[SGVLUG] Is anyone else getting boiler-room cold-calls from Earthkink/India?

[Emerson, Tom]

I've been getting a few calls recently from people with a heavy "Indian" accent claiming to be from  Earthlink and trying to sell me on their "five times faster..." service [i.e., accellerated dial-up]  usually they end the call fairly quickly when I tell them I already have a DSL line, however this last weekend they're now trying to sell me on their DSL service instead.

They've been extremely persistent.

They are also "lying" [well, "not entirely sure of what they are offering" is probably more accurate...]

So far, I've been quoted a rate of $19.95 for a 3 megabit service WITH a "static" IP address, and $21.95 for a 1.5 megabit service w/static IP [yes, the salesman confirmed that the faster service is two dollars cheaper when I pointed out that fact]  The salesmen have also said "yes it is" every time I've asked if this was a static IP or not.

Then they get into the "pressure" mode -- confirming my name, address, home and work phone number, and (eventually) my credit card info.  They tell me I will receive an "e-bill" for the first month paid up and that they need this in order to send a pre-activated account [though it took me at least 15 times hearing whatever they said as the words "pre-activated" to figure out what they were saying] which will arrive in 7 to 10 days via .... (another hard-to-grok word which I think was "U.P.S.")

So far I've been able to balk them by claiming I don't have a credit card [heh heh heh -- side effect of working "in the business of credit", I guess, is that I realize how bad the card companies are and therefore choose not to carry any cards...]  This also leads me to a "funny thing" I noticed about the salesman -- while he remembered the fact that I told him I used to work for a credit card acquirer and that is why I don't carry any credit, he has consistently managed to forget what operating system I use [oh yeah, he also confirmed that Linux is supported]

Since all this sounded too good to be true, I asked for all of this "in writing" before I made my decision.  It took quite a bit of effort on my part, but he finally did relent and sent me (via e-mail) a microsoft Word document with "the details", however he slipped up -- the document has a live link in it, which leads to "all-free-isp.com", and from there I was able to back-track to a page that is extremely similar to the document he sent me:

    http://www.all-free-isp.com/earthlink.php

Since I suspect this isn't really an "earthlink" document, there is some room to wiggle out of any claims where the document supercedes what he claimed on the phone, however most of the claims he made are BETTER than what the document shows to be "the offer", so I'm still at "square one" with this guy  (I haven't actually received something "in writing" that cannot be disputed as an "offer").  FYI, here is where things differ from what he offered on the phone:

   -- the document points out that the rate he claimed is only a 6-month introductory rate, after which it DOUBLES [I think I could hold him to that as he NEVER DISCLOSED the fact that the rate wasn't constant for the entire contract]

   -- Linux is NOT listed as a supported OS

   -- the "big ones" so far as I'm concerned: you get a dynamic IP "for added security" (gotta love them spin doctors); upstream capped at 128k; and 20 hours of dial-up per month (for "away from home" access I imagine).  They do concede that static is available "for a low additional cost" (this they target to "PC gaming and telecommuting"), but the actual "additional" cost is not noted.

   -- while not directly specified, the page lists "a suite of tools to make the internet easy and hassle free".  OTOH, he did specifically mention some web-page authoring software (the name of which was garbled behind his accent again) but he did confirm it runs "under linux"

So, any thoughts?  The old adage "a verbal contract is only worth the paper it's written upon" is jumping up and down in my mind [and since "verbal" contracts are so ephemeral, how are internet/electronic contracts holding up?]  but it sure would be nice to have a year's worth of statically-assigned 3megabit DSL for roughly $250 -- how can I hold him to what he SAYS on the phone?