TDS

Review: TDS has continuously promised technician services and have failed to provide them. Our internet has consistently been going in and out for over 2 months and they temporarily solve the issue and then it begins again. We have been promised technicians to come on our property to check the situation and they have failed to show up or call. It has already been 2 full days since our latest outage and no one showed when they said they would. Twice. My husband uses the internet for his job which means if the internet is out, he can't get paid because he can't work. Every day, the internet goes out and we have not been given a reason or solution as to why. There are no other internet services that can offer us a different product because TDS has the monopoly on the service.Desired Settlement: We pay entirely too much for a service that does NOT work. We want the promises they give to be fulfilled and produce a product that actually works.

Business

Response:

Response to file #[redacted].

Review: Have sent paperwork several times to get lifeline started and TDS misplaces them . TDS keeps charging at full rateDesired Settlement: refund from overcharges

Business

Response:

Response to file# [redacted].

Review: TDS Telecom accidently disabled my email account. I have been without email for 10 days and they have not been able to resolve the issue. I have called every day for 10 days and the phone number is an offshore service in the Caribbean. I have spoken with a number of people, none of who have been able to correct the problem that they caused. I have parents in the hospital and I can't receive updates, I can't do my billing or banking without my email account. I can't receive email communication for my work or from my children's schools. I set up a new email account with another company, but I can't upload my contacts because the tds email account has been disabled. I have been told every day that they are working on it and will call me back. That has not happened. I have spent hours on hold with TDS. Terrible customer service.Desired Settlement: I would like to be able to access my email account.

Business

Response:

Response to file #[redacted]

Ms. [redacted] had cancelled service with TDS, but asked to establish an email-only account. This was unfortunate timing as we also were migrating to a new email platform and the old email account (and its history) was removed and the new email box created without migrating the history. TDS Repair was able to restore the email history and followed up with Ms. Norman about it on 12/5/14. She confirmed that she got back her contacts and old emails. We apologize for the inconvenience. A courtesy credit for $25.00 was added to her account.

Thank you.

Review: When I requested this service their ad said free internet for a year if I added dish network with a two year commitment on Dish TV. Now that I have cancelled Dish and wish to cancel the internet they want to charge me $300 disconnect fee on the internet. I was not made aware that there was also a two year commitment on the internet as well. Their representative was not clear on this when I added the internet and I do not feel I should be charged this outrageous fee for their mistake. If I have to get a lawyer, so be it. I would never have agreed to a two year commitment on the internet had it been explained to me correctly.Desired Settlement: Cancelation of $300 fee.

Business

Response:

Response to file# [redacted].

Review: We have been Tds clients for years, previously Baja Broadband and other names. We basically pay for a service we don't get do to over saturation in the area. They have oversold their internet service. So, the few times we called to complain, nothing gets done to resolve it and they say it is a problem in the entire area. They are getting away with charging us for high speeds and provide almost dial up ones. Not sure how a business this big can continue to steal from their clients. The costumer service is pretty rude and seem powerless to give any answers. Today I spoke with a supervisor name [redacted] after calling their 1 (877)422-5282 number, and he said because it was a saturation issue he couldn't help me or reimburse any payment. So we pay our monthly fee of $70 and when we are not provided any service, even not strong enough to stream a movie on netflix or do work using internet, it is ok for them to say sorry, basically too many people using it at the same time. Maybe they shouldn't have as many costumers. I feel we are being robed, and had been for months. We will be switching shortly, but they keep getting away with this practice.Desired Settlement: Billing adjustment for the time we didn't received service, better costumer service, and while we still pay for the service, receive the actual speed we are paying for.

Business

Response:

Response to file# [redacted].

TDS Engineering is nearing conclusion of a large network project to upgrade and replace equipment. Unfortunately the project is taking more time than we had originally anticipated. In the meantime, Ms. [redacted] may reduce her plan, though she currently has the lowest available rate with a promotional plan ($29.95/month). We previously provided a credit of $29.95 due to the customer’s dissatisfaction, which appeared on the customer’s November bill and we have provided an additional credit of $29.95 which will appear on the upcoming February bill. Ms. [redacted] may cancel service without penalty. I apologize that we are not meeting the customer’s expectation for service at this time. I am sorry that Ms. [redacted] had a dissatisfactory customer service experience as well.

