EarthLink Reviews 478

UPDATED: Earthlink (internet provider) had provided horrible customer service ... never activating my account and had sent me two routers. After weeks of trying to get things fixed, I cancelled. They refunded my charges and had me download labels to return the routers (that took a while also). I sent both routers back. Last Tuesday on Feb 17, I received an email threatening me that they would charge me $436.40 if I did not return the router. I already had. And I took photos of both boxes and both receipts from the UPS store. I called earthlink, and their rep confirmed they had received both routers and I should just ignore the email. Today 2/22/2026, Earthlink attempted to charge my debit card for the above amount. Fortunately, it was declined and I was alerted.
After their reps responded below, they attempted to steal money from my bank again. They are liars and deceptive ... DO NOT CHOOSE EARTHLINK ... be warned.

John, the installer was very knowledgeable, installed fast and answered all my questions. This is a good employee who does his job well.

Quick and professional installation as well as quality connection.

I wish that they were outlawed in the US. I’ve never known a company that lies to their customers like they do.
They have no equipment and are a reseller of Verizon or other internet providers. However, I was told that they had underground fiber so it would never go out. They have nothing. Verizon has overhead lines here and that’s what they sold me though I didn’t know it!
They promised a $100 gift card at 3-month and another at 6-months to offset their higher prices. I’ve never received anything. They just say that they’ll check with the back room.
Their routers come from Korea and look/act cheap. Three broke in less than a year.
There’s no tech support on weekends. Good luck getting help or getting a new router shipped until a work day. Then wait 5 work days to have one show up.
You’ll never speak to anyone on this side of the planet other than the first salesperson.
They informed me of a $200 cancellation fee after I wanted to quit them the first week. The first router was broken when it arrived.
Don’t even think of getting them unless you want tons of trouble, slow internet speeds and no tech help.

What a joke. The customer service is the worst I've ever seen. Absolute incompetence. Actually complete morons, if you can understand a word.

Initial phone conversation was friendly and informative and transparent. Install was thorough and no mess. Service has only had one short buffering so far. Price is less than I was paying with AT&T

This service is a joke I didn’t have service for 3 days and they talking about a bill and turned me off

My experience with EarthLink has been mixed, and overall disappointing.

I previously used EarthLink in California. The service started with a low introductory price for the first year, but after that the cost increased to the same level as AT&T. In practice, EarthLink was using AT&T’s infrastructure at my address, so the service itself was not different.

After moving to Texas, I decided to try EarthLink again. During my call with sales, the communication felt unprofessional and overly sales-driven, with repeated claims that EarthLink is “the best,” but without clear explanations.

At my Texas address, the actual network provider was Frontier. Frontier had a strong promotional offer, which I used for my main internet line and have been satisfied with. I also connected EarthLink as a second line for work-from-home purposes.

The installation was completed by a Frontier technician using Frontier equipment. The technician explained that EarthLink resells the same service. From a customer perspective, the connection, hardware, and installation were identical, but the EarthLink price was higher.

Based on my experience, EarthLink does not operate its own infrastructure in these locations and does not provide clear added value compared to going directly with the underlying provider. Pricing also tends to be higher unless a temporary promotion is applied.

I recommend that customers first verify which provider actually services their address and compare prices directly before choosing EarthLink.

The customer service reps that EarthLink has working for itself are absolutely incompetent buffoons. Either they know very little about the very same company that they're working for in terms of how it operates, or they're just straight up liars about what they claim to be the "truth" when it comes to those same everyday operations. It could be a little bit of both as well which means they're incompetent liars. For example I just had a conversation with one of them who claimed that the company doesn't sell WiFi routers to it's customers who don't want to pay the monthly rental fee for using one of EarthLink's personal routers. Also you can't even purchase an outside third party brand router that's compatible with their connection speed. This is obviously ludicrous since I already had done my own research, & looked into this topic prior to contacting them. I saw information that clearly stated the complete opposite of what the customer service rep was claiming to me. So again this means either that person was completely oblivious as to what is going on around him at the very same company he works for, or he was just straight up lying because EarthLink itself instructs their very own employees to lie to their customers in order to force them in paying the monthly rental fee. Another dirty company doing unethical practices in order to get one over on their loyal customers. WOW! "What a surprise".

My Trustpilot Review of Earthlink Internet #535984859

On 2/1/2026, I wrote a Trustpilot review on Earthlink Internet Service. This is an update to that review. I had to correct untruths Earthlink Customer Service (“ECS”) shoveled my way. We upgraded to Earthlink Fiber optics, a new contract.

ECS said the E-link Internet Service Agreement was “easy to find” on the E-link Website. After searching for that term on the site, top 2 results came back 5G Home Internet, then “enjoying email”! On first 2 pages, nothing on “agreement.” NOT easy to find!

Section 10.1 of this Agreement specifies Early Termination Fees. It is generic. Where can I find the exact fees that apply to my “Plan?”

Next. Again, there are Many inaccuracies in the 2 responses I received from Earthlink Customer Service (“ECS”). I don’t want to say, immediately, that ECS is outright lying. My hunch is that ECS computers are NOT recording stuff accurately, and that is what is getting shoveled my way. That goes to my point earlier. Fix ECS!!

The E-link “Welcome email”. After the ORAL contract discussion, it was supposed to be “followed by an email containing the applicable terms in the welcome email,” according to Samantha/E-link. Still waiting, today. I Did NOT receive anything like it!

I spent a lot of time talking to the E-link sales agent. We covered lots! Earthlink is now asking me to remember every second of a 30+ minute conversation. Before the install, I received 4 (6?) Email messages reminding me of the install. None of them, NONE (!), mentioned anything about the “applicable terms” of what I “agreed” to.

