2 months ago, I got phone service installed, and after examining my options for high-speed internet access, finally decided on Earthlink DSL for my carrier.

This turned out to be the single most frustrating mistake of my life!

The gentleman who came out from PacBell to install the DSL data block was very friendly and quickly had my block installed, he even connected to the internet with my new Alcatel SpeedTouch Modem. (free with install), but he never tested the modem on my computer, and when I came home (I had left my roommate with him with permission to install any required software) discovered he had NOT installed ANYTHING on my computer.

I immediately called Earthlink, and after 20 minutes on hold got a tech who walked me through installing the Earthlink CD I had received.

Mistake #1, the CD >I< had was for their dial-up service, and the software proved EXTREMELY difficult to remove fully once it was installed.

Several days later I had the correct disk, and installed it. No access. The modem was not being recognized by the computer AT ALL!

I want to condense this account, otherwise, I'll be hear for hours writing. Suffice it to say that I spent nearly 40 hours on the phone with Earthlink Tech Support (idiots one and all, and extremely NOT customer-satisfaction oriented!)

The final straw came when my checking account was debited for my first months service when I had not had a SINGLE HOUR OR CONNECTIVITY. I managed to get a $30 refund, but they refused to refund me the entire month, claiming I had accessed their network for 3 hours! It turns out that their dial-up access software had re-written the phone number and account for for my freewwweb.com connection!

I highly recommend thinking VERY HARD before selecting this atrocious company for DSL.



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