The Oregonian | By Anna Marum | June 20, 2017
A Portland woman has accused CenturyLink of overcharging her after salespeople came to her door with offers of cheap, superfast internet access, according to a federal lawsuit.
The class-action lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Portland by local attorney Michael Fuller and the Los Angeles firm, Geragos & Geragos.
The filing come just days after Geragos & Geragos filed a class-action suit accusing the company of defrauding customers; it seeks as much as $12 billion in damages. A former employee sued the company last week, alleging she lost her job after calling attention to fraudulent billings.
The spate of lawsuits could spell trouble for the Louisiana telecommunications company, which is in the midst of a $34 billion merger with Level 3 Communications Inc., filed on behalf of Portland resident Heather Gonsior, accuses CenturyLink of systematically using illegal billing tactics throughout Oregon to increase profits and to get a leg up on its competition. The lawsuit estimates that claims by CenturyLink’s Oregon customers could exceed $260 million.
“CenturyLink, Inc.’s pattern and practice of misleading customers about the costs of its services are well-known within the industry, and among utility regulators,” it says.
CenturyLink salespeople showed up at Gonsior’s door on March 5, 2016, and told her the company’s new fiber-optic network, which offers speedy internet access and a new cable TV service, had become available in her neighborhood, the lawsuit said.
They told her that if she signed up for a bundled package, she could lock in a rate for one year, the suit says. This rate would be lower than what she was paying at the time, they told her.
But, according to screenshots of online chats between Gonsior and CenturyLink included in the lawsuit, she was overbilled.
Instead of a bill for $81.50, as Gonsior said she was promised by the salespeople, she said she was billed $174. Gonsior contacted CenturyLink several times over the next few months trying to get her bill down without any luck, the suit said.
At one point, according to the screenshots, she wrote, “I can’t really bear the thought of calling that customer service number again. I hope you can get the overages on the first three bills credited to my account and get the bills corrected going into the future. Thanks!”
Instead, CenturyLink employees told her they weren’t aware of the promotion she was promised, screenshots showed.
The suit cites a March 8 article by The Oregonian/OregonLive about mounting complaints against CenturyLink by Oregon residents.
“CenturyLink, Inc.’s unlawful billing tactics in Oregon include billing customers for services the customers never requested, billing higher amounts than quoted during sales calls and door-to-door sales campaigns, billing customers for hidden fees when they canceled their services due to the higher amounts they were being billed, billing customers for periods of service before service was connected, and overbilling customers for returned equipment,” the lawsuit alleges.
The suit accuses the telecom company of violating the Oregon Unlawful Trade Practices Act, the state’s consumer protection law.
CenturyLink customers who paid for its services in Oregon and learned after June 19, 2016, that they were overbilled or charged fees the company failed to disclose may join the class-action, which seeks restitution and damages, and demands a jury trial. Those interested in joining the suit can send an email to geragos@geragos.com.
In an email, CenturyLink spokesman Mark Molzen called the class-action lawsuits “opportunistic” and said they were not unexpected. The suits do not change the company’s original position on the wrongful termination suit, he said.
“Our employees know that if they have any concerns about ethics or compliance issues, we have an Integrity Line in place, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Molzen said. “Our former employee did not make a report to the Integrity Line and our leadership team was not aware of the alleged matter until the lawsuit was filed.”
He said the allegations made by the former CenturyLink employee were “completely inconsistent” with company policies and culture, which include honesty and integrity. However, the company takes the allegations seriously, he said, and is “diligently investigating” the matter.
https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2017/06/portland_woman_sues_centurylin.html
