CenturyLink Rings Up Another Deceptive Billing Practices Class Action

A Washington woman is accusing CenturyLink of charging her for a business line she never asked for in yet another class action to hit the telecommunications company.

Lead plaintiff, homemaker Jubilee Lawhead, alleges in her class action lawsuit that CenturyLink systematically defrauds its customers using unscrupulous billing practices and charges them for services they do not use.

Specifically, the plaintiff claims that she signed up for a single residential line to use for homeschool purposes but was given additional lines she didn’t request.

The plaintiff alleges that CenturyLink said the services would cost of $55.95 per month; however, the plaintiff says she was then charged $74.47 the next month and then a whopping $216.81 the following month.

Lawhead further alleges that she discovered she was being charged for a business line and an additional home phone line that she never asked for. In addition, CenturyLink never delivered the internet speed it promised, the plaintiff claims.

“All told, Mrs. Lawhead spent approximately 20 hours communicating with CenturyLink to resolve the numerous issues with her service, and is still in the process of disputing phony charges,” the CenturyLink class action states.

In June of 2017, a courageous CenturyLink employee blew the whistle on the company’s scam by filing a complaint in Superior Court in Arizona, alleges the class action lawsuit. The whistleblower claims she was fired for refusing to take part in CenturyLink’s unlawful billing practices.

This complaint set off a “digital revolt” against CenturyLink for its allegedly fraudulent billing practices, says the plaintiff. Additionally, at least one State’s Attorney General has initiated an investigation into CenturyLink’s billing practices, alleges Lawhead.

“It is estimated that the damages to consumers could range between $600 million and $12 billion, based on CenturyLink’s 5.9 million subscribers,” the CenturyLink lawsuit states.

According to the CenturyLink class action lawsuit, there have been more than 1,500 consumer complaints to the Washington Attorney General’s Office over CenturyLink’s billing practices. The plaintiff says that the company often blames the consumer for mistakes in billing and sends them through a frustrating and complicated process to fix its mistakes.

CenturyLink’s “offending and unlawful conduct” includes billing for services customers never requested, not honoring rates quoted during sales calls, billing customers for cancellation, billing for periods when services were not connected, failing to honor cancellation requests in a timely manner, and failing to provide promised credits to consumer accounts.

Two other class actions have hit CenturyLink in the past few weeks alleging bait-and-switch tactics and deceptive billing practices.

The plaintiff seeks to represent all individuals who made a payment to CenturyLink since 2013 who were charged above what they owed the company. The plaintiff is charging CenturyLink with fraud, violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act, and unjust enrichment.

The plaintiff is represented by Bonner C. Walsh of Walsh PLLC, Michael Fuller of Olsen Daines PC, and Mark Geragos and Ben Meiselas of Geragos & Geragos.

The CenturyLink Overbilling Class Action Lawsuit is Jubilee Lawhead v. CenturyLink Inc., Case No. 3:17-cv-05487-RJB, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington at Tacoma.