etc.

Catch bras, dodge bottles, zap crusty undies, win Rolling Stones tix. 85% on my first try, 30% on my second. Go figure. [mefi]

When I called to move our telephone service, the Bell Canada “moving specialist” talked me into signing up for their current full service package. It meant we would get everything from a high-speed Internet connection to the super-duper-ultimate satellite TV package, which made me salivate a bit because I was so sure we’d have no cable and a mere dialup connection when we moved on account of the prohibitive startup costs. The deal was literally too good to turn down so I noted all the details, did extensive research into the alternatives, wrote up a mini business plan, presented it to the Mr., who gets the last word on anything to do with TV (it being such a big part of his life), and called them back with the good news.

Long story shorter, we received the Internet service equipment a couple of days after we ordered it and waited about a week for the satellite equipment to arrive. And when it never did, we spent hours on the phone with the various divisions of Bell (we added it up – 8 hours in total, much of that time on hold) after which we were ultimately told that no equipment would be released until we signed and returned an “e-agreement”, which we tried to do but the thing wouldn’t work for whatever reason. After more time on the phone it soon became evident that no one was willing to take responsibility for the many foul ups, we kept getting passed from one associate to another, one division to another, which started to piss me off and had me becoming incrementally exasperated with every person I spoke to, and go figure, I’m not usually much of a truculent customer.

So after letting the dust settle for about 2 weeks, we called all divisions back and told them they can keep their stinkin’ offer-we-couldn’t-refuse, we had decided we would go with their biggest competitor, and nothing avenges poor customer service as much as telling a company that you are taking your business to their biggest competitor. It turns out that we are getting an even better deal with the competitor, a deal that includes cable Internet, which beats lousy highspeed every time, a deal that tentatively has me feeling that we’re getting the big company to work for us after all.

An archive of all those 80′s commercials you are still trying to forget.