DSL NIGHTMARE
Earthlink.net
4/13/00
A partner I have on a website
called me because he was having problems with getting on the internet after a
DSL Install. I told him it was pretty straight forward but I would come over to
see if I could help.
Here is how his day went.
Install time was within what they
said they would do. (4 to 5 weeks)
PacBell came out (sub contractor
for PacBell) setup wires from box outside to the inside by the computer.
Left when he saw the lights on the box (DSL Modem).
Told Ed Friedman it was up to him and Earthlink now, and left the house very
fast like he had to go to the bathroom real bad..
Ed could not get it to go up on DSL to the internet at all.
So Ed calls Earthlink and
gets the run around for hours with tech support stating "We don't support
Windows 2000".
"We don't support
Windows 2000".
"We don't support
Windows 2000".
Ed calls me and tells me what is going on.
I make the drive from Westlake village to Ed's house off Redondo beach Blvd. 1
1/2 hours driving time.
It's now 12:30 pm and help has arrived to save Ed from going postal on the
Earthlink Network Support guys.
(2 hours after the install guy has left)
I check out the install and we
have connectivity.
The green light is on the network card in the computer and the green light is on
the DSL Modem. I can ping the network card and the Modem. I then checked out the
setting in IE 5 and it was set correctly for the LAN to go out on the internet.
But nothing I could do would let me sign on the first time.
I get Earthlink tech support on the line (After 20 min on hold, quicker
than Aol but not much help either) and we go through a battle of they don't
support W2k at all but we might find a third party software that is said to do
the trick.
So I go to the website download the free software and go through installing it
and configuring it.
I get it to work after 2 hours of un-installing and re-installing it, until I got it to work.
This software is a dialer that
gives your user id: and password to Earthlink Networks, does the hand shake and
you should connect at that time. It's now 4:00 pm and I'm back on line waiting
28 min. for the support department to pick up the phone. I get the same run
around we don't support W2k and is there anything else he can help me with. I
hang up red in the face about to go postal when ED gets them back on the line to
speak to a supervisor and gets the same run around they would not even talk to
me stating there were more people waiting for their help and he could not help
me. I then called them back and asked for a manager or the owner to talk to me. Got a
supervisor who went into the same argument "they don't support W2k" Ed
grabs the phone out of my hands and tells the guy you sold me this service and
you knew I was on W2k, my charge card was deducted same day it was put in. I on got
it on this months statement, I was told it would be charged when I got on the net.
The guy still argued that the salesman that sold the account was miss informed!
Ed told him that he was lied to and this fight went on for 15 min. going back
and forth with no let up. I then pulled the phone away from Ed, He was on the
verge of a heart attack, his face was beat red and his hands were shacking so
bad. I then asked if they had a Sr. Engineer who could handle problems like
this. He told me to
hang on the line (another 15 min. go by) and he will find out. Comes back on the
line to tell me he does have a Sr. Engineer that handles problems like this and
he will call me back in 30min. or less.
Two hours go by, it's 7:35 I'm hungry, no word from Earthlink. I call them back and find out everyone I talked to were gone for the day and the night crew was here and no one knew anything about what I was talking about, and they still don't support W2k.
I got mad asked for supervisor
and got we don't support W2k and was rude about it. I lost it again telling him
I don't care that he doesn't support W2k, he and all the other tech support
people I've spoke with should not get paid for the lousy job they were putting
out in customer service.
And could you please just give me the bottom basics of there account log
in, user id, password, dns, proxy server ect.. setting if any. I will get
it to work but with out these I'm not in the same ball park!
The line was silent for about a
min. then with a embarrassed tone he told me the setting and hung up without
waiting to see if I had anymore questions. Now armed with the correct settings I
was able to get it up in minutes of the call.
It really show's how bad the support at Earthlink has gotten and how they are
setup to do DSL. I personal would not Recommend Earthlink service
to anyone anymore. They are as bad as American Online is now in my book but that
is another story.
I have setup about 12 DSL accounts and from many other ISP's and this was the worst treatment I have gotten from any of them. Why couldn't one of the tech's take the bull by the horn and say "We don't support W2k but lets check your settings to see if they are right first before I hand you over to a supervisor". This is what I would have expected from Earthlink on the first call I made, they are not new kids on the block to the internet. Sad state of affairs on their part. They are following in the footsteps of American Online.
Time was 8:25 pm and Ed was on
the net after only 12 hours or so.
Here is a place to check if you can get DSL.