what? you’re still using Earthlink? Well, reader, I was.
But I thought I had written the last chapter of this 15 year saga when I finally cancelled my service on June 28. Earthlink Sam even gave me a cancellation number, which, thanks to my iPad, Penultimate, and Evernote, and my blog entry to commemorate this historic moment, I still had. When Earthlink Sam cancelled my service four days before he was supposed to, thereby costing me more than a decade of web files (I know, I’m an idiot, but some of them are lost forever), Earthlink Gary seemed genuinely mortified. No, he couldn’t restore my files, no they weren’t backed-up on the Earthlink server. But he did cough up a refund for the last month of service.
That, I thought, was that.
But no!
While I was celebrating a wedding, enduring several weeks of a New York heat wave, reading several books (especially Allegra Goodman! Cookbook Collector, so beautiful), writing the first 100 pages of my book (alas, not so beautiful yet), watching many hours of Pinball Wii with my children and new son-in-law, celebrating my dad’s 88th birthday, and getting myself ready for the arrival of the Macaulay Class of 2014…..Earthlink was planning my next torture session!
There it is, as it has been since 1998, my 19.95 monthly Amex charge for hosting kirschner.org.
I was strapping on my pistols for an Earthlink shootout when friend David suggested a faster route through Amex. And so I have had a lovely call with Amex Alice who tells me that she has driven a stake through the heart of the earthlink vampire and I will never be billed again. Amex Alice, I do believe you.
Guess what? Earthlink had already billed for NEXT month too.
I always find customer service nightmares to be surprisingly entertaining, the more absurd the better. But even I have moved beyond amusement into fury and now, I hope, into the real end of this story.