If you’ve sent me an email anytime this week, I never received it. Due to someone or something deleting my mail on Earthlink’s servers, I’ve been without email all week. If you used the Contact Form on this site, that is gone as well.

I am ashamed to admit that I spent over six hours trying to solve the problem through Live Chats, the phone, and even a virtual desktop session. (This is where some guy in India takes over your computer, while you sit and watch him use your mouse real time and say “um-hmm” a lot because you can only understand every fifth word, hoping all-the-while that he’s not uploading viruses.) It only took me about an hour to conclude that the problem was on their end, but five additional hours would be needed for me to convince them of that. Actually, it was my husband who finally succeeded, because while I tried to use logic, he just eliminated all external variables so that there was no choice but for them to finally concede. Everyone should have their own, personal rocket scientist.

Every recent run-in with a large corporation’s customer service has resulted in blame shifting. Remember the KitchenAid dishwasher story? It is more expedient for them to conclude that my dishwasher is too far from my sink, than to replace a recalled product. (Never mind the fact that a Kenmore dishwasher worked just fine in the same spot for twenty years, the distance between the sink and the dishwasher is one foot, and the new dishwasher I purchased had been recalled.) If a company admits fault, it requires something of them. In other words, an apology is not good enough: repentance requires restitution.

So, it was no surprise that it took all week to resolve the problem, as getting a hold of someone past “the front line” is a technique that requires skill, patience, and the suave of Bill Clinton. While I enjoy low prices, I become more and more convinced that specialization and big business aren’t beneficial things, and it’s not just because I get aggravated with minimum wage workers who can’t think logically, step away from a flow chart, or use words that aren’t in the script. But that’s a talk for another day. In the meantime, I look for more opportunities to support local and small businesses.