As department stores began to compete with catalog purchasing at the start of the 20th century, early entrants coined the phrase, “The customer is always right.” You may not be able to order a kit home delivered by rail from Sears and Roebuck today, flat-packed much like IKEA furniture, and then assemble it on your own lot. Recently, one of these Craftsman style houses, which originally cost less than $500, sold for more than a million in southern California.

Nonetheless, department stores quickly persuaded American consumers they would make better purchases by physically examining their choices – for clothing, bedding, appliances and home goods. It was Jeff Bezos and Amazon that returned us back to the future and have driven tens of thousands of shopping malls into extinction.

With free return policies, customers can still be right even when they’re wrong. Consumers are no longer buying as much stuff as they do services. The shiny, new corporate motto seems to be, “We don’t give a damn about our customers, right or wrong!”

There are reasons why cable, streaming and internet providers are now the most reviled enterprises in America. They behave like squatters blocking communication channels, where they extort exorbitant tolls for access. In social media arenas Facebook, Google and others frequently enjoy profit margins of 90% or more. At one time in America these were termed excess profits. These squatters are virtually immune to blowback from disgruntled subscribers. No single subscriber, however disgruntled, threatens their bottom lines.

If they cared – really cared – about their customers, they wouldn’t treat them like a nuisance. The international call centers responding to American service complaints are ample evidence of this abiding contempt.

While there is some small satisfaction in providing employment to young men and women struggling to support their families in third world economies, CenturyLink is brazenly outsourcing what should be American jobs. All this came to mind after my high-speed Internet, provided by CenturyLink, chose to expire the Saturday before last.

All things being equal I tend to have a soft spot for regional telephone companies, where I worked more than 20 years for AT&T, Mountain Bell and USWEST, before Joe Nacchio and his merry band of looters attempted to convert QWEST revenues into their personal piggybank. As the inheritor of damaged goods, CenturyLink has demonstrated far more concern for the welfare of its shareholders than the quality of its customer service. After being asked to perform repair tests without success on the equipment I merely lease my interlocutor, who identified herself as Sharon – an unlikely claim I am sure – promised me a repair technician would appear on Wednesday. If I failed to remain at home for eight continuous hours the appointment would be cancelled. A request for either morning or afternoon could not be scheduled.

No repair tech appeared on Wednesday, nor did anyone contact me. When I called on Thursday morning to inquire again why my service was not restored, I was informed no repair ticket had been issued as if this oversight were in some way my fault. Acknowledging a record of my Monday call existed, I was reminded if I was found at fault for interrupted service – say my dog peed on the CenturyLink modem – I would be held responsible for onerous financial charges as penalty for the temerity of demanding working service. Translation: “You better be right about this you ungrateful SOB!” A repair technician made an appearance on Friday, determined the service interruption was CenturyLink’s problem and thus ended my week without an internet connection. I have to be grateful for the fact that CenturyLink’s service still remains cheaper and guaranteed unlike XFINITY’s, an even more arrogant outfit.

I lack the perseverance or animus to demand a refund for my week of lost service. I doubt recompensing customers is on the check list of approved complaints that Sharon can approve. I will settle for their tepid apology, “…we regret this inconvenience.”

Unfortunately, the spreading habit of treating customers as an inconvenience has leaked into government during our COVID plague year. 80% of bureaucrats are working from home and even after you successfully navigate an agency’s voice mail hell, you are thrown into a public mailbox that informs you the person you are trying to reach isn’t in the office – something you already knew. Eliciting a response is about as likely as trout fishing by flinging rocks into a fast-flowing stream.

Most Colorado municipalities, including Denver, have kept operating their 311 information lines. By contrast most state government agencies have gone dark. The governor should adopt a similar three digit code, using infrastructure dollars, to direct calls from taxpayers.