Saturday, October 28, 2006

EarthLink Gripes

You can post your EarthLink gripes here. My only rule is no foul language.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beware of Earthlink workers saying that "In-Home" Networking gear is "free." They will actually TAKE about $180.00 from your credit card or checking account, and hold it for about 4 weeks before you can get it back. With no upfront disclosure! So much for free! When I called to complain and demand my money be put back in my account, I was told that it would take at least two billing cycles to get my refund! I have filed a formal complaint with the Texas Attorney General, but I wonder how much money they are making by floating their customers' monies for over a month! This is a gigantic rip, and Earthlink needs to receive huge bad press for it!

Anonymous said...

Randomly dropping connection to the internet. Wake up and no connection at all. After multiple attempts with customer service and still no help resolving issues, even purchasing a new computer, reinstalling software, hours of pinging and adjusting no connection. Then wake up another morning and connection is okay. I hate earthlink and just want to cancel my contract. It happened again this morning....

Anonymous said...

I just contacted "support.earthlink.net/email" and was connected to Adam. While I was writing my question, I kept getting the warning that Adam was waiting and would have to disconnect if he didn't hear from me (that's understandable). When I finished, I sent my message and the message appeared in red in the upper screen. About two minutes later, I got a message from Adam stating that he can't wait any longer and must disconnect. So, is there something that I missed about how to send a question?

Pam Strayer said...

My complaint is that Earthlink is unreachable.
I need to close a domain name The recorded voice tells me my password is incorrect, (not true).
I guess I'll have to tell Visa to not pay them. Perhaps that will illicit a response.
They ask you on their canned message to fill out an email response. Boy, would I like to do that!

Anonymous said...

The earthlink customer support (ha ha) staff is suffering from multiple personality disorder. I needed to know why my email was not sending from my mail program. I tried live chat first. The guy kept referring me to a trouble shooting web page that didn't even apply to my particular program. He pretty much gave up after I kept asking him questions and making comments that his solution wasn't working. At the end of the session he asked if I'd be interested in some home networking service. after a couple of days without outgoing email, I decided to call E. after a monstrously long wait (probably 1/2 hour) i finally reached a breathing human being. luckily he was better versed with my mail program and directed me to use a different port than was listed. strange thing is this port had worked many times before and no one a E told me it was going to change. The second person also asked about home networking. they are very determined to get more business even if. oh and it's great to call E when your service goes out to find that their toll free number is not accepting calls due to so much traffic. I don't know why i'm still with E. I think I'm too lazy to change my email address.

geovox said...

We've had Earthlink DSL since 7/03, Mindspring dialup for years before. Just learned a good lesson: Earthlink cares NOTHING for its customers. After receiving empty promises 3 times from regular customer no-service for a 6 month recurring billing error we email-escalated our documentation to the new interim CEO Lunsford. To our initial pleasant surprise someone from his office phoned us within 24 hours of the email. But then to our quick and complete disappointment not only did Earthlink NOT want to resolve the issue and reward their loyal customer for bringing a problem to their attention, they proceeded to re-state the issue, discuss 'policy', how WRONG the CUSTOMER was to assert that the billing rate could be incorrect, and finally argue about it! Wonder how your stockholders would feel if they learned about your arrogant and incompetent behavior Earthlink?

Anonymous said...

July 2007

I changed my phone number about a year ago. This month, I suddenly lost my internet connection and called technical support. After being on hold for 15 minutes, I was told that it was a line problem on their end and that they would check it out and call me back within 24 hours. No call back. I called them again the next day and they told me the modem was bad and that I needed to order a new one. Since we have an in-home business, I opted for the overnight shipping which cost $40. By the way, their overnight shipping takes 3 days to process and then they ship overnight. I kid you not! When I received my modem, nothing changed. I still could not get on the internet. I called technical support and after another long hold time, I had to give them my email address which I had to spell out several times to them. Then they put me on hold to check my account and of course I several times I got hung up on and had to go through the whole thing again. After two hours of this and after talking to supervisors, I still had no internet service. Later the next day, they told me that it was because I changed my phone number. I told them that I changed it a year ago and the internet was working fine all that time. Now they have charged me another $80 for a disconnection fee. I guess it was because I called Qwest for a trial of their service. In any case, if Earthlink had been doing their job, they could have prevented all of this by at least asking me about chaning my phone number. They always ask what phone number you are having problem with when you first call them.
So now two weeks later, I am supposed to have the system up today, but so far NOTHING!.
I asked the "customer service" rep how I would know when my service was established. She said they would send me an email. Yep an email. She said I could see the email if I use their dial up system. So I am out $120 because earthlink has hired people who don't seen to be experts, but rather read from a book and guess what the problem is.
Why do I keep them? The only reason is that my wife didn't want to notify the hundreds of people of our new email addess if we switched. I would never recommend Earthlink to anyone anymore. Poor customer service and poor technical support!

