Then I had one problem where I had to contact customer service and it all went to hell.

My new DSL modem stopped working. After hours on the phone, I was told that it was a line problem that allowed a lightning strike to burn out the modem. The person I spoke to on the phone was obviously reading from a script and didn't understand anything about DSL or what I was saying. She put me on hold a dozen times and then we would have to start over again with the conversation since she would loose track.

They ended up sending me the wrong modem. Another hour on the phone just trying to get someone to talk to who understood the problem.They swore they would get me a new modem by Thursday and that they would send someone to install it. The technician came on Thursday before the modem did and already had such a modem in his truck. He said that they could have just sent him over on Monday to replace it. I then spent another hour just trying to get someone to tell me how to send back the bad modems. All in all, I spent about 6 hours on the phone to get the matter resolved just about ready to pull my hair out.

Qwest seems to have two different customer service units - one local that know what they are doing and one remote (outsourced?) where the English is poor and they just read from scripts without really knowing what they are doing. The whole experience cost me 4 days of DSL access which translates to 4 lost days of business. Couldn't even find a complaint department to contact. Worst customer service I have ever experienced.

Qwest Bundles a bunch of lies

9/11/2007 Aurora CO

I have been a Qwest customer since 2004 and I never had problems with them until this year. In January I decided to "Bundle with Qwest" and added cable, landline, internet, and a second cell phone to my account. I was quoted a particular amount when I signed up and we rounded this amount up $50 to allow for taxes and surcharges. NEVER in the 8 months I had service did my price fall underneath this amount. EVERY month I would call to ask why I had such a high bill and EVERY time it was a different answer. "It's because you moved," "It's because the account is adjusting/pro-rated, .....," "It's because you recently changed your features," etc. etc.

Customer service was terrible. I got so frustrated spending my entire lunch breaks on the phone with Qwest that I would hang up almost in tears because we never resolved any issues, or I was being advised that "I need to call back tomorrow," because I had to go back to work and by the time I was out of work, Qwest CS was closed, which I explained. I got disconnected several times after being on the phone for over an hour. When I'd reach an unbearable point, I'd ask to be transferred to disconnect my services where a rep from the "Loyalty" dept. would sit and continue to discuss my bill with me instead of disconnecting my services.

I finally decided that the $300 in penalties was worth paying to get out of the nightmare of Qwest Communications. In my most recent episode, I found the rep I spoke to didn't split my wireless plans like I asked so I was counted as going over my minutes, when in fact I did not. I also found that with a $500 bill for Sept., the rep who disconnected my services only disconnected some of the services, incurring unsubstantiated charges for the ones he didn't take off. To top it all off, in the past two months, I have only been able to use my services for 23 days because Qwest has taken 3 weeks to switch my services between my old & new residences.

Now it's back to the phone lines to discuss all of this with a rep who has no idea what has been happening this year with my account.

Incorrect Billing AND Issues with Customer Service

9/7/2007

Here is a letter I mailed to Qwest today:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing this email in response to a series of events that began as a billing issue and has now evolved to include the quality of your customer service representatives as well. Allow me to explain the situation:

At the beginning of May, I contacted a Qwest representative in Iowa City to set up an account that would be scheduled to begin May 21, 2007. Within a few days of account initiation, I decided to cancel the service; as a graduate student relying solely on student loans, it was simply an added expense I could do without, especially when I knew I would be on campus 8 hours or more per day where there was access to computers and free Internet service. Therefore, on May 25, 2007 I contacted customer service at 1-800-244-1111 to disconnect my service. I was told by whoever handled the call at the time that this would be taken care of, and that I could expect to receive a prorated bill within a few weeks.

In June I received a bill in the amount of $48.09, which I assumed had been processed and mailed around the time I had called to disconnect my service and therefore had not taken into account that I had already terminated the service. I had been told that this could very well happen, so I did not contact Qwest, expecting that I would be receiving the correct and prorated bill at any time now.

You can imagine my surprise, then, when in July I received a bill in the amount of $85.08. The bill was dated July 1, 2007. Given the fact that I was extremely busy with my program and in class every weekday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., I did not contact Qwest until July 10, at which point I was told that even though I was calling during the appropriate business hours, the Loyalty Department was temporarily unavailable that afternoon. The reasons for this I cannot recall, but I am sure that this information is accessible by you or by someone who works for your company. I then called again on Saturday, July 14 not knowing the Loyalty Department was not in operation over the weekend.

