Helpless Desk

Had a lovely chat with a Helpless Desk in India today. Told the guy my email was being sent twice, and I asked why.... Oh, wait, I have the transcript, so I'll just share! I will scatter my commentary where appropriate. I left in all my typos for the heck of it. I was a little miffed, and typing way too fast.

'Jason N' says: Thank you for contacting EarthLink LiveChat, how may I help you today? [Jason N? This screams 'India']

lhanna@mindspring.com: I am using web access mail, and every email I send gets sent twice. I tested and it is also received twice.

Jason N: I will be glad to assist you . [Notice the space before every period. Yes, I notice this stuff.]

Jason N: Please click on the below mentioned link:
Jason N: https://webmail.earthlink.net
Jason N: Then enter your complete email address and password .
Jason N: And click on sign in .
Jason N: Please let me know whether you are able to sign in or not .
[What part of "I am sending mail" made him ask if I could sign in? Do you think he was maybe following a script?!]

lhanna@mindspring.com: i am signed in and sending mail.
lhanna@mindspring.com: it is being sent twice.

Jason N: Please click on Preferences . [That's it - no more. After a few minutes I asked:]
lhanna@mindspring.com: and ..... what?
lhanna@mindspring.com: i have not changed anything, andit was working last night.

Jason N: Under General tab, you will find Session Security as the last option .
Jason N: Please turn it ON .
Jason N: Then click on Save .
Jason N: Sign out of WebMail .

lhanna@mindspring.com: why do I need to do this? it makes no sense.
lhanna@mindspring.com: plus, wouldn't I need to be on a secure server? will this change my connection settings?

Jason N: You need to try this .
lhanna@mindspring.com: No, I need to know why first.

Jason N: No .[In response to being on a secure server, I suppose.]

lhanna@mindspring.com: I do nto change security settings without know why first. What has changed in the last 18 hours to make this stop working?

Jason N: It will not change any settings.It will be in a secured server .[uh-huh]

Jason N: Is there anything else apart from this that I can help you with ? [Note the space before the '?'. And does it sound like he's helped me yet?]

lhanna@mindspring.com: Yes, you can tell me why I suddenly need to change a security setting to send email correctly.
lhanna@mindspring.com: What has changed in the last 18 hours that necessitates this change?

Jason N: There are currently problems with our WebMail Server.
Jason N: It is under maintenance . [?!?!?!?!?!?!?!]


lhanna@mindspring.com: You could have told me that first. I will just wait until later then.
Jason N: I am extremely sorry for that .
lhanna@mindspring.com: Me, too. This was a total waste of my time.
lhanna@mindspring.com: I am glad I did not make the security change.
Jason N: Okay .

lhanna@mindspring.com: Is tehre an ETA for themail server, and are there plans to communicate this outage to your customers?
Jason N: We did not receive any estimated time for this issue .

lhanna@mindspring.com: You should still tell customers that there is a known problem. That is much easier to accept than being uninformed.
lhanna@mindspring.com: Is there a status link we can access to check back on the progress of the outage?
Jason N: Okay .
Jason N: You can click on the below link to check :
Jason N: http://my.earthlink.net
lhanna@mindspring.com: thank you

After a few more lines, Jason N and I parted ways. He thought he'd helped me, and I needed a drink.

FYI - that link he gave me tells me NOTHING. It is the personalized home page for Earthlink, like iGoogle. Totally worthless.

Luckily, I got a survey right after the chat ended, and I told them what I thought about my service experience. And as of now - hours later, things are still sending twice. And yes, I can sign in just fine.

Just between you and me? I am converting all my stuff over to gmail.