All I wanted was an installation time ....

[Detonate]

I use DSL through Centurylink. Nothing but good things to say and I get 10mbs, which is more than fast enough for me. And it's constant, hardly ever goes down. I've both and heard of horror stories with cable, both internet and TV, and will not go to it ever again!

Ditto on the Centurylink DSL. The only problem I Have had with them is that they do limit your bandwidth usage. The limit is very generous so you probably won't have a problem, but I did and they shut me off. When I called them I was told I would have to move to a "Business Plan". I was afraid I would be looking at a large increase in the monthly charge but the business plan only cost $10 a month more than I was paying and it moved me from 7 to 12 mbps and they don't even measure your usage.

[Buddlespit]

So is patience.

Yeah, I sat and stared at that for a bit, then decided that I was too high on flu meds to care. Thanks for pointing it out, I fixed it this morning.

[oshunluvr]

We're relocating across the country next year and this is my biggest fear! I have become so reliant on my Verizon FIOS connection at 25-30mbs d/l and 5-15 u/l that I'm extremely anxious about what lies ahead.

Funny sidebar: My original FIOS install was the TV/Phone/Data package for 2 yr contract. After it ended, I "cut the cord" (TV wise) and put an antenna on the roof. I also bought an Ooma box and dumped the telephone service as well. This left me with just the internet service from Verizon. I was pleasantly surprised when my internet bill stayed at package discount of $35 instead of the $70 it should have been. Fast forward 18 months and I get a letter from Verizon announcing the discovery of my un-deserved discount and that they would "do me the favor" of not back-billing me for the service (now that would have been a FUN phone conversation). That was over 8 months ago, and I'm still getting billed the discount rate! Sometimes, the incompetence swings thing in your favor

[GreyGeek]

We're relocating across the country next year and this is my biggest fear! I have become so reliant on my Verizon FIOS connection at 25-30mbs d/l and 5-15 u/l that I'm extremely anxious about what lies ahead.

And I pay $30 for 15Mb down (the actual dl shown in FireFox never goes above 3Mb) and 1Mb upload, but my E2500 router shows peaks at over 15Mb.)

Funny sidebar: My original FIOS install was the TV/Phone/Data package for 2 yr contract. After it ended, I "cut the cord" (TV wise) and put an antenna on the roof. I also bought an Ooma box and dumped the telephone service as well. This left me with just the internet service from Verizon. I was pleasantly surprised when my internet bill stayed at package discount of $35 instead of the $70 it should have been. Fast forward 18 months and I get a letter from Verizon announcing the discovery of my un-deserved discount and that they would "do me the favor" of not back-billing me for the service (now that would have been a FUN phone conversation). That was over 8 months ago, and I'm still getting billed the discount rate! Sometimes, the incompetence swings thing in your favor

$70 for 25-30Mb dl and 5Mb up would still be pretty sweet. If you ever have that conversation can I listen in?

[charles052]

Ditto on the Centurylink DSL. The only problem I Have had with them is that they do limit your bandwidth usage. The limit is very generous so you probably won't have a problem, but I did and they shut me off. When I called them I was told I would have to move to a "Business Plan". I was afraid I would be looking at a large increase in the monthly charge but the business plan only cost $10 a month more than I was paying and it moved me from 7 to 12 mbps and they don't even measure your usage.

Hmmm. I might use about 20 gigs in a good month, 30 if I'm really watching a lot of stuff off netflix and such. I don't really rely on the internet too much since I spend a lot of time with my 17 month old daughter and work outside quite a bit. Of course, that's when I'm home... which has been a lot lately.

[oshunluvr]

GG: If that phone call ever happens, I'll record it for everyone!

[Buddlespit]

And I pay $30 for 15Mb down (the actual dl shown in FireFox never goes above 3Mb)

Be careful of what you're checking. Your advertised download speeds are usually in a different format than most tested speeds. 15Mbits/sec equals about 2MBytes/sec. And most providers offer some sort of "Speed Boost" which will make your download speeds look much faster. I have an advertised d/l speed of 50Mbits/sec which equals about a little faster that 6MBytes/sec, but I download at about 8MBytes/sec.
Mbs is Mbits/sec
MBs is MBytes/sec

[Detonate]

That should not be a problem. They claimed I was using over 100 Gigs a month. I never could find out where all that usage was going. But I did have five computers and two other devices on my net. Lots of Netflix usage.

