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| Earthlink and the Computer Support Broke |
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Last Thursday morning I received a call from my father while getting ready for work, explaining that my grandfather had not been able to get on the internet in two days and wanted my help. A little background here: I live with my parents, I work for my mother part-time in her office with my sister, my grandparents live about twenty minutes away, and my father, who is newly retired, and grandparents golf on Tuesdays and Thursdays (when they don't have better things to do). Despite all this, we don't spend much much time together so MANY things are news to me. Moving on. When I got to work Thursday morning I called my father back, while my sister told me my grandfather was having surgery that day [news], and looked up the error my grandfather was getting on google. I came up with a problem I was unfamiliar with, so I left the office promptly for my grandparents' house. [I later kicked myself for reading the symptom of the problem, and the cause, but left before reading the resolution...genious. I also should have stopped by the house for my laptop which has Broadband Access anywhere through VerizonWireless, but I wasn't thinking then either. $59 a month for the service and I can't even remember to bring it with me.] About twenty minutes later I arrived at my destination, walked in the house, and saw my grandfather laying on the couch with an ice pack over his eye. He already can't hear, now he only has one eye. This was going to be a long day. The problem with the computer (Error 734: "The PPP link control protocol was terminated.") is not one I've had before as we only use "always-on" DSL. My grandfather swears by Earthlink so he has some unusual problems from time to time. Due to a lack of internet connection, I made my mother read the resolution from my computer at the office: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318718. I fixed the problem, ran the Earthlink software, and received the error again. I checked the settings in Network Connections and the changes I had made were BACK to the wrong settings. Odd. Now, last time I was there, his internet WAS "always-on" and he had to just open the Earthlink software. He could reboot his computer and the internet would come back up on it's own. I knew this. How to make it do that again, I was at a loss. I got it to a point where I could sign on to the internet by opening Network Connections (Windows XP) double clicking the appropriate connection type, and signing on. I even got it to sign on without asking for a password. This would at least get the internet running so I could do some more research. My first instinct was to uninstall and reinstall the Earthlink software. It gave me odd errors, but ran fine; however, it did not fix the problem. I tried downloading and installing the latest version from Earthlink's website. No luck there either, so we stopped for lunch. I ate a peach [no, seriously. my only option was to eat the peach or eat ice cream or cookies. so i had the peach while they ate tamales.] After lunch I was convinced by everyone to call Earthlink tech support. Now let me stop here for a minute and explain my hesitation. I know a fair amount about a lot of "basic" concepts, a lot about a few advanced concepts, and a little about some obscure concepts as far as computers are concerned. Most people, including so-called "tech support" people [especially when it comes to cheap labor companies hire from other countries] know how to read their email, follow direction, and surf the web, but will go to great lengths to avoid learning more than absolutely necessary. As far as those tech support people, a can-do attitude and this not knowing things can be a dangerous combination. First I spoke to a level 1 support person [in India] who told me to sign on the internet and allow her to "fix" the problem remotely. Whatever. So she runs the Earthlink software, it runs fine, she closes it and runs it about five more times and tries to tell me I don't know what I'm talking about. (I scribble on a paper to my father, who's sitting next to me, "she's in India".) She then tries to use Task Manager to close some windows that aren't responding but fails to click the "End Now" button every time the window opens. The program goes berserk and starts opening windows on it's own, so now we have about fifteen windows open and blinking on the task bar. (My father scribbles back "No Clue") After some embarrassing few minutes, she asks me to close all the windows on my desktop. [WELL DUH! She's a winner!] I take two seconds to close the windows and give her back control. BIG mistake. she goes into the Earthlink software and deletes the DSL connection option, leaving the LAN option [remember this for later]. She then goes into Internet Options, Connections tab, and deletes ALL the connections, thereby deleting all the connections from Network Connections. Well, what a surprise, she loses connection with my computer. I wonder why. After some frustrating moments while I sit on hold, waiting for her to realize she screwed up, she tells me to re-connect to the internet, like my computer's at fault. (I scribble this all back to my father including "this is a waste of time") At this point, I'm ready to scream at her for being such an idiot. I add a new connection and re-connect to the internet. She puts me on hold again and transfers me to a senior tech support person who, after a brief moment of what seemed like a sympathetic ear, tells me there's no way for the internet to be "always on" like it was two days ago and the newest version of the Earthlink software (that I just installed) is what is causing the problem that...started two days ago. He told me that the software wasn't working because it couldn't find the DSL connection [here it is...] which the level 1 tech support person DELETED just a minute ago. He told me if I uninstalled the newer version of the software and reinstalled the old, that it would all work again, but wouldn't stay on the line while I tried it. Figures. So what did I do? I said "okay, uh huh bye" and told my grandfather to switch to AT&T DSL. I DID uninstall the new and reinstall the old version of the software but the old version couldn't find the DSL connection either, and wouldn't install without it. The computer was so screwed up by this time that I wanted to call Earthlink and bitch to anyone who would listen. [Un]fortunately, my grandfather had just had surgery on his eye and was already doing more than he should to learn how he NOW had to get on the internet every day because Earthlink support deleted any hope of fixing his original problem. Four hours later...yes, FOUR HOURS LATER, and I still had to go to, like, my JOB for a few hours. Luckily I work for my mother, though she had to make a crack the other day about me not being in the office. IT WASN'T MY FAULT! Conclusion: I hate Earthlink. Last update: 14-08-2008 15:07
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