Sympatico : The Continuing Saga

A year ago I bought a Dell computer. I've been a pretty good customer, always had money in the bank when they took their 30$ / month , stuff like that.

They phoned me up the other day , informed me Bell Sympatico was going to call and try and be my internet provider , since an icon for it had been on my desktop on the computer.

I said ok and the call ended.

Then I wondered, why is bell calling me ? Did Dell sell my info to them despite promising only to share it with their own internal agents (And affilliates , and ..a few other things ...which probably amounts to any bum walking down the street with a few coins in his pocket and an interest in my affairs).

I had this big speach about privacy ready to go , and was waiting for Sympatico to call.

Today , they didn't call. Instead the postal delivery man buzzed me from down below to inform me I had a package from Sympatico. Went down , and what do we find ? A Sympatico cable modem , for getting you online. No , they hadn't warned me it was coming or anything.

But yes, my wife had a bell telephone in her name , and they'd pulled this stunt once before. It seems they're firing these modems off without warning to people at random.

I informed the postie I didn't want it , wasn't touching it, and refused to sign for anything. Last I saw of it he was examining the box , probably looking for a return address.

I'm now preparing another speach about underhanded marketting tactics and why I hate dealing with such companies, in case they decide to stick the thing on my cell bill or make some kind of combined bill or something.

Still waiting ... still wondering what's next.

(edit)

Waiting for people to call is a very stressful thing , and I have enough stress in my life. I phoned bell / sympatico and informed them I'd never asked for the service and had refused delivery of the modem. They "say" they cancelled the account (they'd tacked it onto my wife's phone line , ha ha , man she would have been pissed despite her being the one telling me not to phone them) and apologized, and hey , no modem in hand , not much they can do.

I'm still dissapointed I didn't get to use either of my speaches on them.

:(