Earthlink customers, check your bill

[JonInMiddleGA]

Not sure how many Earthlink customers there are here but just in case ... it seems at least some of their auto-pay customers were double billed this month.
Credits supposedly have been/are being issued but it's worth keeping an eye on.

And after my wonderful customer service experience this morning, all I can tell you is that if there's ever a war between Pakistan & India, I think I'm going to pull for Pakistan. If the village idiot I talked to this morning was given the name "Marcus" by his mother at birth then I'm George Washington Carver.

[sterlingice]

So, what neat peanut-based inventions do you have for us today? ;)

SI

[fantom1979]

I hate sweet potatoes...

[JonInMiddleGA]

If I had one it would probably be lodged in the same place I wanted to insert my foot up to the knee in that dumb sumbitch.

Somewhere today, probably in the Greater New Delhi Metroplex, is a supervisor who is still trying to put out the flames that spewed forth from his phone and scorched his head.

As a public service, I'll share this tip for any of FOFC'ers who may work in customer relations:

If your company fucks up royally and a customer calmly calls just to make sure they understand the correction process, the phrase "just don' worry about eet" should not part of your vocabulary during the conversation. And it especially shouldn't be used a third time after the customer had already explained after the second usage that they WERE worried about it since it was, after all, their money.

Third time's the charm motherfucker, and that was your third time :mad: :rant:

[fantom1979]

on another note... i really didnt think anyone used earthlink anymore... My brain clumps them in with Prodigy, CompuServe, and AOL.

[fantom1979]

If your company fucks up royally and a customer calmly calls just to make sure they understand the correction process, the phrase "just don' worry about eet" should not part of your vocabulary during the conversation. And it especially shouldn't be used a third time after the customer had already explained after the second usage that they WERE worried about it since it was, after all, their money.


I have worked direct customer service for over 10 years, and I am pretty sure I have never used this line. Telling a customer not to worry about their money is just a recipe for getting your ass kicked.

[JonInMiddleGA]

on another note... i really didnt think anyone used earthlink anymore... My brain clumps them in with Prodigy, CompuServe, and AOL.

I was with Mindspring for years before the merger/buyout/whatever. I've kept a minimal account with them since switching to BellSouth for service in order to avoid having to change out our email address with something on the order of 500-1000 sales reps that know the original.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Telling a customer not to worry about their money is just a recipe for getting your ass kicked.

Yep. And even moreso when the whole situation centers on your double billing said customer. That doesn't exactly inspire faith in how well letting them worry about it is going to turn out.

[sterlingice]

Marge: Bart, are you ready for your history test?
Bart: Oh, you bet, Mom! Ask me anything.
Marge: OK. Who was George Washington Carver?
Bart: Um...the guy who chopped up George Washington?
Homer: Really? Wow.

SI

[Alan T]

on another note... i really didnt think anyone used earthlink anymore... My brain clumps them in with Prodigy, CompuServe, and AOL.

Prodigy, CompuServe and AOL were all content provider services that were the next step after the old dialup BBS's that were common in the 1980s. As the ability to use modems for more than just dialing into a BBS started becoming more common in the early 1990s (thanks to slip and eventually ppp), all three tried to transition from being more than just a BBS type system into actually being a ISP as well. Prodigy and CompuServe both failed fairly badly at it, however AOL managed to do well.

As this occured, you had pure ISPs start showing up, and Earthlink ended up being one of those.

As for how many people use them today, you would be suprised as the numbers are still fairly high. Earthlink is currently the largest dial up provider in the United States based on numbers of customers. Lately it has been very common to see various media outlets also hype up the idea that the recession might cause people to go back to using dialup more as well.. Even though the facts to support that case are non-existant. (So far the numbers seem to state that the recession has not caused high numbers of people to trim tv or internet services)

[fantom1979]

You seem to know quite a bit about it. I have to wonder if Earthlink is in trouble. I don't know if being the largest dial up provider would be a good title to hold. If we ever get out of this financial downturn, I would imagine that the trend from dial up to broadband would continue to increase. Also, I believe that Earthlink lost their asses in those "WiFi for all" deals with San Fran, Philly, and others.

[Alan T]

You seem to know quite a bit about it. I have to wonder if Earthlink is in trouble. I don't know if being the largest dial up provider would be a good title to hold. If we ever get out of this financial downturn, I would imagine that the trend from dial up to broadband would continue to increase. Also, I believe that Earthlink lost their asses in those "WiFi for all" deals with San Fran, Philly, and others.

From everything that I have read, Earthlink has absolutely no viable plan for what its next steps are. So I am not sure how they expect future growth that is needed to survive.