[OnyxCougar]

I'm posting this here because it's directly related.

[background]
I work at a major Cable Company and live in a largely rural portion of a Southern State. If you were a subscriber on a particular plan, you got 4 channels of HBO, 2 channels of Cinemax and 1 channel of Showtime for $19.95 a month + cost of the analog box ($2.00).

In November, we sent out a flyer that told the customers that we were removing 2 of the HBO channels and 1 of the Cinemax channels from the analog lineup to make room for 17 new digital channels, and offered a month of free service if they upgraded to Digital. If they kept the same premiums, they'd get 8 channels of HBO, 7 channels of Cinemax and 7 channels of Showtime for $5.95 more a month, plus they'd get the digital services like 45 music channels, 32 PPV channels and the interactive program guide and a free "Christian" Tier for free until the end of January.

The change took place last Wednesday.[/background]

Last call of the night. Female customer calls in to inquire why she wasn't getting three of her package channels. I explained the above. After looking at her account, I noticed she already has digital on one TV, and two additional analog boxes, which lost the 3 channels.

She asked if we were reducing her bill, and I explained no, because HBO charges us per subscriber, not per screen, and for $11.50 a month, she was getting 8 HBO channels on digital and 2 on each of her analog boxes. I explained that if she wanted all 8 HBO channels, she would have to pay for the additional digital boxes, which, after she turns in her analog boxes, comes out to $3.95 more each box per month. So for $7.90 a month, she'll net about 38 channels on her digital service, not to mention she gets all the other digital channels SHE'S ALREADY PAYING FOR on all three of her TV's for that same $7.90 more.

She asked me if I liked being a rapist.

The question stopped me cold. I said, "What?" She said, "How can you look at yourself in the mirror at night knowing that you're helping [company] rape people?" I told her that is NOT the case, and she said, "Oh yes it is. You're forcing me to upgrade my analog boxes to digital if I want those 2 channels of HBO that you took. Those boxes aren't free."

I said, "We're not forcing you to do anything. If you want to upgrade those boxes to digital, you can. If you don't want to, you don't have to. You get those channels on the digital box you already have."

"But if I want those channels on my other box, I have to go digital."

"That's right."

"So you're forcing me to do something against my will. That's rape."

At this point, I started to get upset. I've been raped, and let me tell you, this is not what being raped is. I said, "Ma'am, no one is FORCING you to have Cable Television. You choose to have Cable, you choose to have HBO, you choose to have this service. This is what we have, I'm sorry if it's changed, it's in every paper you signed and every bill you get that we can change service without notice. If you don't like our service, or don't feel the value of our service is worth the money, cancel."

What I wanted to say was, "Look bitch. If you want to feel what "raped" is, I can see if a man will come over to your house, tie you up to your bed and fuck you repeatedly with a K-bar knife and leave you for dead. And I won't even make you pay for it."

But I didn't.

I signed out, and went home and cried in my husband's arms instead.