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posted by martyb on Friday January 30 2015, @11:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the that-should-help-the-merger-talks dept.

El Reg published a most interesting article on how a customer retention specialist at Comcast is alleged to have changed the first name of a subscriber to "Asshole" because his wife stuck to her guns in canceling a TV package:

The story goes that Mrs Brown tried to have a TV package dropped from their cable broadband service to save some money each month.

She called the telco's customer call center, knowing she would have to pay US$60 (£40, AU$76) to do so, and was bounced to a specialist rep whose job is to talk people out of canceling or dropping packages. Brown stuck to her guns, and refused to change her mind.

Not long after, the couple received a bill to "Asshole Brown" at their home address.

Mrs Brown told Elliott she had phoned Comcast execs and visited its nearest store to complain, and to have the name change reversed – but apparently to no avail.

"I was never rude. I am shocked. This is unacceptable,” Mrs Brown told Elliott. "I am requesting everything back I paid Comcast for doing this to me."

She added that she believed the "retention specialist" she spoke to changed her partner's name on the account.

This story would be funny if it weren't for an image of the bill in the article that apparently verifies that aspect of this story.

Also covered at Ars Technica.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday January 30 2015, @11:49AM

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday January 30 2015, @11:49AM (#139441) Homepage Journal

    As a former sysadmin, I completely understand how things like this can happen. Account and tech support guys deal with pissed off people almost exclusively. It wears on you after a while. None of mine were ever quite this bloody stupid about any retaliation they might have taken though.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by ticho on Friday January 30 2015, @12:55PM

      by ticho (89) on Friday January 30 2015, @12:55PM (#139448) Homepage Journal

      If you are a professional, you won't let something like his happen to you. Later at home, you can write "Asshole Brown" thousand times over wherever you want, but not while at the job.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @01:15PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @01:15PM (#139452)

        As a retired admin there are better ways to get even. Now get off my LAN you young whippersnappers.

      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Dunbal on Friday January 30 2015, @01:17PM

        by Dunbal (3515) on Friday January 30 2015, @01:17PM (#139454)

        If you're a professional you won't be hired for minimum wage + 50 cents.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @02:13PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @02:13PM (#139480)

          what is minimum wage over there in that country?

          (we don't have things like "minimum wage" but appearantly it is needed over there, otherwise they would get 50cents/hour I guess)

          it isn't 60 USD/10 minutes likely?

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @02:47PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @02:47PM (#139819)

          "professionals" over there must be pretty shit if they're only worth minimum wage. they should stick to what they're good at or develop some skills. "minimum wage professional" is an oxymoron.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @02:00PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @02:00PM (#139472)

      how come she is forced to talk with someone for a basic thing like that?
      That should be completly automated "Press 2 for etc etc...
      Since appearently Comcast can't handle things manually they should be forced to set up a system that let their customers cancel and add packages as they want, with just some keypresses on their phone, and no cost taken for the change ofcourse.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by Kilo110 on Friday January 30 2015, @02:09PM

        by Kilo110 (2853) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 30 2015, @02:09PM (#139477)

        They try to convince you to stay a customer.

      • (Score: 2) by Daiv on Friday January 30 2015, @04:21PM

        by Daiv (3940) on Friday January 30 2015, @04:21PM (#139531)

        Very few (especially larger) cable/television/internet providers allow you to use menus over either the phone or their website to add/remove things from subscriptions in the US. I'm sure there are absurd numbers of reasons, but every time I've called to do anything I've always been pitched some upsell so I'm sure that's reason #1. Plus, if something is too big a hassle to do anything, I know too many people who just wont.

      • (Score: 1) by curunir_wolf on Friday January 30 2015, @08:40PM

        by curunir_wolf (4772) on Friday January 30 2015, @08:40PM (#139634)

        Oh, they do have that (kind of). You can add and order new services all you want - even from the TV menus on your cable box. It's when you want to downgrade or remove a service that you have to jump through all kinds of hoops. This is Comcast's "customer retention policy." It has nothing to do with providing good service - it's making in a royal pain in the ass to cancel anything.

