Earthlink Consumer Reviews - Page 4

We've had two different lengthy DSL outages at a facility that has an architecture supporting operations in the US and Iraq. The architecture provides personnel management of over 8000 people on a government contract. For the second time in six days we have had an outage starting at about 9:00 AM. The first one was resolved at 2:54 AM the following morning and only because I had a tech badger the Earthlink Help Desk folks and not let them push him off until the next day.

The one today is ongoing as of 6:30 PM with numerous lengthy phone calls and pass arounds. I just got off the phone with the Earthlink Customer Support Desk which is LOCATED IN INDIA to lodge a complaint. I hope it does some good.

When we first got our laptop, we decided to take advantage of the free internet offers for 30 days, as installed in the computer. We tried Earthlink, which said that no billing would occur during the trial period (30 days). We tried it for three days -- it was a nightmare! Terribly slow, connection kept getting interrupted, and downloading would take a century and a half!

We canceled as per the instructions on the site -- written request, certified mail with return receipt. About a week after we first went on, we received the confirmation postcard that they received the cancellation. NOW they've put us in collections for two months of service! WE USED IT FOR THREE DAYS DURING A 30-DAY FREE TRIAL PERIOD! The reps who call are barely audible and difficult to understand. What a ripoff! I plan to report them to the BBB and Attorney General. Internet Users, BEWARE!

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO -- I'm totally frustrated on the phone and on the chat. I'm just giving up there. The EarthLink operators giving me a hard time just for $2.95 There. Here what, I tried to do to resolve it there. I told EarthLink to deactivate my account, no not done, harassed me and my family at 6am in the morning that I had to call "Qwest" to stop these calls. It stop but someone from EarthLink did take away my money from my debit card without my knowledge.

Then I asked again the operator "Please would you replace my money back that you have taken away from me??" No they have not done it and JP Chase have charged my account 35.00 plus the amount there. The woman at Chase said they would do an investigation with EarthLink, but as of tonight nothing is changed. What can I do with both of them?? Help. I give up!!

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS -- I can't even begin to outline all the time/headaches and trouble having this "service" has cost me. "Customer service" often you are told to call back later - they have too much call volume. So-called online account info - haven't ever been given an Earthlink account and password - though they claim I have - and nobody seems to be able then to tell me what it is - so I'm stuck with calling the 800 number only to be told to call back later.

Billing problem has not been resolved though I have called, written a letter, emailed etc... This months bill is abnormally high and I have no idea why and can't get a detailed report of costs - because I can't log onto my supposed Earthlink account (see complaint above). It's becoming kafkaesque. Don't ever ever sign up.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA -- The worst customer service imaginable; the reps never seem to really understand what I'm saying, & there's a big language barrier to us communicating. I was told I wouldn't be charged for the modem, & I was charged $19.99 for delivery of modem. I also told them many times when I signed up (DSL/phone bundle) I did not want auto deduction, I wanted to pay either by check or notified by email & I would then pay online or phone.

They charged me twice what I was expecting via auto pay! There is literally no customer service, I can't trust that they will actually do what I ask re changes to my account, etc. My phone was not working for a few days & after being on hold forever both online live chat & phone, they said their system was down & I wouldn't be charged for those days of no service. Of course I was charged & had to go through the torture that is Earthlink customer service for a credit. If it wasn't my only choice (no other co. Services DSL in my building) I would cancel service in a second.

GREENBELT, MARYLAND -- 10 months ago I switched from dial-up to DSL - and it was the worst experience ever! I had problems from the beginning signal dropping, restarting several times a day. I called many times since Sept. and spent HOURS on the phone with customer service. Every time I had to go through the same checklist; I switched the modem, I switched the cords, I power cycled over and over but it was never right. Finally, in June, DSL went down for 10 days. That is when they told me - 10 MONTHS AFTER I HAD STARTED SERVICE - my connection problems were because I was more than 16,000 feet from the "loop" and couldn'€™t handle the 1.5 M speed.

At this point I gave up and switched to cable. I asked they waive my early termination fee since I never got reliable service for which I had been charged. More hours on the phone until I said I was filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau before they credited the fee back to me. I will NEVER return to Earthlink. They don'€™t care about their customers. STAY AWAY!

Earthlink sporadically blocks my use of my email account to send out articles and photographs to multiple recipients. I have now been 48 hours waiting for this problem to be fixed, with no response. I can never reach the Earthlink department responsible. Calling tech support is extremely frustrating and time consuming, and has not resolved the problem this time, nor did it when it occurred previously. Normal hold times can easily be half an hour before speaking to a tech, and the tech who answers usually can't understand the problem, and the problem continues.

I've been bounced from tech to tech as many as seven times in one, hour-long call, with no resolution at the end. My old ISP sold my account to Earthlink and I've been their customer now for over a decade, but being a long term customer gets you nothing at Earthlink. Their tech support system just gets worse and worse.

There are a couple of competent high-level techs, but it takes multiple calls, being bounced from person to person, and cumulatively hours on hold to find one. And still the problem goes unresolved at the end. The company refuses to provide an email address (and they're an email service provider!), I assume because they don't want to hear directly from customers with problems.

Watch your bill if you use this ISP. I found my rate changing without any reason. When I spoke with them I was told my contract had run out. It had not! Then I was offered another rate for being a long term customer. Still not my original rate. When I insisted on being returned to my current contract I was given a number to speak to another customer service agent. They repeated that my contact had run out and the agent that set up my service had given me incorrect information.

I was asked if I would change companies if I was not returned to the original contract amount. Then they apologized for the mix up and told me my contract had not run out and it would continue until the duration of the plan. The end date they gave me was exactly right, so they had this information all along. If I had not noticed the difference on the invoice I would have been out of luck. Sounds like a scam to me.

NEW YORK -- I have EarthLink Wireless for my cellular service (it used to be called Splash Wireless). The connection is mostly OK. But the customer service and tech support is HORRIBLE. The absolute worst I've ever dealt with. They wasted 50+ hours of my time trying to diagnose a PDA issue instead of sending a new one, refused to escalate the issue to anyone with a brain and were incompetent.

I eventually had to fix the problem myself with the help of an online forum. More recently, they were hacked, lost the Credit Card data for ALL THEIR USERS and simply issued a letter saying basically "Oops, please get a new credit card." Their customer service people aren't even aware that it happened.

MELBOURNE, FLORIDA -- I thought paying a "reasonable" rate for internet service was great until I got it. The beginning low rate is a come-on for no service. Like the others have said, I've waited on line many times for over 20 minutes to get a "service" person. Sometimes after waiting for over 30 minutes I mysteriously get cut off! I've attempted to download my "free" virus and security software several times over the last two weeks but the system won't recognize my password and email address. I've had them re-set by EarthLink twice and still can't get anything.

I got tricked into buying another virus package from them but after I found out it still did not include a firewall, went through the whole fiasco again and cancelled it. I got so mad the other night I tried to cancel but can't get anyone to answer the damn phone!!!