[GreyGeek]

Be careful of what you're checking. Your advertised download speeds are usually in a different format than most tested speeds. 15Mbits/sec equals about 2MBytes/sec. And most providers offer some sort of "Speed Boost" which will make your download speeds look much faster. I have an advertised d/l speed of 50Mbits/sec which equals about a little faster that 6MBytes/sec, but I download at about 8MBytes/sec.
Mbs is Mbits/sec
MBs is MBytes/sec

Of course.

Dl speeds differ from normal browsing speeds, in my experience. The DD-WRT firmware in my E2500 router has a page that monitors and graphs bandwidth usage. It shows a max at slightly over 15Mb/s when several web pages are open at once and I am streaming a YouTube video. As you noted, FireFox (and the bandwidth graph in Ksysmonitor) rarely goes over 2 Mb/s. My favorite speed test is: http://testmy.net/ shown in the graph. It showed a 1.9MB/s dl speed for a 15.5Mb/s bandwidth.


I noticed that Verizon's FIOS offerings rank my 15Mb/s as "Ideal for E-mail and light web browsing"!
http://www.verizonenterprise.com/Med.../fios/#compare
To facilitate my Internet usage, according to Verizon, I must use their 75/35 package at a minimum, or better yet their 135/65 package. How convenient for their bottom line.

[oshunluvr]

The 800 pound gorilla in the room is how abysmally slow our (The USA) internet speeds are compared to the rest of the western world.

Anybody on here live in Kansas City or North KC and have the new Google 1GB internet? Too bad I'll never move back to the midwest...

[GreyGeek]

Oh nooos!!!

The sage continues!

I got a bill from TimeWarner this afternoon.
My 15Mb service was advertised at $29.99/mo with no service charges and free installation. The bill was for $59.90

Please hold for the next available agent. Your chat should begin in approximately 0 minutes. You may type your question while you wait, but you won’t be able to SEND it until your chat is assigned to an agent.

'Michelle' says: Thank you for contacting EarthLink LiveChat, how may I help you today?

greygeek77@earthlink.net: I got a bill from Earthlink this afternoon (via TimeWarner). It was for $59.90. The problem is that I was promised by "Allen S" that: "Allan S: Great news!! I see that I can offer you High Speed cable internet. Cable Max:This is a best effort technology with speeds up to 15.0mb on the download and up to 1mb on the upload. Right now with our 15.0mb cable high speed, you can get the first 6 months for only $39.90 per month and the remaining months are just $51.90 per month. No contract, no start up fees. Free installation and modem..." That's an extract from our conversation log.

Michelle: I will be glad to assist you with your issue.

greygeek77@earthlink.net: I found out later that "Allen S" had his plans mixed up. I asked for a 15Mb connection, which is what I got. The Bill contains a charge for installation of $29.

greygeek77@earthlink.net: My account number is *******************

Michelle: Okay

greygeek77@earthlink.net: At least that is what is on the bill.

Michelle: To proceed with your request I need to verify your account.

Michelle: "May I know the name of you first pet?

Michelle: "

greygeek77@earthlink.net: ***********

Michelle: Thank you for the verification

Michelle: I see that you had cable service through EarthLink and your email address was attached to your Cable service.

Michelle: Did you made any changes to your Cable Internet service, cancelled your Cable Internet service that you had through EarthLink or moved your service to another location?

Michelle: Are we still connected?

greygeek77@earthlink.net: I don't understand your question. I contracted for an 15 Mb Earthlink cable connection on 11/11/13 but it took me SEVEN days of begging to get an installation appointment. I finally got one on Friday the 18th at 8AM-9AM but the installer never showed up. "Rita" set up another one for 11AM - 12AM that same day and "Jason" installed my cable modem box at 11:49AM at my apt at 3821 Eagle Ridge road. No changes were made to the service but during the phone menu hell I went through for the entire last week two people said that "someone" had set up the account wrong. I was told that someone at Earthlink ued the wrong "code", probably "Allen S", who tried to sell me a 15Mb "Max" connection.

Michelle: At some point we received an inactivation request from the cable vendor. However, our systems did not inactivate the account at that time and this weekend we processed a clean up to inactivate old records.

