This morning Arcor called me, or rather my husband. He wasn't home (surprise, its during a work day) so they asked when they could reach him. I told them not to bother as he doesn't respond to telephone solicitations. Oh, this isn't a solicitation, he's a customer, they replied. No, he's not, said I. Oh yes, he is, his bill from April is right in front of us and its XX Euros.

Finally i figure out they mean a bill with call-by-call charges. Of course it IS a telephone solicitation. Just like the T-com guy at my door a few weeks back, this person wants me to detail my phoning habits so she can help me "save money". She is very aggressive and won't take no for an answer.

After about 2 minutes I just say sorry and hang up on her in mid-sentence. Only after the fact does it occur to me that the reason we had XX Euros in charges with Arcor in April is because I stupidly didn't check the cheapest call-by-call prefix before making a long call to my sister in the US. I later realized they had jacked up their rate to the US from around 1 cent/minute to 15 cents a minute!! No Tarifansage. So I had one very expensive call. These people were trying to sell me on their services by saying I was already using them, which I only did because of a deceptive bait-and-switch policy with their call-by-call. I wish I'd realized that when I had the woman on the line so I could tell her off!