It just demonstrates the total contempt some companies have for their customers. You can add to this telephone mazes, centralized answering/service centers on the other side of the planet, subbing out different parts of the job to different contractors, using people who can't speak the English language to do the work, and the need to coordinate a complex job yourself because they don't do it for you.

All last week, I tried to get a water heater installed from Home Depot, and I got delays, a runaround, lied to, told I needed electrical work, and finally install service from a surly Bulgarian who's accent was so bad he couldn't tell us what he wanted us to do so he could proceed further. He couldn't even write it down because they use the Cyrillic alphabet. And they say you can't get Americans to do those jobs any more. Sure you can, JUST PAY THEM MORE.

I went to Loew's for the same product and after I told the manager my problems with Home Depot, he told me "you're going to get the same crap here, mister. If you don't know how to do the job yourself, you're better off getting some small outfit out of the phone book to do it for you."

I finally went to a mom-and-pop shop a few miles away, who had the job done in half a day, along with an almost complete replumbing and disposal of the old unit; all by a courteous and knowledgeable young man. They even made arrangements for the city inspector to come by next week and do the inspection. It cost me a little more than HD, but it was worth it. And I didn't need electrical work after all.

And of course, have you ever tried to cancel any online service, the kind where they already have your credit card info and you can't get a straight answer from anyone on how to go about turning it off?

You would think that competition would force companies to try to give better service than their competitors, but a new dynamic seems to be at work, as more firms cut corners by providing sloppy service, the others figure they can get away with it too. So standards are slipping everywhere.

Fortunately, local merchants who own their own businesses still understand the need to please their customers, as did my local plumbing shop, but the big corporate houses are run by hired-gun professional managers who can only see next quarter's balance sheet. And it's getting harder and harder for small businesses to compete with the big boys. They don't have friends in Congress.