Consumer Watch: Surviving the ISP Shuffle

Who's your Internet service provider this week? Chances are good that it's not the same one you originally signed on with. If you were a customer who used the Excite@Home network, you know all about ISP hell. Thousands of customers were left with no service at all last fall, and many were forced to change their e-mail addresses and ISPs while Excite@Home and the companies it contracted with sniped at each other ad nauseam.

Excite@Home is only the most prominent example. Lots of users lost their DSL connections when providers such as NorthPoint and Flashcom went belly-up.

But even if your provider isn't mired in a financial or legal morass, you could be affected by ISP business changes. With hundreds of Internet service providers struggling to stay afloat these days, company acquisitions and mergers are as unavoidable as AOL trial discs.

When an ISP fails, a new provider is usually ready and willing to take over the old company's accounts. Hapless customers, like children in a custody settlement, are inevitably pelted with cheerful reassurances: The transition will be seamless! You don't need to do a thing! Your service will be better than ever! One former ISP even suggested that my e-mail address, which included my original ISP's domain name, could become a "status symbol." (In the interest of staying humble, I won't drop names.)

But the transitions aren't always so smooth. At best, having a new provider foisted upon you is unsettling. At worst, it can leave you feeling helpless and wishing you'd never heard of either company.

Jay Atkinson, a government program analyst from Sacramento, California, knows that feeling all too well. His local DSL provider was taken over by a company called OneMain.com, which in turn was promptly swallowed up by EarthLink.

After sending a number of e-mail messages about technical changes, EarthLink sent Atkinson a puzzling e-mail telling him that his service would cost $19.95 a month--$30 a month less than he'd been paying OneMain for DSL service. It went on to explain that payment by check would cost $2 a month, and referred to several alternative payment options.

Perplexed, Atkinson decided to call EarthLink directly. After placing several phone calls and waiting 35 minutes on hold, his suspicions were confirmed: The $19.95 rate was for dial-up service, not DSL. EarthLink had sent him the e-mail by mistake. And those other payment options? There turned out to be only one: using a credit or debit card.

"Charging a fee for writing checks was not in the contract I signed with OneMain.com," Atkinson says. He was also worried that customer service might decline. "With my previous providers, I never had to wait more than a minute to get someone on the phone," he recalls.

Two weeks later, EarthLink sent another e-mail telling Atkinson there would be a four- to six-week interruption in his DSL service during the transfer. (The company offered him free dial-up service in the interim.) Atkinson decided to find a new ISP. "I found the entire EarthLink acquisition process frustrating," he says.

Service provider representatives are quick to point out that most mergers happen smoothly. Michael Jalone, EarthLink's director of integrations, says "Our goal is always to make the acquisition as seamless as possible for the customer. But the success of any integration is only as good as the information we get from the acquired company. If we don't have complete or accurate customer information--for example, in a case where the acquired company is going out of business, or for some other reason doesn't provide accurate records--that could result in [customer service] problems."

Of course, if your ISP is acquired, you typically have no obligation to stick with the new company. Even if your long-term contract with your previous provider has not expired, in most cases that agreement becomes null and void if the provider goes out of business or is purchased. Sometimes, though, companies that purchase failing ISPs also purchase the company's customer contracts. If so, your obligation to the new company can be unclear. (If you decide to look for a new ISP, be sure to read "Ditch Your Dial-Up." But leaving the ISP that snapped up your original provider to switch to a completely new one can be a major hassle--especially if you have DSL.

For most people, it probably makes sense to give the company that acquired their ISP a chance. Review the terms and conditions of your current provider's plan--including such details as limits on hours or connection speeds--so that you can easily compare them with those of the acquiring company.

The acquisition process generally requires the customer to agree to the terms and conditions of the acquiring company at some point. This agreement--usually accepted with just a mouse click--nullifies whatever agreement you had with your former service provider. (Prepaid service plans are an exception; the acquiring company should honor the full term of the contract.)

How do you know if your ISP is headed for bankruptcy court or for a takeover? Think like an investor: Put the ISP's stock on your watch list. If the stock price takes a precipitous dive, there's a good chance some sort of change is on its way. Here are some tips for dealing with the possible upheaval that may follow:

• Consider getting backup services--a free Web-based e-mail account and a cheap, limited-hour dial-up account to use if you lose your primary connection.
  
  
• If you don't check your ISP e-mail account regularly, have all mail from your ISP sent to your primary account. Read carefully any mail it sends to you.
  
  
• Keep complete and easily accessible records of your communications to and from both providers.
  
  
• If you must change your e-mail address, a registry service like the one at www.returnpath.net can help you keep in touch with family and business contacts.
  
  
• Are things looking bleak for your provider? You may want to jump to a new ISP now, rather than waiting for a bankruptcy or merger. Look for a larger company or one that's been around for at least three years to help avoid another switch.
  
  

Let's face it: Service providers just aren't willing to commit to a stable, long-term relationship these days. But when you know the rules of the ISP shuffle, you'll probably be able to find a provider that will treat you right--even if it is not the one you started with.

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