On July 23, I finally reached a customer service representative in the Loyalty Department who was exceedingly polite, friendly, and helpful. As I explained the situation, I was informed that there had been no previous record to show I had canceled my Internet service on May 25. I was completely surprised and baffled by this, yet this young man assured me that the problem would be taken care of immediately. He said my account would be credited in the amount of $96.55, and that I could expect to receive a statement showing that I no longer had an outstanding balance with Qwest within 7-10 business days.

Once again, you can imagine my surprise when I received yet another bill the first week of August, this time in the amount of $76.48. I thought maybe the credit that was to have been issued July 23 had been applied after this bill had been processed, so I waited it out. I then received another bill for the same amount the first week of September, this time with the threat of a collection agency referral notification.

At this point my frustration had understandably grown, but I firmly believed that a final call to the Loyalty Department would resolve the issue.

I called today at 4:45 p.m. and spent 45 minutes on the phone, most of which were spent speaking to a woman named ____. By the time I got off of the phone with ____, my blood was boiling. While I do not wish for ____'s position with Qwest to be compromised, I think that for future reference she needs to know that a lot of the stress and frustration I experienced as I spoke with her could have been prevented had she simply said from the get-go that she did not have the authority to drop the charges on my account. From there she could have informed me that she would submit my case (rather than use “escalate”, which clearly has a negative connotation) to management for further review. Though this only would prolong the issue, I would’ve been perfectly content with this response, and I would have completely respected her position.

Instead, I felt like _____ and I were arguing a case of my word against her records, which made me feel as though she was questioning my integrity and honesty, an enormous insult. Yes, $76.48 is a lot of money to me now that I am in grad school and on a very strict budget. Even still, it is certainly not a sum of money I would ever jeopardize my character over; I would not be disputing these charges if I did not believe that I am not responsible for them. With that said, I am asking for the last time that you please credit or eliminate the charges unrightfully issued to my account.

I have no idea why there is no record in your system of my cancellation, or even of my phone call on May 25, but I can tell you that I absolutely did call, and the most proof I can offer you is a copy of my cell phone bill from May which shows that I did indeed call Qwest customer service on May 25, 2007.

Thank you for your time, and I anticipate hearing back from you. I can be reached by email at _____, or by phone at _____.

Just want to include an update: As of today, September 20, 2007 I have yet to hear from a Qwest manager. After my call on September 7, I was told my case would be given to management, and that I would hear from them within 2 business days. Additionally, I ended up mailing this letter to Qwest headquarters in Denver, CO and have not heard from them either. The worst part is that today I received a letter from a collection agency. If anyone has any suggestions as to what I should do, I'm willing to listen! This is insane!

Dishonest sales tactics

8/31/2007 Seattle WA

I have been a Qwest phone and internet customer for almost two years, with only minor complaints. Last week I randomly got a call from a company rep. who said he could check to see if there were any "deals" that would lower my phone bill. He offered me long distance but I said I didn't need that, since I have a cell phone with a different company. He then told me I could add a feature (caller ID) and pay $5 less per month than I was currently paying. Suspicious, I asked if he meant $5 on the total bill, or just on some area. I phrased the question several different ways, and each time he promised me it meant just a lower phone bill. So I accepted, which was obviously dumb in retrospect. Three days later I got a confirmation by mail of my changes--and it said my bill would go up by almost $20, plus taxes. I called them immediately and they said my bill would have been $5 less on the basic phone service if I had added long distance. Which I never considered doing. To even get to this admission, I had to keep reiterating my question, since this rep. kept responding to my questions by suddenly saying, "did you know you could be getting a better deal on internet service?" Which of course I didn't trust at this point. She managed to suggest this to me at least five times. I said that the other rep. had been misleading, which she didn't respond to. She finally took the caller ID off and said it should cost about $7 extra on my next bill, which I'll be eager to see.

I feel that these customer service/sales tactics (apparently the same people for this company) were beyond heavy-handed and misleading, to just plain dishonest. I'm not sure I could prove in a court of law that the first guy had done something illegal, but it was definitely dishonest; he knew exactly what I was asking.

