More outsourcing: talking to Earthlink rep I wanted to pull my hair

[shance]

and scream.

I have had ongoing problems with my earthlink email account so I called again today to talk to someone about the issues Im having sending and receiving emails.

I spoke with a woman, although very nice, she could not understand almost any of the questions I was asking her and I could not understand what she was trying to saying because her understanding of English apparently was very limited. In the end, she couldn't grasp what I was trying to tell her. Her vocabulary was apparently so limited she could ask and understand phrases and sentences only in

certain ways when I asked questions.

The main frustration I have is this is at least the third person I have spoken with at Earthlink where there English is obviously their second (or third*) language, and it wound up being more effort in trying to get them to understand what I was saying, than to fix the existing problem on my computer.

I certainly dont mind someone not understanding my language, unless it has to do with an individual being hired at a cheaper rate than an American that can speak the language and do the job more efficiently.

Have American companies gotten so greedy that they want save more for the men at the top and yet at the same time are outsourcing everything, including ultimately the stability and success of our country, and in the end eliminating any decent service to those of us purchasing and using their products?

Frustrating to say the least.

[salvorhardin]

1. Sorry for your frustration.

I feel your pain. :-)

If it helps, there's a GMail account waiting for you. Just PM me with a real (working) e-mail address and I'll send you an invite.

[shance]

11. Thanks Salvor.

Im definitely looking for an email account that works efficiently!

[XanaDUer]

2. Sigh.

I was having the same problem with my internet service provider.

One day I had to stay on the telephone for over a 1/2 an hour with a very nice young man who could not or would not come out and tell me that I could not block e-mails right from my account, but had to send a separate e-mail to the company's "spam" blocker and wait days for it to go into effect.

Then, another day, I had to hang up and call back and thankfully got a man who did understand what I needed and was able to tell me step by step, what to do.

I wonder how many complaints are generated by the outsourced workers?

[LoZoccolo]

3. Get rid of them.

I have Speakeasy and they have excellent customer service and support. And be sure to let Earthlink know why they suck.

[Bronco69]

4. I called Earthlink once to see if there was an outage in my area.

I live in Dallas. I was connected to a service rep in India and she asked me where I was located. I told her I was in Dallas. She said, "I'm showing an outage in Miami. Is Miami near Dallas?" I said, "Just forget it." and hung up.

[shance]

14. LOL Bronco!

Bronco I am with you*** (Im an ex Big D'er btw)

It is frustrating and in truth, I don't at all blame the people working for Earthlink's or any other company thats outsourcing, its these COMPANIE'S faults that are eliminating American jobs and cheaply employing individuals in other countries.

WHERES THE RESPONSIBILITY and LOYALTY and REAL PATRIOTISM?

What surprises me is how few of these CEO's, Presidents and executives of American corporations who have made so much money because of our country, because of the connections they have been able to make, still seem to feel no loyalty or commitment to a country not to mention their own employees who helped them get where they have *gotten*.

[Union Thug]

21. They butchered us...

First they hit Phx, then my home town of seattle. They relocated some people to Harrisburg and several months later laid them off too.

Earthlink destroyed Mindspring (which was a great company before they merged with Earthstink). Sky Dayton can kiss my *ss!

[shance]

38. This stuff makes me both angry and disheartened too Will, but*

That means we have to work together to create some effective action to change the current situation.

[jerryvov]

5. Outsourcing....

same sort of problem with Compuserve customer service and then today I needed to speak with a live human being at AT&T (telephone) and got someone who probably could look out their office window and see the Ganges River flowing past...to see where all the customer service jobs went all you have to do is call AOL, Compuserve, Earthlink, etc. and you can chat with the folk who are now doing those jobs...great for corporate bottom line...less than great for folks in this country whose unemployment benefits ran out weeks or months ago...by the way, the answer to your question:

Have American companies gotten so greedy that they want save more for the men at the top and yet at the same time are outsourcing everything, including ultimately the stability and success of our country, and in the end eliminating any decent service to those of us purchasing and using their products?

...is YES, ABSOLUTELY!!!!

[DebJ]

6. yup,..300 people within a few miles of my home are even more

upset than you are......it was THEIR jobs that were sent overseas earlier this year.

