Re: Sometimes all you have to do is ask

> I have found a lot of support here, so I wanted to contribute back to the
> board in my way.

> Last week I was having problems with earthlink, everytime I would connect,
> it would kick me off and then couldn't connect again. After six hours on
> and off I called and got a real person. They kindly took care of the
> problem by making some changes on my computer. When we finished, I asked
> to be transferred to the sales dept. I have been with them since 1999 and
> have always paid $21.95 a month, so I asked for a better deal- and got
> $12.95 a month for the next 6 months. If I hadn't called and asked I would
> still be paying more. I have also negotiated better interest rates on my
> credit cards recently.

> So all you have to do is ask- At the worst, they will say no- or you could
> save a few bucks and every one counts! What do you have to lose. So what
> are you waiting for-get off line and get on the phone,lol- Carla

Excellent advice, Carla! Thank you for sharing.

I have also done similar things from time to time. And you were so right to frame it in such terms (long time customer, etc) and approach them when the time is right. Good job.

Humm...we just had a major outage here in my area a couple of weeks ago with earthlink - lasted almost all day (which is quite unusual; I've never had that with them before). And all I got was a $10 amazon gift certificate :-( Of course, I didn't ask for anything, so it was nice to see that arrive in my email, but that would have been a great time to ask for a reduction in my monthly dsl. I guess you could say I've been with them since 1998 - I was with mindspring when it became part of earthlink (although I still have mindspring addresses) so I'm going to remember your advice if I have another major problem such as this.

I had called during that time because I had reason to think it was a problem with the network in our house (it wasn't) but when I called they weren't even taking phone calls they were so backed up. Kept saying "call back in an hour." But they indicated the outage was elsewhere, so I continued trying to get through since I thought my problem was in my own system. I used a technique I've used before to get through to a live person, which was to call and select the "if you want to close your account" option. You will always get a live person if you do that :-) Anyway, I was VERY nice and told the guy I knew it wasn't the right number but that since I couldn't get through to technical support could he just put me in touch with someone who could fix this problem, since I was pretty sure I knew what it was but my husband wasn't home and I couldn't remember exactly what he did in the control panel to fix it. I even went so far as to politely ask if I could have someone "stateside" since I had never, EVER had a problem fixed when my call was sent overseas. I was very nice and polite about it, but that's just a fact...and I didn't see any point in wasting my time and theirs. He was completely understanding and got me in touch with a "master technician" in Omaha who then relayed the message that they were just getting word there was a major outage in our area and it was going to be long term.

Speaking of getting a human, now there's a website out called gethuman.com that is very helpful in that regard. (I see that they mention the trick I described above as one way to get through fast).

Can you tell I've spent a fair amount of time in "voice mail hell?" Who of us hasn't?

Cathy