Why so difficult?

So, when I was out and about on my excursion earlier in the summer, about half way through I remembered to call and suspend our cable and internet to lower the bill while we were gone. In preparation for evacuation, I briefly thought about adding turn in cable box/internet modem to my list of things to do, and decided against it, because I wanted access to the news for as long as possible prior to leaving, and had we turned in the boxes, we might have lost the ability to know what was going on that last day or two.

I called today to suspend our cable and was VERY rudely told by a Cable One representative that they have a policy of not suspending service, and that they don't disconnect unless you return the boxes and so forth. I tried to explain that we have traveled outside of the area in an effort to avoid Gustav and were unable to turn things in before we left, and was VERY rudely told that they are a corporation and that this simply is not their problem. Either I pay each month while I am gone or they will charge my for the equipment and for breaking the contract of service that I signed.

I told her that I didn't sign a contract, and that I never spoke to a single Cable One representative with the exception of calling to have it reinstalled, much less sign anything. She told me to find a copy of the contract and read it again. I said, find a copy of the contract wth my signature on it! In any case, the whole thing has been resolved by me telling them to bill me for the equipment, and that I would refuse to pay it, but that I demand my cable/internet be cancelled immediately. I intend to follow up on this with Cable One at a later date, but my blood pressure couldn't handle speaking with this ignorant woman a moment longer.

Follow up to that, I call Tricare (our insurance company) to ensure that my medical appointment tomorrow will not be a problem, only to be told that there is a blanket referral in the wake of Gustav that is in place from Aug 29-Sep 12. Uh, my due date is Sep 13, so if I go to or past my due date, will this all not be covered? No, simply call on Sep 12 to ensure that they annotate a conversation to the effect that I am due at any day and unable to travel. Well, duh! Can't we annotate that now? No.

I'll not be calling any other customer service centers for a few days because I don't know that I can bite my tongue and am not in the right frame of mind to behave.