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Review by mdembski 
Posted: 265 days ago
member for 8.6 years, 101 visits, last login: 115 days ago
 Washington,District Of Columbia,DC
 $75 per month (12 month contract)
 "delivered what they promised"
 "service (both dsl and tech) quickly went downhil"
 "avoid"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
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(ratings match consensus)
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I got Earthlink almost 2 years ago and service was great. After about a year started having dsl issues and they downgraded the service, All went well and after a few months started having issues again and again downgraded the service. During the 2nd downgrade, tech support started getting nasty and had frequent "cutoff" while on hold. It appears that Earthlink is falling apart. Avoid.
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Review by rhausman
Posted: 291 days ago
member for 292 days, 3 visits, last login: 289 days ago
Alameda,Alameda,CA
$24 per month (12 month contract)
 AT&T
"Pretty consistently up"
"Pricing"
"Reliable but pricey"
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While EarthLink lists their DSL (via Covad) at 6 Mb/s for my location for $39.95/month, they tell me they can only provide 1.5 Mb/s. While again their website lists the 1.5 Mb/s for $19.95/month, they tell me the best price they can give me is $24.95/month. The only way I've been able to get them to lower the price, is to threaten to leave them (after 10 years!) for another service. Then they relent and lower the price.
Their service is quite reliable, however. They've been down only a few days over the approximately 3,650 days I've been with them. Not bad at all.
Their tech support is in the usual inverted-pyramid style, i.e., you first have to talk with someone who can only give you basic information, then you have to work your way up until you get a really knowledgeable person. Support is outsourced to India, which is no problem other than understanding their English accent at times.
Lastly, EarthLink/Covad, like all other ISPs in the United States simply dole out the bandwith speed as they see fit because the entire industry is basically a monopoly. Here we are with 1.5 or 6.0 M/bs while much of Europe and Asia function at 23 to 28 M/bs for less cost than what we in the US pay.
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Review by torchstar
Posted: 294 days ago
member for 5.8 years, 16 visits, last login: 294 days ago
San Rafael,Marin,CA
$49 per month (84 month contract)
 about 21 days
SBC
"Customer Service is prompt, knowledgeable, and very friendly any time day or night."
"I don't have any to report."
"Whenever someone mentions shopping for an ISP I always recommend earthlink."
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We have been satisfied Earthlink clients for 7 years. I have found them to be so responsive from the start. And boy did we need help in the beginning!
The first ISP was a nightmare (Long and gory story). After bailing from them I signed up with Earthlink. The previous ISP had to release our lines, and the process was what made our "Days from order to success" take longer. The support people at Earthlink were more than eager to help iron out the challenging strange kinks in our service. Every service person I spoke with knew the details of my case- I didn't have to repeat the story over and over! After several attempts to hook up failed, I was passed to a Level 3 tron tech- his miraculous rubber mallet wallop brought our line to life. If I run across the notes I kept then I'll add the details here, but the crux of the biscuit is EARTHLINK DSL is #1. Their customer service is stellar.
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Review by HadItinSF
Posted: 306 days ago
member for 306 days, 0 visits, last login: 306 days ago
San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
$53 per month
"Connections became spottier, speeds slowed, they charge you even after you cancel"
"Not a good value"
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After 10 years of being nickel-and-dimed (not on auto-pay? that's a $1. paper invoice? another $1 etc.) and getting run-arounds by support for our twice-yearly major service disruptions (and regular, brief, dropped connections), we decided to switch to cable (Comcast). Connection is much faster and I only wish we had switched sooner.
Word of warning: If you're an EL customer and you want to switch, be sure to do it before the end of your billing cycle or pay a full month. When they told me this I was incredulous -- when I cancel my newspaper, they don't charge me for the next month of papers I won't receive. But that's EL policy.
