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Originally uploaded by jcgr.

A little work to catch up on, I guess.

This was the first of two, and the lesser of two unhelpful experiences with technology on this day.

The other was with my internet service provider (not AT&T in this particular case). It is cancelling its satellite broadband service in the area, much as we’d like to keep the service as it is.

So, to make sure they got the attention of customers before the change, more than three weeks hence, what did they do? Instead of e-mailing, calling yet again (they already had my attention…there was no need to bug me again) on this Monday morning?

They flipped a switch. Cut off the service on the Monday morning after the 4th of July when people are catching up on work that has built up over a three-day weekend.

No warning.

No request.

No apology.

Just cancelled service. On purpose.

The person I talked to told me (astounded) that they meant to. To get customers’ attention.

But what it did, in addition, was to show no respect for customers’ time or their own plans and directions, forcing them to drop everything and problem solve if they thought the problem was on their end, or to grit their teeth and head directly down the labyrinthine path that is the typical phone company customer service call experience.

All in the name of what was best for the company, itself, in the short-run. The long-run? Ahh, the long-run is another matter.

I cannot imagine what drove the person who made the decision to flip the switch to cut off service to thousands of customers, just like that, on a post-holiday Monday morning.

And all of it occurring right when the customers whose attention they wanted were deciding, for the long-run, which service provider is the "least worst." (I hate choosing the "least worst." It’s so much better for so many people and so many reasons to be able to choose from a league of the "best of the best" players.)