AUGH! ISP tale of woe (warning: blowing off steam rant)

The BBQ Pit
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My ISP, which begins with Earth and ends with link (LOL ARGH!), aggravated and pissed me off to no end this past weekend. A bit of background: I’ve had an online account (first with Netcom, then Mindspring, finally with ELN) for nearly 8 years, since September 1994. I’ve rarely had problems, and certainly never had any billing problems. I don’t have a “major credit card,” so I get billed for my account–a bill sent in the mail. Usually, I try to pay two months at a time (that’s about as much as I can afford to budget at a time), but sometimes I get a bit behind with things.

The current bill, dated 6/21/02 and mailed (bulk rate) 6/24, arrived in my mailbox sometime around the end of June/beginning of July. There was a credit it on from back in May (I had sent in enough to hopefully cover two months. My bills vary from month to month, unfortunately–fees that they keep changing!), with a balance due of $26.55. The due date was listed as July 6, 2002. Well okay, I probably should have paid this bill out of that first paycheck of the month, but unfortunately rent has to come out of that paycheck, so it would have to wait until the 19th. When the 19th and my next paycheck rolled around, I duly mailed off the bill with a money order for $50 in it.

Forward to Saturday night, July 20…I’m trying to log on to my account, and keep getting password errors–it won’t accept my password! I figure it’s some system problem, and keep trying. However, the problem persists, until finally I called technical support, by which time it was nearly 2 AM Sunday. First, the tech support person couldn’t find my account, I had to keep spelling it out for him (I had to use the A-as-in-apple method). He still can’t find my account! Then all of a sudden he tells me, “Oh here’s why–last activity on this account was July 20th and it shows it was cancelled. You’ll have to talk to customer support about that. I’ll transfer you now…” Me, incredulous (even though I do realize that I was late in paying them $26.55, it really was in the mail, and it was only 2 weeks late), “Okay… but are they still open/up?” Tech support, “Oh yes, they’re still open.” Phone rings, voice mail picks up, “Please call back during these hours…” Argh, I had to wait until later Sunday morning to talk to them.

Sure enough, the account had been “closed” for non-payment. Apparently, I had owed a few dollars from the previous month, and after July 6, the current billing cycle’s due date, it was like I was two months behind. According to customer support, my account is still there, and as soon as the money gets to them and is processed, it will be reactivated. ARGH!!!

All I can say is that Earthlink will -not- be recommended by me any longer to anyone. I’m waiting until I get home tonight to see if the account is back up, btw–I don’t want to be caught fussing & cussing here at work. GAH.

tarragon

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According to your TOS or EUA, after how long can they terminate or suspend service for nonpayment?

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So you didn’t pay them for two months and the shut you off.

This is a problem with them how? annoying for you, yes, but reasonable.

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Medea’s Child wrote:

"So you didn’t pay them for two months and the shut you off.

This is a problem with them how? annoying for you, yes, but reasonable."

That’s not the case–I had paid them in May, what was supposed to cover 2 months worth. Like I mentioned, though, the cost of my account varies from month to month–they were charging me $5 a month to send me a bill! that cost has now gone down to $2 a month–what happened was that it did not completely cover the 2nd month; it left a balance of a few dollars. That combined with the next month was apparently enough to indicate that I was two months behind. The $50 payment that they received today (yes, I’m back on my account) should cover the current month’s balance as well as last month that I was overdue. Also, I had never had any problems in the past, either with Netcom or Mindspring, or even Earthlink in the nearly 2 years I’ve been with them. That’s ok, next month I’ll send in another 2 month payment and then I should be a month ahead of them.

I hope that more thoroughly explains the problem. Sometimes in the past (especially after 9/11, which is understandable), the bills have been very late in arriving, btw. And this particular bill I got about 5 days before it was due.

tarragon

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Just trying to put in perspective.

If your employer made a mistake and paid you late, it wouldn’t mater if it was “only two weeks late”, you would be suitably upset. Taking someone to task because you didn’t pay them on time is just pretty…silly to me, i guess. They had a two month old outstanding debt on your account, poof, down it goes, you get it back when they get their funds. Simple cause and effect stuff, no rant to be found.

I ask again, how does your not paying become a problem with their service?

They gave you two and a half months to pay before they shut you down, by my math. Even with getting a bill late they gave you nearly a month to get funds to them. You did not. When you did get funds to them, they re-instated your service.

How is your not paying them a problem with them as a company?

Lord knows companies do crappy suff sometimes. Simply being a company isn’t on my list of great evil and rudeness though.

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tarragon

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I have to agree with ** Medea’s Child ** . Just last week I had the same thing happen with my cellphone - went to make a call, and it had been cut off because I had mailed payment late. Matter of fact, they just turned it back on today. That’s life.

Now, if it was something I need , like electricity or water, that 's a different story and companies need to be (and usually are) more flexible. But internet or a cell phone? Pay the bills when they are due, don’t blame the company for not providing service when you don’t pay.

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I also don’t see why this is Earthlink’s fault; they’re not responsible for mail delays or your financial situation.

I don’t think any business can afford to give much slack to customers who say their payment’s “only two weeks late”, regardless of how long they’ve been a customer. If a business did, a lot of folks would be using that justification to not pay right away, and the business would suffer. Earthlink’s got 5 million subscribers-- imagine if just 1% didn’t pay right away. It adds up to a lot of money, money they need to pay their employees and maintain their equipment.

Also, you have to admit that there’s no more cliché excuse for nonpayment than “the check’s in the mail”. Can you blame a company for being skeptical of that claim? I can’t.

Pardon me for asking, but what plan and connection type do you have? I have a 56k dialup (which I’m about to disconnect for financial reasons), unlimited hours, and my monthly charge is $21.95. What are these “fees that keep changing”? Also, what’s with the being charged $5/mo. to be sent a bill? I’ve been with EL for almost three years, and I’ve never heard of that. In fact, I’ve never heard of a service provider of any type that charges for a printed invoice.

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Yes, Earthlink charges to print an invoice. It was $5/month, but has gone down to $2/month. If I pay them a month in advance, they don’t need to print an invoice for that month, so that service charge should not be included that month. The unlimited usage monthly charge for a dial-up account is currently $23.95. Since I (usually) pay two months at a time, I guess that’s why my invoices are sometimes confusing to me and the charges seem to vary. I really wish that I had a credit card to make the payments in that manner, but I don’t and I’m not going to get one.

BTW, I read an article in the Washington Post this morning that said for folks who pay by check over the phone (third party drafts, telechecks, pre-authorized drafts) for rapid payments that this type of payment is very susceptible to fraud. And there is little to no consumer protection for this kind of fraud–in some cases, the consumer has to bear the loss. So be very careful using your checking account to make payments over the phone. I don’t have the link, but the article is in the Washington Post Style section, int he Consummate Consumer column.

I do agree that I should have paid the bill on time and will now try to be at least a month ahead of time in the future. I don’t think I’m going to pay over the phone by check though!

tarragon