On principle I escalated to supervisor and then manager level to complain, but their scripts didn't seem to offer any explanation other than "their protocol doesn't allow for pro-rated billing after a cancellation." After an hour and a half on the phone, an hour of it on hold, the manager finally said she'd put in for immediate cancellation and pro-rate my bill for the month, but "the computer" calculated the total to be only $15 off, about a third of what it should have been
At this point, it's not about the money at all but about shoddy and shady business practices. EL will delay, parry, stretch the truth (there's no one else to escalate your complaint to, until there is when you don't give up) and do basically anything to extract as much money from you as they can. Knowing that others have been paying significantly less for the same service we've had for years makes me even madder. Says a lot when you see how they treat long-time customers.
Even if cable doesn't work out in the long run and we go back to dsl, I will never go back to EL.
Followup comments:  | | 
jimbo48
join:2000-11-17
Hayward, CA
 ·AT&T DSL Service
·EarthLink
| Re: Huh? You never called for a Price Match ever? Dr Olds,
I have absolutely no faith in ELNK sales due to their less than upfront sales techniques. I've found that they will "tell" you anything to get you to agree to a commitment. You have absolutely no recourse except to discontinue services with ELNK.
I signed on for a speed bump 2 years ago after being "assured" that I qualified for their 6.0 /768 speeds, paying for this speed bump with a 1 year commitment only to experience a slow and painful return to my current original 1.5/256 speed yet paying for the "premium" speed. I can't afford to just cease service because I work from home (the reason I opted for the speed bump) and if I have no internet I have no job-brutal but true. To their credit, ELNK seems to have really "improved" their technical support and I actually spoke with people that didn't try to blow smoke up my a$$. When you have little or no options for internet, you have no bargaining power. May I say that it has been your very knowledgeable posts that have allowed me to deal with the various issues that ELNK has presented me so a BIG thank you for your help. I wish that ELNK could deal with all their issues but after learning about all the nuances, their situation is rather hopeless. They can do only so much as a broker. The local Telcos can really mess with them and the infrastructure that they lease access cannot be fixed by ELNK. 2 years later, I'm a much wiser person and don't go to ELNK sales anymore- | |
| | | 
Doctor Olds
I Need A Remedy For What's Ailing Me.
Premium,VIP
join:2001-04-19
1970 442 W30
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1 edit | Re: Huh? You never called for a Price Match ever? said by jimbo48 :Dr Olds, I have absolutely no faith in ELNK sales due to their less than upfront sales techniques. I've found that they will "tell" you anything to get you to agree to a commitment. You have absolutely no recourse except to discontinue services with ELNK. You are sounding confused. 
Earthlink Sales (independent contractors on commission) is only for *NEW* customers that do not have DSL service. Existing customers use Customer Service.
If you read the Topic Link I posted, you will know what phone menu choice to pick and it has nothing to do with the Sales Department for new customers.
I currently have only AT&T for my other option and since I'm in a former BellSouth Region their DSL prices are actually higher than ELs prices. I called in for my most recent Price Match and after getting the right Customer Service department, I was given $35.95 for the next 12 months, a new Router/Modem and a free month of service for my 6.0/768 connection. For the similar 6.0/512 AT&T service in my area it is $42.95 at and AT&T charges a extra $5.00 non-fee administration fee that makes AT&T DSL $47.95 per month. Plus you cannot run personal servers on AT&T which I can do on EL since it is allowed.
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What’s the point of owning a supercar if you can’t scare yourself stupid from time to time? | |
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Review by trothatl
Posted: 320 days ago
member for 7.1 years, 9 visits, last login: 61 days ago
Decatur,Dekalb,GA
$50 per month
BellSouth
"Good speeds up and down for DSL"
"Horrible tech support, lots of drops and downtime"
"Go elsewhere"
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I've been with Earthlink since they were Mindspring, but their service has become really poor over the last year. Although I always have sync, authentication often drops and I can't reauthenticate for hours.
Online tech support can't do anything other then send canned instructions or links to support pages. They won't do any real troubleshooting, they just send a web page link and ask "is there anything else I can help you with?" If you don't reply in 30 seconds, they drop you.
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Review by michaelglass
Posted: 322 days ago
member for 1.8 years, 12 visits, last login: 237 days ago
New York,New York,NY
$45 per month (12 month contract)
about 17 days
"Very fast downstream"
"idiot tech support, mediocre technicians"
"Be vigiliant with tech support if you want to pay for a working connection"
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All cable is handled through Time Warner Cable so they're the people I contact. I've never actually talked to Earthlink even though they're supposedly my ISP.
