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I had yet another ordeal with a mobile phone company today. This time it was Verizon. I was on the phone for 90 minutes trying to troubleshoot why my new Verizon home internet service wouldn't connect. I was transferred multiple times, spoke to a total of 5 agents, and the best they could do was file a ticket and tell me my service should be fixed within a week. A week?! It's not like they have to come and replace equipment; this is just an account activation glitch.
As I've been dealing with the lying, incompetent fuckers at T-Mobile and Verizon over the past week I've thought many times about a classic Saturday Night, Live skit about the phone company. This one's an oldie... over 45 years old oldie! But it's still remarkably on the nose today.
The skit stars Lily Tomlin reprising a recurring character she played on Laugh In. Her punch line here, "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company," sums up the frustration we all have with phone companies— and every other company today that's a corporate behemoth with a virtual monopoly. Today it's not just phone companies but also Google, FaceBook, Amazon, etc. If you don't like it, too bad. The alternative is another company that's just as bad or one that's even worse.
As I've been dealing with the lying, incompetent fuckers at T-Mobile and Verizon over the past week I've thought many times about a classic Saturday Night, Live skit about the phone company. This one's an oldie... over 45 years old oldie! But it's still remarkably on the nose today.
The skit stars Lily Tomlin reprising a recurring character she played on Laugh In. Her punch line here, "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company," sums up the frustration we all have with phone companies— and every other company today that's a corporate behemoth with a virtual monopoly. Today it's not just phone companies but also Google, FaceBook, Amazon, etc. If you don't like it, too bad. The alternative is another company that's just as bad or one that's even worse.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-07 07:37 pm (UTC)This behavior didn't end when Ma Bell bit the big one. The attitude is alive and kicking today as you and many, many others have discovered. Lily did another one while sitting at an old manual switchboard (Laugh In) and a customer was concerned about his Dime. Lily (as an Operator) tore him a new one - as the phone company was so capable of doing and seemed to enjoy so much.
I've often wondered why virtual monopolies such as phone service and cable/satellite service is at the bottom of the Good Customer Service List and at the very top of a list best left unnamed here.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-07 10:18 pm (UTC)Except it's not a joke.