No, really, I do want to cancel my cable service!

(Event occurred in August 07)

I have Earthlink Cable Internet and have had it since 2002. I decided tonight to cancel it because I keep having billing issues with the cable provider. It used to be Time Warner Cable (TWC), but this past spring Comcast took over the market. Ever since I have moved, month after month, the billing has been screwed up. I call everytime and it takes on average 30-45 minutes to clear up. Once again this month by bill was far more than it should have been. I call comcast, they say call Earthlink. So I did, and they said they would fix it. I called Comcast back today (to actually disconnect my service) and first I asked them about my bill and f they fixed it. They didn't. Oh, they said. We are Comcast we don't have agreements in place with Earthlink to provide service, fix billing, or disconnect service. I told them that wasn't my problem. I have been with Earthlink through TWC for over 5 years. That was for them to figure out how to deal with it. So he eventually figured out how to cancel the account. But he didn't ask me when I wanted it to take affect. So we will see if he actually processed it for August 16th. If he didn't, I'll be without internet for a week. And yes, I was transferred and eventually got the billing straightened out.

So, that's 1/2 the story. When I called Earthlink (before calling Comcast) to cancel the service, they don't communicate with the cable company and they told me I had to call them to cancel the actual cable service while Earthlink is just canceling my email service. Ugh. Too much! Make it stop!

Is there intelligent life at Earthlink?

Event occurred in April 2007

I'm dead serious. I doubt there is intelligent life at Earthlink. I've had nothing but headaches for the past 6 months every time I've had to call them. This time, it's about moving my service in 2 weeks. Those in India keep telling me there is no service where I am moving and there isn't service where I live now. Hmmm....interesting, because then who have I been paying for the past 6 years?

I basically have to beg to be transferred to someone in the U.S. Then, this guy can't help me because I need to speak to someone in customer service and he doesn't have access to figure out if I really do have service or not. No, really, I'm on the internet now. And, by the way, online it tells me that there is service where I am moving to.

So he transfers me to customer service in the same city. That guy is completely clueless. I'll grant him one thing, he was in the billing dept, but really the guy wasn't that bright. He said he would transfer me to customer service (still in the U.S.)....ummm the next call ended up in the Philippines.

So I hung up on him, but I warned him first! I told him that it wasn't his fault, but that he couldn't help me and I didn't want to waste any more of my time.

Luckily, one guy had given me a priority phone number to use in case we got disconnected so I called and finally got a human with a brain! It turns out that they need to downgrade my account to dial-up (in name only), so the installation people (those in the Philippines) can then move the account.

Ugh. It's way too complicated. And the fact that I had to talk to like 5 people for them to figure that out is very unsettling. Welcome to global customer service, we do it cheap without quality.

So that guy (the one I thought had a brain) misrouted my call and I ended up with the DSL people (in who knows what country).

Now, I'm back in India (yes, this is real time.) And it's really loud in the call center. As usual. I don't want to hear the conversations of others as I'm trying to resolve a problem.

Why don't I just cancel it? Oh yeah, because who wants to go through the hassle of changing their email address. It's more of a nightmare than changing your street address!

Now, an hour into this ordeal, the call was disconnected. Thank you Earthlink!!! Lovely doing business with you. Fabulous customer service (NOT!)

So how exactly do I move my service?