CenturyLink accused of operating sales scheme
A CenturyLink employee claims she was fired for blowing the whistle on the telecommunications company’s high-pressure sales culture that left customers paying millions of dollars for accounts they didn’t request, according to a lawsuit filed this week in Arizona state superior court.
The company’s shares fell the most in six weeks on the news, while the shares of merger partner Level 3 Communications also dropped sharply.
The plaintiff, Heidi Heiser, worked from her home for CenturyLink as a customer service and sales agent from August 2015 to October 2016.
The suit claims she was fired days after notifying Chief Executive Officer Glen Post of the alleged scheme during a companywide question-and-answer session held on an internal message board.
The complaint alleges CenturyLink “allowed persons who had a personal incentive to add services or lines to customer accounts to falsely indicate on the CenturyLink system the approval by a customer of new lines or services.” This would sometimes result in charges that hadn’t been authorized by customers, according to the complaint.
Mark Molzen, a CenturyLink spokesman, said the company “just received the lawsuit. We are reviewing the allegations, which we take very seriously.’’
CenturyLink, of Monroe, La., is in the midst of a $34 billion merger with Level 3 Communications Inc., whose CEO, Jeff Storey, will become chief of CenturyLink in 2019 as the company goes up against powerhouses such as AT&T Inc. in bidding for businesses’ heavy internet traffic. CenturyLink, which provides communications and data services nationwide and offers hosting, cloud, and information technology services, booked $816 million in net income on $17.5 billion in sales last year.
Shares of CenturyLink were down almost 7 percent to $25.25 at 3:20 p.m. in New York, hovering around their biggest intraday decline since May 4. Level 3 shares were down 3.6 percent.
CFRA cut its recommendation on shares of CenturyLink to hold from buy.
Heiser’s complaint alleges that she became increasingly concerned about what she observed at CenturyLink after news of Wells Fargo & Co.’s regulatory troubles broke in September. In that case, Wells Fargo employees opened deposit and credit card accounts without customers’ consent to earn incentives and meet sales goals. Without admitting wrongdoing, Wells Fargo ended up firing more than 5,000 employees and agreeing to pay $ 185 million in fines, in addition to compensating customers for fees related to the unauthorized accounts.
The complaint likens what Heiser said CenturyLink sales agents did to the Wells Fargo scandal and estimated the alleged unauthorized fees amounted to “many millions” of dollars. She says her concerns were bolstered by posts she had read on review websites.
When a customer complained about an unauthorized charge, customer service and sales agents like Heiser were directed “to inform the complaining customer that CenturyLink’s system indicated the customer had approved the service,” according to the complaint, and as a result “it was really the customer’s word against CenturyLink.”