Earthlink to cut, outsource 40 percent of jobs

[Renew Deal]

http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/01/06/HNearthlinkcuts_1.html

Nearly all support operations to be run outside the company

By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service January 06, 2004


In a move to outsource nearly all its support operations, Internet service provider Earthlink Inc. plans to cut 1,300 of the company's 3,300 U.S. jobs by the second quarter of 2004, the company announced on Tuesday.

"Most of these jobs are going to be outsourced. It's a process that we began last year," said Dan Greenfield, Earthlink's vice president of corporate communications.

Earthlink cut 1,300 jobs in its support operations in January 2003, Greenfield said.

The company now outsources approximately 70 percent of its technical support operations to companies in the United States, the Philippines, and Jamaica, Greenfield said. With this latest round of outsourcing, almost all support operations will be run outside of the company, he said.

The job cuts will affect workers in Earthlink's contact center operations in Atlanta, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and three locations in California: Roseville, San Jose and Pasadena, Greenfield said. "You're talking about mostly people who work billing questions, technical questions or questions from people who want to upgrade to broadband, for example," he said.

The 2,000 employees who will remain with the company are primarily located in Earthlink's Atlanta and Pasadena offices, he said.
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http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/01/06/HNearthlinkcuts_1.html

[KoKo]

1. I've been with that company from the old "Sprynet, Mindspring and now

Earthlink" days. I logged on in 1996 with my first computer. I've seen their "technical help" deteriorate since "Earthlink" bought out "Mindspring." Their service has been excellent though with no "cut offs or downtimes, or spam or any of the other stuff AOL and other subscribers complain about.

They fail to mention that their "Tech Help" went to India a couple of years ago, so I've corresponded with various Sanjays and others who've not been very helpful when I've had a problem this last year or so.

I don't know what to do about this. I don't want to change to some other provider and lose my e-mail address. I don't even know who I would choose.....but I need to protest this. So, I will tell them, I'm mad as hell, but I wonder if it will do any good.

Does anyone know if "Bell South" is any good as a ISPN? That might be an option. I don't want to change to some "fly by night" operation and I am "Dial Up" and don't want to go high speed cable or Broadband. I will not use "Road Runner" because I hate AOL/Time Warner.

[gristy]

2. I have a small business and I use a local service provider

for email only. Might be little more expensive than vanilla AOL but I like supporting a local business. And they are very, very helpful. Check your yellow pages, maybe under Internet.

[LoZoccolo]

3. I have Speakeasy and it's somewhat more expensive...

...but they're great. You can get a ton of bandwidth if you want to pay for it. They're a real geeky company (in the good sense), so they don't mind you setting up servers, etcetera, on your line. Great tech support too - never got the sense they were just going through a script.

http://www.speakeasy.net

[KoKo]

4. Thanks for the tips both of you. I've been lazy.....maybe I should check

out the local "little guys." They might be like little "sprynet" that I started with....but eventually the small fish get eaten by the big sharks. Still I might get a few more years before that happens, so it's probably time to switch.

It's the principle of the thing. "Outsourcing Jobs" on my money....is a BIG THING to me. I don't need to give them my hard earned dollars for them to go overseas. Enough is enough.

[ramapo]

5. You don't want broadband?

Check with your local ISPs. DSL is available from many sources. It's worth the money.

[truth2power]

6. I've had Hawk Communications (now Joy communications)

for a couple of years. About $10.00/mo. Less if you pay ahead. Just plain vanilla dial-up, but they've been reliable, and they're fast (for dial-up). Their tech support is good. Goggle their website. :-)