Moral of the story: don't trust anything these people say, get it in writing instead of doing business over the phone, and, as I should have known before, if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Qwest Crab Service .com

8/19/2007 santa Fe New mexico 87501 NM

I recently purchased a modem and dsl service form qwest.crab.com. It goes out about every 5 minutes the one day I am home from work. When I called the company to complain they sent out a rep. He told me it was the very expensive modem that I bought from qwest's fault. Okay, so I call them and they tell me there is nothing they can do??? Once again, I am home from work on Sunday and my dsl goes out about every 5 minutes. Very irritating. when I call, I get a 5 minute recording and a puppet that tells me there is nothing we can do. Unacceptable.

Terrible customer service.

8/8/2007 Bisbee AZ

I am 100% service connected. A little over a month ago there was a fire to the area my phone lines were. Qwest did not even check their lines. I lost phone service. I went to phone booth, in the rain and called them to report problem. 20 minutes on hold they say they will send someone to look but the problem is probably in my home. (not)
3 days later, a workman shows up. I tell him it's his melted lines. He ask for a supervisor. 2 days later a supervisor spends 1 hour walking under a 100' line. He tells me it's their problem. 3 days later I call. Supervisor did not put in repair order. I schedule one. 3 days later a home service comes to fix my home lines. Back to the phone booth. I complain again, tell them fix it or drop my account. 2 days later they string new line. 1 day later they connect it. It is worse. I call again, they sy they know about problem and it should be fixed in a week. 1 day later they drop my account.

Someone dropped the ball. I am glad qwest is not defending this country. Lines still not fixed. qwest is only phone service here. Still no phone.
Qwest site has no email contact address for complaints. (convenient)
I am sick of riding a bike in the monsoon rain to call them. As far as I am concerned, I will never use them or their products. A case of incompetence is at epidemic proportions at this company.

Wireless disconnect - They broke contract

7/14/2007 Fort Collins CO

Here's my horror story with Qwest. We have used them for 5 years. Our first cell phone here was with them. This was our business line. Good phone, great service. We renewed for another contract. After about a year, we began having problems. The phone would ring and could not be answered, sent to voicemail. Nothing. We had to take the battery out to stop it. Fine, pain in the rear, but it's only periodic so we'll deal with it. I called Qwest and let them know it was a problem so they could see if it was on their end. I was told we'd have to buy a new phone. Pain, but we can deal with an incoming call that will not answer. It was only calls from one particular number and not all the time. We had used our cell for LD service as they wanted a large deposit. Qwest billed us for 2 years for NOT having the service. When I asked about it, I was told that FCC regulations. Wrong. I called the FCC and it is not them. It is a charge by Qwest.

Anyway, a few months later we began having problems receiving VM...as long as we got the message within 24 hours, it was really okay. Then the lag time became longer and longer. It went to 3 days, 4, 5....a week or more. We continued to call Qwest on this. Now, this sort of thing cannot be a phone problem. We had taken the phone down and had it checked, the software updated, etc. Each time I called, I asked if there were notes in our record about the problem and was told yes, and they would read them to me. The final straw came when we did not receive a VMM for over month. That month cost us $10,000.00. We were waiting results of a contract bid. Grounds were that they would notify us who received the contract. They would not be taking calls from vendors regarding the contract. We won the bid, and they called to notify us. It went to voicemail, and a message was left, and we were given 48 hours to call back and confirm receipt, start date, and other details.(it was during the workweek). If we did not call back in the allotted time, the contract went to the next bidder. We got the message a month later, so you can guess what happened. Besides the money, it might have given them a bad taste that we did not return phone calls. We did call and explain what happened, acknowledged that the bid had gone to someone else, etc. Hopefully they will call us again for a bid. In the meantime, we were out $10K.

My husband and I both called Qwest to complain again...more than once. The customer service was so hostile that we told them that as Qwest had broken their end of the contract, we did not feel obligated to uphold our end and we went with another wireless company. EVEN after all this ordeal, I still contracted with them for our internet.

My next bill came with a $200 deactivation fee. I called them and told them that as they had broken the contract first by failing to provide service, I was under no legal obligation to uphold my end of it. I would not be paying the $200. Ever. Customer service got snotty and I asked for a supervisor. I talked to several levels of super with no results. As we had 'broken' the contract, then Qwest COULD not waive the fee. I explained the situation and told her that it was not a matter of Qwest COULD not waive it, it was a matter that they WOULD not waive it. I talked to 2 managers in the executive offices and interestingly enough, there is no record of any complaints, other than the continuous ring. I told them that did not surprise me at all. What was fascinating was that all the reps that I had talked to from Jan through May told me that they were looking at the record of complaints. Hmm..I asked him if that meant that the previous reps were lying to me when they told me they saw the complaints? My best guess (which is pretty accurate) is that the complaints were deleted from the system.

