"Kurt Ullman" wrote in message
Back in the days of Indiana Bell, they had (and still do) have
Linebacker that would pay for their people to work on inside wiring if
you had a problem. Back when it started the service call was something
like $50 and I figured as long as I did not have to call them out more
than once every ten years, I was money ahead. At the time I (or my
family when I was growing up) had had phones for over 40 years with no
problems. I figured it was a safe bet. It was.

I had the phone company out once. When the serviceman tried disconnecting
the house from their lines, the connection block broke. He as PO'd that
they now used cheap imported junk and replaced it. He then found the
problem to be on my side. After fixing that, he was still PO'd about the
broken part on their side so he wrote up the entire bill as their fault. NC
to me.

After 43 years of home ownership, one service call would still be cheaper
than paying $36 a year for insurance. In today's money, I'm about $1500
ahead.