Thank you.

We live just west of Sapulpa, OK and have very, VERY poor internet service. Have had problem from the beginning (6 yrs ago). Told why 4 yrs ago: the equipment here is out of date and they can not fix. Nor do they have the $$ to buy new. Computer sometime times out just waiting to connect or down / up load. Also if you want to pay bill by phone it costs another $3.00 on top of bill or if you want to pay online you will no longer receive the bill. BAD NEWS COMPANY. Will move as soon as possible to get away from this poorly ran company. [redacted]

Complaint re. Problems with TDS
Fiberoptic Installation Work Problems
TDS has been and is currently (11/4/2015) working in my neighborhood on setting up fiberoptic cables. This work has been going on for over a week. I found out about the work by inquiring from the workers. TDS has not had the decency to notify the residents about this project or ask if we are interested in getting the service.
The workers are digging holes and tearing up the terraces. The utilities were clearly marked, yet TDS or their subcontractor manage to break a gas line. As a result, MG&E was working on the site and had turned off my gas line. Another TDS subcontractor broke a telephone line of my neighbor. The repair took unacceptably long. Furthermore, the workers made a large hole into the ground. It remained unfilled over last weekend with cables shooting out to my property, potentially allowing pets to get into the hole..
The terrace at the end of my driveway has had large piles of dirt, my mailbox is muddy, and my plants are destroyed. A large hole in the ground has just been covered by a piece of wood for about a week, including Halloween while children were walking in the neighborhood in the dark, causing a safety risk.
I have no interest in subscribing any of the TDS services and I don’t want them disturbing my property.
In the past, I experienced numerous TDS service problems that I report here now, including the following:
TDS Billing Problems:
When I signed up, [redacted] gave me a total monthly cost of $73.25 for phone and internet service and failed to inform me about additional charges.
TDS letters of 6/25/2014, 7/01/2014, 07/14/2014 and 10/20/2014 list the monthly service rates for the following:
Phone
? 3 Star Voice Package $19.99
? Federal Access Recovery Charge $1.00
? Federal Subscriber Line Charge $6.50
? State USF Surcharge $1.36
Total $28.85
Internet
? HSIS Extreme-24Month Promo-Star Bundle $39.95
? DSL RESI Modem V1000H (Wireless monthly fee) $4.95
? WI State Sales Tax $2.25
? Dane County Sales Tax $0.44
Total $47.37
The charges that I incurred were not consistent with what was promised. The following is a summary of TDS charges and my payments.
TDS Charges
Service Phone Internet Total Check date
6/24/14 - 8/15/14 $56.57 $113.66 $170.23 7/27/2014
8/16/14 - 9/15/2014 $44.15 $47.37 $86.13 8/27/2014
9/16/14 - 10/15/2014 $38.41 $47.37 $85.78 9/28/2014
10/16/14-11/15/14 $38.44
Each billing period include overcharges for the phone service. My monthly bill has never been below $85.78.
TDS Problem – Telephone Reconnect / Overcharge:
I signed up for service with TDS starting 6/24/2014 and terminated it effective 10/16/2014. I paid for all services until 10/15/2014. I also paid the early termination fee of $203.24 on 11/21/2014.
I requested telephone to be reconnected 10/20/2014 to allow my new provide (Charter) provide me the existing phone number. Charter requested release of the phone line 10/21/2014. TDS reconnected my phone service on 10/21/2014. I had an appointment for Charter to install their service on 10/27/2014. On 10/24/2014, Charter called me to cancel the appointment because on 10/24/2014, TDS notified Charter that they are rejecting the release order because of a pending order to TDS. TDS did not notify me about the rejection. Consequently, the reconnect request had to be restarted on 10/27/2014.
There should have been no pending orders as TDS had already reconnected my phone on 10/21/2014. As a result, TDS service was forced on me for another week. Charter was finally able to connect my service on 11/03/2014. At the time (10/27/2014) during my two phone calls to TDS, one TDS phone service person gave me a nebulous explanation about business practices and behind the scene problems and another service person me that he does not know why the release request was rejected and it does not matter. On 12/22/2014, [redacted], TDS supervisor explained to me that the reconnect order was still pending because the paperwork could not catch up with the order, i.e. TDS made me, the customer pay for the lag time in their data / accounting system.
TDS charged me a monthly phone charge of $38.44 for 10/16/2014 -11/15/2014 for what should have been one week (10/21/2014 – 10/27/2014) of phone service. I requested a revised bill at the time a paid the early termination fee. On 12/22/2014, [redacted], the customer service supervisor, except for acknowledging 6 days (10/16/2014 – 01/21/2014) were extra, insisted that the billing for the rest of the month is correct even though I did not even have TDS phone service after 11/03/2014.
TDS Problem - Voicemail:
When signing up for service with TDS, I received a voicemail pin number. After numerous attempts and failures to connect to the voicemail over several weeks, TDS customer service finally stated that I don’t have a voicemail. She told me that I need to pay extra $5 for the voicemail that she incorrectly thought to be set up. I rely completely on voicemail. Thus, this was a considerable inconvenience for me. After admitting the error, I was told that I will be only compensated for the $5 fee for one month.
TDS problem- Internet Connection:
I lost internet connection. I contacted TDS. The service person tested the modem connection over the phone. I was using a laptop to do so. It turned out that my PC was still not connecting to the internet at all and the laptop only connected to a few sites, excluding Google for instance. After calls, the TDS phone service only trouble-shooted the modem and even sent me a new modem. Finally, after a month without internet connection, a service person came to my house. He again tested the modem. But was completely incompetent what came to actually getting the modem to communicate with the PC and did not get the problem solved. He told me that my PC has some strange software that inhibits the internet connection – not true. TDS told me that he is a technician not a computer professional - what is the difference, I wondered. I hired another person to work on the problem. He was able to solve the problem in less than 2 minutes. TDS reimbursed me for the on-site trip charge fee of $60 but still charged me for the monthly internet fee.
TDS continues to send letters offering their service. I have received 26 letters since I gave up their service. I want those letters to stop coming.
Thank you for listening to my concerns.
Sincerely, [redacted]