My phone bills kept coming with the $200 wireless fee on it and I continued to refuse to pay. So when we were 2 days late paying the bill, they cut everything off. It will not be turned back on until I pay the full amount of the bill (which is proper as I used it) AND the wireless fee. So we now have Comcast for our internet, we're getting another cell next week for our house. I'm not playing their game. I have reported the to the state, will be reporting them to the FCC and to anyone else that I can figure out. And a letter to the credit bureau explaining to them why we refuse to pay this bill.It might be a blotch, but until I get results.....I am also sending a letter this week to the president of Qwest and to each of the board members.

Inept Customer Service

6/13/2007 Portland OR

I called and ordered a phone line, which went fine, except for the usual sales pressure to buy a more expensive product. The real problem came when the rep scheduled the install for a day that I had an 11:30 appointment.

The install time was a vague and inconvenient "between 8am and Noon". I mentioned the conflict and suggested switching to a different day, or making it 8 to 11 instead. The rep said fine, and 8 to 11 it was. I mentioned that they needed to be DONE by 11, and he said no problem.

Then I get the automated call the day before, which tells me that the install can take up to an hour and a half, and that my range is 8 to 12:30. I followed the prompts to get a rep to change the appointment, as this obviously wasn't going to work.

The rep tells me he can't change my appointment (despite the choice being offered by the prompts) and that I could call the morning of the install and find out when I was scheduled, and then change it then if there is a problem.

I call the morning of the install and the new rep tells me that there is no way to check the schedule, nor even contact the installer dispatch (this coming from a phone company!). I try to reschedule, and she says too late, there is no way to change at this point. And if I miss the install I have to call them for a reschedule. (Which is what I was trying to do now.)

So to sum up:
1. The first guy screwed up on the scheduling.
2. The second guy lied to me rather than just helping me reschedule.
3. The third lady said that she couldn't help at all, even to check basic info, or to reschedule.
4. And all the effort was expended by ME, the new customer, trying to fix a problem that THEY had created.

So far my experience as a Qwest customer is off to a great start - and I don't even have a phone line yet.

QWorst

1/28/2007

I was waiting for three years to get DSL in my outland area, it finally became available late last year. I requested their ISP DSL service. However, I found out that after years of having no long distance service (did not want it or need it because I have cell phones) the automatically put me into their long distance service. My proof was to have them see if any long distance calls have been made and naturally none were; therefore I stated I want it off and I'm not paying for any of this mistake from day one. My next concern was my email, why wasn't I getting any service? Here is my horror story for those who are contemplating broadband access through QWest.

My modem arrived by mail, I had to install it myself --- the software kept failing --- the Ethernet connection wasn't working --- the instructions stated the letter in my package provided my UserId/Password (NOT). Qwest had to come back twice in the same day to set up the phone lines for DSL communication --- they never told the serviceman what he needed to do and the workorder he had was all screwed up. How or why I have a MSN/Hotmail account and two completely different UserID's and Passwords is beyond me --- it took nearly a month to get my mail, then all I could do was receive -- a few week later, after talking to some morons in India for about the tenth time, I gave up and started looking at the situation myself --- I discovered that re-enabling my Windows firewall allowed me to finally send email --- no thanks to QWorst. Try importing your old delimited address files or a straight copy and see how much fun you have --- I lost my connection over a week ago --- tried both automatic and manual installation --- nothing worked --- by the way if you expect to use your automatic CD installation again, go to the CD under "SupportFiles" and run RemoveQC.exe --- otherwise you will be using the manual installation forever --- also you better hope you know who the hell you're provider is and all the special little things QWorst forgot to tell you or you will be going back and starting over and over. Finally, after 6 days a serviceman showed up and troubleshot the connections and system --- he discovered, after swapping out the DSL modem, that everything started working again --- note however if you do get a new modem, don't forget you have to reconfigure it with you're QWorst UserId/Password --- its also a good idea to do a "ipconfig /release" from the "DOS" (Command prompt), then do an "ipconfig /renew" --- this should reset you're DHCP address --- then all will hopefully be well. Oh, try and get an email complaint to these people --- it's so much fun conversing back and forth with nitwits --- I hope for QWest's sake they drop the overseas customer support or they're will soon come a time when support won't be necessary --- people have only so much patience. We are all going the Cell-Phone route and the Ma-Bell days are fading fast. Just so you don't think I'm just an isolated, unsatisfied, and frustrated customer, I tell you I have 27 years experience in computers, mainframes, mini-mainframes --- Web, Enterprise, antivirus, and other servers --- database and systems administration and I have a degree in computer science and networking. Qwest made the wrong decision tree and the branches are breaking everywhere!