        --
        I am a crackpot
        • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @02:22PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @02:22PM (#139815)

          USA is such a 3rd world country... I feel sorry for the 300 million poor bastards living there!

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Geezer on Friday January 30 2015, @12:23PM

    by Geezer (511) on Friday January 30 2015, @12:23PM (#139443)

    Customer: You called me an asshole.

    Comcast: So what?

    Media: Comcast is teh evilz!!!

    Comcast: So what?

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Friday January 30 2015, @02:17PM

      by Thexalon (636) on Friday January 30 2015, @02:17PM (#139482)

      Or, as Lily Tomlin put it decades ago, when it was AT&T instead of Comcast: "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the Phone Company."

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
      • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday January 30 2015, @08:00PM

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Friday January 30 2015, @08:00PM (#139619) Journal

        Or, as Lily Tomlin put it decades ago, when it was AT&T instead of Comcast: "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the Phone Company."

          She also said "Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!" Which is what I always end up saying once I get off the phone with those jokers.

  • (Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Friday January 30 2015, @12:46PM

    by wonkey_monkey (279) on Friday January 30 2015, @12:46PM (#139445) Homepage

    This story would be funny if it weren't for an image of the bill in the article that apparently verifies that aspect of this story.

    It'd be funny if it wasn't true? It's not a very good as a joke either way.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk
    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Nuke on Friday January 30 2015, @01:32PM

      by Nuke (3162) on Friday January 30 2015, @01:32PM (#139459)
      Yes, it's funny anyway. It would only not be funny if Comcast got away with it, but it sounds like they haven't. FTFA :-

      "Comcast confirmed to Ars that it has apologized to the customer and .. is looking into technology solutions to prevent future problems of this nature.

      What technology is required to send the Comcast agent flying head first out of the door with a manager's boot stuck up his, er ..... asshole ?

      • (Score: 5, Interesting) by TheRaven on Friday January 30 2015, @04:52PM

        by TheRaven (270) on Friday January 30 2015, @04:52PM (#139540) Journal
        I'd be very happy if my cable company did this. I'd simply stop paying. If they cancel the service, take them to court for failing to provide the contracted service. If they complain, say you're happy to pay any bills addressed to you, and that they should forward the unpaid ones to a debt collection agency. The collection agency can then try to find the asshole that should be paying them...
        --
        sudo mod me up
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @02:51PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @02:51PM (#139820)

          mod parent up... that is gold

          it might not work except such a court case would likely draw a bit of media attention and its likely the company responsible would drop the case to bury the bad publicity

      • (Score: 2) by nightsky30 on Friday January 30 2015, @06:29PM

        by nightsky30 (1818) on Friday January 30 2015, @06:29PM (#139580)

        The "Comcasthole" should be fired, and the customer should get her money back.

        By technology that prevents future issues, perhaps they are thinking of adding data sanitizing to their systems to prevent words and phrases as such. What would they do if someone's name was legally "Asshole"?

      • (Score: 1) by curunir_wolf on Friday January 30 2015, @08:44PM

        by curunir_wolf (4772) on Friday January 30 2015, @08:44PM (#139635)

        What technology is required to send the Comcast agent flying head first out of the door with a manager's boot stuck up his, er ..... asshole ?

        Maybe the technology is something really simple that most companies already have. You know, like actually recording an audit trail to show when certain data elements were updated and who actually did the update.

        --
        I am a crackpot
  • (Score: 2) by jimshatt on Friday January 30 2015, @12:54PM

    by jimshatt (978) on Friday January 30 2015, @12:54PM (#139447) Journal
    Yes, if by "retention" you mean anal retention! No wonder he renamed the guy "Asshole", he's into that!
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by WillAdams on Friday January 30 2015, @01:14PM

    by WillAdams (1424) on Friday January 30 2015, @01:14PM (#139451)

    Take them to small claims court (they have standing in your jurisdiction), bring your signed contract, record of your effort to change it and the bill w/ the vulgar name.

