# "It's the worst thing in the world, except everything else."
There's a cycle at work here, and I'm always amused to see someone like Doug get caught up in it. A Phone company like Verizon (and they aren't the only one) "sucks" because they are trying to make a buck where no buck can be made. When something goes wrong, it's expensive to fix. If you factor this (= hiring, training, and retaining people who know what they are doing, i.e., the guy who finally figured it out that some wires were crossed) into your business model, the resulting price is higher than consumers are willing to pay. So, something has to give: your happiness.
Why did your office get Verizon DSL in the first place? Because they had the competitive price?
The airlines in the US are the latest ones caught up in this cycle: none of the airlines can raise prices to cover their actual costs becaues that would cost them their competitiveness. So they try to make it up in other ways: cutting services, skimping on food (charging for it or removing it completely), now charging for taking your bags along with you. All of this increases anxiety and grumpiness of the passengers and has (along with the TSA) made flying a miserable experience. And of course: if you aren't enjoying it, it's not a good value at any price; so it's still "too expensive" ... especially for what you get.
How can you break that cycle? Are there people who will pay what it costs for such things? It doesn't seem like there are, except for tiny niches. Can you image a phone company saying something like "We cost a bit more, but we're worth it" ... and even if they did, would you buy it? The last one to do smething like that was Maytag.
/jordan