Anonymous said...

I get lured to earthlink with a $50 phone, internet offer, free extras on the phone that sounded cool. So I sign up.

MISTAKE. Earthlink doesn't talk to my work email account, so i cannot send emails from home using my work outlook. I call and they say, oh, well. So sad, too bad.

They don't send the $100 bucks free visa they promise.

Also, ok, I hate the fact that I have to be the ugly American with people living in who-knows-where, who reply to everything with canned speeches. Now I am stuck with Earthlink for a YEAR.


I have learned my lesson: from now on, i always call customer support to fake a problem BEFORE i sign up, and only buy products where the tech support speaks American English as a first language. it is cruel to both the customers and the telephone support people. Customer service at Earthlink: hire a bunch of folks, give them some memorized lines, and make the customers crazy. Whatever you do, DON'T SOLVE THE PROBLEM, just make the customer feel stupid and angry for ever thinking that an ISP company cares that its custmoers get what they want.

Anonymous said...

To the point, Earthlink does not care about its customers. I am a special education teacher in Massachusetts and need to be e-mailing my parents concerning their children's progress or lack of progress. I thought Earthlink's prices were good, but I was immediately struck by their need to bill immediately and their aggressiveness in getting you to agree to additional costs. I asked that they bill me and inquired whether they had a trial period--afterall I did not want to pay for any service that did not satisfy my e-mail requirements--this was my bread and butter. It took over an hour with customer service to get my email address and passcode and then they switched me to techical for the hook-up. An hour later, I was still waiting. I didn't have the time to wait for the hook-up so when I was billed, I inquired whether I could do this another way. I was stilled billed for a month and they stated a DVD would be sent. It never arrived. I waited. After three months of billing, I tried again. This time I took the day off from work to do odds and ends which included trying to connect again via phone service and I had a new computer (so maybe the service would be different) --I had to decide whether to continue with my present internet service as my renewel date was coming up.From 3:00 - 7:00 with technical service, I had made two attempts. The first time I still could not connect. The second time, they gave me another route and this time I connected but I could not send out e-mail. It was too late and I had tied up my phone for four hours, so I waited the next morning to try again--I figured maybe some adjusting from their end maybe had to take place and today I could use the service. I got on but lost the connection immediately so I used my other internet service again. I tried again on Sunday to find out they did finally cancel my servive on Sunday (I had been billed for four months. They stated they would reconnect if I paid a $15.00 reconnection fee and past owed amount, plus a new amount -$9.95, even though they could not assure me that I could use my e-mail. As the gentlemen said, it is an internet service, only--that is the only thing they guaranteed. He stated that I had actually used their services, three times and he gave me the three times I had connected on Friday and Saturday before they cancelled my services. I stated I don't know how they could count the time I just couldn't get through, when I couldn't send my emails--both times using tech services-- and when I was bumped off as soon as I logged on. Well, I guess what you pay for can even be less than what you get. I'm staying with a service I can get on line immediately and I can "talk" with a person who is interested in serving me.
Laura Nowick

Anonymous said...

Unique Earthlink email problem - a guy from New York and me (I live in Atlanta) have the exact same email address!!!! I get his bills and email - and he gets mine!!!
Earthlink says this is not possible - but I can prove them wrong!! They do not care - it cannot be done!!! This has been going on for about 2 years!!! I GAVE UP!!!

Anonymous said...

On 9/15/07, I called Earthlink to cancel my telephone & DSL effective 10/1/07 because of an impending move. I was given a confirmation number & was told I would be able to pay for 11 days of prorated costs from the end of my billing period, 9/20/07 until the end of my service on 10/1/07 in the amount of $29.54 but that I had to call back and "reconfirm." On 9/29/07, I called to reconfirm the cancellation of my account & was told that I had been canceled & a credit has been issued to my account.

When I tried to use my phone & DSL later that day, I had no service. I called tech support from my cell phone & was told my service would be restored in 10 minutes. After 35 min. without service I again called tech support. Despite another promise of having my phone & DSL restored, my service never resumed. I had no time to deal with them as I was packing for my move so I did not follow up any more on the early cancellation of my telephone & DSL service.

After my move, I noticed that charges for Earthlink were on my credit card bill. On 12/5/07, I called Earthlink to dispute the following: On 10/23/07, I was billed $93.52, & on 11/21/07 I was billed $78.81. I called & was given a new confirmation number & was told I would no longer be billed & would receive a refund.

