[BITList] The Return of the Old Grouch - Stanley Fish Blog -NYTimes.com

[HUGH]

Mike,

It rings some with me.  For a few years I had a running battle with NTL after we got them as suppliers of phone and cable TV.  Mrs Mac was of pensionable age before I was, so she got the things installed for free - that meant it was all under her name, and her sole interest in it was watching TV and using the phone.  Possibly the least of the inconvenieces we were to suffer was a deluge of junk mail (continues to this day) addressed to Janet variously as Ms, Miss and Mrs.  Scottish Water send her regular letters offering to insure her water pipes (as the sole owner of the house, me being dead or equivalent), and half the insurers in the land have her on their mailing list. But, as I said, that was/is the least of it.  Whenever there was a problem - a drop in service, a bill for something that didn't happen, etc - I went through the nonsense of listening to idiots (mostly ladies) refusing to talk to me, since I never was, and still am not, my wife, she who took out the contract (if that's what it was).  Once I got the "transfer you to another department" routine and found myself, after a silence and a lot of clicks, speaking to the same lady.  She failed to see anything ridiculous in that.  The only way I could get ahead of the game was for Janet to speak to them first, then I would take over after a rigmarole.  Once I got sick of it, passed the phone to Janet and went out.  When next I got through I told them that's what I'd do in future, and they could spend a happy hour talking to a lady who hadn't a clue about, and even less interest in, the problem.  Once, and only once, I talked to someone with sense.  He was a Welsh chap. "We are fellow Celts," he said, and promptly cut through the red tape.  When Virgin took them over these problems ceased to exist, since it became wellnigh impossible to talk to anyone.  Now that we're with BT I get to talk to ladies and gents in Bangalore or some such place.  As with NTL, in midst of all the mutual incomprehension and stonewalling I got a young chap on the night shift who beavered away for 30 minutes, including operating my computer at times, before diagnosing the problem (my firewall settings).  That makes 2 out of dozens.

Hugh.

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