The companies I keep

Remember that scene in the Da Vinci Code where Silas - the murderous albino monk - is flogging himself with a metal cilice until his back bleeds? That's what it feels like dealing with some of the companies I deal with almost every day.


I know, I know. I don't actually have to deal with them. I choose to deal with them. I suppose I could choose to deal with different companies. Better companies. Nicer companies. The kind of companies that actually encourage customer service and feedback. That are courteous and responsive to my needs and concerns regarding the service I'm paying them to provide.

I'd be much happier bringing my hard earned dollars to companies like that. If I had any hard earned dollars.

Being a customer of these three companies in particular is like being in a bad relationship: you want to leave, but it's just easier to stay. The known evil is better than the unknown one, even though in my heart of hearts I can't believe the unknown ones could be any worse (Bank Of America customers please hold your comments until the end).

The thing about these companies is that each of them sucks in a different way. Nah, I'm just kidding. Charter and at&t suck exactly the same way. They sell you a service you can't see or hear because their technology is so unbelievably bad.

I used to have a joke about at&t offering free call-dropping. The problem is since I've had my iPhone, it isn't so funny anymore.

When the Charter technician came to our house because the picture on our digital cable was tiling and locking up (which it still is), he actually said the reason for it was squirrels running on the cable lines. Maybe the squirrels know how to fix it.(Let the record show I didn't go for the "nuts" joke. Even though I wanted to.)

I don't even know where to start with Wells Fargo. How about the fact that no one in the branch I've been going to for over a dozen years knows who I am. Or the way they nickel and dime me with fees on everything from overdraft protection to speaking with one of their tellers (who doesn't know me). Apparently they've learned well from all the supermarket locations they're in. It must be why there are only two teller windows open on the 15th and 30th of the month when the line looks like the one for Space Mountain. And those two tellers are trainees (who don't know me).

Anyway, just venting. No real point here other than to admit I'm too lazy or cheap to eliminate the grief these companies cause me on a daily basis. After all I did sign up for it.

The good news is at least I know it's the one thing they can deliver on.

UPDATE: Just got back from Big 5 Sporting Goods to buy new softball cleats for my daughter. Add their filthy, disorganized, absent sales people (and stupid and unknowledgeable when they do surface) to the list of companies that suck. And I say that with love.