EarthLink Reviews

We work out of our house and have not been able to take phone calls, faxes, or make phone calls or send faxes. We have lost 2 weeks of work because of Earthlink.

When I called I demanded they return my money, the "supervisior" said he needed my current credit card to put the money back into my account. I was hesitant to do this, after my experience but he said this is the only way I could receive my money back.

This morning when I checked my bank account, I found they had deducted MORE money from my account, rather than giving me a refund!

I became so frustrated with thier non-existant service that I resigned. They informed me I would have to pay a fee for breaking the contract I had recently entered with the phone transfer and even though I feel that is unjust as I've been with them since 2001, I am so distraught I just want to go elsewhere, so I will pay. However a week ago 8/30 when I both resigned and signed up with another carrier, I was told the transfer would take a few days. One week later, I call the new carrier and am told Earthlink wouldn't give up my # until 9/13! They made me wait 2 weeks. In the meantime, my work/life is impacted as I use my DSL at home to communicate with clients as well as look up information on the web.

When a package arrived, with the necessary equipment, it became obvious that the changes and installation involved would be quite beyond my capability, and I returned the equipment with insured postal mail.

Earthlink has now advised me that instead of reinstating the original $20 per month, they will continue to permanently bill me the $40 rate, as it could not be reversed despite the return of the equipment.

After hours of phone and having tech support come out to my home, the result is that EL sold me a service outside of the boundary of their hub. The 3.0 service requires that the hub be no longer than 18,000 feet from the linear hub. My house is 21,000 feet.

This seems like an open and shut case, but EL said the company that came to measure stated that the house is within range - contradictory to the statement made by the technician that came to my house.

I have paid over $600 for the previous 12 months of promised service by EL and have not been able to use the service.

They continued to charge me at the regular rate of $41.95. Everytime I called I had long waits, talked to a different person, got different stories, but all simply said there was nothing they could do.

I was on the phone for over 10 hours at different times with their techs but they finally said they can't help me. I sent a letter to their corporate office and they never responded.

I received another bill 2 months later for $43.90 so I called again and was told that when I had made my final payment, they activated my account again using my Mastercard to withdraw the payments. This was without my authorization, in fact I had cancelled my card.

Again, I was assured that this would be taken care of but now the amount I owed was $68.12! I received another bill showing a credit of $43.90 but I still owed 24.22 because they could not charge my Mastercard!

I made several phone calls to the tech center to complaint about it, but it never helped. Funny thing is, I couldnt even go to their own website to read anything.

My modem tests OK; my phone line has been tested and found to be OK. I have taken my computer down to a neighbor and the computer performed OK. My service gets worse every day. I was a Hawk client, when Earthlink bought Hawk's dial up service. Our monthly payment is $9.95, significantly less than other Earthlink customers pay for unlimited Internet service. I wonder if Earthlink is trying to drive us away. Although I've had polite customer service from Earthlink, everyone I talk with tells me something different, and it sometimes takes hours over several days to troubleshoot the problem. In any case, the problem not only persists but gets worse every day.

I run my business out of my home. It literally takes me hours to do online what used to take me minutes. This monring, in the space of an hour and a half I was dropped five times. It took this site more than 5 minutes to load. I end up working weekends to make up for lost time. It's difficult to estimate how much this off-again on-again service is costing me in dollars, but in time, with the dropped connections, slow downloads, frequent called to tech help, and running around to neighbors to check performance with their phone lines, the interruptions in my work week have added almost 40% to the number of hours I have to work.

I have been on the phone with various departments (tech support, billing, TRON) trying to fix the problem. Each person would make me run through the same protocol - unplug the modem, wait for 10 seconds, restart the computer. Nobody seemed to know what was going on, but it looked like it would be out from 4-5 days.

I decided to cancel my service but they wanted to charge a $150 early termination fee. I was furious. If they can't hold up their end of the deal and provide me with steady internet service, then it should be my right to cancel at no cost! I believe they just try to wear the customer down, and if that doesn't work, they bully them with threats of early termination fees.

They won't respond to emails, but tell you to call in , where there is NO RECORD of what was said. Very convenient...No record. I asked to cancell my wireless because of the fraud stated in the terms of service. They not only charged me for a new month in advance, after I had a cancellation number, but also $175.00 in early termination fee. I will now sue them in court. They are a typical 21st century corp. who exploits their customers, feeling that the effort won't be worth the law suit. Have I got news for Earthlink.

Finally, on Monday, 3/20/06 he told them to disconnect us from this "service", and we would go back to our previous phone carrier - Alltel. As of now, 3/27/06 it has been 7 days since we told Earthlink to cancel our service with True Voice, and we still do not have a landline phone. The former carrier (Alltel) has told us that Earthlink still hasn't released our number back over to them, even though they kept telling us (either cell phone calls or live chat) that the account with their service was cancelled. They even sent us a label to send the equipment back.

