Not long ago, I made a list of things to write about. In typical fashion, I later consulted the list and found that I couldn't read my own handwriting. I figured most of them out, but there are still two ideas that I can't read and can't remember. They might be great ideas. I might never know.
One item on my list was very clear and easy to read: "(Well-known tech company) sons of bitches." For me, this topic is a perennial, an evergreen classic. But in this case, I was thinking about a particular incident and not just the general son-of-a-bitchiness that this company is known for.
Well of course. I'll be happy to tell you all about it. Pull up a chair.
We had a 12 GB data plan, shared among myself, my two teenage sons (15 and 19) and my mother-in-law, who wouldn’t know mobile data if it introduced itself to her in Korean. So the 12 GB was really split three ways. I usually used less than 2 GB per month, and my younger son usually used between two and three. My older son is the mobile data hog. We would occasionally receive end-of-the-month you’re-almost-out-of-data warnings, and the little report that accompanied the message always revealed him as the culprit. But we never got those messages any sooner than three days before the end of the billing cycle; and we never actually exceeded the data allowance after receiving the warning.
Last month, we got the running-out-of-data warning much earlier in the billing cycle than normal. According to the wireless company (sons of bitches), we were almost out of data, with ten days remaining in the billing cycle. I didn’t see how this was possible. It really wasn't possible, in fact. Nobody goes anywhere. My son works a few shifts a week, and I work completely from home. I go grocery shopping once a week. We have WiFi at home. No one is out in the world often enough or for long enough to use up more mobile data than we ever did in what I now think of as the before time.
Do you know what I neglected to mention? I neglected to mention that my husband had talked me into automated billing, because it saves about $30 a month. Even for $30 a month, which is $360 a year, I resisted the idea of allowing this company access to my checking account. I don't trust automated billing from any company but I especially don't trust these particular sons of bitches. But I gave in because $30 is $30 and whatever.
Of course, we went over the limit for the month; and of course, they charged me $15 for the privilege of using an extra GB. And then we used up the extra GB in one day, and they charged me another $15.
Let's review, shall we? Pre-corona, when everyone was leaving the house and going to work and school and sports practices and anywhere else you can think of, 12 GB per month was enough. And then I caved in and agreed to automated billing. And then 1 GB per day was suddenly not quite enough for people who now spend 80 percent of their time at home.
Coincidence? Sure. That seems reasonable.
In the old days, I would have relished a fight with them. In 2009, for example, unhappy with their response to my complaints about frequent mysterious overcharges, I wrote a detailed letter to the Maryland Attorney General, and for weeks after, I received phone calls and letters from their executives, all falling all over themselves asking what they could do to address my concerns. As it turns out, the company was under investigation for a pattern of over-billing very similar to what I had been experiencing, and they were trying to stay on their very best behavior. It was rather satisfying.
But now? I just don’t have the old stick-it-to-the-man fire that used to drive my dealings with large corporations. Other than a little bit of spirited back and forth with an agent, I didn’t put up much resistance at all. I upgraded to an unlimited data plan, and claimed a small victory when they graciously agreed to credit back the two days’ worth of $15 overage charges, and that was the end of that.
As always, I will very carefully monitor my wireless bill; and as always, I will rant and rave at the next crypto-fascist big business abuse. But it’ll all be for show. There’s too much else to worry about; too much going on in the world. I just can’t muster the appropriate level of outrage anymore.
But really--$15 a day? Sons of bitches. SONS of BITCHES.
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