I wonder if Alltel cellphone customers will have similar problems with Verizon cellphone.

The monthly bill came in the mail and I noticed a “converter box” rental had increased to $5 per month. I needed to be downtown for another reason so unhooked the box, tucked the bill into my purse and added that stop to my list of errands.

I was greeted pleasantly and asked how I might be helped when I approached the counter. I explained we didn’t use the television the box had been hooked to any longer so I wanted to return it and not be charged that monthly rental in the future.

After typing in some info I was told I wasn’t on the account and couldn’t make changes — only my husband could do that.

We need to back up a tiny bit so you will understand that I had personally set up our account with Multi-Media and my future husband moved into my house and my existing cable services after that point. Through the buy outs and changing of hands somehow now with this Cox Communications company he was the only person on the account. I don’t know when or who made that change, I just know it wasn’t either of us. Just as I won’t ever work on a small engine, my husband won’t ever interact with a cable company. That’s just not how it’s done at our house!

Back to the present and me standing at the counter trying to return the rented box.

I offered the bill that arrived in that day’s mail, several forms of ID showing I lived at that address. Nope! I couldn’t make changes to the account that was in my husband’s name. I asked for the Supervisor.

Long story short. I had to ask for the Supervisor’s Supervisor. Now, I’m seated at a desk of the third person I have explained my need to. Pleasantly, she repeated the “not on the account” meme. I asked if my husband could make changes over the phone and she said, “Yes.” She turned to her back bar, dialed the number I gave her and handed the receiver across the desk to me.

I said, Wayne, I’m at Cox and they need your permission for me to return a rented box. Now, hubby knows me and he knows this was code. Remember, he knew this was my area and needing his permission meant some “stuff” was going down. Some “stuff” he wanted to avoid! I handed the receiver back across the desk and after she and he exchange a few words she hangs up, turns back to me with the announcement that “Your husband, the account holder, said you had his permission to make changes.”

I asked if I could make any and all changes. She said, “Yes.” And she never even saw it coming!

A man on the other end of a phone number I provided gave me permission to make changes to his account. I don’t do business with people that stupid! I didn’t wonder for long whether they ever figured any of it out as I headed out the door after canceling the account in its entirety!

The day they could have ruined turned out to be a great day! I have a superior product, superior customer service and a lower price. All because they decided I wasn’t on the account!

Sounds almost as bad as FAUX running GOP campaign ads as “news content provided by the GOP”.