Bubbles in the Bathtub

This might be a good time to point out the blatantly obvious... the fact that I have done a very poor job of documenting a turtler's move (my own). After the initial couple of posts I just got swamped with all the hither and thither of making a long distance move (with a family and a house full of stuff) happen.

One of the things that you have to do when moving is get all of your utilities and services turned off in your old location, and on in the new. This has all gone flawlessly so far, except for the company that handled my internet connection. That would be DSL.net. They have offered nothing but good service until the day I called to cancel. We went through the whole process, account number, old address, new address, date to end service... and then hit a snag. They couldn't just do it over the phone. Jeez, they should do it from their website, they are an INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER after all!!!!! But no, I had to write them a letter, on company letterhead, or send a fax with my request for cancellation and the reason therewith. Then my service would be officially cancelled 30 days after they received the letter (or fax). They should have been able to cancel my service on the phone, they certainly do not need 30 days (or a letter!). Yet another craven attempt by a large, faceless corporation to extract even more money from their customers.

This is of course not the only time this has happened to me. My adult life is riddled with examples of companies employing similar tactics to maximize their profit. Up to now I have usually just whined about it to friends and family, sometimes gotten rude with the customer service rep on the phone (or in front of me), threatened to write letters, but of course usually end up doing nothing about it.

This time I've just had enough. Plus it's absolutely stupid that a company would use such a weak excuse for taking my money, in this day and age, and from a tech company no less. What follows is the paragraph that I tacked on to the end of my cancellation letter to DSL.net.

And of course taking advantage of my position and this website I have now posted my complaint to the World-wide Web.

So for anyone that might be interested, I find that I cannot recommend DSL.net service to anyone until their money-grubbing ways change. And if you do have their service and need to cancel, I suggest letting them know at least 30 days in advance :)