I’ve never met someone who didn’t hate their cable company.

But in this story, a tech savvy user gets some sweet vindication. When the customer service lady turned into a high pressure saleswoman, one child turned the tables.

Let’s flip channels on this TV tale…

Need to upgrade the entire system? Okay.

I’m living with my parents while finishing my degree.

Part of that deal is helping them with technology.

I’m by no means a computer genius, but I can generally get devices to do what I need them to.

General troubleshooting didn’t help in this case.

One of their cable/PVR boxes stopped working.

I did all of the, “Did you try turning it off then back on again?” troubleshooting, and no dice. So the account holder – my mom – called the company and spoke to Liz (not real name).

Liz informed my mom that ALL of the boxes and the modem need replacing, as the ones we have are old and obsolete.

We’re annoyed, but fine, let’s do it.

It’s not cool to be condescending.

This leads to Liz telling my mom that they no longer offer the plan she currently has, and coming in with some high pressure tactics to upsell my mom on things she doesn’t even need.

Frequently cutting her off, talking over her, being condescending for her minimal knowledge of tech jargon.

My mom then cut Liz off, asked her to call back in a few hours so she can “discuss it with her husband.”

Liz reluctantly agrees, they hang up.

Bundle and save, as they say.

My mom catches me up, seeming frazzled that a “please fix this box” call turned into “completely overhaul the cable/phone/internet equipment and plan.” She asks me to help.

Cue malicious compliance.

The two hour gap she was supposedly “discussing with her husband” was actually time I spent piecing together a new bundle for her.

All new boxes, new modem, faster internet, same phone, same cable, plus 6 months of free streaming – all for about 70% of what she was paying before.

This amateur techie saved her mom a bundle.

Let’s see how what the comments on Reddit say…

This person says you can’t always blame the cable company.

Another person says kudos but is this MC?

One commenter says Yahoo! and we think they mean hooray, not the search engine.

Someone else says this family got a raw deal…

Somebody else suggests that sometimes an upgrade is necessary.

They didn’t quite cut the cord, but they still got a bargain.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.