My 85-year-old father, whom we call "Pappy," has his land line telephone service with AT&T. Last spring, AT&T sent Pappy a DSL modem and a brochure with a cheery welcome to its internet service. But he hadn't ordered it. And when we realized that neither had any of his children ordered it, Pappy sent the modem back -- but by then it was beyond AT&T's return deadline. Pappy called AT&T and told the lady he reached "I don't even have a computer." She told him that the matter would "be taken care of." But AT&T sent its next bill with the DSL charge. Pappy called AT&T again, and the gentleman said to scratch out the DSL line items, and just pay the rest -- and that's what Pappy did. AT&T sent the next bill with an additional monthly DSL charge and a late fee. Pappy called again, and got passed from one person to another for an hour. Next, AT&T made a robo-call, warning Pappy of possible service cut-off or collection action. For five straight days at 9 in the morning, AT&T robo-called him with that message. Again, Pappy called AT&T, but this time demanded to talk directly to the billing department. "I am the billing department," said the lady. Soon after, Pappy noticed some fine print on his phone bill: "Residential customers may also contact the Ohio Consumers' Counsel for assistance with complaints and utility issues at 1 877 742 5622 (toll free)." So he called the number and told his story. The next day, a lady from AT&T called Pappy, apologized, deleted the DSL and late charges, and gave him the amount to pay. The company offered nothing for his time and trouble, but it was a relief nonetheless -- problem solved.
That was how a state agency, the Ohio Consumers' Counsel, worked under the administration of the Democratic governor, Ted Strickland. But now Ohio has a new, Republican governor, former Fox News host and Wall Street bank exec, John Kasich.1 +2 Gov. Kasich is at the fore among Republican office-holders that are now swinging a meat axe at the commonwealth: public health, safety, schools, transportation, the social safety net, and so on.3 +4 In addition, Kasich calls for cutting the Ohio Consumer Counsel's budget by half -- even though its funding comes not from the state, but entirely from the utility companies.5 Should that go through, then next time there may be no one to goad AT&T to ease up on somebody's old pappy.