Earthlink Customer Service and their lack of knowledge

[Nekojin]

Umgawa.

Okay, now that we've gotten that out of the way. Earthlink had (and is still having, I believe) a service outage in Southern California. For me, it started around 9 AM. At 10, I called Earthlink support - I figured an hour was long enough to wait for routine SNAFUs. The DSL light was lit on the DSL modem, but we were getting no traffic.

The guy I got on the phone (after waiting through their stupid voice-recognition-and-holding-pattern system) was fairly straightforward, and after about 10 minutes of chatting, explaining the problem, he told me that there were problems on their end, and that they'd be fixed in about 4 hours.

After hanging up, I went and ran some errands. I got home about 2:30, and the internet was back up. I checked my email, watched a video that Andara sent me, and then... lost connection again. I waited another 10 minutes, and called Earthlink at around 3 PM.

The person I got on the phone went through the usual rigamarole to verify that I'm an account user, and then assured me that there were no problems at this time, and that he would have to escalate the call. I pointed out (again) that the first guy had told me that Earthlink was having some problems, and to call back in four hours - and that it was now five hours later. He again assured me that there was nothing wrong, so he wrote up a trouble ticket, and escalated me to the Service department, and transferred me.

Or he tried to. After 30 minutes on hold, and him coming back on the line to reassure me that I hadn't been forgotten, he finally told me that Service seemed to be having an unusually high call volume, and maybe I should call back later. Hmm... There's no problem, but there's an unusually high call volume for Service. What's wrong with this picture?

He gave me a phone number to directly dial to the Service department, and since I had another errand to run, I agreed to call back later. I ran my errand, and got back home at 5, and called Earthlink yet again. The number that the last guy gave me was bogus - it simply did not exist (or so the operator recording kept telling me). So I called back the first number I have.

This time, the person didn't seem to know whether there were problems or not - which is not as bad as it sounds, when you realize that they're in a call center in India (no, I'm not joking. Every single person I've EVER spoken to at Earthlink has a thick Hindi accent). He started to escalate my call, and I interrupted him. I asked him what a good phone number to reach Service was, and he gave me the number that I've been using the whole time, which gets me Tier 1 support. He explained that I have to press the 3 key when it gets to the menu in order to reach the Service department. Problem: There isn't a menu, just a voice-recognition system asking what your problem is, so that it can route you, and then asks for your phone number. He continued to insist that I should press 3 at the menu.

He transfers me, and we wait for about 5 minutes to connect to Service. They debate about whether my DSL line has been installed or not - the Service Tech knows that it was installed, the Tier 1 guy is insisting that the records show that it's incomplete. They're both right, actually - their records are screwed up. We finally get that straightened out, and the Tier 1 guy FINALLY acknowledges that there's an outage in Southern California, and that it would take 5 hours more before we had internet access again. Meanwhile, I've managed to get connected, and am checking my email.

I ask to speak to his floor manager, and after another 10-minute wait, I finally speak to the manager. I explain my concerns with the way their support system is set up, and how Tier 1 support people don't have the access (or aren't allowed to give the information) that would have made my phone calls much, much shorter. I get dead air in response. I say, "Hello?" wait for 15 seconds or so... "Are you there?" wait for another 10 seconds, and then he says, "Yes, hello?" and acts as though he heard everything I said. I'm not convinced, but I want to get off the phone more than I want to chew him a new one over the whole matter.

Earthlink internet is good. Earthlink customer support is atrocious. I dread having to call them, now.

[Kilamon]

Earthlink internet is good. Earthlink customer support is atrocious. I dread having to call them, now.

I used to work for the AT&T call center (Worldnet) which was outsourced from AT&T to a company here in Denver. I was let go because, at the time, the internet was fairly new to the public at large and some of the acronyms were being developed and the one that got me in trouble was URI. As a professional web master (I'm certified!) I knew, and still know to this day, what URI stands for and how it is more correct to use than URL. In any case, this dispute and my hardline refusal to change my ways, led to termination. That's fine, anyways, since I found a much better job.

However, the point here is that even though there are good techs and bad techs, the good techs are kept because they follow orders, like sheep, and don't get in the way. The good techs are more concerned with listening to problems and solving them, script be damned.

The next time you call your Earthlink provider, do what I do, and ask the operator to please listen very carefully and allow them to think a moment before answering. If they seem as though they weren't paying attention very well, reiterate. I've had to do this a few times for the Indian call centers (Qwest). Sometimes, it feels like I'm training them.

BTW, you might want to take a look at www.TheList.com. It's a site that compiles a lot of ISP listing for many areas and their services are cross-referenced. You may be able to locate a company in your area. I did this in '94 and I've never regretted it. My money goes to the local economy, the support I receive is excellent (to the point that they once conferenced in Qwest's Tier 5 to fix a problem I was having) and their hold times are non-existent. In fact, they have had a standing policy to allow their users to visit with their PCs to make use of the network in the office, which would be the same as plugging in 1500 DSL modems to your computer at the same time.

[Catwoman2965]

BTW, you might want to take a look at www.TheList.com. It's a site that compiles a lot of ISP listing for many areas and their services are cross-referenced. You may be able to locate a company in your area. I did this in '94 and I've never regretted it. My money goes to the local economy, the support I receive is excellent (to the point that they once conferenced in Qwest's Tier 5 to fix a problem I was having) and their hold times are non-existent. In fact, they have had a standing policy to allow their users to visit with their PCs to make use of the network in the office, which would be the same as plugging in 1500 DSL modems to your computer at the same time.

I agree about trying to find a local provider. I had a couple of biggies with dial-up (when i first got a computer) - got 2 years free with one with my purchase, then switched to another. Had MAJOR issues, so I went with a local; then went to DSL with them. I've been with them a total of about 5 years now, with no problems. Their tech support is in their building, and whenever I've had a problem, i call, and they fix it for me, ususally within 5 minutes.

I'm now getting bombarded with offers from cablevision for triple play, and Verizon, for FIOS triple play, but I won't switch. What I love is that they say it will cost you X amount per month, but that's for the first year! what about after? I may pay more for my DSL, but not much, and at least I know my service is consistent and help is only a phone call away.

[BlackIronCrown]

Umgawa.
(snip)
Earthlink internet is good. Earthlink customer support is atrocious. I dread having to call them, now.

I apologize most highly for the current assness of my previous employer. If it were 3 years ago, I'd tell you how to get to "Provisioning & Repair", my old department that existed to deal with such issues. However, they eliminated it 2 months after I left.

Unfortunately, as even the NOC and all business broadband support has been completely outsourced, I know of no one to assist you. They even got rid of the outsourced personnel in Omaha last year. Pretty much everything except sales has been relegated to India and (my favorite) Cebu in the Phillipines.

I'll see if there's anything I can dig up. You might want to contact Doc Olds at dslreports.com and see if he has someone he can recommend you to for future issues.