So in all total, we have been without a landline phone for 12 days. Earthlink will not release our number from our former phone service carrier, and therefore, we can't connect up with Alltel again until Earthlink does this. I tried the Live chat on the "True voice" page, but it says it is busy....you must CALL. How can I call with no phone service!?! I have spent all of my cell minutes on the phone with Earthlink already, with no results. Earthlink has really sunk to new levels. Since all of this happened, I checked out Earthlink True Voice on the internet and see numerous complaints about it. I just wish my husband had checked it out before jumping on board.

I had a lengthy conversation with three Earthlink customer service persponel this evening. Jas, David and finally Betty/Supervisor. She offered me $98.78 which is half of my requested refund. This conversation took fifty-seven minutes of my time. Mind you I'd like to add that I had several lengthy conversations with Earthlink representatives last year from the beginning of my account with them, always unsatisfactory.

Today (3/11/06 5.30pm -6.27pm) I was informed by Jas that I had cancelled the account on 5/8/05 and he confirmed with a confirmation #. The other two reps after that had no record of this, a prime example of the inadequacies of Earthlink personel. Consumers can be guaranteed that Earthlink is way inferior in their capacity to take responsibility and accountability for inefficient communication and documentation.

Upon learning this, we have canceled the account. We are expecting that Earthlink will credit the overbilling difference.

1. Customer of Earthlink for about 4 years

2. Ordered DSL in August, was effective in September, billed in August, billed for Modem at $99 that was supposed to be free

3. Finally got DSL working late in September and was asked about a home networking router at about $7.50 per month. Agreed

4. Two weeks later received a PC card that I never ordered and the router never showed up.

5. Called about 3 or 4 times no router, cancelled order and was told if I cancelled I had to pay a $140 cancellation charge - never got service

6. About 2 weeks later I received the router along with a Return Material Authorization to return it. I did immediately.

7. I have been billed for the router and for the home networking service every month since September and have never had the service

8. Dec 05 filled complaints with my credit card company and BBB of Atlanta.

9. Jan 06 got a reply that I would be credited $121 and change - credit never happend got a new bill for $122.00

10. Contacted credit card company and they said we made a mistake and you are only getting $19.95 and if you don't like it you have two working days to make a new claim and by the way it takes us three days to acknowledge a FAX and you probably are too late

11. BBB sends me a memo mid February from Bill Quince (dated 20 Jan 06) that says he will credit everything back except the router which hasn't been acknowledged as returned yet (in three months)

12. 23 Feb 06 Earthlink shutdown my e mail and DSL service without any notice

14. 27 Feb 06 I call Bill Quince - too bad you are stuck because our accounts automatically suspend service - he doesn't have time to get involved. 15. 27 Feb 06 Atlanta BBB sorry I have been out of the office and can't get to your problem for awhile - send us an email. (email sent 26Feb06)

So here I am with my business on hold because I don't have any DSL or e mail service

I checked my bank acct the next day and I was -175.00 because Earthlink ran my card for $239.40 a whole years worth of service. I called Earthlink immediately and the CR told me it was an accident on their end and he would get my card refunded immediately and not worry about it. He said they would fax my bank a letter saying it was their fault. I called my bank then and filed a claim regarding the unauthorized payment and they said they could not refund any of the overdraft fees until Earthlink put the money back in.

I called Earthlink back and this time the CR told me it would take 3-5 business days before the money would go back into my acct. No one at Earthlink cared - they basically kept saying they understood and that was the best they could - it was a mistake. They were still trying to sell me their services and get me to sign back up. I told them after this no way.

All this technology and the knuckleheads can't tell one has not downloaded some kind of software and is using it? Driven Greedy sobs. And that credit that I have coming to me...well I can't get it back because I discontinued the dial-up service with them. And I'm never going to stop bothering them about it or talking about them in a bad light until I die. It's the only way I can shut up anyway. Hey! Earthlink!!! I want my credit coming to me.

I have gone back and forth like this since September 15, 2005. I have continued to receive satellite service throughout that time, though I was not charged. I have documented dates and times that I have called into Earthlink to get this resolved. That number is 31 times, but if you count the times I called in and never got to speak to anyone, but got disconnected, that number is 47.

I cannot believe I put my faith and life's blood into a company that, not only cannot successfully transfer a phone call without disconnecting the caller, but cannot get a satellite connection interrupted. I was told today, by Earthlink's installation department, that they were escalating the problem and expediting it immediately. I was also told the same thing on 2/1/06 by the installation dpt.

