Difficult though it might be to believe, BellSouth-is-now-the-new-AT&T (more commonly known as BSINTNAT&T), my home DSL provider, isn’t being all that sympathetic to my need to waste time online without paying ridiculous fees for basic services.

Our new house is comprised of what only someone inclined to incredibly strict technical interpretations of building plans might describe as two physically separate structures on a single and incredibly compact parcel, you see. Let’s call them the Residential Building and the Administration Annex. When BSINTNAT&T popped ’round last week to hook up our phone lines, we assumed, as you would, that they would be connecting the entire Hartnett estate.

That wasn’t the case, of course, and only the phone line in our Residential Wing is working. No problem, we’ll just call up BSINTNAT&T, let them know about the oversight, and they’ll be by directly to resolve the matter. If only things were that simple and not quite so stupidly ridiculous in real life. What actually happened is that BSINTNAT&T is charging us $100 to come out a second time and connect the phone line to the Administration Annex, which they clearly should have done the first time, because we don’t have a “line maintenance plan.”

Bottom line: I’m back online, and BSINTNAT&T is right up there with Volkswagen on the list of companies whose poor products and/or shoddy customer service have left me forever soured.