First and foremost, please appreciate that we hold our local CenturyLink Service Reps in the highest regard. They are our friends, neighbors and family members. They worship with us and help coach our youth sports teams. They play an important role in our community and their efforts are, most probably, under-appreciated.
Not once have we encountered a local CenturyLink Service Rep that was not courteous, knowledgeable, and desirous of delivering a high quality of service.
They are also being worked to the bone. Recent conversations reveal that they are being forced to work six and seven days a week to keep CenturyLink’s services on-line. Apparently, CenturyLink is being incredibly slow in hiring replacements for those who retire or resign from the company.
Our local service reps deserve a better employer than what CenturyLink has become.
With regard to the corporate entity that is CenturyLink, they can best be described as parasitic. They have a monopolistic position as an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the greater portion of Madison County. They take our money… and poof, it’s gone!
The company does not contribute, financially, in any large fashion to the community. There is not a CenturyLink scholarship at North Florida Community College, nor is there a CenturyLink wing at the hospital. They do not support local clubs or organizations, the animal shelter or the food pantry, nor do they provide our community with more than a handful of jobs. (When was the last time that you and your family enjoyed a day at “CenturyLink Park” in downtown Madison? You haven’t; it doesn’t exist.)
CenturyLink takes our money and leaves town with it, never to be seen again. Why does our community suffer such insult?
When your internet service goes down, you call 611 and are connected to a customer service rep IN THE PHILIPPINES!!! Not Madison County. Not Taylor County. Not Jefferson County. No, the PHILIPPINES! While we need jobs in our community, CenturyLink off-shores customer service rep positions to the Philippines. They take OUR money and hire people from overseas to provide us with customer service. That’s just plain wrong!
(NOTE: WHEN CALLING CENTURYLINK’S CUSTOMER SERVICE NUMBER, ALWAYS ASK TO BE TRANSFERRED TO AN ON-SHORE CUSTOMER SERVICE REP. That’s the only way you’ll be able to speak to an American and help to protect their jobs.)
Recently, an outage occurred in the Lee area of the county. We were told that it would be FIVE DAYS before the issue could be corrected. Five Days! Try being late with your CenturyLink bill for five days and see what happens. (Note: CenturyLink actually restored service late on the second day of the outage. It did not take the full five days that they projected. Nevertheless….)
How can our community possibly compete in today’s economy if, at any time, internet service can be down for FIVE DAYS?? And it goes down quite frequently. (We have had four separate service interruptions so far this year.)
What can be done to correct this problem? We don’t know, but suggest reflecting upon the adage “the squeaky wheel gets the oil.” The time has come for Madison County residents to commence squeaking.
Complain. File complaints with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs. Complain to your County Commissioner. Complain to our state representatives. Raise hell about how we are being treated by a soul-less, corporate behemoth. Email the Governor and ask why these customer service rep jobs are off-shored. (He’s running for office again, so maybe he’ll be receptive to the concerns of Madison County for the next few months.)
We, as a community, deserve better. We need better, if we are ever to become competitive in this new world order of economics. MadisonFL.net is fed up with the poor level of service offered by CenturyLink and we would really like to see some competition regarding ISP’s in Madison County. Wouldn’t you?
Share your suggestions with us. Madison County needs them.