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Review by lavs
UPDATED: 328 days ago
member for 8.8 years, 59 visits, last login: 324 days ago
Costa Mesa,Orange,CA
$39 per month
AT&T
"Email protection features"
"Technical support is pathetic"
"Stay away...far far away"
| Pre Sales information:
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I have been a loyal customer of earthlink for close to 10 years and have been paying the $39.95 because I felt the Technical support was worth it. Well when the support was in the states I spoke with knowledgeable technicians, even techs that did not know how to help me transfered me to a more technical person.
The support I got from my last 2 modem issues was awful. The people (if you can understand them) have no idea what they are doing. They read from a script and will not transfer you to the high tech people. Bottom line it has taken 3 days and over 5 hours of wasted time. I asked for a new modem the 2nd time I called and they would not send it. So now after all of the climbing around my computer and connections I finally got through to the high tech dept. the person told me I need a new modem and would send one. She then told me what to do to get my connection in the mean time. I did that and now all of my windows drivers are gone and i am unable to print, create a new connection I have to pay for someone to to come and fix the issues.
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 Review by jamez818
UPDATED: 329 days ago
member for 9.2 years, 1718 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Sunland,Los Angeles,CA
$75 per month (12 month contract)
about 21 days
Covad
"Fastest DSL connection available in my area"
"Going thru Covad for dsl and phone"
"We will see if it works out, so far it has been good."
| Pre Sales information:
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Been on Earthlink for about one year and six months now and the connection reliability in the past two months has been really bad. Before that it was great, very steady connection with an ocasional outage that usually got resolved within a few hours. When my connection is stable the speed is great. I'm getting 8mb down and 1mb up! The other competitors in my area are Timewarner and Verizon which i already tried. For the price and the speed I feel i am getting the best.
Bad points:
Earthlink tech support seemed like they just wanted me to get off the phone. Everyday i need to reset my connection at least twice.
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 Review by Hall
UPDATED: 332 days ago
member for 9.6 years, 5658 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Dayton,Montgomery,OH
$39 per month (6 month contract)
about 28 days
Ameritech
"Rock-solid reliable and fast (enough)"
"None"
"I like it"
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Placed my order on 10/18/2000; got the $39.95/month deal, $299 rebate (Covad installation and equipment, etc), free setup, 6-month contract after mentioning that Ameritech charges $39.95/month locally (forgot to tell 'em the speed is only 768/128 ... whoops). Salesperson "Lewis" was very friendly, knowledgeable, and polite ! Confirmation e-mail was waiting for me as soon as we hung up the phone and I checked my mail.
Since the confirmation e-mail from Mindspring and Covad, I've rec'd absolutely no information or status from either company !! I've had to call and e-mail them both myself to get any news. Luckily, so far I've been getting pretty good news: Ameritech checked and qualifed my line withing 3 days of order; since then it's been awfully quiet -- just found out yesterday, Nov 3rd, that Ameritech is scheduled to do the "cross-connect" on the 8th. I suppose I'll have to call and find out if it happened or not. You can be sure that I will ! After that, I should get an install date from Covad. Hopefully, by that time all of the bandwidth problems for Dayton users will be resolved !!
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Update (three days after install):
Covad tech arrived about 8:05-8:10am and was gone shortly after 8:30. I'd already installed a phone jack and ran wire *to* my demarc point, but let him hook it up. I asked about an "NID Splitter" but he acted like he didn't know what I was talking about. Don't think I need it anyway. I get plenty good speeds, normally above 1100k download and 300k upload.
