Complain about a product or service

Earthlink

Earthlink • Tech Support • Cancellation disputes • Billing problems • "Free" trial • Other offers • DSL cancellation • DSL installation • DSL speed • Mailstation

Earthlink is big all right. By most reckonings, it's the second largest Internet service provider after AOL. Unfortunately, it shares many of AOL's bad habits -- the most notorious being the near impossibility of cancelling the service.

Below is a sampling of recent complaints. Click the links to the right for more.

Jane of Chino, CA May 6, 2009

On December 19, 2008 I called to cancel an account that I had set up in 2002 for my elderly mother. I was told the account was cancelled and that I would be receiving a refund of 9.97. I never received the refund and instead have been charged 9.95 per month for the last 4 months. I called on March 9, 2009, and spoke to 'Sam' who apologized and told me he would issue the refund for the 9.97 and the 9.95 charges for February and March for a total of 29.87. That was not done. I called again on May 1, 2009 and spoke to Archie who repeatedly said he would cancel my account effective that day.

I repeatedly told him that I had already cancelled the account on December 19, 2008 and that I was just calling to be refunded my money, which now totaled 49.77. He said I would have to wait 3 days and call back for a refund. I called back on May 5, 2009 and spoke to Robin and then his supervisor, Nick, and was told that my account was closed on May 1, 2009. That although they had a record of my previous calls, the records indicated that while I had called to cancel, the representative had talked me into continuing my service. I argued that that was not true and asked for Nick's supervisor. Initially he told me there was no one higher than him. Eventually he said his supervisor was named Lise, but that she didn't take calls and there was nothing that could be done for me.

Mark of Metuchen, NJ April 24, 2009

Cancellation one day after charge - no credit. I called to cancel my service because Earthlink couldn't offer faster Internet speeds. I called one day after my new billing period started and my credit card was charged for the next month's service. I stopped using the service the day before they charged my card.

Any reasonable business would give a full credit for a future month of service that was never used. Earthlink is a completely unreasonable company and avoid them if you can. Lost 57.71.

Aimee of Milton, WV March 31, 2009

Aimee of Milton WV (03/31/09)
I have been having trouble with my internet connection. I am always getting errors and frequently cannot use the internet at all. I have placed at least 8 calls to Tech Support and never receive a satisfactory result. I have asked for credit since I am still paying for a service that I cannot use and the tech support team is not able to help me. I have not received a credit. The representatives I speak with always blame the error on my computer but there isn't any other problems occuring. I was also told I would receive a free modem when I sign up for my service and never received it.

When I called about the modem I was told it was not provided and a representative would never had told me that. THere is also a seriouse communication barrior since none of the representatives are American. Their English was fair but were still unable to completely understand the trouble I was having or unable to explain how to repair it. I was usually given a promise to send out another Earthlink CD to reinstall and have never received it.

I am unable to access the internet to order presciption medications for myself and my son. I have had to call our physicians and request new prescriptions to take to a local pharmacy. I operate a direct sales business from my home and am unalble to communicate with my clientel of over 150 scrapbookers. I have had to go to my neighbors to use their internet service to place business orders and I am still paying 14.95 a month for inadiquate service.

Lorraine of Hollywood, FL March 28, 2009

Lorraine of Hollywood FL (03/28/09)
I have had my home phone service with Earthlink Voice for a couple of years and had no problems until a few months ago when I discovered that sometimes there is no dial tone and other times there is only static. Also, occasionally, my phone calls are interupted.

Paying for telephone service and not getting it 100% of the time is not right. I went to Live Chat once (the DSL continues to work!); when that person couldn't help me, she suggested that I call Earthlink, even though I had no telephone service. I did call on a cell phone and was informed that the problem is a national one!

Albert of North Hollywood, CA March 6, 2009

Albert of North Hollywood CA (03/06/09)
I'm sure you know about the Internet provider Earthlink I have DSL with Earthlink. They call me at least 30 times monthly. I am unable to add them to the do not call policy because I have an account with them. Here's my problem. 1st of all I always make my payment on-line for the 15th of every month (on time) On the 20th of every month I receive about 10 phone calls daily every day. I had asked them several times why they keep calling. Earthlink claims although my payments are always made on time. They must collect an additional 29.95 (my monthly payment amount at the end of the month to pay for nexts month payment that's not due for at least another 20 days. I had expalined that I had never agreed to make additional payments that are not due yet.

I had further explained if I'm not past due, please don't call me. They always insist I was never past due but an additional payment must be made now for next month. I got mad and asked Earthlink not to call me anymore. TO date they have called over 100 times to collect funds that are not owed. Please assist in having them not call me anymore. Besides I'm not the type of person to pay my mortgage payment twice in one month either. I think they are scamming people to show an increase in company profits.

Lots of rude people from Earthlink, mostly from India,calling over the phone every month for nothing. Demanding additional money not owed or due. Over 100 calls monthly.

Denise of Los Angeles, CA February 23, 2009

Denise of Los Angeles CA (02/23/09)
I signed up for DSL in my area of Los Angeles, CA. 90016 on December 12,2008. I tried to use the internet in Feb. 2009 and found out that I didn't have a connection. I started calling the customer service trying to get help with this problem. Italked to Paul the first time and got a ticket number and was told to call with in 24 hours. I called the next day and got a recording telling me to give them another day in order for them to fix the problem. This went on for a couple of weeks to no avail. I continued calling customer service and speaking to them over the telephone and I even went on line to speak to a customer service rep.

On Thurs. Feb 12,2009 I was home and called customer service again. I was once again passed around to several people who were unable to help with the problem. I was on the telephone for over an hour and a half between talking to people and them being transferred and waiting for the person to answer. I finally asked to speak to a supervisor and this is when I got to speak to Morgan Garcia. I had to explain everything all over again. He goes by some type of script because he wouldn't answer any questions I had or it seemed that he was not listening to me at all. He told me that he could pass me through to a technician for the problem and when I asked what would he do, I was told by Morgan that he couldn't answer that question.

I just realized that this would go on and on and I decided to inform him that I felt that this was turning into a fraud because I was being charged for the service I wasn't getting. If I was correct it was probably since I signed up in Dec. that I haven't been getting what I have been paying for. Morgan didn't offer any type of suggestions other than being passed to a technician or discontinuing the service. I explained that there is no service because I haven't been helped and even talking to him it seemed that he wasn't going to try to offer any other alternative to this problem.

I was charged 150.00 dollars for the opting out early contract. I have been upset because I did this because I believed that there wasn't any way for them to help me plus I didn't believe that they wanted to offer a way to solve this problem. To be charged for something that doesn't work and then paying them to stop the service that you never received is a fraud to me.

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