Yesterday I called CenturyLink, formerly Qwest, about our molasses Internet. It had been running at an atrocious 60 kilobits per second which might as well be dailup. Let’s just say, it was torture.

Today, a CenturyLink tech came out to inspect the lines. There was some problem with a bad splice somewhere. My house is a morass of wires so frightening that the mere sight would cause a headache.

He and I spent ten minutes hunting for the line itself in the basement. Once we found it, we proceeded to cut off the old splice and redo it. Of course, nothing is that easy and that splice wasn’t the problem – in fact, it wasn’t any different. Then we went back outside and discovered the last tech put in the Qwest box with a square head screw which isn’t apparently Qwest/CenturyLink sanctioned. Once we got the box off, I went back inside to look for a tugged line while he did the tugging. This worked, traced it and found another splice. He cut that off and made a new clean one. We tested the line, the retrain was quick, the down speed was back at 7168 and the phone was static free. Amazing.

So? Usually in this these of company buyouts and rebranding, you merge one great service with a slightly lesser service which dilutes the overall service making everyone sad. I was pleased to have a tech out that was smart and polite. He knew what he was doing. He said that technically he was done, but would be glad to put in a new line if I could help out. He explained things and I appreciate explanations because I like knowing things. I understand some customers don’t want to be involved and I can see the reluctance, but I think it’s better this way.

So, in short, thank you CenturyLink tech that did a fantastic job fixing my line and Internet and telling me about your impressions of the state of the telecom industry.

Sincerely, Ryan.