[ale] OT: tech support hell at Mindspring

[Jim Popovitch]

On Tue, 2004-03-16 at 20:04, Jim Philips wrote:
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> On Sunday, I woke up to find I had no ADSL connection. I tried all of the 
> local tricks I usually try. Nothing helped. So, I started calling Earthlink 
> tech support. The first guy got noticeably  defensive when I told him I was 
> using Linux. I explained that I saw no software errors in the log. We checked 
> out all lights on the modem and that was all in order. Then he started 
> insisting I had a hardware problem. He wanted me to swap out ethernet cables. 
> I lost the connection 

??? you lost what connection... your phone?

> before I could tell him that my ethernet card was 
> blinking when connected. I called again. The next guy seemed even more 
> clueless about Linux and more on the defensive. He finally said he couldn't 
> help me with Linux. I explained that if nobody there could help me, I needed 
> to cancel my account. He said he would see if he could find somebody to help 
> me. The next person to pick up the phone was with cancellations. I was 
> incredulous and demanded somebody who could help me with tech support. 

You got what you asked for, and then you still weren't happy?  Hello?! 
:)

> A woman came on who promised that a more knowledgeable person would call me 
> after 5 PM that afternoon. Nobody ever called back. That night I called 
> again. I again got a person who said she couldn't help me with Linux. I asked 
> if she could connect me with somebody who could. The next person who came on 
> the line told me I had been connected with the wrong department. I asked her 
> to please reconnect me with tech support. By this time, I was getting pretty 
> steamed. I then got connected to an Indian woman (in India?) who was kind of 
> bewildered that I didn't use Windows. Finally, I said: "Look, all operating 
> systems that connect to you use PPP and PPPoE. They DO have something in 
> common. Can you help based on what you know?" So, she walked through starting 
> up my software. When that was the same as before, she said: "In this 
> situation on Windows, I ask people to reconfigure their PPPoE software and 
> that usually works." I said: "That's a really sensible suggestion." Then I 
> lost my telephone connection. 

Again?  No wonder you have PPP problems. :)

This just goes to prove that one man's pain is another man's pleasure. 

-Jim P.