This morning I spent 20+ minutes on hold. With Earthlink. You see, I had grand plans to kill off my dependence on Time Warner, and switch to Earthlink+Dish. I’ve had Earthlink before – and they were not bad – basically just reselling TW’s cable service and riding their lines. But at the end of the day, I compared TW and Earthlink, and the price was a draw – with a contractual obligation. Anyhow – I decided to cancel the Earthlink before I even got it installed (also going to cancel the Dish order – TW may be annoying and overpriced, but they are reliable, and I don’t have to get new holes drilled in the house). Cancelingwas one of those incredibly unpleasant experiences. Like a tooth extraction:
- Me: I want to cancel my service
- Her: Why?
- Me: Because I got a competitive price from TW
- Her: I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear that (admittedly, we had a bad connection, but NOW you can’t hear me?)
- Me: I priced it out and realized I was going to pay less for the same service with TW
- Her: But your service is only $29.95 for the first 6 months, then only $41.95
- Me: I know. Which is more than I was going to pay for TW for my existing service
- Her: But do you have computer protection
- Me (frustrated): YES. YES, I DO. I WANT TO CANCEL MY ACCOUNT
- Her: Please hold while I verify your account (2 minutes of silence)
This process repeated itself for several more minutes, and at least two more iterations of “holding”. How annoying. The hard “part” is not a way to win customers. As a result, I won’t ever consider Earthlink again. Not worth that kind of experience.
