Reluctant thanks

We found out this week that three big telcos, AT&T (Cingular), BellSouth, and Verizon, have been voluntarily handing over the phone records of tens of millions of Americans to the NSA. I could write about that topic forever, but for the moment my attention was drawn to a particular detail; the fact that, of all the telcos, only Qwest refused to cooperate.

Qwest.

I've blogged before about how Qwest is my mortal enemy for all their years of bad customer service, culminating in a horribly botched phone number transfer that dragged on for months, a situation only resolved when I turned them in to the Oregon Attorney General, the Better Business Bureau, and the Oregon Public Utility Commission. Ugh. I have vowed never to do business with Qwest again.

But considering how their executives have apparently taken a stand against totalitarianism... well, I had to do something.

I work in the same building as the Qwest Public Relations office for Oregon. As I was leaving work yesterday, I found myself on the elevator with someone from one of the floors above me, where their offices are. She was a middle-aged lady, dressed in business attire.

"Are you a Qwest employee?" I asked her.

"Yes, I am" she replied.

"I just wanted to say, I've had problems with Qwest in the past, but I wanted to send along my thanks to Qwest for their stand against the NSA." The words all rushed out of me.

She chuckled and said, "Oh, yes, that's an interesting story, isn't it?" She seemed amused.

The elevator doors opened. As I held the door for her, I said, "Well, it's one small step away from a police state. I appreciate it."

She said nothing as she left and walked out of the building. I got the strangest impression that she didn't agree with Qwest's actions.

Which, strangely, made me feel better about continuing to dislike Qwest. But just a little bit less for their stand.