Easily Annoyed

We received a bill for our weekly trash this month and not only did they toss on a new "fuel surcharge" but they also included a .50 "finance charge" because our bill was maybe two days late. I probably mailed it out on the 1st when it was due and they got it a couple days later. I was sufficiently irritated that today I called and contracted with another hauler that also has the advantage of coming on the same day as the recycling dudes that Sam so dearly loves* so I won't have to remember to deal with trash on two separate days. We forget to bring the trash to the curb about half the time so this makes a lot of sense. Still, the lady gave me a bit of lip about cancelling the service. Nothing like customer service, eh? What were they thinking? A 50 cent finance charge on a $30 bill for two days late? It's not as though we're chronically late or the type of customer who gets months behind in their billing. The only time we're consistently late is in returning videos back when Lackluster video charged "late fees" or whatever they were calling it when they checked it back out to you for full rental price. Not even our imcompetent** cable company does anything that stupid. I hope I'm not the only customer who cancelled...they deserve what they get when they do something stupid like that.

*Sam watches for the "cycling truck!" every Monday morning. We don't wonder about his hearing because he hears it at least a street away. And then he watches the truck's every movement until he sadly waves goodbye as the truck turns off street with its load.

**Ok, we do like their incompetence to a certain degree since we're paying for the minimum service of about 12 channels and getting 70 some because the technician was too lazy to climb back up the pole to put in the right filter. He asked if we minded and we were very accomodating of course. Now we're afraid to change anything with our cable in case they discover the error and remove all those lovely channels to which we've become so addicted.