Complaint Review: Earthlink

I have been an Earthlink DSL customer since 2000 and, up until a couple of weeks ago, I was pretty much satisfied with their service. The DSL worked nearly all of the time. The only problem I had was when I had to talk to tech support. Earthlink used to have great tech support but now their tech support is a joke - but more about that later.

Anyway, the DSL service I had from Earthlink was good so when I heard about Earthlink's new home phone/dsl bundle, I thought it would be a great idea. I would be paying the same price as I was already paying for the dsl service($60.00 because we have the home networking setup) and I would also be getting phone service. It was like getting my telephone service for free. Sounded like an excellent deal.

The welcome kit was supposed to arrive in 7-10 business days but, after 12 days I began to worry since our mail carrier seems to like to give us other people's mail. So I sent an email to Earthlink mentioning that I was worried our welcome kit had been delivered to the wrong address. They email me back and tell me that I need to talk to a Livechat representative because they need to verify my identity and cannot make changes to my account via email. I tried Livechat but the first person I chatted with immediatly transfered me over to another person who never connected. After waiting for over 20 minutes for the other Livechat representative to connect, I gave up and emailed Earthlink again. Which was almost like talking to a wall. No answers just various ways of saying, "we either cannot help you or just don't want to help you so go talk to somebody else".

The welcome kit did finally arrive -- via UPS-- (why couldn't they just tell me this instead of giving me the runaround??!!!) the night before the service was to be switched over. I should point out that I know my way around computers so, for me, this should have been a breeze -- but things didn't go exactly as planned. After four hours of fighting with various software and hardware configurations and going from Mac to PC several times just to try to get something working, one of the computers finally got online -- then right back off again. The internet and dsl indicators on the modem were both off again so I figured that Earthlink was having some problems on this particular night. I went to my computer the next morning and it looked like everything was working perfectly. But, at around 5:00pm the DSL slowed to a crawl and then disconnected. The phone service was out too. I decided to be patient and give Earthlink a day or so to work things out but the pattern continued. Every night at around 5:00pm the dsl slows to an unusable crawl and then I get frequent disconnections - not only with the internet but with my phone line as well.

At this point, my patience is wearing thin. I decide to send Earthlink an email since, on that particular day, the dsl keeps disconnecting. Here is where the Earthlink support nightmare begins. On the Earthlink email contact page they ask you the nature of your problem. When I selected "Random Disconnections" from the menu, I get a message saying that I would have to talk to a Livechat representative!! To deal with the issue of random disconnections!! Where is the logic in that? I cannot stay online so they won't give me an email answer but want me to talk to somebody online!

Well, I attempted to talk to the Livechat person and I did manage to describe my problem before being disconnected. When I recieved no confirmation of my complaint, I used a cell phone to call tech support. The first person I talked to transfered me to somebody else who, after being told that I know my way around computers and I know that the problem isn't my phone line, modem, or computer and that everything is setup properly, finally explained that there was a problem with an incomplete dsl signal and that Earthlink was aware of this and working on the problem.

After suffering through the nightly disconnects for a few more days, I try to get in touch with somebody to find out when the service will be working right. Finally, after several calls to tech support and being talked down to and treated like a child by people who don't seem to know anything at all about computers, I get in touch with a gentleman who seemed sincere in his desire to help. He explained that this was a widespread problem and that Earthlink was working on it. He also told me to send an email to support or call again if the problem continued for more than two days. I tried to call but got sick of waiting on hold. So I sent an email to ask when the problem will be resolved but was told to talk to a Livechat representative. Livechat rep says that there is no problem with Earthlink and that it must be my phone line. I tell Livechat that my phone lines were working perfectly up until I switched to their service and asked why a problem with the phoneline would only show up after 5:00pm? No response -- Livechat person conveniently disappears. I should point out that, at this point, the phone service seems stable so at least part of the service is working properly.

This has been going on for over two weeks now with no relief in sight. Several calls and emails to Earthlink have only given me the runaround or, in the case of emails, have gone unanswered. Earthlink makes their customers sign up for a one-year contract so I am stuck unless I can figure out how to get out of this contract without having to pay the fee for early termination of services.

Mary
San Bernardino, California
U.S.A.

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