Customer Service Reps Not Trustworthy

1/19/2007 Albuquerque NM

Long story short, I was assured a prorated early termination fee would be applied to my account to accomodate special circumstances ( I know. Everyone's case is special) and the night before I cancelled, i called again to make sure I covered all my bases. I was again assured that it wouldn't be a problem and that my account would be annotated accordingly. Well, big surprise my bill came and a full deactivation charge was billed. So I called and for 30 minutes tried to explain to a Supervisor, who admitted seeing the note about my arrangement, why "splitting it with me" wasn't acceptable. She finally took matters into her own hands and applied the "compromise" credit and left me hanging. So I called the number to the Executive offices that i found on this website and was contacted the next day by a very helpful and very understanding Mr. Dominguez who completely erased the bill. Wow! way more than I expected, but the hour plus on the phone to accomplish this was a super pain. I'm very pleased with the outcome. Thanks, Roberto.

Bad Customer Service

8/7/2006 Port Orchard WA

I've been having a problem with my Phone Bill for the past 3 months, it started when AOL double charged me in May, my Phone Bill was over $100.00 most of that was AOL services I thought it was taken care of until 2 days later after I paid my bill, I recieved a cut off notice, I called Qwest customer service and was assured that as long as Qwest recieved payment for my phone bill I would not be disconnected, AOL was not going to charge me in August so I decided to split the payment so my bill would only be $60.00 and I paid it and the next day I recieved another cut off notice so again I called customer service to make sure they recieved my payment I dealt with an ASS named Keith he said they had recieved my payment but I still owed 39.99 and would have to pay that, I was so pissed off, I was told as long as my qwest bill was payed I would be fine I told that to this jerk and let him know it was an AOL bill but he didn't care he said I had to pay it anyway or he couldn't squash the Disconnect order and it was due on the 27th I told him I couldn't pay it until the 3rd of September he wantd to aurgue with me about that man he PISSED ME OFF I wish they would make up there minds are they responsible for 3rd party billing or not they should let ALL there customer Service Reps know the rules!!!!!

Deleted my website

7/23/2006 Phoenix AZ

I have been using Quest for many years now to host my website without complaint, but just recently I could not access my own web site. It was simply "forbidden". Quest could not find my web site either. They finally acertained that there was nothing in it after I gave them my password. All my web pages had just vanished. I havn'teven been in my account management area for over two years and no one except for myself has ever had access or the password. Quest said they were sorry. . . and thatI would have to create an entire new web site, thank you very much! This is not a small or cheap undertaking. How can this possibly happen? It does appear that Quest has recently made some changes in their account management setup. I think Quest should compensate me for loosing my web site. Any thoughts? Wade mgr. French Vintage Vacations

Cell Phone Nightmare

1/13/2006 Portland OR

I have been with QWEST for 8 years. I had my home phone line, a shared cell phone plan with two cell phones, and high speed internet through them.

In August of 2005 I broke my cell phone. I called to buy a new one to replace it. I did NOT want to change anything about my plan, just wanted to simply replace a phone. The representative informed me that I could get a phone for a cheaper price if I extended my contract. I SPECIFICALLY asked if anything would change about my plan, and he assured me that my plan would remain EXACTLY the same. Later, I discovered that this was a total lie and that I was slammed.

When I received the next month's bill I had huge overage charges. I discovered that this was because the representative changed my plan from an older plan (shared loyalty) to a new plan that was more expensive and had fewer minutes, causing me to go way over on my minutes. At that time I spoke with a manger who credited off all the extra charges. She then, supposedly, changed my plan back to the old plan I was on (the one that I expected the contract to continue as).

