non-knitting rant ahead…
so shortly after we moved here, we subscribed to the local paper - the Star Tribune. They have a nice ‘intro’ deal, but than after you’ve been ‘intro’ed’ to the convenience of it being on your doorstep, the subscription price is more than the cover price. Why would I want to pay more to have the paper magically show up on my front step every week, when I can get some exersize and walk up to the corner gas station or whatever and grab it for regular price?! (or just hit a store on my way home from dance class and grab it - which is the more likely scenario - especially when the weather is crappy) So eventually we cancelled. Well, now they’ve been calling me/us a lot (one of their numbers showed up in my phone at least 7 times over the course of a week - I have a habit of not answering the phone if I don’t know who it is). Finally answered the phone and was told they were doing a promotion in my area - 2 weeks free and then we’d be billed. “We don’t want it” but we’re doing it for everyone in your area. Fine whatever. Tell dh. He calls them up and tells them “We don’t want it” but didn’t get very far with them either - eventually he told them that if it shows up on our doorstep, we’re not paying for it. So, the promo thing starts - oddly enough, none of our neighbors have a newspaper - just us. *sigh*

so last week was week 2 and we got the bill with the last paper. dh calls them up to cancel it, explains the story. He’s told that it was part of a promo thru the cable company (ComCast) - a) we don’t have cable TV (just cable internet). b) we’re not even in ComCast’s area (TimeWarner baby - woo. not really thrilled with them, but what choice do you get when it comes to cable…). so he explains to the poor Customer Service person that if we’re subscribing, we shouldn’t be paying more - it’s a guaranteed sale. he manages to get a deal so that we’re paying the cover rate - nothing more, nothing less. we’re happy. a couple hours later, my phone rings… it’s the blasted newspaper calling to make sure we’re getting the paper and to talk about payment arrangements! *bangs head on wall* of course, every time I answer the phone, I get “Mrs. dh’s-last-name” - um, no. I kept my last name, thank you very much. why do they assume that?! so the guy asks/tells me three different things - each answer is along the lines of ‘my husband just talked to CS - it’s taken care of’.

so, why am I ranting (aside from the fact that it’s all kind of annoying) - they called AGAIN TODAY!!!!!! this time it was George. “Mrs. dh” ‘Miss my-last-name’ oh. well, blah blah blah, we see you’ve got this rate and I can give you this better rate. um, no. dh is taking care of that, and a) he’s not at this number and b) he’s at work right now. oh, we’ll call back later. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!! no! stop calling! leave me alone! don’t change the bloody rate! why is this newspaper so stupid!??!?!?!?! apparently their departments are not informed very well of what’s going on in the other areas. heck, they don’t seem to even know what’s going on within their own department. I’m tempted to just switch over to the Pioneer Press… it may be smaller, but at least they haven’t shown us this level of stupidity yet…