Hall of Shame 

Earthlink

Review posted: 2003-06-23

I had a dial-up account with Northwest Nexus, which was bought by Winstar, which was bought by Earthlink. I cancelled the account several months before Winstar was bought by Earthlink, because I finally had a cable modem. So imagine my surprise when I began received a bill for dial-up ISP service from Earthlink, at least 4 months after I had quit using my analog modem entirely.

I sent a message to Earthlink's customer service, telling them the account was invalid (not just unwanted - invalid). They responded with

If you wish to cancel your account, you may do so by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested addressed to EarthLink Inc.; 1375 Peachtree St. Level A; Atlanta, GA 30309. An alternative to this would be to call our customer service department at 1.800.719.4660 option 2.

I wrote back, telling them since it was their mistake, I would not incur the expense of sending mail or the time of making a phone call. They wrote back:

Our cancellation policy procedure is designed to protect our customers from fraudulent changes to their accounts. If you wish to cancel your account, you may do so by one of two methods only...

So I filed a complaint with the Washington State Attorney's General Office.

Lo and behold, Earthlink saw the light.

I am in receipt of Mr. Ittner's complaint and am very sorry if an account has been transitioned for him in error. Our records show that an account was transitioned to Earthlink from Winstar, an ISP which Earthlink recently acquired. All of the contact information on the account that was provided to us by Winstar is the same and the contact information included in the consumer's complaint.

And that was it.