I thought my saga with Earthlink adding dialup service I never authorized was over after my last call to a very polite, professional, helpful customer service representative. She had promised that I wouldn’t be charged for the unauthorized dialup account. Last night my VISA was billed for — and you knew this was coming — guess what?

Prorated unlimited dial up from April 1 - April 9, 2006 at a rate of $5.71 USD.

Those bastards. I was disappointed when I saw the charge. It wasn’t about the money. It was the principle that despite me calling them and sitting on hold to tell them I never authorized this and they promised I wouldn’t be charged, I was still charged.

So after letting my anger subside I decided to call yet again and try and resolve this amicably. Again, I’ve been a satisfied Earthlink customer since 1998. I pay my bill on time, every time, for months and the one time I call them to ask them about upgrading my account it’s been a complete hosejob.

Here we go
At 8:07am I called 888-earthlink and navigated through their crappy automated service menu with a half dozen “press this number or that.” I received a gentleman with a thick accent (sounded like an indian call center, yes/no?). I gave him the confirmation code for my last call #108568774. He still wanted the last four digits of my credit card or account password for verification. I provided that and then he told me that he saw where I had made a change from $5.95/month to $3.95/month for email only account. Nothing about the main reason for that call which was to complain about adding an unlimited dialup account that was never requested and to make sure I wouldn’t be charged. As it turns out that call was wasted energy because they charged anyway.

The gentleman and I couldn’t understand his name apologized for the situation and said he credited my account for the $5.71 and it would be reflected on my next bill. I replied that this was not acceptable and they needed to reverse the charge for the $5.71 ASAP as this was a completely unauthorized charge. He started to try and explain to me that I’d still get the credit back and I said: wait, you don’t understand that’s a month from now. They needed to give me that money back ASAP. It wasn’t the money in this situation, it was the principle and I told him if he didn’t credit the money back I’d call my credit card company and they would reverse the charge.

He agreed to reverse the charge and in 3-5 days I would get a credit. I received a new confirmation # which I wrote down. Hopefully this is the last time I need to write about this negative customer service experience with Earthlink. Actually, two of the three customer service reps were pleasant, including the man I couldn’t understand very well. The first person I spoke to was a snake in the grass and should be reprimanded. They said they record all phone calls so hopefully somebody follows up on my complaint and deals with that guy and what he tried to pull on me.

As for quitting Earthlink altogether? Not yet. I might be disappointed with how this existing situation has been handled, but I’m not ready to give them the boot. I probably should though because this was a pretty rotten way to treat any customer, especially one who had been with them for something he could get for free these days.

Still, Earthlink’s days now seem numbered for this customer.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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