Fred
Washington,#2Consumer Comment
Mon, October 13, 2003
Howdy Dwight. I don't think you are going to like me, but you might want to read on and save yourself some embarrassment later. The fact that your experience with a company the size of Earthlink was not to your liking does not make Earthlink guilty of illegal activity. Far from it, for they have a large legal department charged with doing nothing but churning out all those little tiny words that cleverly separate the corporation from just about any liability you could ever think of. Were I facing such a dilemma, I would make it my business to know everything about ADSL as it pertains to home use, and while doing this I would find out that there is no liability incurred by the provider if the connection does not perform up to spec. If this is really about ADSL, then there are plenty of companies who can be depended on to provide the service. It is just going to be expensive because the phone company is involved at some point in the provisioning chain. As more and more local ISPs buy into the hardware side, there will be no reason why broadband should cost anymore than the cheapest dial-up accounts do now. It really looks like you have messed your self up by closing an account to avoid collection. You can always dispute a charge with your bank or credit card provider. In this case, it is going to look like plain non payment, and like it or not, some place in those little words you agreed to pay so much for Earthlink to make an effort to provide something. I really hope that you get out of this without damaging your credit. I have no respect or love for these big ISPs by the way; they do give some folks the short end. Trouble is they do it legally. Were I in your situation, I would attempt a resolution in the same manner. Good luck, Nevis St. Kitts (Former BWI) Onancock (Presently Virginia)