[951]

7. I've spoken to several Indian reps and I've never had a problem

they are better than the VERY rude non-indians that I've had to deal with (AOL Cancellation Department comes to mind)

Yesterday I spoke with a nice Australian lady at JCPenney it was a real relief not to talk to the usual call-takers that I usually talk to.

This is just my personal opinion please don't take offense.

[shance]

15. Its not about nationality, its about comprehension of the English language

Its also not about hating Americans or anyone else for that matter.

It IS in my opionion about responsibility from these corporate owners not to continue to hoard more money at the expense of the overall health of our nation.

[mhr]

19. "the usual fat lazy overpaid stupid call-takers that I usually talk to"

Well 951, I am calling you out as a fat lazy bigoted DUer for your caviler characterization of American workers.

It's attitudes like this that people use to justify the vilification of people.

You have just been vilified.

[951]

22. Obviously this is turning into an immature...

debate so I'm editing my post.

"You have just been vilified." Yeah whatever... Thanks for the laugh though

[mhr]

25. You Brought It On Yourself - Thanks For Validating Your Juvenile Behavior

eom

[hiphopnation]

8. I have just completed

a HELLISH one year contract with Earthlink and I cannot say strongly enough how miserable my experience was with this company. Besides the frequent server downtime the customer support is downright attrocious!! Always being switched from this department to that department; sent halfway around the world just to ask one question about billing. Not to mention the fact that thier service is almost 50% more expensive than my current ISP.

*****STAY AWAY FROM EARTHLINK*****

:thumbsdown:

[951]

10. I just had a free month trial with earthlink...

and they canceled it without any problem unlike AOL who will claim that the trial was two months not three.

They were not indian.

[hiphopnation]

16. I don't have a problem with

being routed to India as long as they can help me with my problem. They often could not. But Earthlink's customer service was very much "pass the buck" oriented. "I'm sorry sir, that's not my depertment, let me transfer you..." after already having held for however long. This is not effective, customer oriented business, IMHO. It's astounding to me that they've survived as long as they have.

Also, at the beginning we had thier web-hosting service which was a joke. Just the pits.

I hope they get bought out or go under soon.

EARTHLINK: STAY AWAY!!

:thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown:

[kwolf68]

9. Thats the Facts Jack

I had to do some stuff for my mother's AOL account and I spoke to 3 agents over the period of 2 hours. All of them in India (or Indian).

[ikojo]

12. I am leaving earthlink after this month....

I have called them as well as tried the online support. Both times it was apparent that English was not the person's first language.

For what I pay for Earthlink DSL I deserve better service. If they are getting such cheap labor why isn't my DSL any less expensive?
Not only do you get stuck on hold for a long time but then you get someone who can't speak English!

[hiphopnation]

17. Could not agree more.

see my above posts.

EARTHLINK: STAY AWAY!!

[bemildred]

13. They are useless even when they understand you. nt

[Union Thug]

18. I was laid off as a result of ELNK outsourcing a couple years ago..

I was one of the lucky ones who landed on my feet. There are many who are still looking for work.. I just spoke to an old Mindspring/elnker who's been out of work for what will be two years in February.

[greatauntoftriplets]

20. I was equally frustrated dealing with HP's help line recently....

She could not understand me and I could not understand her.

Fortunately, my SBC Yahoo DSL provider is better.

[oneighty]

23. Support your local ISP.

Mine is a guy named Dave. He even fixes my computer now and then for free. My money stays in the village where we need it.

180 .

[shance]

24. How do you find out about local ISP's?

I would love to show my support in the Los Angeles area!

[oneighty]

28. Having once been

to LA midway through the previous century I can understand your question, but cannot answer. I am in a tiny village. Everybody knows Dave. There were two ISPs a few months ago. The other was Douglas. Doug left town late one night and has not been seen since. Dave's business increased. But alas! I fear he too will succumb to "Big Business" and I too will be calling India for help.

180

[shance]

35. Fear not my friend one-eighty**, i think we are about to do a one-eighty!

At least I hope we are.

The more we realize we have the power as consumers, and the more we realize the value of UNITY and working together for a bigger, healthier picture, the greater chance we have of balancing out this tremendous imbalance of power.

