Earthlink fraud? Baiting but not unhooking

[Dwight Hines]

In April, I took a test drive with Earthlink, $6.95 for six months,
free if cancelled in thirty days, and did it with my credit card.
Comcast was giving terrible service.

But, we decided dial-up too miserable slow, and went to BellSouth DSL.

I cancelled Earthlink within the first month and got the cancellation number.

They kept billing me, and I had the bank take their charges off after
calling them.  I thought it was taken care of.

This last month, Earthlink billed me again and even with the
confirmation number, they would not refund the charge, but my bank
did.

The problem is a $6.95 charge  is easy to miss on your bank statements.

How many people are still paying for services they don't use and they
legitimately cancelled from Earthlink?

How do we get someone to take jurisdition on this because I think we
are looking at millions of dollars, esp when the $6.95 goes to 19.95
at the end of the six months, and Earthlink will not refund any
charges over 3 months old.

Dwight Hines


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[Ethan Ackerman]

An ISP committing questionable billing practices?  Surely you jest!
The F"x"C would be all over this sooo fast that the enforcement order
would come out before the customer's credit card cycle even closed!

</sarcasm, began snark-ridden but unfortunately truthful commentary>

Looking to past history, the FTC will _eventually_ enforce the FTC Act
on a company doing this on a long enough and big enough scale - e.g.
http://www.ftc.gov/os/2003/09/aolconagreement.pdf

(note the date, then note the similarity to the roughly identical 2005
shenanigans cited below in the Spitzer press release - glad to see the
FTC order really took hold, and was being policed dilligently.)

The "other" commission - the FCC  -shows little reservation expanding
its authority over wireline and even broadband internet services (e.g.
CALEA rulemaking authority expanding to the point of arguably
controverting the CALEA statute's language.)  Similarly, when
asserting expanded authority is a necessary first step to preempting
state law, (e.g. "Truth in Billing applys to cellular too,") the
Commission will act.    But the only actual enforcement/litigation the
FCC does in regards to ENFORCING/EXPANDING Truth in Billing is to pass
rules preempting state consumer protection laws that would actually
address billing shenanigans.
(see - http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/ops/200511682.pdf )

Apparently such billing fraud is pervasive enough that multiple class
actions have succeeded on similar grounds with other ISPs  -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL#Billing_disputes

And apparently the practices are pervasive enough that state AGs have
no problem finding evidence and getting consent orders over it...
( http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2005/aug/aug24a_05.html  - or its cache )

<sad sigh...>


On 10/8/07, Dwight Hines <dwight.hines@...> wrote:

> In April, I took a test drive with Earthlink, $6.95 for six months,
> free if cancelled in thirty days, and did it with my credit card.
> Comcast was giving terrible service.
>
> But, we decided dial-up too miserable slow, and went to BellSouth DSL.
>
> I cancelled Earthlink within the first month and got the cancellation number.
>
> They kept billing me, and I had the bank take their charges off after
> calling them.  I thought it was taken care of.
>
> This last month, Earthlink billed me again and even with the
> confirmation number, they would not refund the charge, but my bank
> did.
>
> The problem is a $6.95 charge  is easy to miss on your bank statements.
>
> How many people are still paying for services they don't use and they
> legitimately cancelled from Earthlink?
>
> How do we get someone to take jurisdition on this because I think we
> are looking at millions of dollars, esp when the $6.95 goes to 19.95
> at the end of the six months, and Earthlink will not refund any
> charges over 3 months old.
>
> Dwight Hines
>
>
> **********************************************************************
> For Listserv Instructions, see http://www.lawlists.net/cyberia
> Off-Topic threads: http://www.lawlists.net/mailman/listinfo/cyberia-ot
> Need more help? Send mail to: Cyberia-L-Request@...
> **********************************************************************
>

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