How Rolla P. Huff destroyed Earthlink

Earthlink has been having trouble making money lately. It's abandoning municipal wi-fi efforts to focus on "more profitable" businesses.

Earthlink can't figure out how to run the businesses it has. After years of great DSL service from Covad, I decided to switch to earthlink for phone and DSL because it's cheaper. I was hoping this was still a decent entrepreneurial company, not a jaded loser like the monopolistic telcos.

I was wrong. My service has been spotty. A week ago, the phone line suddenly went screwy, full of static. The static comes and goes, and is so bad that I can rarely get a DSL signal through it.

I went to tech support, and they spent hours getting me to unplug and plug in lines, cycle the modem, etc. Finally they agreed to send out a technician. But I had to wait two days.

The technician checked all my interior phone lines and found no problems. He hooked up his equipment to the main phone box, and concluded that there was a bad signal in the local loop, which Earthlink leases from AT&T.

He told me he would put in a work order to AT&T to fix it, and said the telco contractually had 24 hours to fix it.

No such luck. The line is still bad. I called tech support again. the technician told me that the issue had never been "escalated" to AT&T. She read me the report. It said that tests found no stress on the interior lines, but did find a problem with the local loop. But, since he did manage to get a DSL signal momentarily on one line, he recommended also having my interior lines checked. Earthlink decided my interior lines were the problem.

I demanded to talk to a supervisor. The supervisor insisted that the technician decided not to escalate to AT&T, but said I should have my interior lines checked. I insisted he had said he would put in the order for AT&T. The supervisor said he would call the technician to see what the difference was. He hasn't been able to reach him for the last four days.

I was on the phone for two or three hours with the supervisor while he tried to reconfigure my system for a bridge connection. That worked for about half an hour, and now I can't get a signal again.

The supervisor had to get me to call a different technician to reconfigure my laptop, which runs Vista. I was on the phone for about two hours with that technician, but the Earthlink bridge could not recognize my earthlink password. He kept trying, changing the password, running off to talk to others. He wouldn't quit, despite zero progress. I finally hung up on him. I had wasted five hours.

Yesterday I got an automated call from Earthlink saying their records indicated my issue had been "resolved." If true, press one. If not, press 2. They connected me to another technician.

The technician said he had to transfer it to a supervisor and put me on hold. For one hour, I listened to a recording telling me that my call was very important to them, but all technicians were helping other customers. At the end of the hour, the recording said I had been waiting too long and they had to help other customers, but please call again. Then it hung up on me.

I'm so mad I can't see straight. I have to go back to AT&T for phone, which seems able to run a decent loop when it isn't for earthlink. And I'll go back to Covad.

Mr. Huff, if you want to know why Earthlink can't make money, talk to me.

UPDATE:

I submitted a complaint to the FCC, then called Earthlink tech support again. The automated service asked for my case number, which I entered, and was again told by the machine that records said the issue was resolved. I pressed 2 to get a technician, and the computer told me that it could not reach any at the moment.

Do you think they set up my case number to start ignoring me?

So I called the tech support line again and just waited for a technician without giving the case number. I got a technician, who insisted HIS records show that the case is still open.

Which should I believe, him or the computer? I'll go with the Borg. It knows.

He transferred me to a supervisor, who first said that the report from the technician who visited my home indicated a problem with internal lines, not the local loop. I made the supervisor read me the report, and sure enough, it said there was a problem with AT&T. The supervisor said she would call the technician.

She called back after an hour and said she could not reach the technician. She would send out a new technician, who would stay in contact with the central borg while checking, so there would be no question of what the problem was.

The technician is supposed to be here on Thursday.

In the meantime, I'm using a wi-fi signal from a neighbor to get online. It works sometimes.

Comments

[tone daddy]

yeah, I just dropped Earthlink...it was unbelievably bad service. They spent more time trying to keep me as a customer and on hold than they did trying to fix the problem. Run away from them. Very, very fast.

[tone daddy]

yeah, I just dropped Earthlink...it was unbelievably bad service. They spent more time trying to keep me as a customer and on hold than they did trying to fix the problem. Run away from them. Very, very fast.

[AmyW]

They are driving me up the wall. I am about to change services as well. I have been with Earthlink for so many years I can't even remember when I started using it. It's only in the last year that I've been having trouble. Their customer service STINKS. All they do is apologize, and never help. I've tried calling, I've tried chatting, I've tried emailing. I am about to write nasty letters to all the Upper Level Management. I have had enough.
Did you know you can't get an earthlink total access disk if you have windows Vista? You have to download it. I guess they're not interested in new customers, or supporting people on dial-up anymore? I told them I wanted a disk sent because I didn't want to wait hours to download it for my new vista PC, and they said, ok, I promise I'll send it. And they didn't. If this was the first time they had promised such a feat, I would not be so hopping angry. They did it before with another software they offer. They were supposed to mail it and didn't. When I got on Chat to compalin about getting billed for something I didn't have, they said it should have never been promised to me.
So this time I insist on speaking to a manager. They say they'll have a manager call back, Guess what? Two days I've been waiting for a call.
So I called back today--they're automated system is a total JOKE. When I asked for the manager, they said they would have someone all back. I said no. I asked for the managers name--they wouldn't give it to me! So I asked to speak to someone else and they transferred me to spanish speaking tech support!
I am changing services. This is totally freaking ridiculous. They've totally ruined it. I used to refer people to Earthlink.

[Tonya Deaver]

I hate earthlink billing. I signed up for DSL last year for 6 months at 19.95 but their billing dept put it through with the new promotion of 3 months for 12.95. I contacted customer support and all they could do was say "sorry" so I have been waiting since July to end my contract and will never refer anyone to them again. I've learned my lesson.

[Kishony]

I called earthlink for some tech support they added another account which I specifically said I didn't want. Then when I called to have the billing corrected for the first slam they sold me a Norton anti virus which I also specifically said I didn't want.

So sad to see a good company gone bad.

[DavidC]

I had DSL installed by Covad years ago, when it was bleeding edge stuff. After they installed it I found out they had put in a 1.4 mb/s line, it just screamed. About 2 months later they decided it wasn't a good business in our area, and pulled out. They told me I could keep my DSL (albeit as a much slower 256 kb/s) through another carrier (can't remember who). Problem was, they never killed my account with AT&T for the local loop, and when I tried the activate a new account with the new provider they couldn't do it because I already had an active account with AT&T.

AT&T couldn't (or wouldn't do it), saying it had to be done by Covad. Covad said they couldn't kill it because I didn't have an account with them.

I fought this for 2 months, then got a cable modem.