I saw this Boing Boing%3A Earthlink%27s crazy-talking support staff post, and it reminded me of a similar experience one of my IT clients had with Earthlink. This small office made the mistake of using xxx@earthlink.net as their e-mail address, instead of getting their own domain. That address was on their business cards and in everyone's Rolodex (people still use those!). When I finally convinced them to switch to DSL, Earthlink's $49.95 DSL was the only option because they didn't want to switch e-mail addresses. Meanwhile, SBC is $26.95/month, and they've gotten DSL installs down to a painless process. So we order DSL for this office, and the nightmare begins. First of all, there's no service on the turn-on date. Several reps named "Sam" and "Vivian" in an Indian call center have no clue, and have me go through these steps:
1. Turn off the modem
2. Wait
3. Restart the modem
Meanwhile, I have no DSL light, and I've done enough of these installations to know that the idiots on the other end have no clue about what they are doing, and I need a tech. Finally, after I yell a bit and demand a manager, they send a tech out to the COVAD DSL cage at the local telco. Turns out - "a card burnt out". ok, no problem - but the genius COVAD techs manage to not only forget to replace the card, they manage to kill the voice line.
In the end, a month later, after putting up with some of the dumbest customer service agents I ever had, I got fed up, and wrote a letter to Earthlink's CEO. I don't have the address, but if you pressure the CSR managers enough, they'll give it up. In the letter, with very stern language, I encouraged the CEO to take care of the problems we'd been having, or we'd start putting out press releases. Lo and behold, three days later I got a call from the CEO's office, and one of the vice presidents personally took responsibility, and coordinated the effort. The issue was finally resolved when the laziest and rudest COVAD tech I've ever met, and an SBC phone tech who I called out to rule out SBC's fault, fixed the connection from COVAD's cage all the way to the building, and then all the way to the modem. But the process was full of "it's SBC's fault", "it's Covad's fault", "it's Eartlink's fault", and just endless incompetence and passing the buck. After being an excellent service back in the middle 90s, Earthlink has slid past AOL in the "terrible experience" department. I haven't recommended Earthlink to anyone since 1999, because they got too big and unfriendly, and because I don't like my money going to the Scientology creeps.
end of rant