Centurylink Embarq Exploitation, Cheap Service, Internet
This company has taken advantage of the lack of Service Providers for my area, and they are blatant thieves. My family pays for 10Mbps service and rarely gets above 5Mbps, as I type it's actually 600kbps. Because they are one of the FEW ISP's in my area, they bundle their Internet with phone service. You CANNOT get one without the other. They also feel entitled to charge more and more for it because hey, who are we gonna switch to? They keep other ISPs at bay!
They keep service providers like Verizon away because they know the second another ISP moves into the territory, EVERYONE will switch. Instead of defending their territory by satisfying their customers, they've become tyrants by overcharging us for low quality and pissing and moaning to the powers-that-be about how Verizon is monopolizing the market and they'll go out of business if other companies move in.
The many times I have contacted Customer Support, they write off the poor 'service' (if you can even call it that) as peak usage and that it's normal for the connection to slow down. I'm sorry, but if you can't deliver the service I pay for, regardless of when I wish to use it, then you shouldn't be charging me for it. I don't pay for 10Mbps download speed to get 600kbps, that's not how it works.