[area51]

48. search engine

Hopefully you'll find some links to your local ISPs if you type your city name & "ISP" into a search engine. Just my 2¢.

[shance]

50. Area51 - thank ya.

Why I didnt think about that I dunno, Im just glad there are DUers like you to remind me of the options right in front of me** :)

[nostamj]

26. I called AMERICA on Line's customer support

the fool did NOT understand English.

complete waste of time.

I'm used to 'help lines' - HELL, I used to work one! so, I gave my information slowly and in detail, including specific text of the error messages...

his response: Are you asking about _____?

had NOTHING to do with my call. repeated the info. he read some useless boilerplate that I had already tried.

this saves them $ but pisses off ALL their customers.

[faithnotgreed]

27. had earthlink for 10 yrs. finally switched last month to redjellyfish.net

because they are an isp that cares about and contributes money to environmental organizations esp rainforest.

i could no longer stay with earthlink because of same customer service issue you describe: person not understanding my question, but i didnt know why this was happening because they had typically been very strong on customer service in the past. then i found out from du that earthlink is now outsourcing these jobs abroad.

www.redjellyfish.net was as easy as pie to switch to and have had no problems as of yet. unlimited dailup for $18/yr which is a few dollars cheaper than earthlink too. if you go to this homepage you can find out from your zip code if they serve your area.

they also have dsl i guess, and long distance phone service if youre interested though i havent used either of those.

on edit: they are a small, american-based co and from the sound of the accents, somewhere in the south. i am glad to support them plus they care about the environment so its been perfect for me!

[shance]

34. Does anyone have current information on Nature Conservancy?

I don't mean to be overly critical here, but I think it bears some scrutiny.

Wasnt Nature Conservancy the organization just come under a pretty huge slew of scrutiny about their organization and funding practices?

[faithnotgreed]

37. i dont follow.... im not sure where nature conservancy comes in

its always worth asking if youre unsure about an organization; im just not clear where they fit in

does redjellyfish contribute to them?

[shance]

41. Yep. It appears its the only organization they contribute to.

That is what I understand. Nature Conservancy is not one of the environmental organizations that I have much seen create effective action. What they have done has been to buy up a ton of acres of land. I have also noticed some individuals I know who hunt alot along other Republican leaning individuals supporting the organization, which I thought was interesting.

Not that it makes it an illegitimate organization by any stretch, but the individuals I know that have supported this organization are not those who I would call conservationists or those who have ever really shown much concern about the care and quality of the environment.

Then I recently heard of apparently a huge law suit the organization is going through. Again, if true, it merits some a little more research. Because if its true, is redjellyfish a server which legitimately is helping environmental organizations.

[faithnotgreed]

49. i think they are. looking at their website they have a lot of good

links and encouragement to get involved.

again, im glad to be a subscriber but i am by no means a one issue isp-er

[LibDemAlways]

29. My husband called Earthlink

Saturday because the phone connection kept crapping out. The guy in India finally admitted that some of their lines are so congested that they routinely disconnect callers. He gave us an unpublished number to call, and the problem seems to be fixed. Any further problems, though, and we're out of there.

[Cleita]

30. Isn't Earthlink linked to the Moonies?

I use PeoplePC Online. It's priced the same and I'm quite satisfied so far.

[shance]

42. What is PeoplePC online. How did you find out about it?

Im curious.

[Cleita]

43. I got a CD in the mail and I was so pissed off with my

ISP at that time that I decided to try them. Let me get you a link.

http://www.ispoffer.com/about_us/index.asp

[shance]

53. Thanks alot Cleita***

I will head over there and give it a look.

[mrdmk]

45. Actually, Scientology

Sky Dayton belongs to the Scientology church*.

*Of course there is much discussion about this group being a church vs. a brain wash organization.

[SudieJD]

31. Same Problem With Direcway

I haven't had that many problems with the service, but there have been several times when I've had to call for support and reached someone who could barely speak english and had to hang up several times and try until I found someone who could speak/understand what I was having a problem with.

UGH!!!!

Sudie in MN

[AndyTiedye]

32. Megapath Has Not Outsourced their Customer Service

[shance]

36. Tell us about megapath.

Please*

[AndyTiedye]

55. I'm happy with them.

Their tech support people are competent and seem to be native speakers of English.