Review: TDS has knowingly oversubscribed their residential DSL service in our area. They have been having bandwidth/capacity issues for over the past year. (Their case # [redacted])

Previously, they have applied discounts to our service because of this. They changed that earlier this year, and no offer a discount on the service due to the issues.

I find it to be a terrible business practice, to charge customers full price for a service they are not able to properly deliver on and has not been delivering on for over a year and continuing. In fact, I know of no other companies that do this.

I don't buy into their capacity issues completely, as our service would be completely crap during the hours of 10am - 3pm during the week. These are the times they state would have the least amount of bandwidth usage, but still experience the same problems with greatly reduced speed, or service dropping off completely. You would expect the crappy service from 3pm-9pm when most people are home from work using their pc/other devices on the internet. (Which is usually was)

I find this very troubling, considering that they are the sole provider in the area and people are not able to get service from any other providers, outside of satellite (which they offer themselves as an alternative through their own billing)

For their failure in over selling an area and not keeping up with upgrades, they are now charging customers regular full price for the service.

On their website, they offer the Express Prime service for $46.95 per month (The service without a phone line), but I am getting charged $65 per month + all the taxes and fee's bring the total to $78 per month.

The promotional price is $24.95 for the same service with a new contract.

They refused to change my account to the appropriate pricing point.Desired Settlement: If they corrected my service to the proper pricing point, instead of the one they currently have set I would keep the service.

Since they have refused, I would request refund of the differences through the end of my service which I will have disconnected.

Business

Response:

Response to file #[redacted].

