Still on hold with AT&T...

It's been five days of countless hours on hold. Once every couple of hours I encounter a living person, I explain my situation, they say they can't help me, please hold, and I'll connect you to the right department. Cue the muzak. And then I wait on hold for forty minutes or an hour or more and finally, I get disconnected. "We're so sorry for the inconvenience, how can I help you?" And so on. Hour after hour. Call after call. I return to this punishment. Like a drug addict. Can they keep me on hold longer? Can I contain my anger? Will Zen calm turn into an explosion that lands me in an anger management class?

Today, while on hold, my phone is temporarily shut off. Strange. Like an ambulance getting a flat tire. No one in five days can figure out how to take a payment under the new "improved" system. Finally found someone gracious enough to take my money, which was Christian of them, but all of my original problems still exist. All of the problems AT&T created by changing their billing process exist, that is. On top of this, I have learned that these good people have been charging me $35 a month for a phone line that was shut down in April of 2007. And more, I've been paying some "third party" a monthly fee of $9 for access to "rap ringtones" for god knows how long. I love all of this. Because finally I can point to what I hate about modern life. The devil is not in the details. The devil runs customer service at AT&T.

The Japanese must have a word for the kind of fury and helplessness I feel. OK, I know I'm just a spoiled American. Some people wait days for a cup of drinking water. I know. But emotions are real. Kong get angry.