    Judges on the bench don't have much of a sense of humor and you'd probably get a summary judgement that Comcast has to continue to provide services, that the bill w/ the changed name is invalid and need not be paid, and that they can't bill you for past periods when they didn't properly submit the bill.

    • (Score: 2) by sudo rm -rf on Friday January 30 2015, @01:22PM

      by sudo rm -rf (2357) on Friday January 30 2015, @01:22PM (#139457) Journal

      I suppose the customer number is what counts, though I don't know. NB: this whole story reminds of the vomiting smiley a (now ex-)customer once recieved accidentaly on his website. btw it wasn't me it was a (now ex-)coworker

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @01:35PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @01:35PM (#139461)

        We are currently on Time Warner Cable (TV & internet), but a buyout by Comcast is pending in our area. This just adds to all the other terrible things we've heard about Comcast, from other parts of the country...and even from the TWC cable guys that come out when we have a service problem.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @02:04PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @02:04PM (#139474)

        > I suppose the customer number is what counts,

        Yes, the an internal accounting number at Comcast is your legal name. Totally makes sense.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @04:59PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @04:59PM (#139542)

        If Comcast is stupid enough to give that Asshole the same customer number, any confusion that arises from that is obviously Comcast's problem.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by MrNemesis on Friday January 30 2015, @03:39PM

      by MrNemesis (1582) on Friday January 30 2015, @03:39PM (#139513)
      • (Score: 2) by MrNemesis on Friday January 30 2015, @03:41PM

        by MrNemesis (1582) on Friday January 30 2015, @03:41PM (#139516)

        Damn... reading comprehension fail as I read Asshole Brown as being male for some reason. That should've been a she/her.

        --
        "To paraphrase Nietzsche, I have looked into the abyss and been sick in it."
        • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @06:31PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @06:31PM (#139583)

          Brown, Asshole

          LOL

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @06:15PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @06:15PM (#139576)

        Turnabout is fair play. He should change his surname to "Comcast Are Fascist Bastards".

        Indeed. Even better, he should also refer to the company as Evil Bastard Comcrap Corp in all correspondence. If Comcast...I mean, Evil Bastard Comcrap Corp...should ever try to take him to court over this I'm sure the judge will appreciate the irony. So many ways to make lemonade out of this lemon.

  • (Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Friday January 30 2015, @01:16PM

    by SlimmPickens (1056) on Friday January 30 2015, @01:16PM (#139453)

    Why does TFA have USD, AUD & GBP while our summary drops the pounds? El Reg is British, story is American. All Aussies can convert mentally from either currency.

    • (Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Friday January 30 2015, @01:17PM

      by SlimmPickens (1056) on Friday January 30 2015, @01:17PM (#139455)

      yeh, I'm tired.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @02:56PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @02:56PM (#139822)

      All Aussies can convert mentally from either currency.

      you give aussies too much credit

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by isostatic on Friday January 30 2015, @01:18PM

    by isostatic (365) on Friday January 30 2015, @01:18PM (#139456) Journal

    This part of the summary caught my eye

    pay US$60 (£40, AU$76)

    I've often wondered why there was never a currency tag.
    $60

    Which U.S. readers could see as
    $60

    But Russian readers could tie into sources like XE or google, and display

    US$60 (4240 RUB)

    And european readers as

    US$60 (€53)

    With an right-click option for more information

    you could include time too

    The GDP of the United States in 1940 was $1.27 trillion

    Which would turn into
    $1.27 trillion ($21.48 trillion in 2014)

    Or
    $1.27 trillion (£14.27 trillion in 2014)

    Fully backwards compatible, if you wrote that page in 2012 you could say

    The GDP of the United States in 1940 was $1.27 trillion ($20.83 trillion today)

    And it would update for people with the right browser a few years later.

