As soon as the recording of this call to Comcast's customer service line begins, you understand how bad it's going to be. This is not a helpful, friendly staffer; this is the condescending, needy ex-boyfriend from hell, pitifully demanding to know why you're leaving him.

According to the caption on Soundcloud, we drop in on the call after it's already been in progress for about ten minutes. Ryan Block and his wife were attempting to cancel their Comcast internet service to move to Astound, and Comcast's representative was having none of it. Writes Block, a man of superhuman patience:

The representative (name redacted) continued aggressively repeating his questions, despite the answers given, to the point where my wife became so visibly upset she handed me the phone. ... This recording picks up roughly 10 minutes into the call, whereby she and I have already played along and given a myriad of reasons and explanations as to why we are canceling (which is why I simply stopped answering the rep's repeated question — it was clear the only sufficient answer was "Okay, please don't disconnect our service after all.")

The Kafkaesque nightmare begins with a question: "Why is it that you don't want the faster speed? Help me understand why you don't want faster internet." Block responds: "Help me understand why you can't just disconnect us." This mind-numbing exchange repeats itself over and over for eight grueling minutes.

At the end of a long, hard-fought battle, Block and his wife emerge victorious, and their service is canceled. But at what cost?

[h/t Digg, image via Peter Lang/Shutterstock]