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A Grueling Free Trial With Earthlink | 29 comments (29 topical) | Post A Comment
A couple of notes...[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#1)
by Anonymous User on Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 08:25:11 AM PDT

While it's possible the reader's mother may have failed to cancel the account before the free trial expired, what really has the reader upset is Earthlink's unwillingness to honor any of their attempts to cancel the account.

Here is the first problem. Failing to cancel the account on time. This automatically makes it difficult for you to claim to be blameless in this matter. You should have signed her up with a billed ISP from the start, preferrably a smaller local one that gives a care about its customers.

When a situation like this occurs, the first thing you should do is inform the customer service representative you call that you are recording the call; state your name, the date, and the time. Ask them for their name and their employee ID. Inform them of your intent to cancel; if they attempt to deflect it, tell them firmly "I am informing you that I wish to cancel NOW. You are legally obligated to honor my request." Get a confirmation number (or cancellation number, or whatever this ISP calls it), and document all of this. If they fail, you have a paper trail. Nothing replaces good documentation; if you don't document it, it didn't happen.

One other method is to send a written request via registered mail (requires a signature) with all of your pertinent account details. In your case, it has gotten far enough that I would pay $50 and have an attorney write up a short letter on your behalf indicating what has happened, your insistence that the account be canceled, and that you be only obligated for the amount you truly owe.

Should you have to do a lot of this garbage? No, but it has dragged on long enough that this is the only way. And in the future, remember that if you have a free trial, you MUST cancel within that time period or you're on the hook Getting off the hook once you're on is what has made this far more of a pain than it ought to be.

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Eh[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#2)
by Anonymous User on Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 11:24:07 PM PDT

This is nonsense. Even if the trial period expired, they are obligated to cancel when the customer says "cancel" and the customer is only legally on the hook for however much time/usage/whatever elapsed between the end of the trial period and the first time they said "cancel" and discontinued any use of the service.

On the other hand, I personally would never sign up for any "free trial" where they insisted on having payment information up front. A truly honest vendor providing a free trial would not request such until the free trial period was nearly over, and then notify you that the period was nearly over and service would be discontinued on such-and-such a date unless they received payment information and authorization to bill you.

Of course, there doesn't seem to be such a vendor in existence, for internet or any other sort of service...

[ Parent | Reply to This ]



video joiner[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#24)
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Get Off Your Soap Box![ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#7)
by Anonymous User on Tue Sep 25, 2007 at 04:52:30 PM PDT

Good grief, what a pretentious bunch of crap.

It is your contention that if the account had been canceled within the original trial period, Earthlink would have honored the cancellation despite the fact that they have failed to honor every other request? Why would that be?

What do you mean "when a situation like this occurs"? Should she have magically known when she tried to cancel the account that they would not honor the request?

This woman is being mistreated by Earthlink and you are lecturing her on what *she* has done wrong. Sheesh.

[ Parent | Reply to This ]


Response:[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#8)
by Anonymous User on Wed Sep 26, 2007 at 12:32:04 PM PDT

Sure, she's being mistreated, and I agree with that.

At the same time, if the customer had cancelled prior to the free trial period, there would be far less hangups with them accusing her of owing them money --she would owe them NO money, still being under the trial period. It would be difficult for Earthlink to make the excuse about being owed money.

Furthermore, (and I realize I came off a little harsh here, but it is true) we live in an age where if you do not document everything on your end when trying to resolve a dispute, or terminate a contract, that large corporations are likely to just claim (through either incompetence or malice) that they have no record of your call. Documentation is, time and time again, your only friend in this matter. And if you have ever dealt with a large ISP such as AOL or Earthlink, when things do drag out and you have little or no documentation, time is on their side, and they know it. Some companies like AOL have a clause that says they only owe you a maximum of 2-3 months worth of fees in the event that a billing mistake is made on their part (something I found out from personal experience over a decade ago). Remember also that the poor sods in the call center get raked over the coals when they lose accounts, and so creative incompetence ("losing" cancellation records) becomes very convenient, as miserable as this is.

My advice for her still stands, and she has to be harsh, or a big company like Earthlink simply isn't going to care about what they perceive to be a little problem --and remember, the poor sods in the call center. Does it stink? Yes. Is Earthlink at fault? Yes. If I came off harsh, it is more due to my belief that most people who read this column are of technical bent, and came from the belief that the original (assumed somewhat technical) person who signed their mother up should have known better than to go with a large company known to treat neophytes (like his mother) like this. I wouldn't let my enemies use a national ISP like Earthlink or AOL, let alone my friends.

[ Parent | Reply to This ]



<em>f</em>G<em>f</em>[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#21)
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[ Parent | Reply to This ]



yes[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#32)
by maderikapapa on Sat Jun 28, 2008 at 01:22:27 AM PDT

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[ Parent | Reply to This ]


yes[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#33)
by maderikapapa on Sat Jun 28, 2008 at 01:25:30 AM PDT

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s[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#42)
by Anonymous User on Fri Aug 15, 2008 at 03:56:13 AM PDT

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A Grueling Free Trial With Earthlink | 29 comments (29 topical) | Post A Comment
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