Arrogant Telephone Types
I think it was in the film "The President’s Analyst" where the craven villain was The Phone Company. They were an omnipotent force that controlled the world, or at least the United States.
After the real Ma Bell was broken up by government order into a bunch of regional Daughter Bells, there was a settling out period when consumers seemed to be getting hosed less. But that has changed, and now the dirty end of the stick is poking us in the eye again.
I started receiving calls on my fax line from an automated dialing service. The calls were in Spanish, a language I don’t speak, so I don’t know who was making them. They were coming in several times a day, from morning to evening, seven days a week. I tried once pushing a bunch of buttons to connect with a live being, hoping that person might speak English but had no luck.
(So I set the fax machine to answer on the first ring, and that reduced the hassle somewhat, though we still hear the phone ring and then a little while latter, the fax machine rings several times to report that the fax didn’t come through. I think I’ve maybe been able to persuade the fax machine not to so report the failed faxing in audible fashion.)
I called the phone company. They said they couldn’t do anything without a police report. Unless I wanted to add caller ID to the line at my own expense. Why should I have to pay the phone company to find out whose using their system to annoy me? Pshaw. I called the police department. We have great service in Monterey. They sent an officer up to the house to take our report. No kidding.
Then I called back the phone company. They switched me over to their nuisance call bureau, and a patient if distressed "Julie" told me that I could order a service that would give me the caller’s phone number...for six bucks a pop. Horse-hockey.
I called a friend in the district attorney’s office and said this seemed like fraud to me, albeit a minor case. She told me the last time they dealt with such insouciance it cost AT&T $25 million.
The phone company, like other utilities, has been making out like a bandit. The whole purpose of government in our capitalist society is to rein in these thieves. Go get ‘em.
©2010 SetonnoteS
.