A Lesson in Consumerism  

When I was in high school, I remember a classmate bringing up an interesting point:

You can have everything. You can't just have everything all at once.

What is wrong with having everything? I'm all for having everything. Me, me, me. Now, now, now.

Some twelve years later, and a lousy experience with cable TV services, and I've completely reversed my thinking.

Monopoly sucks, especially if you're on the consuming end of products and services.

Time Warner Cable is the sole cable TV provider in my city, so if I want cable, I gotta pay up, and pay up fast. And if I want, I can bundle that service with a digital phone package, and a high-speed internet service, for a low, low price that they don't advertise in their websites.

The thing is, my roommate and I already have an Internet service provider, from the competition, no less.

Yup, we were sucked into Frontier's DSL service, which for the life of me, does not consistently work for my laptop. I've taken my laptop everywhere, and only at our apartment did I ever encounter problems connecting to the Internet. And at the most inopportune times, too. I'm not self-centered enough to think that the universe is conspiring against me, but the times when I do have problems connecting to the Internet are the times when there are papers to write, assignments have to download and upload into the course website, and most importantly, contact numbers for Frontier have to be Googled.

I called AT&T's 4-1-1 on my cell phone, and got hold of a very bored-sounding LaToya who gave me the listing for Frontier Airlines, after telling her TWICE, "No, I want the listing for Frontier, the Internet provider. Please." Needless to say, AT&T charged me for that 4-1-1 call. And for the minutes I used up calling the wrong number, thanks to the very competent LaToya.

So, this is why my roommate wants to keep a landline in the apartment, for emergencies like this. I ran to the phone, called Frontier's 4-1-1, which I was pretty sure will give me the correct number for the correct Frontier, given that it's the same company as our internet provider.

The representative picked up the 4-1-1 call:

Me: Can I get the listing for Frontier, the internet provider, please?
CSR: (looks up the number) Do you need help???
Me: No, I just need the number for Frontier, the internet provider.
CSR: Do you need help?
Me: (Help with what??? Yes, I need help. Can you write my paper? It's due in two hours.) No, just the number, please. I've been having problems with our Internet and I just want to ask talk to them.
CSR: (very rudely) That's just what I asked you. Because there's two numbers. One is for technical support, and the other one is for blah-blah-blah.
Me: (mentally reviews the conversation, because I was certain that technical support was mentioned anywhere in our conversation) I want the number for technical support. Thank you, goodbye (and good riddance, LaToya 2).

I dial Frontier's number on our Frontier phone, which my roommate told me costs us X amount of dollars per minute. After what felt like centuries (and $$$), I was told they couldn't help me, because:

1. They couldn't hear me very well. There was static on the phone (did I mention it was a Frontier phone, and the static was worse on my end???)
2. They couldn't help me, period.

How's that for fabulous customer service? And people wonder why people outsource their customer support to countries like Philippines.

On the one hand, Time Warner's cable TV monopoly sucks. On the other hand, their competition (Frontier) sucks on many aspects, anyway. In the end, it really just sucks for consumers like myself.