Review: Hi Revdex.com,

I'm filing a complaint against TDS because we were suppose to be given phone and internet service to run my business properly. We met with two providers before making a decision. TDS was cheaper and said they would be able to give us 3 phone lines and 1.5mb would be enough speed to run my business. I explained my business and that we will be using music from online and downloading music along with having to run the front desk/credit cards. I even told them the square footage of our space. I trusted TDS with their expertise since it's there business to know how much mb's is needed to run properly and for a business. I signed a contract back in August saying we would use their service. We did not finish our buildout until December which we then had it installed midway through the month. Within two weeks we had a third party come in to measure how much mp was being used and if it would be enough to run our business. Without even streaming music or using the front desk computer, we almost used all the 1.5mp. The 3rd party business said we would need 5mp to run our business property. After experiencing this, I contacted TDS to explain we need at least 5mp. They came back and said it will be $400 more a month to add the mp. This amount was way out of our budget and we could have gone with a provider giving us the same service for much much less. I feel TDS wasted our time, gave us false information and inadequate service to run my business. That is why we have canceled our contract and don't think it makes since for us to pay a cancelation fee of roughly $500 (we will be getting a bill but do not not the exact amount at this time).Desired Settlement: The desire outcome would be to not pay the cancelation bill once it comes. We were happy to use there service but there service does not fit our needs especially for the price. If we were told the correct mps needed to run our business, we would have never sign a contract to pay over $400.

Business

Response:

Response to file# [redacted].

Review: SERVICE WAS TERRIBLE. THEY TOLD ME THAT I WOULD RECEIVE A REBATE OF 500 DOLLARS FOR SOME INTERNET PHONES AND STILL AFTER A YEAR HAVE NOT RECIEVED THEM. CALLED THE SALES REP AND HE HAS BEEN FIRED FOR LYING TO CUSTOMERS, CALLED DISTRICT MANAGER WHO DOES NOT TALK TO ME, CALLED REGIONAL MANAGER WHO IS RUDE AND TOLD ME TO [redacted] OFF AND JUST PAY MY BILL. MY BILL WAS PAID. FINALLY GET THE NUMBER OF HER BOSS AND AFTER THREE DAYS OF WAITING SHE HAD THE REGIONAL PERSON CALL ME BACK. I GOT AHOLD OF CUSTOMER SERVICE WHO THEN TRANSFERED ME TO SOMEONE WHO SAID I COULD CANCEL MY SERVICE. WELL NOW I AM SITTING ON 1000 DOLLARS WORTH OF PHONES THAT I WILL NEVER USE AND A SERVICE THAT HAS BEEN NOTHING BUT TERRIBLE FROM DROPPED CALLS TO TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE.Desired Settlement: I WOULD LIKE THEM TO TAKE ALL THEIR EQUIPTMENT BACK AND REIMBURSE ME FOR THE LAST THREE MONTHS OF TERRIBLE SERVICE.

Business

Response:

Response to file# [redacted].

Review: TDS has failed to be able to provide us with their telecommunication services since our company moved from Waukegan, Il to Zion, Il. TDS has informed us they are unable to deliver us our telephone, internet and fax services in our new location. We asked if they could deliver service to one of our other two locations (Antioch, Il and Franklin Park, Il), which they told us they could not. When their sales rep first pitched TDS to our company they informed us that they served all of Lake County, which their website also advertises, and that they would move our services to any other location we moved to, being our location in Waukegan was a leased space and not a permant home for our company, which we informed them beforew we ever began working with TDS. We moved to Zion in January of this year (2015) at which point TDS failed to deliver any services to us, however they billed us the full rate as if we were using their services. TDS has refused to work with us and make this situation right. They claim we are under contract, yet they've failed to provide us with a copy of that contract despite our repeated requests. However, despite the service we are not recieving they continue to issue us bills for the full amount. We have spoken with TDS about these issues and their reponse to us is that we are under contract and the only way to stop the bills for services we arent receiving is to pay to have our contract broken to the sum of over $2000. We have pointed out to them that they are not able to provide us with their services they they originally sold or fulfill their advertised services. TDS refuses to resolve this issue. If TDS could continue to service us as they did when we were in Waukegan we would not be contacting the Revdex.com and there would be no issue, unfourtanutly that's not the case.Desired Settlement: All we have asked of TDS is that they stop billing us for a service they've advertised to us that they are unable to deliver or provide us with service to any of our 3 locations (Zion, Antioch or Franklin Park). If they can not and do not provide us with their services, we would like to part ways with TDS without being hit with outrageus fees or being charged for unrendered services we did not and were not able to receive due to there issues delivering those services to Zion, Il, Antioch, Il or Franklin Park, Il.