Michelle: However, since you are saying you had the cable service this whole time, we will reactivate the account and work with the cable vendor to sync up the order properly so this does not happen in the future.

greygeek77@earthlink.net: Wow. This is unbelievable. About an hour or so after the cable modem was installed I attempted to log into my Earthlink web email page. "George Fernandez", tech support I contacted via chat, said my account was "inactive". I demonstrated to him that it was not "inactive" so he "activated" it. So, your commputer terminal is wrong or Fernandez lied to me. I CAN and have been accessing email since last Friday afternoon. and my account IS active. I am afraid that someone will throw the wrong switch and get it messed up again. All I want is the extra service charge taken off the bill.

greygeek77@earthlink.net: From my chat with "Allen s" : Allan S: Great news!! I see that I can offer you High Speed cable internet. Cable Max:This is a best effort technology with speeds up to 15.0mb on the download and up to 1mb on the upload. Right now with our 15.0mb cable high speed, you can get the first 6 months for only $39.90 per month and the remaining months are just $51.90 per month. No contract, no start up fees. Free installation and modem.

Michelle: I agree to what you say

Michelle: In order to remove the extra charges I need to escalate your issue

Michelle: We will not be able to waive off any charges we have a dedicated department for cable billing and they will take care of this

Michelle: I regards to escalate your issue I need few information from you

greygeek77@earthlink.net: What I asked for, 15Mb, is what I got. Will I be sent into phone menu hell again?

Michelle: The cable escalation team will contact time warner and get this issue fixed for you

Michelle: I can assure you once this issue has been escalated it will be resolved soon

Michelle: Thank you for your patience.

Michelle: I have checked your issue and I see that your email account is showing as Inactive from our end due to some issues from the server end.

Michelle: In this case, I will first reactivate the account from my end and change your service to Premium Mail on a temporary basis first to keep your email address active.

Michelle: You will not be charged anything for the Premium Mail service from EarthLink.

Michelle: Once it is done, your email address will get activated from our end.

Michelle: Then, I will go ahead and escalate this issue to our server level technicians, so that they can change your service from Premium Mail to Cable service from the server end for you.

Michelle: It will take at least up to 72 business hours for the server level technicians to work on your issue and contact you to confirm the information.

Michelle: Please let me know your name, your complete address where your Cable service is active right now, your cable account number and your phone number.

At this point I included "Earthlink_woes_part2.txt" into the stream to explain to her that her computer terminal was wrong, or Gordon Fernandez was lying.

greygeek77@earthlink.net: Pardon that long post but that is just part of four different chat logs that detail the agony that I went through to get the Earthlink set up properly.

greygeek77@earthlink.net: Please note that the bill is due 11/5/13.

Michelle: I do understand your concern and I know how it feels to have to go through such things, but I am directly reporting this to our Cable Escalation Team for you.

Michelle: Only our Cable Escalation Team can speak to TimeWarner Cable and have this billing issue fixed for you.

greygeek77@earthlink.net: Ok

greygeek77@earthlink.net: My name is Jerry L Kreps

Michelle: Please let me know your name, your complete address where your Cable service is active right now, your cable account number and your phone number.

.....redacted....

Michelle: Thank you for the Information

Michelle: Thank you for the information. Please give me five minutes while I reactivate your account and escalate this issue to our server level technicians.

greygeek77@earthlink.net: Does "reactivating" the account mean that it is not physically active? If so, then how can I be chatting with you right now using it?

Michelle: Customer's cable service was cancelled in midas, but customer said that he did not cancel the Cable service from his end nor made any changes in it.

Michelle: Speedracer shows service was Inactive in it.

Michelle: So, I have reactivated the account and changed his service to Premium Mail.

Michelle: Please change his service back to Cable service on a permanent basis, so that he does not get charged for Premium Mail from EarthLink.

Michelle: Please ignore the above message

Michelle: I have successfully reactivated your account and have changed your service to Premium Mail.

Michelle: I have also escalated this issue to our server level technicians to change your service back to Cable service from the server end on our records. It will be fixed at the earliest.

Michelle: Since I have reactivated your account now, you can start using your email address within the next 20 minutes, but you can also try to check if you are able to login or not.

greygeek77@earthlink.net: I have been using my Earthlink eamil address successfully since last Friday afternoon. What are you doing to change my status?

greygeek77@earthlink.net: Just a second. I'll send myself a test email...

greygeek77@earthlink.net: Yup. I can send myself an email so the pop and smtp connections are working ok.

greygeek77@earthlink.net: I just got TWO emails from Earthlink saying: We are notifying you that on 10/22/13 you contacted EarthLink and made a bill plan change. Your current balance is $0.00. We appreciate your business. Thank you for choosing EarthLink! Sincerely, EarthLink Customer Service

Michelle: We are only changing the service to keep email address active during this cable escalation

greygeek77@earthlink.net: OK.