They don't go littering the world with CDs (or your machine with buggy software) the way
Earthlink and AOL do.

We have a T1 from them, being too far from the CO for DSL. It took a while to get installed but has been very good since then.

www.megapath.net

[shance]

56. Thanks for the info Andy.*

Im all for the non-glittering of fake aluminum cartridges of AOL software offers!

[sandnsea]

33. NetworkSolutions, years ago

Same problem quite a few years ago, one of the first IT companies to outsource a call center. I cancelled them. When you are paying money and can't get customer support because of communication problems, it's time to get a new company. That's free market and all, right? Same is true with my insurance company, headquartered in Seattle. Dumb or lazy, I'm not sure which, but they've screwed up everything they've done and I've had it. So it isn't about ethnicity, it's about competence.

[Eloriel]

39. That's why I'm changing from Earthlink -- just as soon as I get

my regular computer back (all my "research" about who to use instead is on that computer :-( ).

I've been with Mindspring (which merged with Earthlink) for about 12 years, maybe even longer. But when I called the other day and got someone with a very thick accent who called himself Josh, I couldn't help it, I blurted out: Are you in India?

Yes, he answered cheerfully.

I ended up accidentally disconnecting myself, and the more I thought about it, the more steamed I got and I decided I'd change to protest the outsourcing. I posted about it here at DU and learned that in January Earthlink basically closed all but one of their tech centers and they're all outsourced -- 1300 jobs lost in January alone.

Mindspring used to be a fabulous company with absolutely stellar service and tech support -- I mean STELLAR. I did notice an erosion when they merged with Earthlink, but it wasn't all that big a deal because I hardly ever had problems. But this outsourcing is the last straw for me.

The good thing is, I'll no doubt save quite a bit of money each month. There are good companies with good service for a LOT cheaper.

[Union Thug]

40. Mindspring is where I cut my Tech support chops..

...and the company that gave me a shot at training and instructional design. Mindspring basically gave me my career!

EarthLink shit on us.

Viva Charles Brewer!

[otohara]

46. I Even Asked A Supervisor, If Outsourcing to India Was Coming to EL

totally lied to me - said 95% of the time I would get someone from our country - It was 100% India - So I cancelled and let them know exactly why I was canceling - they didn't bill me for the final month.

[faithnotgreed]

51. yeah. same story as mine. so i switched last month

to redjellyfish.net

ive been happy with them and switching (after 10 yrs with mindspring/earthlink) couldnt have been easier. i have a mac so i had to call them to switch it over and the guy walked me right through it over the phone
very pleasant and answered all my questions.

see my post above (#27) if you would like to know a little more about them. i have no affiliation with them at all but definitely feel that earthlink deserves to lose customers when things have deteriorated this much.

[Eloriel]

57. That's it -- That's the one I want -- redjellyfish.net

Thanks. I might as well go ahead and sign up on this computer I think. I just couldn't think of the name! Thanks!

[crickets]

54. I loved Mindspring

I was with them for several years before Earthlink took over. I wasn't too happy about it, but there wasn't a very noticeable change in service. The amount of spam was another story, heh. I left them after I moved to a town where a combo cable/broadband deal was too sweet to pass up. It sounds like I dropped them just in time. It's a shame when stuff like this happens. In the end, no one but the very top fat cats benefit, and often the company eventually goes down in flames.

[otohara]

44. I Canceled Earthlink - Because of This

If you can, get Comcast - they outsource also, but to Canada.

[shance]

52. Are there ANY larger ISP companies not outsourced?

That is pretty unbelievable you guys.

[Eloriel]

58. I'm sure people can do better than Comcast

I've seen complaints about them right here at DU. Plus, why not give your money to a small company -- local, or one like redjellyfish.net which supports environmental and other issues?

No way I'd do Comcast.

And while I have nothing against Canadians, I think it's important in this day and age to let companies know that oursourcing our tech jobs is making us MAD and we won't support it, period.

[shance]

59. Good points Eloriel

I would love to support a local provider. I think the key is getting more information out on the various local providers available.

[ibegurpard]

47. I had a similar problem with tech support for EA Games.

The people seemed to have enough mastery of the language to be able to converse without a problem but trying to get them to understand the nitty-gritty of my problem was a losing proposition.