CenturyLink Overcharges - What Are The Allegations?

CenturyLink, Inc. is a telecommunications company providing cable, internet, and phone service to 37 states. According to Bloomberg, a former CenturyLink employee reported that she was receiving numerous complaints from customers that unauthorized services were being added and billed to their accounts. She believed the complaints closely resembled an investigation into Wells Fargo’s practices of setting up fake accounts to meet internal sales goals. When the employee brought her concerns to the highest members of CenturyLink’s management, she was fired.

Customers are alleging CenturyLink engaged in multiple unfair, unlawful, and fraudulent business practices, including:

Billing for phone lines or service items never requested by customers;

Billing higher rates than those quoted during sales calls;

Billing early termination fees when customers cancelled the services due to higher rates;

Billing customers who cancelled their service because the quality was below CenturyLink’s representations;

Billing for period of service before the service was connected;

Billing for products that were ordered but never received;

Failing to credit customers when errors were found;

Charging full price for leased modems that customers returned within the required timeframe, refusing to reimburse the customer;

Referring customer accounts to collections when the customer refused to pay wrongful charges.

CENTURYLINK CLASS ACTION

CenturyLink customers have filed legal actions in several states alleging they were overcharged and billed for services they didn’t request or authorize. Most of these cases are asking to be certified as class actions by the court, so other consumers can also receive a recovery. As of today, class action status has been requested on behalf of all CenturyLink customers as well as subclasses in the following states: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Federal Judge Preliminarily Approves Class Settlement

On January 24, 2020, the Court granted Preliminary Approval to a proposed Class Action Settlement and ordered that notice be issued to members of the proposed Settlement Class. By March 9, 2020, the settlement website will be set up with more information about the settlement, important deadlines, and how to submit a claim.

Visit Settlement Website → View Court Documents →