Despite assurances, my credit card was billed on 12/21/07 for $80, & on 1/22/08 for the same amount of $80. On 1/27/08, I called Earthlink & was told they will issue a refund for my account within 7-10 business days. I was given yet another reference number.

So far, I have been overcharged in the amount of $332.33. After previous promises of a refund & cancellation of all future charges, I am not convinced that this latest telephone call will have an effect. The employees at Earthlink are friendly & apologetic, but not effective. I desire a refund immediately & no more bills against my credit card. I have not had access to Earthlink telephone or DSL since 1/29/07 & will not be using their services in the future.

Anonymous said...

I don't even know where to start with Earthlink. First, let me start off by saying this is the WORST Internet Service and Worst Customer Service in the WORLD!!! I called and ordered service on Jan. 28, 2008 and realized my phone company offers DSL at the same price they were charging for dial-up. So I called back 4 days later and cancelled my order. I was told okay, no problem we can do that. He told me NO money would be charged to my account and that my account with Earthlink was cancelled. Well, approximately 5 days later, my acct. was charged 14.95!!So I called earthlink and was told well you used 15 hrs. thats why your acct. was charged. I argued and said that i was told first mth. was free anyways. He then told me my acct. would be credited and again my acct. would NOT be charged in the future. In March I went into the bank and was overdrawn. The teller printed me out a receipt and said it was from guess who??? EARTHLINK. They charged my acct. 30.00 which made me overdrawn. So now I had a 32.00 overdrawn fee on top. Three days later they charged my acct. again for 30.00. I called Earthlink and was told stop calling and that i was not going to get any help and to "GET LOST". So of course I called back very upset...and I cant really understand anyone over there so theres a cummunication problem as it is. I explained what happened and told this person i was told to get lost. They were apologetic and said that my acct was going to get credited the money that shouldn't have been taken out. OH, I was also told the 30.00 charge was for a "termination" fee. I just laughed when I was told this. I told this person, I would have NEVER got your service if i knew about a termination fee. I am STILL waiting for my money to be returned to my acct. its been a week now. Don't worry, I will be a big thorn in their behind until i get my money back. I was told their main branch was in Georgia, and I WILL get a hold of someone at their main branch in AMERICA!!!

Anonymous said...

On September 5th 2007 I contacted earthlink for the wifi, gave them my credit card number. The very next morning I cancelled everything. For 3 months they billed my credit card company, I made many many calls, was given many confirmation numbers, that this would be taken care of. NOT. Then I had to cancel my credit card, they then paper billed me. I called a few more times, wrote 3 letters, and emailed the corporate officers. Here it is 9 months later and I am still getting billed I finally had to make a complaint to the FCC. The FCC contacted them, only then did Earthlink call me, said my account was closed and I would no longer get billed, HA!! I have since received 2 more bills, I made another call to the FCC, was again called by earthlink telling me the bills will stop, waiting for next months bill to arrive.

Anonymous said...

Listen everyone, the only way to get anything resolved with earthlink is to contact the FCC, you can call them or you can go to their website and fill out a form. Also, when you call Georgia, they also do not help in any matters. Only solution is to contact the FCC, for some reason Earthlink only responds when the FCC gets on them.

Anonymous said...

Cancellaton!
Apparently they don't want to talk to you about this. For 2 days I tried calling to cancel - responding "cancellation" to the voice response system. I immediately got a message saying that they were experiencing higher than normal call volume and to call back later or try their website. Well, you can't cancel via the website - only by talking to customer service. I also tried to do a "live chat" - they require you to put in a topic. Once again I entered "cancellation". I waited 10-15 minutes and never was connected with a person. I finally decided to respond with something else but "cancellation". Low and behold I was connected with a human in less than 2 minutes. Imagine that!!

Bob Tuna said...

For anybody who would like a laugh at Earthlink's expense, please visit the online version of the Marysville Appeal-Democrat. My comic strip "Berserkers" in the week of 30Mar-02Apr2009 deals with my two main characters, Oda and Gort, trying to find Oda's kidnapped wife by installing "Jerklink Total Abcess" . The comic strip can be found at www.appeal-democrat.com/sections/comics/berserkers . I've had a few rotten experiences with "Jerklink" myself, but it made me feel better to draw this.

Bob Tuna

Computer Help said...

Thanks for sharing this info post.

Anonymous said...

A few weeks ago, Earthlink webmail was sending messages twice...Then an "internal error" massage ket popping up...then the inbox was shown to be empty when it really wasn't...then, just today, webmail isn't working at all!

