Complaint Review: Earthlink - Atlanta Georgia

Russ, I have cancelled Earthlink before. You just have to be firm with them. And, I really hate to get some idiot in India that I can barely understand. If all else fails, send a written cancellation by certified mail, return reciept requested. Or, just dispute the charge to your credit card. Tell them that they refused to cancel your service. That gets it done. Or, report your crdit card stolen. Close it and get a new#. That gets it cancelled too. Lots of options.

Towards the beginning of November an in-house collector called me regarding my bill, after I disputed the bill with him he told me there is nothing he can do so he transferred me over to customer service. After about 15 of customer service trying their awful retention tactics, offering to piggy back their security services onto my current DSL provider, allowing me to keep my email address and even offering their dial-up service. He even looked back through my numerous trouble tickets I had with their service, at that time I mentioned a months credit I was suppose to receive for all of the trouble I was having (back then I was at the point I was going to pay their termination fee to get out of the contract due to the worst DSL service). After realizing I was not coming back to Earthlink he supposedly closed my account out, changed the balance to ZERO and gave me my confirmation number. On December 11, 2006, I received a letter from Corporate Collection Services, they were attempting to collect $170.35 for Earthlink. On December 12, 2006 I sent a certified letter to Corporate Collection Services disputing the debt, I also sent a copy to Earthlink to their physical address I also faxed a copy to them (404) 287-4905 (I think that's their general counsel), I also sent a copy to their registered agent CT Corporation System. I am awaiting a response from either Earthlink or Corporate Collection Services.

Steve.You may be right,but have you ever personally tried to cancel service with Earthlink before? I did.And sucessfully on the phone as you say. But do you know how difficult it is nevertheless? They will not take No for an answer. No matter how often you request a simple cancellation to the person in India you talk to,they will not take No for an answer. They will persistantly try to upsell you instead on other options they have.Very very annoying. You have to beg, scream, holler, threaten, anything, just to finally get them to cancel once and for all. It should be a simple,easy thing to do. They make it very difficult instead. Very unproffessional besides in my opinion.

Willie, Why did you not just be more persistent in calling them and cancel? I have done this before, and it took about 10 minutes and it is done. They send you a confirmation in the mail. I think you just got impatient and gave up. You should have tried your call at a different time of day. Patience is the key.

On October 2, 2006 I received the following email from earthlink. Dear xxxxxxxxxxx, We're writing to let you know that your EarthLink account #xxxxxxxxx with a balance of $128.40 was past due as of 10/02/06. If we do not receive payment, your account will be deactivated and turned over for collections. To reactivate your account, you will be required to pay a $15 reactivation fee. Please remit payment immediately to avoid an interruption to your service. If you recently made this payment, there is nothing you need to do. ************************** TO MAKE A ONE-TIME PAYMENT ************************** ONLINE Visit My Account: http://myaccount.earthlink.net Once there, click on "Billing Information," then "Make Online Credit Card Payment." PHONE Call 1-888-EARTHLINK and use our automated phone system. Select the "billing" option, and have one of the following handy: *The phone number associated with your account or the credit card number you currently use to pay your monthly invoice *The credit card number you wish to use, including the expiration date *One of the following -- your email address, password, secret word, or PIN POSTAL MAIL Send a check or money order to: EarthLink, Inc. P.O. Box 6452 Carol Stream, IL 60197-6452 Please make sure to include your account number with your payment. For your protection, please do not send us payment information by email. ***************************************** TO VERIFY/UPDATE YOUR BILLING INFORMATION ***************************************** You can update your credit card or contact information, view your invoice, change your email addresses or passwords, and more at My Account: https://myaccount.earthlink.net ********** NEED HELP? ********** You'll find answers to frequently asked billing questions at: http://www.earthlink.net/support/invoicefaq Sincerely, EarthLink Support ************************************************************ This is an Administrative Message from EarthLink. It is not spam. From time to time, EarthLink will send you such messages in order to communicate important information about your subscription. ************************************************************ I replied with a brief sentence CAPS LOCK letting them know I cancelled my service 4 months ago. And got an automated reply: Thank you for contacting EarthLink, We received your email on 10/4/06, however in order to better serve you EarthLink only accepts new messages created by completing our online email form. To ensure that your inquiry is handled by an EarthLink representative we ask that you resubmit your request using our online email form which you can access using the "support by email" link on your personal start page, or, by inserting the following URL in your web browser: http://support.earthlink.net/email Hopefully someone will read my original email I sent on 10/04/06. I am probably going to send them another letter along with a copy of the rip-off report.