=====================
After almost 3 years to the day (placed order on 10/18... back then, it took *weeks*, not days, to get installed... as I recall, it was 29 days) I'm switching to Earthlink Cable (via TW RR). I have ZERO complaints about my DSL and couldn't have asked for anything better. In three years, I only know of 1-1/2 days of downtime and this was a major nationwide outage. It made the national news, I think. Bottom line is, after three years, other than a 6-month special deal, the price hasn't changed. I signed up for a promotional $40/month deal for 6-9 months (it could go up after six months but didn't right away). Then it went up to $50/month (Ouch !). Back in April or May of 2003 I got them to "price-match" Ameritech's rate for ~$30/month for 6 months. When the six months was about up, I missed the boat on getting it extended. Well, they'd happily allow me to "start over" just like a new customer. Downside of that: A new 12-month contract.
EL Cable has a few pluses over EL DSL, but I also have the unknowns, so we'll see how it goes.
=====================
1/04/2009 update
I cancelled this service quite some time ago... Shouldn't this review system have a way to mark a service as no longer in use ? Or does it ?
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Review by chewy106
UPDATED: 350 days ago
member for 5.4 years, 63 visits, last login: 350 days ago
Round Lake,Lake,IL
$45 per month
AT&T
"It was cheap before."
"Absolutely horrendous customer service. Good luck :("
"Probably better off with some other DSL ISP"
| Pre Sales information:
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(ratings well below consensus)
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Have had DSL since 2003. Everything but the Sales department appears to now be outsourced to India. Good luck in ever getting support to deviate from their scripts. You'll be told to power on/off the modem for all connectivity issues multiple times even if you already have. Tech Support generally isn't even aware of outages. Plus they can't even get their phone systems working as I've been told that the hang-ups by reps are "phone issues". Randomly have received new modems with no documentation as to why, and support had no clue it was even sent. Found out recently they've been charging me for 3.0mbps service and not 1.5mbps, even when for the last year my line could only support 1.5. Billing plan simply says "ADSL" and has no additional information. Not even basic support for home networking unless you pay them $10/month for their equipment and support. Looking to change ISP, it's not worth the hassle.
Followup comments:
Doctor Olds
I Need A Remedy For What's Ailing Me.
Premium,VIP
join:2001-04-19
1970 442 W30
clubs:
| Normal and better than some ISP that don't let you run a LAN quote:
Not even basic support for home networking unless you pay them $10/month for their equipment and support.
Most all ISPs are the same, they will not help you setup a Router as that is 100% your responsibility to setup your network if that is what you want. At that point you have two choices:
One - you set it up yourself while teaching yourself how to do it or reading guides free on the Internet for the low, low price of $0/month extra in fees.
or
Two - You don't want to be bothered with teaching yourself or reading guides on the Internet so you pay them to help and hold your hand walking you through setup using a standardized single Router that you get for Free After Rebate in their kit and that has a price of $10/month extra in fees.
EL only supports one Router that is in their Home Networking Kit for a good reason. Trying to support two or three dozen Routers would be a support nightmare.
»EarthLink DSL FAQ »What is Earthlink's policy on networking and sharing an internet connection
At least they allow you to run your own Private LAN Network as some ISPs either don't allow it or they charge you for each PC you hook up.
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What’s the point of owning a supercar if you can’t scare yourself stupid from time to time? | |
| | chewy106
join:2004-06-25
Round Lake, IL
·EarthLink
| Re: Normal and better than some ISP that don't let you run a LAN They support 3 different versions of my router per their support site (WRTP54G, WRT54Gx2 and WRT54G). The GS is just the "speedboost" model, practically the same in all ways to the G. They told me they don't support Linksys at all and I had to point out they have nearly 50 pages of FAQs for them.
Besides, I'm not asking for them to set up my router. I pointed that out due to the fact they've randomly once again sent me a new modem (P-660R-D1). Then this past Sunday, my old Zyxel stopped connecting. I've been struggling for 5 days now with them. This new modem only connects through PPPOA, not PPPOE. No one at Earthlink (and in 5 days I think I've talked to now about 45-50 people, all purporting to be "Tech Support") can tell me why, other than they have a "major ticket" in the area open. Last night they told me it's closed, yet the modem still only connects and maintains a connection in PPPOA.
