Earthlink Unauthorized charges. Ripp-Off. Incompetent cusotmer service. Atlanta Georgia

In January of this year (2003)I signed up for a trial period of Earthlink internet service. I signed up for payment to be automatically deducted from my bank account. I decided to switch to my local cable company for internet service when they offered an attractive, more affordable cable/internet package. I called Earthlink customer service, cancelled the account, and got a cancellation confirmation number for my records. This was long before my trial period was over.

Now it's 5 months later. I opened a letter from my bank to find that an electronic debit was made to my account in the amount of $26.34 and a non sufficient funds bank fee of $21! I keep little or no money in this account unless I am actively making payments from it.

I logged into my bank account online and there it was. Earthlink had debited my account 5 full months after I closed my account with them. So I called them. The customer service rep told me that me account had never been closed. So I gave him the cancellation confirmation number. He put me on hold, then came back and told me that someone called in April (last month) and reactivated the account and used my password. I told him that was impossible. My password is not written down anywhere and it was a mixture of letters and no numbers that have no meaning to anyone but me. Someone would have to be a psychic/mind reader to guess it.

He then went through this whole thing of closing my account AGAIN. Then he said they would credit the $26.34 charge to my bank account. I asked him about the $21 NSF fee and he said they couldn't do anything about it. I told him it was Earthlink's fault for making an unauthorized charge to my bank account. So he asked for the bank phone number to call them, fax them a letter explaining that this was a billing error on the part of Earthlink and ask them to waive the NSF fee.

Well, I'll believe it when I see it! My daughter tried to warn me that Earthlink is no good and I didn't listen. I had to find out the hard way. Be very wary of giving out your bank info for payments to be automatically deducted from your account!

I will post again and let you all know how it turns out.

Sherry
Des Moines, Iowa
U.S.A.