I Need Your Creative Genius. . . or Possibly A Session With A Counselor

Hot Guy is out of town again. My parents are also out of town. My carpal tunnel has gotten so bad that no matter how much I wear the stupid wrist things, my hands hurt and my fingers are like an old woman's. My back hurts. I'm not getting enough sleep.

And yesterday I got a phone call form our former cell phone provider, Verizon. The guy was nasty, probably because I owe them money. However, when he said how much I owed, I was confused. I was connected to a different department. Naturally this happened when we were on our way to a play date. So after being put on hold for ten minutes while Lovebug tried to sneak out the door, I asked if I could call back later. I was told I could.

I called back, but of course the right department had closed. So I called this morning. It seems that my bill is larger because of an early termination fee. Except that I specifically called and asked what day I could terminate our old phones safely. I explained this. The woman on the phone explained that since T-Mobile had transferred my husband's number on the 25th - the day before my contract expiration - I owed the fee. I countered that since my T-Mobile service started on the 27th, how was I to know that they'd transferred it early? No one had mentioned it when I called to cancel my service on the 26th. I also pointed out that we were talking about one freaking day. She said I should blame T-Mobile and talk to them. I said they weren't the ones charging me $120 that I don't have. This went on for some time, before I got to the supervisor. I used the term "shitty" to describe the behavior, but I did not call names.

The supervisor was no more helpful - unless I was transferring back to Verizon, in which case she would cancel the fee. I said that was fucking ridiculous. She said that she wouldn't put up with cursing and hung up on me while I was apologizing for cursing. And then I promptly burst into hysterical pregnant woman tears.

I hate Verizon with a deep passion right now. I think they are being so unfair, especially since both bitches women I talked to said that while it's not written anywhere that cell phone companies can take numbers early, I should have known that they would do that and thus I would incur the fee - even though it's noted in my account that I called to find out when I could terminate my contract without incurring the fee and that I called on the 26th to cancel my service and asked about the fee again. And, we're talking about one freaking day.

I do not trust myself to call back today, not that I'm sure it would do any good. But of course, if I don't pay them - or don't pay the fee part of the bill - it will go to collections. My credit doesn't need that. So, anyone got any ideas? Is there anything else I can do? And if there isn't, does anyone have any ideas on how to get revenge on Verizon? (Not terrorist type revenge, of course, just the pocketbook kind - I"m not that hormonal. Yet.)