Well, I can't speak for Earthlink, but when I was doing helpdesk support for Rogers & then RoadRunner (both were Cable Internet contracts) we were given a set amount of time to solve the problem in, and if you went above that time you fell into Management's bad books. I was working for a 3rd Party Contractor hired by both Rogers & Time Warner (RoadRunner), and the Company was being paid for the amount of calls we were taking in, not for the service we provided or wether we could actually solve anyone's problems. In fact, if it came between taking the time to actually fix the problem, or getting the customer off the phone as quickly as possible, you'd get futher along with Management (and the Quality Assurance people) a whole lot better by shuffling off the Customer as quickly as possible (as long as you did it professionally).
Chances are the people you're dealing with for Earthlink are in the same boat. The person you get may actually care about your problem and want to fix it, but Management won't allow them to spend the time to do so.
Now let's all worship the might $$ dollar $$.
