Overseas call frustration

I noticed on my bank statement that my newspaper subscription had gone up $20 — an increase of 57 percent.

I called the toll-free number and eventually got a male whose English I had difficulty understanding. He was located in the Philippines. I ended that conversation without a solution.

I then called a local columnist who have me another number, which turned out to be to the same location. The young lady who answered was a little more understandable, but still not hillbilly. After much haggling, we got the cost down to less than a dollar of the original amount. I can live with that.

But why do I have to talk to someone in the Philippines to settle a problem that originated just a few blocks away?

This story was originally published September 25, 2017 at 6:50 PM with the headline "Overseas call frustration."