i can only call you if you live in my amoeba

When we moved to St. Louis, I had expected to call the phone company and get the phone turned on within a day or two. This was the how it worked at the last two places I've lived, and I saw no reason to expect it would be any different here. So, D. called up the phone company and requested local service only, at which point we were told it service wouldn't be turned on for at least another week. That was strike #1. Although D. specified we wanted local service only, the guy repeatedly asked him if we wanted long distance or if we wanted to sign up for DSL. I'm sure it was just part of his job to do so, but damn, it was irritating. Strike #2. Before D. hung up, he asked what our local calling area would be, as we weren't sure if it would just be the area code we live in or parts of the suburban area codes. As the phone guy told him, he started frantically typing and by the time he was done, our local calling area looked something like this: Locust Page Stratford Kingshighway 3rd Main Richmont Jackson Westville I'm making the names up because I don't remember which streets they really were, but when we looked them up we were horrified. Our local calling area was 28 blocks in the shape of an amoeba, with us located towards one of its top left arms. That was definitely strike #3. After much searching on the internet we did find that AT&T could provide local service instead, and I have nothing bad to say about them. In fact, I love AT&T because they gave us local calls to our entire area code and cheap DSL. I won't name the first company, but they provide phone service in St. Louis and I just want to say, people, don't get sucked in. Say no to the amoeba.