http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22459626 en Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:49:11 EDT Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:49:11 EDT http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22459626 bradpaton : My wife and I recently moved from an area that had Earthlink DSL service provided by Verizon to a location that only offered Earthlink High-Speed Cable access provided by Time-Warner Cable. I followed the instructions at kb.earthlink.net/case.asp?article=11247, noting all of the information I had to gather before submitting the request.

After I setup my Cable access, I submitted the move request form and printed a copy of the confirmation screen (see attached screen cap), and went ahead with preparing for the move, noting that I would have to net out a minus $50 "mover's fee", but whatever, that's life in the big city as they say.

Upon arrival I checked back on the Earthlink support site to see what were the steps required for getting the new service setup, and it has to be run through the Cable company. Once the cable was hooked up, I followed up with Time-Warner about the Earthlink internet service to see what I needed to do, and after finally getting a CSR to understand that since I just had the line connected not 1 day prior, all I needed was the roadrunner modem, voilà, I was back in business.

Only the old DSL was still up and running in my empty condo back at the old address without my knowing it. The move information indicated that there would be a cancellation charge for the old service and subsequent credit once the new service was up and running, which netted out to be the $50 mover's fee, so I didn't think anything more was immediately necessary until I got another billing confirmation in my email for the DSL along with seeing the new Cable service on my Time-Warner bill.

Here's where things got really fun. Called customer service and the rep seemed to not really understand the situation, but tried to make me feel better by saying that he wouldn't charge me the full cancellation fee, but would just charge me $50 instead.

Knowing that was the net result from the moving guide, I expected that and was fine. But when I started asking for a credit for the double-billed DSL service since they never cancelled it, they only offered to give me credit for the current month's service, charged only 5 days ago, but not for the previous 3 1/2 weeks that I was no longer at the old address.

Since I got a pro-rated charge for the partial month's new service, it kind of seems logical that you would also receive a pro-rated credit for the old service no longer needed, otherwise, double-billing land.

The CSR helpfully shared that he somehow saw a new activation on my account as of May 7, though my pro-rated bill from TWC had the new service beginning April 29, and I had an email that I sent to my supervisor on the first day I was actually able to use the new service on May 5, but I figured what the heck, make the concession of paying for the old service for the extra un-used week and just get the other 16 days credited back, the gi-normous sum of $21.33.

Apparently that was a $6.33 bridge too far for even the supervisor, who after initially offering a $10 credit, "generously" upped the offer to $15, based on what, I don't know.

At this stage of the game, the principal of the matter came into play for me, along with being cheesed off about being made to feel like they were doing me a favor in agreeing to only double bill me for 19 days, instead of 2 months.

Given that the original move request was submitted April 19, and the next bill was charged April 24, it doesn't really seem reasonable to pay for service for that much extra time at two locations, when that wasn't requested. I've moved internet service for a couple of corporate offices before where I needed dual service, but that isn't generally the case with residential moves. That's why on the move request form there's a field for when the service change-over needs to occur.

The best part of Earthlink's response was when the CSR's asked for a cancellation request confirmation number, which the web form doesn't provide, a fact that the reps didn't know and/or believe, so they told me that I needed to make my request on the phone instead of using the cheaper online channel provided by Earthlink. Yup, I'm just making all of this up and wasting an hour of my work day talking to men in India because it makes me happy to raise my blood pressure.

Take my advice, when moving with Earthlink, use the phone and document everything, and maybe, just maybe, it'll go off better than my experience.

Now there's only 335 days until I can cancel my new service without another early termination fee.

Move Request Form Confirmation

]]> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22459626 Thu, 28 May 2009 17:13:39 EDT