    • (Score: 2) by dublet on Friday January 30 2015, @01:46PM

      by dublet (2994) on Friday January 30 2015, @01:46PM (#139467)
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @02:47PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @02:47PM (#139495)

      somewhere the actual usefull web was lost in all the ads and commerce, I remember it had a name, sem.. something, I think it wasn't compatible with the allmighty $$$ that rules the world. probably. coincidence?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 11 2015, @03:29PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 11 2015, @03:29PM (#143610)

        semantic web?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @01:38PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @01:38PM (#139462)

    what I don't understand is why anyone would want cable tv, Comcast or other...

    and are there no alternatives to Comcast there for internet connection, like ADSL or something?

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anal Pumpernickel on Friday January 30 2015, @02:57PM

      by Anal Pumpernickel (776) on Friday January 30 2015, @02:57PM (#139501)

      In many areas, there are no alternatives besides things like dial-up or satellite; neither of which are actual alternatives if you want at least a decent quality connection. That's how it is for me. Monopolies are great.

      • (Score: 2) by arashi no garou on Friday January 30 2015, @09:34PM

        by arashi no garou (2796) on Friday January 30 2015, @09:34PM (#139647)

        Exactly. This is something the FCC is trying to fix but (naturally) the service providers are fighting tooth and nail. They love their little regional monopolies and don't want to give them up.

        Hell, I live on the edge of Atlanta, one of the bigger cities in the US with one of the busiest airports, and my only choices are Comcast at up to 100Mbps for $115/month (about $150 after fees) and a 300GB/month usage cap, or AT&T DSL for up to 6Mbps for $60/month with a 150GB cap. Again, this is in a major metropolitan area; the rural areas are lucky to get DSL of any speed, and more likely have dialup (which is steadily being phased out) or satellite as you mentioned, neither of which is good for more than casual email and very light browsing, and the latter is prohibitively expensive.

        Thankfully we have an FCC chairman who actually cares about fixing this mess. I was worried about him at first, knowing he was a former industry lobbyist, but it turns out he's kind of a cool guy.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Covalent on Friday January 30 2015, @01:42PM

    by Covalent (43) on Friday January 30 2015, @01:42PM (#139463) Journal
    --
    You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @01:45PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @01:45PM (#139465)

    I did something similar years ago. I was creating a tech support ticket, which is a brainless activity, and as I was trying to get the guy to stop dribbling his reproachfulness over the phone and talk about the actual PROBLEM. My fingers just kind of said what I was thinking. It was a stream of consciousness thing. Total brain fart. The ticket got submitted from a hot key before I could stop my train of thought. (oops)

    Fortunately the account number and customer name could be edited, (though the comments couldn't) so I changed them to something nobody would likely ever search for, and buried the record, and created a new one. Never heard about it. Tech support is a thankless job. I'm sure there are some hilarious comments in the archives of most companies. You could probably make a "best of" album.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @02:11PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @02:11PM (#139478)

      I did something sort of like that once with test data.

      I was working on medical billing software. I did not have any of the procedures so I started making them up. Procedures are codes doctors use for saying they did something. Like using a cotton swab on your ear has a procedure code. Then the billing system bills accordingly.

      Well I created a doctor Bob who worked at Orchard medical systems. With a patient Robert and his wife Roberta. So anyway all of my procedures were about apples and bobbing for apples. Coring apples, making applesauce, spitting seeds out, filling a tub of water (both cold and hot), etc...

      Mind you this was a test database. Since I was the 'gui guy' I went around filling out ever field I could (testing string lengths/auto fillouts/etc). All about apples and bobbing. My co-workers went along with it. Because it was a bit of mindless fun.

      So my boss's boss comes in one day and snags a copy of the latest software and a copy of the test database. He flys into the office the next day yelling about 'what in the world is bobbing for apples?!!!'. My boss looks at him and goes 'you used our test database didnt you, in that demo'. 'Well yeah it was the only one filled out'. 'you got what you deserved doing a live demo and not doing a run thru beforehand'. 'yeah your right'. We did however delete the database just incase it happened again.

