I began my journey into a business relationship with the Internet Service Provider Earthlink in January of 2007. Maybe I should call it more of an adventure, as the author Terry Pratchett wrote, “Adventure! People talked about the idea as if it was something worthwhile, rather than a mess of bad food, no sleep, and strange people inexplicably trying to stick pointed objects in bits of you.” (Quoted from http://thinkexist.com/quotes/sent-by/cleokatrah/)
Yes, that’s a lot like what service from Earthlink is like: bad food, no sleep, and strange people with pointed objects.
Initially my desire was simply to get out from under the poor technical service I had been receiving with my local phone company’s DSL service. As a former Tech Support Agent married to a former Tech Support Agent, we were pretty sure there were better service providers out there. When we chose Earthlink we were very wrong.
Earthlink makes it very easy to sign up: you dial the 800 number and immediately begin your conversation with a professional, friendly, well-spoken agent who walks you through your set-up. During my set-up I asked when Earthlink would be effective, as I wanted to make sure my arrangements with my current provider didn’t cause overlapping coverage. “Oh no,” she said, “You want to leave your existing coverage in place, just in case you don’t get all of your Earthlink log on information in time.” This sounded odd to me, but I assumed she knew what she was talking about, since she offered the information. I was told I would receive my set-up package and modem in 10-12 business days, and was slated to begin Earthlink service on January 22. Great. Little or no effort went into setting this service up. We were very pleased.
Midnight, January 15th: my darling husband and I are staying up unusually late, getting in some online gaming. Low and behold we lose service. The next morning we contact our local internet provider, who informs us, “Well, yes, we’ve shut your DSL service off with us because Earthlink has taken over the line.”
Earthlink has taken over the line. You know what that means: invasion! It sounded so alarming. Little did I know it would be a battle to get my service started, and the battle was just now beginning.
I contacted Earthlink. Suddenly there is no straight-through to a service representative: long wait times to speak with technical support agents who seemed to be having a very difficult concept of my very simple problem bombarded me throughout the day. I finally spoke with a technical support agent at Earthlink: I was told at that time that we could not connect through our existing service’s DSL modem; we needed to have the Earthlink modem installed in order to use the Earthlink service. First off, this was not explained to me during the set up of my initial purchase. Secondly, we had not yet received any installation package or the modem from Earthlink.
Understanding that we may be without service for approximately 2-3 days, as we were told that the modem had been shipped, we did not contact Earthlink the next day, but instead waited to see if the modem would be delivered so we could begin set-up and re-establish our internet service. By 3pm on January 16th, it was obvious that we would not be receiving the modem that day.
January 17, 2007: this morning was the beginning of my third day without internet. It was with sincere hope that I would remain calm and understanding despite the present circumstances that I contacted Earthlink for further information on my MIA modem. I called the 1-800-890-5128 number that I was given by sales and repeatedly fought with the automated voicemail, which assumed I was a dial-up customer and answered all my questions as if I were having problems connecting to my dial-up service. I finally received an option to connect to a live person. I received dead air. After waiting for two to three minutes, I spoke into the dead air: “I have done customer service and I have done technical support for Hewlett Packard. I’m not going to hang up just because you have me on mute. So answer the phone.” I immediately got a response from a person named “Ryder”, who sounded very distinctly unlike a Ryder.
“Ryder” patiently let me repeat my problem to him (see paragraphs 2-3). He then put me on hold to check to see when it was shipped. I’m pretty sure this was just Ryder’s way of getting that extra cigarette/coffee break, as he came back to tell me the modem had not been shipped (My husband had been told yesterday by the tech support agent he spoke with that it had been shipped already.) He then gave me the party line: “it will be 7-10 business days before your modem is received. You were told this during your initial call with sales. 7-10 business days is the standard time for shipping. [Ryder, Technical Support, January 17, 2007]. I asked for someone who would be able to give me shipping information, including a tracking number and I was informed that I would need to speak with the “phone department”. Who? No, he was not trying to pawn this problem off on my previous service provider (and I would like to thank Ryder for having the good sense not to further rile my anger by blaming another company). He was, however, pawning me off on another department; A very obviously made-up department. My call was dropped during the “transfer”. I was not at all surprised. Obviously, Ryder has learned the tricks of the trade: an angry customer lost somewhere in the system is one less customer you have to personally deal with.
That was fifteen minutes wasted.
I called back, wrestled with the system again, and got a “Christine”. She promptly informed me that I would again need to be transferred, this time to Customer Service. I promptly informed her that I just got the “transfer” deal from Ryder, and did NOT want to be dropped again. The transfer did go through, and I spoke with a “Christina”…who sounded suspiciously like Christine did. Christina informed me that the equipment was shipped on the 15th, and then checked with her supervisor to find out how long it would be before I would have the modem.
