Warning: This column is written in anger. 

I sit at my home now, on a Tuesday night as I write this column, fuming over a frustrating day of dealing with big companies who could care less about helping their customers. 

In my new job as Internet editor, I’m learning fast that a lot of companies out there are getting away with treating customers like trash because, well, they can. And for one of the first times in my life, I find a seething anger growing inside me. 

It is now taking great self-will not to yell into the phone at these companies and threaten to have people fired. I’ve already gotten to the stage of slamming down the phone after talking to a customer service rep answering machine for the third day in a row. 

In the Sun Herald’s new Internet office, where we need to buy lots of new equipment as the new department gets formed, phone-slamming has become common as we continue to deal with companies that don’t seem to know what a customer is. 

My day Tuesday began as I watched one of my bosses unsuccessfully try to get a phone call returned from a company with whom the newspaper is going to spend $30,000. Here we are, about to make a huge purchase -- a purchase on which the sales rep likely is going to make a paid commission -- and we can’t even get them to return phone calls. 

And then there is the saga of my laptop computer. I ordered the computer and was told it would be mailed overnight within a week. So I patiently waited a week, then was told by the sales rep that the company was a few days behind. 

“That’s okay,” I said to myself. “I can wait a few more days.” 

Three days go buy, and I call the rep back. No answer. No answer for two days. So I call the company’s shipping department and find my computer has been put on hold for three months until a part comes in. Three months! 

I call the sales rep’s answering machine and tell him what I learned. He calls me the next day, and I order the computer without the part, which I didn’t have to have. A week later, my computer arrives and works great. 

For 10 minutes. 

Now I have a $4,000 paperweight. 

I’ve called the company’s sales rep and repair department for three days straight. You guessed it. Nothing but answering machines. 

Today, when I called the company’s main switchboard, I was so frustrated, I said, “Look, I don’t want to talk to an answering machine. I want to talk to a live, breathing person.” 

“One moment,” the secretary said. 

After 30 seconds on hold, I got an answering machine. 

Tonight, when I got home from work tired and upset, my phone rings. On the other end is a customer service rep for one of the magazines to which I subscribe. The guy starts his spiel: 

“You need to renew your subscription right now or we can’t guarantee you won’t miss issues if you renew later. Our renewal rate is...blah, blah, blah.” 

I stood at the phone, wondering just how long I had before my subscription did expire. 

So I asked. “You have six months, sir,” he replied. 

Great, just great. I spend my day not getting phone calls returned, then go home to be hassled to renew a yearly subscription that is only 6 months old.