Roger Varley has been in the news business almost 40 years with The Canadian Press/Broadcast News, Uxbnridge Times-Journal, Richmond Hill Liberal and Uxbridge Cosmos. Co-winner with two others of CCNA national feature writing award. In Scout movement over 30 years, almost 25 as a leader. Took Uxbridge youths to World Jamboree in Holland. Involved in community theatre for 20 years as actor, director, playwright, stage manager etc. Born in England, came to Canada at 16, lived most of life north and east of Toronto with a five-year period in B.C.
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Back to the old ways
I am going to get rid of my cell phone. I have decided to return to the use of the good old-fashioned land line for my telephonic communications.
Of course, it's difficult to be really old-fashioned these days. I recently purchased the phone equipment I will be using and it comes with a 62-page user manual. Remember when the only thing you had to know in order to use a telephone was which way was clockwise?
My new phone has more buttons and keys, doodads and gee-gaws, than were found in the first manned space flights. And it was almost impossible to find a phone that came with a single handset. So I now have two handsets located just feet away from each other in my small bachelor flat.
The decision to go back to a land line came after a frustrating year of trying to survive with just my cell phone.
When I purchased my cell phone last year, I signed up for a program that was to cost me $25 a month. (Is that the sound of cynical laughter that I hear?) Of course, my phone bill has always been higher than $25. I have been charged every month for a series of incoming long distance phone calls from Port Perry, despite the fact that no one in Port Perry ever calls me. Complaints to the cell phone company were fruitless. And, yes, there is that infamous “service access fee”.
On top of that, many times I found myself wandering out of whatever building I was in in order to obtain a calling signal. And the number of times my cell phone has beeped in my pocket to inform me I have missed a call is beyond calculation.
I called my cell phone company the other day to inform them I wanted to terminate the service. The bill tells me I can do that if I give the company 30 days' notice. What the bill doesn't tell me is that it will cost me $400 to get out of the contract. On reflection, I figure that will be cheaper than paying their inflated monthly bills to the end of the contract.
After my less-than-cordial conversation with the company's customer service representative - (customer service, of course, being as oxymoronic as military intelligence) - my cell phone beeped four times within the next half-hour, each time to inform me I had missed a call. This despite the fact the phone was in my pocket with the ringer set at maximum volume.
As I fumed about the cell company's stance, I Googled the company's name, followed by the word “complaint”. What I found was staggering. Hundreds and hundreds of complaints from people just like me, all railing about the poor service, inflated billing and lack of response from the company.
When I first obtained a cell phone, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I would never be out of touch with family and friends. It was a wonderful thing to have in case of an emergency. The only thing wrong with that is that I've never had an emergency that warranted its use.
I believe most of us have been sucked in by the telephone companies' hype over the years to believe we cannot survive without cell phones. Watch the television commercials these days and you'll see all kinds of ads promoting all kinds of absolutely useless services. And most of them are aimed at young people.
Years ago, toy companies were banned from producing television commercials aimed at inspiring young children to nag their parents for the latest toy by making them appear more than they were.
Now our young people are being told they can't move out of the house unless they have a cell phone which will give them Internet access on the go, show them where their friends are at any given moment, send text messages, take pictures and videos and play any tune ever written and recorded.
It seems to me that the nation's telephone network, which is absolutely vital in times of national emergencies, has been usurped by telecommunications companies offering nonsensical gimmicks and “services”. I think it's high time the CRTC reined these companies in.
Tell me, am I wrong?
