Here is the story of my earthlink DSL adventure:
End of 02: DirecTV DSL goes out of business.
Jan 03: Order earthlink DSL to replace. Specfically mention to the salesguy that my lease is up in 7 months - ask if I should be worried about that - he says "oh no, you should have no trouble getting service at the new address... if for some reason you can't, we'll figure that out then"
End of Jan: Earthlink DSL gets turned on.
End of April: Email earthlink, ask them what to do about relocating my service to a new address. They inform me there will be a $149 early termination fee, and then a $99 credit back IF service is available at the new address. This was certainly news to me. They advise "waiting until the last possible day at your old address before placing the relocation order, to insure the least interruption in service." I wait till the last day, call and place relocation order.
Beginning of may: DSL still isn't turned on. Call to see what the status is, and am informed that the cancellation of my previous service must go through before the new DSL order will be placed. How long does that take? "depends on the carrier." ... TWO WEEKS go by before the old line is disconnected. Thanks for the advice on waiting until the last minute. In the meantime, I have "10 free hours" of dialup service.
Middle of may: DSL still isn't turned on. Call to see what is going on. Order is pending.
Late May: Get a notice on the online order status page that says my order has been cancelled. Call to ask why, the operator says "the phone number didn't match the address." Turns out someone at earthlink typed the # correctly in one spot, but incorrectly in another. A new order has to be placed.
Late May: Check my credit card statement. Because of various problems above, I have *THREE* $149.99 disconnect charges showing up on my account. Grand total of $450. Use their online chat feature to dispute these, tech says he'll submit 2 of them to the billing department to be removed.
End of May: Call again to see what is going on. New DSL date is scheduled for May 29. May 29 comes and goes, no DSL. Call back, they say "can't get ahold of Covad, call back later". Call back the next day, same story. "we've never had this happen before, they're just not answering their phones" Tech recommends that I call back on saturday, may 31. I call on saturday morning and the automatic recording tells me the average hold time is 15 minutes. After 1 hour and 10 minutes I get tired of being on hold and hang up.
June 2: Call and ask wtf is going on, get a helpful tech who says that my order hasn't been placed, he will priority escalate it for me and should receieve an answer back from covad within 5 hours, at which time he'll email me. 5 hours go by, no email.
June 2, 6 hours later: I call and speak with someone else, they tell me that no, covad should email back between 4 and 24 hours, and that there has been no status update, she basically tells me that the other guy said he'd email me and I should wait for that.
June 3: (never got an email) I call back this morning for the final time, get a CSR who tells me that I can't get DSL service at my new address because it is not 100% copper from the telco to my house, that there is "fiber in between." I ask well this was a relcation order, how is this going to affect me? And she basically tells me I'm out $150.
This has been absolutely ludicrous. The ONLY thing they managed to do efficiently was IMMEDIATELY charge me $150 for every time an order got screwed up.
End of 02: DirecTV DSL goes out of business.
Jan 03: Order earthlink DSL to replace. Specfically mention to the salesguy that my lease is up in 7 months - ask if I should be worried about that - he says "oh no, you should have no trouble getting service at the new address... if for some reason you can't, we'll figure that out then"
End of Jan: Earthlink DSL gets turned on.
End of April: Email earthlink, ask them what to do about relocating my service to a new address. They inform me there will be a $149 early termination fee, and then a $99 credit back IF service is available at the new address. This was certainly news to me. They advise "waiting until the last possible day at your old address before placing the relocation order, to insure the least interruption in service." I wait till the last day, call and place relocation order.
Beginning of may: DSL still isn't turned on. Call to see what the status is, and am informed that the cancellation of my previous service must go through before the new DSL order will be placed. How long does that take? "depends on the carrier." ... TWO WEEKS go by before the old line is disconnected. Thanks for the advice on waiting until the last minute. In the meantime, I have "10 free hours" of dialup service.
Middle of may: DSL still isn't turned on. Call to see what is going on. Order is pending.
Late May: Get a notice on the online order status page that says my order has been cancelled. Call to ask why, the operator says "the phone number didn't match the address." Turns out someone at earthlink typed the # correctly in one spot, but incorrectly in another. A new order has to be placed.
Late May: Check my credit card statement. Because of various problems above, I have *THREE* $149.99 disconnect charges showing up on my account. Grand total of $450. Use their online chat feature to dispute these, tech says he'll submit 2 of them to the billing department to be removed.
End of May: Call again to see what is going on. New DSL date is scheduled for May 29. May 29 comes and goes, no DSL. Call back, they say "can't get ahold of Covad, call back later". Call back the next day, same story. "we've never had this happen before, they're just not answering their phones" Tech recommends that I call back on saturday, may 31. I call on saturday morning and the automatic recording tells me the average hold time is 15 minutes. After 1 hour and 10 minutes I get tired of being on hold and hang up.
June 2: Call and ask wtf is going on, get a helpful tech who says that my order hasn't been placed, he will priority escalate it for me and should receieve an answer back from covad within 5 hours, at which time he'll email me. 5 hours go by, no email.
June 2, 6 hours later: I call and speak with someone else, they tell me that no, covad should email back between 4 and 24 hours, and that there has been no status update, she basically tells me that the other guy said he'd email me and I should wait for that.
June 3: (never got an email) I call back this morning for the final time, get a CSR who tells me that I can't get DSL service at my new address because it is not 100% copper from the telco to my house, that there is "fiber in between." I ask well this was a relcation order, how is this going to affect me? And she basically tells me I'm out $150.
This has been absolutely ludicrous. The ONLY thing they managed to do efficiently was IMMEDIATELY charge me $150 for every time an order got screwed up.
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