Christina was unable to give me a tracking number, or even whether it was being shipped UPS or Federal Express. She was only able to give me a confirmation number for my call. She then promptly tried to sell me Earthlink’s networking service (not wise, considering my current displeasure with Earthlink’s service, or lack there of), and she tried to sell me anti-virus software. No thank you, I said, but I would like to speak with your supervisor.
I want to take a moment to let you know that, considering what Christina had to work with, she did a wonderful job. Despite my growing anger and at times unchecked displeasure, Christina never lost her temper and did a fine job saying her lines correctly and trying to give me the information I was requesting. She did nothing to help my situation, but she is obviously very good at repeating what’s in front of her. Still, it seemed futile to give me the web address for checking the status of my account online, as the problem I was having to begin with was my inability to access the internet.
Christina’s supervisor, “Josh”, then took the line. Again, I made sure he knew Christina was not my problem: Earthlink’s internet service set-up was. I explained my current situation and that I was at a point where, being within my 30 days, I was considering canceling this service and returning to Bellsouth. The service thus far and the inability to get a straight answer on the status of my modem was not inspiring confidence in Earthlink. “Josh” then walked me through how to connect to Earthlink via dial-up: a quick fix, but one that should have been made to me with my very first call.
Fifty-five minutes from the time Christine first took my call, Josh has presumably set me up to dial into Earthlink’s service until my modem arrives. Unfortunately, this will only take care of me for 23 hours; after that it’s $1/hour, for up to $21.95.
Now, let’s discuss the $1 for every hour after 23 hours: I’ll tell you right now that if I have to go more than 23 hours on dial-up when I’m paying for a DSL connection we are going to have a very serious problem with our working relationship. As a DSL customer I expect DSL service. I pay extra to turn on my computer at anytime and have an established line 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I pay extra to have my phone line free. I pay extra for better speeds. I do not pay DSL prices to connect to dial-up service and then pay extra when Earthlink’s “generous” [insert sarcasm here] 23 hours of free service is up. And after paying $1/hour for 20 hours they will, once again, “generously” charge me only $21.95 instead of continuing to charge me the $1/hour rate.Once we received our Earthlink DSL modem and began service things went more smoothly.
Until I received my bills in April.
During set-up I was promised an offer from new customers making my service for six months only $19.95 instead of the regular $39.95. I contacted Earthlink again, this time via my grand Earthlink connection, and was told this was no problem: my next bill would reflect a reimbursement, and the subsequent bills would be $19.95 until June.
May’s bill: $39.95. No credit, no discount. I contacted them again. Initially I was told the promotion was only for three months. I insisted: no, it was six. And if the service agent would kindly look at their current page for potential customers on the web they would see it’s still running at $19.95 for six months for new customers. No, I was not correct, I was told. The best they could offer me would be the next 12 months at $29.95.
Did they just bate and switch me? Because it sure sounds like it!
If I sign up for ANOTHER 12 months (so that’s six months added to my current contract of one year) they’ll give me $29.95 a month. Let’s do some quick math: currently I paid three months at $19.95, two months at $39.95, and the remainder of my year would be $29.95. That’s $349.45, plus I’ll have to sign up for those extra months on the contract, so an additional $149.75 to Earthlink. But let’s just look at the one year: if I take the deal, the remainder of the year is $349.45. If I don’t take the deal and stay at $39.95 a month: $419.40.
They’re saving me $69.95?
All that trouble and I get $69.95 out of it. In return, they get an extra seven months on my contract. That hardly seems like a fair deal.
What would you pay for poor technical support, lousy customer service, and bait and switch tactics? $19.95? $29.95? But wait, there’s more!!
I moved from the town I lived in to a town further north in another state in June, 2007. Earthlink only services that area with dial-up. Now, my contract allows for me to leave early if I move a certain distance, but ONLY if they have NO service to the area. So, even though they couldn’t provide for me the service I initially signed up for, I’m still obligated to stay with them or pay the $150.00 early cancellation fee.
I’m $150.00 lighter, but I’m much happier with my new DSL service through my new local company. I submitted a very long letter to Earthlink customer support detailing these problems with dates, times, and names, but received nothing in response. Not even a “…sorry you didn’t like us. Good luck in the future…” type response.
Bottom line: Earthlink’s technical support and customer service are being outsourced to India, as are many other company’s. Outsourcing in general is a mistake when it comes to customer service. The people you are hiring to handle your customers directly have NO interest in the company that are appearing to work for. If Earthlink goes under or pulls their contract because of bad service, so what. They’ll just have another contract come in next week. Outsourcing employees truly feel this way: I know, because I’ve been one. There’s no reason to be emotionally invested in your work – you’re not even financially invested in it! So what incentive do they have to help the customer with their problems?
None. And it shows. If Earthlink doesn’t move to bring customer service back to the US and back in-house instead of outsourcing they are facing major problems with creditability among their consumers.
And heads up: they own People PC, too. Pulling the same stunts under a new name. Wonderful. Look for stock in People PC to begin falling within the next two years.
