Turn it off again
In Hull we are blessed in that we have our own telephone company. This means that phones are generally cheaper to use and we have had revolutionary things like untimed local calls for ages and ages. However, the phone company are now changing the way that you pay for your phone lines, which means that I now can't really afford our second number.
We got it ages ago when you had to use one of these quaint little modem things to warble your way onto the internet. After having free and frank discussions with number one wife, who made unreasonable demands like wanting to use the phone every now and then to actually talk to people, I/we decided that a second phone line - which was installed for free - was an equitable solution (and stopped me from having the handset shoved somewhere where holding a conversation would have been difficult in the extreme).
Nowadays we have that new fangled broadband thingy, and only need the one line. Previously I've just paid a small amount per quarter for the second phone with the intention of perhaps using it for a fax machine or something later. But now rental and phone calls are being bundled together in a way that means I would get to pay for lots of calls I don't make anyway. So the phone has to go. Unfortunately that is the phone with the broadband on (are you still with me) and so I went off down town with the mission to swap the broadband over and kill the phone line.
You might think that if you were a phone company who'd just made changes to your charging scheme that would affect all your customers, many of whom might want to talk to you about the way their bills have gone from a fiver to twenty quid, you would put extra people on the desk on a Saturday morning.
You might think that one of the assistants, noting the huge queue of gently fuming customers, might decide not to stroll off and take his tea break - treating us all to a cheery wave as he left us down to two operatives.
You might think loads of sensible things. But of course not everybody else does. The good news is that the person I dealt with was friendly and helpful. And that at some point in the future all the things I want should happen. Here's hoping.
We got it ages ago when you had to use one of these quaint little modem things to warble your way onto the internet. After having free and frank discussions with number one wife, who made unreasonable demands like wanting to use the phone every now and then to actually talk to people, I/we decided that a second phone line - which was installed for free - was an equitable solution (and stopped me from having the handset shoved somewhere where holding a conversation would have been difficult in the extreme).
Nowadays we have that new fangled broadband thingy, and only need the one line. Previously I've just paid a small amount per quarter for the second phone with the intention of perhaps using it for a fax machine or something later. But now rental and phone calls are being bundled together in a way that means I would get to pay for lots of calls I don't make anyway. So the phone has to go. Unfortunately that is the phone with the broadband on (are you still with me) and so I went off down town with the mission to swap the broadband over and kill the phone line.
You might think that if you were a phone company who'd just made changes to your charging scheme that would affect all your customers, many of whom might want to talk to you about the way their bills have gone from a fiver to twenty quid, you would put extra people on the desk on a Saturday morning.
You might think that one of the assistants, noting the huge queue of gently fuming customers, might decide not to stroll off and take his tea break - treating us all to a cheery wave as he left us down to two operatives.
You might think loads of sensible things. But of course not everybody else does. The good news is that the person I dealt with was friendly and helpful. And that at some point in the future all the things I want should happen. Here's hoping.
posted by Rob Miles at
Saturday, August 13, 2005
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