Today I was told this would be resolved in 7 business days, which is what I was told a week ago. I am putting Earthlink on notice that they have until 2/16/06 to have this matter resolved, or I will not be calling back, but will be scheduling an appt with my attorney to file a law suit. I am losing my job over this, as I work at home. I'm sure it wouldn't do any good, but I don't know where else to turn. It makes me ill to see Earthlink's commercials on TV, promise all of this excellent service and dedication to the customer. That has not happened in this case.

Doesn't matter that a company representative (Crystal) had told me that, they were not going to honor it. So after they issued me a return authorization (which took a week) I sent the modem back UPS. The UPS site told me that it had been signed for on 1/20/06 by earthlink. No refund has yet been issued so I called today to ask why. I spoke with Eric who told me that a refund would be issued 7-10 days from TODAY, 01/31/06. He had no idea why nothing had been done until we had called to question it.

Finally I got a hold of someone named Megan who told me to send a certified letter requesting cancelation. Also she said to write an explanation and we would not be billed for the time of the dispute. I did so that day and got my confirmation from the post office. Jerome M. Bryan signed for it. Then we got another bill. I called several times and no one will talk to you unless you have the password and fathers middle name. Then it went to collections. I tried one more time to resolve the issue today 1/27/2006.

Finally got the lady to put me through to a supervisor. But he only recounted the procedures policy and rufused to acknowledge anything and said he did not have the authority to resolve my contesting of the bill. I asked him if he worked for earthlink. He said yes, so I asked him to connect me to some one who did have the authoity. He said he could not do that. I asked him if he was an employee of Earthlink. He said they had a partnership with them. So I asked if they were a subcontracter and where he was located.

He said yes they were a subcontractor and located in the Phillipines. I realized that he had no authority and no one he worked with had any authority to do anything but offer apologies. They can only follow the procedure contracted to them by eartlink which is very convenient for Earthlink as they don't have to deal with anyone. And obviously don't care what happens. I am sending my payment off to the collection agency after I finish this. I'm assuming that my credit rating will be dinged and I will be out the money I am sending. I have my postal verification of the certified mail and a copy of the letter which I am making sure gets put back into the file cabinet. Very poor company to deal with.

I was also offered two free months of Earthlink at this time. Several days later I received a letter from the bank saying I had incurred an overdraft fee of $23 from the direct depositing that had occured. Earthlink then direct deposited me again on Jan. 4th. I now have $46 in overdraft fees and am demanding that Earthlink refund this to me. I have called Earthlink three times and also tried to straighten this out via online customer service and they have refused to help me with the overdraft fees.

On Friday, March 26, they made me repeat the same thing as Thursday until they finally agreed to open up a Trouble Ticket. So I contacted them on the earthlink trouble ticket 575578 and they said the engineers are working on it. So TRON group called me on Saturday at 4pm. What they did was disabled my Static IP to see if I am able to get my DSL connection. Yup. I was able to but with no static IP. So we played the Activate and Deactivate game with the Static IP all day on Sunday and Monday March 29.

Believe it or not they actually closed the previous ticket without solving the problem. So they opened another Trouble Ticket 576525. On late Monday night, the guy from TRON thinks it might be my static ip been shared by someone else. He recommend that I get a new static IP to fix the problem. So he told me to contact customer service today, Tuesday March 30. So I did. It's funny -- I called the customer Service to request a new IP.

I have spent over at least 14 solid hours of phone call and chat with their tech support and it's not going anywhere.

Earthlink refused to wave the early termination fee for something that wasn't my fault. Instead, they wanted to offer me a credit towards next month service. This made no sense because I couldn't use the service now and I didn't want to try and use it in the next month. When I asked if they could count my credit towards the early termination fee, they said they couldn't do that. They could only give credits towards services, not fees. This by far was the worst excuse or explanation I have heard in my life.

I have spent several thousands of dollars on Analysis Software and data feeds to support my investing activities. I have purchased a subscription to an online Options analysis database. I have not been able to use any of these things for a month and there is no end in sight.

If they're not going to honor their offers, they should not be allowed to advertise them.

Earthlink breached their contact with me before I ever cancelled the service. I have been robbed. Maybe Earthlink is not concerned about the possibility of class action lawsuits. It is, after all, the "small" people like myself who keep Earthlink up and running by purchasing this product. I may not have purchased this product of my own free will, but I do have communication skills and I will never reccommend this product to anyone. If this charge is not removed I will not give up on getting this issue resolved. I will not go away.

I called on 12/5/2003 and tried to get the credit back. Another rep told me that was previous sales reps fault, there are some procedures errors that the sale rep should have contacted me about when offer was rejected but she didnt. I still couldnt get the discount rate. I wasnt happy about that and asked to cancel the account and get my money back. They charge me the service to Jan 6, 2004. This sales rep refused my request. He canceled my account immediate but I couldnt get my money back, even prorated portion, that AGAINST EARTHLINK POLICY. I was very angry.

