The tech person actually said, “Go to the Terms of Service page. Are you there? Good. Now read along with me…” I felt patronized. He wasn’t understanding. He said if I wanted to “spam” people, I had to purchase an online email service from someone else. I couldn’t convince him that I wasn’t spamming, that these were legitimate subscribers, and that the terms of service needed to account for such things.

We went with the cable in order to simplify our bills and save a little money. Time will tell if we’re satisfied. In general, I wasn’t sure we should be switching, but we’ll try it.

We switched our internet provider a while ago, and a few weeks later had a telemarketer from that same provider call to try to get us to switch to them. I had to cut her off after 3 full minutes of scripted yammer, and when I said, “We actually have it already,” I could hear the hamster wheel turning in her head, processing what I’d just said. I don’t think her script covered that possible response.

I had a big problem with Verizon FiOs last year and it was a very frustrating experience. The sales rep made all kinds of promises that he did not deliver on, and it ended up costing us significantly more than he’d promised. A friend of mine who is a telecom consultant was able to get me the name of someone at Verizon who finally addressed the problem and gave me a modest credit. But I will forever after be wary of Verizon, and will make another choice whenever possible.

Verizon is useless. They’re trying to force me to switch from DSL to Fios, which I DON’T want, and they won’t let me talk to ANYONE about it.

Anyway, after the conversation with supervisors, I type a quick letter to the executive office with the result of the conversation and its myriad frustations, and CC both the BBB and the AG’s office in my state and the home state of the exec office.

Within a week, I get results.

Without the letter and the CC’s — nothing.

I still think we should invoice these companies when they waste our time.