New Earthlink $5 DSL Fee? Users get 'Network Access Charge' e-mail (old news - 03:33PM Wednesday Sep 12 2007) tags: dsl · prices · business · EarthLink
When the going gets tough, the tough impose a rate hike dressed up as a fee? Earthlink DSL & VoIP bundle users in our forums say the company has e-mailed them to inform them they'll be seeing a new $5 "Network Access Charge" fee starting in October. The e-mail:
"Dear EarthLink Subscriber,
We're writing to let you know there will be a change on the October 2007 invoice for your EarthLink DSL & Home Phone Service.
Monthly Charges The monthly base charge for your service will remain the same. However, the total amount that you pay will include a $5 per month Network Access Charge.
This charge will help us recover a portion of the costs associated with connecting to the telecommunications network. This is not a government charge or tax."
Such fees have grown in popularity over the years as providers seek to bury cost-of-business rate hikes in below-the-line charges that often aren't clearly cited in the advertised price. The charge, with the same description above, does appear within the Earthlink FAQ. So far, Earthlink hasn't responded to our request for comment.
Rob In Deo speramus Premium join:2001-08-25 Kendall, FLedit: September 12th, @05:31PM
Raising Rates.. but not raising rates...
This method seems to be the popular method among ISPs (specifically telcos) who want to raise rates, but don't want to "raise rates". BellSouth had the $2.97 "Regulatory Fee".. Verizon tried it as well, but I think it was removed.
Doctor Olds I Need A Remedy For What's Ailing Me. Premium,VIP join:2001-04-19 1970 442 W30 clubs:
edit: September 12th, @08:46PM
said by Rob :
This method seems to be the popular method among ISPs (specifically telcos) who want to raise rates, but don't want to "raise rates". BellSouth had the $2.97 "Regulatory Fee".. Verizon tried it as well, but I think it was removed.
It is unknown if this fee actually increases the total bill or not and it is also unknown if this fee is for the Telephone service from Earthlink and not for the DSL part of the bundle.
Regular Earthlink DSL customers did not get this email so that leads me to assume that it is not a DSL fee like Bellsouth and Verizon implemented.
I can confirm that. Voice via Vonage and Internet from earthlink and I have received no such email about price increase (As of this posting). -- "My weakness is that I care too much"
Hello All, I received this very same email from ELNK who advised that the 5.00 is a charge to recover the cost of connecting to the Telecommunications network. It does NOT specify whether its for my DSL service or for my telephone service. It does say that my "base monthly service charge" -Still out on just what they mean by that statement-will not change. I'll know when I see my bill for Oct if it goes up another $5.00. BTW, I do have the LPV phone service that Dr. Olds references. I just hope that ELNK stays solvent in the midst of their business model situation because my alternatives are scary here in my neck of the woods (SF Bay area). You'd think that services would be good in Silicon Valley- Don't bet on it. Comcast, Verizon and AT&T are all sub-par services providers that will nickel and dime you to death as well for "misc. fees"
I have Elink, and this is a crock of $#it! They are having troubles and we are supposed to pay for it. They owe me for the 12 hours it was down the other day then...... -- BlooMe
Just use Google, not that hard. There is plenty of information on this subject. Almost all of my information on the scientologist came from alt.religion.Scientology on Usenet back in 1995-1998. That was back then, thou I am pretty sure the scientologist still have their hands in this company. After all the guy that founded this company is a scientologist, and they keep strict control over their members (you would have to be blind not to see this). And I know they preferred to hire scientologist to work for them. Almost all their customer support were scientologist at one point. I might be a little paranoid but I still remember when the scientologist were coming down hard on people that criticized them on the net. So I am not too fond of any company started by them.
Also search for Helena Kobrin. She was one of the lawyers that was threatening everyone with lawsuits. I got one of her "I'm gonna sue you to hell" threats in 1996 when I posted some shit about them on Usenet.
Here is one link I came upon when I searched for xenutv and earthlink on youtube. Its a start, whether you find it credible or not is up to you. Also look up earthlink on wikipedia, as unreliable as wikipedia is you can still use the references on the bottom.
quote:And I know they preferred to hire scientologist to work for them. Almost all their customer support were scientologist at one point.
I worked for EarthLink for six years (2000 – 2006). Starting on the phones in Customer Support and leaving as a manager allowed me to work with almost every department and level of the organization. So I can say with 100% certainty that you are completely full of shit. While most of the support staff may have been gay or stoned, NONE were scientologists. As far as I know, Sky Dayton (EarthLink’s founder) was the only scientologist in the company. There may have been more, but it was definitely not part of the company culture.
I certainly have no love for the company, and think it’s only a matter of time before the whole thing comes crashing down, but please stop believing everything you read on the Internet. -- Praise be to my Cadillac
So I can say with 100% certainty that you are completely full of shit. While most of the support staff may have been gay or stoned
You forgot drunk as well. I worked for Earthlink for three years (2000-2003) as a Senior Tech in the Tech Support and I totally agree with you that its just a matter of time before Earthlink comes crashing down.
join:2003-12-08 Tulsa, OKedit: September 12th, @03:33PM
Just die.
Die you sorry excuse for a company. Bad business models are not allowed to succeed in a capitalist society. Time for you to go extinct. -- "WHEN THE LAUGH TRACK STARTS THEN THE FUN STARTS!"
KrK Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy Premium join:2000-01-17 Tulsa, OK ·Cox HSI ·AT&T Southwest
Re: Just die.
said by inteller :
Die you sorry excuse for a company. Bad business models are not allowed to succeed in a capitalist society. Time for you to go extinct.
