Beware Dell and Earthlink!!!
 

First, some background. I purchased a laptop from Dell in May 2003. With the laptop was an offer of 6 months of free Earthlink Dial-Up service. Great! Free! I signed up with Earthlink, never giving Earthlink my credit card number. I assumed that at the end of the 6 months, it would expire and all would be good.

WRONG.

Dell gave Earthlink my CC number, and they proceeded to bill me FIVE times. I do realized that two of the times were warranted because I was still using the service. However, my laptop was stolen in mid-October. I was still billed for November, December, and January, $21.95 each month.

I called Earthlink, explained what happened, and they tell me that I specifically have to cancel the service. They offer me a refund of two of the months.

My point, I never gave Earthlink my credit card number, Dell did. Nowhere in my Earthlink documentation does it say I have to cancel a free service. I didn't even know Earthlink had my credit card number, otherwise I would have cancelled immediately.

This is shady business practice in my eyes, I've been burned so anyone buying a Dell, beware this offer!

with the volumes of papers that you get when you do get a new computer it's probably buried in there.

But... remember there is no free lunch anywhere... in the beginning of the story you thought you were getting over on them. and you didn't check your bills for the first 2 months???

and then you didn't cancel it at that time?

IMHO the burden fell squarely on your shoulders, not Dells, not Earthlink.

I agree. Just about anything that's "free" for a certain amount of time ALWAYS continues to bill you unless you tell them not to. That's just how these things work.

Unless you keep on installing aol over and over again :P

Dell didnt give out your credit card information without permission. You did it just it was unknowingly done. The person you are talking to on the phone is hired by a big corporation that works with DELL. Its the corportations job to hire the employees. All they do is sit and take orders they look at the contract on the screen ask you a bunch of questions. When you said yes to the free internet you were automatically agreeing to giving the person on the phone permission to give earthlink your credit card number.
Basically its like this. You call up an ISP and say hey I want to try your service. You advertise 1 month free. Remember all those commercials on TV where they say yours free, no obligations, cancel anytime, no questions asked. Well they are not going to just give you that one month free service without something that they can bill to. You are responsible for canceling after the first month if you dont want the service anymore. If you dont cancel it you will get billed because they will assume that you liked the service and want to keep it.
You have signed 2 contracts one with DELL and one with earthlink and you were responsible. Not only that you did continue to use the service for 2 months after your free 6 so that was a binding contract right there that you wanted the service.
You are lucky that you got your money back for 2 months when your computer was stolen because the could have said its not my fault you didnt cancel when it was stolen.

I know companies like to trick you that way, but trust me, it's all in the fine print. Ya gotta read that stuff so things like that won't happen.

Sorry Yaki, you blew it dude. Like everyone else has said, no such thing as something for nothing. Pay more attention and things like this will not happen to you.

Call Dell, ask for customer care. Tell them what had happened to you. I used to work for Dell in tech support ( shudder ) but I do know cust service is used to compromising all the time. If you plead your case, in some instances they will refund your money, they may not refund your money and instead offer a peace settlement ( ram, extended warranty, etc ) or possibly may go nowhere.

I agree with tenchi069, I say calling them intelligently and asking for some type of reinbursement is your best bet.

You may, or may not get anything, but it is worth a try.

I have always had great service with Dell, I am now on my second pc and would get a third. They were going to replace my entire pc just because the door broke. Not the cheapest solution but whatever. Call their tech support if they can't do something then I'm sure Earthlink can.

It does suck, but you should have been more cautious.

definately bogus, i wouuld be pissed off too. never trust in big corparation.

I hate how it's our fault when we get tricked by big corporations.

I may be misinterpreting what you are getting at, but, are you saying that it is only our fault if we get scammed by a mom-and-pop operation?

please. Yes, I think that this kind of thing is low, and wrong. I think that companies shouldn't do such things. BUT I also think that when you sign something, you should read the entire thing before you put your name on it. You and I bear the responsibility to keep this shit from happening.

Don't make me hurt you.

You guys are right, I should have been paying a hell of a lot more attention.

In retrospect most of my anger was directed at myself for being such a doofus, it just felt better to vent it towards the evil corporations.

However, I still feel it sucks that the consumer has to watch out and read all the fine print to avoid having more money sucked outta them.

That's what you get for getting dialup. :P

Earthlink kind of screwed me over, they forgot to bill me for a month of service, then after I cancelled my service with them they charged me for an extra month. I assumed it was to make up for the missed month they forgot and thought everything was ok. A few months later they send me a letter saying they forgot to bill me for a month and were just going to go ahead and take the $21.95 out of my account for me. Forty-five minutes on the phone got the issue resolved, but Earthlink does have a horrific billing department. Fuck Earthlink.

Wait a minute. Yakimushi wasn't getting something for nothing. He had just plopped down a good amount of cash for a computer and agreed to let Eathlink try and sell him something. He was doing them a favor. We are too willing to blame ourselves when we are getting ripped off and yakimushi should be mad about it. The fact that they got away with it because he didn't catch them isn't his fault. Thats like saying if someone robs your house because you didn't lock a window the robber shouldn't have to give your stuff back.

no he's neglected to CANCEL his subscription because his laptop was stolen and then laments that he isn't getting a refund.

That's not DELLs fault, and it's not Earthlink's fault. That burden is on the owner of the laptop.

If you car was stolen and you had financed a a/v system in your ride, you are still responsible for the payments. If you had subscribed to Sirius you still have to cancel the subscription.

Dishonest people live everywhere, dishonest business practices abound everywhere, no matter if it is a small store or a nationwide chain. On the whole though, my dealings with mom and pop shops are much friendlier and understanding than from some big box company. Products I buy from local stores come with no fine print, and I know the owner/distributor at a personal level. They depend on my business as an individual, not as a market group. If I recieve a defective product, they will refund/replace it because they know I will come again. Generally small mom&pop stores will not conduct research on just how much they can get away with before the begin to lose profits, and then say it is the consumer's fault for falling for their dirty trick.

Seriously we think "It is my fault that although they are giving me 6 months free to evaluate if this is a service I feel is worth the price they are offering, it is still my responsiblity to go out of my way to make sure my service is discontinued, even when I have not given them credit information, or else they will begin charging me without notifying me other than an application I filled out 6 months ago."

It is obvious they were hoping for someone like Yakimushi to come along. Earthlink knows they will get more sales from undecided people if they just begin charging them. This is what makes me angry, and I feel justified for feeling this way.

I also forgot to mention that usually the conditions of the SALE prices of systems state in black and white that you must use the collaborated online ISP. The ISP subsidizes some of the cost of the PC based on the fact that once you have the ISP you more than likely will not switch or discontinue service. If you don't want it at all, then you should NOT purchase those systems that bundle said service together. I've purchase MANY computers from DELL and never had an issue with AOL/MSN/Earthlink ever charging ANY of my credit cards, because I do not buy such bundles, and I read all the fine print and check my statements.

I second that motion......

yeah....gotta love the tricks they can play on you....

I hate earthlink. When I quit them, it was painfully obvious that they put me on hold for half and hour because as an unsubscriber that I didn't matter as much as someone who was subscribing. Overall, my Earthlink dialup service was a premium expendature with a minimal service.

Gotta love corporate business!!

I dunno, seems kind of strange. Most free trials I've signed up for (AOL, Xbox live ,etc) ask you to put in a credit card number or billing address when initially setting up the account

You sure you never gave them the credit card number? I've used the same Earthlink free 6 months you're talking about and I had to use a credit card to sign up. Cancelled it around the 5th month and never got charged.