CenturyLink Faces Class Action Lawsuit Seeking Up to $12 Billion
Source: Bloomberg
by Polly Mosendz
?June? ?19?, ?2017? ?6?:?30? ?AM? ?PDT
CenturyLink Inc., sued last week by a former employee for allegedly running a sales incentive scheme and firing her for drawing attention to it, is now the subject of a class action complaint seeking damages as high as $12 billion.
The complaint, which comes as the Monroe, La., telecommunications company is in the midst of a $34 billion merger with Level 3 Communications Inc., seeks to establish a class of consumers harmed by an alleged high-pressure sales culture. Last week's self-proclaimed whistleblower, Heidi Heiser, claims such a culture left customers paying millions of dollars for accounts they didn't request.
The new lawsuit, filed in the central district of California late Sunday night, cites Heiser's suit, as well as similar accusations posted on social media and consumer review websites by people identifying themselves as CenturyLink customers, and accuses CenturyLink of fraud, unfair competition, and unjust enrichment.
"Ms. Heiser's allegations of what she observed, and what CenturyLink corporate culture encouraged, are consistent with the experiences of hundreds of thousands and potentially millions of consumers who have been defrauded by CenturyLink," the complaint states. "It is estimated that the damages to consumers could range between $600 million and $12 billion, based on CenturyLink's 5.9 million subscribers."
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-19/centurylink-faces-class-action-lawsuit-seeking-up-to-12-billion
gtar100
(4,192 posts)Just waiting for that little tidbit to come out. Who knew that cutting jobs and expenses as a growth strategy would have such an effect.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)allow Americans to have consumer protections.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Last edited Mon Jun 19, 2017, 12:35 PM - Edit history (1)
I put broadband in scare quotes for a reason. As shitty as Comcast's business practices and customer service are, their data rates are 5X or more that of Centurylink.
Kind of a limitation of DSL.
Stryst
(714 posts)Even Comcast is better. Yeah, process that one for a minute.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Response to swag (Original post)
swag This message was self-deleted by its author.
mercuryblues
(14,530 posts)I sent the link to someone I know, who is right now fighting Century Link. She knew she was going to be in a location for less than a year. She signed up with them because they promised her that she did not need a 1 year contract, Guess what. A month after she canceled and moved away, they sent her a bill for her next 4 months of service and penalties, to (you guessed it) complete her contract.