      But to this day all my test data is now borrrrrrrrring. test1 test2 test3 etc... :(

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @02:12PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @02:12PM (#139479)

    Where I live, Comcast has a commercial comparing themselves against satellite. They run this commercial in heavy rotation and have been for about a year. It cracks me up every time because their primary argument is that their customer service is much improved in recent years. They literally have an actor playing a customer say that. Meanwhile Comcast is the 2nd most hated company in the US, [thewire.com] practically tied with Time Warner.

  • (Score: 1) by Entropy on Friday January 30 2015, @02:19PM

    by Entropy (4228) on Friday January 30 2015, @02:19PM (#139483)

    "This story would be funny if it weren't for an image of the bill in the article that apparently verifies that aspect of this story."

    Actually..It's still funny.

  • (Score: 2) by hubie on Friday January 30 2015, @02:53PM

    by hubie (1068) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 30 2015, @02:53PM (#139499) Journal

    There was some humorous legal exchanges [wikipedia.org] and product name changes when Apple was developing the Power Macintosh 7100 (aka "Carl Sagan", aka "BHA", aka "LAW") in the 90's.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @03:56PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @03:56PM (#139523)

    When doing an adjust or refund we have to put down a reason for it. A few times corporate called us asking why the paperwork said "Customer is an asshole" Well, which part of that don't you understand? It was later changed to "Code 10"

    • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by khallow on Friday January 30 2015, @05:16PM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 30 2015, @05:16PM (#139548) Journal
      I think a big part of that is describing the behavior that makes the customer an "asshole". Are they screaming into the phone? Threatening to find out where you live? Turning a five minute conversation into a two hour verbal adventure? Otherwise, you could be the problem, not the customer.
    • (Score: 4, Funny) by Kromagv0 on Friday January 30 2015, @06:10PM

      by Kromagv0 (1825) on Friday January 30 2015, @06:10PM (#139573) Homepage

      And now I am reminded of the "bad customer stick" we had at the gas station. When the district manager found the hammer with that written on it he wasn't pleased.

      --
      T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
    • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday January 31 2015, @04:38AM

      by mhajicek (51) on Saturday January 31 2015, @04:38AM (#139737)

      Should be code ID10T.

      --
      The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
  • (Score: 2) by pnkwarhall on Saturday January 31 2015, @01:47AM

    by pnkwarhall (4558) on Saturday January 31 2015, @01:47AM (#139701)

    Since when is it considered "news" that a low-on-the-totem-pole (and low-paid) customer service rep had an incident of low-impact bureaucratic venting? Apparently some of you guys'n'gals have been out of low-wage service jobs long enough to forget about the BS that comes along with them.... that you're not paid enough to put up with. And don't say a word about "professionalism" -- in my experience, many "customer service" environments do not have actual "service" as the highest priority. In fact, I'm 100% sure that "happy customers" is NOT Comcast's **Retention Dept's** highest priority/performance metric.

    Fuck corporations and fuck you traitorous servile bastards who have high expectations for your interactions with them. All the greedy corruption of business, codified, legalized, and legitimized by "our" representatives.

    --
    Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @02:00AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @02:00AM (#139704)

      > Fuck corporations and fuck you traitorous servile bastards who have high expectations for your interactions with them.

      Sorry what?
      Since when is expecting not to be addressed as "asshole" considered a high expectation?

      Furthermore of course I have high expectations. The level of their customer service is dictated by their management. That they pay shit and hire low quality is no reason for me not to expect better of them.

      • (Score: 2) by pnkwarhall on Saturday January 31 2015, @06:09PM

        by pnkwarhall (4558) on Saturday January 31 2015, @06:09PM (#139863)

        That they pay shit and hire low quality is no reason for me not to expect better of them.

        That's part of their business model and entrenched corporate values. Which is a big part of what a corporation **is**.

