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

[Emerson, Tom]

> -----Original Message-----
> Behalf Of Terry Hancock
> 
> On Mon, 09 Jan 2006 16:50:49 -0800
> Marsden MacRae <mmacrae at earthlink.net> wrote:
> > Emerson, Tom wrote:
> > ><snippage>
> > > -- Linux is NOT listed as a supported OS
> > 
> > My experience with Earthlink is that if you tell them you
> > have linux,  they'll flatly refuse to give you any tech
> > support.
> 
> My experience (which is from last year) is that they will
> attempt to continue to support Linux if you are insistent
> enough, but it takes incredible persistence and patience to
> work your way up to someone who actually knows how to do it.

An update of sorts: Particularly from Marsden's comments, I figured I'd "use the source" and called up Earthlink's sales department and flat out asked if the the "cold call" info I was getting was in  any way legitimate.  Turns out I'm less sure of the validity of the offer and now have a conspiracy-theory to offer up -- phishing-by-phone :)

The sales rep was able to confirm that the current "best price" they can offer is $19.95/month for 3meg service for 6 months, then the price goes up for the rest of the year.  They also confirmed that the "low additional cost" for a static IP was $15 [hmmm... 75% of the promo price is a "low additional fee"?  even at the full price, it is still something like 37.5% -- not my dictionary's definition of "low"...]

What the rep DID say that surprised me a bit was that the "outbound call center" is authorized to make offers that the INBOUND call center cannot honor.  So it /may/ be entirely possible for Earthlink to "offer" a static IP address at the normal billing rate (and/or for the contract to remain valid for the entire year)

However, while I was waiting on hold in the first place, something finally clicked in my mind that made me wonder: the outbound call center was so insistent on saying "yes" to anything and everything I asked for, and when pressed for the offer "in writing" they gave me a third-party review of Earthlink's offering, that perhaps this really wasn't earthlink's promotional center in the first place, but a rather elaborate ruse to gain personal and CC info.

OK, that's perhaps a little over the top -- the lady in the sales department also confirmed that earthlink can ONLY accept payment by credit or debit card for DSL service -- cash, checks or direct deposit are NOT accepted.  (however pre-paid cash cards would work)  so at least the guy from India is a bit vindicated for his efforts to get my CC info.  Even still, it doesn't leave all that much of a warm-fuzzy feeling that this is a "good idea after all"

So I went a step further -- I went to broadbandreports (dslreports.com) and started reading the latest earthlink "reviews".  That was the final nail: of the 20 most recent "threads", at least 19 were some form or another of a horror story of lackluster support, shoddy billing practices, shuffling of actual support calls, finger-pointing to Covad or other ILEC/CLEC (or even the homeowner's wiring), and so on.

> Also, they claim to supply tech support via e-mail as well
> as phone, but the only response they will ever give you by
> e-mail is (to paraphrase) "call us to get support" -- even
> if you ask a straightforward question like "are you blocking
> ports on this service, and if so, what ranges?".

yup, that was one of the horror stories as well :)

Long story short, other that potential pain and frustration due to changing ISP's, I'd be looking at $540 (+taxes & fees) for the first year (and another $120 for the next year) to UPGRADE my inbound speed to 3megabits and DOWNGRADE my outbound speed to 128k (8x up & 1/3 down...) or stick with what I have for $300 (and therefore less taxes and fewer fees).

Though the "fewer fees" part is due, in part, to the fact that my line and service was provisioned "so long ago" that I'm grandfathered into NOT having to pay some relatively recent and arbitrary "fee"  (long distance recovery fee or something like that -- mebbe $5 or thereabouts...)  I've heard (via the dslreports' and pacbell's own forums) that if my line gets "reprovisioned" for any reason (i.e., a speed change), then this "fee" will now apply (and once applied, cannot be revoked, even if I return to my former settings) so I'm kinda stuck with "staying quiet" until something breaks anyway...