I just canceled two credit cards.

Zeroed out balance, they were crap ghetto credit, goodbye.

1) HSBC. Polite and pleasant operator transfers me to "win-back" guy. He talks too fast reading the script and is hard to understand due to an accent, but very nice. After two attempts to sell me back, including a fairly pathetic 2% cashback offer and waiving the membership fee, he folds and agrees to cancel it and send me written confirmation.

2) Juniper/Apple Credit. Same type of operator transfers me to win-back guy. He is a "relationship manager" which makes me think of Dr. Neil Clark Warren. He doesn't try to give me any deals. Instead he first tries to sell me on how great the card is, and is not chagrined at all to learn that I have 8% less interest and ten times the limit elsewhere. Then he issues a warning: if I cancel the card, it could have an adverse effect on my credit rating! He says this once and I point out that closing the account after paying it off is probably not a minus. In a more ominous tone he asks me to reconsider because it could seriously be a negative MARK on my CREDIT RATING if i canceled. "Oh no you don't," I say. "Enough with the threats; that is not cool. Immediately cancel the account and send me written confirmation." He folds too.

Nice bullying, Juniper/Apple!

DEAR THE INTERNET DAEMONS:

WHY ARE MY PACKETS FROM LOS ANGELES TO ORANGE COUNTY (45 MILES) BEING ROUTED THROUGH NEWARK, NJ?

BEST,

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DEAR THE CINGULAR/AT&T PHONE COMPANY

I WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE IT IF:

MY PHONE RANG WHEN PEOPLE CALLED ME INSTEAD OF SENDING THEM TO VOICE MAIL

THE VOICE MAIL INDICATOR WOULD SHOW THAT I HAD RECEIVED SAID VOICEMAIL SOONER THAN 12 HOURS LATER

THE PHONE WOULD NOT CRASH WHEN LEFT UNATTENDED

THE PHONE, WHEN RESTARTED, WOULD REMEMBER MY NETWORK PASSWORD SO THAT I COULD USE ITS NETWORK FEATURES

THE PHONE, WHEN RESTARTED, WOULD REMEMBER MY WIFI AUTHENTICATION FOR SIMILAR REASONS

THERE WAS ANY INDICATION THAT ANYONE KNEW OR CARED THAT THESE PROBLEMS ARE OCCURRING

BEST,

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