A few years ago I moved into the mountains outside of Denver. Given the potential for serious adverse weather and the potential not to have service to my cell phone, I thought it prudent to get POTS; plain old telephone service. That’s right, a land line! I know, how retro of me. Almost three years later, after experiencing quite a few snow storms, my cell phone maintained service the entire time. Further, my road is plowed once a day at minimum meaning in case of emergency, I could get to safety if needed. So I decided to cancel my phone service.
When I moved back to Denver in 2003, I used CenturyLink for POTS and ISDN-based Internet service. I am familiar with them to a degree, and frequently called asking why even by 2015 I was still on a link that had a whopping 80k upload speed. Yes, 80k meaning uploading a large document took minutes. Eventually a real provider came in and offered 1gb service to our building so I jumped fast. My recent experience was just a reminder that like back then, CenturyLink is still in the dark ages.
The primary reason for cancellation, other than seemingly no need for the line, was the company charging $54.46 a month for this service. Also, service that was out for a full month at one point before I realized it, where a tech accidentally killed my line at a junction box a few miles away. Anyway, that price is about the initial price for my 1gb Internet connection through another provider.
Here’s my experience trying to cancel a simple POTS line. One of the first screens seemed to offer me the ability to easily cancel service. It had all the hints it would be self-provisioned, meaning I could do it myself. However, when I tried to click “Next” after one of the initial prompts I got a so-called AI agent that popped up instead. After several prompts it let me transfer to a human, referenced as ‘RA’ below.
RA: Thank you for chatting with Centurylink. You are chatting with Rahil. How can I help you?
Me: I am trying to cancel service and it will not continue. It asks for a reason, I check one, and then “Next” does not work.
Rahil asked me why I was canceling, and when I said it was due to price, he immediately offered to look at my account to “see if there are any options that could help bring the cost down or improve your experience.” I said no, they can’t bring the price down enough for me to stay a customer and to please cancel service now. Next, Rahil needed to verify my identity.
RA: To verify the account, please provide your full name AND TWO of the following: account number, complete service or billing address, method of last payment or date of installation.
Me: [I provided my name, address, amount of last bill, that I was enrolled in autopay, and the date of the next payment.]
RA: Please verify the correct last payment method, was that through card or checking account?
Me: [I provided the last four of the card I thought it was billed to.]
RA: That seems to be incorrect,
Me: [I looked in the profile of the account I was currently logged into and found it was actually auto-draft from checking, so provided the last four of that account.]
So at this point, it should become apparent that all of the information CenturyLink asks for, every single bit of it, is in the account profile. That means they are verifying information that a hacker would have access to, if it wasn’t me trying to cancel service. That isn’t “security”, that is “security theatre”. I asked Rahil if he realized this, and that it seems like a delay tactic that makes it more difficult to cancel service.
RA: ok! Let me place disconnect order. May I know what is the cell phone number we can TEXT and communicate with you on for your orders and accounts?
Me: You can email me, you have that on file.
RA: We cannot email it please share your cell phone number , its needed to place cancel order
Me: Limitations on your side don’t mean I have to give up personal information. You fix your junk system instead of further inconveniencing your soon-to-be former customers. THIS is the kind of thing that would make me cancel if it wasn’t for the price. You have my email, you use it to communicate with me.
Not only do you have to jump through hoops to cancel, you must give them your cell phone number to receive SMS messages, and apparently they cannot use an email address. This is such poor design and frustrating.
RA: Without phoen number I cannot place order
Me: I don’t have a cell phone, what now? I’ll be filing a complaint with the FCC tomorrow over this too.
RA: As today is weekend and so system does not allow us to choose weekends dates or holidays so we can cancel it from 01/26 ok?
I’m not sure if it was me claiming not to have a cell phone, or the threat of a FCC complaint, but one or both were quite effective to magically bypass the limitations of their system!
RA: Please confirm your email
Me: xxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Me: Thank you! Your CenturyLink services are billed through February 19 2026. Your service will be disconnected on Mon, January 26 2026. I am going to add a link which provides the quote and disclosures for your order today into our chat. A payment quote is being generated for you… Your order number is ######### and service will be cancelled from 01/26
Finally, we get to the point where service is canceled!
RA: Is there anything else I can help you with?
Me: Will this be a prorated bill since I will not have service for the full month?
RA: you need to wait for your final bill that you will get within 45 days . If any prorated credit is applicable it will be applied directly on that
Me: So.. you cannot answer the question?
RA: No we cannot check it
Once again, how can they not check that? Either it is policy based on the contractual language of my service, or it is based on simple company policy. Further, why does it take up to 45 days to get a final bill when I received all prior bills monthly, and never more than a day late? Basically, their systems are still in the dark ages.
Faking a self-provision cancellation, forcing you to chat with a human, jumping through stupid hoops that provide no security, lying about requiring an additional phone number to text to, not being able to tell me if my final bill will be prorated, not being able to cancel service fully on a weekend… and this is somehow OK for them, and Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) regulated. They claim to be here for “effectively regulating utilities and facilities so that the people of Colorado receive safe, reliable, and reasonably-priced services consistent with the economic, environmental and social values of our state.” Sorry CO PUC, the service isn’t reliable and certainly not reasonably-priced.
Insult to Injury
I’m one of those rare people that fill out surveys after getting service or purchasing many things. Google reviews, service surveys, and sometimes for regular purchases online. CenturyLink’s survey around all of this was yet another reminder that they simply do not understand what they are doing, and no one does any form of quality assurance (QA) on their services. Almost the entire survey seemed to be around anything but canceling service.
Really, all three answers I am offered are wrong given the purpose of my service request. I am encouraged that they give a whopping ~ 3,800 characters for feedback on the survey. That is twice as long as most of my blogs. Even as I reach the end of this blog, it is only 1,345 characters so far, for reference. Anyway, the survey continues:
The top question above, is of course good for any scenario. On the other hand, the bottom question is precisely why this survey is further laughable. For CenturyLink to think that 100% of the time, a customer engages with them to have service installed. Never changed, never cancelled apparently? Fortunately, the survey ends with a free-form question that also has a great character limit; enough you could write a blog. If I had more time the night I cancelled, I would have literally written this blog and pasted it into the form before posting. Instead, they get the cliff notes.
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