I don't see how Earthlink can possibly survive much longer doing business as it does.
Several months ago I wrote about my experience with Earthlink as a DSL provider. There have been several comments from people sharing their experiences -- pretty much exactly like mine. Tech support can't help. they put you on hold, then hang up. I once determinedly sat on hold for an hour before I got a message saying that I had been holding too long and they had to go serve other customers!
I wonder what customers these were.
Phil just posted a comment asking what ended up happening, so I thought I'd write a follow up.
The short answer: Absolutely nothing. Even after I filed a complaint with the FCC, all that happened is that I got bumped up to a higher level of management, which was equally unhelpful. After a while, I got a letter from the FCC saying that it understood my problem had been resolved. I wrote back and said it had not.
One of the Earthlink technicians decided that the problem was in my modem. They sent me a new one, then sent me a bill for it. the new modem made absolutley no difference to the problems I had, static on the phone line and on-and-off DSL.
They sent another technician out, who claimed, once again, that the problem had to be with my internal phone lines. I replaced all my lines with brand new ones from the main box to the walls, installed new jacks in the walls and bought a new phone just to make sure.
Guess what? Nothing changed.
I finally quit Earthlink and went with another provider. All of a sudden, my problems mysteriously went away!
I had to argue three more times with people in billing and threaten to go to the FCC again to get Earthlink to agree to cancel my last bill, the charge for the new modem, and the early termination fee. But I did convince them.
Anybody want a free, brand new Earthlink modem?
The really funny part is that a month after i quit, I got a phone call from Earthlink conducting a survey about customer service. I spent 20 minutes rating the company on a scale of 0 to 10. How was the service? 0. Would you recommend Earthlink to friends? 0. How likely are you to use Earthlink in the future? 0.
Does anybody actually pay attention to the survey results?
It is absolutely impossible for a company to stay in business this way, especially since my experience was far from unique. Before it goes out of business, file a complaint with the FCC and then cancel your service. You can do it easily online.
I got another letter from the FCC yesterday saying, once again, that they understand my issues were resolved. It's easy to just let it go, but I guess I'd better respond. Somebody needs to know how incompetent this company is.