Earthlink.net ripoff: 10 months of DSL was noteworthy for confusion, misdirection, poor to no service and refusal to take any responibility. Atlanta, Georgia Internet

I was a customer of Earthlink's dial-up service of many years. 10 months ago I was able to 'up-grade' to DSL service and naturally I chose Earthlink.

That 10 months was characterized by long periods slow connection to no connections. When I tried to find out what I could do to solve this problem, I was met with finger pointing to anyone but Earthlink. It was always SBC's fault (telephone company repackaged). Or, it was their business partner Covad (customer service in India) who was at fault and, oh by the way, Earthlink didn't have a phone number for them...???

I can understand a company growing too fast and not having consistent information available to every department, but I got exhausted and then angry with their flat out refusal to be honest.

When, at last, I dropped service, I couldn't get service with the next company because 'line sharing' was not dropped. This must happen before SBC could proceed with appointing a new service.

Earthlink would NOT let go. Not their fault, they said. Covad's fault and no they did not have a number for me to call. And no, they would not do their job and contact their business partner. I could go f***k myself.

Well, I did call India and I did get Covad to stop saying that I was sharing line service with Earthlink. And I did (in a weeks time get dsl service I am happy with). No thanks to Earthlink.

That was not the end. I just got a letter from earthlink asking for their dsl unit. This was interesting only because I had specifically asked what I should do with the unit when I dropped the service. "We don't want it."
HAH!@ Luckily I still had the box. Normally I give unused electronics to a nonprofit, but I had not done so yet.

Earth to Earthlink.... I spent the better part of 2 weeks on the line waiting for no service and misdirection. I used 4 letter words in the end and told them no way was I going to be liable for the $200+ for early dropping of service.

Save yourselves and don't use Earthlink.

Olivia
oakland, California
U.S.A.