- CenturyLink (NYSE:CTL), up 2.9% in early going today, says it's wrapped an investigation into "cramming" that found no evidence of fraud or wrongdoing, but acknowledged failures tied to pricing, promotion and billing that ended up disappointing customers.
- A special committee of its independent board members conducted the review after a former employee charged the company with sales misconduct, including charging customers for services they didn't order.
- There wasn't evidence to conclude management engaged in wrongdoing, the committee said, and management didn't condone or encourage cramming that wasn't common at the company.
- But some products were "complex and caused confusion, and the resulting bills sometimes failed to meet customer expectations," the company says, and software limitations made it difficult to clearly estimate bills for customers.
- Also, some customers didn't receive an offered point-of-sale discount due to "systems and human errors" and those problems weren't resolved in a timely manner.
- Now read: Centurylink's Turnaround Is Just Getting Started
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