Business

Response:

Response to file# [redacted].

Review: This is the only landline internet provider out here in Mosyrock, WA and when I signed up over a year ago, I was told I would be getting 2-5 Mpbs of High Speed Internet. I have called multiple times complaining that I am not getting up to 1 Mpbs, sometimes 0.6-0.8 Mpbs. They give me the usual run around about how its because I live so far away and that they are having technical issues with their lines.

Well I am paying for 2-5 Mpbs and they are not delivering it PERIOD. They have a monopoly out here because their is no other provider.Desired Settlement: I would like them to DELIVER the 2-5 Mpbs that I am supposed to be getting!!!!! Maybe the company should invest in their infrastructure and upgrade the lines to deliver...

Business

Response:

Response to

file #[redacted].TDS

advertises that DSL speed and availability vary. Speed plans are “up to”.

Unfortunately TDS is not able to offer faster DSL speeds in Mr. [redacted] area. The

options are that we can reduce his plan to DSL “Lite” (up to 1MB) or Mr. [redacted]

may cancel DSL without penalty. We partner with DISH Network and can

offer their dishNet satellite internet as an alternative. Other alternatives

may include Exede, other satellite or cellular carriers. Mr. Decker is

currently receiving a promotional discount rate for first two years of service.

As an apology for Mr. [redacted] dissatisfaction with the DSL speed, we are

providing an additional discount of $5.00 to last a period of 12-months. Thank you.

TDS is not a good company all around like they claim. My landline just stopped working out of thin air. They could not provide a consistent dial tone or allow phone calls in/out at my residence. After a technician coming to my residence and several phone calls to resolve the matter, decided to cancel landline for terrible service basically no service. When canceling the landline phone service they would not lower my monthly payment the $25.00 I had paid for years for a landline. They didn't even credit me for the month of not being able to use my landline phone. Their excuse of not crediting me was because of breaking a bundle package. I didn't want to break my bundle package or cancel my landline phone but I didn't want to pay for something that wasn't working at all. Terrible service. I would strongly suggest to go with a different provider. I've never come across a company that doesn't admit to mistakes or wrong doing. Terrible service more importantly lack of service. My internet connection does work but concerned if there were ever any issues to arise it would be the same treatment.

Review: Telephone has been out for 5 days, we have contacted TDS daily to let them know that there is a problem. The phone system for service is automated... it took 15 minutes to actually get a human yesterday and today I have been on "hold" for over 30 minutes,,, in fact I am on hold as I am writing this. I am doing this on behalf of my elderly Father. You can't resolve the problem because you cant speak to anyone... some man who identified himself as Richard, finally answered after about 7 minutes, told me to his causes great concern to me since my Father is elderly and I live approximately 27 miles away. When the telephone is out, I have no way to check on him. I am as frustrated by the lack telephone service but what is worse is the lack of concern and the ridiculous telephone wait time... which is now up to 38 minutes.Desired Settlement: I wish them to repair the line issues and restore my Fathers telephone service and adjust the bill for the lack of service for the 5 days he hs had no service... or the number of days the phone remains out.

Business

Response:

Response to file #[redacted].

Review: The company failed to refund false charges that I was just made aware of, they only would credit me for the last three months of the error. I was overcharged for services that were to be included in quoted service from January of this year.Desired Settlement: Would like a credit of $158.26 to my account and adjustment of my bill for Sept and Oct to remove false charges.

Business

Response:

Response to file #[redacted].

