Earthlink

disaster-master's picture

She has: 2,154 posts

Joined: May 2001

Hope this is the correct place for this message.

I am having problems with my ISP. I have been with Mindspring for about 4 years. Ever since Earthlink bought out Mindspring I have been having problems with them charging me for simultaneous usage or concurrent charges as they call it. They are telling me that I have to pay so much for every hour that two people are logged in to my account at the same time. Well, I could understand this but there is only one computer in my house and there is no way that someone else logged in the same time that I am. I am the only person that uses my computer.

They have charged me for this every month for the past 6 months. I finally got really mad one day and had it out with tech support and he said that what was happening was if I disconnected or got kicked off that I should wait at least 30 seconds before logging back on. And that the reason I had been charged for concurrent time was because their machines did not recognize that I was disconnected or had been kicked off and was reading it as two people being connected at the same time.

They insist that I pay these charges even after explaining on the phone and via e mail tonight. It is kind of like they are saying they know what is happening but they can do anything about it because that is what the invoice says.

I am venting my frustrations (can you tell?) and hope that someone can offer me some advise here on what is happening or what I can/should do.

Sorry for the long post.

mairving's picture

They have: 2,256 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

My experience with Earthlink has been awful. I was on-site with a customer and needed his password. Well he didn't know it. So I called them and talked to tech support. Tech support transferred me to customer service. Customer service disconnected me after 30 minutes going no where. I called back at about noon and they told me that someone would call me between 2 and 5. I kind of got a little nasty and they called back with the password in about 5 minutes. The customer now has a cable connection.

Can you get cable/DSL in your area? It is most definitely worth it.

Mark Irving
I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states

disaster-master's picture

She has: 2,154 posts

Joined: May 2001

I agree about earthlink. I never had problems when mindspring was mindspring but ever since earthlink bought them out their service has gone to crap. I finally sent them a nasty e mail in reference to my problem and this morning had a message from Earthlink saying that they would not charge me for the concurrent usage. Now if I was really responsible for this error do you think that they would do this for 6 months in a row?

E mail from Earthlink:

Quote: We do not assess any simultaneous usage charges for the first few hours of recorded simultaneous usage. We do this becuase simultaneous usage can be generated when you are disconnected and then log on again quickly. The 0.67 hours of simultaneous usage that you see on your current month's call detail report will not be on your next invoice as a charge.

To help prevent simultaneous usage from occuring on your account, please change your login password every few months and also wait 30-60 seconds before reconnecting if you are disconnected.

I just wonder how many others they are charging in this same way and the people don't realize it. If anyone uses Earthlink I would advise you to check your usage very carefully. Oh and their tech support can't spell either...LOL There are two mispelled words in their e mail to me.

Ok...I am off of my high horse now. Wink

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