The Bastard Children of Ma Bell

With many grudges, the brittle shell of fury endures long after heart of the matter has evaporated. I don't remember exactly why I was so angry at Ameritech back in 1998; I have a vague idea that it had something to do with a screwed up bill and some unwanted call waiting that would not go away, but I know I was full of righteous indignation when I switched our local service to AT&T. (I know, way to stick it to The Man by becoming a customer of the even bigger The Man. It balances out. Our long distance is, honest to God, through the Illinois Farm Bureau. Eventually you get used to climbing the pole.)

Since then, my only opinion about phone service, besides Never Charter, as I can't imagine trusting my 911 service to the freaking cable company, has been Never Ameritech, which eventually meant Never SBC, as one swallowed the other a few years back. When we moved into this house, I kept AT&T on general principle and never gave it another thought. Until I received an automated message from AT&T the other day assuring me that my "new" phone number--the same number I've had for four years-- was now fully operational.

"That," I thought, "can't be good."

I assumed this non-solicited, non-change change had something to do with the latest turn of the merger carousel: Ameritech cum SBC is now the "new AT&T", meaning that by doing nothing at all I've been switched from AT&T to AT&T, except that the latter AT&T is really my old nemesis with new letterhead.

Letterhead which I got a copy of in the mail today, filling me in on my "new" order, and giving me the URL of my new billing and account information system. Curious as to what information I might find connected to an account I'd never requested, I tried to log in. Alas, it's a system which I cannot access, as despite the fact that that my "new" four-year-old number number is "fully operational," the rest of the system apparently doesn't know that I or my number exist. The virtually-but-not-exactly-identical-system that knows I exist tells me I'm no longer a customer of (that) AT&T.

Could Charter be that bad?

Then again, it would violate another personal principle to give Charter one more dime, so I'll give the old Ameritech/new AT&T one more chance. My phone still works, and I expect they'll figure out how to charge me for it soon enough. In fact, according to today's mail, the new total looks to be $11 less than the old. I can probably be bought for that, at least for a while. Besides, when they screw it up, I've got my old grudge right here ready to go.