RIckSRL@cs.com wrote:
> Dave,
> What or who, were your ISPs and why did your switch?
>
> Rick
Rick:
Long, painful and involved story, but to condense:
Had GTE "Internetworking" for about 3 years, but they have a 100 hour
limit for no additional charges. 19.95/mo. and otherwise happy with
them. The 100 hour limit was beginning to become somewhat "binding".
Received an attractive promotion from Earthlink which offered free video
camera and unlimited connection time, at the same price.
I was skeptical because no one of large (national) providers offers
local, toll free access on the Big Island EXCEPT GTE (there are other
local providers like ilhawaii.net).
So before doing anything I called to find out if they had local access
here, They assured me that they had, and gave me the number, which
was, in fact, a local number. Not taking their word for it, I called
the number and goth the familiar internet connection sounds.
Commenced a setup using their CDROM which came with the promotion.
Entered the CC # when prompted, and all of the other info. Came to a
point where I was informed my local access was (such and so) which was
in Pearl City on Oahu!! A costly toll call.
I immediately aborted the setup and called Earthlink "Customer Service"
who again assured me the had local assess here. Since I had aborted the
setup, I didn't have all the domain name, i.p. addresses, and all the
other stuff needed to configure my computer.
Finally accomplished that through many hours of the voice mail morass,
with their "Technical Support" people.
Started using Earthlink with the local access number and advised my
correspondents (and "Majordomo") of my new e-mail address.
After two days of using Earthlink, I received an e-mail from Earthlink,,
"as a courtesy" advising that as of that date, I had incurred $9.88 of
"International Roaming Charges". Thinking that we were still part of
the United States, I called their Customer Service again, and they
pointed out in the billing schedule, that "certain areas of Alaska, and
Hawaii would be subject to an 'International Roaming Charge' of $0.15
per minute"
So, I immediately canceled, went through the process of reconfiguring my
computer back to GTE, and again notifying my correspondents and
Majordomo.of the return to the previous address. In this process, I was
informed by GTE that they had increased their limit to150 hours. That
will give me a lot of "breathing room" since the most I had previously
logged was some 90 hours (in pretty busy month). So end of problem.
Now, that IS the much condensed version and with "all the expletives"
deleted.
I am now in the process of challenging some $70 worth of charges by
Earthlink to my credit card account!
Dave
'68 1600
Kailua-Kona
Received a promotion from Earthlink
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