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

[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.

Then there's the "static IP".  Yeah, they can do static IP,
but it doesn't work right. I set up an account like that so
that I could remote SSH onto her machine and do maintenance
tasks for her.  But I simply couldn't get through Earthlink
to do it -- I'm sure they must be blocking ports or
something equally annoying, even though they swear up and
down that they don't.

So after about a week on the phone with tech support, we
wound up without being able to do what we set up the static
IP to do, and still paying the extra $15 a month.

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?".

Absolutely frustrating, useless service, and by the time
you're done, you will wind up paying more than you would
with a local professional-quality DSL provider who actually
knows what they are doing.

I had decided to give Earthlink "one more try", because I
figured they were cheaper, and my Mom wouldn't need the
higher quality ISP.  But I was wrong. Never again will I
EVER use Earthlink.  As the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
says: Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Cheers,
Terry

-- 
Terry Hancock (hancock at AnansiSpaceworks.com)
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com