Background:
I am, to put it uncharitably, poor white trash. I'm unemployed, and struggling desperately to make ends meet. I qualify for Colorado's "LEAP" program, which expands to "Low Energy Assistance Program". By merit of that, I also qualify for LITAP, which is the Low Income Telephone Assistance Program. I have the most basic service CenturyLink offers for my area, which is 22.90/mo for local telephone service.
Since June of I have been eligible for Colorado's LITAP, which pays half of your telephone bill. According to Colorado's Department of Human Services, I've also been enrolled in the program. Colorado has an automated telephone number (1-800-782-0721) which you can call and verify your application's been approved. I originally applied in April of which required mailing in an application (downloaded form).
Complaint:
CenturyLink has not applied LITAP to my account. Contacting CenturyLink's online support results in an email stating that "This is not applied to your account." and that I need to contact my Department of Human Services to remedy the situation. Which, of course, says I'm approved, and enrolled in the program.
I managed to get an actual human by emailing Colorado's DHS, LITAP department, who, again, faxed notification of my eligibility and enrollment in February. A month later, CenturyLink claims to have no record of this.
The end result is CenturyLink appears to be taking state money, meant to be applied to the accounts of low income individuals, and 'losing' the paperwork. If this is the case, CenturyLink's defrauding the government, and should be held accountable.
Further thoughts:
When attempting to deal with this, every communication with CenturyLink resulted in the service representative trying to 'upsell' me a service; high-speed internet, or DirecTV, for example. I'm at a loss as to how someone who can't pay their phone bill is going to be able to afford to pay for a TV subscription. It's humiliating enough to have to ask for government assistance, and if it weren't so degrading, there wouldn't be incentive to get off it. However, CenturyLink's interaction with people who really are at the lowest point they can be financially is inappropriate and exploitive. And, if they're taking tax money and not applying it to the accounts it's tagged for, illegal, as well.
Where I live, there isn't a choice for telephone service, other than CenturyLink. The only actual available "Highspeed Internet" is via satellite, the latency of which prevents VoIP from being an option. If you're in an area where you have a choice, consider avoiding CenturyLink.
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