Review: I called TDS on Tuesday November 5, 2013 about if I could get my internet a better speed cause of a new line that they put in on my road and they basically said no we did some testing over the phone and he said its not gonna get any better we even tested it out in the grey box outside and still was not any better. right before we got off the phone we asked him to just check the speeds to see if anything had changed he said no. about 2-4 minutes later I got on my computer and noticed it was slow so I checked the speeds and I had 64 kilo-bits/s witch is like 4-8 kilobytes/s and it was a lot higher than that before I called TDS. I called them back and it was a different person and he said that noting had changed and it was a physical issue well told them to send a tech out and it took a week for the tech to show up he stayed for about ~5 minutes and left and our internet was unchanged. We have been trying to get this fixed all month and they say they will send a tech out but he does not do anything that is helping us. I called again this time to talk to a manager and they put us on hold for about an hour then they hung up on us did not tell us that the manager is not available or anything just hung up while we were still on holdDesired Settlement: I would like to have my internet fixed back to the way it was on November 4, 2013 or better cause of the new line. and get a new box out by our road cause it has been struck by lightning and the tech say it "just fine" but I do not think it is.

Business

Response:

Response to file# [redacted]

Review: I terminated phone and internet service with TDS in the middle of a billing cycle because I sold my home in Madison and moved. Since they bill in advance every month I was owed the balance for the remainder of the billing cycle. Instead of issuing me a check for the credit I was due, TDS merely sent me a statement indicating that I had a credit of $27.45.Desired Settlement: TDS must send me a check for $27.45 that I am due.

Business

Response:

It is industry standard that toll charges, which may include operator and directory service charges, have up to 120-days to bill for those services. It is TDS' standard practice to wait 60-days after the final bill is issued to make sure all toll charges are captured and billed before the refund is issued. In this instance, the final bill date was 3/16/14 and the refund would normally be processed in May. We will expedite the final refund process and the check will be processed in the next 7-10 business days.

Thank you.

Review: After investigating a TDS conduit hit on 8/28/2013 in Burrow, Indiana, C-Tech denies any financial responsibility for the damage that was incurred. C-Tech installs guardrail, fence and signs across the state and prides ourselves on taking the proper pre-cautions for underground utilities. I have investigated this with an unbiased approach and have found that the utility was mis-located. To this date I have not seen any backup from TDS disproving this point. We continue to receive invoices for the amount of $8383.76. We will not be submitting payment for this damage.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

I can provide a detailed incident report and photos from the day this hit occurred.This was also sent to a [redacted] a number of times. C-Tech was within the law with a valid locate ticket and 24" from the marks. This was a mis-mark by TDS. I have called the billing department a number of times with no resolve from management. I found the Revdex.com was the only way I might get through.

Sincerely,Desired Settlement: Please acknowledge the acceptance and investigate. If C-Tech's information is proven to be insufficient then I would request photos from TDS. Please also stop billing. As a note, when billing contractors please include a number for someone in claims, not billing.

Business

Response:

Response to file #[redacted].

Review: we had not received a bill for the past six months while they we were switching hands to a different company we had no idea what our bill was we owed. I was not signed up for any form of online bill pay and my new company is now saying that we owe 600 that we did not know about it and upon asking for information the said they could not find our account.Desired Settlement: for the bill from them to be wiped out up to the current month I owe.

Business

Response:

Response to file #[redacted]

Ms. [redacted] is no longer a customer of TDS Telecom. Her new provider, New Florence Telephone (Direct Communications), has been in contact with Ms. [redacted] to assist her with her concerns including providing her with bill copies.

Thank you.

Review: I purchase DSL service from TDS (my local telephone company). My package is supposed to be 5MB. I receive speeds approaching that during the day, however, in the evening the speed drops to 1MB or below making the service frustrating to use. I have contacted customer service on several occasions. One person I spoke to finally admitted that they had oversold DSL service in my area and that there was a piece of equipment (a "head router") that was at capacity. I asked when this would be repaired and he replied that there was little chance of it being repaired. Twoo f the customer service representatives I spoke with told me to get high-speed somewhere else in a rather rude way. TDS recently raised my rate without correcting the problem.Desired Settlement: I would like to receive what I purchased: approximately 5MB at all times.

Business

Response:

Response to file #[redacted].