To me, that's shady practices. My Linksys is older and only supports PPPOE. They first tell me their network is PPPOE, then when I say it's not working that way, they say if you buy our Home Networking it'll work. On par with the fact they've been overcharging me for a year since the last time I called and complained about a long extended outage and they gave me a "credit" for it. I received no notification of the price change after the "credit" price they gave me was over, just again paying for (per the bill) "ADSL Service".
And I'm STILL dealing with them 5 days later, with little updates or support for just my connection Yesterday I received a callback as promised, yet the person on the other end insisted I just called them and had no clue what was going on, and I was told to call back in a few hours. Reeks of major incompetence for supposed "Tech Support". Their own modem reported my "3.0" speed as 928kbps and they told me it's a browser issue with the speed test. I had to argue with them for 10 minutes that it was the Zyxel modem they sent reporting the speed, not some random online speed test. And they still insisted I clear my browser cache and run anti-spyware and it would fix the speed before they hung up. Again.
I take it from your reply though there are no arguments with any of my other issues? Seems like a very minor point to disagree with considering the gravity of the other issues. | |
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Doctor Olds
I Need A Remedy For What's Ailing Me.
Premium,VIP
join:2001-04-19
1970 442 W30
clubs:
| Re: Normal and better than some ISP that don't let you run a LAN said by chewy106 :Besides, I'm not asking for them to set up my router. I pointed that out due to the fact they've randomly once again sent me a new modem (P-660R-D1). Then this past Sunday, my old Zyxel stopped connecting. I've been struggling for 5 days now with them. This new modem only connects through PPPOA, not PPPOE. No one at Earthlink (and in 5 days I think I've talked to now about 45-50 people, all purporting to be "Tech Support") can tell me why, other than they have a "major ticket" in the area open. Last night they told me it's closed, yet the modem still only connects and maintains a connection in PPPOA. To me, that's shady practices. My Linksys is older and only supports PPPOE. They first tell me their network is PPPOE, then when I say it's not working that way, they say if you buy our Home Networking it'll work. Even a BRAND NEW Linksys does not support PPPoA so I don't see how that is shady in any way, shape, or form as even the EL Linksys Routers are the same way and only support PPPoE or DHCP. Try and find any Ethernet to Ethernet Router with PPPoA support. You have a Working Router in the ZyXEL as all the P660R versions are full featured wired Routers that support 32 LAN clients out of the box via DHCP and can be configured to support up to 253 LAN clients if you buy a large enough Multi-Port Switch and increase the DHCP pool size. You can even use your Wireless Router if you connect the ZyXEL to a LAN port instead of the WAN port and then turn Off PPPoE and Turn Off DHCP in your Router so the ZyXEL hands out IPs to all clients Wired or Wireless.
PPPoA can only be done in the DSL Modem/Router. A Bridge only Modem does not support PPPoA. Only some areas of EL coverage support PPPoA and PPPoE while other are PPPoE only. DSLAMs that support both PPPoA and PPPoE are in the dual protocol areas.
I don't know why you are able to connect with PPPoA and not with PPPoE in the ZyXEL, as that would cause all the people in your area that have older PPPoE only Modems or older Bridge Modems with only PPPoE support through them with a Router or a PPPoE client to not have any Internet access which you do have. There is something going on, but I don't know what it is as it is not in my area and I've not seen any other posts about it in the Earthlink DSL Forum yet so far. Are you using IE 7 to set the ZyXEL into Bridge Mode? That is the one thing I just remembered that does not work and requires either IE 6 or Opera or Firefox instead and that would stop PPPoE in your Router from working as the ZyXEL Wizard for Bridge Mode does not work with IE 7 as it is not a supported Browser.
Linksys is one Brand and the three Models are nearly identical in setup which makes it their one supported platform to deal with.
Yes, I know very well that support is bad at Tier 1 as they only read scripts. You would need Tier 3 to get non-scripted help, but if there is a major issue in your area (I don't know if there is or if there isn't as I have no clue what your area is) then no calls to support (even 40 or 50 of them) will help until that is cleared up first. That is pretty much common sense.
I didn't address your other points as I can't help with EL Support as I don't work for them, I can only try to help you with things that I personally know to work and share that.
Enjoy.
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