UPC sucks ass


Eerily similar to this guy.

Last week, a delivery guy showed up unannounced at our apartment with a big box. My girlfriend was home but she had no idea if I'd ordered this whatever-it-was. The delivery guy wouldn't divulge anything about the package, and since it listed us by name and address, she signed for it.
As it turned out, the box, which was about the size of a small refrigerator, was an attempt by our cable company, UPC, to lure us into digital television (which, apart from being digital, is just like normal TV, which is why nobody wants it). We could try it for a month, after which it would be tacitly assumed that we adored this big box and would be willing to pay several Euros a month to keep it.
I decided to loudly contradict that assumption and put in a call to the cable company (at 10 Eurocents a minute). After navigating through three menus and punching in my zip code, I was connected to a service rep, who asked me for my zip code. She then explained that all I had to do to get rid of this box was to sacrifice an hour or two of my working day to wait for the post office to open (it's closed on weekends and opens at 9 AM), and return the package to sender. My girlfriend urged me to get a receipt.
Good thing, too: yesterday, a letter from the cable company arrived stating that I had decided to cancel my digital TV subscription as of a month from now (what an original way of phrasing it) and that I would be receiving a Return Box from them several days before the deadline to put the device in and, you guessed it, drop it off at the post office. So I called the cable company today to explain and was told that... I should wait for the Return Box to arrive and then throw it away. Simply not sending me the goddamn thing was apparently out of the question.
Suddenly, I understand why I'm paying so much for my cable.
Here's hoping that the saga won't continue.

Posted by cronopio at 01:00 PM, July 12, 2006