However, I soon discovered that neither phone in my shared plan now had voicemail. After calling QWEST they told me that my voicemail which had always been free would now be $5.99 per phone per month. After repeated calls they explained that while they were somehow able to "build back" my old plan that I could no longer get voicemail on my cell phones unless I paid these new charges.

I spoke with two different managers about how unfair this was. I wanted my voicemail put back on free, as it always had been. Simply buying a new phone did not give them authorization to change my plan, particularly without notifying me. These two different managers (one named Will and the other's name I forget) promised that they would send a request to the "back billing department" to add the voicemail on for me and then have it credited off every month. They told me that this back billing department would call me by a certain date to let me know what was happening. I received no call.

I called QWEST again and spoke with a manager after the date passed. This manager said he was going to research it and would call me back. Two days later and no call. I called again and spoke with another manager who said he was going to research the problem and call me back in 15 minutes. Three hours later I had still received no call back and had to call QWEST again. This is horrific customer service and completely inexcusable.

Finally, a new manager told me there was nothing he could do to get my voicemail back as I'd always had it without being charged these new fees. I told him I then wanted to deactivate my three services from QWEST (home line, cell phone package, and high speed internet) and to transfer me to deactivation.

I spoke with Tamra in deactivation. She (again) said that she would send a request to the "back billing department" but we would have to wait a few days to get an answer. She claimed there was no way for her to simply CALL the back billing department and straighten out this ridiculous problem over the phone. Tamra said she would call me on Friday to let me know what the final outcome was.

Thankfully, Tamra did call me on Friday, January 13th, but told me that the back billing department was unwilling to complete the request. I told her I was extremely angry, felt lied to, slammed, tricked, etc. I then asked her to deactivate my three QWEST services. She then proceeded to tell me that I would have a $200 deactivation charge for leaving my "contract" early. This is completely unethical, as I NEVER agreed to a contract that changed my plan. I do not feel that this contract was valid, as it was not the contract I agreed to. The QWEST representative slammed me and changed my plan when I agreed to the contract. I was agreeing to the contract if I got to keep my old plan and all its features, including the free voicemail.

I am extremely upset with QWEST and their unethical business practices. Not only did they slam me and trick me into an invalid contract, but now they are charging me $200 to leave a contract I never agreed to in the first place!!! In addition, I feel that I was strung along, as numerous QWEST managers, the back billing department, etc. did not return my calls as promised.

Today (January 13th)I have deactivated my three QWEST services (cell phone, home line, and high speed internet). I am extremely disappointed to have to do this, but feel I have no choice. I would like to at least see some recourse so I am not charged $200 for leaving a fraudulent contract.

I would appreciate if someone would contact me as how to proceed in my complaint with QWEST.

Sales

12/20/2005 Portland OR

Anytime I call in for customer service Qwest tries to turn it into a sales call. At first I thought it was the representative just trying to make conversation, but after a couple of times calling and the same thing happening each time I finally asked a rep why? Their response "Just trying to give good customer service" My respone was "I just want to know what these charges are how does trying to sell me something after answering my question make good customer service?"
Suprise !!!!!!!!!!! No answer?
Well I finally got my answer I met a Qwest employee the other day it seems a major requirement of Qwest customer service is meeting a sales quota. I couldnt believe it they actually have to sell so much each month or they lose their jobs. Shouldn't there be a law against this?

Qwest Long Distance Service

10/9/2004 Clive IA

Herewith I would like to file a complaint regarding the way the department that you direct understands to address customer's inquires and complaints. Here are the facts:
Since 1991 I am a Qwest (previously named US West) customer (515)457-8729
With Basic Local phone service. My long distance company is AT&T and I was surprised to see $1.08 charge for Qwest Long Distance starting on September, 2004 statement. On October 8, 2004, I contacted twice to Qwest Customer Service Department to inquire about a service that they starting to provide me without any my authorization and additional charge on my bill. Both representatives that I spoke gave me details about the Qwest Long Distance service: It’s only "interstate" Long Distance service and my “state to state” long distance provider still AT&T, but if I do not like this new Qwest Long Distance service they can change my “interstate” Long distance service also to AT&T (how it was before) with just one time $5.00 switching charge.
Seems like this should be illegal. I am contacting the Better Business Bureau about this.

