The Goodrums

I thought nothing could top our recent experience with Comcast. While this situation doesn't top Comcast, it competes.

After finishing my last job, we disconnected our home phone line. Previously, it was a dedicated fax line used for work purposes only. Without the job at home, we decided it was no longer needed. So I called Qwest and asked them to cut the service. The disconnect date on the line was 2/20/09. We got a final bill - "Closing Statement" - from Qwest that itemized services through that date. I paid the final bill.

Over a month later, Qwest evidently realized they wanted to charge us a couple pennies more, so they sent us a bill for 15 cents. Funny enough, half of the charges were for 2/21/09 (um, last I checked they cut our line on 2/20/09).

I thought about calling Qwest and contesting the charge - but would it really be worth my time for 15 cents? I mean who even sends a bill for 15 cents. Really... It cost them more to mail the bill to me than the bill amount. Along those lines, I wasn't about to mail them a check for 15 cents (um, cost of check and cost of postage - no). Last I checked, the credit card processing fees for a company are more than 15 cents per transaction. So I decided to stick it to them for being ridiculous and pay by credit card. Cost me almost nothing but cost them way more than the bill amount (between postage to mail me the bill and credit card processing fees).

Yeah, it's a bit spiteful but I'm sick and tired of stupidity among the service companies in our lives. I won't exactly be signing up for any new Qwest services anytime soon.