P.S. I read Allan’s comment before it was edited. If I was the moderator, I’d ban him entirely from posting again. That is, unless it came from library IP or similar public place.

In all my time with that company, I NEVER saw a matter directly made to the corporate offices that was NOT swiftly and SERIOUSLY addressed.

Nothing Q hates more than a lawsuit.

If you want to persue this, let me know and I’ll get you that contact info.

Dennis Jones
djones@ifsurf.org

My partner and I used to subcontract service work – which took us to peoples’ homes.

I can’t tell you how many “desperate housewives” came onto my partner – while I was standing RIGHT THERE. I can’t give any specifics either – but holy cow some were outrageous.

I wondered why the women didn’t care that I was right there – maybe to them that was part of the draw.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Thanks but no thanks.

People out there in the real world don’t know how it can be. They think guys who say “That hot homowner flirted with me” are either making it up or exaggerating. Many times they aren’t!

Weird. I never once tried to get a service guy to shag me – even the one who kind of looked like Johnny Depp.

To each his / her own.

There is another side of this story, thanks for reminding me.

Personally it didnt bother me. I was actally flattered, but had to come right out and say NO many a time!

I have often thought that I don’t know if I could deal with being a woman and having to deal with what they do. They probably endure many comparable problems and discrimination that minorities experience. And they can’t always speak up for themselves the way men can.

Changing the subject slightly, while we are on the subject of Qwest I had a negative experience with them just today. I went online to check how much excise tax I had paid over the past 3 years, so I could see if it was more than the standard refund the IRS is offering. Amazingly, Qwest wants to charge me $10 to look at my own account. I e-mailed them and told them they better reconsider because I will change phone companies over being gouged for $10. They have a lot of nerve. And today in the news I see that their former CEO is being accused of fraudulently hiding $90 million. They do not seem to be a reputable company.

Many women in our society (let alone other “less enlightened” parts of the world) are TRAINED from early on, to feel guilty when we are abused or violated in any way – by men, by service companies, by the woman cashier @ the store, by a corporation, by a boss (male or female).

It’s NOT NOT NOT just “men” who are to blame – that’s for you, Joe. But what you, Joe, and other interested men on this thread probably don’t realize is – it is very true that women are expected to take abuse AND we are also often disbelieved or minimized when we DO speak out.

I have no idea whether skitterkat is telling a truth or not – one thing about the internet is it’s often hard to tell who’s “for real”, but it IS true – I’m speaking as a woman – that when we are somehow abused (not just sexually – there’s also emotionally, physically, societally, work-wise) it is almost ALWAYS diminished. “Now now dear, it will be okay” – that kind of thing.

It may very well be true that “it will be okay” but that’s not the point. The point is – when my “space” (of any type) is violated – I expect respectful consideration, not patronizing “it’s all in your head” or “it’s not THAT bad @ least you weren’t raped” – etc.

I have been the recipient of such “thoghtful words” in the past, many times, more times than I can count. I do not care for those words, I do not find them “kind” or “thoughtful” or “meaning well” – kind and thoughtful allows us our experience without trying to diminish it.

It’s a part of life I doubt most men understand – not because most men don’t get abused then not belived, but because most men don’t get abused and disbelieved on a continuous, sometimes DAILY basis to the point where they doubt their own right to believe their own instincts.

I vought a car a year and a half ago and was “taken for a ride” so to speak by a local used car company in this area. I had to FIGHT and fight HARD – they kept trying to bamboozle me – I KNOW for a fact that part of their thinking was “If we keep telling her what she wants to hear she’ll go away – women are like that”. I know this for a fact because I was told this by the manager of the comapny, toward the end of our relationship.

Bottom line – I had to fight twice as hard as my partner (a man) would have had to – because of my indoor plumbing. But FIGHT I did – they messed with the wrong fiesty, forty-one year old, semi-natural red-head. (One thing about being over forty, women of the forum, is that you suddenly cease to CARE what the rest of the world thinks of you – you gain plenty of power @ this time of your life.)

I fought, it exhuasted me, but I got what I paid for, what I expected, what I deserved.

In our world we ALL have to be our own special advocate. If a service technician ever abuses me – that tech will pay for it. Period.

Women who stand tall, speak up, and refuse to be complacent are STILL considered “female bow-wows”, “nags”, and worse. THAT is why some fear speaking up.

I have embraced both of those “negative” terms and decided to call myself BOTH those things proudly. I rarely get messed with anymore – nobody cares to try to control a woman who can’t be beaten down verbally.

I hope I’ve made my case fairly strongly – women DO get the idea they shouldn’t make a scene over abuse – I disagree. SCENE ON, sisters!

As I understood it, the repairman’s itinerary matched her description, and a neighbor witnessed at least part of the Qwest repairman’s inappropriate behavior.

Shame on Qwest.