Michelle: Thank you

greygeek77@earthlink.net: Thank you.

greygeek77@earthlink.net: bye

Michelle: You are welcome

Michelle: EarthLink will occasionally need to send important administrative emails to you about your service. Do you have a specific contact email address you would like us to use when sending these messages?

What will happen next? I don't know, but if previous events are any indication of future actions I suspect the worst.

[tek_heretik]

"Michelle: I regards to escalate your issue I need few information from you"

Pah! That's one of their favourite lines, not that it ever helps. The only thing they are good at is escalating problems, lol. I feel for ya Grey, honestly.

[SteveRiley]

Jerry, why are you still using Earthlink? They are adding absolutely no value here and causing you endless grief. Just buy your service directly from the real ISP.

[GreyGeek]

Fair question.
For several reasons, Steve.
1) I had used an uncapped and unthrottled 15Mb Earthlink connection from June of 2008 till Oct of 2012 and was well pleased with the service. When I moved to this apt I was told that there was no Earthlink service in this area. When I decided to drop Windstream because they were too expensive ($62) for 15Mb and the 15Mb often seemed like 1.5Mb, and frequently wouldn't test out at 5, 6 and 7Mb, behavior that indicates over subscribing, or they were deliberately capping me, I discovered that Earthlink DID offer service in this area. It's common in this area for ISPs to offer "uncapped" service but throttle it instead. TW is very bad about that. So is ComCast and Verizon (FIOS), both of which are not in this area.
2) Earthlink's 15Mb service was $30 for 6 months and $40/mo afterwards. Uncapped and no throttling. $20 is $20. I can take the wife to Panera's for that.
3) The only other competition in this area is TimeWarner and DishNet. I had TW's service a couple times in the last 15 years, and they make Earthlink look highly professional. I had a Satellite dish for one year and couldn't get rid of it fast enough. If the wind blew the trees or rain clouds blocked the sky the connect was intermittent or lost.

My wish is that Google would bring a 1Gb connection here.

[GreyGeek]

From my post above you'll notice this line, from "Michelle":

Michelle: We are only changing the service to keep email address active during this cable escalation

I have had an excellent Internet connection since last Friday, at 11:49AM, when "Jason" completed the installation of the cable modem. Every since then Earthlink reps seem to think that I do not have an "active" Internet account. I've had to convince several of them that I had, once by sending an email to myself via my Earthlink email address.

To recall, after less than a week of actually service I got a SECOND bill (didn't I tell you that the Earthlink AR is a well oiled machine!) but this time for $59.90, not the $29.99 I had agreed to. It did have my corrected "service date", however. During my chat with "Michelle" the "cause" seemed to have shifted from being an installation service charge to one of having a "premium" email account. I have no clue what a "premium" email account is. Is it one in which all the characters in your email is forwarded to you, as opposed to cheap email accounts where only every other letter is sent on? Who knows how Earthlink designs its "profit centers". Anyway, I pleaded with "Michelle" that what ever she does do NOT deactivate my service.

Last night I got a call from a more fluent Indian rep asking me if my problems had been addressed satisfactorily. I said "yes", and added "what ever you do, do NOT de-activate my account. I am pleased with the 15Mb connection and the email service. Don't change a thing." I don't think she understand what I meant. This morning I got an email:

Dear Jerry Kreps,

We're sorry that you decided to cancel your EarthLink account.
We've enjoyed serving you, and hope you consider EarthLink for
your future communication needs.

Please read below for information about your cancellation.

*************************
CANCELLATION CONFIRMATION
*************************
On 10/23/13, you requested to cancel the following service(s)
for account number ***********:

SERVICE SERVICE END DATE

Premium Mail 10/23/2013

:ROFL:
I've got to laugh. Not even the keystone cops are this stupid. Part of the reason I am laughing, and not crying, is because when I got this email I decided to call 1-888-EARTHLINK, a number I've never called before, to asked them what was up. The first thing I run into is a Seri-type robot answering service. Rather than play word games with a machine that isn't even as good as the Indian reps, I state "I want to speak to a human". Here is "Seri"'s reply

It may not be a good idea to forward you to a person who is not trained to handle the specific problem you are having.

This from a machine.

Is there anyone at Earthlink who is trained to handle any problem correctly?