Lousy Customer service

9/8/2004 WA

Used Qwest phone service for about 3 yrs and had lousy customer service throughout. Long waits for service were not uncommon. I once had to wait 45 minutes for help. When I asked to speak to a supervisor I was transferred, deliberately I believe, to a Spanish speaking operator.

The straw that broke the camel's back was when I ordered their DSL service. It was not compatible with my home security alarm system so I returned it to Qwest after obtaining a return authorization number. Still I was billed for the modem and DSL service which I refused to pay. After months of their telling me yes they received my returned modem and that I would receive credit for it I am now being billed for the entire amount with my final bill sent to a collection agency. I cannot get a definitive answer from Qwest. I even wrote to the CEO but have not heard back from him either. I am so glad I switched to AT&T.

CONTINUING POOR SERVICE QUEST

1/31/2004 LAKEWOOD CO

Another 24 hours and Quest's "system" is down. It's a good thing they do not run a bank or an airline (or anything that would have to give customer service). So still cannot get my voice mail (which was ordered originally).

POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE

1/30/2004 Lakewood CO

Switched to Quest on Friday, January 23,2004. Installation was supposed to include voice mail.Voice mail does not work. After four phone calls (two of which were disconected) was informed that voice mail was not on original order (was ordered). Additionally, was told that Colorado computer system was down and that they would call me (Mike) when system was up. Until then they could do nothing (which they do well). Have heard nothing since.

More managment than Service

4/1/2003 Phoenix AZ

Current YP Ads: $206,916 yearly and will be $552,000 when all books hit

Current Phone charges: $23,040 yearly

Current Internet: $3,948

QWEST COMITMENT TO SERVICE PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Billing dispute

3/21/2002 Cedar Falls IA

Herewith I would like to file a complaint regarding the way the department that you direct understands to address customer's inquires and complaints. Here are the facts:

On February 4, 2002, I contacted Qwest's Sales Department twice to inquire about a service that you are offering: CALL FORWARDING BUSY LINE.
Both representatives that I spoke to gave me details about the service, trying to persuade me into ordering it (which was fine). I asked both of them the following question: 'Do I have to pay any other fee (for instance an installation fee) in addition to the $0.30 monthly fee?'. Both answered: 'No, this is a very cheep service!'

I was surprised to see a 'One-time charge for order processing' of $13.00 on the February 19, 2002 statement (see the enclosed copy). I contacted immediately the Customer Service Department and disputed the charge. I was told that somebody would call me to let me know about the result of my dispute. Nobody called me...
Then I called again your department a few times and I spoke with different customer service representatives about my problem. I found out contradictory facts: somebody gave me the name of the sales person who sold me the service, while another customer service representative told me that it was impossible to determine who sold me the service.

I asked to talk to a supervisor and I was given a 1-800 number 'where I can report my complaint' - when I dialed I got a message that the number does not exists...

When I finally got to speak to a supervisor, I was told that there was a communication problem between me and the two sales persons, but I would get a refund within a few days. Today I recieved the new billing statement and I notice that there is no refund.

To help keep me as a potential future customer, I would like the following:

I would like to get a refund for the $13.00 order processing fee.

At the very least I would like a response from your company regarding this incident. Thank you for your time.

12/10/2001 Buckley WA

The past 2 weeks, calling Qwest every other
day & writing down names of every person
helping me, trying to get my cell phone issues
resolved, without any luck, each individual
ordering me a new cell phone & not receiving as
promised. I finally spoke with a supervisor,
explaining my situation, tonite(Dec 10, 2001). Ray, said he
didn't have an answer to why the previous
associates did not complete my order. I am
losing $$ everyday my cell phone is not working. I pay out alot of $$ to not have this issue
completed & working properly. I need HELP!
I was promised, again 5th time, a phone will arrive in 2 days (Dec 12th). We'll see.

To help keep me as a potential future customer, I would like the following:

It's not about the phone anymore, it's the
principal! I would like some type of compensation for my stress & loss of $$ each
day of not being able to receive some phone
calls. They promised an upgraded phone, which
means I would spend more $$ on case, extra battery, car charger, etc., for new phone, like I have on phone I have now. I would like
those & at LEAST some monetary credit on monthly bill. (Previous 3rd, employee, gave me
a weeks worth ($33.00) thinking that might help, considering my monthly service is min.
$130.00, I don't think so!

At the very least I would like a response from your company regarding this incident. Thank you for your time.