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So, I've posted before about the atrocious customer dis-service that Earthlink has become known for, and I've had to endure.
Well, no more.
After the second month of their online automated payment system making multiple authorization requests to our bank account, (4 this time) we decided that we have really and truly had enough of them.
The story begins about a month and a half ago, when there was an outage in my area. After being placed on hold for nearly an hour, I reached one of their barely-English speaking, script-following, non-technical service representatives. It wasn't until he had been "helping" me for over half an hour before he made the amazing discovery that I couldn't connect because there was an outage!
If I had telekinetic power, that man would have been dead.
Fast forward to a week later. We get home from work to find a door tag from Charter Cable service hanging on our door. I am actually fed up enough with Earthlink that I'm willing to entertain the idea of possibly going back to Charter, a company I learned to loath some time ago.
So, I point my browser over to Broadband Reports to check out the customer service comparison between Earthlink and Charter. It turns out that they are about equally reviled among those who have the misfortune to use their services. Of all responses (of which they have thousands), they both rate just above 60%. Most of the hate is over their inability to provide any form of competent customer service or tech support.
So, after pitching the Charter door tag into the trash, I decide to see a ratings comparison on providers who service my area. There are a number of them, and a few of them even have decent ratings.
Among them, I found what appears to be a beacon of light amongst the mass of mediocre ratings shining down upon a company called DSL Extreme. Not only is this company local, not only do they have knowledgeable tier 1 techs, not only do they have reasonable prices, but the vast majority of what few bad ratings they have received are mostly from people who don't understand that their problems are either their inability to plan or read, or from Verizon being difficult and mucking up installs that go over their lines. As we have AT&T (for which there were no complaints), I ignored those complaints.
Fast forward to last week, and Earthlink's continued incompetence, and I finally make the necessary arrangements for the switch. A date is set (today), and we come home to switch over our connection from one provider to the other.
We make the necessary changes to one of our computer's settings (DNS servers and one checkbox to uncheck) and then swap over the lines (we have three separate lines that come into this apartment for some unknown reason), and find we have a problem.
After a refreshingly simple call to DSL Extreme's tech support line, Nekojin was soon speaking to a representative who knew how to actually do networking and shortly had us up and running and free to dump Earthlink like the sack of crap they had become.
Then, it was time to call Earthlink. I would have cancelled my account online, but they don't allow that. You can only call, fax, or snail mail cancellation requests. So I get through to a rep, manage to get her to understand what I want, and am almost immediately dumped. I don't know if they train their people to hang up when they don't want to deal with a caller (we've been hung up on an average of at least once per call), or if their phone system is just a steaming pile of feces.
I call back. This time I'm on hold for much longer and the new representative has a much thicker accent and less a grasp of English. I muddle through the security checks, having to make her repeat things several times in her broken speech, and finally get to the shining moment. I confirm that I want to cancel everything and be gone from their company.
But, of course, she has to ask me why I want to leave. I give her half a dozen rather unflattering and unpleasant reasons. So she counters with a new internet offer. I tell her I don't want it. So she counters with a second service offer. I tell her not only do I still not want it, but I've already replaced it for less than half the cost. She offers me another, notably different offer that I still don't want. I again tell her that I want to close out all of my accounts so that I may never be bothered by their frustrating and aggravating call center ever again.
And then, it is done! She gives me a confirmation number, and it's like I've been reborn!
I'm now surfing at nearly twice the speed for less than 1/3 of the price and can look forward to getting people with brains, so Cal accents, and informative hold information in my future.
^-.-^
Well, no more.
After the second month of their online automated payment system making multiple authorization requests to our bank account, (4 this time) we decided that we have really and truly had enough of them.
The story begins about a month and a half ago, when there was an outage in my area. After being placed on hold for nearly an hour, I reached one of their barely-English speaking, script-following, non-technical service representatives. It wasn't until he had been "helping" me for over half an hour before he made the amazing discovery that I couldn't connect because there was an outage!
If I had telekinetic power, that man would have been dead.
Fast forward to a week later. We get home from work to find a door tag from Charter Cable service hanging on our door. I am actually fed up enough with Earthlink that I'm willing to entertain the idea of possibly going back to Charter, a company I learned to loath some time ago.
So, I point my browser over to Broadband Reports to check out the customer service comparison between Earthlink and Charter. It turns out that they are about equally reviled among those who have the misfortune to use their services. Of all responses (of which they have thousands), they both rate just above 60%. Most of the hate is over their inability to provide any form of competent customer service or tech support.
So, after pitching the Charter door tag into the trash, I decide to see a ratings comparison on providers who service my area. There are a number of them, and a few of them even have decent ratings.
Among them, I found what appears to be a beacon of light amongst the mass of mediocre ratings shining down upon a company called DSL Extreme. Not only is this company local, not only do they have knowledgeable tier 1 techs, not only do they have reasonable prices, but the vast majority of what few bad ratings they have received are mostly from people who don't understand that their problems are either their inability to plan or read, or from Verizon being difficult and mucking up installs that go over their lines. As we have AT&T (for which there were no complaints), I ignored those complaints.
Fast forward to last week, and Earthlink's continued incompetence, and I finally make the necessary arrangements for the switch. A date is set (today), and we come home to switch over our connection from one provider to the other.
We make the necessary changes to one of our computer's settings (DNS servers and one checkbox to uncheck) and then swap over the lines (we have three separate lines that come into this apartment for some unknown reason), and find we have a problem.
After a refreshingly simple call to DSL Extreme's tech support line, Nekojin was soon speaking to a representative who knew how to actually do networking and shortly had us up and running and free to dump Earthlink like the sack of crap they had become.
Then, it was time to call Earthlink. I would have cancelled my account online, but they don't allow that. You can only call, fax, or snail mail cancellation requests. So I get through to a rep, manage to get her to understand what I want, and am almost immediately dumped. I don't know if they train their people to hang up when they don't want to deal with a caller (we've been hung up on an average of at least once per call), or if their phone system is just a steaming pile of feces.
I call back. This time I'm on hold for much longer and the new representative has a much thicker accent and less a grasp of English. I muddle through the security checks, having to make her repeat things several times in her broken speech, and finally get to the shining moment. I confirm that I want to cancel everything and be gone from their company.
But, of course, she has to ask me why I want to leave. I give her half a dozen rather unflattering and unpleasant reasons. So she counters with a new internet offer. I tell her I don't want it. So she counters with a second service offer. I tell her not only do I still not want it, but I've already replaced it for less than half the cost. She offers me another, notably different offer that I still don't want. I again tell her that I want to close out all of my accounts so that I may never be bothered by their frustrating and aggravating call center ever again.
And then, it is done! She gives me a confirmation number, and it's like I've been reborn!
I'm now surfing at nearly twice the speed for less than 1/3 of the price and can look forward to getting people with brains, so Cal accents, and informative hold information in my future.
^-.-^
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