Earthlink True Voice Complain

I have had Earthlink TrueVoice for approximately 5 months. On August 3, 2006, Earthlink canceled both my email

& EarthLink voice account due to my credit card rejected, it seems they hadn’t been paid for 2 months. I inquired

on why I was not notified that there was an issue, since both my email & phone service are with EarthLink and I

had received no calls, no emails and no paper documentation thru US Mail. The EarthLink representative told me

that I should have received email notification and paper bill thru USMail, of which I never received either and the

EarthLink associate was unable to provide any “sent” emails or a paper trail of any kind that Earthlink attempted

to contact me regarding the problem.

On August 3, 2006, I authorized Earthlink to charge my credit card $72.28 to pay my balance in full and reinstate

my service. On August 4, 2006 Earthlink processed a charge against my credit card for $101.12, without my

permission or notifying me in anyway they were doing this, when I called to complain I was told they were

charging me a “disconnect fee” of $50, a “reconnect fee” of $15 and my normal monthly charge of $36.14.

I argued w/the representative that 1st of all my I never put a “disconnect” order in, if Earthlink had decided to

disconnect my service, why was a monthly service charge & a reconnect fee rolled into the amount? I

made them credit me back both the $50 disconnect & $15 reconnect.

Now for the fun!!! On Friday, August 4, 2006, I went to make a phone call and I had no dial tone, due to

the time of night I didn’t feel like sitting on hold for half an hour or longer before a customer service

rep picked up the phone. I called EarthLink tech support on Saturday, August 6, 2006 I spoke w/a

Earthlink representative who told me that my service was on for that day only, after an hour of being

on the telephone and arguing with the associate my service seemed to be working.

On Monday, August 6, 2006 I had to call Earthlink customer service yet again due to I don’t have a dial

tone, it took at least 30 minutes to get a representative on the phone, then I was transferred around, disconnected,

put on hold for 30-45 minutes. An Earthlink tech informed me he wasn’t “trained” to supply me support

and would route my call to another tech who could help me, after holding for 15 minutes I was disconnected.

I called back and got a supervisor on the phone and made her stay on the line until she found a tech

to help me, 35 minutes later I was informed by the supervisor that they were unable to transfer my call

& a tech would have to call me back. The tech called me back after about 20 minutes and told me that

he would escalate my trouble ticket to the next higher level of tech support. I still had no telephone

service….I was using my cell phone at this point.

On Tuesday, August 8, 2006 I received a voice mail from Earthlink customer service to call them

regarding my issue, after waiting for 20 minutes until an Earthlink associate picked up the phone, it

turned out that my “trouble ticket” hadn’t gone anywhere and I was reiterating the same information

yet again. At that point I let the Earthlink associate & her “supervisor” know that if my issue wasn’t

resolved my 5pm AZ time on Wednesday, I would be going to an alternate provider, since Earthlink

(I had Earthlink phone service for 5 months prior to this w/minimal issues) is unable or unwilling

to fix the problem they don’t need my business.

On Wednesday, August 9, 2006 I contacted Earthlink tech support thru “LiveChat” which took about

30 minutes for anyone to come online, the tech who I was communicating with informed me everything

was working, I informed him that I still had no phone service and he needed to read the notes in my

account. The representative got his “supervisor” who told me how sorry he was etc…. I told the

supervisor they had until 5pm to fix my phone, the supervisor gave me a song & dance….

Needless to say, I am still w/out telephone service…. I am going to an alternate vendor, I am curious

if anyone could tell me where I need to officially complain about Earthlink, I believe the FCC &

Better Business Bureau? Also, I believe Earthlink broke the banking laws when they charged me

$101.12 without informing me of the additional $65 (total) charge in addition to my monthly

service charge of $36.14.

Carrie