Hmmm. Seems like we're infested with bad business models. They go on year after year. -- "Regulatory capitalism is when companies invest in lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians, instead of plant, people, and customer service." - former FCC Chairman William Kennard (A real FCC Chairman, unlike the current Corporate Spokesperson in the job!)
Nope. Now that I reread it I thought they were charging the 5 additional bucks to folks with DSL services and folks with DSL and VOIP. Ok, my bad on that one, but I still want to trade off my ELink services for something faster. Getting charged 40 bucks for 1.5meg services isn't really that great, and I'm not going to be able to upgrade my DSL speed since I'm about 10k feet from the CO.
Doctor Olds I Need A Remedy For What's Ailing Me. Premium,VIP join:2001-04-19 1970 442 W30 clubs:
Re: Grrrr...
No problem.
If you want to, hop over into the Earthlink DSL Forum to start a new topic and include the brand/model of the DSL Modem you have. If you know how to get the DSL Stats, post them also and we can try to help. There may be options for up to 3.0 speeds if you are just at or under 10,000 feet.
I have one of the older Netopia modems and I tried to get 3k a while back when I was having DSL issues, since ELink was trying to boost data transmittion. Sadly, I think I'd be better off going with Comcast at this point, since they have 6k speeds for 50 bucks, which is how much ELink was charging me for the 3k when they realized it wasn't going to work and put me back down to 1.5k.
Thanks for the offer though, but I just need to bite the bullet and make the switch. Hell, I'm sure I could jump to AT&T for cheaper than ELink at this point if I was desperate to save some cash. Thats pretty sad, since I've been with ELink (Mindspring actually) for 8 years.
dvd536 as Mr. Pink as they come Premium join:2001-04-27 Phoenix, AZ
Earthstink
Yeah i said it What is the interNET? a NETwork! what you pay your ISP for. EL just needs to die already -- You can never be too rich, too thin or have too much Bandwidth
Had VoIP from ELK and when the ATA got smoked earlier this year by a lightning surge, ELK replaced, no questions asked. It took a week to do, and I had asked for credit for the time I was down. (Still don't have it!)
Put the new ATA in place and it cooked itself to death within 3 days. Notified tech support and was told to call in. Calling in has not resolved the problem. And I was without VoIP service.
Ended up back with TWC Digital Phone and now ELK won't or refuses to cancel my account and credit it for all the down time. (No big surprise there.)
As far as I am concerned, because of the people leaving ELK due to either out-sourced / off-shored support not taking care of business when customers complain, it is time for ELK to close up shop and go away.
im not an EL customer, but i'm curious. so if you're locked into a 1 or 2 year contract, are you just stuck with this fee/rate increase. doesn't that qualify as bait and switch or false advertising or something? why doesn't someone file a class action?
There is or would be wording stating they can change the rates without breaking the contract... No one has files because there is no action that can be taken...
I have enclosed a check for the full amount as usual; however, there will be a $5 service satisfaction rebate withheld. Consider the bill paid in full.
Doctor Olds I Need A Remedy For What's Ailing Me. Premium,VIP join:2001-04-19 1970 442 W30 clubs:
Re: Dear Earthlink....
said by jmn1207 :
I have enclosed a check for the full amount as usual; however, there will be a $5 service satisfaction rebate withheld. Consider the bill paid in full.
Then you will be cancelling your service and paying a ETF if you are still under the initial 12 month LPV contract. Better read what you agreed to.
Doctor Olds I Need A Remedy For What's Ailing Me. Premium,VIP join:2001-04-19 1970 442 W30 clubs:
Re: Dear Earthlink....
Nope. Never have been. I just don't put up with misleading news articles about any company when all the facts are not present yet. I don't have any inside info, so I'm going to have to wait to see if I'm correct or not (and that is why this article should not have been put online until the facts are all out). I could easily be wrong (it won't be the first or last time either - I'm human), but at this point the article and reactions to it are way premature when no-one (outside of EL Bean Counters and Brass) have seen a single invoice yet.
ATT started theirs in April of this year. Nothing much subscribers can do. Service providers are doing this and those who haven't yet, will do so soon.
When I moved to Florida, it was a decision between RR and Earthlink. Of course I chose RR and lucky I did. Rather than just call it a fee, why don't they just add it to your total bill and leave it like that. They are making it out like it's not there fault they are charging an extra $5 which isn't the case.
$10/month AT&T DSL here - flat $10, NO other fees.
said by SBC :
ATT started theirs in April of this year. Nothing much subscribers can do. Service providers are doing this and those who haven't yet, will do so soon.
As posted earlier earthlink fired most of their US tech support as a economist would say as a part of cost cutting measure. So why the f*** do they expect the users to pay arm and a leg when they are getting tech support in India of pennies. Stupid a$$e$
Doctor Olds I Need A Remedy For What's Ailing Me. Premium,VIP join:2001-04-19 1970 442 W30 clubs:
Until a actual invoice is seen, this story should be removed
There is no proof that the total bill will increase by $5.00 dollars or if there will be an itemized charge that shows $5.00 of the new billing going to the fee, but not actually increasing the original total since the email can be read two different ways.
The 5 dollars will be used to buy vasoline that will subsequently be used to lube you up at a future date for more money. Stay tuned to find out just how much.
Because LPV isn't provided by any of the companies you are discussing. I believe earthlink actually uses Covad for many of their services. However, I have Qworst, and it is much cheaper than Earthlink where I am.
New Earthlink $5 DSL Fee?
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