Recently I found out some of the games and tricks our local (monopoly) broadband service provider like to play.

We have the broadband internet, cable television, and phone service package. After the trial period was over, the bill doubled. So I called in to inquire and see if we can adjust the subscriptions.

I waited on the phone for 40+ minutes (at 2 a.m.) Not kidding. Thank goodness for speaker phones. I’ve tried to contact them during human hours before but could never get through. At least I was still up working..

When the elevator music was finally over, this lively person named John came on the phone. I said I want to cut back on some of the services because we aren’t using them anyway, so I’d like to look into what options I have etc. He balked and tried to convince me it is unwise to do so. As he explained it, it would cost us more to take out the phone service (or anything for that matter) than to keep it. Huh?! I was not happy with that because, I don’t want to keep paying for things that we’re only using 2% of the time. He continued to explain…

For the 3 services (and I didn’t realize we were being charged some nonsense wire maintenance fee for the whole time that we’ve lived here!), the total is $89.85 And if we want to cancel the phone service with them, and keep the cable tv and broadband, it would cost $100.90.

It’s the same with the trash service. For a 96-gallon trash can, it’s $13 (I’m pulling the number out of the hat as I don’t have that bill in front of me). For the 32 gallons it’s $12.50. Coincidentally the trash service is also the monopoly in the area.

O_O <— that’s me, wide-eyed and speechless.

Coming back to the broadband service provider here, I’m porting our number somewhere else, and will attempt to slash the other prices into half. If it comes to it, we’ll just junk the TV somewhere and be done with it. After all, we don’t even have time to watch it.