What a delight. Hello Comcast.

Anonymous said...

I have been a customer with Earthlink for nearly a year. I decided to close a credit card out as the interest rate was going up, so changed their billing over to my checking account. They responded by charge $387.01 to my checking since March 2009.

When I called Earthlink, I was told that there had been simultaneous log-in's using my account. Since I am a single woman living alone, I knew this was not possible. I later learned that when the WIFI was turned off at work, my personal computer there would then connect via the telephone. Had I known this in March, I would have fixed it in March.

Instead, I am informed only when I change billing methods.

So... If you have EarthLink, you had better change billing methods every month to make sure they are not going to bill you for past problems.

Below is a copy of their email to me:

Remit To: Account Number: 26810863
Page: 1
Earthlink, Inc. Invoice Number: 412143794
P.O. Box 790216 Billing Date: 12/02/09
St. Louis, MO 63179-0216
Previous Balance: 399.67
Balance Due: 0.00
Bill To: New Charges: 387.01
Nancy Troutman
3180 Walnut Bottom Road
P.O. Box 150
Swanton, MD 21561

________________________________________________________________________________
Date Description Qty Price Amount
________________________________________________________________________________


Previous Balance 399.67


11/03/09 Charge to MC -399.67CR
-------------
Adjusted Beginning Balance


tfarm (Nancy Troutman)


12/02/09 Dec 2-Jan 1:Unlimited Dial Up 1.00 21.95 21.95
12/01/09 Through Dec 1:Total Hours 1,031.11 .00
12/01/09 Through Dec 1:Simultaneous Ho 365.06 1.00 365.06


New Charges: 387.01
________
BALANCE DUE: 0.00
12/03/09 Paid By Visa -387.01CR
________
Remaining Balance Due: 0.00
________

Recent payment not reflected? We may have sent this invoice before your last
payment was received.

- Manage your account and pay your balance online at
http://myaccount.earthlink.net
- Service or Support Questions go to http:
//support.earthlink.net

Please pay upon receipt and be sure to include your account number with your
payment.
Any previous balance listed above is now past due. You have 30 days from the
invoice date to dispute a charge

cv said...

Earthlink has the worst customer support. I mean as of now am not using, previously had there connection. Had to call up the customer support daily and they would keep in online for 30 minutes and just hang up..I always suggest people i know of to never go with Earthlink ..thanks for asking me to share my thoughts
Technical Support CV

Capn Eddie Ricketyback said...

I'm sure this is not going to do any good, but what the heck, what can I lose? Here is a copy of a communication I sent to Earthlink Re: their web hosting service.
---------------------------------
About a month ago I noticed, when I was doing a test download of a file that I had posted on my Earthlink hosted web site that it was downloading much slower than it should be, in fact, only about 10% of what my Earthlink Cable Internet connection was capable of delivering. I assumed that this was a temporary situation, and that download speeds would soon be back to normal. So far, that has not occurred, and files from my site are still downloading at only 10% of the capability of my connection. For instance, I recently downloaded a 29.9 MB file from my Earthlink hosted web site,
which took about 8 minutes to download at about 70 kb/s. I then performed a test of my download speed and the result was 7.0 mb/s (869 kb/s).

I then downloaded a 25 MB file from a different, non-Earthlink hosted site, which completed in less than a minute at 800+ kb/s.

Other downloads from other sites produce similar results, so as far as I can tell this poor performance occurs only on my Earthlink hosted web site. I have had numerous communications from Tech Support about this, and they all claim that there are no problems with your servers. They are quick to blame my ISP (Earthlink Cable) for this discrepancy, despite the fact that this problem only occurs on this Earthlink hosted web site.

I would not like to have to find another web hosting service, but I'm not going to tolerate this sub-standard service much longer.

Me, of course said...

TWe have DISH & called them about internet. We have NO DLINE & explained that to the EarthLink sales rep. No service, no jacks......nothing! Sales said we didn't need it. They took the card # and said it wouldn't be charged until someone followed up with a call. The card was chgd. on the 15, no waiting. The DSL modem was shipped but not rec'd til the 27th. It required a jack. I called the same day and requested a return shipping label with a refund. I was told it was done. On the 1st they chgd. the card again for service they KNEW I couldn't get. It took over an hour of saying no to repeated sales attempts on our CELL minutes to.get a refund for the.original chrg. And the chrg they had no right to.take took 24 hrs. And neither will be back in the account for 7-10 business days. EarthLink is crooked. And did I mention that every CSR was Indian? Not an American in the bunch! EarthLink is an outsourcer who deprives the very people who pay for service of JOBS!!!