After my long telephone conversation (Oral) on monthly charges, when do new charges begin, etc., I am absolutely certain that I asked the agent if there was anything else important that I need to know. He said nothing further. I realize now that agent Did NOT (!) even mention cancellation fees!! When Samantha mentioned the $200.00 early cancellation fee in her memo of 2/4/26, it dawned on me that this fee was NEVER mentioned!! That was a SURPRISE!!

In her 2/2/26 reply, Samantha wrote, “Per our Internet Service Agreement, which can be found on our website, EarthLink is required to provide notice of changes at least 30 days in advance, and these notices are reflected on monthly invoices.” Does this include changes to the monthly rate that I am charged? I LAUGHED! In All my years with Earthlink, I have Never, NEVER received advance notice of the rate change!!! I open the invoice, and Surprise, here’s your new rate, $20 or $25 more!! This is particularly disturbing, because I will have to call the ECS line, 888#, and wait for Hours (!) to speak with an agent. Very Disturbing! Please fix ECS!!

When does the new contract rate begin? On the phone (Oral), I was told as soon as the install was complete. Date of install: 1/22/2026. My last E-link invoice was 2/1/2026. Same rate as my 1/1/2026 invoice. What gives?

If Earthlink and ESC were as rosey and vanilla as Samantha described to me, I would be a happy camper. The Reality and TRUTH are that my experience with ECS is So Far from what Samantha describes, it’s like a different planet. My gripe is not with Samantha. She is just spewing the E-link party line. It is with E-link & ECS. If they were Really intent on fixing ECS, something, anything will Really Happen. A vanilla statement like, “... (ECS) fell short and sincerely apologize for the frustration this caused. Improving our customer support is a top priority, ...” doesn’t cut it! I’ve heard that MANY (!) times before. Forget the vanilla statement and DO Something!! FIX ECS!

I asked to take my contract out of the automatically renew category. I’m waiting for ECS’ response.

I’m new to Georgia and wasn’t familiar with ISPs in Macon, so I chose EarthLink. That was a mistake.

From month one, the experience has been awful. Representatives give different answers every time you call about the same issue. Promises are made and never honored. Tech support is ineffective, and customer service is shockingly rude—clearly uninterested in whether you stay or leave.

I pay my bill on time every month, without fail, and it genuinely does not matter to them. After doing more research, I also realized their pricing is completely unreasonable compared to other providers.

I should have researched more beforehand—that part is on me—but if this review helps someone else avoid the same headache, it’s worth it. I’m moving, breaking my contract, and paying the early termination fee because my peace of mind is worth more than staying another day with this company.

Do yourself a favor: don’t sign up with EarthLink. Find another provider if you possibly can.

Technician showed up when promised, was knowledgeable, professional and courteous. Explained what he was doing and answered any question I had. Waited to make sure installation was working properly.

I decided to go with Earthlink bc the customer service rep told me Earthlink has excellent service and customer service and that if I have any issues and they would make it right. I got Earthlink approximately 3 weeks ago. I have Google/Nest and Google devices. All of them are Google/Nest and/or Google. It was extremely difficult getting them to link up with the Earthlink internet. None of my cameras or doorbell will hook up to my Earthlink internet. After 3 weeks of trying, no luck. I contacted Earthlink via text chat. That text chat started at 3:34 pm. There was a 2 to 4 minutes pause between each text - not due to me, but by whomever was sending me texts. They apologized bc the rep said he/she was chating with several other ppl. At 4:28pm the text/chat ended with the rep telling me to call the manufacture of my devices for help. The rep also referred me to "EasyTech Remote Tech Support for only $9.95 a month. You have got to be kidding me. This isn't the outstanding service that customer service promised me when trying to sale me into using Earthlink. From what I read online, I am not the only one having this problem. Why didn't the customer service rep not tell me that? If Earthlink is so wonderful and outstanding, then why didn't they say some users are having difficultly getting their devices to connect?? That is just bull. I haven't had Earthlink for a full 3 weeks yet and I'm already disgusted with them. Another question; Why does Earthlink have to charge a $300.00 cancellation fee if they are so great and customers are so happy? False advertising!

Great service, affordable, and very kind techs.
We had our service transferred and no issue and found me a better price. We upgraded from 300 to 500 mbps yet saved 5$ not much but its all good with me.
I'd recommend them every time.
Thanks guys.

Most of the time my email with earthlink works well. I had the same problem as Joe Redburn--I could not login to my email account. I gave up and decided to reset my password. I only go to the webmail page so went to Earthlink's home page and found My Account option. (Never noticed it on the webmail page until now.) I changed my password by saying I had forgotten mine. They sent a code to my backup email and I was able to change it and get in. They still had mine that they wouldn't let me login in with since I couldn't change to that one. Have no idea WHY I had to change my password. Never an email about that to my earthlink email (aka sprintmail) nor to my backup email. VERY ANNOYING! Also as with Joe, I tried the chat and never got a response.

Thanks for your response. Could you tell me how I was notified that I needed to change my password? And when? I check spam/junk regularly. I never saw an email about it in my regular email nor my backup email. And how often do you require a change? Just so I am ready for next time.

5 days ago my passwords were invalid. I use a script writer to enter all my passwords so it was not from this machine. when i contacted customer service i was sent to an email repair specialist. They never picked up the call. I tried their chat box. Again the email agent never responded. I tried their text box. no response. All these were tried 2 or 3 times each day. I called the Atlanta number to complain. No one answered the phone. The two times i was able to speak to someone the volume was so low I could not understand them and the accent was extreme..

Very miss leading got service on 21st 1st bill due on the 21st I paid to get service started they didn't tell me my first month bill would do the same day as connection

Installation people arrived a little early, that was good. Installed without any problems. Installers were friendly and did a good job.

The gentleman who set up my cable was very nice and answered our questions