Did you know it was still possible to rent telephones from Ma Bell? And that it costs $29 a month per set to do so? And that some 750,000 Americans still do? How much do you want to bet they’re all retirees like this woman?

Do the telco folks just not have grandmothers?

We don’t mean to say it’s evil that they offer this service. Obviously, that’s not the point. The point is that you can buy a phone in any given month for less than thirty bucks, and they know this, and they further must know that nobody renting phones has given this any thought at all, and that they’re probably all pensioners who just don’t know any better. This is known as “fucking your customer,” and it’s the sort of thing telcos can get away with because, historically, they have no competition to whom you can take your business if they piss you off.