I have a suggestion

I have just spent a few more minutes of my life (minutes I will never get back) talking to the phone company about our business lines. Figuring out what the charges will be with the various options ... and figuring it out on the fly, over the phone, verbally and aurally, is an exercise is such high levels of frustration that the participants should all be entitled to free hypnosis or downers or a month of yoga or something. UGH.

The reason it doesn't work is because the kind of information being relayed is of two kind - a basic and static charge (according to the "plan" one chooses) and the variables that may be added to it. It's base pay plus commission. It's the prix fixe menu with the wine still a question of price and value. The customer chooses a base among bases, and then adds to it in a nearly infinite number of ways, depending on the "features" the customer wants.

And this is exactly the same problem with purchasing:

--insurance

--satellite and cable television

--and, in some ways, higher education. It's like a school schedule and the finances attached to it.

Too many moving parts, but some immovable parts. (And then there's the taxes according to your location.)

grrrrrr!

So I have a suggestion. All the insurance companies, television providers, and telephone service providers need websites with charts of products, and a web calculator so that the customer can play with the options and order from that. Wouldn't that make life easier?

The health insurance companies should also include the customer's out-of-pocket charges if that customer decides to do what the doctor recommends and have a "test" to "confirm" the "results" of a recent "procedure." That way, the patient/customer will not get a completely unexpected bill for hundreds of dollars for a "test" that has been "approved" by the insurance company.

(See why I live in my head? The rest of the world is too aggravating.)