This is why cancellations should always be submitted in writing, preferably via certified mail, return receipt requested. If Loomis had done this, he would now have proof that he had made the disputed cancellation.

I wish to find someone who can write a consumer experience meter, which will log the time the network actually feeds data, which is what we really pay for, taking into account congestion at popular sites, so that we can really create a measure of how our service declines. We could use such a rating for a class action lawsuit. Stereo manufacturers didn't advertise RMS power levels until they were forced to. Let's get busy! We just pay, we no longer surf, we're too busy. Earthlink has made DSL into Dialup Simulator -- Loser! -- and I no longer wish to fulfill my contract!

The numerous times I have called they even gave me a case Number which is 58778507. They will not honor that number and would not accept my credit card number as they say it is not the number they have on file, but said they would speak to me if I gave them my pin number, Which I have no idea what it is, and I must call from my home phone. (I called from work but gave them my home phone number). The bottom line is they do not want to honor the rebate, and they have been giving me one excuse after another. This has been since February. Again, the credit card number is not incorrect. My relative has already paid Discover so it had to be correct.

I figure they owe me $153.65. It is not the money, it is the principle. I hate getting snookered by anyone. If everyone would raise hell with them about getting cheated, maybe they would improve their system and methods.

Some 15 days after my last contact my records were "mysteriously" cleared and I am finally being told that I will not receive the remaining funds. I feel this was intentional and is a deceitful practice.

They stole money from me, promised to give it back on numerous ocations, and then reneged. It is being lied to and feeling that a company the size of Earthlink is inetionally giving a former customer the run arround that bothers me most. I would not be writing this if they refused the refund request initially. I want the $327.20 that I am owed by admission of Earthlink themselves. Somehow I am sure that Earthlink would have no trouble locating records that showed I owed them money.

Earthlink/Cidco has not met their agreement with me and I should not have to keep mine. When I called directly to Earthlink, they told me they do not take responsibility for Cidco and that they are a separate entity. Now I better understand the stalling by Earthlink and my being told to just be patient by complaint dept after talking to Chief Investigator of the Orange Co Consumer Fraud Unit in Orlando. I am sending them my complaints and I am also working with San Francisco's ABC TV consumer affairs dept. My husband and I are going to also cancel our Earthlink monthly usage.

Well when I called and informed them about this mistake they told me that they could request a refund for the 21.95 that they were trying to take out. I told them that they never got the 21.95 but I was charged 28.00 each time they tried. So I wanted my 56.00 not the 43.90 they are wanting to give. Ms. Freeman told me that it is up to my bank to return it to me. The bank says that it is Earthlink's responsibility to refund it since they caused the problem in the first place.

We suggest Linda pay Earthlink every cent it is demanding. Then, she should turn around and sue them in Small Claims Court for the payments wrongfully collected, service not rendered, expenses incurred in fightinig the wrongful billing, etc.

My wife and I use the internet a lot, and my wife has a few message boards too, so we need at least 4 e-mail address (one for me and three for her, one personal, two for the message boards for all those darn SPAMers). So I set up mine and then went to set up hers, to find out for each additional e-mail address would be $4.95 a month...when on the ad it says e-mail for the entire family...everyone in the family (and most ISP's give up to five). I then called Earthlink to confirm, and a rep said, "yep, $4.95 a month for each additional...all that means on the ads is unlimited dial-up for $19.95."

So I said that we needed the additional e-mails, but didn't want to pay for it. To which the rep said,"Sorry, it $4.95 a month for additional...do you want to cancel?" (to me that is odd that is given right off the bat) So I said of course. I was then transferred to a "retention" rep who only asked me, "so, the message says you want to cancel, right?" I said yes and the rep then said OK DONE! and hung up.

I called back to get a confirmation number on the cancel...names, etc, and then recalled to reconfirm. (I work for a credit card company and see companies like Earthlink and AOL charging accounts up to three to four months after original cancellation and will only refund after much fuss). And you guessed it, on my next bill was a charge for $19.95.

I immediately called Earthlink, by passed the front line reps and got to a sup. The sup did credit my account immediately and no other charges have shown on my bill. Unless travel and internet go hand in hand with you...then no need for a national ISP. Go with a local dial-up server. Much easier, and you don't have to go through a "network" of reps to correct a problem.

Earthlink's total charges were from June to October for a total at $19.95 a month. The total was almost $100 dollars. I would like either Earthlink or Microworkz to refund me that money.

Microworkz has a hard time delivering on its promises and has recently been sued by the Washington Attorney General, so this is hardly surprising news. Michael should send a certified letter to Earthlink vigorously protesting the charge and demanding an immediate refund. If that doesn't work, Small Claims Court is a good option.