        Of course, all these pronouns muddy the issue of accountability, which was the basis of the creation of corporations (i.e. "Who's accountable for these debts -- the individuals in the company or the business entity itself, or maybe the investors/shareholders?"). Who is the "they" when when you're complaining about "their" management? If a company is a legal entity, there's no "they" at all -- it's an "it". But a legal entity can't do anything by itself, there are people involved, so "they" refers to who? Everyone in the company? The board of directors and their guidance from on-high? the management, because they really implement the day-to-day and create most of the company culture? the shareholders who only care about profit and loss? Who's accountable for "asshole"? Individuals are responsible for their own actions, but how do you share the responsibility for a corporation's actions when that entity is formed from the living matter of many individuals?

        That you expect better of "them" marks your incomplete or flawed understanding of their true nature.

        --
        Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @09:47PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @09:47PM (#139899)

          > That you expect better of "them" marks your incomplete or flawed understanding of their true nature.

          Wow, you used to be pretty sane. But you are off in a circular loop of failure.

          Let's just say you are right, how is that useful? What comes next? What plausible action can be taken to correct this endemic and so straightforward problem that you've identified? Are you next going to propose full revolution?

          You think you've identified the "true nature" of corporations when all you've done is simplify away the realities of the real world. Going full fight-club is about as useful as going full retard.

          • (Score: 2) by pnkwarhall on Sunday February 01 2015, @09:38PM

            by pnkwarhall (4558) on Sunday February 01 2015, @09:38PM (#140118)

            "Full Revolution" is exactly what is required, although it **may** look different than you expect. As for plausible actions, a good start is to stop feeding the beast what it requires to live -- financial support. As I acknowledge elsewhere in this same thread, it's not an easy accomplishment, and I struggle daily with the implementations.

            I disagree that I have simplified the realities of the "real world", although I don't disagree with you that it's not a "straightforward" problem, or the only one -- instead I've reduced the essence of what a for-profit corporation is in order to communicate more directly what I see as a major problem with our societies. But I would argue that if you feel that the current corporate- and techno-centric status quo is unchangeable, you should educate yourself on what [permies.com] people [wikipedia.org] around [eff.org] the [adbusters.org] world [tinyhousebuild.com] are [thebaffler.com] doing [time.com] to challenge [ohio.com] the status quo and find alternatives.
            --
            I apologize for my tone and word-choice in the original post -- it was a bad day, and I was venting. However, I believe firmly in Stephen Covey's principle of the "circle of influence", and Internet forums I participate in are pretty much "the outer fringe" of that circle, where I am able to voice my more extremist views and thoughts to a wider group than I usually have available, for feedback and discussion. I hope you find some of the links thought-provoking, and wanted to respond to your comment:

            you used to be pretty sane

            You sound like my wife :)
            Thankfully she is patient and open to my ideas when I put them into action.

            --
            Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @03:06PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 31 2015, @03:06PM (#139823)

      and if you don't like low paying jobs, develop some skills to get higher paying jobs. perhaps you've been on welfare too long to remember that nobody expects anything but crap in a minimum wage job

      if it weren't for you commies and your commie government-backed monopolies, competition would swarm in and fuck up idiot companies like comcast almost overnight

      • (Score: 2) by pnkwarhall on Saturday January 31 2015, @05:42PM

        by pnkwarhall (4558) on Saturday January 31 2015, @05:42PM (#139849)

        I don't make minimum-wage, I'm on salary, and we live relatively comfortably with my wife able to stay at home and work on all the fundamental, life-essential things that are difficult or impossible in two-parents-working households, like: be with the kids, cook family meals out of fresh ingredients, take care of the household chores... you know **that job**. I have a CS degree, work for a "start-up", and have been of "paying attention" age for the entirety of the 'aughts, and **all** of these experiences have done nothing but strengthen my disgust at and rejection of the corporate- and techno-dependent corruption that is the modern environment. None of the values of these domains are progressive for humanity. They're corruptive influences, tools that have transformed golem-like into entities beyond our control or understanding.

        For-profit corporations are demons, and I bear plenty of self-hatred for my inability to stop feeding them out of "convenience" and habit.

        We took a very wrong turn with the Industrial Revolution, creating problems that we then try to fix with the same tools that created the problems in the first place.

        --
        Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven